New for 2010 !Food
for All. We know these are difficult economic times
and that, regardless, people still need to eat healthy food. The bottom line is that we’ve got our seed
in the mudroom, our fields will be ready to plant in due time, we’ll grow the
food, and we expect you to eat. We will have no one
going hungry as long as we have food.
We’ve always given the option that when subscribers are away on
vacation they can donate the box . We’ve also given free shares to folks who
want and will use the veggies but cannot afford it. We’ll continue this. But also, assuming that most families in
difficulty can afford to pay something, we’d like to spread out the benefits
to even more people by offering a sliding scale to those who are
struggling. We’ll be happy to come to
an agreement and continue to serve all eaters. Please don’t hesitate to contact us
in this confidential way. We really mean it! The
perpetual quest for good apples! Organic apples are always a great
challenge. The trees tend to be
biennial--caused by too much fruit in the good years, as there is no good way
to thin apples without chemicals.
Before the turn of the 20th century and chemical thinners, nearly all
apples were biennial producers. Then
there are all the other life forms to battle, which just love great big balls
of sugar and water to get their young ‘uns off to a
great start—moth larvae, flies, and beetles.
And then there’s the
bees… Luckily, we have
another organic apple grower Bill
and Mary Ann Oyler, who are able to fill in where we can lack and get some really
great apples to your table. We expect a good year here, but plan on
getting apples from the Oylers again as well. This
will ensure the fruit quantity and quality through the last half of our
season and into the winter. With blueberries in mid-season, and
strawberries in June, we should have a steady supply of fruit. Lots
more tomatoes! Who would have thought we’d be billing
tomatoes like they were something new?
Our first years farming this crop was the
most reliable and income sustaining of all crops. Blight effected tomatoes all over the East
last year and made it our worst year ever for tomatoes. We’re looking forward to a much more normal
year in 2010. We’ll have a selection
of tasty heirloom varieties, lots of paste tomatoes, as well as our standard
slicers. These include San Marzano, Green Zebra, Arkansas Traveler, Black Velvet,
Juliet, The GPods. We are looking forward to our fourth year
with our Pixall bean picker. We continue to see how to best use this
machine—what it can do and what it can’t do.
The “Jade”, “EZ-Pik”, and “Foremost”
varieties are becoming our standards. We’ll try again using the magic machine
on peas—assuredly not perfect, but better than no peas. And we’ve gotten seed for a reddish Italian
shell bean—crazy thought in the mid of winter. Five
Family Farms Tour and Picnic: Last
season’s multi-farm tour and open house was a great success. This year, we plan to repeat and do an even
better job of connecting you with your food and the land from which it comes. Date: Saturday, July 24th. We’ll keep you posted. Personal Chef
Option: If you live in
certain areas, you can have gourmet meals prepared for you by a professional
chef and delivered to your home. Great
Local Cheeses: We have offered a
number of cheeses over the last few seasons from local sources. Some have been better than others. In the same process which we generally use
in exploring new vegetable varieties we will select the best and explore for
other good ones. Get
them Doggies Grazin’: In the last few years we have sought to encourage our
neighbors, especially the younger farmers to produce meats for the local
market. We do this by linking interested subscribers to these producers. This
will keep the farms viable, preserve the farmland, and add to food security
for all. Likewise, as we all learn more about the nutritional benefits of
grass fed beef, it's truly exciting to utilize the
grass Kretschmann Farm Signup Form
For more information contact:
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