Our Winter farm share season will draw to a close in about a month, but I think that the shares are getting better every week! The braising greens mix this week is one of the best ones we have harvested in months. It has pac choi, bok choy, Asian greens, ruby streaks mustard greens, purple kohlrabi leaves, and baby collard greens. I can't wait to cook a bag this weekend! Also, French breakfast radishes, baby kale and Spring mix will make their 2023 debut this week! I hope that y'all enjoyed the microgreens the past two weeks! I worked them into almost every meal we made at home this week, and I really like the flavor and texture of the current mix.
Farm Update
Potatoes are planted, and I just cropped out all of the kohlrabi, pac choi, and French breakfast radishes under our longest protective tunnel. On Saturday I will plant squash and beans while Kaden is at the market! Last year, we had potatoes and greens beans ready for harvest at the same time, and I hope those harvests line up again this year.
We deployed row cover on Saturday night, as it dropped to around 28 degrees here in Marion. Now, we are working up some serious sweats by the time lunchtime rolls around. Although the abrupt change in temperature isn't ideal, we will take advantage of the situation and sow several rows of salad greens, beets, and carrots while we can get good germination. We prepared 21, 100 ft beds, so we have plenty of space to diversify our salad greens.
It's National CSA Week, so I thought I would share a little history of how we started our farm subscription service. We were the first farm in North Louisiana that offered CSAs, which was a positive and a negative. In the Spring of 2019, we grew a very small garden, and started our first CSA. Customers paid upfront for the entire 8 week season and didn't have a choice of vegetables. I believe that we only had 10 or 15 spots available. In 2020, we offered our second Spring CSA, and followed up with our first Fall CSA. All of these seasons were "farmer's choice", meaning there was no customization, and if you had to skip a week, there was no refund. This is the traditional CSA model, but we found customers were not returning season to season.
I visited some of our farmer friends in New Orleans, lamented our situation with CSA retention, and they told me about Harvie Farms. I'm really happy that we made the switch from traditional CSA to the customized farm shares. Without the farm shares, I am sure that our farm would not have survived. I think that paying for each delivery the week of and being able to customize the share, or skip a week is ideal for so many of our members. From the farming and business side of the farm shares, Harvie is invaluable in helping with the logistics of pick ups and deliveries in Ouachita, Union, and Lincoln parishes. It saves me so many hours of organizing, sending invoices, or planning delivery routes.
2022 was an incredible year for our farm shares. We were in farm share season for more than 40 weeks out of the year, and offered the most diverse selection of vegetables and fruit since we started farming. We were able to finance critically important equipment, and Kaden and I were able to pay ourselves a living wage most weeks. We have so much gratitude for each one of our farm share members, and I hope that you know we will always go the extra mile to make our shares the best they can be.
Setting up for the Winter season can be intimidating. I think it must be akin to seafarers of centuries past. You know the destination is there and you have the tools to guide you, but there are obstacles and circumstances out of your control that might prevent you from arriving at your intended destination. After the Arctic Blast in December, I knew that mid-March was our destination, but there were a lot of obstacles I thought might prevent us from reaching our goal. Well...this week I could finally see the finish line of our Winter season and it felt amazing to say to myself WE DID IT! WE DID IT! It took every piece of equipment, a lot of creativity, and all the crop notes from season's past to make, but we did it! I'm sure the farm happenings from December 2022 convey the panic I felt. Without despair, how would you know the divinity of joy? Without adversity, how can you test your resolve?
I'll leave y'all this week with an expert from a poem that helped me pull up my bootstraps and get to work. Since January, I've listened to Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 nearly every day while we are working at the farm. (Not the same version! Each orchestra has a different interpretation.) It's 79 minutes long, and the 4th movement was the first choral symphony in history. I think that it's even more incredible he composed it while nearly deaf. It's a timeless portrayal of the perseverance of the human spirit, and has helped me understand the power of recognizing those joyous moments in life.
"Every creature drinks in joy at nature's breast
Good and bad alike follow her trail of roses
She gave us kisses and grapevines
A true friend, even in death
Even the worm was given desire
And the cherub stands before God!"
Friedrich Schiller, "Ode to Joy" 1785
