Projected CSA Start Dates for 2023!

Farm Update

The tomato plants are really taking off in the coldframes!

Hi everyone!  Summer is finally here!  As is always the case in June, there is more to do than we can actually stay on top of comfortably, but it is better this year than most because we have a really great crew of one part-time and two full-time employees this year.  So we are keeping our heads above water better than most Junes, but there is still plenty of work to be done!  It has been so dry lately that we have been irrigating non-stop to keep all of our little plants doing well.  One good rain is worth about a month of irrigation though, so we could definitely use some rain!  The upside is that the weeds have not been getting the water they need either, so there are a lot fewer of them than usual.  That means that we are spending less time weeding and more time moving irrigation lines around, so we end up breaking even in the end.  We made our first major planting push over the last month, and while the planting has slowed down, there are still a few things we are getting in the ground.  Our shipment of sweet potato starts arrived the other day, so starting later this morning, we will be planting 3,000 sweet potato plants.  Last week, we got the rest of our seed potatoes into the ground, which, if all goes according to plan, should produce between 13,000 and 18,000 pounds of potatoes for us to give out throughout the season.  

It looks like we are finally past the frosts for the year, which is a relief, because that last frost we had earlier this week did some damage to a few of our crops.  Most of them will pull through, but they are definitely looking worse for wear.  Surprisingly, our kale was the crop that fared the worst.  Over the years, kale is the one crop we can generally count on to take a frost without so much as a shrug, but a frost this hard when the plants were so young seems to have been too much for about half of our kale plants.  Fortunately, we always plant way more than we'll need for the CSA, simply because we know that these things happen.  But we are going to need to form a plan to regroup in the kale department, and that plan will probably involve replanting about half of the plants.  Our broccoli and cabbage have really taken a hit as well.  After those several hard frosts weakened the plants, a bunch of opportunistic insects flocked to the vulnerable plants and did yet more damage.  And since it is so hot and dry (and since we've been irrigating so much), our plants look better to the bugs than anything else they can find around, so they've been really taking a toll on our cabbage-family plants in particular.  

While some of our plants are looking the worse for wear because of the extreme temperatures and lack of water they've experienced lately, many other crops are looking really fantastic!  Our spinach, lettuce, beets, snap peas, and carrots have been looking extra good, so we're really focusing on keeping those crops looking awesome and growing up strong!

The new greenhouse is under construction!  It's going up bit by bit as we can
fit it in around other tasks, but we're making real progress.

Aside from planting, irrigating, and moderate amounts of weeding, we're also constructing the new (old) greenhouse we bought at auction back in November.  We had hoped to get that put up much earlier in the spring, but we ran into a labor snafu in March, and were unable to make that happen.  But now we've got some great employees working for us, so we're getting the greenhouse put up a bit at a time in between the other farm tasks that keep everything running.  We've also been doing deliveries to some of our stores for a few months now.  While we don't have enough variety yet to start the CSA, we have been able to keep GreenTree in Mt. Pleasant, the Argus Farm Stop stores in Ann Arbor, and ELFCO in Lansing supplied with spinach, spring mix, green onions, baby leeks, green garlic, asparagus, and the like.  We also supply some larger multi-farm CSAs that are coordinated through the Allen Neighborhood Center in Lansing and St. Joe's hospital in Ypsilanti with a few items for their CSA boxes.  So we've definitely been keeping busy with the harvesting, washing, packing, and delivering the veggies, but it will get even busier when we start the CSA later in June!

Speaking of which, we don't have official CSA start dates yet, because so much depends on what the weather does between now and then, but our projected start dates are in the third week of June.  I'll let you all know for sure as soon as we know, but in the meantime, you can mark your calendars with the following dates:

Alma:  Monday, June 19th from 5-6 PM out in front of His Place, downtown on Superior St.

Mt. Pleasant:  Tuesday, June 20th from 5-6 PM behind Herbs Etc, downtown on Broadway.

Lansing:  Wednesday, June 21st anytime from 4:30-9 PM at the Soup Spoon Café on Michigan Ave.

Okemos:  Wednesday, June 21st anytime from 4:30- 6 PM at Mert's Specialty Meats on Grand River.

St. Johns:  Wednesday, June 21st anytime after 3:30 PM on the front porch of a CSA member who lives close to downtown.  I'll be sending you St. Johns folks an email separately with the details, so be on the lookout for that in the next week or so!

Midland:  Thursday, June 22nd 1from 5-6 PM in the back parking lot of the Eagle Ridge Church of God on Waldo Ave.

Midland hospital drop-off:  Thursday, June 22nd anytime after 4 PM at the delivery turnaround behind the Center for Women's Health.  This one is only for hospital employees due to hospital regulations.

So if you have any questions about that, just let me know!  Again, these dates are tentative, but I will let you know for sure as soon as we know!  And if you know anyone who is interested in the CSA, we do still have some spots available, so they can still sign up!  They can check out all the details about the CSA on our website, and just fill out this sign-up form to get on the CSA list for this year and start getting delicious organic veggies in just a few weeks! :-)

And stay tuned for next week's CSA newsletter, which will be all about what to expect at your first CSA drop-off! 

Fred has just finished loading up the delivery vehicle for our 
Ann Arbor delivery route last Monday.  The new (old) vehicle looks
pretty wacky, but it can haul a lot of vegetables!