Author: Amy

Here we are at the end of another CSA season! It feels like a real accomplishment that we were able to feed our CSA members for all 23 weeks of the season. I thought 2020 was a challenging year, but I think 2021 has been even harder. If you can remember all the way back to the spring, we had weeks and weeks of rain and we were really far behind in planting because it was just too muddy to get into the fields. Then we had to struggle with the labor shortage that so many other businesses had to navigate. We usually have a farm crew of about 20 people and this year we had just 15 people. I don’t know how they pulled off all the farm work each week and got food to all of our CSA members–thank you to everyone on the crew! I know everyone is exhausted from putting in such a hard season.

We are so thankful to you–all of our CSA members. Your commitment to our farm makes it possible for us to get through each season. It makes it possible for us to keep growing food for you year after year. Farming is challenging for anyone who does it for a living, but knowing we have a home for all of the food we grow takes one huge challenge out of keeping our farm going.

We can only hope that 2022 is a little less bumpy for all of us! Have a great winter and we will look forward to seeing you in the spring!

Amy

We are excited to announce our 2021/2022 Winter CSA! Click here to join.

Details:

• Pickups will be at Red Wagon Farm at 7694 N 63rd St, Niwot on Thursdays from 3-6 pm.
• Our winter Veggie Share is $39 per week.
• We are offering weekly and biweekly shares. (see biweekly schedule below)
• There will be a total of 13 weeks of pickups from 10/28/21 to 1/27/22.

Here are the possible crops we will have (depending on weather):

• Greens: kale, chard, collards, arugula, spinach, bok choi, lettuce
• Roots: carrots, beets, rutabagas, turnips, potatoes, winter radishes, parsnips, sunchokes
• Cabbage
• Winter squash
• Onions, garlic, leeks, scallions

Pickup dates:
Biweekly    Date
A                 10/28/21
B                 11/4/21
A                 11/11/21
B                 11/18/21
A                 11/23/21 (Tuesday pickup Thanksgiving week)
B                 12/2/21
A                 12/9/21
B                 12/16/21
A                 12/23/21 – no pickup
Biweekly A members will choose to pickup on 12/16 or 12/30 instead of 12/23.
B                 12/30/21
A                 1/6/22
B                 1/13/22
A                 1/20/22
B                 1/27/22

Click here to join now!
Email csa@redwagonfarmboulder.com with questions.

I thought 2020 was a tough year at the farm but so far 2021 has been much more difficult here! Between the very cold, wet spring and a nationwide labor shortage, we have had a hard time during our busy spring planting season. We are short staffed and only have about 75% of the crew that we need. And the farm crew has only been working 2-3 days per week because of all the rain.

Fortunately, Wyatt and the farm crew were able to get a lot of the cool season crops planted in March and early April. But many of those crops are several weeks behind because it’s been so cold and cloudy. They put in thousands of lettuce plants that should be ready now but won’t be ready for a few more weeks. The same is true for bok choi, napa cabbage, turnips, radishes, chard, kale, and collards. We have a lot of spinach planted, but spinach is sensitive to being over-watered and many of our spinach plants have turned yellow.

The very wet spring will have an impact in July and we might be low on crops to harvest then. We plant a lot of crops in late April and early May that are usually ready in July. It is too hot for greens like lettuce and spinach in July so we count on other crops that can take the summer heat. Wyatt says we had 2,000 cabbage plants and 3,000 broccoli and cauliflower plants in our greenhouse that we had to put in the compost pile. Our fields have to be dry enough to prepare the soil and plant the transplants. We couldn’t do that with all the rain and mud. By mid-May all the cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower starts in our greenhouse had gotten too big for their pots and were unusable. If we were to start new plants in our greenhouse now, they wouldn’t be ready until August.

There is some good news for the crops in our fields, though. We use greenhouses and caterpillar tunnels to get some summer crops started early. We have over 1,000 tomato plants that are already flowering and should give us tomatoes sometime in July. We also have 400 zucchini plants in the tunnels that are already flowering. And we were able to get in a planting of green beans and two plantings of sweet corn that will be ready mid-summer. 

On Monday I thought I might have to also report that our farm was flattened by a hail storm! Fortunately, we did not get any hail (only a ton of rain) at our farm on 63rd Street. We did get some hail at our farm on Valmont Road and the plants suffered some damage, but Wyatt thinks it’s not enough damage to kill the plants and that they will mostly recover.

Wow that feels like a lot! This is why we count so much on you, our CSA members! I know that we will almost certainly be able to pull out of this and have a good summer with plenty of crops to harvest. In 18 seasons of farming we’ve always made it through weather disasters–including the 2013 flood. Thank you so much and we look forward to seeing all of you in the next few weeks as our CSA pickups get started!

Amy

Thank you so much to everybody who joined us for our first ever Winter CSA! We think it was a huge success and I hope you agree with us! Our greens did great in our greenhouses and caterpillar tunnels and we were able to continue harvesting some of the heartier vegetables like carrots and radishes.

We decided to do a Winter CSA this year mainly because of the pandemic. We usually finish our CSA season at the end of October but continue to sell vegetables to restaurants until the end of the year. However, most restaurants are struggling so much right now that we knew we couldn’t count on that income for the farm. I also decided that I was not comfortable having our (crowded!) pumpkin patch this year so the farm lost that income as well. A Winter CSA was the obvious choice for us to distribute all the late-season produce in our fields and also replace some of the lost income for the farm. We are so happy we made this choice and look forward to having a Winter CSA in future years!

One of the big challenges of having a vegetable farm in Colorado is that we do not have year-round work for our farm crew. That means we start with a (mostly) new crew every season. Imaging training a whole new work force every year! The Winter CSA extended our work season by about 6 weeks which means that Kai (CSA manager) and Jenny (harvest manager) had a little more work and won’t have as much time off before full-time work starts again in mid-March. That means we have a better chance of keeping these awesome people for a few years!

The pandemic has been so hard on all of us. But one positive is that has forced a lot of us to try things outside our comfort zones. And thus the birth of our Winter CSA!

Wyatt and I hope you all have a safe winter and that we’ll see you again with some fresh veggies in May!

Amy

You will get a little something extra when you pick up your CSA share this week – aphids! We are growing some gorgeous lettuce in our greenhouses right now. The heads are tucked under a toasty blanket of row cover. Unfortunately aphids like to be kept warm and toasty, too. Of course we don’t spray any pesticides on the lettuce, which means the aphids get to go home with you.

The good news is that it’s relatively easy to get rid of the aphids at home. You just have to soak the lettuce to wash the aphids away. Start by soaking the lettuce in a salad spinner–or a large bowl. (Wyatt says it’s mandatory to have a salad spinner as a CSA member!) Fill the bowl all the way to the top with cold water and swish the lettuce around a bit. This will make the aphids float to the top of the bowl where you can just skim them off with your hand. If there are a lot of aphids you may have to change the water a few times. I like to spin the lettuce each time I change the water to help fling the aphids off the leaves. If the aphids are really bad, it might take me four rinses to get rid of all the aphids but I’m usually successful in removing all of them.

It’s a little extra work to deal with the aphids. But I think it’s worth it to get such beautiful local greens in December!

It has been 11 years since Red Wagon Farm and Tuv Ha’Aretz formed a partnership thanks to Rabbi Marc, Lisa Bates, and Sandy Cohn. Thank you so much to all of you who have been members in that time! In the first few years of our partnership, Tuv Ha’Aretz members did things like volunteer at our CSA pickups and there was a Tuv Ha’Aretz newsletter that was sent out frequently. There was also a large Tuv Ha’Aretz Core Committee that met monthly. We’re down to 5 members on the Core Committee (me, Beth Ornstein, Becca Gan Levy, Jerry Pinsker, and Monica LaBush) and we only meet 3-4 times each year. There aren’t many official organized activities for Tuv Ha’Aretz members anymore and it might be difficult for people to see tangible benefits of being a Tuv Ha’Aretz member. But the partnership still has tremendous value to me, Wyatt, and Red Wagon Farm!

For starters, 2 of our 4 CSA pickups are at Nevei Kodesh and the Boulder JCC and we are very grateful for the ability to use these spaces. The JCC in particular has been incredibly supportive of our farm and CSA. Jonathan Lev and Cynthia Weinger knew our CSA pickups would be a challenge this year and they offered to host a second pickup day at the JCC if it would help us. Last fall Becca Gan Levy let us have our last pickup of the year in the barn at the JCC to help us get out of the snow!

We have been invited to many events over the years at the JCC, Bonai Shalom, Nevei Kodesh, and Har Hashem to get to know Tuv Ha’Aretz members and build a connection. Among other things, we’ve been to multiple Seders to celebrate Passover and Sukkot and we’ve been invited to participate in the Jewish Food Fest at the JCC. We’ve also hosted Sukkot events for Mazel Tot at our farm.

Each week we have CSA members who miss their pickups and we donate the veggies from these missed shares. For many years, Bob and Ru Wing helped to get these veggies to community members in need. This year we have partnered with Jewish Family Service to fill this role. They send volunteers to our farm each Friday to pickup and distribute these missed shares to community members. There has been an extra need for fresh vegetables during the pandemic and I know the recipients of these vegetables have been especially grateful.

This spring we needed help recruiting new CSA members and Rabbi Marc Soloway wrote a lovely piece that was included in the Boulder Jewish News. The JCC also helped us promote our CSA.

The most important part of the partnership between Red Wagon and Tuv Ha’Aretz has been the connection. We value each and every one of our CSA members, but for the most part we have individual connections with CSA members. Our connection with Tuv Ha’Aretz members is different. It is really valuable for Red Wagon to have the support of a whole community who shares values–even if it is just moral support sometimes! I also know I can reach out to the Tuv Ha’Aretz community if our farm needs anything. There’s also been a personal connection between me and Wyatt and so many of our Tuv Ha’Aretz members and we’ve come to know many of you as friends. I am reminded of this on the weeks that I work at all of our CSA pickups like this last week of our CSA season. I know a lot of people at each of our pickup locations and talk to many people, but I can help Kai out as part of the CSA team. However, Kai knows I’m pretty worthless on Thursdays as a part of our team and that she shouldn’t count on me for much help because I know so many of our Tuv Ha’Aretz members. I don’t get to see you very often so I value having a few minutes to catch up with each of you. Remember that when you see me standing around talking this Thursday!

With warmth and friendship,
Amy

We made it to the end of our CSA season! I almost can’t believe it. In early May I was having panic attacks (just ask Wyatt!) about coming up with a way to have a safe season for our farm crew and our CSA members. And here we are finally at the end of October. Every year it feels like a big accomplishment to make it to the end of our CSA season knowing that we’ve been able to feed our CSA members all season. But this year it feels like an especially big accomplishment!

Thank you so much to all of our CSA members for your support! We really could not do it without you. You are the whole reason we are able to have a farm and grow food for our community. This is especially true this year. The world was so turned upside down in March and Wyatt and I didn’t even know if we’d be able to have a farm season with the whole country getting shut down. By the end of March we knew we’d be allowed to operate our farm, but we didn’t know if we could make it financially. (We knew we would lose a large amount of the farm’s income that we usually get from restaurant sales.) I asked all of you to help spread the word about our CSA to your friends and family. Did you ever come through!! We increased our CSA membership by almost 70% this year! We never would have been able to do that without your help. And I don’t think we would have been able to make it through the season financially without growing our CSA membership.

You’ve also contributed over $8,500 to additional funds we have set up at Red Wagon:

Farm Worker Support $5,423 (contribute money to go into our farm crew’s paychecks)
Sharing the Harvest $1,932 (help provide reduced-rate CSA shares to community members in need)
Red Wagon Supporter $1,173 (extra money for farm equipment)

We had a lot of small losses with our CSA this year. We weren’t able to invite you out to our farm for any tours. And we weren’t able to have our end-of-season CSA party at the farm. Most of all we missed being able to talk to you at our pickups!

The cold weather coming this weekend is a good reminder of why our CSA season ends in October. I know we will see some of you for a few more weeks for our Winter CSA. For the rest of you, I hope we will see you in May! Hopefully life will be a little easier by then.

With gratitude,
Amy

We are excited to announce our first ever Winter CSA! Click here to join.

Details:

• Pickups will be at Red Wagon Farm at 7694 N 63rd St, Niwot on Thursdays from 3-6 pm.
• There will be a total of 7 weeks of pickups from 10/29 to 12/10. (The pick up will be on Tues 11/24 the week of Thanksgiving.)
• Our Winter CSA share will include veggies & fruit for a total of $48.50 per week.
• We are offering weekly and biweekly shares. (see biweekly schedule below)

Here are the possible crops we will have (depending on weather):

• Greens: kale, chard, collards, arugula, spinach, bok choi, lettuce
• Roots: carrots, beets, rutabagas, turnips, potatoes, winter radishes
• Cabbage
• Winter squash
• Onions, garlic
• Herbs: parsley, sorrel
• Fruit: apples, pears

Pickup dates:
Biweekly    Date
A                 10/29/20
B                 11/5/20
A                 11/12/20
B                 11/19/20
A                 11/24/20 (Tuesday pickup)
B                 12/3/20
A                 12/10/20

Click here to join now!
Email csa@redwagonfarmboulder.com with questions.

Here’s another small loss due to COVID. We will not have a pumpkin patch at Red Wagon Farm in 2020.

Everything at a farm requires a lot of planning. We have to plant pumpkin seeds around June 1st. Remember what everything looked like on June 1st?? The whole world felt upside down. We did not know how long social distancing would be in place and it seemed like a good chance that we would be looking at another Stay-at-Home order in the fall. Wyatt and I decided it was too risky to put the investment (both time investment and financial investment) into growing pumpkins for a pumpkin patch that we might not get to open 4 months in the future.

I still think that was a good decision for us. There are currently a rising number of COVID cases in Boulder County. It has been a tremendous amount of pressure for me to try to keep our farm and CSA pickups as safe as possible this year and it’s taken a toll on me. It feels like a lot more pressure to try to keep our farm safe for hundreds of families visiting our pumpkin patch. I realize that a pumpkin patch is an outdoor activity and relatively low-risk, but I’m just not up to the challenge.

October 2021 is a very long way away. Hopefully we will be in a much better place in terms of dealing with the pandemic then and will be able to welcome you back to our farm and pumpkin patch then. Thank you for your understanding!

Amy