Old 99 farm, week of Nov 28 2021

This is the week we are switching back to one day a week or by arrangement. That day will be THURSDAY, from 4 to 6 for pickup. Henceforth, if paying by e-transfer (interac) please put the date of order in the comment box. Take your sales receipt with you when you leave to remind yourself of a small detail still waiting: to pay!

Community Shared Agriculture

We are one of the few farms offering a winter share of vegetables: fresh greens all winter, eggs and cold storage root crops. The price is $25/week for 24 weeks, half paid up front, half at midpoint, starting from when you purchase. So if this week, your share runs Dec 1st to May 13. You can skip up to 3 weeks and extend the end date. A new option we’re trying is the smorgasbord: you pick your 6 vegetables from the harvest table when you arrive, or substitute an item or two that we have boxed up for you.
A third option is Cash Advance: pay ahead $300, and order a la carte from the locallygrown menu. The advantage: I’ll reduce the unit prices by 10% and you’ll know you are supporting the farm with your commitment.

Now’s the time to suggest to us what you would like to eat in the spring, when first greenhouse crops are available. We’ll be doing the usual: carrots, onions, lettuce, mesclun mix, baby chards kales and collards. And the unusual: do you know the cold hardy greens, Mache and Claytonia? Post your requests in the blog by going to the heading Your Account and clicking down to Send email to Market Manager (that’s me). Very simple, give it a try.

Right now we have celery, mixed greens (aka mesclun), spinach, chard, collards and kale. Root vegetables include carrots, leeks, fennel, potatoes, turnip, rutabaga, squash varieties, and beets. Of course the freezers are full of beef, pork and chicken, and the hens lay eggs every day. Surf on over to our virtual farm market.

Here’s a link for exploring lifestyle options in the wake of climate disruptions, from permaculturist David Holmgren. Not only was he instrumental in assembling the body of knowledge for living well within Earth’s means, he has done it. You can see via youtube his 2 acre site called Melliodora in the town of Hepburn, 90 min northwest of Melbourne AU. Climate upset, both local and worldwide will have knock-on effects. Supply lines are showing to be brittle: easily broken when storms, floods, fires hit places far away.

A supply chain is an example of a complex system: systems thinking is needed to make sense of these because there are always delays, bottlenecks, buffers and inventories. The best little book on this is by Donella Meadows, co-author of Limits to Growth, 1972. It’s called Thinking In Systems, A Primer, 2008, 200pg. There a lots of youtubes, like this one, In A World of Systems. Sit back and meet systems in our everyday lives, from plumbing to traffic jams to fisheries, based on the work of the renowned systems thinker Donella Meadows!