Letter from John Krueger (Week 17)

Hi Everyone, 

Farming can be a very rewarding endeavor- producing high quality food in a sustainable and environmentally conscious manner is important and gratifying. It can also be tremendously heartbreaking. As last week went by, the extent of the damage from four successive night of frost became apparent. We tried to cover and protect as much as we could of the more sensitive crops, but it is not possible to cover ten or more acres of crops. I estimate the losses to be in the tens of thousands of dollars. Some of this loss is manifest as income loss on crops we would have sold at market- we loss most of our cut flowers for example. Some of the loss is reflected in both market sales losses and what we have available to put in the CSA shares, reducing the value of the shares. We were expecting to have eggplant for another round of distribution, but it is done for this season. I have been promising sweet corn, but the last four planting were burned so badly by the cold it is uncertain whether the plants can mature the ears. The peppers are still half alive; at least those which we able to cover. The summer squash is over for this year, but we have a tremendous crop of winter squash that we are bringing in presently. We will have a different variety of winter squash in the shares for most of the remaining eight weeks of the season. The sweet potato crop looks very nice and since the vines are 90% killed, we are beginning to dig them (and hope you will too lol). We also have lots of nice greens, brassica crops and root crops which will begin to dominate the shares as we head into the fall. As always, we are working hard for you and doing our best to keep you well fed.

The share for this week will be: Carrots, lettuce, arugula or tatsoi, lettuce, sweet potatoes, onions, spinach or broccoli raab, cauliflower or Napa cabbage and cilantro or dill.

Enjoy! 

Farmer John