Dear Common Thread Members and Friends,

It's been a busy couple of months distributing winter shares and planning for the 2014 season.  We can't believe there is just a month until we start up the greenhouse again!

Low tunnels to protect crops in winter

We recently distributed our last winter share box for the season.  It has been an interesting learning experience.  We now know: that it may well snow for the very first box in November; that it can get down to zero degrees by Thanksgiving; which of our covered structures works better in the snow; and how long some of the different hardy greens will make it in winter conditions.  We also have feedback from this year's winter share-holders to help us design the share for next winter. The shares were well received and we feel good about offering this option in the future.  Many thanks to Marsha, Chris and Packard for helping us pick or pack on some of the busy days; to the Colgate Food Class who helped us harvest and store many of the roots and potatoes in the winter share; and to all the members who signed up for a share!

Winter Share in January

We have just about finished our crop plans for 2014 and are getting ready to place our seed order (and lots of other orders).  It was great to be able to make a plan with a season of experience on this farm under our belt so we have a better idea what vegetables folks around here are most interested in and how the different crops do on our land.  With our covered structures ready at the beginning of the season this year, we should have an earlier start to some of the favorite warm season crops like cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants and peppers.  We are planning to plant more beets, chard and kale which are pretty reliable and popular; and more broccoli, cauliflower and carrots, which are a little tricky and popular. We plan to cut back on things like fennel, bok choi and kohlrabi which did well but weren't very popular.  We are hopeful that the garlic and strawberries that we put in last year will have made it through this cold winter okay.

Chicken will be available at the farm this year!  We will be a drop off spot for pre-orders of chicken from North Country Pastured LLC, a very small, family-owned and U.S. Department of Agriculture inspected poultry processing firm located in DeKalb Junction (St. Lawrence County), NY.  They have been in operation since August, 2013. They raise pastured poultry using no antibiotics. The poultry is air-chilled for extra freshness and safety and shrink-wrapped.  Provided there is interest, they plan to do monthly deliveries of pre-ordered chicken to Common Thread Farm, starting in June when the CSA begins.  For more information, please see their flyer. 

We are hoping to expand the CSA some this year to bring the farm to a financially viable place and we would very much appreciate help in spreading the word that we have lots of CSA shares available.  Links to share forms and publicity materials

Cooler full of vegetables at start of winter shares

are below.   

We have already had several requests for subsidized shares for people who can't afford the full price of a CSA share.  We have two people with subsidized shares signed up already and a waiting list for others if we receive more donations for this program.  Thanks to those who have already contributed and if you haven't and are able to, please consider contributing any amount to help a family or individual participate in the CSA who could not otherwise afford to.