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 Mark your Calendars!  Our 2018 CSA sign-ups will begin on January 1st.  Pictured above are all 28 shares from the 2017 growing season!

 

Hi Friends & Farm-ily,

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Happy Thanksgiving!  We can hardly believe it has been 28 weeks since the start of 2017 harvest season!  We are proud to say that this season was our best season to date and that we grow better and work smarter each and every year.  As farmers, every season that we farm proves to be an incredible journey with so many things to learn and many delicious farmgrown goodies to grow.  Thanks for believing in your farmers every step of the way and for being a constant reminder of why we do what we do each morning when we rise.  We look forward to serving this community for years to come.  We think y’all are the bees-knees.

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We’re finishing up our 8th season as Working Hands Farm which is crazy to think about.  In 8 years we’ve harvested 16,000 individual CSA shares and over 450,000lbs of produce.  This Spring/Summer/Fall alone we’ve harvested 3,400 individual shares from May through November!

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We’ve been really thrilled with the CSA shares this season – definitely our best yet –  especially considering the incredibly wet and wild spring we had (wondering at some point in March if all we’d have for the first CSA was lettuce and radishes!) and the hot and dry summer.  It’s been awesome to take a look back on the CSA share pictures over the past few seasons to see the impact of all the systems, the knowledge and know how and how they have come together.  One of the reasons we take weekly pictures of the CSA shares is so that we have something tangible to look at at the end of the season.  It’s become a huge resource for us as farmers… where we look at it over the winter and say “awesome, we had 17 weeks of broccoli last season..let’s do it again!” or “let’s work real hard and figure out how to have more Spring/early summer carrots when they can be so labor intensive (due to cooler +wetter soils = poorer germination and more weeds that outcompete the crop)”  (2017 FARMER MAGIC: WE HAD CARROTS FOR 26 WEEKS THIS YEAR!) It’s a pretty invaluable tool for us as we continue to grow better and work smarter and are able to offer a stellar product to our members year round.

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January King Cabbages and romanesco broccoli looking spot on for Winter harvest and Ahab taking in the view…

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Some interesting highlights from this year’s Spring/Summer/Fall harvest (we’ve harvested..):

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 Carrots for 26 shares,

 Broccoli for 17 shares, 

Tomatoes for 13 shares, 

Sweet Corn for 8 shares, 

Onions for 26 shares (*Also, twice the amount per week+ as last season!), 

Zucchini/Squash/Cukes for 14 shares, 

Garlic for 26 shares, 

Mixed fruit (strawberries, plums, cantaloupe & watermelon) for 11 shares, 

Mixed Peppers for 16 shares, 

Cauliflower for 8 shares, 

Winter squash for 10 shares, 

Beets for 15 shares, 

Mixed Bunch Greens for 22 shares, 

Lettuce for 19 shares, 

Bagged Greens (spinach, arugula etc) for 15 shares 

Cabbage for 6 shares,

Sweet Potatoes/Potatoes for 6 shares, 

Eggplant for 10 shares, 

Tomatillos, Fennel & Kohlrabi  for 5 shares and on and on and on!

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There was an average of 16 items per share over the course of the season!

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2017 was one for the books!  And we think you’ll be amazed at our total CSA numbers this year… (keep reading for the total lbs produced as well as CSA cost breakdown below..)

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stormy weather putting on a show as we wrap up harvest last week

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Mark your Calendars!  Our 2018 CSA sign-ups will begin on January 1st.  Our 2017 members will have the opportunity to sign up for a share before we open it up to the public. Whoo hoo!  Until then, keep in touch with your farmers through our website, facebook and instagram! And for half of you we’ll see you in the coming weeks with the start of our Winter CSA!

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We hope you all had an inspiring journey during our 28-week CSA season.  Whether it be your first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh season at WHF we hope many meals were shared and enjoyed in the warmth of your kitchen, that you enjoyed expanding your veggie horizons with new varieties, flavors and methods of preparation, found inspiration in becoming a more confident cook and feel really good about where you’re at in your own personal food journey.  We hope you will be thinking of the Spring and Summer goodies fondly come the middle of winter… we’ll all be dreaming of tomatoes and freshly picked goodies come the middle of January <sigh>.

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Thank you for being part of this farm, and the WHF farm-ily!

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So, without further ado, the final numbers are in for the Spring/Summer/Fall CSA Season..

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Over the course of our 28-week Spring/Summer/Fall Season your farmers grew and harvested…

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98,000 lbs of produce!

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Over the course of our 28-week 2017 CSA season your farmers have harvested and distributed 98,000lbs of freshly picked, organic, thoughtfully grown produce to our CSA members.

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That’s 816lbs of produce per weekly share which means our members paid $1.48/lb for all their fresh, local, organic produce this season.

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(Some high fives- all around -are definitely in order!)

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The upcoming winter season just got a whole lot sweeter with all these varieties of winter squash

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All while supporting the ecosystem of this farm, two full time farmers by ensuring a livable wage (+ a part time employee), and the best possible produce you can find…Amazing! FYI: the total lbs of produce per weekly share in 2014 was 675lbs @ $1.74 per lb, in 2015 it was 771lbs @ $1.52 per lb and in 2016 it was 778lbs @ $1.49.

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From Spring to Fall, the shares averaged 28lbs (with lighter shares in the Spring and heavier shares in the late summer and Fall) and included 12-20 items (on average throughout the season it was 16 items) with a great variety of crops and delicious tasting veggies that have inspired many fantastic home cooked meals.

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This November view made me think of this Kurt Vonnegut quote, “And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.’” 

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We love our little corner of the World, our community that surrounds us, our friends, family and farm-ily members that all believe in us and the food we work hard to provide.  We’ve been enjoying the variety (over 70+ 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 to brassicas to winter squash and tomatoes we can grow just about anything here! Every season we try out a few dozen or so new veggies and varietals.  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.  In the coming months we look forward to sitting down and beginning that process all over again.

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A BIG thank you!  Thank you all for being a part of our story, for supporting your local farm (and farmers), for buying direct, for believing in the small farm and for choosing to feed your household with the best possible farm fresh produce that you can both know and trust.

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“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist 

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From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.  We are just so proud of our members and are constantly inspired by all that you accomplish from season to season!  Your commitment to eating well and nourishing yourselves and loved ones takes time, thoughtfulness, motivation, energy and inspiration.  We are only as successful as the community that surrounds us, so, thank you for all your inspiration, dedication and commitment in being a part of our CSA.  We look forward to cultivating these relationships into the future by growing the best possible products for you, your family and friends.  Know your farmer, know your food.

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After 8 months (!!) of CSA pick up you have come to know and trust your farmers.  We never missed a harvest day and always worked our hardest to ensure that our members had the best possible CSA experience.  You were there every step of the way and we appreciate all your support, the time you took to share your food journeys, the little notes of encouragement and everything in-between.  We look forward to sign-ups in January and the start of the 2018 season!

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Becca and I between storms during last week’s harvest, more cauliflower is heading up and playing some cribbage with B..

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Our 2018 CSA sign-ups will begin on January 1st.  Spread the good word!  Word of mouth is the best way to help us grow and sustain our small farm. Please share our website (workinghandsfarm.com), forward this email and encourage interested friends, family, neighbors & community etc… in signing up for their CSA share next season!  Many thanks for your help from all of us at Working Hands.

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Happy Holidays to you all!   Our 18-week Winter CSA begins after the Thanksgiving Holiday so to our winter veggie eaters this is not the end!

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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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