Hi Everyone,
This is just a short note to mention a couple of things, but mostly to send out the survey. Tonight I disked until 8:30 (yes, the JD has lights) and finally had to stop because of . . . can you believe it, RAIN! Never has it felt so good. Like children who can’t sleep at night because of their excitement over a snowfall, I probably won’t sleep tonight, listening to see if I can still hear the pitter patter of raindrops.
1. Survey
I can’t believe I forgot it (again). Well, somehow in the rush of a Tuesday morning harvest day, I neglected to copy off the survey for direct distribution at the market. So here it is, at the bottom of this newsletter.
This survey is important to us. We rely on these surveys to know what we need to do more of, and what we need to do differently. So please open the attached survey and return it to the survey box in the barn when you pick-up next week (or, for delivery members, mail in using the attached envelope). The surveys are anonymous, so please don’t identify yourself (unless you would like a personal response).
2. Quantity of u-pick items this year
As you all know, the quantity of u-pick this year has been a bit much. And in general the share has been larger this year than in years past, and is probably a bit larger than it will be in the future. We’re just having an extraordinarily good year. No doubt the great weather (coupled with our commitment to irrigate as much and as often as it takes) is part of the reason for our success this year. We also believe that our very aggressive spring-time mineralization project, which covered all of our cultivated acreage, is paying off. In any event, the boxes are getting large, and the u-pick list, long.
We have to be careful here, as we don’t want to contribute to CSA-inflation. We know that this season the membership has been a “good deal”, even though we started off slowly. And this is true even if the membership is only considered at its market value, ignoring the more important issues of eating locally and supporting sustainable agriculture. But we’ve asked our members to stand by us during leaner years, and they have. Maybe in the future, with better soil and water management we can come to expect the better returns that we are seeing now. But this year we didn’t quite expect what we got, and we’re sharing in the abundance.
3. Can we “share” our share?
In a year like this, when the shares are larger, we are always asked if members can share their shares. That’s a bit of a tricky question, although the answer is not tricky at all: it is quite clear. Once you take your share from the farm, and always when you get your delivery box (if you do that), you are free to do whatever you want with your share—you can share it in any way you want to, with whoever and as many people as you want to. So, in that way, you can “share” your share. But what we can’t have is our farm pick-up members joining the CSA “jointly” and then coming to the farm rotationally. We’ve had a (very) few people over the years lobby for a third, smaller share size. We’re sympathetic to that voice, but there really are very, very few people who want that. We just can’t meet the needs of everyone. We try to accommodate as many people as we can, and to make the CSA work easily for as many as we can. Fortunately we have found enough families for whom our CSA works well to make our farm viable.
If you would like to better understand the reasons for our policy on the sharing of shares, please see our CSA handbook (it’s on our web page: www.jubileefarm.org).
4. The Goof-Proof Policy
The “goof-proof” policy is in effect all the time at Jubilee Farm. We talk about it a lot during the off-season sessions, when we have to buy our produce. But not so much during our main, Summer Session—at least not until we get to melon time. For those of you who are new, this is the way it works. If you get something from Jubilee Farm, either in a box or something you pick up at the farm, and you get home and find for some reason it is not usable, we will replace it without charge and without question.
I don’t think it would be fair to say this sort of thing happens “often” during the Fall/Winter/Spring Sessions, but it does happen. And when it happens, we ask our members to send us an e-mail to let us know. The item is replaced in the member’s next box. It happens pretty rarely when members pick up their own produce (except in the situation I describe below), but if it does, all the member needs to do is tell us the next week about the item, and it will be replaced without charge and without question.
So, what’s that one situation? Melons. I’ve harvested melons for many years, and I’ve cut into “questionable” melons hundreds of times. I’ve also benefited from the expertise of some very experienced melon harvesters. And after all is said and done, and after every technique is employed, I know that I can’t tell 100% of the time whether a melon (watermelon or cantaloupe) is “ready.” Moreover, I believe that no one else can either. What I do know is that some members are going to take home a melon they believe to be “perfect,” and it will be too ripe, or not ripe enough. I’m not happy about it, but it will happen. This is something we can’t avoid, hard as we try (and we do try); but we can mitigate the disappointment, and we do, with the “goof proof” policy.
If you have a disappointment with a melon, please utilize the remedy. It will make us happy if you do, and remind us that although we’re right some of the time we’re not right all the time! If you are a delivery member, drop us a note (jubileefarm@hotmail.com) and we’ll make an “adjustment” to your next box. We really are serious about this. If you don’t tell us you got a bad melon (or anything else), you deprive us of the opportunity to serve you the way we would like to. So, don’t be selfish by “enduring” a bad melon! Help us to do what we want to!
5. Beef and Pork this year
We’ve had a lot of inquiries about beef and pork. We will be selling our two pigs at the end of the season (four sides). But we’ve decided not to sell the beef this year. In some ways (i.e. financial) that was a hard decision. But if you read the last update about the composting experience we had, I think you’ll understand. We need to winter more animals in the loafing shed so we can get the manure in the spring for compost. The cows are a big part of our future fertility program, and until we build the herd to a larger size, we’ll probably hold as many of them as possible over until the spring. We will be selling at least three steers next year, just about the time we begin our CSA.
6. Potluck Reminder - September 23rd
This is a reminder for those of you interested in our potluck to “save the date.” That date is: September 23rd. It’s a ways away, but if you’re like us, those weekends in September fill up quickly. We hope a lot of you can make it out. The potluck dinner starts at 5:00, but the pre-dinner activities start at 2:00. The last couple of years we've had a lot of fun shelling beans and edamame for next year's seed. And for those with more energy we also try to at least get a good start on putting together the hay maze in the loft of the barn. This year the hay maze is going to be a bit of a challenge, as we put up over a thousand bales of hay as winter feed for the cattle. So we'll have to work around that! It should be interesting and a lot of fun!
Erick and Wendy Haakenson
Note - the survey starts below, thanks for filling it out and putting it in the survey box in the barn when you pick up your produce next week.
2006 MID-SEASON SURVEY
Because we think the cup is still “half-full,” we’d like your input on the first half of the season. We take the responses of our members very seriously, and although we can’t grant everyone’s wish, we certainly read these surveys carefully and act on them when we can.
I am a (please circle one): farm pick-up member delivery member
1. Are you satisfied with the quality of the produce you have received so far?
2. Are there items you get too much or too little of?
3. All things considered, do you believe your support of our farm is a wise expenditure of your money?
4. Would you recommend our farm to your friends?
5. Are there specific items that you would like to see us grow (or grow more of)?
6. Are there specific things we could do to improve the quality and/or the distribution of our produce?
7. Do you have any other comments you would like to pass on to us?