2023-10-30 newsletter

Greetings from the farm,

There is a beehive of activity on the farm as crop production and
demand have ramped up. This time of year has the unique challenge of
keeping pace with the crop production and the busier schedule of
farmers’ markets, home deliveries, and restaurant orders. Thankfully, we
have a great team this season that is up for the challenge!

We will plan to be back at McCarthy’s Marina on Captiva tomorrow
(Tuesday), 9-11 am and Lakes Park in Ft. Myers on Wednesday,
9am-1pm.

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

Here is a summary of this week’s 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

• Cabbage

• Broccoli

• Broccoli greens

• Cauliflower (new!)

• Rainbow carrots

• Cucumbers

• Zucchini

• Sweet Peppers

• Eggplant

• Round radish

• Daikon radish

• Watermelon radish

• Green onions

• Italian Basil

• Dill

• Cilantro

• Italian flat parsley (limited)

• Curled parsley

• Saw Palmetto Honey

• Sunflowers

Here is Simeon with mom, Vicki, in the background at Saturday’s
market.

The sprouting broccoli harvest (3x/week) has been very good. We
really enjoy the quality of this type where stems, leaves, and florets
are all eaten. It is also known as “broccolini”.

We have cabbage back in stock again. We should be getting decent
cabbage over the next several weeks as we have several staged plantings
that should give us an extended harvest. We like this baby cabbage very
much– crisp, mildly sweet and delicious. Vicki makes a lot of wonderful
raw cabbage salads with the green onions, white balsamic vinegar, olive
oil, and salt. The kids and I devour it.

Some of you may be wondering why there are fewer strawberries at
market the last couple weeks. Most of our crop is between the first and
second bloom periods. Strawberries in Florida often have a strong but
short first crop of berries and then a rest while the plants size up and
begin to set many more berries. This seems to be the time period we are
in before usually a much larger crop begins to set. We are hoping for
that second stage of abundant flowering to begin soon. In the meantime
over the next few weeks, we expect the production to be lower.

We have made some good progress on the greenhouse lately with one of
the vents being pushed up into place here by the team.

Here you see James Mashburn on the left with Abe, a dairy goat farmer
from Lancaster, PA, on the right. He is visiting friends here nearby and
volunteering on the farm for a few days.

We had a team from a church in Richmond, Virginia volunteer for a
week at our farm. We were put in touch with them from the director of
Cultivate Abundance, Rick Burnette, who gets produce from us each Friday
to distribute to the farm workers in Immokalee. Rick wanted to help us
get back on our feet after the hurricane and asked us if we could use
extra hands in the form of a volunteer team. This team was recruited and
did an excellent job of renovating the honey house.

They hauled out the old flooring, drywall, and insulation, bleached
the studs, and put fresh insulation and drywall back in. We have been
focused on the crops, worker housing, and our own house repairs that we
had this project on the back burner. Their work allows this place to
return to its many functions of being a community house where people can
gather for meetings, meals, conduct food prep, do laundry, and store
supplies.

We have been getting a good supply of eggs from our friends at
Cypress Creek Farms and Ranch in Alva, Fl. The Vealy kids do the bulk of
the chicken work collecting the eggs and caring for the chickens. Here
you see Autumn, Bryson, and Ella with a sizeable harvest of eggs. They
have 30 acres and raise chickens and cows. The chickens are pastured and
fed organic feed. The eggs are very good.

The Mashburn kids out for a stroll.

Shelby (in blue sweatshirt) and husband TJ (behind her) had cupcakes
on break day with one cupcake revealing whether they were going to have
a girl or boy.

Annika got the special cupcake– it’s a boy! We celebrate with TJ and
Shelby as they prepare for their first child together. We are thankful
they are enjoying 12 Seasons Farm as a home for them during this
time.

While we put incredible effort into the production of super healthy,
fresh, and delicious fruits and vegetables, children are the best and
most important crop growing here– albeit the most challenging to
raise!

Have a great week!

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