February 8, 2008

Dear CSA members,

It’s that time of year again, I just got out last year’s winter letter and it was dated Feb.7, so I must be right on track. After such a sweet, cozy, and S-L-O-W wintertime, it feels strange to get moving again, strange and good. This is our thirteenth year of this farming life rhythm, and it just keeps getting better.

The seed orders have been placed and some of the parcels have even arrived already. I’ve started round one of all the greens in trays in the greenhouse, which is about to double in size. Every spring we spend endless hours shuffling trays of plants around to the pathways and corners of all the greenhouses in an effort to keep them warm and happy before their plant out times, and every spring we swear to build more greenhouse space the following year. Finally we make good on all those promises this year, increasing the greenhouse area by 960 square feet. I’m not sure that this will help us increase amounts of production, but I am sure that it will improve efficiency of movement and work in the spring.

Colin has discovered a more local supplier of field amendments for this season and we are both looking forward to a new and better way of accomplishing the early season field work. We also took out our first bank loan to buy another tractor. Our farm operates on two separate parcels of land, resulting in farmer Colin spending an awful lot of time moving tractors and equipment back and forth between the fields. With our loan, we also bought a few more implements so that now we have an almost ideal situation of having one of everything at each location.

Jonas is the sweet thing on the cover of our brochure eating peas when he was three, now he’s 13. Nigel, the little brother is now 7, and they both just get bigger and more clever by the moment.

Last year we had a very successful experiment growing chickens for our family to eat. We are now prepared to offer chickens to you. If you are interested in buying whole chickens, write us a note and include it with your CSA registration. Let us know how many you might like. We plan to offer 200 or 300 depending on demand, and there will be two or three dates for pick up.

As ever, we are so grateful to all of you for your continuing support of our work and our family here at the Kirsop Farm. Now is a great time to send in your CSA registration and payment. We look forward to growing more and more delicious food for you and yours.

Sincerely,

Genine and Colin