This is our delivery van all packed for Wednesday deliveries. It is stacked to the ceiling almost all the way back. Because of all the larger items like pumpkins and broccoli, we are using almost all large boxes right now, which fills up the van. It takes some creative packing to fit everything in right now. I'm glad that Gwen is tall so she can reach the top layer! She is constantly rearranging boxes as she empties the van along her route. She also has to be careful about sudden stops and sharp curves so we don't have tumbling shares! We deliver 3/4 of our shares on Wednesday, with the rest going to Pittsburgh and northern suburbs on Thursday. Almost all of Wednesday's shares are delivered to pickup locations in eight communities with only a handful of home deliveries, while most of Thursday's shares are home deliveries with only two group pickup locations. She covers close to the same number of miles both days, but her Thursday deliveries take a little bit longer to complete despite the smaller number of shares. Including packing, her day is 10-11 hours long.
Only 6 more weeks to go in our CSA season! Corn and tomatoes are finished for the year. Our greens are going strong, despite a couple of frosty mornings. Broccoli, squash, cabbage, and potatoes make up the foundation of our shares this week.
But we also have a special treat! Byler Farm is pressing fresh apple cider this week, so that will also be in the shares! This is fresh, unpasteurized cider, so keep that in mind when customizing your share this week. Order extra and freeze it for a special treat this winter. Most of you will have to add this to your share at customization because it wasn't included in the list when you set your preferences at the beginning of the season, so Harvie didn't include it in your preliminary box. You can update your preferences at any time.
Watch your email for a brief survey about winter CSA. We are finalizing our plans, and we need to know who is interested in CSA shares twice/month in the winter. That will determine which locations we maintain through the winter. Since we don't have as much produce, we have to eliminate our less popular pickup locations during the off-season.
Farm News
Glacial Till Farm
The future is looking up at Glacial Till Farm! Very excited to be installing our first high tunnels, even more excited to have such a big helper!
Grateful Life Farm
Last weekend we completed our final chicken harvest of the 2020 season, processing 200 broilers with a crew of 8 for Saturday butcher day and 6 for Sunday packaging day. It felt wonderful to clean up our equipment and store it for the season with the freezers full. The daily chores are lighter now, with only the laying flock, the turkeys, the pigs, and the rabbits to care for.
This week several rabbit does gave birth. I've tried to be more proactive lately with assisting the does and this time I noticed that one did not seem to be producing much milk. I've moved some of her kits to another doe who is producing well and began feeding herbs to all the mamas to help them produce more milk. Here's a sweet silver fox baby.
Bushel and a Peck Farm
We have had a whirlwind of a week. Our store at Grove City Outlets opened on Thursday, so we have spent countless hours there getting everything set up, product input into our point-of-sale system, and pricing all of our vendors' products. The week before opening, I am in front of my computer almost nonstop between the store and my CSA duties. We have a great group of vendors in our store this year, offering locally-produced items like alpaca, fused glass, travel coffee mugs, sports banners, art, jewelry, soap and lotions, furniture, and much more. And of course our maple products. We love promoting locally-made products, whether it's meats and veggies from our farmers or handcrafted household items or unique gifts. Each producer has a store to tell, and we like to help them tell it to a wider audience. If you go to the outlet mall by the end of the year, stop in and see us. We're around the corner from the food court this year.
If you have emailed me this week and I haven't responded yet, please be patient. Besides being extra busy, my internet access through my cell phone is sometimes spotty at our store, so I sometimes don't see emails until I get home at night. I'll catch up on emails and share issues soon!
As always, our Webstore is open all weekend for additional orders. This week we have several bags of shiitake mushrooms along with the lions mane and oysters. We have twice as many types of veggies in the Webstore as we offer in CSA Shares because of smaller quantities, including chard, butternut squash, kale, and more. Access our Webstore here: www.nwpagrowers.com/login.
Have a great weekend, and enjoy the warm weather and fall colors. The leaves are really changing now, so check them out before a windstorm knocks them off the trees.
Amy
