A huge thank you to all of you that came out to the farm yesterday for the farm tour! It was a perfect day to be outside and we enjoyed sharing our farm with you. The turnout was great, but that meant that there were fewer opportunities to chat with each of you individually, which we would have really enjoyed.
During the tour we spoke at length about our plans to transition to no-till farming, and described many of the benefits that we hope will result, but one significant reason that we didn't touch on is the impact that no-till and regenerative farming can have on climate change. We are familiar with trees and forests as carbon sinks, but did you know that healthy, living soil teeming with microbes is also a very effective way to sequester carbon? It's true! and this is another really important driving factor for us in this move because no-till farming is designed to support healthy, living soils. To see how this works, you can check out the documentary Kiss the Ground (found on Netflix); it provides a good introduction to agriculture and climate change.
In weather news: We had a bit of rain this week!!! It was less than an inch, but it did give us a sigh of relief and a brief pause in our irrigating. We are eagerly anticipating some crops that we didn't get to plant last year due to the crazy wet, namely beans and tomatoes! We have to figure out a way to keep the tomatoes out of the cooler when we deliver them to you (all of your farm boxes are stored in our cooler overnight after we pack them on Friday and this is not ideal for tomatoes). We have also been grateful for the clearer skies of late, as smokey haze really slows down photosynthesis and therefore the growth of the veggies that fill your box.
We hope that you have been finding the Harvie platform easy to use and helpful, and taking advantage of the opportunities to swap share items as well as add extras when you need them. Here are a few links to help documents should you have questions or trouble with Harvie. Also, any time you need a hand with something that is tricky to figure out, just reach out to us or the Harvie team. Sometimes when one is navigating an online platform it is easy to forget that there are friendly faces ready to help you should you need it...Harvie and we are here for you! In the event that you are not signed into your account, here is the link you can use:https://harvie.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/categories/115000048773-Harvie-University-Members and if you are on your account page, this is the link: https://www.harvie.farm/contact
We hope that you enjoy this week's offerings!
Warmly and with gratitude,
Jenny and James
