Welcome to the first Summer CSA share! This email is your first CSA newsletter of the season, and so will be a bit long and cumbersome; there are several housekeeping things to attend to, and I'll attach a copy of the introduction to CSA email to the end of this, in case you missed that when you signed up. That email contains a lot of details about how the CSA functions, including setting your preferences, and swapping items. I will also be sending out a separate email today with workshare signup days, so keep your eyes open for that.
Meanwhile, these spring showers have certainly brought May Flowers! The farm crew made 180 bouquets for market today! The flowers are more abundant than they've ever been, due to Kimby's diligent and expertise, and the bouquets reflect her hard work, along with her team of transplanters, harvesters, and arrangers.
On the vegetable side, the cool weather this spring has slowed some of our early plantings of squash, tomatoes, and cucumbers, but has encouraged our lettuce, herbs, and carrots. There are some really nice salad ingredients this week, with butterhead lettuce, spinach, kale, and chives leading the pack. If you haven't tried making your own salad dressing, it will revolutionize the way you feel about salad! Here's a simple recipe we love to use;
This dressing is so good you might just find yourself drinking it. And why not, when it’s packed with B vitamins, amino acids, and healthy oils? This recipe is adapted from the Hollyhock cookbooks. It’s an easy recipe to whip up and double (or quadruple, so you have enough to pour yourself a glass!). Just make sure you have the secret ingredient (nutritional yeast) in stock. You can usually find nutritional yeast in the bulk or spice aisle in a grocery cooperative or at Mama Jeans. Cheers!
INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
- 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/3 cup soy sauce/tamari/amino acids
- 1/3 cup water
- 2-3 cloves garlic
- 1 cup sunflower oil or olive oil
DIRECTIONS
- In a blender, combine all ingredients except for the oil.
- Blend until the garlic is smooth, then pour in the oil as you continue to blend.
- And that’s it. Drink up!
In other news, our Rountree pickup is moving, as Debbie and Eric are moving to be near the farm, and leaving the town behind! My parents are going to host the pickup this season, at 629 South Fremont, and those who pickup there will get more details in a second email.
Well, the tomatoes need pruning, the seedlings need transplanting, and the weeds must die, so I'm going to leave it at this for now. Thank you, as always, for the privilege of being your farmers, and I hope you enjoy this week's veggies as much as we enjoyed growing them.
Thanks,
Farmer Curtis
Attached is the welcome to the CSA email:
Welcome to Millsap Farm CSA!!!
I'd like to take a moment to welcome you to our farm's vegetable program. Thank you for signing up for a season of tastiness with us! It's called community supported agriculture (CSA) because by signing up for a season of veggies you, as a community, are directly supporting our little farm so we can plan our season, reduce waste, and feed you the veggies you like the most fresh from the garden.
We've adopted a web portal known as "Harvie" because the team there has designed a system that lets you customize your veggies each delivery, pay gradually throughout the season, and rearrange your deliveries as needed. Harvie will be sending you a series of training e-mails over the next little while - please take a moment to look them over, or save them for your first delivery week when you're ready to start swapping!
In the meantime, here's a few quick notes and links that you'll find helpful as we go through the season. If they don't all make sense now don't worry, that series of training e-mails will help explain them more gradually. It is a collection of FAQs that I like to make sure everyone is aware of going into the season.
- E-mail is our primary means of communication, please make sure you've linked your order to an email address where you'll see messages. (Check your junk to ensure the training series doesn't end up there). Every time you get a customization e-mail, we'll be packing a box for you unless you log in and change something. We also use e-mail if we have to alter delivery details due to an ice storm, etc. so it's important that you'll see them.
- Each delivery you can expect two e-mails from Harvie:
- "Time to customize" will let you know what we've pre-filled in your box, should you want to swap anything now's your chance, just click the link. The e-mail will let you know the customization time window, and when customization closes so we have time to pack up your boxes. If you decide you need to cancel, reschedule the bag or pick it up at another spot, now's your final chance to do so.
- "Your box is on the way" will be sent as we're packing your box, to let you know what we've packed for you as well as the details for your chosen pick-up location. Your final payment for each delivery, if applicable, will be charged at that time.
- Is your phone number on file the best way to reach you on delivery day? We'll use that number if it looks like you've forgotten your veggies or if there's any issues with delivery, so a cell phone is usually best.
- You can log into Harvie at any time to do things like edit your preferences, reschedule a bag by either changing the date or location for pick-up, update your contact information, and see your payment history.
- There's a handy FAQ page here for Harvie which covers topics like setting your preferences, swapping items after your box has been pre-filled, adding extras or putting your box on hold. It is a little bit of a learning curve, but trust me it's totally worth it! Follow along with the training e-mails and it's easy to get comfortable with the system.
- Preferences are what Harvie uses to fill your box, so if you find you want more or less of a certain item, just tweak your preferences as we go through the season. If you love or like something, you're more likely to get two of that item before getting something that's just "I'll eat it". You'll never get items that you mark as "Not for me". If you're not a big fan of the whole computer thing, just set your preferences and relax, we'll pack your veggies based on that.
- To customize week by week, you get to swap items and Harvie's got a handy step by step explanation of swapping. Note that there's a spot on the left where you can see the amount that your card will be charged if you've swapped above the value of your box. If you don't want to pay more, just change out one of your items for a lower priced one or select "not for me", although I recommend just setting your preferences instead so you get more of what you want filling automatically!
- Adding "Extras" is the second step of customization, for when you'd like to buy a little more one week. We're more than happy to share the harvest with you if you'd like to eat more veggies than the default bag. Harvie shows you what's left over after filling everyone's boxes. First come first served on any extra produce!
- You can customize as many times as you like till the customization window is closed, so if you change your mind just log in and adjust your order. If you want to check what's currently in your box go to My Shares.
- Your credit card on file will always be charged when you get the "Your box is on the way" e-mail. There's a simple explanation of the payment plan here, and you can always log into Harvie and choose "My Deliveries" to see what amount will be due each delivery. The amount will be based on whether you're on the payment plan, or paid in full, if you swap above your value, or if you choose to purchase extras and will be updated while you customize your box.
- Take a moment to check "My Deliveries" to re-arrange them around any planned holidays. I recommend changing the delivery to another day right away, instead of using hold. Change location is for just that, change date applies if you're keeping the same location and only changing the date. There's a full explanation of how to rearrange your deliveries here. If you wait to the last minute to cancel (which you can do from your customization e-mail) the default is to reschedule to the following delivery meaning you would get two next time unless you change the date.
- If you've got a question about Harvie or can't figure out how to do something, the Harvie team is here to help either with their chat system in the web portal or by e-mail at support@harvie.farm . They've got someone monitoring their e-mail even on weekends and they're awesome, friendly people quick to reply with answers! They have full access to your payments, rearranging deliveries last minute, and the web portal in general.
- I (Curtis Millsap) am your primary contact at the farm. My capacities within Harvie are the same as you, but I'm the boots on the ground if we need to troubleshoot your share from pack line to pickup. If you have any questions about veggies just send them to millsapfarms@gmail.com You've got our Millsap Farm quality guarantee, and we're always happy to replace if something slipped through quality control! Our focus is on good food and getting you the best of what our farm has to offer. We also love fan mail ;) Reply time varies from minutes to days depending on what's happening on the farm - it's certainly not a desk job but I try to keep an eye on my inbox.
- For delivery day dilemmas, my cell is 4178390847 and text is best as I often have my hands full and am unable to take calls.
So with no further ado, welcome and we can't wait to feed you!
Enjoy the tastiness,
Curtis and Sarah Millsap and Kimby Decker, your farmers.
