Next week the CSA starts!!!! Starting next Tuesday we will post every other week with what is in the share and tips for using your produce plus the farm report.
FARM REPORT:
So far Spring weather has been friendly to us, a nice amount of rain but not too much. We feel for many farmers in the floodplain that have had no such luck. Here on our upland soils, the early crops are in: cabbage, greens, carrots, beets, roots, onions, lettuce, peas and potatoes.
The plants are looking good in the greenhouse and the fields. There are four nights in the 30s forecasted this weekend, so I guess we’ll see how that goes! Everything is now covered as long as the wind (40 miles an hour?) in the forecast doesn’t just blow it all off. We’re past March madness, yet April continues with the weather-inducing anxiety. As we wrap up the early plantings, summer crops loom ahead. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, tomatillos, squash, cucumbers and zucchini are waiting in the wings.
In the midst of all this green growth, we are racing to complete our retrofit of the pack/wash area of the barn. Ahem, yes, we have a week to go before the CSA deliveries start. . . eeek! The work has been progressing nicely since the ice and snow retreated not so long ago. However, growing crops comes first, so we have had some fits and starts as we drop our tools to get the potatoes in, as we did today. The work is within the current footprint of the old tobacco/dairy barn with a rebuild of the old loafing shed that surrounded the lower portion. Plus new windows, doors, siding, some plumbing.
It’s a bit of a project . . .
… and a lean one, at that. We are an efficient team of three: Tom, Rebecca and Lucas. The latter leading the way with his knowledge of construction. It has been quite a long road as we have worked on the barn as funds and time allows. In 2011 we replaced the siding on the front. In 2013 we did the back. It was 2016 when we completed the commercial kitchen in the lower back half of the barn. Now it is the lower front, aka the pack/wash areas time to shine. We look forward to welcoming everyone to the new space when you all come out for your work shifts.
Also, egg season is on! The ladies are happily laying over 100 eggs every day right now. We will have plenty for the egg shares next week plus extra on the bulk list. We are flush with lots of hens eggs but even more “pullet” eggs. Pullets are young hens whose eggs are a little smaller. Both sizes are in assorted colors, just ready for hiding.
In late-March we took soil samples in our “home field” as we do every other year. The results were some of the highest values of soil organic matter (SOM) we have ever had. Of the six samples we took, three had SOM values of 5.0% or better. During our first seasons in the early 2000’s our SOM was less than 3%.
If you want to keep up with our work more regularly, we invite you to follow us on social media. We have an Instagram account that we try to post to most every day. We also enjoy re-posting your Instagram tags of Fair Share Farm, especially when you use our products and/or those of our partner vendors. We hope that we can also share your photos of the upcoming farm work days.
