This is it! The last week of the CSA season is upon us. We're definitely feeling like we should be this late in the growing year, pretty worn out and tired, but also excited to finish out the season and proud of all that we've accomplished. While this is the last official CSA pick up, we do plan to be 'produce dealing' for several weeks yet, and look forward to seeing some of you beyond CSA season.
Overall, we have been really happy with how this season went. We are so grateful that we made the switch to Harvie before the CSA started and before COVID happened. Harvie made it possible for us to quickly pivot our sales towards more produce boxes when our restaurant sales became so impacted by COVID. We are excited for all of the options that come with a software system to manage the CSA - customization, rescheduling pick ups, add-ons, extras, etc. We hope that you guys have found Harvie to be as beneficial as we have! Speaking of add-ons, we want to make sure that you all are aware of the ways that you can enjoy products from our partners even beyond market season...
The Gracious Table - Mandy will have a Pop-Up bakery through most of the winter beginning October 23rd @ 7:00am and happening MOST Fridays. Enjoy the same delicious bread and bagels that you've had as an add-on option in your CSA boxes as well as many other baked goods that the Gracious Table specializes in!
Dragon's Breath Farm - Megan will begin her Pop-Up/Drop Off at the Fireman's Park lot (where the market occurs) after the market season ends. She plans to be there on Fridays from 12-12:30, and you can visit her website to order online or simply 'pop up'. This is a great way to enjoy fresh microgreens, eggs and some dried flower arrangements and wreaths far past market season!
We always like to wrap up the CSA season by sharing a few of our successes and failures, so here goes... For successes, we are really happy with a couple of our staple crops and the improvements that we made. We started selling salad mix back in April, and we haven't stopped yet, often harvesting over 100lbs per week. We also made some major strides with tomatoes this season, we increased our yield and harvesting windows significantly with beefsteak and cherry tomatoes. There's still plenty of demand for tomatoes so we're working on plans to do even better next season! For failures, we know that there's a demand for folks to get out to the farm and see where their food is grown, and we really weren't able to meet that this year. Due to both COVID and simply running out of time, we just didn't figure out a way to make it happen. Hopefully next year will be a whole other story, because we would love to have CSA members come out to the farm (if they'd like) to have a tour, ask questions, generally see what's what!
A lot of you have gotten Rainbow Carrots in your boxes either this week or last week. These are great to simply snack on raw, but if you're looking for another option, try roasting. This recipe for Oven Roasted Rainbow Carrots sounds delicious and illustrates just how simply you can make a dish out of them!
We'll be staying in touch with you guys during the off season, expect to see a CSA survey, notices about Farm Stand boxes, a few winter updates, and emails when we start sign ups for the next season. Those who were already CSA members this year, will automatically have a slot for next season - if you want it! We want to thank all of you again for your support through this whole season. Participating in a CSA is not the easiest way to support local food, but we think that it might be one of the most meaningful ways. We hope that you have had a good season, and we sincerely thank each and every one of you for making this season one of our best yet! We're happy to be wrapping up and look forward to the winter break, but who are we kidding, we are already thinking ahead and are excited for another year too!
Cheers, Bonnie & Rudy
PS. Remember to swing by your pick up location to grab your LAST CSA box!
PSS. We know it can be confusing to understand the CSA/Farm Stand difference. This is the last week of our 20 week CSA season. We will be slowing down our production, but we do still plan to do some Farm Stand boxes in the next few weeks. We'll send out a notice to this year's CSA members and our Farm Stand subscribers regarding Farm Stand boxes when we have them available!
