We are wrapping up our 20th season at Red Wagon. Wow! Every season has successes and failures. Our labor problems were very challenging again this year. The cucumber beetles got to our crop and ruined most of it. We had torrential rain storms that made it almost impossible to plant things in the spring. Wyatt planted carrots 2 or 3 times only to have a deluge within a day or two that washed out all the carrot seeds. We did learn one valuable trick with all the rain…the fields were way too wet to plant our winter squash seeds on June 1 and there wasn’t much prospect for the fields to dry out. So we started a few thousand winter squash plants in our greenhouse and transplanted them out at the end of June. This felt like a crazy thing to do but it worked really well! It was a lot easier to cultivate the plants and they had higher yields than normal. We’ll definitely try that again next year. The onion plants were damaged by snow in April and never really recovered. But the shallots and leeks did great! The list of successes and failures goes on and on. And no two seasons are ever the same!

Through it all it is our CSA members that make it possible for us to have a farm. You show up reliably week after week–and year after year for many of you! That stability is one of the reasons our CSA members provide so much support for us. I’m tired and my brain is foggy so I won’t try to write down all the many reasons our CSA members keep our farm going. But ask me next time you see me!

With gratitude,
Amy