2024-04-29 newsletter

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!

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!

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!

All the best to you,

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