Farm Update
Hi everyone! What gorgeous weather we had last week! It was just a joy to be working outside! Sometimes in the fall, when the weather gets rainy and cold and the harvesting conditions are miserable, it's the opposite of joyful. But last week was the type of weather that makes me love being at the farm! And I've been at the farm a lot more as of late, because as the season winds down, our few remaining employees have extremely limited availability. It's definitely been a balancing act between the needs of the farm, the needs of my other off-farm job (which fortunately is extremely flexible), our three young kids, and all of the various home and life-maintenance tasks that keep things humming along. It's definitely life on all cylinders in the month of October, and it's fortunate that the weather was so great this week, because we were really rushing every day this week to get everything harvested, washed, packed, and on the truck in time to leave for the drop-offs. It's like constantly laying track for a train we can see coming, and the train can't slow down, so we just have to keep laying track as fast as we can. But the end is in sight. Just three more weeks until we get the metaphorical train safely into the station, and wrap up another successful CSA season!
And looking around the farm, things still look really nice! We've had a few more frosts, but our greens are looking great, and we've got our massive harvests of potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, and onions in the barn where freezing temperatures can't hurt them. So I'm feeling optimistic about having several weeks of really great CSA shares ahead of us. And we have Brussels sprouts this week! Like many people, I thought I didn't like Brussels sprouts when I was a kid, but now they are one of my favorite vegetables. We had the first Brussels sprouts of the year in our own kitchen yesterday, and they were just amazing, so I'm so excited to be able to bring them to you guys this week!
If you're interested in signing up for the CSA next year, sign-up for our 2021 season is officially open! The cost will be going up a little bit next year to account for the annual cost of living increase, and also because our labor costs are going up a lot, and that trend is only going to continue into the future. For the last few years, it's been harder and harder to find good employees, for a number of reasons. Because we operate seasonally and can't offer year-round employment, it makes it really hard to keep good people. Most adults need employment all year, so each year we have to start from scratch and train new people, and they're often very young and inexperienced. This year the work miraculously got done by a crew of teens, several family members and friends who made themselves available when they didn't have to be at their "real" jobs, and Fred just gunning it nonstop all season. But living like that has been stressful and exhausting, and we can't keep doing it this way. We considered downsizing and getting rid of one of our CSA drop-offs so the workload would more manageable within our existing structure, but we didn't want to do that. We want to make high-quality, affordable, organic produce available to all of you, and every time we discussed which drop-off to cut, we just felt awful about all of the options. So that is obviously not the answer. What we need to be able to do is offer a good wage so it's worth it for qualified college-age or older people to work with us for the season. As wages continue to rise, it makes working hard in the dirt and heat seem a lot less attractive when someone can make the same amount of money doing much easier work. So we need to be able to raise our wages so we can get good people and pay them what they deserve.
So that's a really long way of saying that we are going to be raising our CSA prices this year. In the past, we've raised the price by $5 every other year or so, but this year, they're going to be going up from $305 to $325 for a half share, and from $560 to $600 for a full share at our regular drop-offs. After looking around at the prices of other local CSA farms around mid-Michigan, I was glad to see that ours is still less expensive than any of the other farms I checked out, because it's extremely important to us to make good food available to everyone, not just people with deep pockets. And as always, we have an early bird special! Anyone who signs up and pays for at least half of their share before the end of the calendar year will get their half share for $315 or their full share for $580! So if you have any questions, just send me an email, and if you're interested in signing up for the CSA next year, fill out this google for for the Monroe Family Organics 2021 CSA season!
What to Expect in Your Share
If you are going through the line at one of our traditional style drop-offs (Alma, Mt. Pleasant, and Midland), here’s what the options will be at the different stations. If you have a half share, you’ll choose one item at each station, and if you have a full share, you choose two items at each station!
Lettuce or potatoes
Carrots
Brussels sprouts or cherry tomatoes
Sweet potatoes or butternut squash
Dill, microgreens, small cabbage, or acorn squash
Radishes, beets, or kale
Onion, shallot, or a fennel bulb
If you have a prepacked share, here are your options. If you have a half share, you’ll choose either share A, B, or C, and if you have a full share, you can choose two of them. So just fill out this Google form by lunchtime the day before your drop-off to let me know which share you want for this week! If it comes in after that, I might still be able to get you the share you wanted, but I can't guarantee it. And if I don't hear from you, I'll just choose for you. :-)
Share A: Potatoes, carrots, Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, beets, and onion.
Share B: Spring mix, carrots, Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, microgreens, kale, onion.
Share C: Spring mix, carrots, cherry tomatoes, sweet potatoes, small cabbage, radishes, shallot.
Recipes
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