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“We have the world to live in on the condition that we will take good care of it. And to take good care of it we have to know it. And to know it and to be willing to take care of it, we have to love it.” – Wendell Berry

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Hi Friends & Farm-ily,

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Firstly, wow! We’ve had an amazing response for our upcoming Winter CSA and we are ¾ of the way FULL!  There are still shares available and we’d love for you to join us for the Winter season!   To read more about the Winter CSA details visit this link:  https://workinghandsfarm.com/winter-csa/

 

  • The WHF Winter CSA will run from November 28th – April 11th – a total of 18 Weekly Shares or 9 Bi-Weekly Shares!

 

  • We’re offering two Winter CSA options: Weekly for $756 & Bi-Weekly for $490.

 

  • CSA pick ups will take place on Tuesday’s & Wednesday’s at the farm from 3:00-6:30pm.  *note: There will not be a CSA pick up the week of Christmas (12/26 & 12/27) or January 1st  (1/2 & 1/3)

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White Satin Carrots in the barrel washer, corn with the hazy smoky hot sunset, ahab staying cool because he is cool!

 

How to Sign Up?  Fill out the Winter CSA Member Agreement here: https://workinghandsfarm.com/winter-csa-sign-up/

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Spread the good word!  Word of mouth is the best way to help us grow and sustain our small farm. Please share the link, forward this email and encourage interested friends, family, neighbors & community etc… in signing up for their CSA share.  Many thanks for your help from all of us at Working Hands.

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Now onto some updates from the farm!  

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We hope you all made it through that insane triple digit heat wave last week!  The ten day still has us in the mid-high 90’s for a bit so it appears that August is coming in hot! Seriously though, on Thursday it reached 107 on the farm, which is just too hot. On Wednesday’s harvest day we reached 106! In order to avoid the hotter part of the day especially with fresh harvest we’ve been getting up at 4:00-4:30am and have been getting harvest done by noon which makes a huge difference. The temperature between the hours of 11-noon spike 10 degrees so it’s important for the veggies (and the farmers) that everything be washed and chilled before then. The pole building has been amazing throughout the heat wave so far. We’ve been opening it up in the early morning hours to cool things off and then close it up to keep it passively cool throughout the day. It’s been averaging 80 degrees in there while it’s 100+ degrees outside so we’ve been pretty happy about that. Not to mention the super chilled veggies + insulated building have been keeping the veggies cool during CSA pick ups. That’s a big win-win!

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One of the cool new varieties of hot peppers (Buena Mulata) from Baker Creek Seeds, seeding the carrots, big happy shallots!

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This hot weather is giving us major flashbacks to the 2015 growing season (el nino) and the hottest summer ever. We are better prepared for it this time around but working in the heat is no joke. Our biggest priority is watering and keeping all the plants roots cool. Most of our crops are on drip irrigation… we have been staying on top of giving the plants a nice deep soak with the ol’ drip tape by turning on individual blocks of plants – we love drip – especially in the summer because it puts water exactly where it needs to be (instead of over head watering the pathways etc), much less likely to evaporate than overhead sprinklers, way less moving around pipes and overhead sprinkler setups (which is quite the laborious task in the dead heat of summer) and helps to practice better water conservation (Fun fact: did you know that according to the EPA drip tape uses 50% of the water that sprinklers use?). Having drip all set up and ready to go under the plant also helps us to maintain some balance with the extremes that this season’s weather brings!  Feeling prepared and ready is worth it’s weight in gold when it comes to extreme weather events etc.

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Over the past few weekends we planted out a few rounds of Fall crops:  kale, romanesco, cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage– over 7600 row ft/6100 plants!!!!  We still have loads more to plant over the next few weekends… storage crops, roots, our a third fall succession of broccoli, cauliflower and romanesco etc.  So. Many. Plants.   We started our overwintering crops last month– purple sprouting broccoli and ow cauliflower too!  And got our final round of storage carrots seeded (1,800 row ft) that we will hopefully flame in the next few days.  Our big bulk harvest of potatoes and onions is coming up this week and next… it will sure feel good to get the ball rolling with those major crops. So many things to look forward to checking off the list!

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So much bounty this time of the season and the prop house is brimming with healthy happy babies!  

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July and August are the peak of the season for us.. our biggest planting pushes for Fall and Winter as well as the heavy harvests of summer. In the midst of all the excitement it’s always important to take a moment and appreciate what we’re accomplishing on the farm… We’re farming over 8 acres this season and we’re set to harvest well over 100,000lbs of veggies in just the Spring/Summer/Fall season alone/feeding over 550 individuals. It feels pretty darn amazing.

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In order to sustainably farm through the crazy summer’s it’s important for us to check in with ourselves and one another. To recognize when the day is done and if we need breaks or a moment to ourselves (that doesn’t involve farming etc). We prioritize eating as many delicious homemade meals that we can (it’d be impossible to do what we do without proper nourishment!)   We do our best to dole out high fives, check in with each other and tell each other that their doing an amazing job.  We’re definitely getting closer to what the big picture answer is in relation to the workload that we currently have going and we are confident that in the foreseeable future the balance will come and our goals will realign more than ever before.  We certainly know what we can accomplish when the two of us put our heads together… now more than ever it just feels right to reel it in and realign!  We’re in it for the long haul and we love growing and raising the best possible food for our community that we can.  A BIG THANK YOU to our members and surrounding community all for your encouragement and excitement this season!  We’ve seriously loved every second of it and it truly makes our day when we see what everyone is cooking up in the CSA Member Page.  It connects all the dots.

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It’s officially tomato time!  Planting and prepping before the sun goes down and waking before the sun rises…

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Full Hearts. We also celebrated our three year anniversary as a married couple last Wednesday. Hard to believe we even pulled off getting married in the beginning of August (it’s just too crazy to think about). Thank goodness for all the friends and family who came and lent a hand the days leading up to it… I always think fondly of that time and experience and it’s definitely one of my favorite memories of our wedding. Besides marrying my best friend, of course.

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So many things have happened in the course of 3 years of marriage (+the 3 1/2 years before that). Its been a wild ride and I feel so thankful that I have someone like Brian to move through these days with – there sure is something special and sacred that we share between us and I thank my lucky stars for the universe bringing us together. Farming is a mutual passion for both of us and one of the main reasons our paths first crossed. He is my other half (sometimes my better half) and my favorite person and I feel so lucky to walk through this life with him.  As he once said to me just a week or so after being married, “It does feel different being married. It feels complete.”   This man, this place, us. To begin and end my days with him makes all of life’s sweetness even sweeter. We live, we work, we grow and we flourish – together. It’s a beautiful and quick lifetime here on Earth.. and he is my constant reminder to enjoy every second of it.

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A few pictures captured by friends on our wedding day… 

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I wanted to share a poem that Farmer B (the english major) wrote about our first anniversary… it’s a good’un…

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“1st anniversary

We will mark this occasion by planting Fall crops,

Into freshly turned soil that has been given time.

By rotating our cows and pigs onto fresh grass that has regrown after,

A quick first pass in the cool spring.

And by tending to our flock of hens, watching them,

Watching their newly hatched chicks discover the world,

Learning to hide under mother hen as the Red Tails call.

We will celebrate this day by doing what needs to be done

By setting future failures aside and focusing on the tasks at hand.

Making our way past the English Hawthorns down to the river and back.

We will do what gives us gravity, a place, a home and

Gratitude.

“Farm sweet Farm” said the screen print set in a good solid frame.

Our first wedding gift.

After eating a good breakfast made with all good things,

We will make a list and make priorities,

And prioritize the things that cannot wait.

We will work side by side,

Begging the farm to give us permission.

Thinking of all the friends and our family that we carry with us.

And we will first work under the light of the blue moon,

As the crickets drowned the noisiness of the world,

And we will sleep deeply with gratitude for all we have been given.

To adventure and to those endless possibilities.

We will celebrate this day by doing.” #endlesspossibilities #whfwedding

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The view from the hot pepper patch, the eye of sauron rising in the east and Ahab trying to keep cool on the triple digit days!  

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We hope you’ve been enjoying the bounty of summer and hope that you are all staying cool and eating real good! Until next time….

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With kind regards,

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Your Farmers

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Jess & Brian

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dirty hands, clean hearts

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