Greetings all,
This is hard to announce but we’re forced to delay your CSA Share another week. Your first Share will be during the second week of July.
Some of you are probably thinking we’re delaying the season because we lost produce in the spring and had to replant. While that is partially true, that isn’t the reason for delaying the season. We lost kohlrabi, onions, and a few others but should have still had many of the other spring time varieties that didn’t flood. They aren’t growing because of the lack of warm temperatures.
Our first pickles were actually seeded a day earlier than last season, but were transplanted 2 weeks later this season because of the long-standing frost advisories and remnant standing water. Every other aspect of our season, the seeding date, seed varieties, soil used in the greenhouse, equipment, nutrients, etc. has been consistent. So to say that this is frustrating for us is an understatement; I am sure it is for you as well.
A lack of warm daytime and nighttime temps result in delayed growth, and hence a delayed CSA Season. The overnight temps are really the important temps for growth because plants grow during the night by expelling energy generated by photosynthesis during the day.
I’m truly sorry that you need to see this side of CSA farming. It’s within our contract that we will produce as much produce as we can, for as long as we can throughout the season. Every other season besides this year has started, been full, and ended as scheduled, up until this year. As I mentioned before, we will be planting additional produce this fall to extend our season, the only restraint we have is the frost.
Some of you are probably wondering why we didn’t just delay 3 weeks originally, instead we delayed two weeks and now again for a third week. We have been hopeful that the weather would turn around and produce warmer night temps and promote growth, which didn’t happen. If we would have know that right away, we would’ve delayed 3 weeks right away. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Please know that we are very disappointed to be delaying the season for an additional week but we are confident that we’ve done everything we can to promote growth. Truth is, we’re dealing with weather conditions we’ve never seen before.
Please reach out to me with questions or concerns. Thank you,
Jodi Brown
