This is it, the final pick up for your regular JenEhr CSA share. Wow, twenty two weeks of great produce, from our farm to your homes, via boxes and farmers market style pick up. What an incredible season it has been.
I want to thank you for being part of JenEhr this season. It has been a pleasure to pack your weekly shares, planning and picking the right combination of items so that you could go home and make great meals. We’ve loved sharing the farm with you during the strawberry U-pick in June and the three tomato U-Picks that happened in the hoophouses. You are a fun group of people when it comes to gleaning and cleaning out the hoophouse tomatoes.
During the season we’ve exchanged recipes and book recommendation, we’ve talked about politics and whimsical weather. We’ve seen your children identify vegetables, weigh out pounds of carrots, potatoes and onions, plus we’ve watched them literally grow and become stronger, as they started to carry bags and coolers loaded with produce.
And you’ve seen changes as well. As our staff headed off to college, new crew members in the packshed and new high school workers at the markets. You’ve gotten more opportunity this fall to converse with Farmer Paul and let me (Kay) talk your ear off about freezing leeks and making stock. If you picked up at the farm, you saw the farm itself change through the seasons.
And now we come to the final week of the regular CSA share. We still have the fall CSA share for those who signed up (Pick Up Saturday, November 22nd). And you’ll find us at the winter farmers market at the Mitchell Park Domes in Milwaukee and the indoor market at the Monona Terrace and later the Senior Center in Madison. But for Farmer Paul and the family, we’re taking it easy. While our days will still be ruled by to-do lists, they will be lists of maintenance, field allocations and seed orders for 2015, bookkeeping and tax preparation. Each week, you’ll find us in the packshed, washing and packing produce for the Saturday farmers markets, but that will only take one day of the week. Don’t be surprised if you see us at a movie (or two) in the middle of the afternoon, or long coffee breaks at our favorite about town shops.
We’re planning on taking it easy for the next 45 days, catching up on sleep and bingeing on the most recent HBO series. Working part-time as rejuvenate and catch our breath.
Shortly after the first of the new year, we’ll both throw up our hands, saying “Enough, back to work.” And we’ll attack the 2015 season with refreshed vigor and enthusiasm. And I can promise you now, what a 2015 it will be, with more great food for you and your family, more shares filled with the bounty of delicious, good for you food that nourishes your body while we exchange stories, tidbits and watching our JenEhr community grow.