Hopefully everyone wasn't impacted too badly from the storms that rolled through last night! A few our recently direct seeded crops got washed out but as soon as it dries out we can reseed them! All things considered, we are grateful that was the only major impact on the Farm! It looks to be a drier week ahead than originally forecasted which is great, because we've got some weeding and planting still to catch up on.
Needless to say this has been a challenging growing season for all Farmers! I got a chance to walk around the Des Moines' Farmers Market and could see the impact of all the rain. You can really tell which of the vendors are reselling produce and who grows their own. The resellers' booths were over course full of all sorts of produce, but the folks that raise all their own produce were either sparse or full of just a few items that were planted before all the rain. I feel very fortunate that we are able to offer the diversity that we have considering all the challenges everyone of us is facing this season!
Folks have asked me about the restaurants that are supporting the Farm this season so I thought I'd give them a shout out here. Proof has been a great supporter of the Farm over the years and not only purchases produce in larger quantities (when available), but also has purchased 4 shares! Harbinger has also been a great supporter of the Farm and is always staying in contact asking how we're doing and what we have available! They've created a couple of dishes this week featuring Sugar Snap Peas and Broccoli from the Farm. While we haven't been able to supply much produce to them this season, Fongs Pizza has a Wabi Sabi Slice available on Saturday mornings featuring rotating produce from us! Alba has over the last couple of years been buying produce from us and it's been a joy working with the new up and coming chefs at this fine dining restaurant. Dirt Burger (a new vegan burger joint in the East Village) just made their first purchase from us last week and is very excited, as our we, to be working with them a lot this season! If you find yourselves ever dining at one of these places, please make sure to thank them for their support of the Farm!
The annual tradition of the transition between Spring and Summer crops is upon us! This transition is going to last a bit longer than in past seasons because of delays we've had in planting. As you can see from the photo we just got our tomatoes, peppers and eggplant transplanted last week. The plants look great but this is about 3 weeks behind when we'd normally get them in the ground! One new crop to look forward to in the upcoming weeks will be scallions. The plants look amazing and I'm anticipating the harvests of them will begin in a couple of weeks!!!
Please remember to only grab the Share box with your name on it! Surprisingly the deliveries have gone smoother than ever for the start of a season which is great! Last week we had a few cases where members picked up Shares that weren't theirs. Remember not every Share is packed the same because of the opportunity to customize, so if you grab someone else's Share box you may not get what you wanted and they don't get what they wanted.
Have a great week,
Farmer Ben and the Crew
