CSA News Update
Posted by Susan and Denny Wright at 2/25/2008 12:44 PM 
Categories: Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
Categories: Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
Hello Everyone:
The
activity is starting to pick up around here at The Wright Way Farm, and
it is an exciting time of year for us. This time of year we move from
planning our crops to implementing our plans for 2008. Not only have we
placed our seed orders for 2008, but some of your food for 2008 is
already planted! We are hoping to start providing tomatoes by early
July this year. To accomplish this, we are starting some varieties
early under grow lights, and we will transplant them in the ground
under one of our high tunnels (greenhouses without heat) the first week
of May, a full month earlier than the ones that we will plant outside.
The temperature in the high tunnels in May will promote fast growth
with the tomatoes, and the high tunnels protect the plants from frost.
In
addition to the tomatoes, we have planted cabbage, kale, beets,
carrots, and several varieties of lettuce in the ground under our high
tunnels. Daytime temperatures in the tunnel approach 70 degrees
Fahrenheit this time of year. I was out there today weeding and
planting. Yes, I said weeding. The weeds are starting to sprout in the
ground as fast as the food. It was so warm in there that I was sweating
in jeans and a shirt! It almost felt like spring to me for a couple of
hours. We have three high tunnels this year; each of them are 12 feet x
50 feet long. Two of them will provide early greens and vegetables for
you, and one was used for winter research this year.
Winter CSA
We
are very excited about this winter. We have had a real winter for a
change, which provided us with some excellent data about winter crops.
We tested several varieties of spinach, lettuce, brassicas like kale,
European greens, onions, beets, and carrots. We have found many
varieties that not only survived the winter in our high tunnel, but
also thrived. These results combined with our fall tests confirm that
we will indeed be able to offer a winter CSA next year! We will keep
you informed as that time approaches. However, it’s time to think about
spring for now.
Maple Syrup
One
of the signals that it’s time to start working around here is when the
daytime temperatures threaten to get above freezing during the day
consistently while dropping below at night. When this happens
consistently, we harvest maple syrup. This weekend, we started tapping
trees. While the temperatures are not consistently where they need to
be, it won’t be long, and we want to be ready. When we have a good
year, we like to include syrup in our shares in the spring.
Any
maple tree can be tapped, including a Box Elder tree, which is a maple.
Maple sugar densities vary with sugar maples containing the highest
sugar content. We collect a few hundred gallons of raw sap, and we boil
it down gradually over an open fire, finishing on a more controlled
fire, like an LP burner. Typically, between 40 and 80 gallons of sap
boils down to 1 gallon of delicious maple syrup. Each year has a
surprise flavor, with no two years being the same. Again, if our spring
is somewhat typical and if we do not warm up too fast, we will have
enough syrup for everyone.
Final Comments
Since
we are experiencing a real winter, we are looking forward to the
challenge that this spring will offer. Since we plant early succession
plantings under our high tunnels and frost blankets to get an early
start, we hope to get off to an early start this year with the CSA
deliveries. We are hoping to start regular CSA deliveries when the
asparagus starts producing, which is usually the first couple of weeks
of May. However, as always, we are at the mercy of the weather. Still,
we look to this spring with anticipation and we look forward to seeing
all of you this summer. Until then, we hope that this finds you and
your family well.
Denny and Susan
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