Hi Folks, We've just completed a busy harvest day and a field walk-about to determine what our priorities for the week are, as well as what we can offer in the farm shares this week; we came into the house feeling overwhelmed! The word august can mean awe-inspiring or impressive - a perfect name for a month filled with bounty and fullness and a long list of to-dos.
A note about the cover photo: I (Jenny) have a goal this summer of making time to create a tiny painting each week to capture some of the abundance of the season. These are the delicious patty pan squash that are just coming into their burst of production - Yum!!
On the Farm
The photo below is James teaching Tishawni how to drive one of our tractors. Shawni is our wonderful apprentice that we are delighted to be working with this year . She's worked on our farm for two years already, but this year is applying herself with greater intention and a deeper learning experience under the Young Agrarians apprenticeship program. If you see her at Uproot Food Collective, be sure to say hello and ask her what her favourite part of farming is so far!
On Sunday, we had a hail storm blow through, and it did a number on our spinach. We had some other tender greens under cloth (lettuces, one patch of Swiss chard, turnips) so they will still be available, but sadly our spinach will need some recovery time. We try not to get too discouraged by hail because we've had it every year that we've farmed and we find that initially it looks very scary, but resilient plants make a surprising comeback nearly every time.
I mentioned that our middle son, Eli, turned 14 this week! We had fun celebrating him, and we are absolutely loving having him in the fields, where he works with us every day from 7-1 - lucky us!!! Here he is, taking in the beet harvest last week.
Farm Tour this Sunday
We sent out a notice this weekend letting you know the details of our farm tour on Sunday. A brief recap here: Sunday, August 7, 10-12 with a guided field tour at 10:30. For more details, have a look at the email we sent you.
Pricing
I want to take a moment to remind you about how pricing works on Harvie since a few of you have reached out over the weeks with questions about your payments. A large share is $52/week, a medium $39/week and a small is $29/week.
The default payment method on Harvie when you sign up with us a 25%/25%/50% model. This means that you pay 25% when you secure your spot with us, another 25% when you receive your first share PLUS the first instalment of the remaining 50%, which is charged to you over the 16 weeks of our summer share season. When you sign up, however, you also had the option of paying in full, which some of you have done.
You have the option each week of adding extras as long as you have a payment method for that in place. You can also swap items; sometimes swapping incurs a fee if the difference between the two items that you are swapping is significant enough.
We've recently turned on a new feature that Harvie created where you can see the value of the items in your shares so you know what items to swap with if you are trying to stay within the value of your share rather than incur extra charges by swapping items of greater value than the item you don't want.
You will always pay the base value of your share (usually 50% of the $52, $39, or $29 unless you've paid in full already), so it is a good idea to fill your cart until you get a message saying that you've incurred extra charges, then backtrack a bit. The customization experience works best on a desktop screen in my experience.
You can keep tabs on what is in your cart if you click on the cart icon. A popup tally of what you have in your cart will appear. If your cart isn't full yet, a green banner letting you know that you can add items will show up as well. It isn't a perfect system, and we've provided Harvie with feedback asking them to make the accounting more clear for you guys. Please know that we are aiming to give you the best value that we can while also keeping our farm running!
Also, at the moment, we are filling your boxes with a 5% increase in value and will do for the next three weeks!
All the usual reminders..
Our Location Options
King's University (East Edmonton) Friday pickups, 12-4, some flex if you have to come a bit later. We will not retrieve any shares left here.
Breadlove Artisan Bakery (St. Albert) Saturday pickups, 10-2, no flex & closed on Sunday. We will not retrieve shares left here.
Awn Kitchen (Southwest Edmonton) Saturday pickups, 10-2, no flex.
Uproot Food Collective (Central Edmonton)
Saturday pickups, 10-2, some flex, but please respect the pickup hours.
Strathcona Farmer's Market (Edmonton) Saturday pickups, 8-3, no flex.
The Butcher Block (Sherwood Park) Saturday pickup, 10-2, some flex, open till 5.
The Fort Distillery (Fort Saskatchewan) Saturday pickup, 10-5, no flex
Sundog Organic Farm (near Gibbons) Saturday, 9-2, flexible
Links
https://harvie.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/categories/115000048773-Harvie-University-Members Link to Harvie help documents if you are not signed in to your account.
https://www.harvie.farm/contact Link to Harvie University for members (found in your accounts)
What To Do if You Are Away
This is a question we get asked often. You have three options:
1) Have someone else pick up for you. In our experience, friends assigned this job sometimes forget, so help them remember!
2) Cancel your share for the week. This can be managed on your Harvie account page. It must be done before the Wednesday morning cutoff time of 6 a.m. The disadvantage here is that you lose whatever you have invested into that share. So if you've paid 50%, then you forfeit that amount.
3) Reschedule your share. This is our recommended option because it means you get your full value. What we suggest is that you reschedule your share to a week near the end when you will get more storage-friendly items that will last longer in your fridge, though you're welcome to reschedule to any date that works best for you. When you reschedule, you will get the scheduled share as well as the rescheduled share or shares, so be prepared for a lot of food.
A few more tips in case you haven't read them yet...
*When picking up your bin at King's, Awn, Breadlove, Butcher Block or the Fort Distillery, please make sure that you are getting the bin with your name on the label! We want to make sure that everyone gets the bin they've created!
*Make sure that you set your preferences on your Harvie account. This ensures that you receive boxes tailored to you! Save the 5 star rating for things that you really love and don't give everything 5 stars because that doesn't help the software as effectively.
*Take advantage of the swapping and adding extras if you want them! Remember to do it before Wednesday morning, 5:00 (so basically Tuesday night unless you are a very early riser).
*Let us know if you ever want help! I (Jenny) check emails each morning - you can send in a note via your Harvie account, or email us directly at jamesandjenny@sundogorganicfarm.ca. If it is a more urgent concern, call us at 780-447-3025 or 780974-6249. We are always here for you!
