UPDATED: It looks like our first CSA delivery will be 4/15 Wed CSA and 4/18 for Sat please read the the rest of this post for more details.
The weather. Some people make a living trying to predict it. Others make a living protecting you from it. As farmers our lives are determined by it. Okra and sweet potatoes love our long hot summers while greens and carrots sweeten as fall slowly cools. We can count on spring to be unpredictable.
The early spring crops we depend on to fill CSA boxes and our farmers market table in April are planted in late February and early March, as are crops that mature later like onions, potatoes, broccoli and carrots. While there are swings in temperatures usually during this time there are several warmer, dry days. It is this time that field work is done and spring crops are planted. This year, however, that has not happened. Snow, ice and near record breaking cold set in and stayed a while. Now that it has warmed we are having rain, and lots of it.
Our earliest spring crops have not yet been planted. There is still time for spring crops to be planted and grown before it is too hot but not enough time to be ready for or usual harvests the first week of April. We have had to make some changes to our Spring CSA to accommodate this fact.
At this point in time, we hope to start the spring CSA on April 22nd for Wednesday shareholders and April 25th for Saturday shareholders. It could be earlier, and it may be later. We simply will not know until we are able to get started in the field.
As farmers, we assume a lot of risk. The greatest risk is always bad weather and this winter has been a perfect storm. The CSA concept is designed to share that risk between us, the farmers, and you, our customers. We will do our best to make it up to our CSA members in two ways. First, we will try to boost the value of the remaining weekly spring share boxes to make up half of the value of the weeks we miss. The other half of the value of however many weeks are missed will be credited to your account. This credit can be used towards your next CSA payment, for produce from our farmers market stand, or for whole broiler chickens. The exact amount of the credit will depend on which week we are able to start the CSA.
We will save April eggs for egg share members and distribute extra eggs over the first few weeks of the CSA, so there will be no reduction in value for egg share members. Broiler chicken share members will receive their April chicken on the first week we deliver the CSA.
What about members who haven’t signed up yet? We ask that you register and pay the listed amount on the registration. That way all of our members will get treated the exact same way regardless of when they registered for our 2015 CSA. Not only is this the most equitable way to proceed, but also much easier for us to manage. We are not 100% certain which week in April we will have enough produce to start the CSA, and we don’t want to guess wrong.
Thank you for your support and understanding.
Finally, one last thing, we need your help! The delays caused by the weather mean that once we are able to start planting, we will have a month’s worth of work to accomplish in a week’s time! If you are available to come lend a hand anytime starting the week of March 16th we would be happy to put you to work.
