We've always wished for our growing beds to be free of weeds, but never been able to achieve this task very well. Some farms incorporate per-emergent herbicides into their soil to prevent weed seed germination, but wishing to maintain a chemical free growing environment we don't go that far. So what to do? Perhaps have a tractor that does nothing but weed, aka cultivate? So that is what we did! Shown below is a 1952 Farmall Super A tractor that we recently acquired from a retired Tennessee tobacco farmer (yep, it's the antiquated red tractor shown below)  Back prior to the Vietnam era, before the chemical companies were given government incentives to create herbicides, i.e. Agent Orange etc, all farmers cultivated with tractors to keep weed growth at bay within their seed beds. Consequently, a lot of the tractors of that era were built where the tractor operator could see beneath their feet; so as to watch how close the cultivator sweeps (little plows) could get to the crop rows. As time evolved and chemicals became a larger part of conventional farming, these Farmall tractors become largely obsolete, save and except with organic minded farms.  So moving forward, this tractor arrived at our farm a few weeks back. Mounted behind the tractor was some canvas covered equipment. When I asked the truck driver what was under the canvas, he replied ".....it was the US Army's newest mobile radar unit heading down to Fort Bliss, near El Paso." I think he said it cost about $8 million? Well anyway, based on how the trailer was loaded, I became amused at how our little $1900 tractor appeared to be set up to pull the expensive mobile radar unit.  So what do you think? With everyone in DC looking for ways to reduce the National Deficit, perhaps they should consider a duo such as this? Probably not going to happen but perhaps the national news would have something to discuss other than the  badgering presidential election?

New US Army Duo?

 

 Fall CSA Program Begins Next Week: Our Summer CSA program ended back in August and after a  short break we are now poised to begin harvest and delivery of our twelve week Fall program in just a few days. (FYI we are skipping deliveries during the Thanksgiving time frame.) Items expected to be harvested within the Fall program include Cherry Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Green beans, Kale, Arugula , Basil, Peppers , Eggplant, Salad mix, Summer Squash, Dill, Zucchini, Bunching Onions, Winter Squash, Carrots, Beets, Micro Greens, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Spinach and more.. For more info and registration visit this link    Fall CSA Program & Registration

For a short registration tutorial, consider reviewing the following instructions: 

  

1) Once at the above link, click your desired pick up location

, i.e. the Heights etc. select continue, this will take you to our shopping cart.  

  

2) Choose your desired share size where you select "add to order."   

  

3) Place your mouse over the first available date, i.e. Sept. 26th etc.The date should turn yellow, left click your mouse and all the dates should light up green.  

  

4) Select "CONTINUE" , and/or scroll down to add items to your CSA pick up order for any particular week, i.e. eggs, honey etc. (FYI not all locations can receive  100% of our "add on orders."

5) Once your selections are determined and dates highlighted in green, go to "check out."

6) This should take you to our registration page where existing customers can log in or new customers can provide info, i.e. name(s) email(s) etc. 

7) Follow the prompts at the bottom of the page to complete your purchase via PayPal. FYI, your credit card payment is with PayPal  on a secure PayPal server, not our website.   

8) Should your payment be successful, you should receive a prompt email confirmation from PayPal.

9) Delivery reminders will be sent out a day or so prior to your scheduled delivery week-day. If you received a registration/pmt confirmation from PayPal, but do not get an weekly email pick up reminder, please contact us so we can insure your weekly notification.

West University & Upper Kirby/Montrose Locations? Interested in picking up at one of these two locations? Unfortunately we are not able to announce these two specific locations at this time. While we have some locations under consideration, we cannot begin deliveries to them at this time. We recommend that you select either the St. Paul's Methodist Church/Museum District or the Dunn Bros. Coffee house. Once these other locations become available, you can switch to them if you like. (We are hoping that it will only be a few weeks.) If you have already registered under one of these two locations, you should receive an email addressing this situation within the next few days.    

Like To Participate, But Will Be Gone Some This Fall? Consider our Alternating Week Share and/or splitting a share with a friend/relative. An easy way to split is for you take the whole share one week and defer it to your partner another week. Just include their email address when you register. Sorry, we don't have provisions for splitting credit card payments.

Woodlands Home Delivery For You? For those of you living in zip codes 77380,77381,77382,77384 consider, at a slightly higher coast, trying our home delivery service. Delivery days are Thursday's, normally after 3 pm.

Sunday Midnight Is Our Typical Weekly Cut-off Time.  With this in mind, please consider ordering by midnight Sunday; this will insure orders being delivered the immediate coming week. Reading this email too late? Not to worry, our prices are prorated each week to reflect correct prices; so orders and registrations received later will begin the following week.  

Website Down? Early last week we did a software version update which negatively impaired parts of our website. We apologize for any inconvenience, but are pleased to now say that, with the help of our new website manager Alex Gleason, everything should be back to normal now. Thanks Alex!

 Until Next Time,

Van   

Cell 713 876 8645

www.woodduckfarm.com

csa@woodduckfarm.com

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