Walkers Fresh Veggies

There is an increase in the numbers of genetically modified seeds available for growers to buy. It is good that to this point they are all labeled clearly as such. That along with the higher price and the usual need to fill out special paper work to obtain these  seeds makes it fairly easy for a grower to avoid them.  Not so easy for the shopper to distinguish which produce on the supermarket shelf was produced with GMO --there is no requirement to label food as being produced with GMO seed.  People cannot tell if they are buying GMO sweet corn or tomatoes or not.  II am not sure if the majority of shoppers even knows that most if not all manufactured foods contain GMO corn and soy products. I just posted a note on my facebook page that speaks to this. You can get there with this address: www.facebook.com/pages/Walkers-Fresh-Veggies-CSA-Farm/305135522855468

We think it is wrong to test new technology on the general public over time vs doing controlled studies.   

 Walklers Fresh veggies does not use GMO products. NO GMO

We have had our first snow, it fell the week just after we completed our 20 week distribution season for our CSA members. We have had a great overall season this year. As always, there were a few weather glitches along the way, but all in all we were blessed with good sweet corn, tomatoes and potatoes this year. We also had the best pickle crops ever and an abundance of green beans.  Our fall crops ended up in a drought and did not measure up to the bumper crops of watermelon, cantaloupe and fall squash we had last year, but we had enough to support our CSA shares with all but cantaloupe.  Cauliflower remains in the field as it is just not ready yet!  We had so many green beans late that we were able to provide hefty shares of beans right up to the last distribution for our CSA members and we sent around an additional 1200 lbs of fresh green beans to the Food Bank in Battle Creek!

 Looking ahead we want to continue to grow our CSA membership this coming season.  We plan to continue to offer free delivery within our large distribution area, and will maintain a low membership fee for all. Our shares contain veggies that require relatively high harvest labor to provide. The small yellow sweet cherry tomatoes and green beans are high labor for harvest items.  Many CSA's do not provide nearly as much of these items due to cost at harvest time.  We have found these items to be very popular and will continue to provide them regardless of the labor cost involved.  We need to budget money's from the subscription fees received to be available through the summer for gas for delivery, harvest labor and packing labor.  There is no way one or two people can take care of the crops, hand harvest 130 shares of everything that goes in a box, pack and deliver on time by ourselves. We need helpers to accomplish this task in a timely manner.  The membership as a rule is not in a position to provide this help or even pick-up their share, and for the most part prefers to have these services provided along with the veggies produced.  We therefore include the costs for these desired services in our fee.  So -- when comparing prices --- remember a good portion of what goes into a share is there for pick, pack & delivery.     

We have decided that we need to do a better job of providing our CSA members with what they can actually use. We find that while one member may not ever use Kohlrabi, another rmay love it and really be disapointed if we stop growing it.   We also find that if we reduce the variety of crops we grow to those that are favorites to everyone we would likley only be growing five or six crops, and limiting the length of our season. 

We are asking our members to provide a list of those crops they just don't want, also a list of those they realy like.   I plan to create a database that I can print out like a packing list so we will be able to custom pack the boxes with each members name on the box. This way no member has to get something they can't use, and then have to waste it. We will have a better idea what to plant, and make better use of our resources, just growing what will actually be used. 

I do not think that any crop will be eliminated totaly with this approach, but I can already tell we will need to plant more lettuce and less of the other leafy greens, more zucchini and even less yellow squash. 

This is going to make packing day a bit more complex for us, but I am thinking that only offering a set package is limiting the number of people that participate, because most people have such an aversion to waste that they become discouraged if any program that puts them in a position of having to discard part of thier distribution.  By adding this service along with the home delivery we have the best possible choice for anyone in our area that is looking for a CSA home. 

Hi Everyone!

Happy New Year from Mark & Carolyn Walker!

Walkers Fresh Veggies Farm News:

We have most of our seeds for 2013 ordered – we are also ordering 100 new flats with 188 cells each to use for starting kale, kohlrabi, collards, pak-choi, salad bowl leaf lettuce and romaine lettuce. We plan on growing much more green crops this coming year. We have lost some acreage that we were renting to grow food for the Food Bank Council of Michigan. Our landlord sold his land and we are no longer able to rent that field. This will not in anyway affect our CSA members, our stand, or the Farmers Markets. We need to expand these areas of our farm to make up for the lost production for the Food Bank.

CSA News:

We have already begun receiving checks in the mail for 2013 shares for the CSA! We are looking forward to a great year this coming season and hope everyone reading this gets involved. We would like to add some new crops to our production list:Winterbor Kale Collards MustardRomaine Lettuce

We are going back to the old fashioned varieties of cabbage this year and will be planting some of each of Early Jersy Wakefield, Golden Acre, Flat Dutch & Danish Ballhead. We also will plant some open pollinated Waltham broccoli this year for and extended season of picking.

Crops we grew some of in 2012, but find high demand for are beets, carrots and green onions. We are going to plant more of these this coming year and try and increase our supply.

Weed control without the use of chemicals is always a problem. We seem to be able to do a fairly good job in between the rows where the cultivator travels, but in the row with the crop plants we have to hand weed or hoe and this is very time consuming and costly. This year we are going to do some crops planting in a checkerboard pattern. This is an old fashioned method that allows you to cultivate in both directions removing the weeds from all around the plants. The catch is it will require hand planting –we will not be able to use our transplanter to plant these crops. This is not a bad trade off though, it is much easier and less costly to hand plant than to hand weed.

Next big job outside is to empty out the greenhouse (remove all the lugs of potting soil used to grow lettuce) and pull up the ground cloth. We need to fill the floor about 2 inches deep with sand. The ground cloth is harboring aphids and we have had problems in peppers and lettuce with aphids the last couple of times we started them in this greenhouse. We hope that we can better control them if they have no cover to hide under. We think the sand fill will act as a deterrent for weed growth and make a good base to set our skids on. There is a new organic spray available that will control aphids, but it costs $300 for one gallon.

I have been considering putting in a well for irrigation at one field to ensure production even in some dry weather. My landlord there was talking about putting the well in himself, but didn’t get it in this past year.

I need to find the cost for pipe and a point, driving fittings etc. I would like to find out just what it would cost if we drove the well ourselves. I also want to run a 1 ½ inch line to the field across the road from us. We did not get that done last year, and it would make that land much more productive if we could manage to water some of it. Rain is still the best way to go –but I fear our climate is in fact changing, or we are experiencing a dry part of a long cycle. Either way, I think we will continue to have dry spells each year and the crops most of you want need water to grow. Another alternative would be to find a parcel of ground to but and put our own well down to irrigate it, this would also make it possible to start growing perennial crops like asparagus, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries etc. We grow very little of these now because we rent most of our land and can loose the right to farm it any time, we also must have the ability to irrigate the fruits. This is something to think about.

Please have a safe and Happy New Year!

– Everyone wants dark green lettuce and romaine is tops for green salads – we will start this one in the greenhouse and transplant it into the field this year – we have grown mustard in past years prior to starting our CSA –we plan to add it back into the list this year –one change, we will transplant it instead of seeding it in the field.– we are finding more demand for green leafy crops and this is one we plan to try out for 2013.--this is a taller kale that is very cold hardy and should produce more kale for us. We also plan to continue with the scotch dwarf kale we had last year.

What a season!  We started out in March way too warm. The warm dry start allowed us to get some very early crops in and growing well. On the downside though, in early April it turned cold again and allour fruit trees were in full bloom a month early due to March's warm weather. We lost all our fruit. Allmost everyone in our area had the same experience, so we had no one we could buy fruit from for our Stand. Then the hot dry weather came, we went without rain for nine weeks!  The early crops were all made and did well, but we totally lost the first half of our sweet corn, our cabbage and broccoli crops stopped in their tracks, and the potatoes only made a half crop.  We lost the first three plantings of beans too.  The rain finally came just in time for the rest of the crops, and the late crops did OK. The best of wich were the wateremlon and fall squash/pumpkins.  For these crops we give thanks!  We had planted 3 acres of each of watermelon and butternut squash for the Food Bank and this bulk sale is providing for us for the winter.  We also had ten members sign up for "Winter shares" in our CSA!  So far this is going well, our greenhouse crops are doing OK, with exception of the tomatoes. The tomatoes got too cold for a couple of nights and frosted them pretty bad. we had 18 and 20 degrees a couple of mornings and ice fopred on the inside of the film.  In our other greenhouse the lettuce and pak-choi, kale and beets are doing well and this week will be our second distribution and will include some of these greens along with nice white potatoes, butternut squash, and even a large Hubbard squash just in time for Thanksgiving.

We are excited about next season, and this is somewhat unussual this soon after a season has ended. We normally have to go through a rest period to get fired up for the coming season. I think maybe we are becoming adjusted to the summer schedule of trying to cram cultivating and planting into one or two days a week with the rest of the week being devoted to picking , packing and delivering the shares and the farmers market on Saturday.  Maybe not getting up at 3:00 am three times a week to get to the Benton Harbor Market helped out with our energy level too!  There seemed to be no point in going there, because we had nothing "extra" to sell, and there was not much fruit to buy.  Maybe we are just finding we really enjoy the feedback we have gotten from all the CSA Members we have spoken with at the end of our season and all the nice comments they have had for us. We were able to fill (full) the boxes each week for at least 20 distridutions this year and I think everyone was very pleased with all they got even during the most severe weather conditions I have ever experienced. For this I wish to take no credit, especialy at this time of Thanksgiving!  I want to thank God for His watchcare over us and for providing just what we need, when we need it. 

We are already making plans for next season. We plan on increasing the spring greens, beets, onions, and add some variety to the lettuce we have available. We found some bettter methods for planting smaller transplants this year and for controlling the spacing of the rows and within the rows. We are planing to make use of what we have learned next year to keep the weeds out with the cultivator and in order to grow some crops in a more concentrated population, better utilizing the space we have available.  We have lost the use of some of our land that we have had for six years. One of our fields wassold by the couple that rented it to us, and we will not be able to rent it next year. This will not nesisarlly be a bad thing , though, I think we were trying to farm too many acres the past couple of years and we will do fine withoput the extra cost and work. we will have much more time for the land we have left to farm which is still double the number of acres we need for our CSA shares. Years pass and fingers stiffen a bit more and shoulders ache, and back kinks more as time passes, and it may be very well we slow down a bit on the number of acres we bounce over.  Better to grow more on less land and do a very nice job of it. It is more pleasing in the end of the season, daughters get more of our time and grandsons get more of Grandpa's time as well. We were very happy to have had two of our daughters, ages 33 and 31, both married too, working with us a couple of days each week picking /packing & delivering CSA shares.   This also made the workload esier to handle! It is also a great thing to see your childeren finally having a part in what we do for a living. Many blessings!

We hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Mark & Carolyn Walker

Hi Everyone!

I said I would write a newsletter when we got a rain break – so here goes…….

Today I am replacing the exhaust gasket on the old Ford tractor –working in the garage. I had to stop for a bit to let the oil soak into the threads on the bolts that hold the manifold onto the engine block. So I have a minute to write.

Last week we (my daughter Corine and I ) got all the early green cabbage and two kinds of broccoli planted –this was 75 flats (72 plants each) and filled about 1 ½ acres. We also put in 8 rows of red potatoes and 3 rows of white potatoes. This is a little over half the potatoes we had last year. The broccoli suffered some from the two frosts we had last week –I will check it latter today and see how it is doing now that we have had some rain.

After we got the transplanting done I had time to disc the remaining portion of the field across the road and plant more lettuce and carrots. I also put in some dill and turnips and a second planting of spinach. This rain came just at the perfect time for all these crops –they are seeded so shallow in the soil that they need water right away to germinate.

The lettuce I seeded in flats in the greenhouse is coming up and the Kale is about 3 inches tall already. Everything but a small amount of parsley and thyme has been transplanted into flats and the next job for the greenhouse will be all the vine crops. We will seed those at the end of April or first of May and are planning on filling the back greenhouse with watermelon, cantaloupe, zucchini, summer squash, pati pan squash, and a few specialty squashes. We also seed the late fall crops then too. We will seed late broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and kale. (I am thinking it will work better to transplant kale out of the greenhouse than to try and direct seed it in the field).

Next week I plan on working all the fields over with the field cultivator to keep the moisture retained in the ground, and kill any small weeds that may be getting started.

We have a nice group of people that have subscribed for this year’s membership and we are reaching a point where we would like to be for size this year. We have enough New members to replace all those who have let me know from last year that they are moving or for whatever other reason will not be subscribing this year.

There are a few of last years members who have not let me know either way what their plans are for this year, and since we have passed the April 15 date, anyone is welcome to take their place as CSA member.

In addition I have decided that I would like to keep our total membership to around 80 shares. This is a reduction of about 30 members from last year. This size would allow us to do better job packing and provide better service to our members. I am looking at selling any excess produce we may have this year to other CSA Farms that might need it. We usually have quite a few people subscribe in the end of April and into May. If you have not already subscribed and are planning on doing so you need to let me know, we passed the April 15 date, and at this point it is first come first serve. We still have some room left, but should easily be filled by mid-May.

Subscription rates paid by check are lower than if purchased online through the localharvest store – this is due to the localharvest store commission. LocalHarvest charges us a commission for the service they provide, so we are passing on a portion of that fee in the online store rates.. The subscription rates by check are $250 for a Half share, $320 for a Basic share & $400 for the Full size share.

I think we will begin delivery on June 7 this year – there should be at least enough stuff ready to pack some veggies for the first taste of spring, then the following weeks there ought to be enough to fill the boxes fairly well. This start date will give us a 22-week delivery season. This is 4 or 5 weeks more than last year. Your first box may not be way full – but whatever is ready will go to waste if we do not make a distribution at that time.

Corine and I went over to the field and checked on the broccoli & cabbage, and it is doing well. Some of the rows that were planted earliest look a bit more stressed by the frost than the later planted rows, but they all look like they will be fine. The rain came at a very good time for these plants. We are very pleased with how these are doing and glad we got them in before this rain. Packman broccoli takes about 55 days from transplant date to mature – this puts our potential first harvest date at June 10. This would be in time for the second distribution box!

Have a great day!

Your veggigrower,

Mark & Carolyn Walker

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Walkers Fresh Veggies CSA -- UPDATE

Hi Everyone,

This weather sure is crazy. I now have been over all the ground with the disc., have chisel plowed all the heavy ground. The field across the road has been moldboard plowed and disced twice.

I have planted ¾ acre of spring crops. These are crops the cold weather will not hurt (it is likely to turn cold again).

I have in 8 rows swiss chard, 12 rows beets, 1 row mustard, 4 rows turnips, 4 rows rutabaga, 18 rows of carrots, and 2 rows of mixed lettuce. These rows are at least 250 feet long.

I have to wait on the radishes and green onions because they grow much faster than the greens, and I want them to be ready about the same time.

In the greenhouse we have all the seeds germinated and doing nicely, seeded some lavender that is not up yet. We are going to transplant the early tomatoes into flats as soon as it rains and we can’t work outside. Also need to move all the first broccoli and cabbage into the big greenhouse so it gets more sun and we free up some room in the first greenhouse to put peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant when they are big enough to transplant.

A little rain would be OK right now – just not a downpour –that could crust over the ground and make it hard for the greens and beets and carrots to emerge. (This is the big risk right now –the soil crusting over).

Just a reminder! ! Returning members subscriptions due by April 15.

We need to know who we have. We have just as many new members as we have returning members right at this point.

Right now we are three weeks ahead of normal with the growing season – peaches are in bloom –they will most likely be froze out and we will have no peaches. Apples and plums are about ready to bloom –I hope they hold off for awhile. Rhubarb is up -- it shouldn’t be up for another 3 to 4 weeks. The early broccoli and cabbage in the greenhouse is already 4 inches tall. We will likely be planting corn and green beans in mid April this year.

Gotta go now – I am going to chisel plow more ground today.

I will keep you informed, have a great day!

Your veggigrower, Mark and Carolyn Walker

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Walkers Fresh Veggies CSA Update

We have the first greenhouse filled. Seeded 2000 cabbages, 3000 Broccoli, 2000 Early Girl Tomatoes, 1000 Sunbrite tomatoes, 250 Solar Fire Tomatoes, and around 1000 Basil. The cabbage and broccoli are all up, and the basil is too. The tomatoes have all come up around the edges of the flats where there was more moisture. I had to re- water the centers of the flats due to them drying out some. Now the centers are also emerging. It gets much hotter in the center of the flat from the bottom heat pad. This time it caused the soil to dry out some. I ordered more Early Girl tomato seed just in case -- and if I don’t need it for spring I will use it for the winter seeding.

This is just the early planting, we still have the main season crop to seed. We just got the Red cabbage seed in that we were waiting for on back order. We will plant the red cabbage and more broccoli next week along with 4 more kinds of tomatoes and all the peppers and eggplant.

Meeting in St Joe went well yesterday. May be going to a similar meeting in Kalamazoo soon.

Collected soil samples yesterday, and did some soil testing today. I am trying to plan out what we need to do for lime etc. for this spring. The fields were drying out pretty well yesterday before this rain. Some of the sandier fields may be ready to begin to work up this month – if we don’t get too much rain. This is a big deal –last year we didn’t get on any field until May due to the wet weather. It would be really great if we could get the field next door ready early for spring greens – lets keep our fingers crossed.

Try to mention us to some of your neighbors and friends – if you would – word of mouth is the best way for us to grow. We need to keep our membership at least at last years level in order to spread the cost of delivery over enough subscriptions to keep it reasonable.

Best wishes,

Mark & Carolyn Walke

Walkers Fresh Veggies CSA Newsletter March 2012

Hi Everyone!

We have been invited to speak at a luncheon that is being held in St. Joe on March 7^th.

We, along with four or five other local (Southwestern Michigan) CSA’s will present our farms to a group of local consumers interested in learning about Community Supported Agriculture.

I have been preparing a display, and trying to put together a presentation.

I hope all goes well and we are able to inform as many people as possible about what CSA is and how it promotes the increase in production of local grown food. How it helps to ensure food production is not just left to the large corporations, helps stabilize our local economy, and even puts some local people back to work.

I am going to pick-up the soil for the greenhouses today (Tuesday) and will then be able to start planting broccoli, cabbage and early tomatoes. I have already washed the old flats and dipped them in bleach to kill any root rot that may be on them. We are using all new inserts (these are the little individual cells each plant grows in) this year. We will have to fire up the LP Gas heaters due to the return of winter – but we can’t wait any longer if we want broccoli in time for June distribution.

Response to the Winter Greens add-on has been fantastic and I must resist the temptation to move to quickly and try to plant more than the first two greenhouses. We have never grown these crops in the winter and must keep this at a trial level until we learn what the pitfalls may be. But; it is very nice to see people so excited about fresh green veggies – I really think this may be a great addition to our CSA farm, and a way to utilize the greenhouses that currently sit idle from July through February. We may even want to add a High Tunnel for early spring production at some point. It is quite possible to envision a CSA that has distributions for 10 months of the year with only February and March for downtime.

Recently I was shopping with my wife in one of the large supermarkets –I hate shopping -- but I like to see what is going on in the produce area. Wow! I sure wish I could sell my stuff for the prices they get in the store! I am very proud of the value we are able to offer our CSA members, our Stand customers and even our Farmers Market customers. I know that for more than just a few of our members the subscription fee is not always easy to fudge out of their weekly budget, but I want to say that it is well worth it, I don’t see how you could go wrong unless you just want to eat at your fast food restaurant every day. The $.99 heart attack special is a cheaper source of calories, but you are what you eat – if you eat healthy – you will tend to be healthy.

One trip to the Doctor can cost as much as the entire season subscription fee for a share of great tasting, healthful veggies. So, my friends, be smart –don’t shortchange yourselves in what you eat, because medications do not make up for unhealthy eating. Our focus going forward is to produce food for health, and for taste – I believe the two go hand in hand, and I believe most people want this and are looking for it.

Gasoline price – what will $5.00 gasoline do to our CSA? We have already taken the likelihood of $5 gas into account in our planning. Our means of coping with this is to have enough members in route to make our delivery process as economical as possible. If we can keep the distance between members down to an average of 2 or 3 miles we can deliver for a reasonable cost to us. At these distances the delivery cost of our time is still much greater than for fuel. So – tell your neighbors about us –it helps keep the delivery cost down and makes it possible for us to provide delivery with no added charge. In the end, it makes more sense for one truck to drive a planned route and drop off a box every two miles than for 50 vehicles to drive ten or more miles each to pick-up their shares at our home farm.

Many thanks to the faithful members who have already subscribed again for this year. The support provided in these early months of the year are so very important to our success, and we want you to know we do appreciate your support. All the land rent and the property taxes have been paid, all the seed (except for the potato and onion sets, we pick up in Zealand) have been purchased, and most of the machinery has been repaired and is now ready to go for the year. The next big costs we will have will come later as we begin to plant, and fuel is one of the biggest.

I am going to keep it short and get back to you again in a couple of weeks.

Best wishes from your veggigrowers,

Mark & Carolyn Walker

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Walkers Fresh Veggies - CSA  February 2012 Newsletter

Hi Everyone!

I just did an inventory of seeds I have on hand left over from last year and found I have the following seeds available to plant (these are additional crops not listed in my previous newsletter):
Spinach, Basil, Dill, radish, turnips, carrots, rutabaga, romaine lettuce, mustard and okra.  I have a piece of ground across the road from our house that I could run water to  -- need a long line, the field is back off the road about 800 feet.  I may have found a free source for some irrigation tubing from my sister in Dewitt.  Irrigation would be essential for these crops planted in this particular field, as it would most likely experience a dry period long enough to damage these type of crops if no irrigation was available. My plan is to run irrigation over to the field and plant these crops along with a good amount of green onion bulbs and the beets and swiss chard that were bought this year.  The field is 1 ½ acres total, but I think the portion used for these crops would be around ¾ acre.  We would be trying to produce enough greens and roots for three or four distributions - not all types in any one distribution.  I am not making any promises - but if all goes well we could have an early distribution in June -I will keep you posted as to our progress.
I also have ordered 2000 Superstar White Sweet onion plants -these will be planted in 6 rows at our home place back by the long greenhouse (we can irrigate them there and it is protected from the wind).  We will try and have around three distributions that include these nice onions with them.  We also ordered 500 sweet potato plants -these go in the field around May 15.  Sweet Potato is a new crop for us and we have no idea what if anything we will get from these 500 plants, but we need to try something new each year, so this year our new crop is sweet potato.

We did OK in January with our returning subscribers and also added a few new members as well.  We need to pay all our land rents and real estate taxes in February also must pay for some tractor parts.  Last year we had 22 people subscribe during the month of February- we are hoping for a similar response this year.  Many thanks to the returning members who have sent in their subscriptions so far, we really appreciate your support.

The special cultivator attachment for weeding between the plants in the row is complete and I did a "test" run in the driveway and it worked OK.  Now I am working on replacing the radiator on that same tractor. This is an old 1946 Ford 2N tractor -it works great for planting and cultivating, and runs very well even though it is 66 years old this year.

I have ordered a load (30 compressed bags 3.8 cu ft each) of growing medium for the flats in the greenhouse.  This is a bit more expensive that what I have used in the past, but should eliminate disease and weed problems and the inconsistency in pH we have experienced in the past.

I am considering doing a project intended to extend our growing season into the fall. We would accomplish this by planting some greens like lettuce mix and chard late into one of our greenhouses. We would have some expense for growing medium (soil) and heat (LP Gas).  What I need to know is how much interest would there be for Greens and /or tomatoes during the months of November through January?    Would members be willing to buy an add on of around $10 to $12 per week for these fresh veggies if they could be grown this way?    Anyone interested please reply to this e-mail with your thoughts.  I have no other markets for these crops at these times of the year due to the stand and farmers markets being closed, so I would only do them if there is enough interest from our CSA members to make it economical to achieve.

If there are any members who are in need of a budget plan to pay the subscription fee we are going to allow the following plan for February:
· Pay an initial payment of 25% of the subscription fee for your chosen share size.
· Pay monthly on account so that your subscription is paid in full by June 1, 2012
· No additional charges will be added to pay this way if first payment is made in February.

We also have our online store open in Localharvest where you can use a credit card to pay your subscription fee. (Rates are a bit higher to offset the commission we must pay to use their store)

I hope you are having a good winter, we are looking forward to spring,
Your Veggigrowers,   
Mark & Carolyn

Walkers Fresh Veggies
41688 Paw Paw RD
Paw Paw, MI 49079

Happy New Year to all our CSA Members !!

Hi everyone,

This entry is an update on what we are up to on the farm this time of year and is taken from our CSA January Newsletter.

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It has been a very interesting season.  I have never had potatoes as good as the Red Potatoes we grew this year.  We had some blocks of sweet corn that were some of the best weve ever had too.  Over all though this year was the most chalanging one we have ever had.  The last year I can remeber that was as bad from a weather standpont was 1988 with a terible drought, but we had the benifit of good weed control and little disease.  This year we had wet cold weather that kept us out of the fields until late, then hot dry weather right when the fall crops were planted and very young.  We had very poor weed control -- could not cultivate when needed due to the wet, and no help with any dry time for disease. We sacrificed some of our production planted for the stand to help bolster our CSA shares and got through pretty well. We are looking forward to a good new year and a much better season for 2012!  CSA is king - without our members we would be much worse off than we are -- for thier support we owe them our Thanks![Read More]

It is May 16 and it is very wet and cold after a brief period of good weather.  We have been very busy in the fields trying to get as many crops planted as we can before this wet period, and I think we have done very well. 

The sugar snap peas that were planted almost a month ago that I thought might rot in the wet cold ground, did survive - and it looks like we will have most of the 3 ½ rows for harvest. I do not know if they will be ready to pick for June 23  -- we will see.

We have to plow each field as we go because the weather did not permit plowing all fields first then we could just concentrate on planting.
We have planted 2 acres of potatoes, 1/3 acre of onions, ½ acre of broccoli and cabbage, 3 acres of sweet corn (including a half acre of early corn transplanted from the greenhouse) 4 rows 600 ft long of green beans, 2 rows 250 ft long of Alaska peas, 31/2 rows of Oregon sugar snap peas, and 2/3 acre of Early Girl and Polbig Tomatoes.
We have started all the watermelons and cantaloupe, zucchini, yellow summer squashes and cucumbers in the greenhouse and are working on seeding pati pan squash and a few more melons.  This week we will also seed the flats for the late crops of broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage and a few very late tomatoes.

We have a small garden ¼ acre ready to plant early stuff in and Carolyn is working on transplanting in the early spinach and lettuce plants from the greenhouse.  We are trying to make up for the late spring by using the plants started in the greenhouse instead of direct seeded spinach and lettuce - it is much more work, but may give us veggies on time.

CSA membership has gone very well and currently we have 95 paid members - a very nice sized group. There may be a few more of you left that have not subscribed yet, if you still want to we can take a few more members without any problems (especially if you are on our current route).

When the weather dries out again we will be planting more sweet corn and green beans and getting the fields ready for the main planting of tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant and then all the vine crops (squash, melons, and cucumbers.

There are only 38 more days until the first planned distribution - not much time for the crops to get ready, If we get some warm weather we should still have stuff to pick on time.  Worse case we would have to deliver our first distribution on June 30 (last Thursday of June) and add a final distribution on the end (November 4 ).  I will keep you all updated as time and the weather progresses. 

Wishing each of you a very good day!
Your Veggiegrowers,
Mark and Carolyn Walker

Hello Everyone !

Thursday, April 7, 2011 
There is currently a small break in the action in the greenhouses, so I thought I would take a moment to get this months newsletter started.  I am working alone this year in the greenhouses, Carolyn has taken a temporary job working in a commercial greenhouse to earn some extra money for herself, and learn new things about greenhouse growing.  So far the job is going well for her.  Last year I had hired some help for the transplanting, but this year opted to do it all myself (weather is to cold and wet for field work yet anyway) and I thought I'd save some money.  It goes well with me too, and I find with a few short cuts and tricks learned this year I am able to make it OK without any help.  So far I've seeded and subsequently transplanted the following numbers of plants:
Sweet onions about 12000
Early Tomatoes 5200 enough for 1 acre in the field
Bell Peppers 7000
Hot and specialty peppers 1000
Basil  about 500
Broccoli & Cabbage 3700
Have about 1500 eggplant to transplant and another 1200 tomatoes to transplant -- these are not big enough yet.
Seeded 38 flats of early sweet corn  (10,000 seeds) enough for 1/2 acre
Seeded 2 seed flats of spinach, 1 seed flat of romaine lettuce, 1 seed flat of okra & 1 seed flat of zinnias.

We still have 12 x 20 foot of space left in the back greenhouse -- this is not heated.

This year we are trying sweet corn started in the greenhouse to set out in the field for an early crop -- this is the first time I have every tried this and hope we can have some early sweet corn by July 4 th. 

It has been very challenging keeping the greenhouses warm enough this year. I have never seen it so cold for so long.  I have had to run a 3/4 inch buried gas line from our big LP Tank back 150 feet to the back greenhouse and buy a new LP Gas blue flame heater to keep it warm enough in there.  Even with that I needed to partition off the back 1/3 of the greenhouse in order to have enough heat for the front 2/3 to keep it warm enough.  We have used more than double the amount of LP Gas as last year and we are not through yet. 

Last year we planted potatoes the second week of April and the first planting of sweet corn and green beans went in on
April 23ed. This year we have not even begun plowing the fields yet.  I think if we get the potatoes in April we will be doing well.  The onions will wait until May and the first sweet corn and beans and the early tomatoes will wait for May as well. The second tomatoes and peppers and eggplant will wait until the 15 th or 20th of May to go into the fields.  It appears to be a cold year (or cool year) this year. 

I still have Yukon Gold potatoes to sort and bag, and repairs to make on the plow.  Should have time for these jobs now that the plants are under control (they come first). 

Membership is going well so far -- many thanks to a few very helpful members that have spread the word well -- the very best way to grow is by the recommendation of a past or current member, and friends and neighbors.  I want those of you who have helped with this to know that I really do appreciate your good support, and will not forget the help you have given.  We are currently at 75 paid subscribers with another 5 or so people that have verbally committed that have not as yet sent in their check.  We have "room" for a little over 100 members and will continue to take new members for the month of April. 

Only 77 more days until our first distribution day -- I know that may seem long for those of you patiently waiting for those first fresh veggies -- but it sure seems a short time to me, with nothing in the ground yet. Do not worry though, there are many veggies that take less than 60 days of growing time to be ready. I am planning for the following to be in the first box:
Sugar snap peas
Broccoli
green bunching onions
spinach greens
lettuce
maybe - new red potatoes

We need to plant red potatoes and sugar snap peas and green onions towards the end of next week for this to happen. The spinach and lettuce are seeded in the greenhouse, so we are OK there.  The broccoli is already 3 inches tall and will be ready to plant in the field by May 1st.

Green Beans will likely have to start in the second distribution week June 30 th  -- I don't see for now how they can make it by June 23 ed this year. 

Please keep up the good work spreading the word about Walker's Fresh Veggies CSA -- we appreciate it very much, and are looking forward to a very good year ( I find that often the cooler years end up being the best -- a very hot year like the last one is not always so good).

Your Veggigrowers,
Mark & Carolyn Walker

We have finally started planting in the greenhouse. We have around 10,000 sweet onion plants that are doing well and are about 3 inches tall. The first early tomatoes are just emerging and are looking good too. Soon we will be transplanting into flats and filling up our second greenhouse. Today I will go pick-up a pallet of organic peat we use for transplants.  Friday I will seed the peppers, cabbage, broccoli,eggplant and some more tomatoes. We are well underway, and it feels good to be getting back to growing things after the long hard winter. 

In past years I've prunned fruit trees for a neighbor in the winter to keep busy. The last couple of years I stopped doing that first of all because two years ago money was tight (heavy apple crop - poor prices) and my neighbor thought he might not prune all the orchards, then I am getting older and the work out in the cold every day is getting harder and harder on my arthritis, and I just need some time off from the 16 hour days I put in through the veggie season, so I've pretty much just let the prunning job go (I have my own trees to prune -but not very many- just enough for fun).

I have around half a ton of Yukon Gold potatoes to sort through and bag - I want to donate them to a soup kitchen or food bank or some place like that to help the unemployed people in my area.  This is my next task now that the green houses are going.  After I get that done I need to do some fixing on some equipment - build up the landsides on the plow and do some welding etc.  Then it will be time to start the plowing, and I wont have any free time to blog after that.