Dear Sylvester Manor CSA,

This will be our last official weekly note from the farmer of the 2012 season. Thank you for being with us through thick and thin. We’re looking forward to sharing many more meals with you in the coming years. Over the coming weeks please visit www.sylvestermanor.org and look for weekly produce lists and farm updates on the blog.

Sandy
Hurricane Sandy was a doozy out here on the island, I hope all of you are safe and immersed in the clean-up process like we are. We sustained a few damages- one set of barn doors blew out on our main barn (even though we’d screwed them shut!), we lost some shingles off that barn’s roof, and the end walls of the beloved high tunnel ripped open during the fury. Luckily we wanted to rebuild those end walls anyway. We also lost some large pine trees along the driveway, but they will be perfect to mill up for future farm structures, so we have made peace with the losses. And oh- the most surprising thing? The wind actually blew several beets out of the ground! Steve cooked them up promptly… no word yet on if he can taste the air-oire of Sandy…

All punning aside, the Farmstand is stocked again after the storm, and will be open Saturday from 9am to 1pm. FYI it will be open EVERY Saturday 9am to 1pm from now until Christmas!

Here is what’s available:
Beets (not wind-harvested)
Carrots
Sweet Potatoes
Winter Squash
Pumpkins
Fennel
Napa
Cabbage
Head Lettuce
Salad Mix
Kale
Chard
Dried Cayenne Peppers
Herbs

Also…
Fresh Eggs (Come see the chickens in their new setup behind the farm stand!)

Our Pork products will sell out soon. so come get them while you can. We have already sold out of bacon, but we still have Ham, Sausage, Chops, and Ribs.
Also, we’ve got whole frozen organic Chickens
 from our friends Jon and Karin at Sunset Beach farm in North Haven We’ve also still got our own frozen Tomato Sauce and Pesto- yum!

And don’t forget to reserve your Thanksgiving basket at the farm stand to ensure our veggies are a part of your Thanksgiving feast!

A Note on the Season Review / 2013 Planning

It has been a great season. Thank you all for your patience with us as we continue to grow this farm. We overcame some major challenges this year and in the end most people were happy with how things turned out, all things considered. Still much to improve upon though, and we appreciate your constructive feedback- it will definitely help us to improve the entire experience for all.

Here are some general themes that have begun emerging from the review process:

People love:
The community aspect- great meeting, talking, sharing on saturday mornings
Preserving/Cultivating Land and supporting Sylvester Manor Educational Farm’s programs.
Products from off-farm like bread, cheese, etc and have asked for more.
The beauty of the Windmill Field, the farmstead and the site in general
The educational aspects- cooking, farm ed, new veggies

People want:
To have more greens & onions & several other crops more consistently
To re-explore the Swap Table
To reach out more aggressively to year-rounders
To find a way to accommodate people who struggle to pay for a full share all at once

There is much more feedback than this, but these are some initial themes. Steve and I will work to include them in our overall farm planning for 2013, which has begun in earnest this week.

As I said, This will be our last official weekly note from the farmer of the 2012 season. Thank you again for being with us through thick and thin. We’re looking forward to sharing many more meals with you in the coming years.

Sincerely,
Bennett & Steve, and Emily, Cassie, Cara, Gunnar, Edith, Melissa Mundy (new!), Kathleen Minder and all of the volunteers and staff who helped out over the year.