Showing posts with label 2013 Spring CSA Sign-Up. Show all posts

Stirrings of Spring

So far on this brisk March day, even with snow all over the ground and rumors of more, it feels the closest it's ever been to spring.  At least to me, that is.  After basking and reveling in the wonderful heaps of snow we've received (and that we sorely missed last winter!), the feeling in the air smacks more and more of real springtime.  So much for the wise old groundhog; six more weeks of winter is what we've been getting, this last week and the next few days are going to be sleet and snow enough to put that little rodent's prognostications to shame....but today it feels a bit different. The snow melt is rushing down our driveway, slipping into our creeks and waterways.  Large groups of robins have been hopping about, investigating our fields.  I've been seeing canada and snow geese heading northward again, and today I heard the first kildeer "kill-deer"-ing overhead, a sure sign that the birds are coming back.  Spring is truly here when the sound of "kill-deer!  kill-deer!" is practically non-stop, and those little sand-birds are scuttling around all over the place, laying their eggs in our vegetables.  Within a week, the silence of winter is gone!  We might be expecting more snow and winter-like weather for a bit, but springs feels like it's pretty close around the corner.

The signs of spring haven't only been coming from the fields, the forests and the skies.  Our first round of 2013 seed starting has officially begun, and sprouts are already pushing themselves up from their flats! Lettuce, spinach, brassicas (kale, choi, asian greens), peppers, and alliums (leeks, onions, shallots, scallions) will be our first-born vegetables of the year!  We're also sowing a lot more herbs this year, with higher hopes of success: our parsley sprouts are ahead of the game, with cilantro, rosemary, thyme, fennel, dill, and oregano not too far behind.  Much more is on the way, not to mention our sleeping spinach and green garlic and asparagus that is soon to sprout, ready for harvest.

If spring is on the way....that can only mean that our Spring CSA 2013 season will soon be upon us!  Yep, we promised you all more information when we had it, so without further adieu....

Spring CSA 2013 is set tentatively to run from mid-April through May, up until the beginning of Summer CSA.  6 weeks of delicious organic, local produce!  Veggies we think we'll definitely have:  asparagus, bulb garlic, green garlic, turnips, daikon radishes, potatoes, spinach; Veggies we think we'll most likely have (we've sown them in flats, and they should be ready by then):  head lettuce, bok choy, braising mix, salad mix, microgreens/sprouts (baby mizuna, arugula, collards, red choi, asian greens), cilantro, fennel fronds, kale; Tentative yes veggies: arugula, beets, napa cabbage, radishes, rosemary, dill.  There is the possibility of a special, additional oyster-mushroom CSA arrangement, or oyster-mushrooms may be part of the main CSA!  If you are interested, please let us know; email echocsa@gmail.com or echofarmers879@gmail.com and we'll put you on our Spring CSA list.  Official sign-up to open later!  We will release more information and updates as they come.

Besides getting ready to be your farmers once again this year, we've been staying quite busy with early spring activities!  Our shiitake mushroom endeavors have got us over 100 logs inoculated already and hauled off to the oak forest to fully colonize through the summer with mycelia, and pop out shiitakes as soon as July, but most likely later in fall.  We are also happy to be hosting a little shiitake-inoculation workshop tomorrow for the University of Iowa gardeners to take part in!  They will be helping us in exchange for invaluable shiitake mushroom-growing knowledge, and a log for each visitor to take home.  We are also more-than-stoked for the soon-arrival of our spring intern, Danielle Hollis from the greater Chicago area!  She's planning on staying with us the entire season and learning all she can, and we're excited for a new face eager to learn organic farming alongside with us!  We look forward to her arrival here Sunday!

As we all know, Spring is indeed all about the "out with the old, in with the new" theme...after enjoying a winter's fill "pigging-out" on our farm-raised pork, our hog-farmer Will is soon going to be on the lookout for this year's new piglets pretty soon.  We raised two last year but this year we're looking to expand the output, as well as those we can share the spoils with, through Will's Pork Trade CSA!  Inquire with us soon if you would like to take part in the Pork-Trade!  The basics have changed a bit since out last newsletter, but go basically as follows:

  • $35 plus work(pork)-trade, or $55 buy-only if you do not want to work.  Money goes toward cost of purchasing extra piglet(s), hog panels, and water needs.  3rd pig (or 4th, if more than 6 people sign up) are split between CSA members (last year's pig was 120 lbs, so members will get at least 20 lbs pork per share).
  • Pigs are rotationally-grazed, ethically raised, naturally-fed without GMO feed, and have lots of room to play!  Work-traders work once every couple of months helping set up paddock fencing for a few hours alongside Will.  You will get to interact with the pigs and learn a lot about raising them!
To sign up for Pork Trade, Shoot Will an email or call him: wlorentzen@hotmail.com/563-321-2829!

 We look forward to much food and a plentiful harvest this year...whether it be delicious organic vegetables, mushrooms or pork, we are excited for another year of being your farmers!

 Deepest regards,
The Echollective
2013 Spring CSA Sign-Up farming interns Pork-Trade CSA
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2013 Summer CSA is Open for Sign-Up!

Greetings everyone!  We hope you have all had a cozy winter and holiday season, staying warm with family and loved ones!  It's been a while since we've all been in touch, and even longer since we've written a full-length newsletter!  So I will waste no more time.

We here at the Echollective have been hunkering down, keeping warm, and taking advantage of this time of year to rest along with the land.  We have been grateful for so much snow (and rain?  In Jan./Feb.?  We'll take what we can get, I guess).  Nowhere near enough to break the drought, but it's something.  Our mulch-covered garlic fields lay blanketed in snow, and we're sure that our thirsty aquifers are appreciating so much moisture.  We'll need it to make up for the parching Summers we've had, and the ones that may come.

We've been far from completely inactive, however!  It's getting to be that time-- 2013 seed orders are in and we are starting to plan the farming season, dreaming of lettuce beds, cilantro bunches, asparagus harvesting and other spring vegetables soon to come!  2013 Summer CSA season Sign-Up is now also officially open!  Our Summer CSA season is tentatively scheduled to run from the last week of May, to early October, 2013.  Not to happen for some time, but we've decided to open up our doors for sign-up.  The early bird gets the worm!

Want a peek at what we'll be growing, and what we have grown in past years?

Click on "CSA Info" above to get a basic idea of what will be available during Summertime, or other seasons.  Watch out-- we may expand this list with more crops!

Sign-Up is super-easy for our Summer season.  By clicking our "CSA Signup" tab above and following our links and prompts, it takes less than five minutes to ensure your membership with our CSA and 20 weeks of delicious, healthful, naturally-grown and local food!

"What about our Spring CSA 2013?"  We are still organizing what we plan to grow for Spring and what the CSA's duration will be, so our Sign-Up has yet to be configured and opened for business!  It's that much closer than Summer, so we want to get the details just right.  If you are super-interested in getting veggies sooner than May, please email us and we'll put you on a tentative list.  In the meantime, you can always sign-up for Summer!

 With little to no farming to do, it's hard not to get fidgety, so we've been immersed in many projects and activities.  With so much snow, cross-country skiing has been a real treat on the 14 acres of open field where last year's produce once grew, and where our garlic sleeps under the drifts.  Rabbit-hunting has also been a boon!  We must have eaten three rabbit stews and roasts already.  We've all done an incredible job this winter eating the most ethical, local meat we've been able to hunt or raise.  Oh, and I should mention-- we also have chicken eggs!  Yep, Echollective has ushered in it's first official egg-laying flock of little bossy, colorful hens.  It seems not too unlikely that more Echo chickens could arrive, so our chicken tractor/coop combo building projects (there are two in the making) have been restarted with renewed efforts.

One of us recently finished pickling several of the wild-caught rainbow and brook trout we spent time catching all summer, pickling them with herbs like garlic, cayenne pepper and juniper.  It may sound like a strange food, but it's actually incredible!  Much like canned tuna, but it's straight from Iowa's rivers, not the Atlantic; and even more delicious!

We've also been nibbling here and there at local venison, or lamb and goat chops from other farmer friends who raise their own animals for meat.  We've enjoyed cuts of pork from the hogs raised and butchered right here at Echollective, Dr. Caporkian and Merlock (we can't thank those pigs enough!).  Our hog-specialist, Will Lorentzen, is hard at work bacon-curing, sausage-making, and pork-smoking.  Yesterday he just finished building a rudimentary meat smoker that procured us a super-tasty smoked loin roast!

What more can I say?  We've been eating right!   Now all we need to do is wait to grow veggies in the Spring.

Come to think of it, it won't be long until we have some new pigs.  This year, Will has in mind to set-up a Pork-Trade Program.  The basics?  Help with our hog care, and you get some pork!  No money involved.  Want more details?  Email us!  At echofarmers879@gmail.com.

Also, Echollective Farm is kicking off the very beginnings of its Shiitake Mushroom program!  In cooperation with Oak Savannah Mushrooms, we've all been inoculating a high number of shiitake logs in our little greenhouse.  The goal is to get to 500!  It still won't be at least 6 months to a year until we start seeing shiitake mushrooms, but it's certainly a beginning.  Who knows, maybe you'll be seeing the likes of a mushroom CSA next year?

Thank you for listening, and we hope to be your farmers this year!
2013 Spring CSA Sign-Up 2013 Summer CSA Sign-Up chicken eggs
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