How about this crazy weather? Snow forecast for tomorrow evening... the eve of May Day.
The Siskiyou Coop growers met last week and decided to delay the first CSA delivery to Thursday, April 12th. Most crops have been growing more slowly than usual, and other crops haven't even been transplanted yet. The CSA will still run for twenty weeks, making the last delivery date on Thursday, October 23rd.
The erratic weather has been a challenge for us at Wolf Gulch. Tom spent several nights waking up each hour to check the temperature in case the mercury dipped below 28, which was the critical temperature for our pear, apple and plum blossoms. On Sunday morning, April 20th, the temperature got down to 28 at about 4:30 am, and Tom went out to light our 16 orchard heaters (called smudge pots by some.) It took him an hour to light them all, and then he stayed up until 7:30 making sure they continued to burn.
The lettuce I transplanted last month finally showed signs of growth after this past weekend of sunshine.
Siskiyou Coop growers, Melissa and Josh of Barking Moon Farm, are well ahead of the curve and bringing all kinds of crops to the Ashland Growers Market on Tuesdays. They started seeding in their greenhouse on the first of February and covered a lot of their field crops with remay to provide some protections. Melissa reports that the slug damage is significantly worse this year- probably a result of such wet conditions. Luckily, like all good growers, they overplanted and have plenty of high quality produce to sell.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Welcome to the 2008 season
Welcome to the Siskiyou Sustainable Cooperative Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Blog! We hope to increase the amount of contact you have with the Siskiyou Coop growers through this blog, and encourage your questions and comments about our CSA program.
There are still plenty of shares left in our CSA this year. Please go to our webpage siskiyoucoop.com to download an order share form, or else call me and I'll send you a brochure- 899-9668.
Also, please save the date, Saturday May 10th, for our fourth annual Spring Farm Day at Boones Farm outside of Jacksonville. We always have lots of fun getting to know the new goat kids, eating locally produced food, and listening to music in the Oak Grove. We will be posting details in the next month. Please plan to bring your friends, family and neighbors to this event.
Here at Wolf Gulch Farm, we have been taking advantage of the dry weather to plough up some of our fields and make up beds for the first crops to be planted this season. In Southern Oregon, we are usually given a 2-3 week respite from winter precipitation in February and early March. This is a critical time to work the fields and prepare beds for planting in. Once the spring rains hit, the fields are too wet for heavy equipment. Most farmers are using this window of opportunity to get their first fields ready for planting out.
We are also spending a lot of time in the greenhouse making soil mix and planting seedlings for transplanting.
The ten Siskyou Coop growers have been meeting monthly since December to make sure that all crops are covered for the CSA this season. Tom has created some amazing spreadsheets to keep track of which farmers are growing what crops in any given week of the CSA. We have also been working on systems to improve quality control in the CSA. Last week, we created a crop by crop description of what is acceptable to put in CSA boxes. There are certain challenges to running a cooperative CSA, quality control being just one of them, but often these challenges force us to be more creative.
Remember to tell your friends and neighbors about our CSA, and don't hesitate to call or email if you have any questions.
Enjoy the sunny days,
Maud
There are still plenty of shares left in our CSA this year. Please go to our webpage siskiyoucoop.com to download an order share form, or else call me and I'll send you a brochure- 899-9668.
Also, please save the date, Saturday May 10th, for our fourth annual Spring Farm Day at Boones Farm outside of Jacksonville. We always have lots of fun getting to know the new goat kids, eating locally produced food, and listening to music in the Oak Grove. We will be posting details in the next month. Please plan to bring your friends, family and neighbors to this event.
Here at Wolf Gulch Farm, we have been taking advantage of the dry weather to plough up some of our fields and make up beds for the first crops to be planted this season. In Southern Oregon, we are usually given a 2-3 week respite from winter precipitation in February and early March. This is a critical time to work the fields and prepare beds for planting in. Once the spring rains hit, the fields are too wet for heavy equipment. Most farmers are using this window of opportunity to get their first fields ready for planting out.
We are also spending a lot of time in the greenhouse making soil mix and planting seedlings for transplanting.
The ten Siskyou Coop growers have been meeting monthly since December to make sure that all crops are covered for the CSA this season. Tom has created some amazing spreadsheets to keep track of which farmers are growing what crops in any given week of the CSA. We have also been working on systems to improve quality control in the CSA. Last week, we created a crop by crop description of what is acceptable to put in CSA boxes. There are certain challenges to running a cooperative CSA, quality control being just one of them, but often these challenges force us to be more creative.
Remember to tell your friends and neighbors about our CSA, and don't hesitate to call or email if you have any questions.
Enjoy the sunny days,
Maud
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