A Glimpse of Distribution

A short video of a Wednesday work crew – “Little Evie stole the show at the farm… while she and her dad, Isaac, put fingerling potatoes in the single shares.”

Thanks to Michelle Cuthburtson for posting this to the Monroe Facebook page!

End of Season Newsletter

Dear Friends of the Farm,

Can you believe it is the last week of Distribution? The weather has been unbelievable. We are usually freezing our butts off this time of year! I have to say, this has been one crazy year. It started out so cold and wet we wondered if we could get anything planted. Then we skipped our standard spring we are used to and it got so hot the new seedlings & transplants went into shock. It took a lot of extra coaxing and water to get them growing! Just when they started to look good again, the grasshoppers started to devour them! We decided not to mow any weeds around the fields this year, coaxing the grasshoppers into these areas and trying to get them to leave our fields alone. We tried using our chickens. It worked for awhile, until they started eating the crops themselves!

First Fruits Organic Farms had the same problem. They had numerous freezes last spring hurting most of their orchards and the bugs just wouldn’t leave them alone. Clark from Clark’s Honey Farms said he had a tough summer because of the heat and grasshoppers. He lost numerous bees due to farmers spraying heavily for grasshoppers and had limited access to water.

Overall, the year turned out alright! Fruit Shares received 100 pounds of fruit despite the late start and Clark was able to fill all our orders for honey. We ended up gleaning our own fields because most of the late season crops came on the end of August/early September. We are thrilled the grasshoppers didn’t do more damage forcing us to end the season early. We didn’t have bumper crops to pick because of those horrible insects! Boy or boy, I hope they don’t return next year!

We did get two light frosts last week, but it didn’t amount to anything. I wonder when fall will arrive, or will we just go straight to winter?! We will need everyone to do their snow dance so that our reservoirs will fill with water this winter! If you are still interested in a Winter Share, please call and I will send you a form to fill out. We have a few spaces still available!

We can’t thank you enough for the cards and letters lifting our spirits during this hard time with Wanda Monroe, Jerry’s Mother. She is doing better right now and we have come to terms with her diagnosis.

Thank you for your membership. Your support is greatly appreciated! We love what we do and I hope you know your interest is first and foremost in our minds as we choose our seed each spring. We want to grow the tastiest produce this side of the Rockies! We hope you enjoyed every bite!

Jacquie, Jerry, Alaina and Kyle Monroe

Newsletter: Week 17 of 18 & Winter Share Info

Hello everyone!

This is week 17 out of an 18 week season. New crops this week are Spaghetti and Butternut winter squash, Roma tomatoes and Golden Globe (yellow) tomatoes. You will also receive Yukon Gold potatoes, yellow cooking onions, carrots, red beets, summer squash, bell peppers, leeks, garlic and celery.

I’m sure by now you are over run with bell peppers. These wonderful delicacies can be frozen raw. Cube, dice or cut in lengths, place in a freezer bag and throw them in the freezer. They can now be used in recipes, eggs, stir-fries or fajitas. You will appreciate them greatly this winter because they taste so much better than what you can get in the grocery store!

You will also be getting your last delivery of fruit and honey this week. Fruit Shares will be getting apples and pears this week. I believe the apples will be Honey Crisp!

For those of you who have been receiving eggs, your Distribution Centers have been keeping track & will have a total amount of eggs you will receive this summer. It will include next week’s delivery. Any questions need to be addressed over the next two weeks with your distributors. If you want to increase your egg delivery for next week, you need to notify not only me, but your Distribution Center. Please bring a check book next week to pay for the eggs you have gotten for the summer. You are welcome to pay this week if you would like. Please do not bring cash if at all possible! Distribution Centers will be mailing to me a report with your payments.

Now I have some bad news. Jerry’s mother is very ill. She has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and will not live to see the New Year. This has been a very traumatic experience for our family. She had some basic surgery last Wed. to make her end of life easier and she almost didn’t make it through the night. We have been spending every extra waking moment with her. This has made it even harder to contact me. I am trying to answer phone calls every other day. If I have dropped your call, I am so sorry. It is hard to think right now. Please call back if you do not hear from me in a few days.

It is very important for you to return all your bags. We need to take inventory for next year. I am asking Distribution Centers to start getting tough with you. Please return all your bags over the next two weeks!

We have found all our Distribution Centers for the winter. Here they are and their locations:
Aurora with Judy Soderquist at I-225 & Mississippi
Boulder with Kim Hanson at Table Mesa and Broadway
Broomfield with Denise Fritz at Hwy 287 and Miramonte
Centennial with Peggy Walling at County Line Rd & Clarkson
West Denver with Brenda Wright at Sheridan and Colfax
East Denver with Ann Cuthbertson at Downing and 6th Ave.
Ft. Collins with Linda Hoornbeek at Harmony and Shields
Greeley with Jacquie Monroe at the farm
Lakewood with Sam Majeres at Union Blvd and Alameda Ave.

Winter Shares can be split between households; however, I only want one Sign-up sheet and one check. It is up to the two parties to figure out how to arrange the payments between the two of you. We still have openings, so if you know of anyone who would like to get into our CSA through the Winter Share, please pass on our phone number. We will get them a Sign-up sheet asap!

Thank you for your patience with us!

Jacquie, Jerry, Alaina and Kyle Monroe

Newsletter :October 5, 2010

Dear Friends of the Farm,

This week 16 out of an 18 week season. You are getting carrots, white onions, summer squash, cucumbers, red bell peppers, banana peppers, jalapenos, and tomatoes. New crops this week are French Fingerling potatoes, Kabocha and acorn squash, garlic, scarlet turnips, leeks and basil.

Many of you have asked about the garlic. Why did you get it every week early in the season, then it just suddenly stopped? The reason is that we put in an order in March for our fall garlic seed. We verified this order in July and it went up by $5000 dollars (our original cost was $4000) over doubling the cost! We asked the producer, what is going on? China cut their production of garlic in half and other countries have had crop damage or crop failure. This brought the cost of garlic seed to a price we could not afford to pay. We decided to forgo giving it out every week and saving most of it as our own seed. The Summer Shares will get it a few more times and the Winter Shares will get it all winter. The remainder will be planted in October for 2011 harvest. If production does not increase in the world, we may be short of garlic every year from now on.

We also want to inform you that we did not have enough winter squash to give it out to the Summer Shares at all. We contacted a local organic farm and purchased enough winter squash to give it to members the rest of the summer. The Winter Shares will get squash grown by us on our farm.

Winter Share sign-ups are coming along nicely. If you are still interested, please contact me and we will reserve a space for you and send you the form if you need it. Please get this into me ASAP; we are now contacting non-members to join as Winter Shareholders.

I’m sorry, but I am going to cut this short. I have hurt my back and sitting at the computer really hurts!

Have a great week!
Jacquie, Jerry, Alaina and Kyle