Abbe Hills Farm CSA

Greetings shareholders and friends of Abbe Hills Farm,

Farmers market tomorrow morning, 10:00 until noon at the Community Center downtown.  We’ve now got eggs to sell, but also lots of work to do at home.  Unless it is impossibly  muddy, I think we will need to stay home.  I’m sure the other vendors would appreciate having you stop by.  You’ll likely be able to get meat, eggs, wine, bakery, and coffee, and of course bump into some friends.  

Finally, the young chickens we got in December have become women!  Plus, the old ones are still hanging around, waiting to go to their new homes in freezers all over Linn County.  (Need hens?  I’ve got plenty, $2 each, alive.)  There are a lot of eggs right now.  You can stop at the house and get them nearly any time, but it wouldn’t hurt to zap me a note to make sure we have as many as you want and that I remember to unlock the door.  It’s Easter weekend remember.  People are going to want to eat eggs.   

It’s been a busy week here.  The hail storm Sunday night clobbered us, and thankfully, we were on the edge of it and didn’t get the serious damage neighbors even just one mile north experienced.  House, windows, vehicles, buildings, animals, machinery – just minor damage.  But the hoophouse is ruined.  It looks like it has chicken pox.  I put some pictures at the farm Facebook page.  We can still grow our bedding plants inside for now, and I think it might hold itself together through the summer.  We’ll rebuild in the fall, after the confugity that is our growing season  settles down a little.

I was able to till and plant garden yesterday for the first time – peas, salad turnips, and greens.  We are hustling this morning to get a few onions planted before today’s rain gets here.  Rain and cool temps are starting to cause some serious delays.  I feel like we are about 10 days behind schedule right now, and will get more behind if it is damp all weekend.  The soil is surprisingly cold, considering how warm the air seems.  But soil can’t stay warm  when nearly freezing temperature rain regularly knocks out all the heat that we gain from a couple of days of sunshine.   Here’s a very interesting map that shows soil temperatures statewide.  We are at 52 degrees this morning.  Seeds germinate, tulips bloom, trees leaf out, and frogs croak at about 60 degrees.  Still got a ways to go.

Mt Vernon Firemen’s Pancake Breakfast is tomorrow morning, 6:00 until noon, at the new fire station.  I hope you can attend on your way to farmers market!  Got to support the fire department.  They might be your best friends someday.  And it’s a lot of fun to eat pancakes with 500 of your neighbors.  Take the kids to the free Easter Egg Dash at the high school at 10:00, then up to the free Kids Show at the Community Center  at 10:30.  

Finally, the 2017 CSA season registration form is attached.  Hope to hear from you.  Thank you to all of you who have already registered.

Have a lovely weekend,

Laura