Seeding in the Barn, Extra-Early Produce, and a Pandemic

What an exciting, crazy spring it has been!

We have moved our seeding operation completely into our new barn and are loving it.  It is warm and full of light, and on sunny days we can open the doors to the greenhouse and pretend summer has already arrived.  It's hard to believe, but we will soon be planting into the greenhouse and high tunnel so we can have extra-early produce available at the market.  We're shooting for May vegetables folks; wish us luck!

With so much excitement toward the upcoming season, the pandemic has certainly thrown us for a bit of a loop.  No one anticipated all the changes that the last few days have brought, and it is so uncertain how bad things will get, and how long life will be affected.  We are planning ahead and hopeful that with some small changes we will have another successful season.  As I've been planning ahead I have been thinking about our mission and how I want our business to lead by example this upcoming season.  

This season's manifesto is as follows:

1) Food is medicine.  As always, our goal this season is to provide our community with nutritious, clean food that is grown in a sustainable fashion.

2) We will continue to follow best practices for food handling to ensure our food is safe.  We already sanitize surfaces and wash hands regularly,  but will take additional precautions and do so with more frequency. 

3) We will take action to protect our community and ourselves from the COVID-19 virus by encouraging social distancing, including exploring alternative forms of distribution.

So, what's new this season?

-In an effort to eliminate crowds and limit the physical interaction we will have with customers we will offer pre-sale of vegetables through our website.  While things may change, we still expect to attend the Duluth Farmers Market.  Veggies may be picked up at the market or farm--free for orders of $10 or more.  We will also be offering home delivery. (Stay tuned next month as we set up this system)

-CSA customers may opt for free temporary home delivery if sick or caring for a loved one.  We are prepared to move to free home delivery for all our CSA customers if needed.

-We will be offering more CSA shares than we initially planned for this season.  Quantities of certain vegetables may be limited at the market as a result.  Are you one of our regular market customers?  We encourage you to consider our CSA instead.  If CSA isn't a good fit, we encourage you to take advantage of online pre-orders.