Small Family of Friends, Cookers and Eaters,
A slumberous winter of record-breaking lows, awesome storms and copious precipitation has your farmers anxiously awaiting Spring. In my adult life, I cannot remember a winter so solid, so unsympathetic, so chilling. We are spending our late-winter days tabling at events, putting out fliers and finding creative ways to spread the good word about our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm. We’re excited for a new year! We’re rested, energized and hopeful!Construction on the remodel of our packing shed has begun to bird-proof and keep cool for safer post-harvest handling.
It’s hard to believe that it all begins next Monday. The first week of March is when we start seeding our onions, leeks, shallots, celery, and celeriac root. Shortly after that we’ll begin seeding our parsley, swiss chard, and the first successions of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and so on. Adam will soon be waking in the night again, not to sound of a crying baby this time, but to the alarm clock reminding him that it is time to stoke the greenhouse fires again. Faithful and loyal to the time-sensitive and temperature-precise process of tending to the greenhouse fires, farmer Adam is perfect for the job.
Even though the low tonight is 5 degrees, we’re thinking Spring. It’s hard to imagine that in just a few short months, we’ll be harvesting fresh-cut heads of lettuce, hand-picked spinach and crunchy radishes. We’re here to ask you to think Spring as well and consider renewing your CSA membership in the Small Family Farm today! We’re very excited about the upcoming season, and although I’ve said this before, I believe this will be our best year ever. Each year our farming systems become more refined and our techniques polished. With 8 growing seasons under our belt while running a CSA farm that comprises 90% of our production, we’ve made it through the brush.
In 2013 our farm fed over 200 families all summer long. We expanded our thriving worker share program to nearly 20 helpers, where local families come out to the farm and participate in the growing of their own food. We employed two hard working folks, Joe and Todd who will be returning to the farm to grow with us for the 2014 season. We hosted several farm-tours and pot-lucks where we invited all of you and your friends and members of the surrounding communities out to our community farm where we shared knowledge, food and a preservation of a family farm in a time where they are rapidly disappearing.
In this last week of February with temperature highs only in the teens, we wish to send you a feeling of warmth, one that inspires you to think about where your food will come from in the 2014 growing season. Imagine that your food will be grown by the Varney family and friends of from a small farm in La Farge, WI. Notice that we are now offering Every-Other-Week Shares for the smaller families out there or for folks who are new to CSA.
We look forward to growing with you in the 2014 season!
