We hope you are all well as we begin the New Year.

We have some initial information for the 2010 CSA season. We’ll be following up with a registration form and more information in the weeks to follow.

The 2010 Season: We are looking at another six month season, with the season running from the beginning of May through October. As in 2009, it will be pick-your-own for most items.

Cost: The cost for the entire season will be $500 per couple/family/household or $250 for individuals. We can usually work something out if finances are an issue.

Expanded Offerings: In addition to the crops that we planted in 2009, we plan to offer an expanded list of crops in 2010. These include: sweet corn, cabbage, parsnips and several other vegetable varieties that we weren’t able to grow this past season. We are also expanding our plantings of raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and blueberries as well as the varieties of flowers available for bouquets.

A Season Extending Hoop House: We are about to take the plunge and invest in a mobile hoop house system. We are very excited about this! A hoop house will allow us to plant and ripen some summer crops (such as tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers) much earlier in the season and will extend those crops much later into the fall. In November, the hoop house will be moved over the cool season crops allowing a continuous harvest of those crops through much of the winter. We should note that in 2010, the full season share will not include crops harvested in the hoop house beginning in November. We hope to be able to supply the community with greens through a Local Food Cooperative storefront at that time.

Improvements: We have some other ideas for improving the CSA in 2010:

• We would like to continue to make our place more child friendly. We plan to reinforce existing swings and possibly put up new ones for the upcoming season.

• We hope to set up a bulletin board where people can post favorite recipes and ideas for how to use different vegetables and herbs.

• We plan to begin planting our fruit tree orchards this coming spring.

• We would like to bring back the newsletter in some form – either monthly or biweekly.

• We hope to have a simple wash station set up this year so that you can rinse root vegetables, wash and spin salad greens and so on.

Please share any other ideas that you might have!

Our Expenses: Although we understand that it won’t be possible for many of you, it would help us a great deal if you could send all or part of your membership fee for 2010 in the next few weeks. There are a lot of up front costs this time of year. In January, we order seeds, plants, organic soil supplements and new tools and other equipment. These annual costs, plus the investment in the mobile hoop house system (approximately $7,500) are going to make things tricky for us financially. Any amount that you can send in the next few weeks would really help us out. In the meantime, an email letting us know that you’re interested will also help us plan.

We would like to grow some this year. Please send us the names and (if possible) contact information of people who you think would be good additions to our CSA community.

We wish you well during these Persephone months. Remember that there are green and abundant seasons to come!

John and Karen

309-550-5088

3201 West Adams

Macomb IL 61455

Hi all,

We finally have the beautiful fall weather we waited all October for. We still have the regular fall lineup of greens. We also have some lovely little radishes that are ready this week.

Don’t forget to get out here before 5:30 (and after 4:00)- or you may find yourself having to pick in the dark.

I have some wonderful perennials (irises, daylilies, chives, columbine) that I would like to find homes for. Let me know if you would like some to transplant on your own place. Late fall is a wonderful time to move perennials.

Many of you are dealing with fall leaves right now. This is a time of resource collection for me - whenever I have to make a trip to town I always try to return with a truck full of leaves.

I use leaves in a number of ways that you might consider for your own gardens/plantings:

1.) Leaves make a wonderful grass suppressing mulch around perennials. I mulch very deeply with leaves in the fall and usually top it with straw so the leaves don’t blow away. A heavy leaf mulch retards weeds and simultaneously feeds the plant through the year.

2.) Being very high in the nutrients that my garden crops need, I will put up to 4 inches of leaves on top of the garden and till them in to prepare the soil for next year’s crops.

3.) I make leaf mold. Leaf mold is another name for composted leaves. To make leaf mold, simply pile all of your leaves in a corner of the yard and (if you’re ambitious) wet them down well. In a year and a half or so - you will have a wonderful, rich, soil-like product that is wonderful for fertilizing plants or making potting mixes.

4.) If I am very busy, I will simply (have Daniel) shred the leaves with the mower. This keeps the leaves from blowing much and fertilizes the lawn and the trees themselves. By late next spring, the earthworms will have pulled the leaf shreds underground.

So, as you look at all of your leaves, think ahead to the beautiful gardens you can create with them in summers yet to come.

Folks,

The rain continues! I will grumble about it being so wet but at least I don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of crop standing in the field. I am afraid that is the situation that many of our corn/soybean farmers find themselves in and it doesn’t look good for them. Of course, it is impossible to drive  humongous machinery on such wet ground but perhaps even more troubling for them is the fact that their crops have not been able to dry out. It is critical that corn and soybeans dry out considerably before they are harvested so that they don’t rot/mold in storage. That drying has not occurred this year and as it gets later in the year it becomes increasingly likely that it won’t before true winter comes. It’s a dramatic situation. Most grain farmers are in a great deal of debt to landlords as well as the fertilizer, pesticide and seed companies. These weather conditions are creating real hardship for all of them and may prove truly catastrophic for many. And more rain is in the forecast………

On a more positive note:

We have some beautiful greens available this week. There are a couple of large patches of lettuce that have finally matured to cutting size. We’ll have some spinach available as well- although not as much as I expected. I have lost two of the spinach beds altogether by allowing them to be over-harvested before they were well established; one more lesson for this year.

Late fall is when the members of the mustard family really excel. These include: the kales, the Asian Greens, radishes, turnips and Brussel Sprouts. Mustards really like the cool weather and the cold seems to bring out the best flavors in them.

In any case, today you will be able to cut a spectacular mix of mesclun-sized salad ingredients as well as radishes, turnips, Swiss Chard, Kale, Leeks, Italian Parsley and celery.

Be warned that we have some very soggy conditions out there today. It will be muddy. I’ll be available this evening to show you around and help you harvest what you are looking for and I’ll be happy to harvest for those who don’t want to brave the elements.

Looking forward to seeing you!