It's time to say thank you to all our wonderful CSA families out there, please continue reading to get the full story :)
First some quick notes as we wrap our season:
- If you had a "traveller's" share this summer, this may be you last week of veggies! You can always order for pickup just like your csa through the new online "farm stand" to bridge the gap if you'd like an extra delivery or two. After we fill all our CSA bags, any leftovers become available for purchase there on Sundays for Wednesday pick-up and Thursday afternoon/eve for Saturday pick up.
- For those of you with full season shares we're delivering until October 21st (Wed) or 24th (Sat).
- It's a good time to check on your deliveries to see if there's any past shares on hold - I always recommend setting them to thanksgiving or the last week (Oct 21/24) so you can stock up.
- Auto-renew confirmations are going out for winter members from last year on Sept 21st, and registrations on Sept 28th (payments Oct 2nd). Returning members are guaranteed a spot through auto-renew.
- We will have openings for new root veggie lovers to join us this winter too! We'll be launching registration in October and e-mailing anyone who isn't auto-renewed from last winter with an invitation to join us. Winter boxes run once a month November to March, first deliveries are Nov 10/11/12.
More importantly thank you!
This year has definitely been like no other, in so many different ways. Stephanie and I wanted to send an extra special thanks out to all our families who chose to support local food this summer. We're here to feed you through thick and thin. We look forward to ironing out some kinks in diversity for next year, scaling up our CSA wasn't in the crop plans which we finalized in February... but when markets closed we needed another way to feed people and our CSA felt like the perfect fit. Your overwhelming support helped our little farm adapt to the early season closures of the farmers' markets and reduced traffic. By signing up for a season long share you've quite simply kept our farm afloat!
Not only that, but you've allowed us to take extra steps towards feeding our families year round. This summer, the payment plan helped us afford a new (to us) delivery van to keep the Toronto trips running on schedule without what were becoming increasingly frequent breakdowns. Our 2003 van has still kept the locals fed... where there's friends and cars to get veggies where they need to if we do break down.
This fall, we are on track to put in two new plastic hoop houses (aka greenhouses). These will allow us to rotate our tomatoes out of our current house (we think that's part of the production issues we were seeing this summer). They will help us offer a spring CSA to more members (we had a mini-trial last spring locally which we loved!). They'll also allow us to offer more greens in our winter shares (the sun does an amazing job of heating the houses for winter greens to stay alive and fresh into January, and then growing again starting in March).
What does sustainable farming look like? To me, it looks like:
- families supporting small farms and in exchange getting the best pick of the garden
- farms striving to feed their communities year round
- staying involved in our farming community to give back (NFU, EFAO, farmers markets)
- a commitment to working with and protecting the ecosystem in which we produce food
- building resilience to adapt to climate change (like irrigation systems and greenhouses)
- last but perhaps most important, a commitment to continuous improvement
When all is said and done, we aren't in this alone. We can't build a sustainable agricultural system without people to feed! Thank you so much, each and every one of you that has enjoyed veggies this summer and we look forward to continuing to feed you in the months and years to come.
Together, we can build the future of local food.
Heather & Stephanie
