CSA Signup Time! The Growing Season is Starting!

Spring is here on the farm! We've been putting in quite a bit of time into the field recently, as you can see below.

Also, if you haven't already done so, it's time to signup for our CSA! Being part of our CSA is a great way to get chemical-free, fresh, local produce each week all summer long. We still have shares available for this season and would love to have you be part of our farm. To get more info and see the short video CNN did on us, click here.

It's time to till up the ground! This spring warmth and dryness has been especially early, making it nice to plant.

Timothy secures the irrigation tape on the plastic mulch layer so we'll be able to water th plants in the summer if needed.

I'll have to admit, my younger brother, Philip, lays a straighter plastic row than I do, so I usually have him do it, which he of course likes.

We used to do transplanting by hand, but that was before we started renting this machine!

Instead of pushing yourself along on the ground, all you have to do is sit back in your "easy chair" and put the plants in the machine made and watered holes. Well, it's not all that easy, but it's a world better than most of the other alternatives!

We can plant 2000-3000 plants an hour with this!

On this particular day we planted around 3000 heads of lettuce.

Yes, technology, if  used properly, is a great thing!

We also planted 300lbs of potatoes (nearly 1 mile of row) in 1/2 an hour.

(Photo from 2011)

We're raising our own pigs this year! Hogs are a lot of fun to raise, though they eat you out of house and home if you let them.

So, to help compensate with this, we're trying to feed them as much of our scrap produce as possible. Another benefit of this system, in addition to healthier pork, is all our leftover and scrap vegetables can be turned into great tasting bacon and sausage!

A few of our seeds...

Elise loves to help where she can!

Our family - I love them!

So thank you for supporting us in the life we love - being a family and farming!

Hope to see you before long as the produce grows and the CSA gets under way!

What it Takes to Put Together a CSA Box

It usually takes us the better part of two days, Monday and Tuesday, to pick, wash, and package all the produce for the CSA.

Corn is always picked the day we deliver it - making it extra delicious.

When corn is available, we usually pick 22 dozen (approx. 260 ears) at a time.

And there's a lot on your knees...

(Beans are being picked in this photo.)

... and bending over picking.

(Cucumbers are being picked in this photo.)

There are usually 3-4 people working each Tuesday to prepare the CSA.

Once the produce is picked it needs washed.

This can be quite a nice job on a hot day!

Tomatoes are typically wiped with a damp cloth to remove the dirt. Washing them this way is much better than putting them in a tub of water and rolling them around because it keeps them from becoming bruised. 

Eggplant just need a fast rinse.

All of our produce, after it's been picked, needs to be sorted.

The next step is to set all the boxes out, which can take 15-30 minutes.

On Tuesdays, we pack 14 full-share boxes and 33 half-share boxes, making a total of 47 boxes!

Next, we go down the line and try to put the same number vegetables in each box (i.e. 4 tomatoes for a half-share, 8 tomatoes for a full-share).

Red potatoes

So, here's your box (Aug. 10th)!

Do you understand a little more now what goes on behind the scenes to get your vegetables to you?

We enjoy it a lot!

~ Jonathan

True Producer/Customer Relationships!

Gift from CSA members for our little, darling Elise!

Now this is what I call a real producer/customer relationship!

Thank you so much everyone who gave us this gift! We very much appreciate you thinking of your farmers in this way. It's certainly not every day the supermarket does this for you!

The peas were very plentiful this year, peaking about a week ago. But now they are almost done, and are making room for more crops. There won't be very many, if any for today's CSA shares.

Samuel, hard at work picking peas

Last Friday, we started digging the first, new potatoes! And, wow, they are good when you fry them up with some green onions, garlic, and seasonings in olive oil!

Washing the green onions

Packing the CSA boxes (something I'll be doing later today)

Thank you everyone for your amazing support of us!

Jonathan, Monique, and Elise Einwechter