*look at these clouds, photo by Adam Ford*

How To Use This Newsletter

Each week, usually in this order, the newsletter will have:

A list of the vegetables available
A button to click if you’d like to have your items packed and delivered
A button to click for a reminder of the different pickup and delivery options each week
Any random reminders or information
Farm news
Weekly recipe

We understand life can be busy and chaotic— it is for us!— so we keep the important information near the top in case you can’t read a newsletter each week. The farm news and recipes are just bonus content if you want to know more about what goes on here.

CSA Balance Due

If you haven’t already paid, your balance is due this week. You can pay online through your account, mail a check to Evening Song Farm 48 Nice Road, Cuttingsville VT 05738, or leave a check in the CSA cash box at the barn. It’s very cool to pay in smaller chunks, just let us know what your payment plan is. You can also email or call us to pay with EBT.

CSA Nuts and Bolts Reminders

At the barn….

If you pick out your veggies at the barn, CSA hours are Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9 am to 8 pm.
You do NOT need to put in a veggie order to pick out your own veggies at the barn. You just show up on Wednesday or Thursday and pick out what you want.
The new software system sends out weekly reminders to pick up your veggies. The auto-reminder might be a bit confusing for CSA members who pick up at the barn. You can ignore those automatic emails if you pick up at the barn, they are really designed for members who place an order online for a delivered bag. Just don’t let the email confuse you: barn pickup is available Wednesday AND Thursday from 9 am to 8 pm.
If you miss a week of veggies, feel free to make that up whenever you want. We just ask that you keep track of your makeup items yourself.
You can buy extra items at the barn by leaving money in the cash box at the CSA sign in area.
If you pick up your veggies at the barn, you may also see some other products (maple syrup, bread, and certified organic grass-fed beef) from neighbor farms. You can purchase those items as extras, and leave payment in the cash box at pickup. These aren’t interchangeable with CSA veggie items. (If you use a check you can still make it out to Evening Song Farm.)
To get to the barn, our address “48 Nice Road, Cuttingsville VT.” Then pull up to the barn, and go up the ramp, and the veggies will be displayed in the display cooler on your right.

If you order a bag for delivery….

Click on the button that will bring you to our Farmigo CSA store to place your weekly order.
Ordering closes at noon on Tuesdays for Wednesday bags and noon on Thursday for Friday bags.
You can change your pickup location and day any week by signing into your account: Find the “summary box” over to the right. Nex to the Pickup/Change box, click on either “permanent,” if you want to change spots for the foreseeable future, or “next delivery” if the change is just for this week. Select the spot you want your bag to go to, and hit save. (If you just select “next delivery” the following week it will revert back to your original pickup site and day.) Click here for a quick video on how to change your pickup location or day.
If you want to skip a week and save those items for later, click on the “delivery hold” tab under “My account,” and enter the dates you will be skipping. This will apply a credit for you to use whenever you want in future weeks of the share. If you completely forget to order or put a hold on, one week, reach out so we can manually put that credit in to use in the future. Click here for a quick video on how to skip a CSA week.
You can buy extra items or bulk items when you put in your normal (pre-paid) weekly order. Click on the “veggie store” and “bulk” lines on the left of the store to purchase additional items.
If you pick up your bag at one of the delivery spots, just keep in mind that they aren’t stored in a cooler after we drop them off. The veggies keep well because they are either inside or in full shade, but it’s best to pick them up that day instead of letting them continue to sit out overnight.

For every CSA member…

We appreciate hearing from you if you ever get a bad veggie or it goes bad faster than expected. We learn from it, and it helps us catch bigger issues. And we also love if you make up that bad veggie in future weeks. Our goal is that you get wonderful food each week.
If you feel like you need to adjust your share size, you can either do that yourself on the Farmigo account, or reach out to us, and we can do it for you. Our theme is flexibility, and we love when it works for you to get veggies this way.
Did you know….. that all the weekly recipes are stored and searchable by veggie or season here?!
If you are totally new, or just have questions, check out this CSA guidelines page to answer more questions, or just reach out to us!

This Week’s Availability

This week we will have leeks, red beets, yellow beets, white daikon radishes, purple daikon radishes, watermelon radishes, orange carrots, rainbow carrots, shallots, red and yellow onions (Juniper Hill), garlic, green cabbage, mini red cabbage, red and yellow potatoes (Atlas Farm), fingerling potatoes (Clearfield Farm), sweet potatoes (Junpier Hill Farm), spinach, mesclun mix, and frozen heirloom/beefsteak tomatoes.

The greens are still coming out of dormancy, and will pick up soon, but until then, we ask you to limit the total number of green items (spinach/mesclun mix) you choose based on share size:

Mini shares: 1 item of greens (spinach/mesclun mix)
Small and medium shares: 2 items of greens (spinach/mesclun mix)
Large and super shares: 3 items of greens (spinach/mesclun mix)

The frozen heirloom/beefsteak tomato bags are “2 items worth:” and are delicious for stewing.

Click here to order your veggies for a delivered bag

Ordering closes at noon on Tuesdays for Wednesday bags, and at noon on Thursdays for Friday bags.

You do not need to fill out the form if you plan to come to the barn on Wednesdays or Thursdays to pick out your items yourself.

CSA pickup and delivery days and times

If you have any trouble using the new platform to order your veggies this week (or change your pickup location, or skip this week, or anything…) reach out to us. We are here to help. We imagine the first few weeks will be a learning curve for all of us. Other farms who have made this switch swear that they and their members love it after we all learn the ropes.

Bulk vegetables available for processing

If you are interested in getting a bulk amount of anything, hop onto your Farmigo account, click on the “store” button, and then click on the “bulk” line on the left. This will bring up all the items priced at wholesale level for larger purchases. You can order these separately from your CSA items, and they can be available to pick up along with your normal weekly CSA bags.

*last summer’s flower garden under the snow… I cannot WAIT for this summer’s flower garden, photo by Adam Ford*

Farm News (from Ryan)

(Farm news is all bonus content, no essential information in this section)

Welcome back, CSA folks! It happens every year, but it’s still hard for me to believe that we’re gearing up for the spring and the summer. This week especially felt like the gears are turning in the change of the seasons, even as there will continue to be much more winter weather ahead. This week Taylor seeded about 7,000 cells of lettuce, cilantro, scallions, bok choi, and salad turnips, in addition to preparing beds and seeding arugula, mustard greens, and carrots directly into the tunnels. This year it feels a little bittersweet to turn this corner of the winter season. Even though I know there will be so much joy in the sunny spring days of soft snow and maple sap running, in the warm afternoons wearing t-shirts seeding in our greenhouse; and even though I know there will be many days ahead of skiing, loading the woodstove, and time spent not racing through tasks, these days I still feel something like sadness as the activities of the season signal the coming waning of the winter. More and more I’m treasuring the uniqueness of the winter season in this place.

The cold-hardy greens in the high tunnels are also, for a little while longer, still in their hunkered-down phase. The periods of intense cold we’ve had over the past 6 weeks have caused a bit more mortality than we experienced in last year’s mild winter. These spaces where greens didn’t survive the cold are good spots for us to fill in this spring with pea shoots, arugula, or salad mix. The majority of the greens that did make it through the coldest and darkest time of the year have not yet started to emerge from their semi-dormant state, so they are similar in size as our last harvest in early January. Having watched these plants basically sit still for about two straight months, it’s hard to imagine the rate of growth that they will take on in just a couple weeks, as the days lengthen and the temperatures warm. Before long it will become hard for us to keep up harvesting all the new growth that bursts forth from these remarkable plants as they turn sunlight, water, and soil into leaves, shoots, and flowers. For now, the harvest of greens is limited to spinach and mesclun mix. While we wait for the tunnels to begin producing an abundance of greens, we’re excited to be able to collaborate with other organic farms to offer some other fun crops at the start of this winter/spring season. I’m especially looking forward to the beautiful rainbow carrots and sweet potatoes from Juniper Hill Farm.

Starting next week we will start the earliest rounds of some of the cold sensitive crops, such as the crowd favorite of tomatoes. And that’s when the seed starting room smells the best. The scent of tomato plants seems like the best olfactive promise of summer I could ask for as winter plods on.

Have a great week,

-ESF Team: Ryan, Kara, Molly, Katie, Taylor, and, Cindy

This Week's Recipe: Roasted Garlic Soup