This week’s harvest: watermelon radishes!, pumpkins, brussel sprouts, collards, kale, cabbage, buttercup squash, parsley, peppers, eggplant, garlic, onion, cucumbers, tomatoes

It’s really here, the last week of the 2014 CSA! The task always seems so daunting at the beginning of the season – how will we ever get all the work done?  Maybe for you, you’re relieved too; no longer will you be trying to figure out how to get through all those veggies before the next load comes in!  For us the first frost signals a dramatic change in our daily lives.  We will have more time for each other; to enjoy family meals around the table and warm cups of coffee in the morning. Surprisingly we cook more with our vegetables in the winter than in the summer (they just come out of the freezer and jars instead of the field).

As our 4^th growing season comes to an end there is so much to be excited about. We grew more food this year than ever before. Your shares averaged over 20 lbs a week! Between farmers market, CSA and our wholesale accounts, roughly 30,000 pounds of food was produced on 3.5 acres, even with the July hail!  We had the earliest and largest quantity of tomatoes at the farmers market with passive solar heating of our tunnels. We established great partnerships with Seasons restaurant, farm-to-school, the Fort Lewis Environmental Center and Manna soup kitchen.

Despite how much we’ve learned, our business feels fragile.  The land we farm is not ours and it has been made clear to us from 2 of the landowners that our ability to farm there is temporary.  What the future holds for us we don’t know, but what we do know is that we love growing vegetables for you. We love the stories you tell us about how your children now love tomatoes or how you made the best meal of your lives only using our vegetables. We love watching you out on the farm touch, taste and smell the different plants, insects and dirt! We love that you connect us to the community, rather than having to farm in seclusion. We love having someone to vent to when the job is overwhelming and that you encourage us to keep up the good work. Thank you for telling us to keep doing what we do and thank you for eating our produce. It isn’t convenient or easy, but the payoff is multifaceted for ourselves, the community, and our planet.

Linley, Peter, Reid