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Category: Farm

  • Cyclospora and Local Farms

    We’ve all been hearing about the Cyclospora outbreak. A few customers have been asking if our produce is safe. I received a message today from an email list I’m on called Farmhand that gave an excellent explanation as to why small, local farms are almost never involved in this kind of outbreak. Here’s what they said:

    “Weeks into this outbreak, the most important detail is still the one nobody prints in bold: officials can’t find the source. That’s not because the investigators are bad at their jobs. It’s because the industrial food system is built in a way that makes the question unanswerable. A bag of salad greens passes through growers, consolidators, processors, distributors, and retailers — so many anonymous hands that by the time someone gets sick, “where did this come from?” has no answer at all. The anonymity isn’t a bug in that system. It’s the design.”

    At Red Wagon our produce is only handled by us! It goes straight from our field to our pack house to you. It doesn’t pass through many hands in different facilities with the potential to be involved in a nationwide food-borne illness outbreak.

    You should always follow common-sense food safety procedures like washing your produce and using clean hands, tools, and surfaces for preparation. But you can rest assured that nothing you get from Red Wagon has passed through the black box of the industrial food system in our country. It’s one more reason to support local farms year-in and year-out. So we can stay in business and be there when you really need us!

    With health and food safety,
    Amy

  • Thank you for supporting small and local!

    Do you ever feel like the world is rapidly collapsing into just a handful of enormous corporations and you’re left without many choices? I’ve had one of those weeks.

    As CSA members you are making an important choice to support your community! The superstore across town or the app on your phone might be less expensive, more convenient, and offer endless choices. For now. We don’t know what they will do in the future. These faceless corporations buy up small businesses or put them out of business until the big corporations are the only ones left standing. You have fewer choices as a customer and if you are looking for a job you have fewer employers to choose from.

    When you choose a small, local business you are supporting our community and our local economy. You get to know all of us at Red Wagon when we see you at our CSA pickups and at events on the farm. These are experiences that feel real. And a lot of the money you spend on your CSA share goes right back into our community in the form of paychecks and money we spend with other local businesses. On top of all of this you get to enjoy fresh, delicious food! We are so lucky to live in an area with a vibrant farming community made possible by a combination of people who love growing food and others who value what we do.

    Owning a small farm is hard. Really hard. And recently it’s only gotten harder. Why do we keep doing it? Because of you! I feel an incredible amount of loyalty to our CSA members and other customers as well as our employees. It feels like we’re all working together for something we believe in. Despite the challenges I feel surprisingly upbeat right now. It’s because I got to go to the first few weeks of CSA pickups and connect with a lot of you. This is the 20th summer of our CSA. It’s amazing to look back and see what we’ve all built together!

    With gratitude,
    Amy

    Mo and Audrey at the farm CSA pickup.

     

    I spend most of my time in my little office on the farm.

  • A Topsy-Turvy Spring = Small CSA Shares

    Does anybody else feel disoriented? What happened to winter? I’m still thrown off a bit when I realize it’s already the end of May. We started with an exceptionally dry winter and spring with a record-breaking heatwave in March. It felt like we might get some relief in April with some much-needed rain. But storm after storm missed our area. By May 1 things looked truly dismal. That’s the date when water providers in our area usually take stock of the water situation and make plans for the year. Municipalities and other water districts started announcing voluntary and mandatory watering restrictions. By then Wyatt had started calling around to try to lease irrigation water from anybody he could think of. Then on May 5 we finally had a big snow storm. I have never been so happy to walk through our muddy fields! A second big storm on May 17 gave me more hope. (Although it came with a few minutes of heart-stopping hail.) We are not out of the woods in terms of the drought but the moisture we received in May has helped a lot.

    Wyatt and I have been through all kinds of weather challenges in the 22 years we’ve been farming. But this year feels like the biggest curveball yet. Every year we plant a handful of crops (mostly alliums) in the fall to over-winter and have them ready for the first few weeks of CSA pickups in the spring. Those crops woke up way too early this year. Those of you who came to our harvest event last week got some walking onions and green garlic. But that was at the very end of the harvest window for those crops and now they’re too mature and woody so we’ll miss having them for our CSA pickups this year. You should see some garlic scapes in your shares this week. If you’re a long-time CSA member you might remember that you normally see those in mid-June. But again, the over-wintered crops are weeks ahead of when they’d normally be ready.

    So if the alliums are early why are other spring crops behind? The short answer is that most of the spring crops are planted in March and April. Wyatt told me to blame him for not having those crops ready now. But I gave him a big eye roll and asked how anybody could have known the right decisions to make since it felt like we’ve been in uncharted territory with the weather the last few months. We planted a few rows of crops in March and watered them with tap water to make sure we had them ready for the harvest event last week. However, Wyatt waited to do a lot of his usual March planting because it was so hot that he thought there was a good chance those crops would be ready before CSA pickups started. And we were having trouble getting water at our home farm on 63rd St which is where we do the first spring planting.

    We were also delayed in doing our spring field preparation. The soil needs to be the right moisture before we can plow and till. When it’s too dry the soil is rock hard and you can’t do those things. We normally wait for rain or snow in the spring to soften the soil then we plow and till just as the soil reaches the right moisture while drying out. In April Wyatt would look at the weather forecast and see a storm heading our way and make plans to plow. Then the storm would miss us. I think that happened 3 times in April. One option when the fields are dry and there’s no rain is to irrigate the soil so it is the right moisture for plowing. But in a year when irrigation water is so precious we were trying to hold off in the hopes that we would receive some moisture from the sky. Hence, my ecstatic response to the May 5th snow storm! It was pretty soggy after that storm. The downside of receiving so much moisture is that the fields are too wet and you have to wait a little while for them to dry out before you plow or you compact the soil. But at least that’s a problem we’ve faced before and know how to work around it.

    In between all of this Wyatt did use a little bit of our irrigation water to prep the fields in early April so he could plant the arugula and turnips you are receiving this week. He also decided to prioritize our summer crops so we could get those in the ground on schedule. Many of those crops are grown using drip irrigation and it felt like we weren’t using up a lot of our precious water with them.

    One result of all of this is that our CSA shares this week are much smaller than we would like. The timing didn’t work out this year and we didn’t have a road map to show us how to navigate through these challenges. However, thanks to the moisture we received in May many of our spring crops should be caught up in the next week or two and we should have our regular offerings for your CSA shares. Plus we should have enough food to make up for the light shares this week!

    Fortunately, our wonderful farm crew has been working hard to get things planted whenever the weather allows. Even though the timing has been a challenge I am amazed at how good things are looking in the fields. You can see a handful of photos below that I took on Saturday when Wyatt and I were looking at the crops.

    To our CSA members, thank you for your continued support. I’ve said it many times before but I’ll say it again. You are the reason that we can keep farming. Every farm season brings its own challenges. This season has been the most mind-boggling yet so far. But we’re able to keep moving forward knowing that you’ve got our backs.

    With heartfelt gratitude,
    Amy

    We normally harvest garlic around July 4th. It will probably be ready in mid-June this year.
    This lettuce needs just a few days before it’s big enough to harvest.
    Only a few weeks until we are harvesting basil.
    All of our tomatoes are in tunnels this year and they’re looking vibrant and healthy.

  • How is Red Wagon Able to Keep Farming Year After Year?

    If you’ve been with Red Wagon for a while you know what I’m going to say…the biggest thing supporting Red Wagon is our CSA! It might not be obvious why it helps us so much more to have you as a CSA member than to buy our vegetables some other way—like through another farm stand or market, at a local restaurant, or even at our own farm store! Don’t get me wrong, all of these things help but it’s our CSA members that keep us going.

    Our CSA gives us gives us predictability. You join early in the year then we can make a plan for the whole season based on our CSA membership numbers. We can’t change the number of tomatoes we have in August if we decided to start too many or too few plants back in March. Farming is all about the long game and we need to be able to plan in order to be successful.

    Our CSA also helps us to cover many of the upfront costs each year. There are a lot of expenses at the beginning of the season. So far this year we’ve spent over $90,000—and it isn’t even April yet! Some of the biggest expenses are seeds, organic fertilizers, irrigation water, payroll, rent, insurance, accounting, and fuel. You probably think of some of these when you think of a farm, but others are just part of having a business.

    Joining our CSA is about more than getting your weekly veggies. (Although, that’s a pretty fantastic part!) You’re supporting your values. It is difficult to farm anywhere but Boulder County has felt especially challenging the past few years. One reason is that it is expensive to do anything here whether you’re trying to run a business or just cover your living expenses. We are never going to win if you are just comparing prices at our farm versus the grocery store. That’s where putting money towards your values (in the form of a CSA membership) comes in. Instead of supporting large corporate farms you’re supporting a small family farm where we focus on sustainable practices and ecosystem health. You’re helping to keep money in our local economy. You’re preserving agriculture in our community and helping to strengthen our local food system (we all remember how important local farms were during COVID!). You’re supporting us while we try to navigate the challenges of our changing climate. The last handful of years have brought more frequent wildfires, hail, extreme heat, early snowstorms, and drought. We wouldn’t be able to try to adjust to these new challenges without our CSA members facing the risks with us. Do you think about all of these wonderful things you’re supporting when you sign up for your CSA share? You should!

    Many of you go the extra mile and contribute to one of our funds: Farm Worker Support (extra money for our farm workers), Sharing the Harvest (reduced-rate CSA shares), and Red Wagon Supporter (helping our farm to keep going!). I don’t acknowledge these contributions as frequently as I would like to. But my heart is truly touched by the fact that so many of you give just because we asked.

    Barn at Thomas Open SpaceI also want to give a shout out to Boulder County Parks & Open Space and the City of Lafayette Open Space Division. Did you know that we are tenant farmers? Red Wagon does not own any of the land we farm. Over time it has become more profitable to sell land to developers than to use land to produce food. That’s part of why farms have disappeared from so many parts of our country. But we are all lucky to live in a place where our local government saw this coming and had a vision of preserving our open spaces. The Boulder County Parks & Open Space department was created just over 50 years ago. One of the main things they did was purchase open space to preserve for recreation and agriculture. Our farm on N 63rd St is on one of those Boulder County Open Space properties! The City of Lafayette has also done its part to preserve local agriculture. They purchased Thomas Open Space about 20 years ago when a developer was planning to build about 100 homes on the site. The City had the vision to keep the land in agriculture and we are fortunate to be the current tenants. It’s now where we have a large part of our farm operation, including our farm store and largest CSA pickup. I don’t think Red Wagon would exist if it weren’t for the visionary people working for Boulder County and the City of Lafayette.

    Wow! It really takes a village to support a family farm like ours. You might ask why we put so much effort into our farm given the challenges. There are a lot of reasons, but the biggest one is simple. Wyatt and I and the rest of our team love growing food for our community. We are all connected through food and it feels good to be an important part of what keeps our community together. I ran into my good friend, Anne Cure (of Cure Organic Farm), the other day. We were commiserating about the many challenges our farms have faced recently. I told Anne I was determined to redouble my efforts to keep our farm strong and moving in the right direction. I said this is not the time to have small farms disappear from our communities. Anne agreed and added that our farms just make so many people happy. That feels pretty great. Well said, Anne!

    With gratitude,
    Amy

  • Winter CSA Week 13

    Hello CSA Members!

    This is the final week of CSA and we are using up the remainder of a lot of our crops. This means there’s a high chance of changes to the share as we process and assess the quality and quantity of each crop remaining in storage. You will likely see some amount of carrots, beets, and celeriac show up, but we don’t quite know where yet. Everyone likes surprises, right?! Thanks for a fabulous season everyone!

    Here is what we hope to bring you during Week 13:

    1 – Winter Radish OR Chile de Arbol
    2 – Potatoes
    3 – Turnips
    4 – Roasted Chiles
    5 – Harvester’s Choice
    6 – Kale OR Collards OR Chard
    7 – Cabbage OR Choi

  • Winter CSA Week 12

    Hello CSA Members!

    The season is wrapping up. This will be the last week for Biweekly A members. We have a good mix of roots and greens. We’re bringing one new item this week: dried chile de arbol!

    Here is what we hope to bring you during Week 12:

    1 – Leeks OR Chile de Arbol
    2 – Potatoes
    3 – Turnips OR Winter Radishes
    4 – Roasted Chiles OR Celeriac
    5 – Beets OR Carrots
    6 – Kale OR Collards OR Chard
    7 – Cabbage OR Spinach OR Choi

  • Winter CSA Week 11

    Hello CSA Members!

    Another week of temperatures in the 60s, I’m not sure if this is lucky or not but we’re making the best of it and still harvesting veggies from the fields. This week we are giving the last of the onions, garlic, and squash.

    Here is what we hope to bring you during Week 11:

    1 – Onions OR Winter Radishes OR Leeks OR Garlic
    2 – Potatoes OR Celeriac
    3 – Turnips OR Cabbage
    4 – Carrots OR Beets
    5 – Kale OR Collards OR Chard
    6 – Lettuce OR Spinach OR Choi
    7 – Squash OR Roasted Chiles

  • Winter CSA Week 10

    Hello CSA Members!

    We are coming to the end of the squash for the season. Probably only this week and next week, so enjoy it while you can! We have plenty of greens again though, the lettuce just keeps on coming with this warn weather we’re having.

    Here is what we hope to bring you during Week 10:

    1 – Onions OR Winter Radishes OR Leeks OR Garlic
    2 – Potatoes OR Carrots
    3 – Turnips OR Celeriac
    4 – Roasted Chiles OR Cabbage
    5 – Kale OR Collards OR Chard OR Choi
    6 – Lettuce OR Spinach
    7 – Butternut Squash

  • Windstorm Damage

    The windstorm on Friday, December 19th was the worst we’ve had at our farm on 63rd Street in the 16 years we’ve lived here! The wind tore the roof off of one of our greenhouses. Fortunately the metal structure is mostly intact but we will have to re-sheet the greenhouse.

    Wind damaged bok choi

     

    During January we normally harvest greens for our winter CSA from inside our greenhouse. It’s usually so cold by then that our greens that are growing outdoors or in our unheated tunnels are mostly dead. Unfortunately, the strong winds a few weeks ago beat up the tender greens like lettuce and bok choi that were inside the greenhouse. They might recover a bit. Or we might be short on greens in January. Fortunately, we have a lot of other veggies in storage so you won’t go hungry!

    However, another unusual weather pattern might mean we’ll have plenty of greens in January after all. It’s been so mild out that our field greens still look beautiful! As of today there aren’t any really cold temperatures in the forecast. This is only the sixth year we’ve had a winter CSA and each year seems to bring it’s own surprises. We’ll see what happens in the next few weeks!

  • Winter CSA Week 9

    Hello CSA Members!

    We hope you all had a wonderful holiday break and are ready for more winter veggies. This week we continue with our greens from the caterpillar tunnels. Enjoy them while you can because the wild wind we had took the roof off our greenhouse where we usually start harvesting greens from in January. Only time will tell what the new year will bring us.

    Here is what we hope to bring you during Week 9:

    1 – Onions OR Winter Radishes OR Leeks
    2 – Potatoes OR Rutabaga
    3 – Carrots
    4 – Roasted Chiles OR Hakurei OR Scarlet Turnips
    5 – Kale OR Collards OR Chard OR Choi
    6 – Lettuce OR Cabbage OR Spinach
    7 – Delicata Squash