Welcome to the 2020 CCC growing season, y'all!

An early pic of our 'root crop' row, before any have sprouted
(you can click on any blog pic, to view a higher-res version =)

I've been putting off this 'introductory' blog post for some time now, and am finally getting around to it. First of all, thanks to our returning members, for continuing to anchor us in this belief that we're trying to do something every spring and summer that is meaningful to other families. If it wasn't for you, I surely would have decided that we're some special kind of crazy by now! =) Secondly, thanks to our new share members, for 'leaning' out and being willing to try a new sort of 'little community' with us, around the growing, foraging, preserving and ultimately sharing of food.

Some baby tatsoi greens, that at the time of the photo had not yet taken their lovely 'flower petal rosette' shape (spoiler -- they have near-perfect radial symmetry, and are much bigger, now!)

This is a good time to remind the majority of you all that have not yet paid -- please drop us a payment (my PayPal address has been in previous emails, but I'll resend after this): $175 for veggies only, and an additional $25 if you wanted to add eggs and another $50 if you wanted to add beef.

Some of the ladies (and one of our roosters) that we have to keep happy, and away from predators -- so they keep us happy (with eggs and antics)

Well, if its not about time, for the first big food-from-the-ole-homestead crisis... =( This Friday and Saturday, it will be getting sufficiently chilly at night that we will have to cover all of the potatoes we are growing (like, ten half-rows), as well as all of the vegetable seedlings and seeds we've put in the ground (about four full rows). If you want to earn SUPER brownie points, please offer to come join us either today (Friday) or tomorrow (Saturday) evening, raking up grass clippings to spread over plants as well as tethering landscaping fabric over the smaller things! I can feed you, and offer you some homemade hard cider ;)

Squash and friends, in a not-quite-ready-to-fly holding pattern of experiencing nighttime temp dips and about a half-day of sun

 To put the scary news more properly into context, there's plenty of stuff out the door, in the stable, and as-I-type sprouting in the basement here at the Mikulski-Schulz homestead right now. Here are some things that are looking great / on track, for their respective weeks (summery-stuff obviously will be yielding their 'fruits' only later): chard, spinach, tatsoi greens, radishes, turnips, rutabagas, salsify, carrots, beets, kale, kohlrabi, cabbages... cucumber, crookneck squash, bean and eggplants... sweet and hot peppers, tomatoes, sweet corn, melons, onions, potatoes... I'm gonna stop trying to remember more, but in case you couldn't tell, the goal was a veritable smorgasbord. BUT... pray for us, again, and please, these next two nights... we'll have to protect virtually all of this from the frost!

Lettuces that are now full grown (and being enjoyed by us)... don't worry, there are many more rounds to replace, on the books!

So our first share basket pickup is at present scheduled for Wednesday, May 27th from 4-6 PM at or nearby to the Old Wedge (River Arts)... details on the exact location are TBD, and will come out in a week or two. Recall that we promise to grow, pack and deliver you ten baskets of goodness... if for some reason we manage to fall short, we'll refund you the difference... if for some reason we find we can keep going for several more weeks beyond the initial ten, we'll see who wants to re-up -- and we'll keep up some of the goodness, into the coming school year =) In any case, it will be great to finally see many of you again, after a long pause created in most part by the highly personally-restrictive state of being sufficiently cautious about the spread of CV19 in our communities.

That's right little guy... keep putting on circumference, somewhere sometime in the future, someone is experiencing the joy of a well-seasoned Kohlrabi-slaw :)

Thank you again for joining us, and may this be the best season of Coburn Cove Cooperative veggie and community goodness that we've ever had!!! =)

sincerely,
your (wanabee) farmer Matt