Ninth Week of Summer Season
Our Online Marketplace opened this morning, August 17th, and closes at 5pm Tuesday, August 19th, for a Thursday, August 20th, delivery.
We are going to the Medford Farmer’s Market and Co-op this week with stops at Trader Joe’s, etc. Next trip to market will be September 3rd.
What’s Up at Market
I’m looking forward to a new routine and new market opportunities for our CSA. I was impressed with the amount and variety of local food available and a few farms we weren’t able to buy from previously, like Bingham Farms. Historically, we’ve done a few years at this market and find it, again, to have an upbeat, friendly feel and it is super-close to the places we frequent in Medford, TJs, Market of Choice, and the Wharf. This way we end at the Ashland Co-op where we fill in all the missing pieces.
I posted sweet corn on our wish list hoping Bingham has it this week. When they do, the bring a truckload and they go fast. If not this trip, the next. They already had pickling cucs and do sell by the lug if you are canning pickles. Nora, who runs the Ashland Market booth for Runnymede, will get my pick list to Anna, who’s running the booth in Medford. Anna worked at Runnymede for years and is still my favorite farm rep. Now she works at Rusted Gate Farm and is bringing their produce to market. At Runnymede we have a multi-farmer selection also including Easy Valley Farm(TIna) and Abby Lane Farm (until pepper season when they have their own booth).
At Jessie’s Cosmic Garden
Here, the garden is flourishing, to the extent that I am pondering how I was able to pull it off. Help from Martin (all around helper for hire) was part of it but more and more I’m turning to climate change playing a major role. The strangely warm winter and spring (coming again this year) is pushing us into a higher growing zone. The late spring-early summer months have been good for growing rather than the reverse -frequently the case. The transplants didn’t have to deal with cold nights and summer heat came on quickly and steadily.
Another benefit I see is the success I’ve had growing different crops in the greenhouse and a notion that I might be able to grow leafy greens, beets, leeks, and carrots this winter. They won’t be flourishing due to low sun, but might be crops that don’t care as long as they don’t hard-freeze and have water. You know, my scientist loves experimenting, so hope you benefit from that. I can see that the tomatoes in the greenhouse are barely ahead of those in the garden – more room for other crops.
You’ll find some jelly and jam added to my list this week. I have opened the squash department and will supplement from market if I run out. I have picked the first of the tomatoes, Cherokees and Mountain Merit (a new red slicer), plus the cherry tomatoes and Mountain Magic favorites, which are going to town. Again I will substitute from market if I cannot fill your whole order from here and will include under-ripes for those of you who don’t do the local orders. The view of the tomato patch is awesome, with big green heirlooms in abundance. I’m getting my canning gear in order for the overflow.
Take note that there are just two order days now, today and tomorrow.
Cheers!
Jessie
Link to order form:
https://www.heartofthesun.com/csamarketplace.html
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.