2024-01-24 Newsletter

Greetings from 12 Seasons Farm,

It was wonderful to finally have a market day without rain or inclement weather. Last Saturday was a fun market day. Thank you to all who came out!

We started harvesting cauliflower for the first time this season. The celery continues to be a surprisingly great crop for us this season. It is quite tasty and continues to remain productive. We will be low in cucumbers for a little while as some grazing animal (who we presume to be rabbits) destroyed our last planting. We still should have enough for preorders but market #s will likely be low.

We look forward to returning to the Captiva Farmers market tomorrow, thankfully with pleasant market weather forecasted.

Here is our updated schedule this week:

TUESDAY CAPTIVA MARKET: Tuesday, 9am-1pm at South Seas Island Resort, Captiva. Buy directly from the stand or place a preorder online by Sunday, 8 pmand pick it up at the market. 

THURSDAY FARM PICK-UP & HOME DELIVERY FOR SW FL (NOT INCLUDING SANIBEL AND CAPTIVA): Please place an order online before TUESDAY, 8 pm. For farm pick-up on Thursday, please come to 14840 Old Olga Rd., Ft. Myers, FL 33905.

SATURDAY BONITA FARMERS MARKET: Saturday, 8am-noon at the Promenade Shops at Bonita Bay. Bpleauy directly from the stand or place a preorder online by Thursday, 8 pm.

Orders can be placed online at 12seasonsfarm.com

This is what we are harvesting:

• Strawberries
• Summercrisp Lettuce
• Baby Butterhead Lettuce
• Large Leaf Butterhead Lettuce
• Romaine Lettuce
• Arugula
• Curly Kale
• Flat Kale
• Mixed Kale (multiple varieties)
• Swiss Chard
• Green Beans (limited)
• Zucchini
• Cucumbers
• Eggplant
• Sweet Italian Bull’s Horn Peppers 
• Broccolini (limited)
• Cabbage (limited)
• Cauliflower (new)
• Carrots 
• Green onions 
• Celery
• Cherry tomatoes 
• Campari tomatoes
• Heirloom/Specialty tomatoes
• Red Slicing tomatoes
• Round radish
• Daikon radish
• Cilantro
• Dill
• Curled Parsley (limited)
• Flat Parsley (limited)
• Lemongrass
• Avocado
• Pummelo
• Lemons
• Papaya
• Starfruit
• Banana
• Sunflowers
• SW FL Saw Palmetto Honey
• SW FL Wildflower Hone

We have beautiful root crops right now with spring onions (immature version of larger bulbing onion; also called green onions), rainbow carrots, and multiple kinds of radishes. 

One of the carrots we are growing is a reddish variety called ‘Dragon’. It is quite striking in outer color and orange on the inside.

Pruning the strawberry runners and weeding the onions and berry plants.

Overall the strawberry field is doing very well in terms of plant health. However, we planted later than last season as we were more short-handed this season in October when we normally plant. The production is slowly coming up.  

2 rows of strawberries are intercropped with 1 row of onions down the middle of each bed. They grow really well together and I am pleased with that planting strategy we have been doing for many years now. 

We are now offering strawberry butter. We made it from the strawberries froze from last season and also includes organic sugar, a pectin source, and lemon juice from the lemons grown on the farm.

We took a lot of damage on probably around 200 cucumber plants that were eaten by what we presume to be rabbits. We are now using an organic approved rabbit repellent on the next round of young grafted cucumbers that were planted today. We hope this keeps them successfully deterred.

The lychees are beginning to flower and should be aided by all the cooler weather thus far. Cool weather causes stronger flowering in lychees. The fruit normally ripen during the months of May and June. 

Jordan and Joe are seen here planting leeks. 

Here is Benjamin with some of the first cauliflower of the season!

We had the great pleasure to be with our dear friends Lance and Elizabeth Edwards this past weekend. Some of you may have seen Lance at the market helping on Saturday. They are from Zimbabwe where Lance is a 5th generation Zimbabwean. Lance and I worked together 6 years developing and managing the farm at ECHO in N. Ft. Myers. Lance is a great agriculturalist and has traveled and worked in agricultural development and training many years. He is also a talented engineer and inventor having designed special fuel efficient cookstoves that double as a water heater for use in the countryside of Zimbabwe. He is currently working with deaf men who he trains in welding. They take take on big welding projects with their most recent being metal fabricated chicken production houses. These men typically would be lacking opportunity but now are a sought after team of talented craftsmen. Elizabeth operates a wound care clinic in Bulawayo and is the leading wound care specialist in Zimbabwe. Her protocol in using hypochlorous acid in treating wounds has become a standard of care in the major hospitals of Zimbabwe. Lance was my best man in our wedding. We only see each other usually once every couple years so it was great joy to catch up and share some meaningful time together. They are bright lights in this world!

May you all be blessed as you gather for meals with delicious and healthy food with those you love!

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