2023-06-11 newsletter

Greetings from 12 Seasons Farm,

The farm season is winding down. We are busy cleaning weeds out of
our fields and greenhouses. There is much to do to prepare the farm beds
for the summer. We plan to sow a cover crop over a portion of the
vegetable production area. It is grueling work but the intense schedule
we had up through May has scaled back to a more soul-friendly pace.

We continue to be at 2 locations– Lakes Park Farmers’ Mkt on
Wednesdays and 12 Seasons Farm on Saturdays.

The Lakes Park market is a fun little market. There are still a
decent number of vendors there.

We will continue to do home deliveries for the month of June on
Thursdays. We encourage residents of Sanibel and Captiva to consider
picking up a preorder at the Lakes Park market.

If you would like to place an order for this Wednesday pick
up at Lakes Park, please do so before 8 pm MONDAY at
www.12seasonsfarm.com.

Here is our weekly schedule:

 ** 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. If you want to preorder for this market, please place
an order by MONDAY, 8 pm to pick up at Lakes Park.

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 AT 12 SEASONS FARM : Market
runs 8 am to noon at our farm. 14820 Old Olga Rd. Ft. Myers, FL 33905.
If you want to preorder for this market, please place an order by
THURSDAY, 8 pm to pick up at our farm on Saturday morning.

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

This is what we are harvesting:

• Mangoes

• Summercrisp Lettuce

• Large Leaf Butterhead lettuce

• Cherry tomatoes

• Heirloom/Specialty tomatoes

• Red Slicing tomatoes

• Arugula

• Curly kale

• Flat kale

• Mixed kale

• Broccoli

• Broccoli greens

• Rainbow carrots

• Cucumbers

• Sweet Peppers

• Eggplant

• Round radish

• Daikon radish

• Dill

• Cilantro

• Italian flat parsley

• Curled parsley

• Saw Palmetto Honey

• Sunflowers

Vicki at the Saturday market at 12 Seasons Farm. Thank you to those
of you who made the trip out! It is fun to see you at the farm.

Here is most of our current team. We are small and mighty! ~~~~

We have a nice crop of Italian large-leaf basil.

Swiss chard is a champ in the heat!

It was nice to get about 80 papayas planted in the ground over the
past week.

We have a nice late crop of Summercrisp lettuce planted along the
forest edge to get afternoon shade. Last week we planted the last flight
of the season– 40 weeks in a row of lettuce. That is a long season!

The bananas are doing well on the farm with the recent good rains. We
have been harvesting from a number of banana mats. It is nice to be
getting fruit crops again on the farm.

Mango is really our first significantly large tree crop since the
storm. The harvest is strong right now.

This was the delivery vehicle last Thursday. We delivered to 10
restaurants and a number of home deliveries. Our production for
restaurants is now winding down but we hope to have home deliveries for
several more weeks.

Last week I was invited to have a table with our farm produce and
give a presentation about our farm at the American Culinary Federation
Caxambas Chefs of Southwest Florida. There was a large crow of 100+
people there– chefs and others in the food industry. I enjoyed the
opportunity to share about the various crops we grow and the practices
we use to bring fresh high quality produce to restaurants and
markets.

This is another photo sent by the Small Family who have been with us
5 seasons. They are now in Maine for the summer living and working at a
state park while Corey does his remote IT work. They are nearby Grace
and Emily who are in the photo along with Emily’s 2 brothers who
volunteered at the farm when they visited. One amazing thing about this
photo is that 9 of the 16 people pictured worked at 12 Seasons Farm this
season in some capacity. We mentioned before how wonderful it is to see
such strong bonds form between the workers!

Tonight we made mango sticky rice, a wonderful Thai dessert, except
we had ours for dinner along with a delicious farm salad. It is such a
fun experience for me to see my children take such delight in enjoying
the fruits of the farm. They scour the farm almost daily with the other
farm kids hunting for fallen fruit and helping harvest the fruit that is
ready. They have developed keen abilities in this area and I am grateful
for their interest and enjoyment of the crops, the forest, the wildlife,
and the farm community that surrounds their daily lives.

We hope to see many of you at Lakes Park on Wednesday, or for a farm
pick-up or delivery on Thursday, or at the farm on Saturday.

We hope you have a great week!

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