Week 3 Newsletter
Week #3 Newsletter: Week of June 15th
Notes from the field Farmer Al edition!
Hello from the control desk of Ecolibrium Farms. It has been great to see you all over the last couple of weeks. We’ve enjoyed getting to meet the new CSA members, reconnect with those we met last year – sharing stories of the past, memories of Claire and the farm of yore and also looking forward the changes we have made and the hopes we have for the future. The nursery sales were great this year! Thank you so much to all of you who came out and supported us through plant sale purchases before the CSA even began. And for, perhaps, telling your friends and loved ones about us. It very much feels like we are part of the community in a way I never felt when we were farming at the South 47. I can see in just one year how the bonds have strengthened. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have 30 or 40 years of this. And so it is clear to me how much some of you are also grieving the loss of Claire as you walk the property for the first time, knowing you won’t run into her or that she is in the tiny home watching as you chose which flower to pick. After speaking with her children, we have determined it will be best to do a memorial on our own and are looking to do it the weekend of July 11th or 12th (most likely on Saturday the 11th). More info to come next week, but keep that day open (likely around 4 or 5 pm). If you have an interest in helping in any way, please let us know. Thanks
One goal of ours this season is to let you get to know the crew members better. Some will cycle through the store and help out (you may have already met Jacqueline, Amanda or Lauriane), some will add words of wisdom – through writing the newsletter or offering recipes for the week – and we may even just have a poster board by the end where you can learn more about who it is that makes up this company. It’s a group of dedicated, hard-working and fun(!!) individuals who are meshing so well into a team. This year is my 11th year running a farm, and I can tell there is a special quality to this year’s crew. We have a lot of fun together and enjoy each other. Here’s what they have been hard at work at over the last week:
· Transplanted peppers into 2 greenhouses (set up weed barrier and drip tape)
· Prepped 20 beds in one of the 4 main plots in the back (these were the last if our 130 “farm” beds to be prepped)
· seeded or transplanted – lettuce, beans, broccoli, cucumber and onion for future weeks harvest
· saved 6 beds of summer squash from being decimated by cucumber beetles using a mixture of clay and neem oil and hand removal of the beetle
· ran an off-site growbag event at Microsoft for 75 employees
· weeded – A LOT
· touched every tomato on the farm to prune and trellis
· had two harvests
· had fun!
That’s all for now.