July 31st, 2008

Dear Friends,

What a hand of cards mother nature has dealt us in the last few weeks. This has been hands down the wettest and most difficult year of our farming careers. In 1 week we have been hit with two hail storms one of which (2 weekends ago) was part of what the national weather service has now classified a tornado. This event brought 65mph winds to our front door taking down many trees along the river into the field and blowing over some of our tomatoes, peppers, and corn. The hail punched holes in our lettuce, greens, squash, eggplant, and several other crops. After the tornado came and went we were pounded with torrential rain day in and day out that left pools of water in several places on the farm some of which have yet to recede.

How does all this affect you, the farm, the share amounts, etc.. There are some effects of this weather that we’ll feel immediately in the share, most notably the holes in all the greens and the reduced amount of zucchini coming out of our now disease stricken zucchini field. There are other crops that were affected by the storms that we have not yet begun picking and so those shortfalls we may feel later on in the season. Probably the most noteworthy longer term weather related difficulties are the premature spread of early blight in our tomatoes and the leveling of some of our pepper field from the high winds.

I hate to paint all these pictures of gloom and doom on the farm and I assure you that our newsletters are more than just a forum for complaints about the weather. The good news is we are an incredibly diverse farm. While some crops are hindered by this weather others aren’t bothered at all. They say diversity is the spice of life. I say diversity is the yardstick of our survival. Short of putting the entire farm underwater or possibly a more serious tornado, I can’t think of a natural disaster that would wipe out all of our 70 or so crops.

This year is one of those rare situations where farms all over the valley have been suffering from the weather. This type of scenario makes the importance of CSA so apparent. While another local farm perhaps growing only 1crop could get hit with this weather lose their crop and go out of business in the blink of an eye. You, our community, have decided that you will not let that happen to this farm and neither will we!!! We thank all of you so much for being a part of the farm. With out you this farm would not be possible. It is comforting in tough times to hear all of your well wishes and encouragement. Enjoy the harvest!

On behalf of the crew

Your Farmers,

Meghan and Rob

WHAT’S NEW THIS WEEK

Watermelon!.. here’s the first of our melon crop. The variety is called sunshine. The flesh yellow rather than red and couldn’t be sweeter. This is one of my favorite times of the season. After the yellow we have some orange and then red flesh melons on deck.

Superstar Onions these are the last fresh onion of the season. They are big beautiful and great for grilling. Once were done with these we’ll have a short break in the onions while our fall storage onions cure.

Peppers while our pepper crop has taken a hit we still have some nice bell peppers and cubanelles (these are light green mild peppers great for stir frying)

Corn we still have a steady stream of corn coming in and more on the way. If you can’t eat it all right now this is the perfect time to do some freezing. If there is one crop that didn’t flinch with the weather it was the corn. It knocked over some plants but they stood right back up.

U-PICK

Open everyday Daylight hours.

Beans still going strong and more coming on! time to freeze or make some dilly beans.

Flowers the sunflowers are really peaking you may want to bring some clippers from home to harvest them as they can be tough.

Herbs next week we’ll have a gap in the cilantro, dill, and basil. We just couldn’t get a seeding in when we got all that rain.

 

 

WHAT’S NEW THIS WEEK

Watermelon!.. here’s the first of our melon crop. The variety is called sunshine. The flesh yellow rather than red and couldn’t be sweeter. This is one of my favorite times of the season. After the yellow we have some orange and then red flesh melons on deck.

Superstar Onions these are the last fresh onion of the season. They are big beautiful and great for grilling. Once were done with these we’ll have a short break in the onions while our fall storage onions cure.

Peppers while our pepper crop has taken a hit we still have some nice bell peppers and cubanelles (these are light green mild peppers great for stir frying)

Corn we still have a steady stream of corn coming in and more on the way. If you can’t eat it all right now this is the perfect time to do some freezing. If there is one crop that didn’t flinch with the weather it was the corn. It knocked over some plants but they stood right back up.

U-PICK

Open everyday Daylight hours.

Beans still going strong and more coming on! time to freeze or make some dilly beans.

Flowers the sunflowers are really peaking you may want to bring some clippers from home to harvest them as they can be tough.

Herbs next week we’ll have a gap in the cilantro, dill, and basil. We just couldn’t get a seeding in when we got all that rain.

 

Potluck

This Saturday August 2nd from 5:30-7 at the farm

Bring a dish to share with a list of the ingredients and hang out with your farmers

and meet other members!