2023-03-18 newsletter

Greetings to the residents of Sanibel and Captiva from 12 Seasons
Farm,

The tomatoes inside the newly built greenhouses are beginning to
bear. We harvested the first fruits on Friday. First fruits tend to be
big and beautiful. We also have a new crop of campari tomatoes coming on
from one of our seasonal tunnels and more sweet peppers. It is always a
pleasure and a relief when the next crop “flight” begins to ripen. There
is something very special about those first fruits.

We enjoy being at McCarthy’s Marina each Tuesday, 9-11 am. As usual,
we will have a market stand of produce for those who want to buy off the
table.

Thank you to those that pre-order and pick up your orders at the
market! This is much appreciated.

Thanks to Captain Bob and Jenny Rando with Captiva Cruises for this
continued opportunity!

If you would like to place an order for Tuesday pick up,
please do so before 8 pm Sunday at www.12seasonsfarm.com.

Here is our weekly schedule:

TUESDAY PICK-UP FOR SANIBEL & CAPTIVA: Place an
order online before Sunday, 8 pm, if you want to pick up an order at
McCarthy’s Marina in Captiva on Tuesday, 9-11 am. Extra produce will be
available for those who want to buy off the table. ****

 ** WEDNESDAY LAKE’S PARK FARMERS’
MARKET:** We will be at the Lakes Park Farmers’ Mkt. each
Wednesday from 9 am to 1 pm. in Ft. Myers. Parking is free during the
farmers’ market.

THURSDAY DELIVERIES & FARM PICK-UP: Please place
an order online before Tuesday, 8 pm, if you want home delivery or farm
pick-up for Thursday.

SATURDAY FARMERS’ MARKET AND PREORDER PICK-UP

Market runs 8 am to noon. Please place an order by Thursday, 8 pm to
pick up your preorder at the Bonita market. If preordering, please pick
up preorders after 10 am.

Orders can be placed online at ** www.12seasonsfarm.com**

This is what we are harvesting:

• Strawberries

• Summercrisp Lettuce

• Baby Butterhead Lettuce

• Romaine lettuce

• Large Leaf Butterhead lettuce

• Cherry tomatoes

• Heirloom/Specialty tomatoes

• Red Slicing tomatoes

• Arugula

• Curly kale

• Flat kale

• Mixed kale

• Broccoli

• Broccoli greens

• Cauliflower (limited)

• Rainbow carrots

• Cucumbers

• Zucchini

• Sweet Peppers

• Eggplant

• Round radish

• Daikon radish

• Watermelon radish

• Green onions

• Large sweet onions

• Dill

• Cilantro

• Italian flat parsley

• Curled parsley

• Saw Palmetto Honey

• Nasturtium Flowers

• Sunflowers

Here was the team at the farmers’ market today (Saturday) in Bonita
Springs. Some have asked why we don’t do the Sanibel market on Sunday.
We are wiped out after this Saturday market. The mere thought of
repeating this again a day later sounds utterly exhausting. We make it a
point at 12 Seasons to make a big push to harvest the day or two before
market. At Captiva, we harvest a lot of the produce on Monday for the
Tuesday market. This gets you food that is fresh and still alive! The
reasons some vendors can go from farmers’ market to farmers’ market, day
after day, is because they are resellers and not growers. Buying produce
and reselling is way easier than growing it and selling it. But that is
not what 12 Seasons is about.

Here is a classic example of tomatoes that will likely be many weeks
old before they are consumed. I was driving behind this truck recently
while doing deliveries. In the back of our van we had just been
delivering fresh tomatoes that were naturally ripened at 12 Seasons
Farm. In contrast, these hard green tomatoes are stored and then gassed
with ethylene to ripen them. These are shipped all over the country and
can also end up in local grocery stores and farmers’ markets being sold
by resellers. These are the tomatoes that give Florida such a bad
reputation for tomato quality. While this system of green- gassed
tomatoes allows most of the country to have a tomato in their salad or
on a burger in places where it is too cold, the trade-off is sacrifice
of quality.

In contrast, here is a photo of some fresh campari tomatoes. Yum!

We work hard to bring produce that is harvested at optimal times.
With each crop and variety it is a learning lesson to figure out the
best harvest window. Then, we work hard to get it to you all fast. We
like to bring you living food. You could actually take a radish from our
stand and plant it again and have it continue to grow. We are determined
to preserve the produce at optimal temperature and moisture levels after
harvest and deliver it to you fresh!

There has to be untold, unquantifiable benefits to food that is not
just nutritionally dense, but that is still very much functionally
alive!

We had a group come yesterday from Colombia and Ecuador to tour our
farm. They were being hosted by Ecological Laboratories that produces
and distributes microbial inoculants for enhanced plant production. We
have been using their products for years. We add these beneficial
bacteria through our drip lines to create a living soil.

We want our soils to be alive with beneficial microorganisms that
will help plants be healthier. We use generous amounts of compost,
carbon-based fertilizers, and beneficial microbes to create a healthy,
dynamic living soil.

This is the way it works in natural systems of forests, prairies, and
meadows. These natural soils tend to be much more dynamic than
agricultural soils. The more we pattern our farming system after healthy
natural systems, the more it contributes to healthier food production. I
call the way we farm the “life approach to farming”.

We want you all to experience greater health and enjoyment in the
food you receive from 12 Seasons. (The photo above is one that a
customer sent me last season from one of her orders). This is living
food and the kind of freshness and quality we all crave!

Hope to see many of you on Tuesday!

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