Hello. Welcome back to CSA Week 2 for those members who are getting a box every week. And a warm first-time welcome to our bi-weekly members getting their initial box of the year. We are sincerely honored to have all our members eating from the farm this season. Thanks for your commitment to knowing where your food comes from!
We will create an email newsletter each week of the year. Bi-weekly members can access the newsletter content from the weeks they did not receive a box by searching for it on our Harvie website. We hope you enjoy learning a bit about the farm and farmers who are working each day to help fill your box with great seasonal produce.
One highlight from the past week was tying up our tomatoes for the first time. We trellis both our greenhouse and field tomatoes. The greenhouse tomatoes grow on a vertical netting called hortinova. The field tomatoes are kept upright with a technique called "stake and weave". Basically, we use twine and rebar to create a support system for our tomatoes. As they grow taller, we add another woven layer of twine around each plant.
Our greenhouse tomatoes this year are a wide variety of cherry, grape and small "salad" types. In the field we have early red slicers as well as a variety of heirlooms and paste tomatoes. In addition, we're doing some trials for seed companies and breeders, so you may find some unique new types in your box! In total, we are growing about 40 varieties of tomatoes and have about 1400 plants in the ground! There are tiny green cherry tomatoes on the plants now, so we're hoping to begin picking ripe ones in several weeks, weather permitting.
On behalf of the field crew at Rivendale, have a great week!
Neil Stauffer
ps--That picture is of me from a few weeks ago. I'm transplanting our first summer squash of the year. The first harvest from these plants will find it's way into some of your boxes this week!
