December 20, 2021
Holiday Treats
by Farmer Derek

Late Fall Harvest #6 (Week B) should include sweet potatoes, potatoes, napa cabbage, carrots, beets, daikon/specialty radishes, kohlrabi, garlic, onions, lettuce mix, bok choy, mustard greens, kale, and rosemary. Some items will be a choice.

December 20, 2021
Winter Solstice Recognition
by Farmer Derek

It's fitting that we're experiencing the coldest couple of nights of the season as we officially transition from Fall to Winter. The warm days of December last week were nice but also felt like a guilty pleasure. This week we'll have the challenge of trying to harvest greens after a really cold night and will have to wait until the crops are sufficiently thawed. Even if the greens freeze overnight, by late morning on a sunny cold day they should be fully perked up and ready for harvest. Outside it may be 35 degrees, but inside the tunnel it'll be in the 50s. By mid-afternoon we even need to keep the doors propped open to vent the heat so the crops aren't too coddled. It looks like we'll be able to leave the covers off again by the end of the week. We're pretty sure we're going to host a flash sale Wednesday 12/29 and will have a good amount of greens we'd like to thrive at least until then. After that they can hibernate, senesce, become fertilizer for the next round of crops.

This harvest continuation known Late Fall is short and sweet and really flies by. It's hard to believe we're in week #6 already. We thank you for your support and membership in our CSA. We hope you enjoyed and appreciated the harvest. Every year is a bit different but it seems like we're finally striking a nice balance between the type of crops in the shares. After next week's flash sale there'll be a gap in shares until at least February and you'll have some time to catch up on unused storage crops in roasts and soups, perfect for warm January meals.

With the Winter Solstice we arrive at our nadir, the longest night, but also our new year of lengthening days, heightening and warming sun, positive energy, and a gaze towards the future. But we hesitate and enjoy this downtime. Our sunshine winter with less than 10-hour days (Persephone Period) lasts from November 15th through January 31st. It's our time to rest, reflect, and plan before the next growing season truly arrives. We're right in the middle of this farmer-winter. We hope you also find this time of year restful and festive. Happy holidays!

December 20, 2021
Reminder: Only Wednesday Pick Up this Week
by Farmer Derek

A friendly reminder that, due to the Christmas holiday falling on Saturday 12/25, there is no Saturday pick up this week, #6, Week B. Members registered for Saturday pick up are encouraged and welcome to come to pick up on Wednesday 12/22 1-7pm. If Wednesday does not work for you please let us know and we can try to come up with alternate arrangements.

December 13, 2021
Green Growth
by Farmer Derek

Late Fall Harvest #5 (Week A) should include sweet potatoes, cabbage, carrots, beets, daikon/specialty radishes, kohlrabi, potatoes, garlic, lettuce mix, bok choy, mustard greens, kale, and rosemary. Some items will be a choice.

December 13, 2021
Warm Week Ahead
by Farmer Derek

Thanks to La Nina, climate change, regular fluctuations, or a combination of those plus other circumstances, this Late Fall season has felt like a warm dry breeze. In ten years of growing during the darker months it's probably not the first time temperatures have mostly stayed consistently above freezing, but this time around growing fresh crops feels a bit easier to do. Perhaps it's the aforementioned 10 years of experience with less mystery and uncertainty about how crops can deal with low light and colder temperatures. There was a season maybe 5 years ago when we had a balmy November and December and it felt like we could easily grow all winter long, then as January rolled around we endured extremely cold temperatures and highs stayed below freezing. So winter is still yet to come officially and I do hope we receive some legit cold for the natural cycles and systems to operate normally. Cold winter weather helps break the pest and disease cycle and makes farming organically without any sprays possible. All crops are currently uncovered and tunnels are being vented during these warm sunny days and above-freezing nights.

We're down to the final two weeks of Late Fall CSA but are already considering hosting our first 'flash sale' due to continued regrowth of tunnel greens and an excess amount of certain storage crops. Our goal is to fully harvest all greens and distribute all storage crops by the end of the season so we can finally fully rest but sometimes it doesn't work out that way. Late Fall CSA shares are meant to contain approximately 10-12lbs of produce and I believe we've been giving out about 14-15lbs weekly. Thanks to some bumper crops like sweet potatoes, potatoes, beets, and carrots this year's Late Fall harvest has felt particularly bountiful and full of variety. Now that we have sufficient tunnel space, greens are also in high supply. We're looking forward to very satisfying shares these final two weeks. Look for an e-mail announcement if we proceed with a flash sale. If it doesn't occur Wednesday 12/29 it won't happen until February.

Hope you're able to spend some quality time outside this week!

December 6, 2021
Maple Syrup and Honey From Augusta Acres Returns!
by Farmer Dana

December 6, 2021
For Health
by Farmer Derek

Late Fall Harvest #4 (Week B) should include sweet potatoes, cabbage, carrots, beets, daikon/specialty radishes, kohlrabi, potatoes, garlic, lettuce mix, arugula, mustard greens, swiss chard, kale, radicchio, and rosemary. Some items will be a choice.

December 6, 2021
Giving Back to the Soil
by Farmer Derek

Happy World Soil Day (December 5th)! Thanks to our driest November in 13 years we decided it was a good time to give back to the soil and spread some compost on fields that were next up in the compost application rotation. After last Thursday's deposits in Field 2a were complete, every nook and cranny of the farm received a compost dose within the past year. We view adding compost from horse manure and bedding as a quasi-luxury. We accept for free loads of manure and bedding from local horse farms and let it passively compost for 6 months to a year and spread it whenever adequate time, dry fields, and space allow. Because the compost isn't always fully broken down or monitored closely we only spread it prior to sowing cover crops or after cover crops are already established (not before cash crops). We also have more available time to devote to spreading compost the latter half of the year. It's a fairly time consuming task which is why we may only spread compost on 10% of the farm over a 2 or 3 day period at a time. We appreciate the addition of organic matter to the soil, especially in our fields that have a high clay content. In our tunnels where we may grow 2 or 3 crops each year, I think we need to make sure we add a heavy application of some good quality compost at least once a year. Last year we purchased some certified organic mushroom house compost for this purpose. In our outdoor fields where we only grow one crop and follow it with a cover crop and add sustaining amendments the compost is sort of a bonus. Most outdoor locations probably, on average, only receive compost once every two years. This year was an exception, or maybe from here on out it can be the norm since hopefully we continue to improve our systems and continue to find time and conditions right for spreading. Adding compost and then mixing it in is ideal, but this time of year we don't disturb the soil so it just rests on top until we mix it in during the spring and summer. As it breaks down it will feed all the little soil critters and in turn feed the crops. We appreciate receiving it from local farmers since we don't rotate our own animals on our produce fields.