Hello there Friends,
We hope winter is treating everybody well. It's shaping up to be an odd one... and we're curious to see what the next few months will bring in the form of moisture to Southwest Colorado. We just posted the 2018 Summer CSA Details, check it out! We are excited to offer both a Mancos CSA Share and a Telluride CSA Share this season! Registration Opens February 1st, so mark your calendars or sign up for the CSA Waiting List and we will send you a reminder email the morning registration opens.
Winter is an interesting time at the farm. It brings time for rest and recuperation and time to catch up with family and friends. We have been spending hours at the computer, working on the 2018 financial projections, updating the CSA details, placing our seed orders, drafting the crop plan (which always changes but you need to start somewhere), reviewing our 2017 notes, ordering tractor implements, writing down our goals for the year and discussing how we can improve our systems and efficiencies at the farm as well as our work/life balance. All accompanied with many cups of coffee, pancakes, a fair amount of procrastination and compromise.
I spend a lot of time in the winter contemplating how can we make the CSA experience even better for YOU. This is a partnership after all and we want to continue to grow this CSA Community year after year, and we hope you’ll join us in that endeavor. I will be reaching out to some of our CSA Members this month with my ideas but please contact me directly if you have some thoughts. We would love to hear from you!
We are prepping two of the greenhouse beds this week for planting the first seeds of the 2018 season… the onions, scallions, leeks and shallots (aka the alliums)! We start these in the greenhouse beds in January, where they’ll germinate slowly but grow into stocky transplants over the next few months. In early May we will dig them out of the greenhouse beds, give them a quick trim and then transplant in the field. Here they will be weeded several times, irrigated regularly and then harvested once their tops begin to fall in September. The onions and leeks are two of the longest season crops we grow but also one of our favorites, as the majority of the meals we prepare here at the farm start with peeling an onion.
We are starting the 2018 Seed Order today! I have been flipping through seed catalogs and getting ideas but I haven't truly dived in yet. It's time, time to start dreaming up the season, planning and hoping for bountiful harvests and taking the first step, making the crop plan and ordering the seeds! In a couple months we will be seeding early roots in the moveable houses and starting the tomatoes and peppers in the propagation house We can hardly wait! We have our tried and true favorites for most crops, but we're always trying new varieties. Year after year we grow/trial and observe various varieties and slowly pick out the ones that perform best at our farm. Growing at 7200' in Southwest Colorado brings it's challenges and finding the varieties that thrive in this high desert climate is critical.
If you haven’t already, check out the Mountain Roots Produce 2017 Year in Review… via our 2017 Photo Gallery! We made a compilation of our favorite photos from the season and it’s pretty amazing how much we can make happen if we put our minds together and help each other focus and troubleshoot along the way.
We'll check back on February 1, 2018 when CSA Registration begins! Until then, review the updated 2018 Summer CSA details and contact me if you have any questions!
Happy Monday!
