First share pickup is Oct. 26 in Arlington, Nov 2 in Canton, Jp, and Bay End. We now also have a deep winter share, so you can sign up for 2, 3, 4, or 5 months, depending upon your needs. Deadline for signup is Oct. 22 for 3 month shares and Nov 10 for 2 month (Nov/Dec) shares. Here is the online signup form sharedharvestcsa.csasignup.com
Now this from Rob at Riverland Farm–primary growers for Shared Harvest, Rob and Meghan are awaiting their second born (along with 2 1/2 year old Cayden).
Dear Friends,
We spent the last few weeks thoroughly enjoying day after day of sunny and warm weather. Most mornings started with a dense fog that settled close to the river and engulfed the farmstead. The fog is eerie and wonderful at the same time. The dew is heavy and gradually dissipates along with the fog as the sun pokes through to introduce another beautiful fall day. This was the pattern seemingly stuck on a loop for the last 3 weeks in mother nature’s weather bank. We’ll take it!
… and we did. The rain finally fell this Friday, heavy at times but overall not an unwelcome amount.
The extended dry period we experienced was perfect for getting the harvest in and getting all manner of other projects done on the farm. The sweet potatoes are harvested and curing in the greenhouse, we also pulled in a good chunk of the potato field with the help of our “new” potato digger (which was probably pulled by a horse at some point in it’s illustrious career). I wrote a little about this potato digger a few weeks ago before we had actually used it. Prior to sinking this hunk of metal in the dirt I had ample skepticism regarding how it was going to function and preconceived notions of how much of a headache it was going to be… I stopped short of taking bets on how many row feet we could dig before it broke the first time. Well about 5,000 row feet later we were still digging with no breakage. The harvest isn’t that much faster than how we were doing it in the past but it is certainly easier on our bodies. With the multitude of farm tasks that we do that are hard on our bodies we always welcome one that is easier. People ask us from time to time how we harvest a certain crop. The answer 99% of the time is… with our hands or with a knife, this machine is actually the only mechanical harvester that we employ on the farm.
Speaking of harvests… the one harvest that’s been at the forefront of our minds for the last few weeks has yet to come. You may remember that I wrote back in June about the butternut squash and our new baby arriving around the same time… Well it’s been over two weeks since we picked that butternut and this baby is still in the oven. I suspect it has something to do with wanting to avoid being named or nicknamed something silly to do with squash… smart kid. So now that ample time has passed since the squash harvest and we’ve doubled down on our promise not to name him or her “pumpkin” or “butternut” we feel like the waiting game is nearing an end.
Patience is a necessary attribute of a farmer. The are infinite parallels between growing and nurturing vegetables and the process of growing and nurturing a baby. While there are some things that are immediate on the farm (e.g. a windstorm knocking down the tomatoes) most things happen gradually and only after many steps. Our shortest vegetables from seed to harvest (salad greens) still take 25 days; an eternity in the instantaneous world we live in. So I guess some way we’ve been primed to patiently await harvests such as this… even if we still get impatient waiting in line at the RMV. This slow cooking baby has certainly allowed us to tie up many more loose ends on the farm. While it might not have been the most pleasant course for Meghan at least we can feel comfortable knowing that our capable crew will have no trouble holding down the fort when the baby comes.
We hope you enjoy the harvest
On behalf of the farm crew Dave, Christine, Jason, Andrew, Juan, Andres, Eduardo, Kristen, and Amanda
Your Farmers,
Rob, Meghan, and Cayden
Shared Harvest CSA 