NOTE: This blog is posted by a volunteer. No one from the farm checks or responds to messages here. You must contact the farm directly with any questions, comments, etc.
Dear Farm Friends:
Thank you for all the wonderful cards, pictures, letters, gifts and homemade goodies for Christmas. We loved all the wonderful news about your busy lives and appreciate you sharing that with us. We also love seeing the pictures of the family and watching your children change over time. Your thoughtfulness on including us in your Christmas makes us feel like family. Thank you!
2021 Sign-up: Enclosed you will find your signup form. It is imperative to return it ASAP. We were filled by the end of March last year and if you want to retain your space, you need to send in your form with your deposit. We are creating a new website (not yet running) with the option to pay by credit card. If you choose to do this, you will be paying 2021 prices. If you choose to return this form with a check, you can pay 2020 prices except for the Fruit Share & Olive Oil. There is a price increase for both.
If you cannot swing the total deposits at this time, send me what you can and make monthly payments, but let me know what your plan is so we are all on the same page. You can send monthly payments through September 1st to pay off your Summer Share (8 months). If you purchase a Winter Share or meat, you are welcome to divide out your payments over 11 months with your final payment on December 1st. Late fees will apply if you do not keep up with making your monthly payments.
Working Members: We are also in need of Working Members. Being a working member brings lots of camaraderie, bonding and team building. You will make new friends and learn more about the farm than you ever imagined! The day starts out in the barn filling all the shares that go to the DC’s. Left over produce needs to be stored in the cooler and the barn needs straightening. After that, we go into the fields to do a little weeding or harvesting. You will feel very accomplished as we all work together toward a common goal. We need folks on Tue, Wed and Thr mornings starting at 7am. You will work four hours and take your produce home with you (plus any extras). You will see first-hand all the hard work that goes toward making distribution possible. Plus, you will meet new friends with a common interest and eating habits. Food is often the subject most talked about and recipes are shared. Kids are always welcome!!!
Distribution Centers (DC): I have spoken to most of last year’s DC’s and so far, most have agreed to continue for the 2021 season. Here are our needs. The person who ran the 6th & Downing DC has sold their house and moved. We are in need of a DC north of 6th Avenue. If you picked up produce in this area, would you please consider being a DC? Other changes between now and the beginning of summer may occur with one other DC, but they’re plans are not solid yet. DC’s are considered volunteers and you can get the Working Membership discount. If you are interested, call or email Jacquie and she will send you a job description.
New Members: I understand being a member can be a big commitment. I also understand it can be hard to find the time to clean the produce and create meals. Realistically, where are you going to find prices like this anywhere else and where can you get produce this fresh? So make it a family affair and get everyone involved. Get your kids involved ~ they love playing in the water and counting worms. It gives you an opportunity to talk about the food they will eat. Ask them to choose something to eat at each meal and they just may be more willing to try it! Get your spouse involved. Nothing is better or more relaxing & therapeutic than fixing a meal together. Share a glass of wine while you’re at it… (Then tell your spouse your farmer recommended it!) Keep in mind it takes two years to get used to getting your produce this way ~ so give it another year if 2020 was your first!
Add On’s: Please keep in mind, you cannot order any add-on’s such as honey, olive oil, fruit or meat without purchasing a Summer or Winter Share. Add-on’s are for current CSA members. We still have two lambs available for purchase from last year’s batch. They will be processed on March 2rd. A half lamb costs $225 and a whole lamb costs $450 plus processing fees. Contact me if you would like one!
Kyle is doing more of the management of the farm each year. To keep his sanity, he has decided to raise animals for fall/winter processing only. Due to the pandemic, Kyle decided to raise steers again last year. It appeared that the membership was extremely excited about this and they sold out in six weeks. He will continue to raise steers this year as well.
2020/21 Winter Shares: Everyone who is getting a Winter Share should have this paid off by now. But if you did not pay it off in December, your payment in full is due at this time. Unfortunately, it coincides with the current sign-up for 2021. This is why we suggest you pay this in full by the end of December!
Plans for 2021: It is important to renew your membership this month! We will be sending Info Packets to interested customers from our Wait List as well as accepting sign-ups online outside of the membership. This is due to the fact that we are now set up to accept online forms from our website (as soon as it is up and running). So even though you have a hard copy form in hand, if you’d rather signup online, it is available at 2021 prices! It is equally important to inform any interested friends, neighbors or co-workers about joining the farm right away. We can send an Info Packet (which has more information about the shares) or have them check out our snazzy new website, http://www.monroefarm.com!
Jerry, Kyle and Crew have been busy prepping the farm for winter. The barn has been cleaned up and they have tightened loose bolts on several pieces of equipment. Lots of garlic was planted last fall and with good luck and weather; we should have a fabulous harvest! They are also spending tons of time researching seed, planning which crops to grow and how much of it. Kyle and Jerry are buried in seed catalogs and ordering supplies right now.
As many of you know, we enrolled in the H2A farm worker program in 2020 due to lack of local employees. After farming for 36 years, we just could not find enough help locally. Four guys came from central Mexico. There is a ton of paperwork involved in this. But we feel it was very successful and will continue with the program. Two guys are returning from last summer and we will get two new workers all coming in March.
We tried a new planting technique as well as spaced the carrot seed farther apart to try and get larger carrots for distribution last summer. Some of this worked and some didn’t. We will continue to experiment until we get the perfect carrot size. However, weather has a huge impact on the performance of carrots. It takes three weeks to germinate the seed, most of the summer to grow to a decent size and then the tender plants are loved by all of Mother Natures’ creatures. This is because they are one of the first new plants to emerge in the spring. But the good news is: Carrots will be planted in two cold frames in a couple of weeks for spring harvest! We will always have small carrots in the beginning until the field carrots come on later in the summer.
A new variety of Romaine lettuce was also tried that was supposed to grow without too much bitterness during the hot summer months. For the first time in our history, we were able to provide greens to members for a large part of the season. We are happy to let you know that we will be growing this again this summer for your enjoyment! We may not be able to provide greens every single week, but we will be working towards that.
Conclusion: Those members who have been with us for many years will tell you we have done a pretty good job of growing and distributing produce even with the huge inconsistencies of weather for the past eight years. Our weather has huge fluctuations from spring to summer to fall. If it were easy to grow produce in Colorado, everyone would have huge gardens! There were times you received fourteen different varieties of vegetables and melons in your summer share. I know it can be hard to know what to expect from year to year when there is so little consistency in our weather. But you now understand the reality of farming and what we deal with each year. I hate to say it, but this new weather pattern isn’t going to change. With three generations of expertise and the fourth now taking charge…. I would say you are in good hands!!! It’s not an easy job, but we love what we do! Feeding people is our passion and we appreciate your support. Your consistent support from year to year is why we are in business and we could not do this without you! We truly have the best members of any CSA and by working together, either financially or physically; we will make it even better!
Thank you. We are looking forward to being your farmers this summer.
Jacquie, Jerry, Kyle and Sam
Monroe Organic Farms 