Hello there!
Before we get into farm news, we want to take a moment to tell you about auto-renew. Auto-renew is a feature built into the Harvie system whereby you, our members, are re-enrolled into our next farm share season. You have the option of turning auto-renew off, but the default setting within Harvie is to have it toggled on.
When auto renew is toggled on in your account, you receive several communications from us in the weeks prior to re-enrollment (which usually happens around the end of Feb.) so that you can decide whether or not to participate in our farm share again for the coming season. You also always have the option of cancelling your membership if you renew but decide against it prior to the season's beginning.
Basically, auto-renew provides you with the service of holding a place in our farm share program before we make it public, and for us it provides the convenience of less advertising to fill our shares. If you are uncomfortable with the idea of being auto-renewed, but want to sign up again, you just need to keep your eyes open for when we are taking in customers following the auto-renew process. We will announce this on Instagram and Facebook.
Now for Farm News...
The onions are in! All of our glorious onion crop has been harvested and moved into our curing house (aka the greenhouse with a giant tarp over it). We are very happy with the crop and owe its good health to a good growing season as well as the no-till beds that provided good ground to grow in.
With the crops coming in, we are facing a new puzzle to solve - how to manage the now cleared beds without our normal preparation of tillage! Below is a photo of the beds that had onions in them and now have been completely harvested. You can see on the left the clover from the pathways creeping well into the growing area, as well as the pea plant residue and piles of onion leaves. To the right, you can see we've pulled back the clover and mowed it, and removed the remaining plant debris to our compost pile. We raked the beds smooth again with a landscape rake, and will seed it with buckwheat shortly. The buckwheat will be a temporary ground cover until we use the beds again next spring.
In other news, our laying hens have done a lovely job of hatching a few eggs into some adorable chicks and we are enjoying new life on the farm. Our Eli left the farm team in preparation for school. We are going to miss his goofy sense of humour and his great attitude. We've enjoyed a bit of a lighter load due to our leave of absence from the farmers' market and we are getting some of our farm projects done, thank goodness! The Earth's General Store has graciously agreed to host our farm share for the next couple of weeks while we are away from the Strathcona Market.
General Reminders, Links and Information...
Please remember to let us know if something is not right with your order. We want to know how we can improve, and it is important to us that you receive excellence from us.
Here are some links to help documents created by Harvie for you to learn how to navigate your farm share account more easily. You will find information about swapping, rescheduling, pickup location changes etc.
https://harvie.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/categories/115000048773-Harvie-University-Members Link to Harvie help documents if you are not signed in to your account.
https://www.harvie.farm/contact Link to Harvie University for members (found in your accounts)
What To Do if You Are Away
This is a question we get asked often. You have three options:
1) Have someone else pick up for you. In our experience, friends assigned this job sometimes forget, so help them remember!
2) Cancel your share for the week. This can be managed on your Harvie account page. It must be done before the Wednesday morning cutoff time of 6 a.m. The disadvantage here is that you lose whatever you have invested into that share. So if you've paid 50%, then you forfeit that amount.
3) Reschedule your share. This is our recommended option because it means you get your full value. What we suggest is that you reschedule your share to a week near the end when you will get more storage-friendly items that will last longer in your fridge, though you're welcome to reschedule to any date that works best for you. When you reschedule, you will get the scheduled share as well as the rescheduled share or shares, so be prepared for a lot of food.
Pick up Location Days, Hours and Flexibilities
King's University (East Edmonton)
Friday pickups, 12-4, some flex if you have to come a bit later. We will not retrieve any shares left here.
Breadlove Artisan Bakery (St. Albert), Saturday pickups, 10-2, no flex & closed on Sunday.
Awn Kitchen (Southwest Edmonton), Saturday pickups, 10-2, no flex, we will bring missed shares to farm.
Uproot Food Collective (Central Edmonton), Saturday pickups, 10-2, some flex, but please respect the pickup hours.
Earth's General Store (Strathcona), Saturday pickups, 9:30-2:30, temporary location in place of Strathcona Market. We pick up shares left here unless other arrangements have been made.
The Butcher Block (Sherwood Park), Saturday pickup, 10-2, some flex
The Fort Distillery (Fort Saskatchewan), Saturday pickup, 10-5, no flex
Sundog Organic Farm (near Gibbons), Saturday, 9-2, flexible
As always, you may contact us with questions or concerns at jamesandjenny@sundogorganicfarm.ca or 780-447-3025 or 780-974-6249. Our preferred method of communication is email.
Be well,
James and Jenny
