Greetings farm Share Members,
I hope everyone had a happy Christmas (she says, making the assumption we are all of christian backgrounds here). Eugene and I did next to nothing Christmas day. we took a walk around the farm with the dogs, ate pistachio's and had pastured lamb from the Filbruns for dinner (along with butternut squash, salad and fingerling potatoes, all of which we grew). we don't generally exchange gifts but my sister and I do give enough money between us to Heifer International to buy a water buffalo for some family somewhere in the tropics.
The farm has been quiet but because of the freeze & thaw action and high winds we have lost some crops. We took a huge hit on the winter squash. The store front building froze up and the squash did too. We were not expecting this as last year we spent $300 a month to heat the building so nothing froze out there last year. This year because we are cheap, we decided not to heat the building. So when it went below zero so did everything that was not in a fridge (those all stayed just at freezing which is fine for all the produce we have in them at the moment) froze. things like onions and garlic can take being frozen with no problems (as long as they are left undisturbed) but winter squash not so much. The small squashes seem to be fine but the Butternut we lost. So we have some squash for the rest of the season but not as much as I was counting on. I am really glad none of us are in the position of depending on the Boulder Belt Eco-Farm to feed us through the winter because this would have been a very serious loss. We also lost the napa cabbage (I am glad as I do not really like the stuff, it is a poor seller and yet Eugene keeps planting it-it will make a nice green manure crop though). high winds ripped the row covers off almost the entire bed and that was that for the Napa. We also lost a 1/4 bed of arugula for the same reason. But where the covers stayed on the crops seem to be in as good of shape as they can be this time of year.
What has happened is after 2 winters here (this is our 3rd) we still have not figured out where to store the winter food. The house is way too warm, the barn can get too cold and freeze things worse than the store and there are rodent issues now that we have lost another mousing cat this fall and only have the ornamental cat who is useless when it comes to hunting. the store can be heated but only at great cost at present.
We need to seriously rethink how we heat this farm-gas and electric are getting too expensive and are also the causes of wars and great pollution, etc.. We have been talking about getting an outdoor wood boiler to at least heat the store and barn and this would also heat any greenhouses we might build. If we can it will also heat the house. These boilers can easily heat something like 40K square feet of space. But such things are expensive and we are still addressing roofing and window issues (which are also expensive) and there is the mortgage that takes a nice chuck of change out of the monthly budget. but we are working our way towards being a much greener farm. We would also love to put up a wind mill/generator and a solar array. Eventually we want to be 100% off the grid.
Okay, on that meandering note here is what you guys are getting this week. Some of you are picking up today and some on Monday. Either way, the shares will be ready for you anytime after 2pm. They will be in the store and just go and grab your share (one bag). Oh, and don't forget to bring back your old farm share bags (and any other clean plastic or paper grocery bags sitting around your home taking up space and needing to be reused)
Lettuce-a 1/2 pound bag of mixed small lettuce heads
Carrots-1 pound of sweet and crisp carrots
Winter squash-You get a variety-expect 3 to 4 squashes in your share
Leeks-two kinds, you get a bunch of the skinny Lincoln leeks you have had all season and 1 or 2 King Sieg leeks which are the big, winter leeks and I think more flavorful
Garlic-a bulb of each kind we grow, German white, Shvilisi and Persian Star
Celeriac-2 celeriac this week
Apples-3 pound bag of Dr Matthew's Apples-these are crisp and sweet
Onions-red onions this week. These have been nice but a bit on the hot side
Next farm share pick-up will be January 10th and the last will be Jan 24th. After that we will start back up April 7th. I do need to know if you are interested (or not) in the main season Farm Share program ASAP so I can get things planned out.
Several members have expressed an interest in having a Farm Share Potluck dinner here at the farm. One suggestions was to do it inauguration evening which I believe is Wed Jan 21st. But we can do this about any evening. I will offer our farm to host the event and now we need a date and time. Dinners are a dynamite way for us to build community around the farm with which we all have an interest, i.e. we can all meet and get to know each other.
And on that note, we are now signing up new members for our Farm Share program. The Shares Start April 7th or 9th (we will have two pick-up days-Tuesdays and Thursdays). Cost and all the other details can be found on our Farm Share Page
Imagine if we can do such a good job on this Farm Share thing in the dead of winter imagine how good we are when the farm is producing at full speed.
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