Hello!
We are so happy to see our old friends and meet our new members this week for the first Summer Veggie CSA harvest of 2021; our thirteenth season! In this year of change and uncertainty, it’s lovely to be in touch with our supportive community members!
While some of the veggies are ready to eat, the flowers take more time to mature and flower shares (for those that have purchased them, you will get a specific email when the flowers start) will begin sometime in mid to late July.
After extensive consideration of evolving safety considerations, members preferences and expectations, as well as farm staffing abilities, we have decided to allow members to pack their own customized shares, according to their list determined by their selections and adjustments they make through the Harvie system. As always, our farm family staff will be available to help you through the process!
We will have a copy of the personalized contents of your share for you to use as you select your items from the bins at your pick up. Please bring your own clean bag from home to pack your share. We will provide hand sanitizer at each of the pick up locations so folks can ensure they are only touching items with clean hands.
As a respectful reminder, while masks are welcomed to be worn by all members and we will not be asking for proof of status, they are required to be worn when inside the CSA shed (or other enclosed areas) by anyone that is NOT vaccinated.
Contact-free pick up (where members park in a designated spot and their share will be packed and brought to their trunk,) will continue to be an option for folks that are immunocompromised or otherwise unable to be around other members and need to remain in their vehicle at each of our locations and pick up times. These parking spaces will be marked with orange safety cones and we ask for your patience as we will pack them as needed.
If you need to check on payment schedules, set preferences for the contents of your share and/or switch your pick up day/time/locations, please use this link.
After a fairly cool spring we have had a few stretches of extreme heat and some rather dry weather patterns. We may be starting off with a rather light share volume, but as the season continues, we expect the veggie shares will increase with bounty and variety in the coming weeks. We have many crops under irrigation, but some of the open field crops are slow to take off. We are happy to report though, we have many plants in the ground and continue to seed successive plantings in the greenhouse and fields. Already popping up are potatoes, tomato plants, and melons that should yield a rainbow of produce in August, eggplants as well as sweet and hot varieties of peppers are growing taller and leafier. Lettuces and bok choi are filling out nicely, while garlic scapes, kale, sweet peas, summer squashes, radishes and more are just a few weeks away!
Some of the produce you will receive in your share has been rinsed from the field, but like all fresh produce, should be thoroughly washed and refrigerated by you at home.
The annual herb beds at the Suffield farm at Hill Street have been recently re-planted and most herbs are not ready for harvesting yet. Once they are ready in a few weeks, please make sure you have clean hands before cutting anything in the herb bed, and please refrain from eating any food until you have gotten home and washed up. Feel free to bring your own clippers, or ask us to borrow some.
The U-pick cherry tomatoes and husk cherries are planted, but won't be ready to harvest until the ones in the bigger fields are ready (i.e. when you see them in the shares, they are probably ready in the U-pick too.)
As much as we love visiting with doggos, we respectfully ask that all pets be left at home or safely contained and cooled within your car at this time for the safety of all of our members and food.
As always, please feel free to email us (lisa@oxenhillfarm.com) or call us (Sheri at 860-214-5104) with any questions or concerns. While we always appreciate your feedback, as our members are the heart of our business, we kindly request that you communicate with grace and patience, as we will do in return.
We are so excited that you have chosen to join us for the harvest this year!
Please share, follow and interact with us to see more recipes and ideas with our Pinterest page and Facebook Page!
Here is the week 1 Pinterest page: https://www.pinterest.com/oxenhillfarmcsa/week-1/
