Blog | Abundant Harvest

That’s My Farmer….

This is actually a song title by John Pitney. It’s a song that we always play at our farm party during the slide show.

We often hear from our members that they like getting to know the people who do the work to grow their food. And we love getting to know our memebers…our fabulous feasters!

A line in the song says, ’share the bounty, share the risk’…. Which is a big part of running and being a member of a CSA. We are happy to say that we have mostly experienced sharing the bounty of a bumper crop! Although, some do think you can have too many peppers and cucumbers….others are delighted for it! We have had a few crops produce poorly or fail altogether, here we have shared the risk.

Below is an excerpt of “That’s My Farmer” song by John Pitney:

Oh, that’s my farmer!
Don’t I have good taste?
We’re taking back our food system!
It needs a human face.

I just can’t wait till Tuesday
To see what’s in our box.
Community Supported Agriculture really rocks!
Harvest bad? Harvest brisk?
We share the bounty, share the risk.
Cheap food gone berserk,
We pay directly, to those who do the work…..

Winter 2009 -2010

This is our first year offering a winter CSA share. The season started out great, then we were hit by a sudden deep freeze. The coldest temps in a decade. We covered and insulated the crops in the ground the best we could. We tried to keep our winter squash, onions, and potatoes warm enough, but it was a challenge. They were stored three miles away and with icy roads and power outages, we did our best. Luckily it worked. We did lose a few crops in the ground (as did many farmers), but enough survived that we were able to fill our CSA baskets! Spring is just around the corner – whew!

Season 2009 Summer Summary

We completed our 4th successful and abundant summer CSA season in October. The season began in late spring a bit slower than we anticipated. Before long, summer hit and we were quickly overrun with produce!

We are honored with many wonderful Harvest volunteers which is why we had such a great season. Thanks a million to each of you.

And we must send many thanks to our wonderful members whose memberships keep us growing a lot of food!

Of course we must also thank mother nature for such great weather that kept the plants growing and producing so wonderfully.

Flower Power

The flowers this season were stunning. A few favorites are:
Daisies, Cosmos, Larkspur, Lupine, Marigold, Rudbeckia, Statice, Straw flowers, Zinnias, AND SUNFLOWERS!!

We began in May planting a couple rows for a dear friend’s wedding – then kept on plant’n til we had 13 rows!

It didn’t stop there. Farmer Steve decided since we had extra space and seeds…..and maybe he was bored with nothing else to do (yeah right)!….

He decided to plant another 8 rows of sunflowers!!

The flowers required a lot of time and effort to maintain. We had a difficult time keeping up – but they are totally worth it!

These flowers were enjoyed at weddings, farm potlucks, Intel’s cafés, as well as by our members who received them as part of their CSA shares.

Earth laughs in flowers. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

We sold many at a couple farmers markets. We also dried many for wreaths and dried flower bouquets, to enjoy throughout the winter. Many thanks to everyone who helped with the flowers.

We learned a lot about flowers this season – and look to next season for a well planned and cared for ***flower Paradise!**** We have a lot of ideas we’re working through and looking forward to what’s to come!

Tomato planting………and Bambi?

TOMATO MADNESS!

What an amazing day. In one day – we planted 782 tomatoes!! That’s not a typo.

Sure it was a heck of a lot of work, but all we could think and talk about was the sauces, salsas, and delicious meals these tomatoes will create. We can never have too many tomatoes! Really. We make them into sauce, we freeze em, dry em, and eat em by the platefull!

We also had a rare special occurrence that day. Kimberly and Tim Radtke rescued an orphaned baby deer. As they were driving home, they nearly hit the baby deer and saw that it’s mother was tragically killed and laying on the side of the road. They took the baby to safety for a few days. We have never been so close to a deer before.

SQUASH, AND CUCUMBERS, AND BERRIES – OH MY!

What a wild Memorial Day weekend!

With the help of the Radtke family, Robin and Scott Olsen, cousin Becky K, and our dear friend, Julie P – we planted thousands of plants, yes, thousands!!

Here comes Scott with all the squash!

Could you imagine if we had to carry each of those up the fields! Thanks a million Robin and Scott!!

The girls planted out the 7 rows of flowers, while the other amazing helpers planted out the 13 rows of cucumbers and melons.

After a nice break with lavender lemonade and snacks, we were back at it. Many, many, many thanks to Mom – Rondi and Dad – Dan Radtke, Samantha, Justin, Becky and Julie. You guys rock! Without your help, we’d be there all day breaking our backs!

Keeping up with Steve is ….well, pretty much impossible! We girls did a heck of a lot of work, and Steve named us Angels. Of course we had to do the following pose so we can be called,

~~~~~Steve’s Angels~~~~~~~~

After stuffing the little Radtke’s with pizza, Mom Radtke and I returned to the Olsen farm where Dad Radtke and Steve were working hard on getting the irrigation set up.

Next day, with the help of our dear farm partners, we planted more red and gold raspberries, strawberries, and finished the drip irrigation!! Hip-hip-HOORAY!

Unfortunately, we had a power outage for most of the afternoon and didn’t get to water them in as much as we hoped. As a result, I lost part of my flowers : ( .

Steve and I then rushed off to Samantha’s birthday dinner. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET SISTER!!

Abundant Harvest