Hello Common Thread CSA Members and Friends,

There was so much snow the last week in December that we thought it would be a good long while before we saw the ground again, but here it has melted in mid-January!  We are grabbing the chance before it snows again to head outside and get more precise measurements of the fields that will help a lot as we plan the vegetable plantings for the season. We also had some kale for dinner last night that emerged from under the snow banks, tasty as ever...what an amazing plant.

We've been busy ordering equipment and supplies that we need to run the farm. We ordered a hoophouse (unheated greenhouse) frame last week which will arrive in 2 weeks.  Asher has an eye on a relatively inexpensive, gently used tractor with skinny tires to reduce the amount of the field compacted by tractor traffic (lots of research going on with this one).  Wendy ordered bees yesterday to get 2 hives started this spring.  Asher also ordered a pallet jack and a disc bedder (for soil preparation) yesterday.

The crop planning is coming along too.  Asher is excited about Johnny's Selected Seed's new varieties of snack peppers and a variety of frisee that we really liked last year.  He is looking forward to trialing sweet peppers and a tasty variety of cucumbers called "Diva" in the hoophouse along with a lot of tomatoes.  We're excited about the possibility of fitting more cool weather loving broccoli and spinach into the season than we normally could in the warmer climate of Poughkeepsie.  

We are planning to host a CSA Core Group meeting at our house on Saturday, January 19 at 2 pm.  Everyone is welcome!  A CSA Core Group is an advisory group that can meet as little as once a year or as much as monthly to help the farmers in planning for the CSA  and in some cases in helping with events or administration. Please let us know if you plan to come.  If it snows a lot again we might need to make some alternative arrangements because of parking limitations.  Currently, there is space for a number of cars at the end of our driveway and the parking lot by the road has also melted off and is useable.  

We've also been working on making a flyer and brochure to get the word out about the CSA.  The flyer is ready and attached here.  If you know a good place to post them, we'd greatly appreciate you posting them or passing on tips on where to post.

Our Best, Wendy and Asher Burkhart-Spiegel

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