2022-06-07 newsletter

Greetings,

Thank you for a great last market day in Bonita. It was great to see
so many of you! We are now opening up a market stand at 12 Seasons Farm
on Saturday mornings, 8am to noon. We hope folks that are still here
will come and join us. The farm address is:

14820 Old Olga Rd., Ft. Myers, FL 33905.

If you try to look up 12 Seasons Farm online, it has the original
farm address (14840) listed as closed. Please use the 14820 entrance and
park on the grass. The produce stand will be in front of the honey
house.

Simeon and Annika should be around to give a tour if you should like
one. We still have plenty of tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, lettuce,
kale, basil, parsley, Swiss chard, daikon radishes, mangoes and
bananas.

For the month of June, we will continue to do home deliveries on
Thursdays in SW FL and Tuesdays for Sanibel and Captiva.

If you order online, please remember to put your requests in the
customer notes if something is out-of-stock.

Place orders at 12seasonsfarm.com

Our schedule is as follows:

** ** ** ** ** Thursday** : Please order by
8 pm tonight (Tuesday), May 31, for Thursday, June 2, farm pick up or
delivery to Bonita Springs, Naples, Ft. Myers Beach, Ft. Myers, N. Ft.
Myers, and Cape Coral.

Saturday: 12 Seasons Farmer’s Market at
14820 Old Olga Rd., Ft. Myers, FL 33905 (8am-noon). You may also select
a preorder option each week (by Thursday 8 pm) and pick up your prepared
orders at the Saturday market.

Tuesday : Sanibel/Captiva home deliveries
on Tuesdays. CAPTIVA MKT. CLOSED FOR SEASON Place order
by Sunday, 8 pm.

****We are currently harvesting:

• Cherry Tomatoes

• Campari Tomatoes

• Heirloom/Specialty Tomatoes

• Red Beefsteak Tomatoes

• Summercrisp Lettuce

• Arugula (limited)

• Curly kale

• Flat kale

• Mixed kale

• Broccoli

• Cucumbers

• Zucchini

• Eggplant

• Sweet Peppers (limited)

• Round radish

• Daikon radish

• Sweet onions

• Italian Basil

• Italian Flat Parsley

• Curly Parsley

• Bananas

• Mangos

• Sunflowers

• Orange blossom Honey

Here is the remnants of our strawberry field. One of the greatest
challenges of farming organically in Florida is weed pressure. This
season we are trying an experiment with a cover crop called velvet bean
to see if it can smother the weeds enough and allow us to maintain the
integrity of our raised beds without having to disc. I really want to
move toward a permanent raised bed system that we won’t have to break
down each season. Our typical pattern is to sow sorghum-sudangrass which
works as a great cover, disc it in the late summer, and then reform beds
with fertilizer and compost. I want to bypass the disc if the velvet
bean has enough of a strong cover. It would save a lot of fertility,
fuel, and time if the integrity of the beds can mostly be preserved– it
would definitely be a more sustainable system if it works. We shall see.
We are doing the project in cooperation with the USDA-NRCS. The velvet
bean is just emerging between the rows of the drip tape.

Ek is showing a couple varieties of the velvet bean seed, also known
as Mucuna pruriens. We are also planting it in a separate seed
grow out plot because where we are doing the experiment we will cut the
velvet bean field down before it goes to seed. The seed is very hard to
get in recent years because demand has for it has spiked as it has
become known as a mood enhancer and an alternative treatment to
Parkinson’s Disease.

Ellie and Elena are getting ready to wash and triple rinse the
lettuce.

We hope to have a good supply of mango for Saturday.

What we don’t have a good supply of this season is lychees. We lost
most of the crop when the trees were blooming during the late January
freeze. There is just enough for snacking it seems this season. It is a
big disappointment and loss to wait all year and have so little, but
that is a reality of farming and another reason to have a diversity of
crops to buffer such losses.

Bunching broccoli has been a great success this season. It is still
bearing decently well. The stems are getting slightly tougher but even
still the quality is excellent. This is impressive to have broccoli at
the end of May in south Florida! At least with the varieties I have
tried, there would be no chance with typical crown broccoli– it would
not handle this kind of heat.

We were out for a Saturday afternoon golf cart ride and enjoyed
watching 2 gopher tortoises go in to their burrow on the back of the
farm. The first one is already in its burrow. The farm is such a
beautiful place for the children to experience the wild side of Florida.
The farm with its crop diversity along with the native species, forests,
and creeks is full of creatures. We have diverse bird and reptile
species and have had visits from fox, bobcat, and even panther. The kids
really enjoy the wildlife!

Again we thank you for another great market season! We hope a number
of you can make it out to the farm on Saturdays during June.

Take care and have a great week!

Danny, Vicki, the kids, and the 12 Seasons Team