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Subject: CSA update from Kollibri!
Hello CSA subscribers! Here's an email update for y'all, about what's going on with this year's produce. I wasn't expecting to send out anything this season with such dramatic news. This mail might read a little like a novel, which is good because it's a little long perhaps, so it better be entertaining, right? Future correspondence will be shorter and less dramatic (I sure hope). First, the basics. Here's what's been planted so far this year. You, the CSA subscribers, are first in line for all of this. What's left-over will be sold/bartered at farmers' markets and distributed to helpers, friends, etc. Amounts are measured in size of patch (i.e., 10 x 10), or by row-feet (10'). Peas: sweet crunchy snap peas, 3 colors of snow peas - 60 x 60
I was excited to get so much in the ground. And it's all coming up great so far 'cept for the carrots; they might need a little more warmth first. I put them out darn early, honestly. These veggies cover an area about a quarter acre in size, maybe a little bigger. It is the largest single spring planting I have ever done, by far. Yippee!! DA DA DUM... The Dramatic Part: That's everything that got planted out on the acreage in North Plains. As many of you will recall, I have been talking about this land, and working with the farmer there, since late last summer. By winter we had struck our deal for the season, which was this: a) $75 lease for the land, paid to the owner ($50/acre, what she charges everyone else), and, b) a deal with the other farmer that we would do two farmers markets together, with each of us just doing one and bringing the others' produce along. A great deal -- you get to offer your produce at two places, but only have to go to one of them yourself. Well, the deal didn't last. After arriving at the land, the owner added a condition: Pay utilities. Okay. That added $350 for the season to the expense side of the budget. I had to rework the numbers in a serious way by cutting back in other areas. Then, after being there for six weeks and having planted all of the above (plus a bunch of medicinal herbs), the owner demands that I purchase a $1,000,000 liability insurance policy. The cost of that (according to a quote from Country Insurance, which the other farmers around here use) is $625-$700. So, suddenly, the cost of being there had risen from $75 to as much as $1125, with a big chunk of that going to the freaking Insurance Industry, which is just a form of Legalized Extortion, in my opinion, and exactly the sort of B.S. we're trying to get away from by organizing new distribution systems like CSAs in the first place! This wasn't going to do, obviously, so a new deal was struck. I will not be purchasing liability insurance. I may still harvest what I've planted so far. However, I may not plant anything else, and I can only go to the farm by myself. And everything's gotta be outta there by Aug. 1. I also reduced the utility charge, and will be paying only $100 total. So, what this means is that alternate land will be needed to plant everything else that's been planned for the year. I am looking in the City only, for ease of transport. Fortunately, three offers of small parcels have already come in, and today I landed a larger parcel (100 x 30). All are within 12 blocks of my house. I still need to come up with a bit more -- another 3,000-5,000 square feet or so to get everything in the ground, but I am confident that this will appear. And best of all, I have not fallen behind my planting schedule! Nothing so far is being planted 'late'; it's just going into places that I hadn't been planning to plant it. But, like, "No Worries, dude": Ultimately, you as CSA subscribers should not suffer any interruptions-in-service from these changes in where I'm growing food. In fact, some produce will now be fresher as it will be traveling a shorter distance. However, this distributed model could produce some as yet unforeseen logistical issues that might come to your attention, though I will certainly be working to avoid such scenarios. Also, if I need help with something, y'all will be some of the folks I will be alerting. Among other things, I might need some assistance with transportation from the country to the city from time to time, in the form of borrowing a vehicle, depending on how things go down with [x]. In our original deal [x] was going to be providing a truck, but that's more of a question now. OK, ALREADY, WHEN DO I START GETTING FOOD?! Originally, I told people "the end of April", which is now upon us. I am now saying "sometime in May". I have never planted a lot of these crops so early, and I didn't take into account that they grow so much more slowly in the early spring than in the late spring. So, it's all taking longer than I thought it would. But it's all definitely coming along, and at some point will become a Flood. AND, no matter when the season starts, it will last at least 27 weeks total, as promised. We'll go through the end of November if we need to. SO... I will send out another email in the next couple weeks as I get a better idea about when the exact start date will be. Please call or email with any questions, ideas, leads-on-land, wishes-of-congratulations, or otherwise. I now have a cell phone number: 503.686.5557. Call anytime. xoxoxoxo,
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