Dear KCSA community,
She might be busting out record breaking temperatures in Siberia at the moment, but Mother Nature has been a little kinder to us as we slowly, but surely, get past our slow, cold and wet S.E. P.A. spring! Our zucchini replanting’s are coming in and our summer squash replanting’s are not far behind. Get ready; and relish!
Our timely—but slow growing—carrots and peas will make it onto the share this week for full and partial shares. Unfortunately, yields will be down a little due to spring wash out, seed corn maggots and time constraints. Particularly with the peas. Our snap and snow peas will be on u-pick. As always, all full and partial shares have access to u-pick, so everyone please stick to the limits.
Beets will also be a new item this week and will make it onto all the shares. We had to re-sow the majority of these and a lot of effort has gone into keeping up with the cultivation, especially for those that have been in the ground for a month longer than planned!
Now, as Chester County is moving toward the green COVID-19 mitigation phase, I think a little CSA housekeeping is in order:
If you need to alter your pick-up day due to new work or travel arrangements, I will need to know before noon the day prior to your scheduled pick up at the very least. In other words, if you pick up 1pm-4pm or 4pm-7pm on a Tuesday, you need to email me before noon on Monday (and receive a subsequent email confirmation from me). If you pick up at 1pm-4pm or 4pm-7pm on Friday or 9am-12pm on Saturday, you need to email me before noon on Thursday (and receive a subsequent email confirmation from me). If you just need to swap your pick-up/u-pick window within the same pick up day, please also email me to let us know your change of plan, but the time constraints aren’t quite as important.
As all our pre-harvested vegetables are being boxed this season, we only harvest the exact amount of vegetables that we need. This is great, as we literally have no harvest wastage. With this system, however, if you miss your pick-up, you miss your share. Please understand that there is a lot of thought, organization and work that goes into producing each member’s share. And although some fruit does grow on trees…lettuce heads don’t! Your 26 shares (or 13 for partial shares) are planned, budgeted and implemented with intentionality. Anything above this is an extra expense for us on an already tight budget. I like to use the analogy of takeaway food. If you order a pizza on Tuesday but aren’t able to pick it up, you don’t expect the pizzeria to make you a fresh pizza on Friday, free of charge! With a little bit of thought in advance, we have the flexibility to accommodate almost any requests that fit into our current farm hours. Also, please remember, you can ask a friend or other family member to pick up for you as well.
As farmers, we are also constantly in flux, and just like the pizzeria, we don’t have the capacity to hold on to your share beyond your agreed upon pick-up time. For those members that don’t pick up and do not reschedule ahead of time, we have a couple of outlets where we can donate their missed share. Having said that, we do not have the capacity to take donations from you. This includes any particular items that you don’t want in your box or other perishable and non-perishable goods. Please remember, we are a small farming business, not a non-profit organization focused on food security. We don’t receive grants or endowments. Please seek these types of organizations out in your locale and get involved!
And finally, as a reminder: we are allowing one household per member to pick-up/u-pick for the time being. Children must be supervised at all times on the farm. No dogs are allowed. The farm is only open to members Tuesday & Friday 1pm-7pm and Saturday 9am-12pm. Overflow car parking is available at the Kimberton Waldorf High School parking lot. And masks must be worn at all times.
Stay cool,
Andrew
