Winter is swiftly passing us by, and even though it's February, I find myself thirsting for the smells of spring. Today, when I wandered out to my greenhouses, I thought that I caught a whiff of that elusive fragrance, but it was gone so quickly it had to have been my imagination. Compounding the problem of spring fever, parcel #1 arrived today, carrying the seeds for my garden plot! How exciting is that!? It's just about like opening up your favorite cup of coffee shop coffee and smelling that uplifting smell. The only thing is, the parcel smelt like post office... but that's besides the point.
In this gigantic box of goodies were eggplant, pepper, cucumber, bean, beet, radish, lettuce, squash, pea, spinach, herb, marigold, snapdragon, sweet-pea seeds, among many others. I'll be planting peppers and eggplants tomorrow, for transplant into my greenhouses in a few weeks. It will be really nice to see some fresh, new green growth!
If this nice weather we've been having keeps up, I'll have to prune my cherry trees soon as well. I was hoping to prune them in later March, but this warmth will spur them into early growth. I will not however, dig them out of a snowbank to prune them. Once the snow is gone, then I'll prune.
WEEKLY DELIVERY INFORMATION
I'm still looking for a few interested families who would like to have some fresh produce during the summer months delivered to a location near to where they work or live. If more than one person wants a delivery, and if the employer is ok with it, I'm more than willing to deliver to a workplace. For quite a few people, it's difficult to make it from work to a farmers market, so I'm hoping to be able to provide a service for those people.
Unlike most CSA's, I don't require you to pay upfront for the entire year. I've been a traditional cattle/grain farmer my whole life, and the number of unfair contracts that farmers have to sign is atrocious. So I want to make this process as painless as possible for both parties involved, in which both accept some of the risk. If my crop is entirely wiped of the face of the earth by a massive hail storm (which happens every 10 years or so) or droughted out, or some other natural calamity occurs, I don't expect my customers to pay for that. Most CSA's do, but to me that's not fair. As a farmer providing a produce to my local community, I know that if I'm cleaned out because of a hail storm, massive June blizzard, or rain-induced flood my customers will likely be hurting as well. We're all in this together, let's do our best to be fair and equal across the board.
I do request that a monthly amount be paid, but you will only be charged for what the produce is worth. Included in the price will be: cost of seed, labor, equipment and delivery. So, depending on the time of year and the amount in your weekly tote, the price you're paying will fluctuate on a per month basis. You will get an invoice listing the cost/unit of what you are receiving, so you know exactly where you're money is going. Any feedback on this idea would be appreciated. From people I've talked to, everyone appears to be more in favor of this, than a lump yearly sum. So let me know what you think!
Happy Growing and Here's to a Wonderful Spring! (After the March blizzard of course - but we do need the moisture!)
Sarah
