2024-01-27 Newsletter

Greetings from 12 Seasons Farm,

Tuesday at the Captiva market was the biggest yet. Thank you to those who came out. It was great to have beautiful weather and a strong turnout. Last year at this time we were set up alone at McCarthy’s Marina. This season there is a larger group of vendors. It is good to see the market rebounding, nearly 1 1/2 years since Ian.

The produce diversity available is high except for cucumbers and zucchini. The cool weather and the rabbit pressure on the cucumber plants have been devastating to those crops. There are many highs and lows in farming. One of the advantages of being a diversified farm is the ability to weather these losses. Cucumbers historically has been one of our top 5 selling crops.

We look forward to returning to the Captiva Farmers market again on Tuesday. 

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 (limited)
• Cucumbers (limited)
• Eggplant
• Sweet Italian Bull’s Horn Peppers 
• Broccolini
• Cabbage (limited)
• Cauliflower
• 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 Honey
• Strawberry Butter

Meredith at the Captiva market again. Her older sister Myrah went to this market for years. It is fun to see Meredith now stepping into this role.

Jeanna (Meredith and Myrah’s mother) with an X-larger Summercrisp head, the ‘Nevada’ variety.

I am so delighted to see the ‘Zipperskin’ tangerines making a comeback in the nets. It is a painstaking and costly method to raise trees in screened bags to exclude the psyllid insect that carries the damaging greening bacteria. However, it is makes my soul rejoice to open a bag and see a vibrant tree laden with fruit– a taste of the former days of Florida when citrus was abundant and so sweet and juicy.

Lemons as I have mentioned in a previous newsletter also have done extraordinarily well in the bags. Their season is winding down in the next couple weeks.

We still need to work on our strawberry butter label– a bit oversized– but we printed it on what we had. At least you can see the ingredient list. It is very tasty made at the farm with last season’s surplus strawberries!

Glorious tomatoes!

The red slicing tomatoes are very good as well!

We are so pleased to have Anthony Linderman back with us this season! He was here a couple seasons ago as a volunteer and now returned as a full time staff. We are grateful for his contributions and wonderful presence on the farm. He is a role model for our children. Sunday he turns 30. The Saturday market in Bonita was his first market experience. He normally is back at the farm tending to the tomato maintenance where more than half of his time is spent. He thoroughly enjoyed seeing the final step in bringing the produce to market and meeting face-to-face those that enjoy the good produce he labors hard to cultivate. Anthony is another bright soul in this world.

We hope you are enjoying this season’s produce. We are grateful to have a part in bringing health and goodness to you.

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