Hello members! Hope everyone is doing great as we approach Halloween. We have got plenty of rain in the last week as we approached 5 inches in 7 days ( could have used that a month ago), but we are happy to get some! The days are getting shorter as we have crossed under 12 hours of sunlight and this means the growth of many plants slows down as the key to their growth is 12 hours or more of sunlight.
Few farm happenings this week:
- I forgot to mention fruit and flower shares were done this past week so I gave everyone who ordered a free week!
- If you want fruit and flowers this week you can add it on in the ADD-ON section.
- We shipped out 53,000 pounds of potatoes this week!
- As well as 7,500 pounds of green cabbage.
- We sold out of mums.
I want to share a small story of how our food system really works. Besides for our CSA we do wholesale sales of produce, (and just a disclaimer I have a biased opinion but I think we have some nice veggies.) For selling on the wholesale side we usually use a vegetable broker, who finds us the order and we fill it. The brokers used to have the farmers back and understood the industry and the potential hardships we face while trying to grow the best produce possible. It is my opinion that these brokers now have the backs of the stores over the farmers. A broker recently told me, "I can bring in produce into our region from Canada if you don't lower your price."
That region is Long Island and the surrounding Tri-state areas and guess what, they shipped in produce. They choose to bring in Canadian produce, instead of supporting local farmers. This seems to be a growing trend and it is an extremely frustrating situation to be in. I get everyone needs to make a dollar but when our cost of goods is break even we can't go lower or we go out of business.
That is why I can't thank you enough for being part of our CSA and making the conscience effort to eat good and support your local farmers! Honestly, we couldn't do it without you guys! I wanted to share this to shed some light of what really happens behind the scenes at some of your local grocery stores.
Enjoy your week!
Farmer John
