Farmer Kurt’s Field Notes June 20, 2025 – The CSA Begins!
Well howdy everyone! It’s the official start to our main season. A big welcome back to all our CSA customers, and another big welcome to all our NEW customers who are with us for the first time. We have about 75 new people this year! That’s a lot! I’m excited to grow for you. I’ve always said that farming is in my blood. I get energized getting my hands in the soil, and getting to interact with all you people. So thank you for letting me do what I love.
Here I am planting leeks.
We are about two weeks behind schedule. You’ve probably noticed that we started the CSA a week after we originally said we would start. That’s just because the ground didn’t heat up on time. Of course, there is no “on time” with Mother Nature. It’s God’s time. And sometimes she decides to start in late June. Thanks for going with the flow. This will put the end of our CSA at the end of October! Corinna and I normally take a week off in the middle of the CSA season, but we may have to do a mini version of a vacation this year, to keep things from going too late.
We welcome back our production crew: Noah, John, Jose, Pedro, Asuncion, and Juan. Some of you have probably been wondering if the whole immigration issue might cause a problem for us. Thankfully, no. We hire an agency to facilitate the hiring of our H2A labor crew, because we don’t want to mess around and risk losing our top-notch work force. Having the same guys coming back year after year only makes things easier. Less training, more leadership development, more experience. It’s a win all around. Our guys love working here, and you might see them around Elmore, popping into the PI for a beer occasionally, or going for a bike ride on the North Inland Coast trail.
Transplanting peppers
We’ve transplanted kale, kohlrabi, okra, tomatoes, cucumbers, winter squash, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, cabbage, and well over an acre of peppers. Nowadays all our planting is done mechanically. But in the olden days, I used to do it all by hand. I can’t even imagine doing that anymore! With the consistent rain storms, it’s been tricky trying to find a window to get my transplants in. My cucumber transplants were too big by the time we actually got them into the field. The stems were breaking off, so we had to pull them out and start the seeding in the greenhouse over from scratch. But I’ve got most of the stuff in! Now my job is to keep the weeds at bay and watch out for pests.
The gang is back together again! Here they are placing flags along the pathways.
I’m having trouble again with flea beetles on my kale and bok choy. I’m frustrated because every year this happens. And every year, I try a new method for keeping them at bay. Knowing their hatching window seems to help. So at least I know that once this window is over, I’ll be free of them for a while. When it comes to flea beetles, there are a few things we can do:
- I cover my transplants with netting. This keeps the bugs from getting inside and multiplying and eating their way through the crop. This can be very effective at first, but often wind will eventually tear away at the netting.
- I do have some organic compounds I can apply to the plants that keep the populations at bay. But the timing has to be just right.
- Sometimes I use other companion crops that I plant right next door to “coax the beetles” over to the other side. They munch away on that bed, while they leave my precious bok choy alone.
- Nematodes. A certain type of microscopic roundworm, can be used to help control flea beetles by attacking the larvae in the soil. These nematodes, particularly seek out and enter flea beetle larvae, releasing bacteria that kill the larvae. In theory anyway. I’m testing it out.
Corinna and I spent several days this week re-thinking our pack shed space. Every year I feel like we try something different. With 400 CSA bins moving through that space every week, and store orders and wholesale pallets, I need to find an efficient system for storing supplies and staging product. It all came together very fast, but suddenly we decided to get rid of our wooden pack table (which is heavy, bulky, and HUGE), and purchase two rollers instead. We also lowered the shelving units in our pack shed, so we can actually use all of them. Corinna reorganized the different pack supplies into different boxes, and labeled everything so it’s much easier to understand. Maybe this is the year where we don’t feel cluttered!
Our thanks to Whitney Fredericks for donating a beautiful “new-to-us” fridge. This was an answer to prayer! Corinna and I had just been saying that we needed to find a fridge for our Prepared Foods line (to hold things like salad dressings), and then 2 days later, the Fredericks emailed us with their free offer.
This is what our new reefer unit looks like. It holds the freezers that will store our chicken shares AND our frozen foods line with Cork and Knife.
Speaking of C&K, many thanks to everyone who was a part of our beta test last May. We learned a lot about how we want (and don’t want) this future version of the prepared foods line to work. We will continue to dabble in new recipes and products this season, and with any luck and support from you, we’ll slowly find our new favorites for this new product line. We want the products to reflect our produce, and yet we know that people will come to have certain favorites that they want “all the time” for their freezer. We’re going to just see where it takes us. So far, all the barriers to entry have been getting knocked down. Our reefer unit is now fully rigged with electric. We have our freezers in place and ready to go. We’ve got a new fridge. We’ll have a few new items debuting in a few weeks, once all the inspections have been signed off on.
Our new lift gate!
Glen is fixing the lift gate on our farm truck. Yes, I know. I’ve had all winter to do it, and I’m waiting until the week before CSA to get it done. That’s because for a while there, I thought I might buy a new truck. But we need this operational, especially with our monthly chicken share drop-off! I’ll need to lower these giant freezers off and onto the truck.
Our new Bin Washing crew started this week! We welcome Jinelle Markely, Hazel and Cece Baranowski to the team along with Josiah. These four students take about 4 hours each week to wash 400 of the CSA totes and lids. Please make their job fast and easy by rinsing out your bin every week after you empty it into your fridge. We also welcome three new packers to our pack crew: Lori Schultze, Kristi Rife, and Jenn Crabtree.
Red currants are sour, but I love them on granola or oatmeal.
Berries are going crazy on the farm right now. I’ve got wild mulberries along our bike path property line. I’ve got gooseberries turning purple in my orchard. The red currant bushes are on fire with red berries. And even the raspberry vines are starting to form berries. I’m planting more and more perennials, I can’t help it! We recently planted black raspberries up front in our triangle, and grapes in our back garden. These are all little side projects to see if they take off.
Jed passed his Airframe test at BG 2 weeks ago. This is a big milestone for him towards getting his A&P license. Now he just needs to pass his “Powerplant” license in one year, and he’ll be a certified airplane mechanic. For those of you who are new to our family, Jed is going to be a senior at ANSAT, which is the aviation school of Toledo Public. He has long wanted to be an airplane mechanic, and he plans to enlist full time in the Air National Guard this fall, too. HIs brother, Josiah, is following in his footsteps, but his interest is more in designing planes (engineering focus). He will be attending a new school next fall at Toledo Technology Academy. Both Jed and Josiah are thick as thieves when it comes to designing and building planes. In fact, we often call them “Orville and Wilbur.”
This weekend, Corinna is taking the boys tent camping to Flite Fest in Canton. This is a giant RC Airplane event. Yes, it’s the weekend before CSA. Yes, that’s crazy. But it’s also our kids’ favorite thing all year. I’m hoping I can get away for a day to drive down. It’s going to be a hot one this weekend.
We’re excited to get things going! Before you know it, it will be October. Just wait. I’m grateful for your support and your friendship. Something big is coming. Corinna and I can feel it. Get ready for the ride!