Newsletter – September 12, 2022

25525 WCR 48
Kersey, CO 80644 jacquie@monroefarm.com

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 Friends,

This Week you are should be getting: yellow onions, turnips, squash, cucumbers, broccoli, kale, tomatoes, muskmelon & peppers: yellow bell, bell, Anaheim, Poblanos, jalapenos, and banana peppers.

Fruit Shares should be receiving a 20lb box of Bartlett pears & Akane apples mixture.

Olive oil should be delivered this week to those members who receive it monthly

Honey should be coming next week for those members who receive it monthly & 1 time.

Sorry we missed a newsletter last week. Jerry fell backwards off the high clearance tractor and hurt his back on August 26th. He went to the emergency room and stayed in the hospital for three days. Of course, he was in a hurry, like he always is and missed a handhold. Since he was on his way down, his momentum threw him backwards. He now has a hairline fracture in his lower back. He will make a full recovery, but like all bones, it will take 8 to 12 weeks. He now wears a brace to keep him from slouching or bending over. Jerry has already made significant improvement because his pain level is low and is already taking long walks. Thank you for understanding!

Water: Denver and south has gotten nice rains this year, but we have not here at the farm. We are still in drought conditions with 102-degree days all last week. We have been notified by our water company who manages our water usage that the main ditch that brings water from the lakes will be shut off the third or fourth week of September. Most farmers have used all their water and the lake is basically too low to continue to deliver water. This is huge to us since we are used to getting water all through October. We are unsure how this will impact the farm. But we will be harvesting like crazy before the ground turns to concrete over the next four weeks.

Boulder Mushroom: With 7 years teaching within his local community about the wonders of mushrooms, Zach Hedstrom, founder & owner of Boulder Mushroom, has dedicated its mission to the development of prolific mushrooms strains which are adapted to locally available substrate materials, while also cultivating the highest quality culinary & medicinal mushrooms. Boulder Mushroom serves in producing the highest quality fungi available for our customers. Our locally grown spawn, produced in Boulder County, Colorado is guaranteed vigorous & viable. Boulder Mushroom offers unique strains of mushrooms, which have been adapted for production from within our own local environment. Our cultivated culinary mushrooms are guaranteed high quality, recognized for impeccable flavor, texture, and beauty.

Many members have been asking where the mushrooms have been coming from. Sorry I did not do this sooner! This was taken from their website, and this is who we have been working with. Because we found this company too late in the season for them to grow mushrooms for us, we have been getting their surplus mushrooms. We intend to sit down and map out a direction in producing mushrooms specifically for our own membership for next year. With the survey we took earlier in the season and the response to making actual orders, we will have the information we need to get a nice variety of mushrooms next summer.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Jerry, Jacquie, Kyle, Sam & crew

Reminder that Jacquie does not check this blog – you’ll have to email or call the farm directly to get on the waiting list for strawberry picking! If you have any questions, please reach out.

jacquie@monroefarm.com
970-284-7941

Hi Everyone!

We are very excited to inform you that half the strawberries we planted last year survived.  We do not have enough for everyone to pick so we thought to make this a lot more fun and fair to everyone; we would have a lottery.  Email or call and get yourself on our Wait List.  I will need your name, phone number and whether or not you can come on weekends or weekdays.  Starting next week the picking schedule will be:  Sun/Tue one week and Mon/Wed the following week.  We hope to be able to pick for app. 4 weeks.  If you can only make it on weekends, know that your chances of your name being drawn will be highly limited.  Each person will be able to pick 5 pints.  We will provide the pint baskets but you cannot take them home.  Please bring a flat ridged container to put your strawberries into for the trip home….(baking sheets, aluminum baking pans, Tupperware, etc.)  No bowls!  Your strawberries will crush in the bottom.

Please note that this is the first time we have had strawberries survive our crazy new weather pattern in the past six years.  Climate change is really affecting them.  It’s too warm in February and they come out of dormancy then it freezes in April and kills them.  But we are hoping to build a beautiful new patch where everyone will be able to pick a lot of strawberries in the future!

Don’t forget…name, phone number & weekdays or weekends only.

Happy to be your farmers,

Jacquie Monroe
Monroe Organic Farms, llc
25525 County Road 48
Kersey, CO  80644
970-284-7941

Newsletter – September 16, 2019

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 Friends of the Farm,

This week you are getting yellow onions, garlic, purple carrots, summer squash, eggplant, cucumber, lemon cucumber, yellow bell pepper, green bell pepper, Anaheim, jalapeno, tomatoes, basil and orange honeydew.

Fruit: You are getting a 20# box of peaches this week from First Fruit. These peaches are called Summer Lady. They‘re a late season peach and one of the favorites! All summer they have time to soak up the sun, then in the fall they sweeten up with the cool nights. With light fuzz, a beautiful red blush and amazing flavor, I bet they become your favorite too! If processing, they are a free stone peach and the skins slip off easily.

I know it doesn’t make sense about the peaches when we see them all over the place. So I asked about the story and this is what all the fruit growers are telling me. They have contracts with the grocery stores that they have to meet. The peach crop was late and the stores were pressuring them for the product. These contracts are not for a one time delivery…they are continuous. The growers also wanted plenty of peaches for their festival, so they delayed placing orders with CSA’a and restaurants. Think about this. If they can sell a product for full retail price; why do they want to sell a bulk order for wholesale? They make more money selling for retail and were able to keep up with the demand of harvesting. The crop ripened slow and steady instead of all at once this summer. That left us sitting without peaches!

Produce: As many of you have heard, we had a big hailstorm last Wednesday. The storm hit around 6:13 and lasted until 6:30 hailing the whole time. Just like in 2016, we will be giving you as much produce as possible and some of it may have cuts, scars and bruises on it. We want to get this produce off the vines so the plant does not put any more energy into it. You must process and use this produce right away! We are not trying to give you produce that is broken open and oozing. But this can happen while it sits during the day. We apologize in advance if this happens. The farm is very resilient, so don’t give up on it. We have four more weeks to see what we can dig up!

Statements: They are going out this week. Late fees have been assessed if payments were not received. If you do not receive a statement, you are paid in full. Thank you for your support during this trying time in our lives.

No-Till Experiment: I thought it was time to update you on Kyle’s no-till experiment. He planted the first phase crop which was rye grass. He realized he did not plant this thick enough once it started to grow. You should not be able to see the ground below. Unfortunately, it needs to be very thick for when he rolls the crop down and crimps it, it should make a very thick mat. Kyle decided not to plant corn or beans into the crop knowing there would be a tremendous amount of weeds that would grow with the crop. Instead, he continued to experiment on crimping techniques. He learned a lot about his timing and plans on starting all over next year

Weather Update – May 24, 2019

We all got to experience the rain and snow event over the last week.  Last
Friday, the 17th, we had hail with our rain with very little damage, thank
goodness!!!  But this week…wow!  We ended up with 2 1/2 inches of
moisture out of the rain and snow we received.  Unfortunately, as plants
were trying to recover from the hail, we had several nights of frost &
freezing.  We are in the “wait and see” mode, but we know we lost plants
and maybe even an entire crop…such as the first planting of green beans
& eggplant and the current stalks of asparagus we would have picked this
weekend.  We will not know the outcome for several more days.

So!  What to expect?  Well, we know that May was a very cold month and the
forecast looks like June will be below normal temperatures too.
Everything is growing very slowly because of this.  We still expect to
start distribution in the middle to late June.  (You will hear from your
DC when that occurs.)  But when it does, we will not have a lot of
variety.  Every plant has a different maturity level and this summer they
will come on slower than the last couple of years.  But as July warms up
and the season bumps along, it won’t be any time at all before we will
have more than enough variety to keep us all content!

At least we did not lose the entire farm.  Summer squash, cucumbers,
tomatoes and some peppers were snugly under row-cover.  There can be
damage from the snow laying on top and freezing the plants below….but
again, we will not know the extent of damage for awhile. We have only just
begun planting our summer crops and most of them get planted anywhere from
two to four times during the spring/summer.  So the season is a long way
from being lost!

Just wanted to keep you in the loop about what is happening here.  Thank
you for your support of this very old organic farm!

Jacquie Monroe

Newsletter – July 30, 2018

Dear Friends of the Farm,

This week you are getting red potatoes, red onions, carrots, garlic, squash, cucumber, green & purple peppers, a tomato, muskmelon and blue popcorn.

As warm as the spring was & as early some crops have come on, we have not gone unscathed by the weather. As you have noticed, you have not gotten corn or green beans yet. The seeds from these two crops are planted directly into the ground. Unfortunately, we have not had success with germinating the beans or the early season corn. It has been difficult in keeping up with the watering in the sweltering heat and therefore, watered too little or too much. Jerry tells me you will see late season corn sometime in September. The beans on the other hand, have been a complete failure. We are as disappointed as you are…maybe even more so. But we have plenty of goodies to come and you will not go hungry!

I know you have been hearing about the crazy weather all along the Front Range and maybe even you have been hit with hail. These very scary storms have been surrounding us and some even pass over us. But to our relief, they have not been severe. As a matter of a fact, we have not gotten more than 2 tenths of an inch of rain from each storm. We received light hail early in the season, which you saw on the first couple of pickings of squash. Some evidence is still showing up on the watermelons too. Last night was a heart stopper! This particular storm passed over Greeley & Evans and looked like it was coming straight for us. It left behind golf ball to egg size hailstones that were still sitting on the streets this morning. But to our relief, it simply passed over us with a light rain that lasted 10 to 15 minutes and light hail that only lasted five minutes. Phew!!!

Fruit: You are getting New Haven peaches from Rancho Durazno. Did you know there are two different types of peaches? There are no-cling peaches which are more for canning and separate from the pit easily. Then you have a cling peach which tend to stay attached to the pit. They are used more for fresh market sales and eating right away. They tend to be a tad sweeter than their counterpart. Can you tell which kind you received this week?

Don’t forget! This is the last week to order a hat or t-shirt. They will be delivered next week.

Zucchini Relish

1 med zucchini, diced
1 Anaheim chili pepper, grilled, skinned & diced
1 cup corn kernels
1/3 cup apple cider
1 small red onion, diced
1 tbs honey

Combine all ingredients. Let sit for half an hour before using. Great on tacos, burgers and hot dogs.

Newsletter – August 23, 2016

This week you are getting potatoes, red onion, garlic, carrots, cabbage, squash, specialty peppers, kale and tomatoes. The Full Shares will be getting broccoli. We do not have a lot of peppers due to the hail storm, so you will be getting different types. These specialty peppers are called lipstick. They come in red, green, yellow and orange, are very sweet and are good for cooking. Treat them as any other pepper. No fruit, but everyone will be getting honey that ordered it!

Going back in time to 1995-96: It was a wet, stormy spring and crops came on late. We planted our first asparagus field in 1993 (our very first year as a CSA) and expected our first crop this year. (Little did we know it would be three more years before seeing our first fat spears!) We added 120 laying hens, two goats, two calves, four piglets and a greenhouse to the farm. We had a “Barn Raising” event and around ten members showed up to help us erect the greenhouse. By the end of August, there was a small hailstorm. Crops were already set back by the cold, wet spring and this storm set them back farther and damaged the roof of the greenhouse. We did not expect most of the crops to come on until September and October. All the tomatoes in the greenhouse (no longer standing) went to farmers’ market. We had an early freeze on Sept 25th and were down to root crops and winter squash for the month of October.

The “Homeplace” (as we call the original farm where Jerry Sr. lives today) is a very small 21 acre farm where only about 15 acres are farmable. Jerry and I knew we could not grow our business with the amount of acreage we were farming. On March 1st 1996, Jerry and I expanded the farm by purchasing the place we live, work and play on today! This was the year of expansion and improvements for us and we invested a lot of time and money into the project. We purchased two used cold frames that year and Jerry planted lettuce and kale in one, the other held carrots, turnips and beets. The greenhouse needed a new plastic roof due to the hailstorm and a second “barn raising” occurred with five handy male members helping out. (It was planted with tomatoes again). The farm was 60 years old that year and we were asking all the PR types for tips and suggestions on what we should do to play it up. A harvest festival was suggested and we acted on that idea right away even though we have been getting together as a group at the end of the year since 1993 for a potluck. But this time we had a bicycle parade, I did face painting, we had a volley ball game and croquet tournament in the yard, a nephew performed a magic act and we had hayrides to the pumpkin patch; all happening under the 75 year old trees at the Homeplace.

1996 was probably the hardest year we endured yet. We had a hailstorm in early July and again in August. The hailstones were nickel size and it hailed for 10 minutes each time. Much to our dismay, we had another early freeze (Sept. 20th this time)! Two years in a row was excruciatingly painful! Now we have to get winter jobs to support our family. We asked members to dig deep and help us out by purchasing something new: a Winter Share.

Winter Shares looked very different than they do today. For $100 a member could receive 8 bushels of crops including carrots, onions, potatoes, corn, winter squash and anything else still remaining on the farm. Each household got to pick exactly what they wanted, how much of it and making any combination they wanted.

We had five to ten people get the Winter Share….my records are foggy here. Until we found a way to store the produce ourselves at the farm, the most people we ever got to purchase the share was 25. Today we serve 150 to 175 depending on the season.

Coming back to today: This summer (with the larger than golf ball size hail) is probably very close to being as destructive as the two hailstorms of 1996. It has been a long time since we have seen this kind of devastation! The biggest difference between now and then is: we were young, green, and had invested heavily in improvements. Jerry Sr. helped us by telling us what would continue to grow and produce and what to plow under and start over or forget for the season. (Much could be replanted in July, but not in August.) The early freeze cut off any recovery and production of so many plants. Is this starting to sound familiar?

It is cooling down already at night when we have gotten used to upper 60 degree temps in August for the last 18 years. A meteorologist once told us that we have 20 year cycles coinciding with cycles of the sun. Starting in 2010, we were supposed to start a cooling cycle. We did not see any changes until 2013 with the cooler spring, rainy month of May and torrential rains in September. Could we actually be seeing a cooling trend? Every May since then has been cold and rainy. This year has been fairly cool all summer with only a few very hot days. Normally we can feel fall starting to cool down our evenings in September….but I am feeling this already. All I can say is this is all very interesting to me!! Goodness! Does this mean I am getting old enough to be like my grandmother/grandfather and be able to recite weather through a historical setting? Yikes!! (What does this mean for global warming? Which I do believe is happening! We have already gone up a degree and a half around the world. Will this continue? Will the cool springs we are seeing right now continue?)

2016 Fees: All fees are due in full by September 1st for your vegetable, fruit and honey shares. We have always tried to make this CSA as easy as possible to pay for. We do not ask for 100% of your fees up front, which is how most CSA’s work across the US. We have divided your fees into three installments between the Membership Fee due early in the spring and your Produce Fees due on July 15th and September 1st. We go even farther by allowing some members to pay monthly now. If you cannot pay your fees in full at this time, please call me and let me know as soon as possible. We plan on discontinuing delivering shares for those customers who have not paid in full starting the week of September 4th.

Harvest Festival RSVP’s and Volunteers: What time is it? It is time to tell us if you plan on attending the festival! Please RSVP to Peg Lehr about volunteering or your attendance. Her contact info is wrdwrrior@comcast.net or 303-320-5706. The festival is September 18th from 11 to 4. She will need to know the number of adults, kids and guests and if anyone is a vegetarian and will want a Boca burger. (Guests will be charged $10 per person, three and under are free!) Anyone play an instrument or sing and wants to share that with us? We encourage even children to share their talents! I think everyone would love to see what you are learning! Mark your calendars now, so you do not plan anything else on top of this festive day!

Volunteers are needed to keep this day running smoothly. This is an excellent time to invest some of your time into the farm! Our Wish List: 8 people for the Check-in Station, 6-8 Master Grillers, 4 people to cut up produce, 8 to set up tents, tables and chairs, 6 to rinse cookware & set under the serving table and resupply cut veggies, 4 to refill drink containers, 4 to check on bathrooms and empty trashcans around the area, 5-6 people to run the canning booth and/or t-shirt booths.

Everyone has been so wonderful to us and has said the kindest things. We truly have the best CSA Members in the world. We cannot thank you enough! Have a great week.

Jacquie, Jerry, Kyle and Sam

Newsletter – September 15, 2014

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

Newsletter: August 17, 2010

Dear Members,

This is week 9 out of an 18 week season. We are half way through the summer. Hard to believe! It feels like we have just gotten started…then again, my body reminds me how much work I have been doing!

How do you like the bounty you have been receiving? I know the season started out slow, but man oh man, Mother Nature really caught up! We have two or three plantings of corn and melon on right now. We try to space it so that when one field goes out, another is coming in. It was so cold and rainy this spring that our early crops were late. Now that is has been hot, our main season plantings are on early. You are getting double the corn and melon because of this. Do not panic, it will all settle down soon. We may end up without any kind of melon or corn later in the season! So enjoy while it is here!

I heard from a little bird that peaches are coming this week. Yeah! The fruit growers have decided that since we haven’t gotten fruit in such a long time, they are going to deliver smaller amounts more often. You will also be getting Crimson Sweet watermelon and green flesh honeydew as well as white turnips, cabbage, summer squash, red onion, carrots, green and purple peppers, eggplant, peppers, beans, corn, tomatoes and muskmelon. You will not be getting potatoes or cucumbers this week.

We are once again letting members who own their own businesses list them on our Blog page. We do not endorse any business listed on the Blog, but it is a nice way to get your information out to our Members. I have used countless members for plumbing, electrical, accounting, doctors and even our trash service! I don’t know about anyone else, but I would rather use a member of Monroe Organic Farms who thinks a little like me than someone I don’t have a clue about! If you’d like your business listed on the blog, post a comment here with your business name and web site. This is an electronic listing only. If you do not have a website, you can post a link to your listing on dexknows.com or a similar website that your business is listed with.

I hope to get statements out within the next two weeks for the September 1st payment. My office assistant quit in the middle of last month, and it has been very hard for me to get office work done when I am not home most of the time. I am working hard to get everyone’s payments into the computer in order to get those statements out. Please bear with me, we may have to post pone the due date for the last produce payment!

Don’t forget to notify your Distribution Center if you are going on vacation and what you want done with your produce. If someone will be picking up for you while you are gone, please notify your Distributor who they are and give them their telephone number.

Alaina is heading in for (we hope) to be her last eye surgery for the year. I will not be available this week. Telephone messages will be checked, but only emergencies will be returned.

Have a delicious week!

Jacquie, Jerry, Alaina and Kyle