This week you are getting Yukon Gold potatoes, carrots, yellow onions, cabbage or broccoli, cucumbers, lemon cucumbers, squash, eggplant, green and orange bell peppers, tomatoes, and muskmelon or honeydew. Those who get a monthly delivery of honey will get some this week. First Fruits is bringing a half box of Summer Lady peaches and a half box of Gala apples.
Winter Share: The deadline for sign-up is in two weeks! If you cannot find your original copy, please ask your DC, they should have additional sign-up forms.
About Your Farmer: A member recently said they thought this was a great year for produce. My simple reply was you actually have a great farmer. I know it is hard to imagine what it takes to get this job done. Especially since we do not have any control of the most important aspect of farming: the weather. This was a difficult year to grow anything because it was too wet and too cold. Because you have a fantastic farmer with a lot of expertise, Jerry made this year look easy with good quality produce. In actuality, we had tractors stuck in mud and fields we couldn’t get into because of too much water. The tomatoes and peppers are a testament to the cold weather. They are having a hard time ripening. Corn seed rotted in the field and had to be replanted over and over just to get the few pickings we received. Watermelon rotted before they had ripened or were too waterlogged to have any flavor and tended to over-ripen overnight! (Sorry if you got one of those.)
Jerry sits down every winter for a couple of months planning the next year. Is there something new we can try, where are we planting, how many times can we plant it, how soon can we plant, and how far into the fall can we harvest? This all makes a difference in your season: what you get, when you get it, and how much you get. After all that planning, the weather can change everything. It can kill a crop, make it abundant, slow it down, or speed it up. Being the caretaker of a farm takes longevity, experience, and patience.
We have been more or less in a drought since 1998. Our weather has changed for the warmer. This past summer reminded Jerry and I what it was like when we were kids. Tomatoes didn’t ripen until mid to late August, watermelon was picked in September, nothing was picked in June—it was way too cold for anything to be harvested by then and our first frost was around September 25th. Guess what folks: we had a light frost last Saturday morning (the 12th)! Some crops were hurt, but as of Sunday morning, nothing has died. The light freeze will really slow things down now because the plant is stressed. I think we are all in for a surprise this winter if we keep going on with this moisture track!!!
Our 80th Anniversary in 2016: Yes, you read that right! We will be turning 80 years old in 2016. We really want to celebrate in style that year. So we want everyone to put on their thinking caps and let us know of things you may have done at other places that may be appropriate for our farm festival. I want to have a t-shirt design contest. How about issuing a new cookbook for our 80th Anniversary? We need your recipes!!! Everyone has a favorite recipe…even if it came from somewhere else! We just need to give credit where credit is deserved! So please send your favorite to Michele Morris: michele@cookingwithmichele.com. If you would like to help edit or work on the cookbook project, please let Michele know. I also want to include artwork from members of vegetables. But the highlight would be to have your farm scene on the front cover! If you are interested in creating an art page, submit that to Michele too! Everyone will have a chance to vote on the winning cover next season! Email me your ideas on how to celebrate!!
2015 Share Renewals: Because Jacquie doesn’t check this blog for comments, please contact her directly about renewals.
Have a wonderful week,
Kyle, Jerry and Jacquie
Monroe Organic Farms 