Greetings All,
Happy Tuesday! This week we're starting out a LOT different than what we have been for the last 6 months or so. It's a welcomed change of pace but it's sad to have to say goodbye to the long days, warmth and fresh veggies. I do have to add though, that Fall is my favorite season for a lot of reasons. So while it's sad to be turning this page in our chapter of this season; I welcome the new adventures that the new season will bring us too!
Check out the fog from yesterday morning!
As you know, the farm season starts a couple months before you see your first CSA box of the season, we start in the greenhouse and direct transplanting, prepping fields etc. Well, the farm season also runs about a month past your last CSA box of the season.
Last week Friday we spent the day picking more squash and organizing the pack shed. It'll take weeks literally... which sounds like "oh goodness it's trashed!" And that's definitely accurate, per my standards at least. Boxes and crates everywhere, pressure washing everything, produce tanks drying all over the yard, & plenty of organizing projects pulled out. My mom always said that to clean up a mess you first have to make a bigger mess... that's certainly the case with this too!
I love organizing and cleaning. Wrapping up for the year is very mentally rewarding, almost calming; if that makes sense. It's also a time of thankfulness and celebration, we made it through another season!! Thank you for joining us on this adventure!!!
Check out these goof balls! These kiddos are picking pumpkins and even a watermelon at the same time! That watermelon was over ripe so we didn't eat it, but after we cut it open and saw that we figured that'd be a perfect treat for the piggies. Which brings me to my next point.
PORK
We have already sent in 10 pigs to the butcher this season; all of them were very healthy large weights. We kept one for ourselves and the hanging weight was over 275#. Thank you to those of you who bought a whole or half pig from us this season! I can say we will certainly be offering the pigs again next season. We have a waiting list, and ONLY returning Members (such as yourself, if you sign up for this coming season) are eligible to buy pork from us. If you want to get your name on the list for 2022, please click the link below and scroll all the way to the bottom where there is a form to enter in your name and email.
DONATIONS
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our weekly donations to CAER. We donate a weekly assortment of all the crops we're harvesting. Think of it as a Jumbo XL Share haha! So we're donating full bushels of squash and onions, carrots, peppers, tomatoes, apples for example. We are happy to give them a lot to work with, they even set up their own farmer's market style produce section there with our veggies. By either donating your CSA when you're out of town, or just buying a CSA from us for the season, you're all contributing to us being able to get more produce there for CAER and the families they serve. Thank you!!
They wrote this article about us last year, but I don't think I actually shared it last year when they published it. Check it out here:
BOXES
Please don't yell at me for being a broken record haha! Just one last reminder.
I'll be coming around this week to pick up empty boxes. So if you took your box home during the last week and want to make sure it gets back in time for us to pick it up, please return it back to your CSA pick up site tonight or tomorrow morning. I know this is short notice so I apologize for not sending out a reminder sooner.
PLEASE do not return your box after tomorrow (Wednesday the 13th) because if you leave a box after I come around and pick them up, that leaves our host responsible for the box they won't be using. Either to store or throw it away; we certainly don't want to give them extra work to do. Thank you for your help.
NEXT SEASON
This is VERY important!
We would love to grow for you next season again! If you're planning on joining us for the 2022 CSA season please make sure to watch your emails in January. We have a tiered Membership so that you have priority for anything and everything you'd like! <3
The way it works is, we give you an entire month to sign up for whatever you'd like! I create a special "hidden" webpage on our site and give you the link, so that way not just anyone can sign up. We start accepting Memberships for 2022 on January 1st with your exclusive sign up period running through January 31st.
Starting February 1st, we open up that page and provide the special link to our Waiting List. We have over 200 people on our waiting list already. Of course, we won't have 200 available openings in our CSA program, and not all of them will want to sign up anyways, but my advice is to make sure you watch for my emails in January so you get your CSA before anyone else is able to sign up. So the waiting list folks will have from Feb 1st to the 14th to sign up, and then on Feb 15th our Membership is going public. I doubt we will get that far though. By that point we'll likely be sold out, last season our Membership was completely sold out by February 22nd.
That being said, if you have friends or family that want to sign up for a CSA next season, GET THEM ON THE WAITING LIST! I'll add the link below here, but it's just for the "Become a Member" page where there is a box to enter your name and email into. That way I can send the special invite to sign up to everyone on that list at one time.
END OF SEASON
As many of you know, we're a small scale produce farm. We do grow for quite a few families but that's in part because we wanted to ditch our day jobs and make this permanent- you have ALL OF OUR ATTENTION and I hope that provides you with even more value to your summer CSA <3
The one thing that keeps us going is planning for next season already- we are in very high spirits! Ending this season on such a positive encouraging note and having a strong desire to already start working up the fields to plant all over again!! Sure, we could use a little break but we LOVE what we do and we are blessed to have your support for our farm and family in this way. Thank you for making this possible for us <3
We couldn't get a nice family photo because we had cute fall outfits... and it was NINETY degrees the last weekend of September, lol! So we did get a pic all together, but the looks on our faces is exactly like we were all wearing sweaters in 90 degrees, lol. So here are a couple pics we took a few weeks ago!!
With love,
~The Browns
PS. We will stay in touch!! I'll be posting updates on this fall clean up and other projects we're working on. It's fun to keep you all in the loop- stay tuned for more fun adventures!! <3