Good Morning! Or perhaps good afternoon or evening by the time you get this! I am acknowledging but not apologizing for the fact that this comes out only one day before your customization period, which ends tomorrow at 6am. ( So we can harvest before it gets to hot too touch the vegetables in the field.) I run out of time for all that needs to be done, starting at 3 to 4am every day and generally not getting in till 8pm. The guys are starting at 6am and going till 6:30-7pm. Every transplant that goes out gets a life support system put into place as we have now not had rain for 2 months, I pray every day that the well will give us water to keep them alive. It is slow and painful work to transplant into a desert, 1 tank of water per row means a fill up at the end every time. Normally we do 4 rows to a tank of water! We cannot put row cover on to protect from the insects as it fries the plants do to the heat, so your veggies will be nibbled on by flea beetles.
I was once told by Margie not to paint everything out to be pretty and I think last year was the first year I really choose to give CSA members the whole truth not just the pretty stories about what is going well. Took 4 years to get comfortable with the idea, but here is to keeping it real, I guess as I have gotten older I have learned to accept that some of you will stay and some will go, some will appreciate the investment in food security through the thick of it all, and others will never grasp the concept that we live in a privileged country where we tend to abuse the power of choosing to buy whatever we want whenever we want, with no regard to the happenings in our food system. So we have never adapted to what is growing locally or seasonally. I thank those who have been with us for the last 11 years for their continued commitment and welcome those who are new to CSA once again with a "you signed up on our worst growing season ever", but we will continue to work hard to give you great food. Don't expect broccoli, or cauliflower both crops are bolting from the heat stress, the carrots are coming.....and so are bunched beets. Peas well not many they like the cool, beans I am praying for they are starting to flower! Your going to see a lot of salad, so healthy!
All joking aside I am not sure what we will have or have not as I have no control of the weather or the heat. We plant our winter planting this week and to try and assure we have a crop I have rented land off the farm that I started on so we could pump the water from the pond and stop over taxing our well. Normally by now we start to break even, not even close this year, instead we are sinking another 10G into irrigation in an attempt to guarantee a fall harvest. The ultimate form of gambling, we will either dig ourselves a grave or come out ahead. I am not saying this for sympathy I choose this occupation and I know the risks, and I know I have no control over mother nature. I say it so you get a closer connection to the realities of food production as so many people are so far removed from agriculture, I may be the only farmer you hear from. I am not the only farm trying to keep growing in these harsh conditions, and struggling to do so. There will be grain shortages in Ontario, there is little extra hay in our region, pastures are drying up, corn and soy are curling in the field. Expect prices to go up unless there are some drastic changes in the weather things will be tight. Regionally it might vary a little but the heat and dry conditions have been across the board in most areas.
So I will leave you with that the livestock would like feeding and we have harvest and deliveries to make!
See you all soon and thank you for choosing local.
Cheers your farmer, Jess
