Newsletter • February, 2010
Gardeners to the Public since 1995.
Download our CSA form.
As most farmers and gardeners know, 2009 was one of the worst seasons in decades for
production of heat-loving plants, and, due to late blight, for potatoes and tomatoes especially. Not only did
the sun barely come out at all for seven weeks in June & July, but the weeds got a reprieve from being hoed,
cultivated, or hand weeded because the soil was just too wet. Our insurance policy against such poor growing
seasons is called “diversity”, because what is bad weather for one crop can be good weather for another. So
although we had poor crops of grapes, potatoes, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and summer squash, this
year was, in fact, a bumper year for us for broccoli, onions, garlic, shallots, leeks, winter squash and
carrots. As a result, sales for 2009 were about the same as for 2008. And of course the grass grew like
crazy, so we were able to mow plenty of it for mulch.
Probably the biggest news for us this year was losing Jack and Coco, who had been with us since 2006. During
that time they had become and intregral part of the farm, taking on more and more of the farming
responsibilities. However beginning in late spring they seemed increasingly dissatisfied with being here, so
instead of completely taking over our operation, they decided to leave at the end of August. Needless to say
this was difficult for us both operationally and emotionally, but with the help of some of our long time
hourly workers, we managed to complete the season with hardly a hitch, altho we did have to stop attending
the Newport market a few weeks early.
How effective is our CSA in the running of our farm? In 2009 we had 82 CSA members who bought a total of
112.3 shares. This means we had $11,230 to help finance the year's startup costs, and for that members
received $14,599 worth of produce over the course of the season. Already in 2010 five people have joined for
the coming season, one purchasing five shares! We have purchased most of our seeds already, at a cost of over
$4,000, and we'll be buying $1,200 worth of potting soil by late February. And in April we begin hiring
people to work in the greenhouses and fields.
Our way of doing a CSA, often called a “debit system”, is catching on with many farms who
are already doing direct-to-the-public sales, because it integrates so easily with what they are currently
doing. The CSA debit system also enables us to allow our CSA members to purchase items we don't grow from
other stalls at market. Just tell them Snakeroot will pay for it, then come back to tell us how much to
deduct from your account and who we should pay. (Don't forget this part!) As a result you can use your
Snakeroot CSA membership to get breads, cheeses, sweet corn, meats, fish, and any other item you find at
market that day.
In November and December we added several new pages to our website,
including Just Pretty Pictures, Planting Garlic, Growing Garlic Rounds from Bulbils, Crop Rotations, Planting
with Spreadsheets, Our Outbuildings, and Dealing with Low Pressure Water, as well as adding photos of some of
the folks who worked here this summer in Our Farm Workers.
We've purchased a conduit bender from Johnny's Selected Seeds for making large hoops that will cover our
early season and late season crops. This should enable us to produce more fall broccoli and spinach and more
spring greens and radishes. We'll cover the hoops with recycled greenhouse plastic held in place with sand
bags.
This newsletter format is brand new for us. We'd like to hear how you enjoyed it, or if you had any
difficulties with it. We'll try to do several of these a year, but it might be hard to find time during the
summer months. In any case, we're considering reducing the number of paper copies we send out of our annual CSA
invitation and CSA brochure, and this newsletter would be the replacement. Of course we'll be
sending paper copies to all whose email addresses we don't have, but if you are getting this you will not be
getting our usual paper invitation UNLESS YOU ASK US TO
SEND A PAPER COPY.
Our CSA Brochure with its signup form is available to
download from our website in PDF format for printing out. You may download it
now.
See everyone at market.
CROP NEWS
We doubled our Brussels sprouts planting to 700 row feet in 2009, and to our delight found that it was still
not enough, so we plan to expand it again this year.
We will also be growing several pots of okra in a greenhouse along with our hot peppers. Both should be ready
by mid August, so dig out your gumbo recipes.
Our cooler is currently full of carrots, parsnips, celeriac and rutabagas being stored for spring market
sales. We expect to have these overwintered crops at market in April and well into May. Starting at the Orono
and Waterville markets in April we will also be offering spring-dug parsnips and sunchokes as well as spring
grown spinach, lettuce radishes, and spicy greens from our greenhouse beds. Most of these should last into the
first week of June.
A new CSA phenomenon that we are beginning to notice is that folks are giving CSA sub- scriptions as holiday gifts or
as house warming presents. We might have never thought of that ourselves, but it seems like a splendid
idea.
Barrels Community Market on Main Street in Waterville is placing
regular orders with us this winter for carrots, celeriac, parsnips and rutabagas. So if you can't wait until
the April markets begin and you can't to come out to the farm, you can find some of our produce at
Barrels.
As of this writing it is not clear to us how we will be able to attend the Newport Farmers' and Artisans'
Market this year. Attending Newport means we would be sending three trucks to market on Saturday mornings,
and at this point we don't know who we would have to staff the stand. Time will tell, stay tuned…
We've been building a 34 ft. x 14 ft. barn this winter. A long-planned project, it finally got under
way in November. The frame is made of spruce poles cut on the farm, and the cedar shingles came from a shingle mill
in Newport. One of its primary uses will be for drying garlic.
MOFGA Certified Organic vegetables, herbs, seeds, seedlings & perennials since 1995.
Snakeroot Organic Farm, 27 Organic Farm Rd., Pittsfield, Maine 04967 ph 487-5056
Tom@snakeroot.net • Lois@snakeroot.net
www.snakeroot.net/farm