CSA Farm Share 2009: Week 16 and then some

[surrealestate]

Last week, Parker Farm said that due to this year's horrid conditions, shares would have to be canceled for the rest of the season. I was, of course, quite sad over the news, but given the situation all over the state, it wasn't entirely surprising. A few days later, Steve changed his mind and announced that, with some small changes and understanding that hauls would likely be smaller, things would, in fact continue. Yay! Too bad he didn't just start out by saying there'd be no drop-off that week, which would have saved an assortment of annoyance on various sides.

Ironically, despite that, last week was the biggest total haul of the year, because my share partner and I went out to Red Fire on Monday to harvest and came home with a metric buttload, then I helped Steve a bit at the farmer's market Saturday which yielded as much as I could carry on my bike. A lot of CSA members had stopped by to say hi and offer support. It was good to see. And because Steve is awesome, he sent us all home with extras.

The official drop-off:

• [no Parker drop-off]
  --
• 1 lb sweet peppers
• 4 small hot peppers
• 2 eggplant
• 1 bunch kale
• 1 head lettuce
• 1 bunch dill
• 1 small winter squash
• 1 small head cabbage
• 11 oz broccoli
• 1 lb summer squash
  --
• 1 lb peaches
• 1/2 peck apples

Harvest at the farm included four qts of cherry tomatoes, 4+ qts yellow and green beans, 2 qts raspberries, dozens of hot peppers, and over 30 pounds of tomatillos.

Farmers market yield included 2 bunches arugula, 2 of Asian turnips, a gaggle of purple-top turnips and parsnips, 1 bunch cilantro, 1 head lettuce, and an embarrassing quantity of hen of the woods mushrooms.

And on the food preservation front:
Canned: tomatillo salsa verde, more tomatillo salsa verde, roasted red pepper spread
Dried: tomatoes, apples, apple powder, oregano, parsley, rosemary, green & yellow beans, mushrooms
Froze: blackberries

I hope everyone who went for it had an easy fast (mine wasn't too bad).

Comments

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Yes, the shares are an investment, but it's rarely a farm's only source of income. Given that we were already 15 weeks in, though, I'd be more inclined to compare it to having bought a ticket to a fundraiser performance only to show up and find out one or more of the acts isn't going to be there.

I suspect the long-term may be a factor as well. I've been with Steve for four years and enjoyed excessive bounty for pretty much all of that time. I don't feel short-changed this year and past experience led me to conclude he'd come up with a way to do the right thing by folks, even if I had no idea what that right thing might be. Even the day of the announcement, I had no intention to leave him. (Bitching and moaning, otoh, is another story. Those are some of my favorite hobbies. ;)

My biggest complaint was and continues to be the comm issue. I think the same decision would have been taken very differently if it followed weeks of being told what was up. I've offered to help him with that on several occasions, but the problem is that once the season starts, he's too busy with the fields to deal.

[desireearmfeldt]

Fair enough. And yeah, communication is the fundamental issue.