2024-02-19 newsletter

Greetings from 12 Seasons Farm,

We welcomed the rain on Sunday as it reset the moisture levels to a
goodly amount in our vegetable beds. Some of our beds were beginning to
have some drying with last week’s warmer temperatures. The rain does
have its negative impact on the fruiting crops like strawberries,
cucumber, zucchini, and tomatoes mainly causing fruit and/or leaf
diseases, but overall the rain helps most of the other crops and
especially the soil moisture levels.

We have a lot of crop diversity right now. The farm stand was
beautiful in Bonita Springs last Saturday. We just harvested the first
beets today and some will go to both markets tomorrow. Starfruit is now
nearly done. Avocados will soon follow in 2-3 weeks. Zucchini and cucs
made a brief come back with last week’s heat, but will likely be slow
again as we go through a cooler week. Strawberries are starting to be
consistently higher yielding.

We plan to be back at the Captiva Farmers market and our newer market
in Naples today (Tuesday). The Naples market had a big jump in people
attending there. Thank you!

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 pm and
pick it up at the market.

TUESDAY NAPLES ST. JOHN’S FARMERS MARKET (NEW!) :
Tuesday 9am-1pm at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Naples. The St. John’s
Farmers Market is located at 500 Park Shore Dr., Naples, FL 34103, just
south of Pine Ridge Rd. Due to vehicle space and staff limitations we
currently don’t plan to do preorders for this 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. Buy directly from the
stand or place a preorder online by Thursday, 8 pm. If
possible, please pick up after 10:30 for pre-orders as
this will reduce the long line that often forms early in the morning.
When picking up, you are welcome to skip the line and go down the south
side of the tent to the back of our van where Annika will help you get
your order and grab any add-ons you might want.

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 (crop over), more hopefully in a couple weeks
• Zucchini
• Cucumbers (limited)
• Eggplant
• Sweet Italian Bull’s Horn Peppers (limited)
• Broccolini
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Carrots
• Green onions
• Large onions (pre-order only)
• 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 (2 to 3 weeks more)
• Pummelo
• Lemons
• Papaya
• Starfruit (just about over)
• Banana
• Sunflowers
• SW FL Saw Palmetto Honey
• SW FL Wildflower Honey
• Strawberry Butter

This is the photo from market Saturday morning at Bonita Springs. It
was great to have Cate visiting. We had a fun and very busy market day!
Thank you to all of you who came out!

We are harvesting beautiful carrots on the farm!

Enoch is helping Annika with the sunflower harvest along with his
little brother Indy.

We still have beautiful and delicious cauliflower. Vicki prepared
some tonight for dinner that was so tender and good!

Kris and Meredith picking strawberries.

Thankfully we have more beautiful tomatoes ripening.

Zucchini in foreground with dill and lettuce in far left rows. We
finally had a lot of zucchini last week. It is so contingent on the
temperatures, preferring very warm conditions.

Saturday night was the Edison Festival of Light Parade with the 5k
run. There were over 600 runners from all age groups. All 3 kids did
great with Josiah running his first 5k. Annika placed 2nd in her age
group and 14th of all girls/women running (out of 297 females in the
race) and even finished ahead of her older brother, Simeon, by around 45
seconds! Simeon, who finished 8th in his age group, was proud of his
sister!

Here is a photo from the Ft. Myers News-Press of Annika nearing the
finish line. She shocked us all at how well she did. I am actually
standing off to the far left in this photo taking a photo with my phone.
Lot of fun to see your daughter excel at something she enjoys!

After the 5k run, many of us stayed for the Edison Festival of Lights
Parade. The kids had a blast!

The mangos are in full blossom right now as seen with the mango tree
on the left in this photo. The eggplant in the foreground is from the
first planting seeded back in July which is getting closer to
finishing.

Here is a photo of our current team. We are still missing several
people like Jan, Carrie, Debby, Eric, Sammi, Jeanna, Corey, Vicki, and
several kids from this photo which was taken right after our morning
meeting on Monday. What a blessing to have a capable hard working team
who enjoy farming and the community life here at the farm.

As the soils were recharged by the rain, we look forward to verdant
crop growth and continued healthy and bountiful harvests!

Have a great week!

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