One Non-Sequitur After Another

This week's harvest list:
red cabbage
fennel
radishes
broccoli raab
cauliflower
broccoli
kale
spinach
dill
leeks
potatoes
parsley
sage
a choice of 4 different squash: red kuri, baby blue hubbard, buttercup, butternut, acorn, delicata, pie pumpkins
celery
celeriac

 Alas,we come to our final week of the produce CSA. Some of us spent the week in Delaware at the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers (ASCFG) conference. Yes ma'am.... a whole week of flower friends from across the country geeking out on plants and design and varieties. It culminated in a box of wine and a late night gathering in a hotel lobby, as all conferences should. Our hearts are full of love for flowers and flower folks and our heads are bursting with new ideas and strategies for growing the best cut flowers we can.



More than anything, when you spend time with people whose days are spent doing the same work you do, your life choices and your daily routines are normalized. As farmers, we get into our little routines on our farms and professional development really helps to move the industry forward.



Here's what you should know about cut flowers:
Cut flowers are a $7.5 billion dollar industry in the US
82% of all cut flowers are imported



Here's what that means:
As cut flower growers, we have some opportunity here! We can seriously work together to grow market share. Even if we increased domestic flower sales by 20%, that could translate into substantial gains for farmers in our country.



Here's what has to happen:
We need consumers to ask for local flowers at the grocery store and from florists.
We need to embrace the production of cut flowers as a potential economic driver for the agricultural sector in every town in the states.



It's easy to get pretty fired up when you spend a week with a bunch of flower farmers.



In the next few weeks, we'll get all the fall bulbs planted, including garlic, tulips, narcissus and fritillaria. We have 300 more peonies going in and a whole batch of itoh and tree peonies (I know you're as excited as I am about those!) We'll spend a lot of time cleaning up, re-organizing, and preparing for cold times to come. Then, this time next month....vacation. We are simultaneously thrilled and totally freaked out about how much has to happen between now and then.



Whenever you show up anywhere in the fall (or summer or spring, really) as a farmer, the first questions folks ask farmers is "how was your season?". And, we can honestly say, great. With the exception of the late blight in the tomatoes and some tarnished plant bugs in the dahlias, we had a bang up season. The weather was cooperative. The crew was magnificent. And the support for farm fresh goodness is as strong as ever. Our customers are the life of this thing we do. And you guys rocked it this year. You're like, the best.


(This is what our kitchen looks like on the eve of a freeze....everything tasty comes in)

Thanks for a great season, our 13th as farmers!

Blessings on the meal-
Stacy