Big changes are coming to your CSA boxes over the next week or two, but right now we’re in a bit of an awkward place in the yearly cycle of the farm: most of our fields are planted with growing crops, but very few of them are being harvested. We have 5 plantings of Sweet Corn and Green Beans, planted every two weeks or so since mid-March, each one a foot or so taller than the one planted after it. As of last week, there are 4 different plantings of Tomatoes. Three different plantings of watermelons and cucumbers.
Everyone loves summer vegetables and fruit, but there will be lag of a week or two before they really get started. There’s one exception though — a big one. We started harvesting a few cherry tomatoes yesterday, and we’re fairly certain we’ll have enough to send them out in at least some of your CSA boxes next week. At the same time, the leafy greens we’ve been harvesting for the last month or so — Lettuce, Arugula and Spinach — are nearing the end of their short season. The cool, damp weather they prefer is mostly over. Peas have the shortest season of any crop we grow, with zero tolerance for hot weather. Their season is over already.
Speaking of big changes — some of you probably know Hector Junior, who has been one of our primary delivery truck drivers for ten years now. He grew up helping out his mom Elena and dad Hector who supervise the packing of your CSA boxes and all of our other crops. A year ago, he decided he wanted to start working with me in the field to learn how the crops are grown as well. He signed up for the registered Farm Manager Apprenticeship program with the Center for Land-Base Learning in Woodland, which offers a structured two-year program of on-the-job training as well as classes and field days.
Halfway through two-year program now, he has trained on the farm for over a dozen critical tasks including topping, hedging and mowing the orchards. He’s also taken dozens of hours of classes in order to get a better understanding of the concepts that guide our farming practices. All of this while still delivering your CSA boxes on Wednesdays and Thursdays. He’s become an important member of our production team now, and I am confident he will be able to learn how to run the farm eventually.
For the next two weeks, Hector won’t be working on the farm OR delivering your CSA boxes, as he is getting married on Saturday. He and his whole family are headed down to their ancestral home of Jesus Maria, Mexico, for the big day. (I would have loved to have gone as well, but someone has to stay and run the farm.) If you see him when he gets back, make sure to congratulate him.
By the time Hector returns as a married man, we’ll be full into summer mode here and Spring will feel like a distant memory.
Thanks,