Spring News From The Farm

The following is the newsletter that Andy had sent to all the CSA Shareholders. 

 

 Cedarmore Farm Spring Newsletter

 

  Greetings everyone! Spring is finally here! At least that's what the purple martins are telling me now that they've arrived from their winter homes. We spotted the first ones two days ago and they've been hanging out by the gourds that we've provided for them. They are probably 10 days later than they were last year which makes sense. Everything else seems to be later this year too.

 

  We've had a wet and colder than normal March, delaying us in getting our crops planted. At this time we are about 2 weeks behind schedule. We still need one more day of sun and no rain in order to be able to get back into the fields to work the ground and plant. The farmer in me is getting really anxious to get out there and get some stuff planted. But it simply doesn't pay to work the ground while it's wet. It causes compaction in the soil and then nothing does well.

  Hopefully the weather will remain dry for enough days for us to get very busy working the ground and planting and everything that goes with it.

 

 I mentioned that we are about 2 weeks behind schedule. Now some of you are probably wondering how that will affect the harvest. At this point my guess is that the first few weeks of the season will be rather lean. However I've been farming long enough to know that if we get good enough weather in April we could easily gain back everything that's been delayed up until now. Like I said it will depend on the weather like farming always does. We will do what we can to make this a good buy for you.

 

  On a positive note we had a very good year for maple syrup. All the freezing and thawing we had this winter made for a lot of maple syrup. Perhaps we'll have to substitute some maple syrup if we don't have the desirable amount of produce those first few weeks.

 

  For those of you who visit the  Cedarmore farm blog you'll notice that the Spring and all season shares we are now selling begin on the last week of May which makes a 6 week Spring season instead of our normal 10 weeks. We want to let all those who have purchased Spring and all season shares know that your start date will still be April 30th for Tuesday pick ups and May 3rd for Friday pick ups and you will get a full 10 weeks of the Spring share. We are currently selling a 6 week Spring share because of the crops being delayed by the cold wet weather.

 

  The little greenhouse which we built back in January is still working out very well. We have a large wood stove set up in it so everything is growing well although it is nearly overflowing with plants that are ready to plant out. We are also building another larger greenhouse to plant tomato plants into. This one should be ready to go in a few days. Thank  You again all of you for your donations last year to help us replace the one that was lost in the big wind storm last Summer. We really appreciate your help and have used the money toward these two greenhouses. Wishing you all a happy and enjoyable season with us this year.

 

  Thank You,

   Andy H. Hershberger

I am so looking forward to the first delivery that is coming up really soon.  I'm planning a trip to the farm in a few weeks and I will be excited to see the differences in the fields and in the greenhouses.