Farm News
While the short break is welcome, it's hard to believe we've come to the end of the 2020 season! 2020 has certainly had its challenges, but also brought into greater perspective what truly matters most: Family, Community, Health. We're grateful to be able to continue to provide our community with fresh, healthy produce and thank each of you for choosing Porter Farms as your local source for organic veggies. With the addition of our Farm Store in 2021, we'll have even more to offer! Watch for updates early next year!
Farm Survey
At Porter Farms, we constantly strive to improve our members' experience and value customer feedback. There are times however, when circumstance dictates our process - we've addressed a few common themes below:
Variety
The overwhelming majority of members were very pleased with this year's variety, especially the herbs! We plan to continue with herbs and hope to add a few new varieties next year. Some mentioned the over-abundance of leeks and peppers this year while others missed the fall lettuce and pumpkins. At the beginning of the season we explained that our leek seed yielded much higher than in years past and we decided to plant it all, rather than waste it. Since leeks store well and are easily frozen, we included them in your bags rather than feed them to our livestock. The peppers we grew this season yielded a much larger harvest than in previous years - the same weather conditions that encouraged a larger tomato yield were also ideal for peppers. Again, peppers freeze easily and therefore can be enjoyed over the winter months. With regards to the fall lettuce - our fall crop yielded very well - unfortunately, the deer ate it. This was communicated in the newsletter. Knowing we would not hold a fall festival this year, we planted fewer pumpkins - those we did grow did not do well due to the weather conditions. Like other area farms, our apple crop was terrible this year - a late frost in May killed most of the blossoms and those that did fruit were very small and hard - a disappointment to us all. Each season yields different results, depending on Mother Nature. While we do our best, there are some conditions that are out of our control. Also, for every member who tells us they don't like greens, we have another saying, "More Swiss Chard! More collards!", or "Less hot peppers!" "More hot peppers! ". Every week we're challenged with keeping a good balance in your bags, and hope members appreciate trying out new varieties.
Communications
We completely appreciate members' desire to know what will be in their bags as early as possible for ease in meal planning. To provide members with the freshest produce possible, we harvest on Thursdays and Fridays, and therefore don't always know what will be in your bags until we get out into the fields to harvest. Every effort is made to communicate with you as soon as we know for certain.
If you haven't already, please take a moment to complete our anonymous survey:
Thank you!
Small Business Saturday!
You're likely aware of this promotion that encourages consumers to purchase holiday gifts from local merchants. Porter Farms will again offer gift certificates for the upcoming season! This year more than ever, family and friends will appreciate the gift of secure, fresh, local, organic produce! Gift certificates are available in any denomination. Please email Emily at porterfarmscsa@gmail.com with the heading "Gift Certificate" to obtain yours - it's easy, thoughtful, and supports local agriculture and your community!
Friends - please consider doing your holiday shopping with any of our wonderful local merchants - Amazon doesn't need our money, our community does! :)
We'll be back at it again next year - watch your email for details in late January - early February. Celebrations will certainly look different this year - our wish for you is a safe, healthy, holiday season with those you hold dear! In Good Health, The Porter Family
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