For those of you that follow us on Social Media you've probably seen that we have been having issues with our Well pump for the last month but it's finally repaired. Back at the beginning of this month our well pump went out and we got it replaced within a few days. The new pump worked fine for about a week and then we lost all water pressure. The folks came out to repair it and at first thought it was the controller box. So that got replaced but the well wasn't working. They then pulled all 375 ft. of pipe back out and discovered our new well pump had froze up because of a manufacturing flaw. It was going to take 7+ business days to get a new pump so they brought us out a 500 gallon water tank filled with potable (i.e safe for drinking) water and we had to water everything by hand. Last Friday the new pump showed up and hopefully we are back in business!
Luckily we got a bunch of rain over the time our well was down so it didn't have an impact on your crops that were already planted. We conserved the 500 gallons of water we had and only used to rinse your produce off and to hand water all the transplants we have yet to put in the ground. The hand watering of plants was really time consuming (around 3 hours per day, every day) we weren't planning for but we made it work!
This week we will be offering ala carte options for purchasing mushrooms from our friends at Bee Grateful Gardens! Now that we are getting in the rhythm of packing shares we are going to start introducing the ala carte options from other local producers and personal friends of Farmer Ben's. Over the next few weeks you will start seeing Young Ferments (a couple who makes amazing fermented products like Kimchi, pickles, etc), Fresh (with kale chips, raw juices, etc), Simple Life Farms (raw goat's milk hard cheeses), Mo'Rub (seasonings) and more being offered as add-ons to go with your Wabi Sabi Farm produce!
Now for the nuts and bolts of picking up your Share. Each Share will have a label with your name on it and what you are receiving in your Share. Since our Shares are customizable do not take a Share that doesn't have your name on it. Please make sure to bring bags, boxes, etc. to transfer your Share from the totes we deliver them in. I stop by the drop site the following morning to pick up the empty totes, they are expensive and we don't have many extras so are depending on you all to leave the totes at your respective pick up site! The Share pick up time is between 4:30pm and 6pm on your scheduled delivery day. The pick up locations are graciously letting us use their homes as pick up sites and we can't abuse their kindness! The first 4 weeks of this season I will contact site hosts to see who hasn't picked up their shares by 6pm and give reminder calls. The site hosts are not expected to refrigerate any shares not picked up for a later pick up time so please do not ring their door bells asking for your Share. If you are running late to pick up your Share, please call or text me (515-745-9951) before 6pm. I will contact the site host and let them know to leave your Share out. If you already know you are going out of town or something on your pick up day you can always log into your account and place a hold on your Share as longs as it's done before 8am on the Tuesday of your delivery week. I totally get that "life happens" and if you unexpectedly are unable to get your Share after 8am on a Tuesday but before 3pm on a Wednesday or Thursday (which ever your delivery day is) give me a call and I will keep your Share in our Walk-In Cooler for you to pick up at the Farm on an agreed upon day.
