Happy May everyone!

Summer Share season is just around the corner! We’re planning for the first box to go out in just three weeks, the week of June 8th/11th. This is a good time to remind you that your balance for Summer, Preserving, and Egg shares is due by May 31st. Also, if you’ve been a member for a while, please take note that we have changed where your check should be mailed. All payments can be mailed directly to the Food Farm at 2612 County Road 1, Wrenshall, MN 55797 (or you can log in to your account and pay online). If something has come up and you don’t think you can make your final payment by the end of May, please reach out to Catherine, Janaki, or myself as soon as possible. We are happy to work with you to set up an alternate payment plan.

We still have Winter shares available if you haven’t claimed one yet. Those payments aren’t due until the end of August. We will send out a reminder as it gets closer to the deadline.

Now onto the fun stuff! We have been busy on the farm the last few weeks getting things prepped, fertilized, seeded, planted, weeded, cleaned, inventoried, and everything in-between. It’s always amazing to me how much gets done before the first Summer box ever heads out the door.

We welcomed new baby chicks who will help produce eggs for all of our egg shares. Ellis took great care of introducing them to Zuko (the livestock guardian dog), making sure they got water after their adventure, and getting them settled into their new home. Baby chicks means Spring has officially arrived on the farm, even if mother nature hasn’t gotten the memo yet.

Last week our crew worked really hard getting lots of plants in the ground in the field and the greenhouses. Thousands of onions, thousands of potatoes, and hundreds of brassicas all went into the field last week. Hundreds of tomatoes and cucumbers were transplanted into the greenhouse as well. Our crew members are feeling it in their muscles that haven’t been used for a while. This week we planted the first round of lettuce in the greenhouse, and the second round of brassicas went into the field. The second round of brassicas was extra fun because we got to test out our new transplanter. Thanks to a grant we received, we were able to purchase a new to us carousel planter. This new planter does a lot of the work for us, so our crew can plant faster and more efficiently. We still have a few kinks to work out, but we are really excited to see all this new transplanter can do for us.

With the new season starting soon, we are welcoming a few new faces to our farm crew. This week we have Emily and Nolan joining us for the full growing season. We are very excited to meet them, and have a few extra hands as we get the growing season into full swing. We are also having two interns, Sydney and Tabitha, from UMD join us for the Summer months until school starts again. Sydney and Tabitha will each be with us 2 days a week. Part of their internship is working with the Duluth Center for Women and Children to salvage and glean extra produce. Those veggies are used to put together meal boxes that are sent to families in the area who need a little help putting food on the table. We are so excited to welcome all of these wonderful people to our crew!

If you want to get a front row seat to the action, we love having volunteers join us on CSA harvest days, any Monday or Thursday, from June – October, from 9am-1pm. Volunteers get to meet the crew, see where the farm, and harvest and box veggies that end up on your table. Grab your gloves and a sun hat to come join in the fun! If you want to know what’s happening but prefer to stay inside, we post weekly newsletters on the website that detail what the farm crew has been up to, and any events on the farm (these usually include less physical labor than CSA days).

We are so grateful for all of your support! We wouldn’t be able to do this without all of you. We’ll be back in 24 days to kick off the Summer season.