2010 CSA News and Information!
Hello Heron Pond Farmers!
It has been a long time since our last contact. Greg and I have been working hard getting this season off to a good start. 2010 is not coming easy, but I will take our early troubles this year over our late troubles last year any day. This e-mail should help us all get on the same page for the start of the 2010 CSA season. There are over 300 of us now enjoying local food and building community. Some organization needs to take place so you will need to help out to make sure all your share information is correct and up to date. I will also give you a crop update and give a heads up on things to come.
Taking care of business!
We need to be sure that we have the correct information for all of you. In addition some of you will want to change your pick up day or location. We need to get this all straight before first pick up. It is easy to check the information we have for you. Just go to the website, under the CSA tab and hit the Membership status button. Follow the screen instructions and you will be sent your information. Please be sure to check your day and location make sure it is what you want. This page should also give you the information for your pick up including a map of how to get there.
This is also a good time to check the balance on your account. You need to do this for two reason. One, I have been known to make mistakes. We moved to using this web based program to help with these things but I still make mistakes. My main goal this year was not to screw up the Jackie Ellis groups account which I have done every season including winters for as long as they have been with us. If I can do that I think I am on the right track. Two, we need folks to pay off there unpaid balance. As we become a more CSA based farm, we rely more on you then early spring sales to get through to June. Thanks for all your help. Taking care of this business will help us run smoothly.
Crop Report
Those of you that have been with us for a while know that all of the farmers here at Heron Pond Farm look at everything with a critical eye. Both Greg and I are always looking for way that we could be doing better, I guess thats why so many of you have been with us for so long. With that in mind....the strawberry crop looks great! We were unable to include strawberries in the share last year because of a crop failure. This year they look great and we are looking forward to a good season. The spring has been hot and dry. Many of our small seeded crops are not coming up well. This will manly effect some of the spring greens that we all enjoyed early on last year. Never fear, Greg and I have replanted many of these and by the end of June we should be back on track. Beans have never been earlier. I think that by the first week in July we should get some and they should be with us right through the year. Peas are coming well too, and we have added Snow Peas this year for you all to choose from. In short the early crops are hurting a little but the summer crops look better then ever to me. I'll keep you up to date as things keep growing. You can also follow us on twitter or facebook for those pictures I send out from the field. The links are on the main page of the web site.
Health of the CSA
The health of our community is growing even stronger then it was before. The feed back loop between folks and farmers is really coming together for us. This year we hope to close the loop and be able to go 12 months with food for you. We have been growing toward this and each year the CSA has helped the farm bootstrap up to the next level. This spring has been hard to do, providing food for the winter CSA while growing food for the summer. This has helped us grow are farming family and we now have two full time year round farmers to keep agriculture growing in this area.
We also have two families that will be getting most of their calories from the farm this year and bloging about it for you. They will be coming down to the farm and picking extra stuff, freezing, caning and planing on how to keep all this going for the year (I know I like my berries out of the freezer in the winter).
Phat Catt bistro in Amesberry will be picking up a share as well. They will see what they can do with it and be posting some ideas for us all.
In short every year is bring us closer to our goal of making this farm a permanent fixture in the New England landscape.
Thank you
All the farmers here at Heron Pond Farm want to thank you for such a great registration season. With out you would would have a hard time putting this kind of harvest on the table. We are looking forward to getting into the food with you at this point. If you are new with us, things start out slow but get going well by the end of June. Also with four season farming coming this may be the last thin June we have.
These updates will come more frequent now as I have missed you all and talking about the farm. I send out some short ones on each crop as they come up. And you will all get the news when the newest Heron Pond Farmer shows up (in fact they were due yesterday)!
See you all soon!
Andre