Farmer Kurt’s Field Notes October 19, 2024
What a year! This will be the final box of the 2024 season. Where did the time go? Writing this final field note is always bittersweet for me. On the one hand, I’m going to miss seeing you all every week(seriously – this recharges my batteries every week and is a blessing as a CSA Farmer). But I’m also tired and ready to slow down for the season! This has been an amazing year — a banner year really. One of the best on record. We are SO blessed. We see our business growing and morphing. I’m more excited about farming than ever! Having a reliable crew has been a game-changer for us the last few years. And I am finally seeing the long-term investment pay off of getting my soil balancing and rotations down. Taking the time to build soil health and “do right by Mother Nature” is translating to strong numbers in our soil tests. Healthy soil = healthy plants = healthy food = healthy customers. Of course, I’ve had a few learning moments along the way that have tested me as a grower. This year, the Food Safety Harmonized Gap Plus Audit was a real leap of faith — a new frontier for us — and I’m a stronger farmer now because I pushed through the wall. I’m grateful to Corinna for helping us secure a lead with Chipotle and all her work empowering farmers around the nation with her podcast — these connections have given us influence and opportunities as we enter our adult farming years.
We’re so grateful for all of you for supporting us this season. We say good-bye with so much gratitude!
This is the time when I want to say thank you to all the people who make the CSA possible every year. That starts with YOU — our customers. We couldn’t do this without ALL of you, standing behind me and Corinna — willing us to be successful, and showing us with your financial support that you believe in us and our vision of the farm.
Next, a big shout out to my harvest and production crew who are the real farmers at Shared Legacy: Noah (crew leader), John, Pedro, Asuncion, Juan, and Jose. You have no idea how hard they work to bring the food to your table. We are deeply grateful for them. Thanks to my boys Jed and Josiah for picking up the slack whenever I need help — sometimes unpaid. Thanks to my wife Corinna, for keeping the communication lines open with our customers (all those emails!), writing the newsletter, social media, photos and more photos, managing sales and the online store, and keeping the family running — despite being pretty sick most of the year. Big shout out to my cousin Glen for being my Jack of All Trades, building those CSA racks, and all that tractor field work! Thanks to all our site hosts: Esther, Jahnine, Anesssa, Chris, Derek, Karen Ayers, Stephanie Book, Lee, Becky, Anita, Dena, Chris, Amy, Tanya (also a great truck driver). Thanks to our CSA pack crew: Patty, Tara, Karen, Katie, Adelle, Holly, John, Clara, Jamie, Val, Phoebe, Debbie, Jen, Lisa, Connie, Kim and Sarah. Thanks to Cadie Jardin, who makes our weekly unboxing videos and writes all those recipes to help coach you in the kitchen.
Spinach growing outside the high tunnel. We’ll move the tunnel over this crop next week to protect it from frost. We’ll be selling this all winter in pop-up markets.
We salute our farm vendors: Ben from Quarry Hill Orchards, Bench Farms St. Rt. 2 for the fabulous sweet corn and those melons, Susan and Rich Jambor from Maddie and Bella Coffee for their partnership. Aaron and Kristi from Clay Hill Farms who put together those gorgeous bouquets and deliver them every week. Kristi and Zak from Portage River Mushrooms for jazzing up our online store! Our thanks to Rob from Mackenzie Creamery, and all the MANY cheese vendors that worked with us. Stacie and Brian Anderson get big props for their weekly eggs, our new chicken partnership, and that awesome chicken sausage bonus gift. Adelle Rodriguez, Arik my brother, and John Kellar for the honey and syrup. Don’t forget out bin washing crew — a small but mighty team that faithfully shows up in the hot and cold, windy days to wash 200 CSA bins in super cold water twice a week: Olivia, Josiah, Regan, and Jenelle.
The boys completed their 11 foot wing span airplane. It flies beautifully. Josiah was accepted into Toledo Technical Academy for the 2025-26 year. We are so excited to watch him grow his engineering gifts.
I want to thank Jeff Wisniewski for making big dreams a reality — you know why, bro! To Brianne, who keeps our books in order, and Carl for being a great euchre partner (maybe one day we’ll finally win a match over our wives). My thanks to Ken and Dani for helping me build soil health. For Adam Downs, my best friend and neighbor who loans me equipment, helps us spray, and loves talking farming with me. For Adam Welly for being a mentor and business partner with GRO as I grow our wholesale operation. To my buddy Nick for helping me build out my cooler and being a good friend. To my neighbor Josh for giving me his S… (cow manure), leveling my driveway, digging our ditch, and just being a great neighbor. Thanks to my neighbor John Bergman for mowing our grass pathways in the field this season — one less thing to do on my plate! To Wayward Seed Farms and Mile Creek Farms, Second Spring Farms for potatoes, onions and carrots and random buy-ins when I need some backup. I want to thank my parents for all their advice and love, sharing their equipment, for renting me some of their land, for giving me a love for farming, supporting me when I start going crazy mid-season, and being there for me during Corinna’s illness. As I write out this long list, I realize just how many people are a part of making this farm run! This truly is a “community supported” farm. Interdependence is strength!
Wow.
I‘m often asked what I do in the off season. Well, I’ll still be pretty busy outside closing down the farm for the season during the month of November. My crew has a couple more fennel and rainbow carrot harvests to go for wholesale, but the intensity of the CSA harvest on top of all the regular stuff will be gone, so it will feel more relaxed. We’ll be pulling out tomato stakes this week and storing them for the winter. I need to move two high tunnels to new locations. One of them needs some plastic covering repair work. The peppers and tomatoes will be disked under. Beds need to be “prepped” for spring — that means I shape them so they’re ready to go. Cover crops need to be seeded (our way of blanketing the soil for winter). I’ll be finishing up my food safety plan to reach compliance by our deadline. The initial plan for next years production map needs to be layed out, as well as some preliminary fertility and seed orders. Oh yeah and a budget. We’ll be hosting an Adios Party Hog Roast the first weekend of November. After that, our H2A crew heads back to Mexico on November 5th. John and Noah will stick around for a few weeks after that, and they’ll help me get all those winter carrots out of the ground, plant the garlic, store equipment, close up the pack shed, and winterize the farm.
Juan rolls up the irrigation lines. We’ll reuse them next year.
Once December hits, I take a couple months to relax. Corinna and I will take the boys up to Michigan for a mini vacation to possibly stay at my uncle’s lake house and enjoy some family time. Then I start the computer farm work. I have to get my production plan together in early January. This is a huge spreadsheet where I map out where the crops are going to go in the field next year, how things will rotate throughout the season, when things need to be planted, and I build out my CSA box plan to make sure I can have enough crops every week at the right time. I usually order all the vegetable seed before January 2nd because I get a big discount when I do. This is a big expense for us, and one of the things we use your CSA deposits to help us do. (Thank you!)
I also do some maintenance on my equipment, finalize our annual budget, decide on my “wish list” for capital expenses based on the budget, and finalize our wholesale contracts for the year. (Please pray that the Chipotle gig works out!) By February I have to finalize our H2A recruiting plan for our agency and commit to that contract. And come March, we start seeding onions!! I’m really hoping Corinna will be back to full health by February. If so, she and I are planning on taking a 5 day trip somewhere — just the two of us — to celebrate the end of her long journey to recovery. I want to ask you to keep praying for her. We’ve ruled out ALL the bad things it could be, so now it’s just a matter of following her gut healing protocol and giving it the time required to heal. She wants me to tell you that she is confident she will fully recover, and she can’t wait to tell you the whole story once it’s done! And she wants to thank you (and our team) for their patience and prayers.
Image from our Field to Table dinner
I wanted to make sure I said thank you to Cork and Knife Provisions and everyone who came to our Field to Table dinner last weekend! I was nervous it was going to rain on us, but in the end it was a beautiful evening. The food was delicious and I enjoyed my conversations with all of you. My favorite was the beef short ribs and the buttered pear cheesy tater pierogis. Chef Joseph truly is one of the best chefs in Toledo. I am never disappointed. Please support his work by attending one of their events this winter. They do regular farm dinner events at their location, and they cater. If you’re looking for top-notch culinary execution, he is your man.
We cut tomato twine this week, releasing the vines. Once the stakes are removed I can chop these vines down.
This week, we’ve been cleaning up the field! That means rolling up poly, pulling our irrigation drip tape and rolling up irrigation hose. I had the crew pull down the tomato high tunnel up front. It’s ‘Sayonara’ to our tomatoes for the season! Another crew cut all the tomato twine, so all the vines are lying on the ground. The stakes will be pulled today. I picked up some rye cover crop seed yesterday. On the way home the water pump on the delivery truck burst about 2 miles from home. I had Corinna come out and rescue me with some antifreeze, and I was barely able to coast home. But I got my rye seed!! Hopefully I get that fixed before our final CSA pickup???? I need that truck to make it just a few more weeks!!! LOL. Fingers crossed.
We’re taking down the high tunnel up front this week. Good-bye tomatoes!
Well, it’s time to say good-bye. If you renewed your membership with us for 2025, thank you. And if this is good-bye to CSA, I want to say how much I appreciated the chance to grow for you. We say good-bye with a firm handshake, and please know that my farm is always open to serve you again. Be sure to share your feedback on our CSA evaluation. Corinna has that link in the final email she sent you. We’ll keep in touch via email every month in the off-season. We’re planning on offering some kind of online pop-up market in November before Thanksgiving, and maybe another one in December. We’ll also do a celebration and good-bye “toast” in our Facebook group on Sunday, Oct. 27th at 7 PM — to let you know our final CSA renewal results.
For those of you renewing …. set your alarms I trust you have, and may the force be with you tomorrow when that alarm rings. I hope you get your eggs! (and our vegetables).
Farmer Kurt