Heron Pond Farm Winter News and Share Info

Hello Heron Pond Farmers

So this week we start into our deep winter shares. Greens will get harder and harder to come by. The green houses look good, the spinach looks amazing so we will have that green element for some time. I was sad when we had o give out the salad mix last share. That was out of one of the green houses and was meant for latter in the winter but it came on early do to our mild weather. We will be building more shelter for winter growing soon so that we can cover ourselves better. I don't see a problem coming on yet so we will see what late January and February look like.

As Greg and I have said all along this is a 14 pick up winter CSA going to through March. We modeled this off the Wolf Pine CSA that does the every other week thing. Like many other winter CSAs we do not have a pick up every week all winter.  The winter program has always been a 14 week pick up plan.  The greens that we harvest in the deep winter come from the green house and do not grow as fast or as plentifully as other times of year.  When looking for guidelines in building a winter CSA we looked to two models.  Wolf Pine Farm in Maine (with 9 winter pick ups) and Peats Greens in VT (with a pick up every week).  Peats CSA cost almost $800 and requires twice the green house space that we currently have.  Wolf Pine does not grow their deep winter greens and buys in many of the foods that they offer in the winter.  We had to make choices about the kind of product we wanted to put together.  We chose to be mainly an on farm CSA, we do get apples from else where, but we grow our own food other wise. 

That being said we think that you will all get plenty of food to keep you going, and Greg and I have some nice deep winter surprises that will be fun. So the pick up days will be on the weekends for everyone. The days are December 5,6; 19,20; January 2,3; 16,17; 30,31; February 13,14; 27,28; and March 13,14; 27,28. If you can't make a pick up we can hold your food at either location, the farm or up in Portsmouth so contact us to let us know when you are coming.

This weeks Share:

           2 bunches greens
           1 bunch turnips
           1 head pac choi
           1 lb broccoli
           4 lbs carrots
           4 lbs beets
           4 lbs potatoes and 2 lbs fingerlings
           6 apples
           4 leeks
           2 winter squash

If we have time to cut more greens we will. Also if you don't want the beets you can switch with potatoes. I need to check but we also may have some extra carrots to sub with. It will be on the board when you get your share.

Don't forget that the farm is a great place to walk, x-country ski, snow shoe in the winter. All CSA members are welcome on the farm.

Andre