Greetings from 12 Seasons Farm,
This Tuesday, April 30, will be our final Captiva market of this season. Thank
you to all of you who have attended that market and supported 12 Seasons Farm.
We do plan to start delivering to Sanibel and Captiva on Tuesday, May 7. We
will evaluate to see if there is enough interest to continue the entire month
and into June.
We plan to be at the Bonita market for the entire month of May and then open a
stand at the farm on Saturdays during June. Farm pick ups and deliveries will
continue on Thursdays for May and June.
Here is our schedule for this week:
TUESDAY
CAPTIVA MARKET (LAST OF THE SEASON): 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.
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 (nearly done)
- Summercrisp Lettuce
- Arugula
- Curly Kale
- Flat Kale
- Mixed Kale (multiple varieties)
- Swiss Chard
- Zucchini
- Cucumbers
- Eggplant
- Sweet Italian Bull’s Horn Peppers
- Broccolini
- Cabbage
- Carrots
- Green onions (mostly done)
- Large onions
- Celery
- Cherry tomatoes
- Campari tomatoes
- Heirloom/Specialty tomatoes
- Red Slicing tomatoes
- Round radish
- Daikon radish
- Cilantro
- Dill
- Curled Parsley
- Flat Parsley
- Lemongrass (preorder only)
- Ray Ruby Grapefruit
- Papaya
- Starfruit (just about over)
- Banana
- Sunflowers
- SW FL Wildflower Honey
- Strawberry Butter
Annika at the Captiva market last Tuesday. She has been a great helper!
Myrah and Bella with a very large daikon radish!
We still have a good supply of all kinds of radishes and beets.
The flat kale intercropped with the avocado. The hot spring time is where the
shade of the avocado really helps conserve moisture and reduce the stress on
the kale.
Michelle helping prune the lower leaves on the cherry tomato. This allows for
better air circulation resulting in less disease and insect pressure.
The cherry tomatoes handle the spring heat well in SW Florida. They are
especially productive right now and very popular with the restaurant chefs that
order from us and, of course, with so many of you!
We had a large tomato delivery to Rooster’s Produce stand not far from the
farm. We have a good relationship there with Trever and Tyler, the 2 brothers
who run the produce market on St. Rd. 80 in East Ft. Myers.
Here was the market stand last Saturday morning just as we are nearly finished
with the preparations and ready to begin selling. Even though I have been doing
farmers markets on Saturdays for 22 years, I continue to be amazed at all the
labor that goes into it the day before and how it culminates in a full,
colorful, and diverse market stand the following day. It is a demanding and
sometimes dizzying process, but also deeply satisfying and fun to complete the
final step of bringing fresh and healthy fruits and vegetables to you.
Vegetable farming takes a great many hands!
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The Small Family left the farm Saturday. On Friday during break, they sang a
song for everyone. The Small Family has been with us through thick and thin for
6 seasons. We are super grateful for all the ways the entire family has served
our family, customers, and the community here at the farm. They have enabled
the farm to be super productive especially in times of trial during the covid
crisis and the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. The 3 older children (Myrah, Jack,
and Meredith) all work hard on the farm. We have seen them grow up in marvelous
ways to handle increased responsibility and rise to the challenge as they work
on so many different farm tasks. Corey in his off-time from doing remote IT
work, does so much of the critical farm maintenance, repairs, and
infrastructure development. He has saved the farm enormous money over the years
and kept vehicles, equipment, and golf carts running among countless other
things. Jeanna faithfully washes lettuce and has done all kinds of deliveries.
It is hard to imagine how 12 Seasons Farm would be without the Smalls; they are
behind the scenes heroes– a beautiful family that is characterized by generous
service, hard work, and an intent to lead a God honoring life. They are in the
Punta Gorda area for a few weeks while their trailer gets some work done. They
plan to visit and continue helping from a distance. We wish them the best as
they plan to soon return to Maine for the summer!
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We had a great team this season. We are proud of what we accomplished and
grateful for each person’s significant contribution. We worked hard at doing
ordinary and mundane farming tasks with strength, consistency, and
excellence. Our numbers are now going down as people return to their respective
homes and generally cooler climates. We still have a couple months of the
vegetable season remaining before we settle in to mainly fruit
production through the summer (mainly lychees, mango, starfruit, and bananas)
as we prepare the fields for the next season with sowing cover crops, spreading
compost, mowing, and putting down weed suppression cloth.
We rejoice in a good season thus far and for such a fantastic crew of people to
live and labor alongside. And thank you to each and every one of you who have
supported us and this team this season!
Danny, Vicki, the kids, and the 12 Seasons Team
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