Week three has us moving irrigation non-stop, catching up on transplanting, dealing with persistent weeds and feeling harvests get heavier and taking up more of harvest days. Summer is almost (officially) here and the plants know it. With daylight hours stretching to their longest of the year, our crops and weeds have that much more time to convert sunlight into growth. We’re busy.

I’d like to take a minute to thank you all for choosing to be here with us this season. Our farm relies on having members who understand and appreciate the challenges that we face and who want to eat local food, even if that means too much lettuce in June and not enough lettuce in August! Small scale farming in Eastern Massachusetts, with all of the challenges that presents, is rewarding, and it is so rewarding because we get to feed our community. So, thanks for being our community and letting us feed you!

Now on to the “strawberry situation.” I know some of you are frustrated with not being able to pick strawberries as part of your shares these past two weeks. I’m frustrated too. As the person responsible for (trying) to make 200 shareholders happy each week, the unproductive strawberry plants are a real stressor. I’m trying to make sure each shareholder gets a half pint over the course of the next few weeks, but I’m honestly not sure that will happen.

As CSA members, you’ve signed up to take on some of the uncertainty of farming and we’re truly grateful you’ve done that. We’ll make it up to shareholders who haven’t received strawberries by the end of strawberry season with something else like husk cherries, cherry tomatoes or snap peas!