June is Here, and It's Almost CSA Season!

Farm Update

The zucchini blossoms are appearing,
which means it won't be long until we
have zucchini to harvest!

Hi everyone!  It's now June, and the CSA season is right around the corner!  The crops in the field are finally starting to take off!  For a long time, their growth was delayed by cool weather in general, and between freezing and flooding, we had some extensive crop damage in May.  But now we're back on track and hoping for a warm and sunny next few weeks to spur on the plant growth.  We've seen plenty of growth over the last few days, both in the crops we want, and in the weeds we don't want.  We've been doing quite a lot of planting and weeding lately, which are both pretty time-consuming prospects.  From about Memorial Day to about the 4th of July is the busiest time of our farm season each year, and then once we get past the first week of July, it settles down a little and we can catch our breath.  (And by "we" I mean Fred, because I'm still working from home and caring for the kiddos instead of working out in the fields.  Fred is running himself ragged and working crazy hours on the farm, and I'm sitting in zoom meetings, doing computer-based work, helping my kids with their distance learning, and cleaning the house.  It's a very different type of work that I'm doing this year, and while I know it's important, I definitely haven't been pulling my weight around the farm this season.  So when you see Fred in a few weeks, give that man a round of applause! 😂

Check out this cool new lettuce
we're growing for our spring mix
this year!  The variety is called Verigo,
and it's crunchy, dense, and spiky all
at the same time!

I've had a lot of people asking lately about when we're going to start, so in case you were wondering, we don't have an official start date just yet. It all depends on what the weather does over the next two weeks and how quickly the plants grow in response.  So the tentative start date is the week of June 22nd, but it could be as early as the week of June 15th.  I'll let you all know as soon as we know for sure!

Another question I've been getting a lot lately is about whether we have any shares available.  We are actually all sold out, but if you weren't able to sign up and would like to, we do have a waiting list.  We could find out we can accommodate more shares than we thought, or we could have someone change their mind about participating, so just let me know if you would like to be put on the wait list!

With everything going on with Covid-19, we were originally planning on beginning the season with all prepacked shares and transitioning back to our normal market-style CSA drop-offs for Alma, Mt. Pleasant, and Midland when it became safe to do so. (The Lansing, Okemos, St. Johns, and Midland hospital drop-offs will continue to get prepacked shares as usual.)  Now with everything opening up, we're wondering if it won't be necessary to do all prepacked shares.  We're considering a hybrid approach, where we do prepacked shares for anyone who wants it, and set up the tables for folks who would rather go through the lines and pick out their produce.  We're not sure about that yet either, but we'll keep you posted!

The strawberry plants are in bloom!  Just a few more
weeks, and we'll all be eating delicious strawberries!

Now that June has begun, the newsletter will be arriving weekly so we can keep you posted about any important information!  Thanks so much for joining us in the CSA this season, and we'll see you in a few weeks!