Dear CSA Members,
It seems like just yesterday we were putting two 40,000 square foot pieces of frost blanket out on our first succession of sweet corn to protect it from a late spring freeze. At that time we were working so hard to seed and plant and care for all the veggies that would wind up in your csa boxes and in stores across Minnesota this summer. My how time flies.
This season was so full of mystery and hope and nerves for what would happen and how the season would treat us. Would the remay protect the corn? Would we lose the whole first succession? Nothing is a given in this business, and every season is like this. We put all of our energy into this project- growing food for you and caring for the land- with no guarantee for what will come. Several local farmers experienced major crop loss to hail this year, and we are no strangers to staggering loss to disease or bugs or deer or any number of other issues. And so, it was with cautious hopefulness that we pressed 14 acres of carrots into the soil. We put in acres of cauliflower, fully aware how tricky it is and susceptible to disease in a wet summer. And we're so very grateful to say this season, all our hard work paid off and thanks to a dry season, our crops are some of the best in years!
Many of the questions and mysteries of early season have been answered and now we're preparing for winter and starting to make plans and getting hopeful for 2021. We've already harvested hundreds of bins of carrots from our first two successions and that cauliflower produced big beautiful heads after a nice dry summer for growth. We had the best tomato and melon years in memory and it feels like our hard work has really paid off. But it all comes with a healthy dose of humility because we know every year is different. Now I'm focusing my hope and nerves on all the greens growing in our high tunnels that we'd like to harvest for our winter csa boxes. And so the seasonal farm cycle continues on.
Thanks to you all for supporting us and being a huge part of this Featherstone Farm family.
Abby Benson
Field Operations Manager
