Fall newsletter
Hey everyone,
Wrapping up share season
We have been blessed with some recent warm, sunny weather which is great for the continued growth of our crops. While our share season has pretty much wrapped up, we have a large amount of produce left. We offered our shareholders the opportunity to purchase a bonus share following the completion of our official 17 week CSA distribution.
This week we will be offering other opportunities for shareholders and non-shareholders to purchase or even pick their own veggies! Like we stated before, we have many vegetables left and we don’t want any of them to go to waste. We are having another round of ‘bonus' shares for Queensbury shareholders and North Creek shareholders this week for those who want them. If you are a shareholder and want a share this week please send Paul an email. We are also having a self-service farm stand that is open tomorrow (10/14) from 10 am-1:30 pm and then on Sunday (10/17) from 10 am-4 pm. The farm stand will also be open on Monday and Tuesday of next week (hours tbd).
Garden and Field Clean-Out (Pulling up Plants and Continued Harvests)
We are still harvesting lots of beans, kohlrabi, tomatoes, lettuce, kale, herbs, beets, pumpkins and squash! We have also been paying attention to our indoor crops that are growing in our greenhouses. We are currently growing tomatoes, kale, onions, parsley, and kohlrabi in our greenhouses! We are hoping that these crops will continue to grow into the late fall and early winter.
We have been composting older plants and produce that are past their peak. We have been giving lots of old greens and imperfect veggies to our hens. The calcium in kale helps the hens maintain strong, thick egg shells.
Another important part of garden clean out is the tilling of our fields to break up insect and pest breeding grounds. Other clean up includes: pulling out garden row covers, disinfecting our picking containers and garden implements, and cleaning out our share delivery coolers.
Prepping seeds for next year (Tomatoes and Green Beans)
This year we are trying to extract seeds from our existing tomatoes and green beans. This past week we filled a basket full of dry, brown beans. These old green beans are now drying in the basement with the hope that they will become brittle. Eventually the individual beans will be extracted from their pods and used to plant green beans next season.
Some tomatoes are now undergoing a similar process of drying. Their seeds will have to be dredged out as well. We are hoping to plant another successful crop of tomatoes next year with the seeds we obtain from this process.
Washing seedling containers
Like we mentioned before we have been busy cleaning our plastic seed containers. We have flats and cells of varying sizes to sanitize. We clean these every year so that we can reuse them for the next growing season.
For this process, we start by allowing our seed containers to dry outside or in a dry place. Then we put them in a mixture of bleach and water. After they soak we place them in a vat of clean water so they can rinse off. Once they have soaked for long enough we place them in one of our greenhouses and allow them to dry out. Lastly, we stack up all of the containers, place them in storage and wait until the spring to use them once again!
As many of you know, we have both pigs and chickens at the farm during the spring and summer months. We just received five of our processed pigs from Plattsburgh, New York. The second batch of pigs were just brought to the processor and we are waiting for them to be processed.
We have a new batch of 46 chicks. These hens will be next year's laying hens! We are also raising 43 Cornish Cross Meat birds. These birds will be ready for pick up on November 4th. These birds eat all day and all night and they are getting big very quickly!
Planning for next season
Believe it or not, we are already preparing for our next growing season. While there are many different parts and stages of this preparation, we usually begin with our clean up and then transition into our seed order and greenhouse maintenance, that will get us ready for next season.
Another thing that helps refresh farm workers is time away from the farm doing different things. Not only does this give workers time to decompress and relax, but it gives them time to reflect on the season.
We also want to hear what you, as the reader or as the shareholder or as the friend, thought of our work this year. We would love to receive any and all feedback from those who are willing to provide it!
If you had a CSA share from this past growing season PLEASE fill out our shareholder survey. Here is the link:
If you are a non-shareholder, please give us feedback by commenting on this blog post or through Instagram DM. We would love to hear from everyone who is impacted by the farm, either virtually or in-person.
More opportunities for getting your daily veggies in!
We can’t stress enough how many veggies we still have leftover from our growing season! Recently, we have been brainstorming more ways to avoid wasting the produce that we still have left in the ground and in storage at CCF. As of now we are planning on executing another BONUS CSA share distribution for both Queensbury and North Creek. If you are NOT signed up for a share, but want a share this week PLEASE let us know and we will work with you to make it happen! Send us an email or Instagram DM if interested.
Part of CCF’s mission is to be as environmentally friendly as possible and in order to do that we want to reduce our food waste! We will also be hosting a road side self-service farm stand this week. The exact times for this farm stand are still to be determined, but they will be posted on the blog and on Instagram in separate posts this week!
Happy fall!
Lastly, we just want to say happy fall to all! Thank you to our shareholders, blog readers, Instagram and Facebook followers, family, and friends for supporting CCF. Your support fuels the success and growth that is CCF ADK. So thank you many times over!
Get outside, enjoy the unseasonably warm temperatures and be grateful.
All the best,
CCF
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