This Week on the Farm 5/30
We are sold out for the 2013 season. This is the earliest we have ever been sold out, and it feels fantastic. It gives us a chance to get all of the paperwork and organizational stuff done earlier, and we aren’t in rush mode the day before deliveries start. Speaking of deliveries, less than two weeks away before our first boxes go out. If you signed up for an every other week share I will be sending out an email later today with information on which week is your first pick up week. For everyone who signed up, please check your email frequently over the next two weeks as I will be sending all of the additional information you need to make your first pick-up go smoothly.
I wanted to post a couple of housekeeping items today, normally I just send it out in an email, but I feel that it is best to make sure the information is out there as much as possible. First, the dates of the CSA Member Strawberry Discount Weekend have been changed. The strawberries are a little bit later this year because of the cool spring. This will hopefully allow us to put berries in the first two weeks of boxes as long as we are careful about not over picking. Our patch is still fairly small, so don’t expect a ton of berries in your box, everyone will get a taste. Next season we will be able to put more berries in your box as our new, larger patch will be ready to be picked. The new start date for the CSA Member Strawberry Discount Weekend is Friday June 21. The discount will be available through the end of the berry season, not just for one weekend. With all of our new members and a lot of interest in the event, we wanted to make sure that more people would be able to take advantage of the event. The best picking will probably be during the week, since fewer people will be able to come out. Please, please, please call ahead before you head out to the farm. We don’t want you to head out and there be no berries left to pick that day.
The other housekeeping item to keep in mind is the week of the 4th of July. July 4th is a Thursday this year, which is our second day of delivery. We are going to push back both delivery days that week. Madison, Poynette, and Rio pick ups will be on Tuesday July 2nd. Neenah, Menasha, Appleton, and Green Bay pick up will be on Wednesday July 3rd. We will send out reminder emails, post it on facebook, and it will be in each newsletter until that week has passed.
On to farm news. We have gotten a lot of rain this spring. It is actually kind of hard to get used to after last season. We have set up our irrigation system so it is ready just in case we don’t get rain, or to water in our direct seeded seeds immediately after we seed them. With all of the rain, it does mean that field work has been tricky. We are still slightly behind on a couple of plantings (six to be exact), mostly crops that are harvested in the fall. This week we had 71 items on our to-do list between direct seeding, seeding in the greenhouse, and transplanting. Yesterday we planted our first outside planting of tomatoes, all of our peppers, and our eggplant. That brought the number down to 51.
Since it rained again last night we won’t be able to get into the fields right away this morning to transplant. Instead, Tyler is out with one of our workers to finish putting up the pea trellising and to hoe in the arugula and lettuce. Our trellising system for the peas is really cool looking. Last year we tried to rig up a system of bailer twine and bamboo, which worked okay, but was time consuming in installation and was really not tall enough. This year we invested in t-posts and horticultural netting to do the job correctly. I am very interested to see how well the netting works and whether or not it is actually reusable from season to season like advertised. The netting itself should last since it is UV stabilized, but it might be covered with so much “trash” (old leaves and vines) that it might not be usable. Every year we learn something new!
There is so much I would like to write about, but to be honest, the fields are calling and it is time to go grow your food!