Novemeber 8th, 2023
What’s in your share?
Salad Mix
Carrots
Onions
Garlic
Komatsuna & Pak Choi* (or Mustard)*
French Fingerling Potatoes*
Printed Newsletter and 2024 Sign-Up Form?!*
*Komatsuna & Pak Choi - are two types of greens that are staples in Southeastern Asian cooking. The Komatsuna (the green leaves) is sometime nicknamed “Japanese Spinach”, because it has similar qualities. It can be eaten raw or cooked and is very nutritious. It’s also a lot easier for us to grow than spinach. For some reason, we just have so much trouble getting a good harvest of spinach and we’re actively experimenting so that we can provide some one of these years. The Pak Choi (the purple greens that look similar to bok choy) cook just like boy choy, but have much less of a core, making them easier to prep and cook. Both greens can be eaten raw or added to a soup or stir fry. The flavor is mild and gets sweeter with colder weather.
*Mustard - only those of you who have expressed interest in getting more experimental with greens got Mustard along with the Komatsuna. The mustard leaves have spice that is reminiscent of wasabi and is a great fall addition for soup, slaws, and salad. One of the reason that we label the totes with each members’ name is to allow for more personalized shares when we have the capacity.
*French Fingerling Potatoes - are great for roasting! They are small and easy to roast whole or in half. They have a creamy inside texture.
Printed Newsletter and 2024 Sign-Up Form* - As you’ll see in our classy waterproof design, we’ve included a printed newsletter and sign-up form. In the age of paperless transactions, fewer folks own printers and we’ve noticed that the old school “printing and sending a form in the mail” has gone out of style. We all know it’s easier to purchase online, but with that ease comes a pretty hefty fee for us. Because our website provider takes such a huge cut from these $800 transaction, we VERY MUCH prefer checks. So, we thought we’d at least try making sign-up a little easier for next season :) It may seem like we’re jumping ahead, but now is when we, farmers, need to start planning and ordering seed and supplies for next season. We also prefer communicating this request during the season instead of sending this out some time in December, interrupting the holiday scramble and asking you to spend more money. There is no due date for the form, but we are hoping to sell out early this year. Thanks for a great season everyone! We’d love to have y’all back. Also, feel free to help spread the word - signup forms are available on the website.
It’s quieter this time of year. Darker. Slower, even. Movements are considered twice, with attention to conservation. Heat, energy, nutrition require more and last half as long. In this season of diminutive physical motion and return on it, the mind's work takes the place of the body’s. For better or worse… While rest and rejuvenation are recommended, it is the journey of reflection and preparation that excites us.
Financially, the CSA season of 2023 wasn’t incredibly different from that of 2022. We added 25 paying members and a new pick up location. The share price rose to better accommodate increases to our cost of living. Simultaneously, your weekly share value rose, too. Originally, we intended to distribute an average $30 of veggies a week to each member, but that average actually came in at $33.88 every week. And if you didn’t know, all our prices are based on whatever they’d charge ya for their version of the vegetable at Outpost Natural Food Co-op. Meanwhile, operating expenses (minus labor), went down - ending closer to 10% of gross than the projected 13%! If it hadn’t been for the delivery van’s malfunctioning air conditioning, we might have even bought the crew new sets of Grundens.
Labor-wise, we worked about what we expected, 40 hours a week, and made $17 per hour. Compared to past seasons, the workload and general vibe was A LOT more relaxed. While at times our communication skills border on telepathic, our gratitude for each other has never been louder. There were 100% more thank you’s and high-fives this season. We were able to get everything done (except sometimes weeding and cover cropping) and still took time for coffee and “toasty” break. Friday - and sometimes even Thursday - paddle trips in different rivers around Southern Wisconsin, is an addition to our summer lifestyle that I don’t think we ever anticipated being so frequent. Listening to our bodies and taking time has been one of our biggest improvements this year.
The overall 2023 Crop Plan was the best we’ve ever had. Previous accounts and projections shaped out well, generating a plan that saw us harvesting roughly 7.5 different vegetables ready each week. Week- to-week harvests had a decent amount of diversity, though sometimes a little repetitive and/or a heavy on one thing (there might be such a thing as too many tomatoes). All planned plantings made it into the field on time, plus a few we added on the fly - enjoy that bouquet of brassica leaves from Sara’s “Brassica Fun” bed. And while we regularly plan a 15% “safety factor” or “rate-of-failure", we only lost or chose not to harvest about 10 beds out of the - over -140 beds planned and planted. The primary cause of crop loss (and stress) was pest-related, but oh boy did we enjoy a relatively temperate season weather-wise (though at the beginning a bit dry and at the end wet).
So, 2024, what do you say? Next year we are pretty much planning to click “copy and paste” on our crop plan (with a few minor adjustments; more cooking greens, perhaps). We are going to stay at 100 total members, each membership receiving an average value of $30 per week with 6-8 different vegetables a week, for a total of 24 weeks. We hope y’all agree that we earned a little raise - so, we are going to increase the total CSA price from $775 to $800 - putting our labor and love at $20 per hour. Having mostly made it past the “establishment phase” we are on to the more particular details and aspects of being farmers. With the big picture more firmly set, our focus turns to soil and plant health, and the ever-present and changing challenges of pest and weed pressure.
We honestly love growing your food and are so grateful for your continued involvement in making this life possible.