Dear Members,
This week the veggies you are getting are: New Red Potatoes, red onions, carrots, white turnips, summer squash, cucumbers, green cabbage, green beans and with a little luck, Swiss chard. (It will be wilted from the heat, so do your cold water bath!) We are hoping there will be enough muskmelon to give everyone one of those and only the Full Shares will be getting fennel.
Honey will be coming this week for those of you who get it monthly!
Fruit: You will be getting either apricots alone or a combo of apricots and sweet cherries.
Eggs: We have to short everybody’s eggs now. I guess the chickens feel it is too hot to lay an egg everyday! I hope to deliver one out of the three days of delivery. Between me and the Distribution Center, we are keeping track of the eggs you receive and a credit will be issued at the end of the year.
July 22nd: Our 2012 Social Cooking Class will be held at 4pm. This is a reminder to come prepared for some adult fun (byow), conversation and good food! The following members have made reservations: 1 for Wilham, 1 for San Filipo, 1 for Yamashita, 3 for Gay, 4 for Mazzaro, 4 for Hartmann, 2 for Bush, 2 for Ron Schreiber, 2 for Firstenberg and 1 for Bellhumer.
The 2012 drought: This is week six of an 18 week season. We are one third of the way through the summer season and it feels unreal! This is truly an unprecedented year. On a regular basis, we have increased our season by 6 weeks. Three weeks upfront and three weeks at the end when we started delivering produce the third week of June and ending the third week of October. This season extension has happened without greenhouses and cold frames; just good old Mother Nature. Hum…could this be global warming at work here???
Your Produce: Now 2012 comes along and we have started the season two weeks earlier than the last several years by delivering produce the first week of June. Our bodies and water can only hold out for so long! What does this mean to you and your summer produce? 1) The ditch company we hire to help us regulate our water throughout the season is thinking of shutting off the ditch “earlier than normal”. Which means we may not have any water after…when? We hope the 1st of September or the 15th of September but we have not heard. 2) We normally plant crops through July to cover into the fall and early winter. We will not be doing this; especially now that they are talking about shutting off the ditch early. 3) We hope to deliver produce for 18 weeks, so the season will definitely end the first week of October, if not sooner. 4) This is what Community Supported Agriculture is all about! Your financial support of a farm so that it remains in business during the tough years. This may be one of those years!
Jacquie’s Soapbox: So have you thought about your use of water? How many times do you wash your car? Do you let the water run down the drive or down the sewer? How do we waste water every day? And can we change? It is actually healthier to bath every other day (unless you have been sweating). But can I convince you of that? How often do you water your lawn and do you water the sidewalks, fence & house too? What kind of grass do you grow?
I water my grass a couple times a week when the temperatures are over 100 (it is greenish yellow right now). It is a hybrid buffalo and it is very drought tolerant. When the temperatures are under 100/above 90, I only water once a week! Once temperatures get back into the 70’s & 80’s, I water once every two weeks. Buffalo is native to Colorado, slow growing and only gets 6 inches tall. So I also reduce my mowing! There are other good grasses that are drought tolerant and worth looking into. Insist on these grasses instead of Kentucky Blue. If you are going to have grass…make it the right kind! Oh by the way, now that we have gotten about ½ inch of rain, the grass will turn bright green again.
Correction: In my last soapbox I mentioned the rainy months of June 2011 & 12, when it should have been June of 2010 & 2011! Oops! Sorry!
Have a good week!
Jacquie, Jerry, Kyle and Alaina
Monroe Organic Farms 
Customers of the Denver Water Board who save water by not washing their cars, save some money. But! The Board sells the saved water to places like Aurora and Douglas County so that they can continue to build new developments. That is the real reason they want you to conserve.