Working Hands Farm Fall CSA Week 7 & 8

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Hey Friends & Farm-ily,

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It’s Week 7 & 8 of the Fall CSA, which means the last pick-up of the season!  We can hardly believe it’s been 28 weeks since we started our 2013 harvest season.  Little did we know what a season we would have when we began seeding trays back in January.  We’ve come a long way this year and what a fruitful season it has been!  Thanks for believing in your farmers every step of the way and for being a constant reminder of why we do what we do everyday.  We look forward to serving this community for years to come.  Y’all are the best.

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We hope you all had an inspiring journey during this 8 week season (and for many, all 28 weeks) – we hope many meals were shared and enjoyed in the warmth of your kitchen, that you enjoyed trying out some new veggies/varieties & won’t miss the farm fare too much during the winters months… we’ll all be dreaming of tomatoes come the middle of January <sigh>.  This week there will be a “Week 7” share table and a “Week 8” share table in the barn for pick-up – be sure to grab one of each!  There will be another table with greens, eggs and a few other choice items.  Your farmers will be there to greet you until 5pm and will leave the barn lights on until 7pm.

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The Fall CSA shares all averaged in at a weight of 30lbs per week!  And for organic, fresh picked, local produce we think $1.20 per pound is a great deal!  All of the Fall shares contained 13-16 items with a great variety of crops and delicious tasting veggies that have inspired many fantastic home cooked meals (thanks for sharing all your delicious accomplishments in your kitchens!)  Thanks so much for your recipe contributions, affirmation and excitement.  We have enjoyed the Fall CSA so much and feel great about ending the 2013 season on such a high note!

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Fun Farm Fact.  We’ve grown, harvested & distributed over 36,000 lbs of produce to our members and community this growing season.  Who says small farms can’t feed the World?  This is a number that we’re super proud of (and more then we initially projected..) as it’s a lot of food being produced on 3 acres of land by two people!  And…12,000 lbs of the total number were produced during the 8 weeks of the Fall CSA!  Cheers to our biggest (and best) year yet.

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Feelin’ blessed.  We’ve been enjoying the variety (over 60 different kinds of vegetables and even more varieties) and bounty these 28 weeks.  We feel blessed as farmers in the Pacific NW to be able to grow such a beautiful array of vegetables for our community.  From berries and melons to brassicas and winter squash we can grow just about anything here! Every season we try out a few dozen or so new veggies and varieties.  Making our seed list in January is one of our favorite things to do in the winter… checking our notes and remembering which varieties grew the best, tasted the best etc.  What we’re some of your favorite veggies this season?

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Keep Moving forward.  We’ve made some awesome headway on building winter housing for the animals in the barn.  Ellie & Maribelle’s spacious stall is built out and then we’ll continue on with the pig stalls in hopes of moving everybody over at the end of the week.  We’ve moved all our hens over this weekend into their new coop far away from the barn (and are so happy we’ll never have to do THAT again.. what a ta-do…).  They seem to love the new coop and have plenty of space in there.  With breezy windows, better roosts and egg boxes what’s not to like?  Plus, we’re pretty pumped that we can “build stuff now.”  The year of learning (all around).

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Ending the season with a bang.  Looks like we’re in for a chilly double harvest for our last CSA week (with temps in the 40’s during the day and high 20’s at night).  But, luckily, for us, we have our dear friend – Farmer Beth – who will be helping out with our double harvest and with her help we haven’t any doubts that cold, wind, rain, or double harvest will slow us down!  All the hard work will keep us nice and warm anyway…

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Winter Veggies & Eggs. We’ll keep everyone updated about any veggies we may have available during the month of December.  Eggs will be available for purchase during the Winter and Spring months as well and will be taking orders via email!

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2014 CSA sign-ups will begin in January and we’ll keep everyone in the loop (our members will have the first chance to sign-up before we open it up to the public). Whoo hoo!  We’re excited to overhaul the website, make a new farm-y video and nestle in a bit and get creative!  Keep in touch with your farmers through our website, facebook and instagram!

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Crates.  Just a friendly reminder to return any CSA crates – that you may have at home – this week!  We’re missing a dozen or so and are hoping to get them all back as it’s the last week for pick-up.  This week’s “double share” pick-up will be in the barn (just too many goodies to fit under the shade structure) and there will be a spot to leave them there.  If you have any at home be sure to set them out or put them in your car to make it easy!  Thanks so much in advance.

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Hope it’s a great start to the week.   We look forward to seeing you all soon!

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Many thanks and the happiest of holidays next week,

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your farmers

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Jess & Brian

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dirty hands, clean hearts

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