Farm Happenings for June 9, 2021

Welcome to the Cherry Valley Organics Farm Community!

We are so happy that you have decided to join us for Farm Share this season! Welcome to all every four week members who are just joining us for their first week! If you have not seen the Farm Happening from the last few weeks, you'll want to check that out on our profile page here so you can stay up to date on what's happening at the farm.

New this Week: Garlic Scapes, Little Gem Lettuce (so cute!), and a limited selection of new herbs - Sweet Basil, Summer Savory, Spearmint, Celery Leaf, and Lemon Basil

Unlike many of the new food delivery and distribution services that are popping up in the wake of Covid, we are an actual farm with a very diversified focus - vegetables, cut flowers, herbs, and a wide range of herbal value-added products. All of our products marked by the Cherry Valley Organics logo are grown or handmade by us. This diversity of focus allows us to provide fair wages and real professional and sustainable jobs in agriculture. And, as a result, we have an awesome team of highly educated Growers here at CVO, living the best organic farming life.

If you haven't already checked out our website for more information on who we are, please check us out:

www.cherryvalleyorganics.com

In case you missed it - last week, we introduced our 4 Veggie Growers (Emily Kramer, Vanessa Davis, Lindsay Henry, and Alexis Williams) and 1 Cut Flower Grower (Alliy Gundlach). You can learn more about each of them by clicking on their photo below:

Updates from the Farm

This week at the farm, we were all about weeding, as we cleaned up our onions one final time before laying drip irrigation and increasing watering to produce nice large onions (well, that's how it's supposed to work, anyway!). Most of our weeding at the farm is done with hand hoes and hand cultivators. Crops like onions with shallow root systems do not compete well with weeds so we also have to meticulously hand weed them. Carrots are also in this category, but for different reasons. Their foliage is so small and feathery when they start off that they can easily get overrun by weeds. So, to grow great crops of onions and carrots, the beds need to be weed free (unlike these Little Gem head lettuces below tolerating and outgrowing a few weeds in the background). The key to small scale diversified farming success is time-management and knowing where spending our precious time and energy will make the greatest difference in your shares. We also prepped areas for planting chard, cucumbers, and winter squash in the coming week. And, we planted our new 1/8 acre annual and perennial herb field that contains more than 2 dozen different types of culinary herbs. Exciting!

This was all in addition to harvesting, packing and delivering your shares!

Speaking of shares, we hope you are enjoying your greens! And, if you are feeling overwhelmed by these delicious greens, please keep in mind that you can move your shares to any week of the season. So, if you are a weekly shareholder, but can only get through your greens in two weeks, you can easily reschedule your next share for later in the summer when beans, squash, tomatoes, and melons are plentiful. Maybe you can eat a double share in those weeks? Please do not hesitate to reach out to Vanessa@cherryvalleyorganics.com or support@harvie.farm for help making changes to your schedule!

Farm Partner Update

At long last, we are so excited to announce that we will be partnering with Woolf Family Farms to provide you with an IPM fruit share starting the week of June 14th! This share will include strawberries, blueberries, peaches, apples and perhaps pears, grapes, and cider (depending on crop yields). Shares will be available for ordering starting Sunday, June 6th. Stay tuned for a separate email explaining all the details! Shares will be limited. To learn more about the Woolf family and their operation, view their website here:

https://woolffarms.co/

If you have any questions, please reach out to vanessa@cherryvalleyorganics.com or to support@harvie.farm at any time. Have a great week everyone, and thank you again for being a farm share member this season!

Jodi, Emily, Vanessa, Lindsay, Lex, Alliy, Bridget, and Clarissa

The CVO Farm Share Team

Cherry Valley Organics began in 2001 as a USDA certified organic farm, producing a high diversity of agricultural products, including vegetables, herbs, cut flowers, and potted plants. Since those early years, we have grown into an organic lifestyle company, producing a wide diversity of products that support a clean, organic lifestyle, including our herbal teas and herbal body care products, all of which are grown or hand-made at our farm.

At Cherry Valley Organics, we believe in…

*Living the healthiest life possible (full of organics!)
*Fair, livable wages for our team members
*USDA certified organic growing and production practices
*Minimizing our carbon footprint and ecological impact
*Supporting our local community

Cherry Valley Organics is a collaboration. Unlike traditional family farms, we come from diverse geographical, family, and professional backgrounds. We are growers, scientists, food & health enthusiasts, teachers, caretakers, chefs, and nutritionists. We are all farmers. And, all of us here at Cherry Valley Organics are committed to growing and producing high quality certified organic products for our community. We would never compromise on organics. Ever.

Cherry Valley Organics, founded by Jodi Danyo, began as a one-third-acre “urban farm” in the Pittsburgh suburb of Crafton, Cherry Valley Organics now encompasses approximately 36 acres in nearby Cherry Valley, Washington County, PA. Despite this expansion, the footprint of the operation is still quite small with farming operations encompassing less than 8 acres. The farm was built, quite literally, from the ground up!

Our Farm Share Growers, Emily Kramer, Vanessa Davis, Lindsay Henry, Alexis Williams, and Alliy Gundlach, love producing high quality organic products for our local Pittsburgh communities. You can find our products at the Sewickley Farmer’s Market on Saturdays (April through November), and also at local florists and specialty shops. In 2018, we opened a Farm Market & Cafe along the Panhandle Trail in Burgettstown, PA.

What makes our Farm Share unique?

*We wash the produce. Thoroughly. You are unlikely to get any mud in your CVO Farm Share bag. We still recommend that you wash our veggies, but many items will be ready to eat (and may make for excellent snacking in the car on the way home from the pick-up location).

*High diversity of veggie crops. We grow over 150 varieties of vegetables and herbs per season, on average.

*Specialty crops, like microgreens. It's a bit unusual to see this high value crop in farm share programs. They are a bit tricky to grow, but wow do they pack a nutritional punch! Despite their small size, they are the most nutritious veggie in the share!

*We believe in minimizing our environmental impact, and we use biodegradable and compostable packaging wherever possible. And we have a variety of new packaging products in the works for 2021.

*Specialty cut flowers are a niche crop for us. We grow many of the hard-to-grow flower varieties like Ranunculus, Bells of Ireland, Delphinium, and more. Many more. Nearly 300 varieties! Our flowers are not your run of the mill market flowers. Our bouquets are carefully crafted, and absolutely gorgeous!

*We have extensive partnerships with other local businesses and farms, including Primrose Farm (pasture-raised eggs), Paul Family Farms (maple syrup), Tait Farm (jams, butters, shrubs), Weatherbury Farm (flours, milled products), Big Bob's Honey (honey), Clarion River Organics (potatoes, sweet potatoes, melons, winter squash), Woolf Family Farms (blueberries, apples, peaches), Cherish Creamery (cheese), Emerald Valley Artisans (cheese), Steel Cup Coffee Roasters (organic, fair-trade coffee), Conover Family Farm (pickles, hot sauce) and more! A selection of these items is available on a weekly basis and can be added onto your Veggie Farm Share in any quantity you choose. We believe in the value of small business and keeping dollars in our Pittsburgh neighborhoods.

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