2024-12-03 newsletter

Greetings from 12 Seasons Farm,

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with around 40 people gathered
together for a day of celebrating and offering thanks to God our Father
for His great mercy and provision this year and the beginning of a new
farming season and for a wonderful team!

We hope you had a most splendid time with family and those you
love!

This week we resume home deliveries to most parts of SW Florida. The
delivery fee is the same as last season, $14.

We continue to offer free farm pick-up and a Sanibel drop site at
MacIntosh Books and Paper, both on Thursday.

Please place your orders before 8 pm Tuesday for all three of those
options.

For those picking up orders at the farm, please use the old farm
entrance, 14840 Old Olga. Rd. Please drive in slowly. Kids are around
the farm! For those picking up in Sanibel at MacIntosh, please do so
between 11 am and 2 pm.

For those wanting to pre-order for pick-up at the Saturday market in
Bonita Springs, please order before 8 pm Thursday. If something is out
of stock, you can request those items in the customer notes.

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

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

Here is our schedule for this week:

THURSDAY SANIBEL MACINTOSH BOOKS DROP SITE: Please
place your order before 8pm on Tuesday. The pick-up time is between 11
am and 2 pm at MacIntosh Books and Paper on Sanibel. Please thank
Rebecca for providing this great service!

THURSDAY FARM PICK-UP & HOME DELIVERY: Place an
order online before 8 pm Tuesday for Thursday all day pick-up at the
farm or to receive a home delivery. For farm pick-up, 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. For those interested in
pre-ordering for the market, please do so before 8 pm on Thursday for
pick-up at the Saturday market.

This is what we are harvesting:

• Swiss Chard
• Arugula
• Lettuce
• Heirloom and specialty tomatoes (extremely limited– lost half of the
  planting to flooding)
• Cherry tomato (just starting)
• Round radish
• Watermelon radish
• Daikon radish
• Broccolini
• Cucumbers
• Zucchini
• Eggplant
• Basil
• Cilantro
• Dill
• Papaya (very limited)
• Passionfruit
• Navel oranges
• Lemons
• Pummelo
• Bananas
• Starfruit
• Avocado
• Sunflowers
• Saw palmetto honey
• Sea of Cortez salt
• Mango, Monkey, Strawberry, and Banana Butter

The entire family was back at market last Saturday. They will be gone
for soccer the next two Saturdays.

We have several new butter/jam type fruit spreads that contain some
of the surplus of the summer tropical fruit production. The mango butter
contains mango and passionfruit while monkey butter contains mango,
banana, and passionfruit. The strawberry syrup is from our own
strawberries and the banana butter is really pleasant (not overly sweet
and doesn’t have an overripe banana taste to it). They are all very
good.

We finally have a steady supply of lettuce again!

We continue to have passionfruit coming on right now.

Here is Jack helping clean up some Guadua bamboo in preparation for
Carrie Bell returning to the farm today!

Guadua is an amazing upright strong bamboo from South America. We cut
them at around 10 ft. lengths for use in construction projects.

Today was my last day of teaching the Sustainable Agriculture course
at the H.E.A.R.T. Institute in Lake Wales. It is a course I teach
usually each Fall semester. It was a small class this year with only 3
students, but still a lot of fun and not too demanding as the teaching
is shared with another instructor.

These are some of their gardens they were required to plant and
maintain this semester.

We said good-bye to Lionel who headed back to Switzerland this past
weekend. He was a great joy to have on the farm– a Swiss watch
engineer!

We had a fun bonfire on Thanksgiving Day!

We had a great day of giving thanks! I enjoyed reading aloud the
Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789 by President George Washington.

As we reflect on this season of gratitude, we are especially thankful
for you all and your kind and continued support of 12 Seasons Farm.

We continue to aspire to produce healthy, fresh, and delicious food
for you!

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