It's February on the farm; the shortest month of the year, yet feels like the longest. While we don't have livestock to care for like many of our fellow hardcore farmers, there's still much to be done on the farm this time of year. And it's the month of anticipation and preparation for all the work ahead. Seed orders and crop planning to complete, tax paperwork and book keeping, getting the heating systems up and running to start seedlings in a couple weeks. We also have been pegging away at getting our high tunnel erected in its new home on our property so we can have it filled with spring crops for our Spring CSA shares in May. Normally we'd have crops overwintering, but we knew we'd be moving it closer to our main production area. This means a lower land lease fee, and not having to rely on another's well for irrigation after last year's drought.
We also are excited to announce that we will be installing our own walk in cooler this spring and another greenhouse. For the past 3 seasons we have leased cooler space from our friends at Grindstone Farm. While we love working cooperatively with our neighbors, sharing cooler space can become troublesome, especially when we're both bringing in mass harvests in the fall, and when our CSA members forget to pick up their shares. So this will change the dynamic of on farm pick up and open up more opportunity for on farm sales for us. The new greenhouse we'll start disassembly on as soon as the snow melts and will serve as our seedling starting space in the future.
Onions, spring greens, peppers and tomatoes will all be started the last week of February to kick the season off. We will be sticking to many tried and true varieties we've grown in the past, and also trying some new ones. This will also be the first season of asparagus picking, so most likely the majority of it in shares will come from our fields. While it feels a long way off with a spout of heavy lake effect snow falling, spring is really right around the corner.
Our subsidized share project with Cornell Cooperative Extension is continuing through this season, and they are looking into working with the Onondaga office to expand to another county, so we'll keep you posted on that, as we will be looking for participants if it is approved. In the meantime, we are brainstorming our own "subsidized" CSA share program to pick up when the project ends in 2018. We've had a few good ideas, and examples of how other farms offer reduced prices for low income families; one being taking donations towards offsetting share costs from existing members. While this won't be up and running for this season, if there is interest, we will start taking donations towards 2018. We are looking for input from our customers to move forward on this. One of our ideas is to match donations from customers to be put into an account and hopefully cover 1/2 the cost of at least 5 shares for low income families and improve access to fresh produce in our community. If you have any input, please contact us, we'd love to hear from you.
Farmers get writers block sometimes, and while there's a million thoughts to share, there's snow to plow, and firewood to be brought in. We will be back with more farm updates as the season starts to get underway.
We also are excited to announce that we will be installing our own walk in cooler this spring and another greenhouse. For the past 3 seasons we have leased cooler space from our friends at Grindstone Farm. While we love working cooperatively with our neighbors, sharing cooler space can become troublesome, especially when we're both bringing in mass harvests in the fall, and when our CSA members forget to pick up their shares. So this will change the dynamic of on farm pick up and open up more opportunity for on farm sales for us. The new greenhouse we'll start disassembly on as soon as the snow melts and will serve as our seedling starting space in the future.
Onions, spring greens, peppers and tomatoes will all be started the last week of February to kick the season off. We will be sticking to many tried and true varieties we've grown in the past, and also trying some new ones. This will also be the first season of asparagus picking, so most likely the majority of it in shares will come from our fields. While it feels a long way off with a spout of heavy lake effect snow falling, spring is really right around the corner.
Our subsidized share project with Cornell Cooperative Extension is continuing through this season, and they are looking into working with the Onondaga office to expand to another county, so we'll keep you posted on that, as we will be looking for participants if it is approved. In the meantime, we are brainstorming our own "subsidized" CSA share program to pick up when the project ends in 2018. We've had a few good ideas, and examples of how other farms offer reduced prices for low income families; one being taking donations towards offsetting share costs from existing members. While this won't be up and running for this season, if there is interest, we will start taking donations towards 2018. We are looking for input from our customers to move forward on this. One of our ideas is to match donations from customers to be put into an account and hopefully cover 1/2 the cost of at least 5 shares for low income families and improve access to fresh produce in our community. If you have any input, please contact us, we'd love to hear from you.
Farmers get writers block sometimes, and while there's a million thoughts to share, there's snow to plow, and firewood to be brought in. We will be back with more farm updates as the season starts to get underway.
RSS Feed