January. Time for those (these?) exciting monthly updates to come popping out. The main focus of this update is to tell you the times and such, with a brief note about progress on crops and ‘what-not.’ We are pretty good at tying what-nots.
So: Here’s the ‘schedule’ for 2025:
In 2025, memorial day is in week 22. Sunday of week 22 is May 25…
Start of Winter Season (6 weeks) Week 8 Feb 17th 8 Start of Green Season (8 weeks) Week 14 March 30th 16 Start of Main Season (20 weeks) Week 22 May 25th 20 Start of Extended Season (4 weeks) Week 44 October 12th 12
Shares are units – a personal share is one unit, a full share is two units.
Share Per Box with delivery Personal $27.50 $30 Full $37.50 $40
Here’s the idea we have been kicking around: rather than ‘sign up for the whole season” you could sign up for four week blocks. One of our members will be, for example, taking the last summer session and the extended season session. — here is a snapshot of what happens:
block units* Key Produce W1/2 8 leafy greens, radishes, salad turnips? W2 8 leafy greens, radish, turnip, Nantes carrots? G1 20 leafy greens, herbs, bok choi, cabbages, root crops G2 20 possibly add asparagus, maybe some berries? M1 30 more berries, maybe rhubarb, brassicas, early taters, cukes, toms, beets? M2 30 add summer squash, carrots, tomatoes M3 30 add peppers, eggplant, apples, beans M4 30 add corn… X1 30 melons, if we are lucky. X2 30 add winter squash, sweet potatoes
*units: 1 per small box, 2 per big box. so, 8 smalls plus 6 fulls would be 20 units total. 30 might be 12 smalls and 9 fulls. SWAG. Units are used to calculate demand. So, each week would need units*product – for example, 20 heads of lettuce, or cabbage for a week, and in a four week window that would need 80 heads…
Obviously W1/2 is a half block. Well. Maybe that isn’t obvious. But in any case W is the winter session, G is the Green session, M is the main. If you knew you only wanted the real summer stuff, maybe you ask to be in M2, M3, M4. The “units” number is our current budget based on a random guess of who signs up when.
Enough of that stuff.
As of January, the first set of crops for the Winter season are in progress. Some of the crops are over-wintered – planted in November – and the rest are ‘staged’ to ripen as things progress towards the February start up. Meanwhile, bed prep is underway, and the big problem of a massive invasion of Voles is being dealt with as best we can. So, today 5 gallons of Vole deterrent were applied all over.
BTW – the castor oil is mixed with dish soap and water (1 cup castor oil, half cup soap, fill to a gallon, spray the soil and what they are demolishing). There were formerly a nice crop of beets over wintering. When we caught on – well, you pull the top and the root is GONE.
There are a couple of big projects for now – getting ready for a new compost system, and getting the garden plow ready to go. The plow is used to invert the cover crops as we plant. It is a very large hunk of iron, by the way.
lots of polishing, and a bit of welding will be required. I now know all the body parts of a plow, which was not the case before this began.
The other main activity is to take the map of when crops need to be harvested, and back up all the way to when seeds need to be here. This is a kinda fun task, but amazing when you look at the total number of seed types and varieties that are needed. So far we are looking at about 100 different plants. Some of it, of course, is already on hand from carry over – but potatoes we like to buy new every year – so, 95 pounds of 12 different potato types. And if you don’t order those ASAP, then the new whizzy variety the seed catalog touts may not be available. For example, there was a new Sweet Potato that was supposed to be amazing. It is so amazing that they don’t have any this year. Same with my personal favorite bean.
To draw this to a close:
- Do you want to get this in email? Then message us or even (gasp) reply to the post!
- If you know you are going to be in any or all of the seasons, let us know. That helps with planning.
- A brochure is going to be ‘put together’ here this week – if you want to entice your friends and neighbors a copy can be emailed – in fact I will probably send one out with the next monthly update. As a note – we intentionally downsized last year, as it was likely that the farm would be sold. That no longer seems necessary – but the reciprocal is we need more members than last year. Please.
- And there will be a Wednesday delivery to the Horizon Point area (Go East) most likely, with a Friday delivery on the West side, and farm call Tuesday/Wednesday after 3, but call ahead.
there is probably a ton I am forgetting.
And Happy new year!
Doug
