A New CSA Season Begins
It’s hard to believe this is our 11th season growing on this special piece of land here in Bucks County Pennsylvania. We have gone through a lot of changes, adaptations and growth through those years. We’ve had incredible people bless this place with their hard work and enthusiasm, we’ve added to our family, built organic matter, and traveled along with the ebbs and flows of the seasons and our community. It has taken a lot of forethought to figure out a way to get this season going but with investments in new equipment and a strong crew we are ready to tackle the challenges ahead and reap the joys that come with the rewarding work we do. Most importantly, we are ready to be the best growers we can be, so that our members can continue to receive high quality organic food straight from our fields.
This year we decided to invest in hosting two workers through the H2A visa program to work on our farm for the season from Oaxaca Mexico. We have had amazing luck finding great workers for our farm but it has been harder and harder to find folks willing to put in full-time hours for the whole season. And while we completely understand, farm work is hard on the body and simply does not pay enough, it means that we’ve had the majority of the work fall on the backs of a few people. Juan and Martin, from La Muralla, Mexico arrived in late April and they have already become an integral part of our farm and community. Juan is a veterinarian by trade and Martin is a carpenter, they also know a lot about growing plants and taking care of animals. They have been fast and excited to learn about farming techniques here in the US, and are sharing their knowledge and skills with us as we practice our Spanish together. We are delighted to have them as a new part of our Roots to River Team. See our ‘Team’ page for more details about this year’s crew.
As for our crops, they are growing happily thanks to our team’s hard work and some nice weather of course. We are excited to share this week’s harvest list and fill your boxes with some spring bounty. Unfortunately, the first carrots we seeded never came up so we may have to wait a few more weeks for those, but for the most part the spring and summer crops are looking healthy and happy. And unbelievably we have already tilled in the cover crop for our fall fields and are starting to seed for autumn planting in the next couple weeks. We are sad that due to challenges of finding a suitable commercial kitchen space and constant delays in building permits for our own kitchen we will be unable to provide much in the way of prepared foods for the boxes this season. We will keep you updated if anything changes, but for now we will be able to offer local fruits and some local canned goods as we come across them. Send good thoughts for building permits or better yet, call the Solebury Township to help urge them along with the paperwork so we can start contruction and get cooking!
We hope you are excited for this season’s bounty, we are excited to pick for you. Please read your emails and please get in touch if you have any questions, feedback or something nice to say!
Happy eating from your farm crew,
Malaika, Breezy, Sam, Tammy, Anna, Juan and Martin