Newsletter: Halfway Point of Our 2021 Spring CSA

Now that we have one farmers market in the books and are putting the bow on our third CSA box, this train is officially rolling full-speed. There's no stopping now until December, but we feel like we are a little more in control of where we're going this year. Emphasis on "little".

This week is the first of our three "double-duty" weeks, which is to say CSA and farmers markets. It's a very exciting time (not to mention a lucrative one, since we're one of the few veggie vendors with full market stands this early), but that of course comes with lots of extra work. Instead of harvesting for "just" our 120 CSA members, we're also bringing as much as we can to market. At Midtown last Saturday, we had our best market sales day EVER!

One of the largest challenges this time of year is determining how much produce to bring to market. Not only are we unsure of how many people will be attending markets, what veggies they might be looking for, etc., we're also doing lots of math to ensure that we'll have plenty of produce for you folks. While we just put our first transplants in the outdoor beds on Monday (grow brussels, grow!), everything we're putting in CSA boxes and bringing to market is coming from our four hoop houses. There are only twenty 90-foot beds, which means that the margins are fairly slim compared to the rest of the year.

Thankfully, not only has the weather been very cooperative so far, but we also have a year of experience to rely on to determine where and when to plant, what and how much to harvest, and how to distribute our fresh veggies between CSA and markets. Regarding the last point, it bears mentioning that while we value our market customers and want to be as successful as we can at these early markets, our first priority is to you all, our CSA members. This week, for example, the Kickin' Mix in your boxes has all of our baby kale in it.

Going forward, we're going to continue planting more outdoors and rotating through the hoop houses. Our friends down at Community Homestead have been disking and plowing our fields, part of a barter arrangement we made with them in exchange for letting their cows graze our 20 acres of pasture. Pretty soon, we'll have cows to go with our goats, cats, dogs and Zander's horses. Before you know it, we'll look like a real farm!

Other projects that are taking up my brainspace are rehabbing another hoop house and installing a new field irrigation system. Once the Spring share ends, we'll be taking the plastic off of our oldest hoop house and pulling it back into square, putting new steel end walls on and giving it a new lease on life. Last year, we spent more hours than I'd care to admit (or repeat!) dragging hoses hither and yon trying to keep our crops watered during a very dry summer. I'll be putting on my best plumber impression out in the field getting our fancy new irrigation system rocking and rolling. Wish me luck!

Aside from that, we're just chugging along. If you're looking for something to do this Sunday, come on out for the River Road Farm Crawl and get some plant starts from us! I'll be singing a few songs with Emmalyn at the end of the afternoon, hopefully that doesn't scare you off! Whether it's this Sunday or some other time, we love to show the farm off to folks. Shoot us an email and set up a visit, we'd love to put a hoe in your hand and show you how this sausage is made.

Take care out there,

-Cody

Newsletter: Halfway Point of Our 2021 Spring CSA

What’s in the Box?!