2024-11-14 newsletter

Greetings from 12 Seasons Farm,

We hope this newsletter finds you well.

We are glad to finally have opening day for the farm this coming
Saturday. We intended to start in mid-October but we lost much of our
crops to flooding and wind damage during both Helene and Milton. We have
replanted multiple times and though we still have very low production
and diversity we are ready to start back at the Bonita Farmer’s Market
on Saturdays.

Farm pick-ups on Thursday should resume very soon, likely next
week.

Home deliveries will likely begin in December.

We are not yet sure when we will return to Captiva because we just
don’t have that much production currently but hopefully by mid-December
or first week of January at the latest.

If you have questions, please feel free to text or call Danny at
239-229-3579.

Here is our schedule for this week:

SATURDAY BONITA SPRINGS FARMER’S MARKET : Market
runs from 8am-noon. We don’t have the preorder option available for
this week.

This is what we are harvesting:

• Swiss Chard
• Arugula
• Lettuce (very limited– had to completely replant)
• Heirloom and specialty tomatoes (extremely limited– lost half of the
  planting to flooding)
• Round radish
• Watermelon radish
• Daikon radish
• Cucumbers
• Zucchini
• Eggplant
• Basil
• Dill
• Papaya (very limited)
• Passionfruit
• Navel oranges
• Pummelo
• Bananas
• Starfruit
• Avocado
• Sunflowers
• Saw palmetto honey
• Sea of Cortez salt

We had a great summer. The trip we took was a highlight where we
journeyed this great country and saw so many friends, families and
captivating sights. When we returned the kids enjoyed feasting on lots
of jackfruit and other tropical fruits that ripen during the summer.

We had a lot of bananas through the summer and fall. Many came down
during Milton but we will likely have some for the market. We froze many
bananas and mangos over the summer and have some fabulous jams to offer
soon.

The late summer and fall is characterized by lots of bed preparations
and planting. We uncover the beds that had the weed suppression cover
and refresh them with compost and organic fertilizer.

This is Josiah and me just after a successful tractor repair where we
had a blocked fuel line that he assisted me on during the blazing
Florida sun. With his smaller hands he was able to get into places that
were challenging. He is gifted in this kind of work.

The fall is filled with lots of planting activities. Here, Kiki and
Kate are planting broccoli in between the avocado trees. These plants
survived the hurricanes protected by the trees and we should begin
harvesting next week.

In late September and early October we were pummeled by two
hurricanes. Thankfully, my friend Kai from Germany helped us greatly
prepare for Milton as we prepared the farm, protected worker housing and
our own place as seen in photo above with sandbags and sealing of door
jams and thresholds with special tape.

This is during Hurricane Milton at about 2:00 am. We paddled down our
street as the water was flowing too fast by the farm entrance with the
creek. We checked on the farm structures and were able to get water out
of one of the farm houses really quick with a generator and wet/dry
vac.

The surge which traveled up the Caloosahatchee River caused an
overflow of its banks with around 7 ft above normal levels so we had
widespread flooding on the farm. The Caloosahatchee surge water levels
actually increase as the water moves inland up more narrow channels
toward the Franklin Lock which we are located near. This is why flooding
upriver is higher than at the entrance of the Caloosahatchee.

We took a bad hit from the storm losing a lot of crops as over a foot
of water covered most of the planted areas. As for the structures… the
honey house (community house) had about 8 inches of water and one of the
worker trailers flooded– we were planning for this so had almost
everything off the honey house floor. The other main farm house where
Bruce and Jan live would have flooded but the taped doors kept nearly
all water from getting in which would have been about 8 inches of water.
That was a huge relief! And as for our home, the water was about 3
inches below the door threshold so the kids and Vicki were super elated
to come back to a dry house. Of the 7 metal greenhouses, only 1 took
serious damage. So all in all we fared much better than in Ian and are
grateful and relieved.

Part of the challenge is that we had a lot of flooding of the farm 2
weeks in a row. We pumped the water out of the walkways in the
greenhouse and our kids and their friends helped evacuate the last of
the water out with buckets and brooms. Unfortunately, we lost about half
of these tomatoes from the waterlogged soils. The tomatoes already were
stressed from Helene. The lost tomatoes in here have since been
replanted.

While the team cleaned up, pruned, repaired beds, and replanted
crops, we tried to keep our normally rigorous schedule of prepping the
no-till beds and planting. Above is this year’s planned strawberry
field.

That strawberry field above and another are now planted since the
storms. We have around 10,000 planted. This week we will continue with
onions that we interplant between the double row of strawberries.

We have been making good progress. We have a good team though we have
been smaller in size during the fall. Now our staff is growing and we
are making significant strides toward getting caught up on our seeding
and transplanting schedule that we got behind on due to the storms.

While we don’t have much tomatoes at all, it was encouraging last
week to see the first ripened tomato. While small and few, it is a sign
of what is to come. We are hopeful for a strong rebound and a productive
season providing the healthy bounty we have labored toward.

The kids are doing well. We had a fun and brilliant summer. In
September, we took a short trip we took to see my parents and family in
California. The photo above is at Monterey Bay and below is from a hike
near my parents’ home along the shoreline of the SF Bay.

The kids and Vicki won’t be at market for a few weeks as we signed
the 3 older kids up for soccer and Vicki is also coaching. I should be
at market with our crop manager, Kate, this Saturday. We look forward to
seeing many of you then!

We look forward to moving into this next stage where we can again
bring you healthy, fresh, and delicious fruits and vegetables. We won’t
have much production for several weeks but hopefully soon you will see
full market tables again!

All the best to each of you,

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