Second Week of Winter Season
Our Online Marketplace opens this morning, January 17th, and closes at 5pm Monday January 20th, for a Thursday January 23rd delivery.
What’s Up at Market
This should be a great CSA run to Southern Oregon. Tina is back from vacation, up and running and Teri has Lettuce and Spicy Mixes, Spinach and more. this will take me to Rogue River and both of my favorite farmers. I haven’t seen Tina in years so a homecoming is on the menu. On our order form, you will find most of their produce in bold print and Runnymede’s listing back open except for arugula, which I did see at the Co-op last time and may have myself depending on soil warmth and sunshine. I will water today. Our only disappointment is that Hoa has been called away on a family emergency for a time period unknown. She will keep me informed of her return though.
Let’s make this a 2-week run again though the weather looks fabulous if weird. We’ll try the first week in February and at least one more run that month. We’re getting super fresh food from our farmers and that at the co-op looks great too.
At Jessie’s Cosmic Garden
I’ve spent the extra free time in Dec and Jan building muscle with some simple weight lifting. I’ve started working in the garden and notice the difference recovering from hard work. And it’s easier. I recommend it for aging bodies, especially upper body. That said, I cleaned out the chicken coop yesterday to fertilize this year’s cherry tomatoes, peppers and summer squash (as I pull out the corn stalks there before) all in the sunniest part of the garden. The ground cover planted in the fall is getting lush and I will add more to it to complete this year’s bed for sweet corn. This is a regenerative farming experiment so looking forward to the results. The corn starts will be planted amongst the ground cover. Their roots will nourish the young plants providing a protective environment and the above ground greens can act as a weed barrier (I hope). The scientist in me loves experimentation so hope this one brings you superior sweet corn.
I’m also knocking down the tomatoes in the greenhouse getting ready for soil amendment and seeding herbs and greens. In the main garden, the last seedings of arugula, brassica mix and cilantro are perking up but might not grow enough to harvest. The arugula could grow enough for this order but as a maybe – will sub from the Co-op if they have it. The girls are still cranking out eggs and I’m keeping them at their usual price as long as feed doesn’t cost more – a bit shocking what they want at Berryvale.
Note: our order cycle is giving Tina an extra day to harvest so I can pick our order up in the morning instead of when her store opens at 2pm. Also, my trip to MN was cancelled due to an unforeseen medical condition for my co-traveler. Hopefully, we can plan it again when the temperatures are not below 0.
Link to order form:
https://www.heartofthesun.com/csamarketplace.html
Cheers!
Jessie
Important Information (leaving this up for awhile)
I don’t like rules but prefer to suggest some guidelines for the successful running of our CSA. Anyone joining in the last few years has probably not received or been reminded of them. The Old-Timers are quite good about them but we had reminders on the old website that I didn’t include on this one so here goes (and I will leave this up here for a few weeks to catch everyone as well as including it in the link notice email).
Please…
- Watch your statements and leave a payment in your box for pickup when you are not going to cover the cost of what’s being delivered – or make a paypal payment, or stop by with it. Especially during Winter and early Spring Season, our bank balance can get pretty low if we don’t keep accounts topped up. If I use the debit card (often) the transaction is immediate.
- If you are not going to order, tell me well ahead – earlier in the week if its a recent decision and at least two weeks ahead if you are going on a trip or are going to be out for a week or more. I shouldn’t find this out when reminding you to order mid-day Sunday. This is especially desired if you are a regular microgreen customer as I seed them around 12-10 days ahead of harvest. The seed is expensive – making needless chicken treats something to avoid. With a heads up in time, I can plan to grow less.
- Put your boxes out ahead of delivery (will often be later in winter when we drive to Grants Pass). Leave payments taped in them or with a rock on top of them. And please return all my canning jars so I have something to put the next batch of whatever it is in them. Thank You, Very Very Much. I love you all and so do our farmers!
- Microgreens I’ve been thinking about microgreen parameters for some time since it’s heartbreaking to feed them to the chickens who like garbage with equal gusto. Most of my microgreen members have the same order every time they order. I would like to call these subscriptions that I can always fill. When folks order every once in a while I never know its coming and may or may not have seeded enough to cover their orders, though always have some for small orders. I’m trying not to waste pretty expensive seed. So here’s the new rulIf any ‘subscriber’ is going to be gone, give me a heads up 10 days ahead, when you get your Sunday order to check the week before your absence. I will tag all the order emails with a reminder. If you are planning to place a special order or you don’t order very often and want them when you’re planning to order, give me a heads up the same 10 days ahead so I can seed more. You’ll notice I am now using a different sunflower seed (the striped ones from the big sunflowers) so if you’ve drifted away from them in the past, please try again.
- Minimum Orders: ‘Back in the Day’ when we started the CSA, we had structured box prices and an 8-week period in which to spend your box value. Now we are all over the place and it only works well when an X number of people order and a Y number of people have orders over $100. In the old days the minimum order was $35 for the small box if ordering every week. I’m going to make that the minimum order for doorstep delivery. You can place smaller orders to pick up here on order day between 3:30 and 6:00.