This Year and Our Year of ReBuilding

2047 W. 10000N Rd., Manteno, IL

Fellow peasants, our year is coming to a close! We will miss sharing our harvests and hope your experience with us was nothing but positive and enriching. 

Remember that as a CSA shareholder you are participating in something Good. It is the most direct way to know your food source and to support local farmers. Remember that you have the actual address of the soil from which your vegetables grow! You have your farmers' phone number. You know where we live. And where we drink beer on Thursday night.*
I am reminding you of these things because I have a request. This fall and winter, pay attention to your produce.  Wonder about the conditions under which it was grown: where, how, and by whom. Where do those farmers drink beer on Thursday night?  Please do this in a light-hearted way, not obsessively. Just a constant, respectful inquiry. 

Share your CSA experience with friends and family and what you discovered about food. 

Share a kale recipe with someone who says they don't like kale.

Remember how great it feels to have ownership over what you eat.  

THANK YOU from our hearts.

*at the Hideout, one of our CSA pick-up locations 

Now.....
let's analyze!

This Season’s Retrospective and Some News:  Our Year of ReBuilding

Well, we had a pretty good year! We were especially happy with our potato crop and got great compliments on our carrots and garlic—thank you again. Chard made a real comeback from last year and flourished. And we have been very happy to discover our favorite crop of all: the “braising mix” recently renamed “Snackable Kale.”

Our main challenge this year, as most of you know by now, was the wet spring that left us about 3 weeks behind in planting. That turned out to be more of a challenge than the drought last year! We also had a crazy amount of cucumber beetles this year. I cannot even tell you. I can tell you that their diet is not necessarily restricted to cucumbers.

We were disappointed in our tomato crop due to the late planting. Great memories of our glut in 2011 have prompted us to develop systems to ensure many more gluts in the future.

In between hours of harvesting and planting, and in light of our challenges, Todd and I undertook a serious analysis of our business. After much hair-pulling (our own, not eachothers), we made the decision to continue our investment in farm infrastructure.  Big time. We decided to Go Big or Go Home (while staying small).

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN????

All this means is that next year--just next year, just 2014-- we will be limiting our planting to late-season crops.  This will permit various construction goals and projects. At minimum, these projects are: 

• High Tunnels!!!!!! (for tomato production in particular)
• Walk-in Cooler
• Mechanized system for bed-making/mulch laying
• Root crop washer
• More cover cropping

Our crop focus for 2014 will be mostly tomatoes, so we are calling it our "Year of the Tomato."  We are selling Royal Tomato Shares for 2014. Take note that this is our only CSA share we are offering for next year. This was not an easy decision since many of you have been with us for 2-5 years and we hate to break the continuity.  Consider buying a tomato share from us and then supplementing with our occasional crops at market (Lincoln Square).  I also recommend finding a CSA that breaks up its season in a way that allows you to stay with us in the fall and experience another farm in the spring/early summer. Or take next season to explore different farmers markets.  Feel free to contact me, Julia, directly with any concerns and questions about next year--I may have more suggestions. Tomato Shares are now on sale and are being sold on a first-come-first-served basis!  We recommend signing up now if you know you want to be a part of it.

Stay with us!  Let’s prove together that this CSA nonsense is the real deal. Please trust that we will be back with our full spectrum of crops in 2015.  

We remain committed to CSA farming and its place in our lives. We hope you feel the same, because it won’t work otherwise. We thank you again for your committment this year. 

Your dedicated peasants,

Todd and Julia

And Merle.