2024-11-19 newsletter

Greetings from 12 Seasons Farm,

We had a great opening day last Saturday at the Bonita Farmer’s
Market. Thank you to those who came out and supported us with your kind
words and affirming business. It really was a lot of fun to see so many
of you again!

We are resuming the Thursday farm pick-up schedule. For those
interested in picking their produce up at the farm, please place an
order before 8 pm Tuesday (tonight) for a Thursday pick up at the farm
any time between 8:30 am to 5 pm. Use the old farm entrance, 14840 Old
Olga. Rd. Please drive in slowly. Kids are around the farm!

Home deliveries are scheduled to begin December 5.

We plan to return to the Captiva Farmer’s Market on Tuesday,
Dec. 17.

This Sunday only there is a workshop offered at the farm from 1-4 pm.
Please see the information below for those interested in joining. Anna
Klein is leading the workshop and there is no cap on the number of
attendees but do please RSVP. Thank you.

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

Here is our schedule for this week:

THURSDAY FARM PICK-UP: Place an order online before
8 pm Tuesday and pick up your order on Thursday at the farm. Use
original farm entrance, 14840 Old Olga Rd. Order is usually split
between cold produce in walk-in cooler and the air conditioned structure
just left of walk-in cooler.

 SATURDAY BONITA SPRINGS FARMER’S
MARKET: Market runs from 8am-noon. We still don’t have the
pre-order option open yet, but likely soon. However, if you plan to come
to the Sunday workshop, you can preorder and put in notes that you plan
to pick up produce at workshop __

**************SUNDAY GIFT MAKING MEDICINAL BODY CARE WORKSHOP:**
Workshop on SUNDAY afternoon, 1- 4 pm., at the farm. Use the 14820 Old
Olga Rd. entrance.

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 were glad to have the table as full as it was to start Saturday’s
market. More diversity and production will come in the following
weeks!

We plan to carry mushrooms again this season from Care2Grow in
Naples. There was a great and diverse display of fresh and scrumptious
mushrooms on Saturday!

We have been getting steady cucumber harvests now which is very
encouraging. The photo above is today’s harvest after a big one
yesterday.

The cucumber plants actually survived both storms– this particular
greenhouse is in a more protected area and the flooding waters evacuated
out of this house quickly. These raised beds stand very tall which kept
the young plants from being weakened for lack of oxygen in the
waterlogged soil during and after the flood event.

The cucumber plants also survived a large aphid outbreak that began
to weaken the plants and happened in a and around the storms. Just
before initiating a spray, a healthy population of predators including
ladybugs decimated the aphids and eliminated the threat. The above photo
is of a young ladybug larvae. They have a voracious appetite for
aphids.

If you are interested in a workshop on making fun and healthy
medicinal body care products and gifts, please join us at the farm this
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24, from 1 to 4 pm. Anna Klein will be leading the
workshop here.

Meredith and Jack Small and their family returned last week. Jack is
leading the onion planting. They are in their 7th season! Welcome back
Small Family!

Ek returned this weekend to help out with some vital tractor work and
getting us caught up on tomato weaving. We were blessed to have them
visit so often this summer and help on the farm.

Kate Wickham, our Crop Manager, will be joining me at the markets for
the next couple weeks as the kids and Vicki finish the soccer season. We
are super grateful for her presence at the farm. She arrived last June
and endured working through the summer heat and now is enjoying seeing
the fruits of her labors as we begin harvesting for another farming
season.

Break time on Friday. Our team is growing. Each week we grow a little
bit more in size. We are grateful for the extra help and for a really
pleasant team.

Simeon has been a great help working on the farm each morning 2 hours
before going to school lessons. He is an expert tomato pruner and is so
fast. He has trained many a worker at the farm. We are proud of him!

Josiah and Benjamin enjoy helping on the farm too. They are watering
in the pepper transplants. We have had to replant peppers several times
this season mainly due to loss from the storms. Josiah has asked for
more responsibility on the farm. He is a super helpful young boy.

After nearly 14 years of amazing dedicated work at 12 Seasons Farm,
Bruce and Jan are officially retiring from the farm. They are moving to
Ocala in January. This is hard in so many ways. They are dear friends
and family to us and the kids. We have so enjoyed having them living on
the farm. They have kept the farm trimmed and mowed, done numerous
construction and repair projects, and just kept the farm cleaned up
these past 14 years. They are amazing behind-the-scenes people that work
so hard. They have never worked for money, but for sharing their talents
and generous spirits to make this farm, our family, and those that work
here so much better off. They are soaked with sweat and dirt each day.
And they have done it with joy except when someone leaves the tomato
twine in the weeds and it gets tangled in the mower blades. 🙂

They have taught me and many others about faithfulness, discipline,
marriage, the good balance between hard work and rest, the no-drama just
get it done approach, and how to just keep moving forward with a
positive outlook. They are such dear friends and family and will be
sorely missed. They plan to leave in early January so we look forward to
another month and a half with them

The front orchard is beautiful right now. Thankfully the fruit trees
did not take much damage from the storm. We continue to make progress on
getting the other areas of the farm caught up and areas replanted. It is
encouraging to see the progress each day.

We hope to have fuller tables each week with increasingly diverse
options. We look forward to seeing you at the market and/or farm for
your order pick-up or the workshop!

Have a great week!

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