Greetings Country Valley Farm Community,
Hoping everyone is having a lovely Sunday. We are enjoying the sunshine and encouraged that warmer weather is transitioning in.
We have not yet determined the exact start date of this season. We will confirm that in next week or the following week’s newsletter. While some years we could start in late April, this year it looks like we will start somewhere between May 1st and May 15th. Once we start we will number the newsletters based on what week in the season we are in, to help create a simple timeline of the progression through the weeks.
We usually don’t skip weeks once we start, but this year we are skipping the Sunday May 29th week for a family event. That is Memorial Day weekend.
In terms of skipping weeks, we like to be flexible as we know folks are not around every weekend and we don’t want the membership to be a burden. We have set some simple guidelines to help support the communication process for when folks will be skipping weeks:
- If you notify us at least 7 days in advance by email, and list the week you are skipping, we will make a note of it and add a week to the end of the season for you (for 20-week members) or a double share toward the end of the season (if you are subscribed for the full 30 weeks).
- Other options are for you to designate a neighbor, friend, or family member to pick up your share that week – just let us know what to expect. We may be able to adjust delivery route and drop it to your designated person, if you are a member who is signed up for home delivery – the adjustment depends on their location relative to your house or other parts of our route. We will try to be as accommodating as is reasonably possible.
- If we don’t receive email notification at least 7 days prior to the skip week, we will not add a week to your membership or a double share. The main reason for this is because we purchase produce from Gardenworks Farm and Cinzori Farm for the shares, and we give them our orders well in advance.
- If you have an emergency or extenuating circumstances, just let us know and we will work with you the best we can. It is our intention for your CSA membership in our farm to be a positive aspect of your life.
There is always something exciting happening on the farm. We find that sharing updates and details each week is a good way to connect with the changing of the seasons, and raise awareness to some of the wonders of nature. We haven’t included many photos in our newsletters in the past but are looking at how to best do that. We encourage folks to view our farm page on Instagram @ CountryValleyFarm for photos and additional updates. If there is info you’d like to receive about the farm or other details, we love to talk about and are happy to share.
What’s going on at the farm?
We are seeing the continued surprising and ever-changing Michigan weather.
We direct-sowed seeds for French Breakfast Radishes, Purple Top Turnips, and Tat Soi Greens yesterday. Those will be some of the first items harvesting from our farm this year. They are fast growing and perfect early Spring crops for Michigan.
Each week we will continue to plant for many weeks. Some crops we grow from organic transplants that we buy from CInzori Farm (they are expert plant start growers), other crops we direct-sow from organic seeds. Always planting something!
The garlic crop is looking great and has a deep green color. They plants are still small, but are nice and stout and seem happy.
We are continuing to prepare onion beds. We are working the ground with hoes to get the soil nice and clean and free of weeds and grass roots. Our target onion planting date is 1-2 weeks from today.
If you signed up for the 2022 season and have not received a welcome email from Adam with confirmation of your share size and duration, please let us know right away.
Our CSA model includes working with a few other certified organic farms that we have long term relationships with. This helps us ensure that each and every week the member share boxes have a great variety. It allows us to focus on crops that do well on our land, trial new crops to see how they perform for us, and continue to plant more perennial herbs as well as flowers for pollinator and beneficial insects and birds etc. We are thankful to the other farms we partner with and how it helps us make our CSA member share boxes as great as possible consistently.
We are still actively signing up CSA members. If you already signed up for this year – thank you for your support. If you were a member last year and renewed for this year, we greatly appreciate your renewed membership. If you are new to our CSA, we welcome you and look forward to a wonder-filled season of sharing our farming journey with you on your culinary adventure.
If you haven’t signed up or know of someone who is interested, please reach out with any questions. You can simply sign up at our website www.countryvalleyfarm.com or you can send us an email at countryvalleyinfo@gmail.com or you can text or call Adam at (831)706-1237. We are here to help! If you’d like to be removed from our newsletter list, just reply to Adam and let us know – we understand folks are busy and it is all good.
That’s all for now.
Warm regards,
Adam Mitchel
Country Valley Farm