Kaden and I have been planning and working hard to make this Spring farm share seasons one of the best we have ever had! A big welcome to all of our new farm share members, and a BIG THANK YOU to every member joining us this season! Your support means so much to us, and we can't wait to provide you and your family with an amazing share of produce from our farm.
This Week
Lots of leafy greens are part of Spring farming, and we have a fantastic selection! New this season we have escarole, which is in the chicory family, and a cousin of endive. This is our first time growing it and I think it's turned out beautifully!
We have a full line of our salad mixes available, and the lettuce harvests have just been incredible so far this year. We grew a new variety called "Vulcan" and it's so sure out of this world delicious! We also have a mustard green mix featuring giant red mustard and ruby streaks mustard that is stunning when plated. We have a lot of bok choy that MUST GO! I don't like to prioritize crops in the shares, but a lot of you will have bok choy this week. They are some of the best boks we have ever grown. Large, green leaves and the juiciest of stems make them a must for making stir fry this week in your kitchen! Mix the bok choys with Napa cabbage and you are on your way to an amazing sauerkraut!
Root season is ramping up. I hope you enjoy our selection of radishes, salad turnips, plus I added a few bundles of baby carrots. The carrot crop still needs to size, so for the next few weeks I will have them available as an add-on. At this size it takes a long time to selectively harvest, but the red, yellow, and orange carrots in the bundle taste amazing and are REAL BABY CARROTS, not those flavorless nubs found in the grocery!
Don't forget about adding some 3 Board Farm eggs to you share! We love to support other local farms, and they are an awesome family farm. They go the extra mile to make sure their livestock has a great diet and quality of life. We also have some half dozens of goose eggs from our farm up for grabs. They have a larger yolk to white ratio, so while they taste similar to chicken eggs, they are slightly richer with a fluffy texture when cooked. They are prized for baking. I also added a few jars of our jams if you are running low!
Next Week
I'm hoping that each week I will be able to add more carrots and scallions to the inventory. Look for romaine lettuce heads next week too! The sugar snap peas and green beans are really blooming this week, so we will begin harvesting those soon! More arugula will be available next week. We are between successions this week, but it's growing so fast! Any week now the purple kohlrabi's and fresh cut dill will be on the inventory!
Farm Update
Calling the weeks between farm share seasons "a break" is a mistake I will not make again! The past four weeks we have been working 60+ hours, 7 days a week. We stared more than 20,000 seeds, prepared a new field block that increased the size of our farm by 15%, and spent a lot of time working on infrastructure projects like updates to the wash and pack station and maintenance of our tunnels.
I've been really focused on the crop plan, so I hope that a lot of new crops will make it into the farm shares this year like sugar baby watermelons, sweet corn, eggplant, and fennel, plus some new varieties of some of our most popular crops like red dragon carrots, mini-broccolis, stir-fry cauliflower, and new salad greens like claytonia.
Community
I want to give a shoutout to all of the local businesses who support our farm by hosting farm share pick ups! In Monroe, Tonore's Wine Cellar, The Good Daze, and Medina Market have all be great hosts! They really go the extra mile for us, and it's been so amazing to be able to rely on them season after season. Our Farmerville subscriptions really grew this season, thanks to Allan Futch at The Dean of Flowers! Allan has been a family friend for a long time, and his support of our farm has been unwavering since we started in 2020! Our newest pick up location is in Bossier City at the new Smith Family Farms Market! We have a pretty good following in the Shreveport area, and it means so much that Smith Family Farm is hosting a pick up.
I updated the farm share referrals, so instead of $25 credit, it's now been raised to $35! I wanted to make sure that members could at least get a free $30 farm share that included the pick-up fee or part of a delivery fee. We aren't quite sold out of farm shares this season, so please refer your friends, family and neighbors (neighbors especially if you are already signed up for home delivery!! There is a "refer a friend" tab at the top of your Harvie profile, so send one out to everyone you love! The hardest part of farming is selling the produce we grow. Selling out of farm shares will save me so many hours of chasing sales, as well as a lot of anxiety. There's a never-ending to-do list around here. I always say that the farm shares are the number one way to support our farm, because of the peace of mind granted to us. We don't have to travel to a market and hope we sell what we harvested. With the farm shares, we know exactly what needs to be harvested, and when and where it needs to be delivered. This is crucial in allocating certain days of the week to tending, planting, and growing crops that keeps our farm inventory fresh and diverse. Yes, we could pivot, and grow a smaller crop selection for retail sales, but that's not what brings us joy. We love having diverse crop plans, because it's challenging, fun, and let's us be creative. It's also a big part of our mission to sell directly to the our customers. Only 4% of local farms sell directly to consumers. I think it's vital for a growing local food movement for folks to develop a relationship with a farmer. Food is one of the pillars of our culture, and I cannot stand that so called "family farms" don't feed any families in their community. While so many outdated aspects of our society have progressed, I'm ashamed that over the decades, demand for locally grown food regressed. We started Current Farms because we wanted to cook and eat the best food, and then share some of the harvest with our family and friends. Feeding you and you family is the honor of a lifetime and is at the heart of what motivates us to be the best farmers we can be. Thank you so much for believing in Current Farms.
