As the season progresses, we are saying goodbye to certain crops a little earlier than usual. With highs near 90 degrees this week, we are most likely going to have our spinach and sugar snap pea season cut a few weeks short. The rain last week split most of our radishes, and we lost several rows planted the week before the the storms arrived, so we will have to replant this week. We will be short on radishes for just about three weeks. See the farm update section below for the scoop on this most pivotal week in our farming journey!
What's Fresh This Week?
- Salad Turnips
- Sugar Snap Peas *We did not grow purple ones this season.
- Braising Mix (Lots of purple leaves this week!)
- Louisiana Strawberries
- Microgreens!
Limited Harvest
- Fresh Mint
- Lettuce Mix
- Napa Cabbage
- Rainbow Chard
- 3 Board Farm Whole Chickens
Farm Update:
-We will not have oyster mushrooms this week. Farmer Lacey is dealing with some contamination issues on the last crop she started and she had to throw them all out and start over. Give her a few weeks and she will be back with more amazing mushrooms!
-We will be announcing the details of the first screening of Carter Carrol's documentary "Feeding Our Community" at The Seventh Tap Brewery in Shreveport! We will have a panel discussion following the film, a farm to table dinner, craft beer brewed just for this event, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit Shreveport Green! Stay tuned!
-We are on the menu with Chef Jacob Mouser at the Sample Farms farm to table dinner this weekend!
-See you at The Thirsty Farmer in Calhoun on Saturday from 10-5 for their Spring Sip & Shop! We have worked on making jam all week and will have some favorites back in stock!
-We successfully filed for our very first grant today! The Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure grant will be announced in July, and we really hope that we receive funding for a new delivery van!
-Other BIG NEWS is that we were approved for the Louisiana Farm to Food Bank Program! This is the most significant opportunity that our farm has ever had, and it will mean that a few things will change. After this season ends, we will be operating shorter farm share seasons, and we will not be as focused on growing our farm through the farm shares. We will not reduce the current number of shares we offer, but I am going to place stricter limits for our season to season capacity. Because we are farming on a small scale and have been dependent on our farm share sales to survive, it's caused us to have a very diverse crop plan-because we want you to access all your favorite veggies! But going forward, we are going to be taking an in-depth financial look at every single crop we offer, and there will be some we will no longer grow. The food bank program lasts until the end of 2025, and until then we are going to do our best to grow our farm as much as possible. The Food Bank will no be placing orders with us, instead it is up to us to grow what we can, and they will purchase anything and everything we bring to them based on an approved list of vegetables. So, we are going from delivering boxes to delivering pallets worth of produce. We are about to post a job listing for a full time employee, and are negotiating with our family about leasing 5 more acres adjacent to the farm. It's all really exciting! I haven't even mentioned how amazing it is that we have an opportunity to serve the most vulnerable members of our community through work that we love to do. Please don't fret about your farm share! Our farm share members are the heart and soul of our farm, and the reason we are in business. We will NEVER stop offering our farm shares, but we need for them to be a little more sustainable for us.
