Farm Planning
New Year's Day will not arrive until Sunday. Children and adults are playing with their delivered wish list items. Then there's me, farm planning. Most of the seeds for 2012 have been ordered and the potato seed stock has been paid upfront. Can you guess I am crunching numbers this morning? It may be raw and blustery outside at the moment, yet now is the time to prepare for seeding, and the 2012 CSA.
We need winter cash flow to purchase all the necessary supplies to get those seedlings started. If you are sitting on the fence about joining a CSA for 2012, I encourage you to take that leap of faith. Even if you don't sign up with us-make that commitment! Supporting a small local farm is the heart and soul of changing our food system. It is crucial for CSA farms to get early cash flow. Eaters need to step up to the plate, literally.
I think folks think we are "off" between the last CSA delivery and April. Absolutely not the case! Aaron and I are still doing field work. Soil samples were pulled last week and the rest of the drip tape was rolled up. Flail mowing left over dead plants and preparing compost piles kept us busy too. Once the snow flies and the ground is frozen there is a load of paperwork to complete. Except for illness, there are no days off. Seeding of celery, herbs, onions, leeks and flowers all start late January or early February.
The farm does have need of some big ticket items: ground cloth $902.00, certified organic potting soil $300.00, 2 cases of 4" pots and trays $240.00, and fertilizer. I do use handmade soil blocks to avoid plastic pots and flats, however for the larger tomatoes, eggplants etc that get potted up to a larger size it is more efficient to use the plastic pots. There is a product called Cow Pots which I would prefer to use. They are made from cow manure, by two brothers from the excess manure from their farm. They cost considerable more than the plastic and are single use. The plastic ones can be disinfected and reused. If I had the money I would take the Cow Pots!
Bottom line: we need your support and commitment to get through the winter months, in return we grow beautiful nutrient dense produce for your CSA share.
PS.........if anyone knows someone with a used drum carder they would like to donate to me please contact me.