February 2, 2010

Dear CSA members,

It is really time for us to get back to work, after a nice long winter break full of family and friends and lots of great food. I’ve been ordering up this years round of seeds and Colin has been building new poultry pens and fixing up the house and barns.
We plan to provide more chickens at our early and late summer harvest dates, and more turkeys for thanksgiving time. Our laying flock is working out marvelously- giving us 20 eggs a day! That means that some of you can buy eggs from us when you come to pick up your CSA shares. You can even call to make arrangements to buy some eggs right now!

I love to send out this annual winter newsletter to thank each of you for supporting our farm and family each year. We are grateful beyond words for the privilege of growing good food for our community. There is no other job we would rather be doing, and we thank you so much for trusting us to grow your food.

While reflecting on 2009 and planning ahead for 2010, one thing we easily agree on is that we want more CSA members. After 14 years of business, Kirsop Farm sells produce every way we can, including CSA shares, farmers markets, schools, restaurants, catering companies, and grocery stores. CSA is by far our favorite way. Why? Because it is the most direct. I want to grow great food for myself, my family, and you and yours. So, please take a moment to sign up again for your own share, and think of friends or neighbors who may enjoy CSA as much as you do. Your recommendation is the best sort of advertising we could ever hope for.

We still have some very attractive Kirsop Farm T-shirts available free to you when you sign up for your CSA share. You can tell me if you want to swing by the farm to pick up your shirt, or make some creative arrangements for how to get them. I probably won’t send them in the mail as that seems like it might be expensive.


A few other things we easily agreed to plan on are multi colored radish bunches, broccoli raabe, and more types of cherry tomatoes. We won’t grow any fewer of those delicious sun golds, but we will add red, yellow, and black cherry tomatoes into the mix. After years of growing rainbow chard exclusively, we will also grow Ruby Red Chard, and Fordhook Giant Chard. There are a few other surprises in store, but I’ll save them for the newsletters and boxes.

Sincerely,

Genine and Colin