October 22, 2012
CSA Distribution Week #20
   Field of greens   

Waltham Fields Community Farm

 

CSA Newsletter

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This is the last week of our Summer CSA... that means it's time to renew!  

The final pickups of the Summer season are October 23, 25, and 27.

 

When can I renew my share?

Before October 31!  Click on the renewal link in the "quick links" section to the right.  Please be sure to read through all the information before you register!  

 

Renew by October 31 to ensure your spot in next year's CSA! 

What's in the shares this week

This list is prepared before we harvest your share and so some guesswork is involved! We do our best to predict which crops will be ready to harvest, but sometimes crops are on the list that are not in the share, and sometimes crops will be in the share even though they're not on the list.   

 

Mix-and-Match eight items (plus squash) this week from the following list: 

 
 
 
 
Potatoes

Butternut Squash  

And farmers' choice of a few surprises throughout the week! 
 
Pick-your-own crops this week:  
  • Perennial garden herbs   
  • Parsley    
Local Wine at WFCF!
Turtle Creek Winery Logo
Turtle Creek Winery, an award-winning winemaker located in Lincoln, visited us last week offer tastings, answer questions, and take orders for their wines. 

They'll return this week to deliver wines folks have ordered. 


Learn more about Turtle Creek here on their website.
Views of Summer
Tomatoes in flatFarm machinery
 
  

logo smaller

Quick Links

Events and Programs

CELEBRATE YOUR SHARE SEASON with us this Wed. Oct 24th, at our Food Day Farm Benefit Dinner.

 

Just $45 per person brings you a fab menu of dishes made with Waltham Fields' produce and conversation with our farmers-in-training and Elephant Walk owner and WFCF shareholder Bob Perry.

 

And you won't want to miss the special cocktail available at the cash bar.   

cocktail2  

INTRODUCING the Ferme Fatale - Fatale chili-infused Edinburgh Gin with Asian basil simple syrup and freshly-squeezed lemon juice (made with Waltham Fields' chilis and basil)

 

You can see our full line-up of special events HERE, but of special note are three more organized by shareholders... thanks for showing your support!

 

Shareholder Janet Yeracaris is holding a house concert with The Folk Baroque String Trio, Sat. Oct. 27th, 4:15 - 6:45.  Suggested donation is $30/person. Reservations are required; contact Janet.

 

Shareholder Sophia Mansori is holding a Farm Trivia Night benefit for WFCF at Christopher's in Porter Sq. (1920 Mass Ave, Cambridge)  on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 8pm (no reservations needed), $20/person; teams up to 4 people allowed.

 

Shareholders Barbara Cassidy and Eric Chasalow are holding their Barbara Cassidy Band CD release concert at Brandeis to benfit the farm.  Sunday, Nov. 4, 3pm at the Slosberg Music Center.  $20 gen. admission, $40 Friend of the Farm ticket incl. preferred seating and signed CD.  BUY TICKETS NOW!  

Notes from the Field:  Gratitude

On the far side of the equinox, the sun shifts to the south until it barely clears the trees on the edge of the farm.  The leaves are beginning to fall, the shapes of the trunks and hillsides visible again through the thinning brilliance.  The fields are strips of cover crop and bare soil, the worms hard at work in the top layer after a summer deep in the subsoil.  The crops are just about finished growing.  This is the final CSA pickup week of the summer season; despite the mild afternoons, summer is long past. 

This is the time of the year when we farmers generally say "thanks for a good season."  We say it to you, the folks who make it possible for us to do this work that we love, that allows us to be out in the rain and the misty mornings and the mild afternoons, watching the path of the sun and the return and departure of the birds and the changing color and texture of the earth.  We say it to that earth itself, our partner (or really, our boss) in this seasonal endeavor.  And we say it to each other.  There are seasons when we say "whew, glad that's over, hope we do better next year."  And then there are seasons when we say "whew, glad that's over.  Hope we can do as well next year."  This year was one of those. 

It was, in fact, quite a season.  We built a new barn, opened up new land at the barnhistoric Gateways Farm in Weston, and hauled in our biggest harvests ever.  Andy managed our new Gateways fields expertly through the birth of his baby girl, Elsie June, in mid-season.  Our weed and field crews were all-stars.  Our assistant growers, Zannah Porter and Sutton Kiplinger, are two of the most talented, patient, insightful, driven, and downright hilarious farmers I've ever had the privilege to work with.  It is very difficult, even for a wordy person like me, to describe the positive impact these two women have had on our farm's emotional and agricultural well-being this year.  They are remarkable people and farmers, and it's impossible for me to thank them enough for all that they have done. 

It is tempting to try to sum up the season in all kinds of pithy, wise, poetic statements here at the end of such a good growing year.  But I'm going to forgo the poetry and bring it back to economics, because this year is all about the economy, right?  Because of you, and your 10-month investment -- the CSA share payment that you give us up front at the beginning of the season -- we are able to make this farm run, and to make long-term investments in our future.  For some of you, who have made more like a 10-year investment in WFCF, that share payment has covered the cost of growing vegetables for the CSA, helped us provide paternity leave for Andy (and maternity leave for me, not so long ago), build our barn, and equip our new land. 

Each season, our goal is to provide our CSA shareholders with the produce that you paid for (this year, $625), valued at what we consider to be reasonable organic prices, plus as much additional as we are able in a good season, up to about 10% over the price of the share.  That's a 10% return on your 10-month investment in the farm -- not a bad yield, if we get it right.  Sometimes we don't, and we're only able to give out the value of the share itself -- we always make sure we at least do that.   This year, we went a little overboard and gave out more than $750 worth of food for your $625 investment -- more like a 20% return.  This is definitely not our goal, and it's not a great business model, since it can be as discouraging to get too much food as not enough -- but wow, what a great growing year it was.  It was more than we could resist to share that abundance with you this season.

Your donations, the amount that many of you are able to generously give on top of the share payment, help support our farm's food access work:  the ten shares that we sell at half-price to qualifying households, the outreach market where we sold $43,000 worth of produce for free or $5 a bag to low-income families, and our largest-ever donations to Food for Free in 2012.  We're not under any illusions that these donations are the solution to the lack of access to healthy, affordable food that plagues too many people.  But we do hope that the fresh, organically grown vegetables we provide to our shareholders, market customers, and partner organizations make a difference in how our neighbors are able to feed themselves, if only for a little while.  Right now, with our big Thanksgiving donations still to come, we are at over 130% of the donation goal we set for ourselves at the beginning of this year.  Again, this is because of the tremendous growing season we had this year, but it's also a result of a huge amount of hard work on the part of our incredible farm staff.  Growing the veggies is one thing, and we're getting better at that.  Getting them out of the field and into the hands of people who need them is a whole other job of work, and one that we're proud to be part of every day.

carrots
This year, as we end our summer CSA with a harvest of frost-sweetened greens, hearty roots and savory squashes, we are so grateful to all of you -- for being willing partners in the abundance of the season, for eating huge amounts of cucumbers and tomatoes, for forgiving us our failures (onions...) and consuming our successes.  We farm because we love the work.  The day to day tasks, as tedious and physically demanding as they can be, are meaningful to us.  But we farm here because we believe that this little farm in the city is contributing, in a very small way, to making the world a better place.  And that is the work that you make possible, day after day, season after season, carrot after carrot.  We couldn't do it without you.  Thank you for a good season.  See you in the spring.

Amanda, for the farm staff

Waltham Fields Community Farm Year-Round Staff  

Claire Kozower, Executive Director

Kim Hunter, Education & Volunteer Coordinator

Amanda Cather, Farm Manger   

Andy Scherer, Gateways Field Manager

Dan Roberts, Field Manager

Erinn Roberts, Greenhouse & Field Manager

Marla Rhodes, Development Coordinator

Deb Guttormsen, Bookkeeper & Tech Coordinator

 

Assistant Growers

Sutton Kiplinger, Zannah Porter   

Field Crew

Alison Denn, Anna Linck, Katherine Murray, David Taberner 

Weed Crew  

Becca Carden, Kathryn Cole, Annabelle Ho, Meghan Seifert

Learning Garden Educators

Rebecca Byard, Alison Dagger, Ian Howes

 

Work Sharers

Graphic Design, Neva Corbo-Hudak

CSA Newsletter, Susan Cassidy

Learning Garden Maintenance, Rebekah Carter

Container Garden, Dede Dussault

Perennial Garden Maintenance, Sabine Gerbatsch and Amy Hendrickson

Farm Work, Naomi Shea

CSA Distribution Coordinators: Joy Grimes, Natasha Hawke, Deepika Madan, Eileen Rojas, and Aneiage Van Bean  

www.communityfarms.org          781-899-2403  

Waltham Fields Community Farm | 240 Beaver Street | Waltham | MA | 02452