One of the trickiest things about Community Supported Agriculture is having enough of Produce Item A available on the particular day you have to pack your CSA boxes. It’s impossible in farming to project, for example, that we will have X amount — no more and no less — of certain highly perishable crops on a certain date. With CSA farming, having just a little less than we need to put item X in our boxes is a major fail, so we always “plan” on having a little extra. But having too much extra is also a major fail: we have other outlets to sell some of our produce, but not for all of the items we grow for our CSA. Or at least, not profitably. So it’s a bit of a tightrope walk to get it right.
Some perishable crops are more predictable than others. With lettuce, for example, we know exactly how many heads an acre will produce and we plant accordingly. Sweet corn produces one ear per plant. Zucchini produces one fruit per day. But while the seed catalogue tells you that this particular Lettuce, Sweet Corn or Zucchini matures in 65 days, that number changes based on the weather. The most frustrating example of this would be having no Sweet Corn at all on a Tuesday when we are packing CSA boxes, only to have several thousand ears mature on Friday of the same week. Slightly immature lettuce or zucchini are perfectly edible but no one wants corn that way.
With a crop like Strawberries or Tomatoes, it becomes even harder. The initial harvest date and amount of fruit produced both vary from year to year, and are dramatically impacted by both the seasonal and daily weather. We use our historical data to project how much of these crops to plant each year, based on the average weekly harvest per acre. But the reality can vary dramatically.
I generally tell folks that our Strawberry harvest starts right around Tax Day, but we’ve started harvesting as early as late March some years and almost as late as May 1st others. Some years, they load up with fruit early and start with a bang, other years they start with a trickle. All of those outcomes depend primarily on the weather and impact when you see them in your CSA box.
This year the berries starting ripening right on time — Monday, to be exact. But when the day’s harvest was complete, we ended up quite a bit shy of the amount we needed to be able to send basket of Berries in everyone’s boxes. We had more than we needed to put a basket in each Medium and Large box, but not enough for the Small boxes. So Eric sent out an email to subscribers and listed the extra berries on the Web Store where some of you berry lovers scooped them up.
If you didn’t get Berries this week in your CSA, do not worry, I promise you will get them next week. The plants are increasingly loaded with fruit, and the weather for the next ten days and indeed the rest of the month looks absolutely perfect for them: alternating cool and warm weather with no heatwaves and no rain. In fact, that is also perfect weather for all the other crops we’re harvesting: salad greens, peas and other Spring bounty.
The nice weather should be perfect for our 2025 U-Pick Strawberry Day, which we have tentatively scheduled for Saturday, May 3rd (depending on the weather as always). Look for an email with more info.
Thanks,