For some of our every-other-week members, this is the first week of your Farm Share! Please read to the end. (Our apologies for this being the second version of this email you've received today...server failure mid day today sent the first version into a digital abyss.)
- When you arrive at pick up: Find the bin with your name, take the contents, and leave us the empty green bin. We found it way too difficult to pack your Farm Shares in bags, and so we are using green bins as in the past.
Check your label for any circled items that will be separate from the bag. (Ie: Tomatoes, Bread, Plants, Flowers.) Collect those items.
- Loaves of bread, for those who have ordered one, will be in a crate/bin/labeled container of some kind, adjacent to bins of bags of vegetable shares, labeled with your name. Pick up your loaf if you are due one. (Some people have purchased a Bread Share for a loaf each week of the season. Some people order a loaf when they please.)
- You are responsible for collecting all of your items at the location you choose, and during the time frame indicated.
- St. Stephens members: We will be at St. Stephens again this weekend as usual. If we make a temporary location change, it will begin May 16.
Reminder: This software (called Harvie) allows you to customize your Farm Share. To make changes to your default share (configured by the system based on our available harvest and your preferences), you have to use this email or log in to Harvie. There are certainly options for swaps and extras today, and those options will get much bigger as the weeks unfold.
You can make changes until 6:30 am the day before your pick-up day. (We harvest on Tuesdays and Fridays, so the emails represent our best projection of what we will harvest the following day.)
You can swap items for other items, and/or you can order extras of whatever is available.
Make sure emails from us land in your inbox, not Spam/Promotions, etc.
Payment plan reminder:
Vacations:
The software we use does not have vacation weeks built in. Instead, if you can't pick up a particular week you can reschedule that week's share for a future week in this software (Harvie), or you can have a friend or family member pick up for you. Just forward this email to them so they know the details.
As indicated during your sign up process, if you did not pay in full, here is the default payment schedule:
- 25% of the total share cost was charged to your credit card when you signed up (or maybe you paid by check).
- 25% of the total share cost will be charged to your card on file the first week of the season. (Harvie staff and Stripe credit card processing handle this...we don't have your credit card info)
- After that, 50% of the total cost remains due. That means for any given week's share, you've already paid 50%. The remaining 50% of a week's share is charged to your credit card the day that you pick up that share, plus the charge for any extras you order for that particular day. That continues all season, unless you pre-pay your remaining balance.
- You are welcome to pay your remaining balance in full or pay a portion at any time with cash, check, or charge. Hand your farmers cash, mail your farmers a check, or log in to your account in Harvie and click on "My Profile" then on "Payment Details" to make a payment at any time. (That is also where you can check your balance due at any time.)
Vacations:
The software we use does not have vacation weeks built in. Instead, if you can't pick up a particular week you can reschedule that week's share for a future week in this software (Harvie), or you can have a friend or family member pick up for you. Just forward this email to them so they know the details.
Now for updates from the farm:
What a spring it's been! We are enormously grateful for a spring of really great weather (for farming) so far. Our seeding and planting schedule has been able to run beautifully. (Tough weather or any one of many potential problems can throw a wrench in the seeding and planting.) Our spring crops look great, early summer crops are growing while also being protected from chilly temps, and we've been able to stay on top of weeds better than any spring before. We have some creative work to do to protect tomato plants in our fields from the low 30's that are forecasted for this weekend (May 10th!!), but we'll do it somehow.
We prepare for rainy days as best we can - we alter our bed prep and planting times as well as our harvest times when we know we're going to get a gully-washer (as Dan loves to call heavy rains). Our crew works under cover (in the barn and in our hoophouses) whenever we have big rain events.
Our 2020 crew (which changes every year) is fantastic, and our community has been so supportive and cooperative in the ways they have adapted to buying our spring harvest so far. We've changed various parts of our distribution in order to limit contact between people while also being sure that we can continue to provide food for our community.
We are all healthy and well and washing our hands even more often than in years before. We're taking our health very seriously, your health very seriously, and are also grateful that this is not a food-born disease. We are strictly following the governor's orders about our activity, as well as the Va. Dept of Ag's rules about farm business and farmers' market logistics. Any questions at all? Reach out!
