Chats with Jenny
It's September and change is in the air! We are still in summer mode, harvesting cukes and zuccs, lots of tomatoes and some basil, but we are also beginning to squirrel away items for fall and winter. We hope the beginning of the school season and the shift that that brings for many of you went smoothly! It did here :)
We know that many of you are busy and reading through our Farm Happening is less exciting than checking the contents of your newest farm share, but please try and skim through what we send you or come back to look at the Happenings when you have a moment in your day. We try to include pertinent details on things like auto-renew, why crops are the way they are etc. These happenings help you to connect with what we are doing on the farm and where your food comes from!
We wanted to remind you that we have had hail a few times this summer, and the legacy of that is still apparent on some crops - the bok choy for instance, as well as being the reason that we don't have tops on our beets still. (The recent golden beets that some of you got in your shares was from a trial crop in our cold frame where we tested direct seeding in the compost used in our no-till beds, but sadly most of those beets are now harvested.) We do have a late crop of beets coming that we may be able to sell as bunches for all you beet greens lovers out there.
We've planted a few crops that we weren't originally planning on in order to ensure variety for you to choose from in your shares: namely spinach, radish, arugula and turnips (for which the remaining season may be too short). We hope that these cool-weather loving crops will round out the fall harvest that will soon become available.
We're in The Tomato!
Mary Bailey, a farm share member and editor of Edmonton's The Tomato Food & Drink, came to our recent farm tour to learn more about our move to no-till. She did an awesome job of capturing our why and how in the article called Farmers of Invention below. Give it a read, or better, pick up a new copy of The Tomato at a local stand. Thanks to Mary for sharing more broadly what we are excited and motivated by here at Sundog.
Some farm photos that I took to share with you today...
In sequence: A winter cabbage, nearly ready, a celeriac in the field, the pumpkin patch, radishes popping up under some remay, irrigating our winter storage carrots and parsnips, some heirloom squash, beautiful germination on our newest crop of spinach (here's hoping we're safe from hail!!), the colour on the red kuri squash is unbelievable this year!
As always, some valuable info about Harvie and the way things work...
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
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.
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
