CSA Starting Up!! Roller Coaster Getting Organized; Flower Bouquets

Well all the planning, scheduling, advertising, rotatiling,

buying seeds, starting seedlings, planting, watering, cleaning the sorting shed, buying boxes and liners, getting cooler cleaned out, putting up supports for peas and tomatoes, spreading straw, hoeing; it is finally time to start the CSA.  But yikes!!!  I am about 30 days earlier than I was last year, no wonder I am stressed out and sort of beat before I have even delivered the first basket.

I blame this on Gridley soil and weather and can not say it enough to anyone who doesn't live here in Butte County.  It is wonderful!!!  Can you imagine, where we lived for over 30 years we never started our garden until after May 15 and between May 30th.  And in those 30 years of having huge, huge gardens, I only had about 4 times that I got a decent sized watermelon, maybe 3 of them; and the corn never got higher than 5 feet with about 10 ears of corn.  This Wednesday, we will be delivering our 1st Community Supportive Ag basket.

Wish I could say I am finished planting but I am not.  I have the peppers to purchase and plant and the tomatoes are due to come on Friday and will go into the ground on Saturday.  We still will end up getting tomatoes in 65-70 days, that means BLT sandwiches around 4th of July.

The first basket we delivered had:  beets, carrots, cilantro, onion, peas, snow peas, kale, kiwi, strawberries, lettuce.  We have a few new members who are all friends that live up in Paradise.  So our trip delivering took us about an hour later than we anticipated due to trying to find our way around Paradise using the fastest routes.  Then we have our evening deliveries to Yuba City and Marysville so for 2 days we are working to ensure our produce gets there in the freshest shape possible and to meet all our member's time line needs.

The flower CSA is just getting going.  How can any flower arrangement go wrong with beautiful spring flowers???  In the bouquets were sweet peas; peonies; lavender; roses; parsley blossoms; mock orange; and leaves from the canna lily plant.
So if you wondered why I haven't shared some news from our farm for a few days, these are the reasons why.  Things will get back into a grove soon-or will it?? Don't give up on checking back on the blog, I just hate not sharing with you what we are doing.