Hello from Pitchfork & Crow!

Winter on a farm generally means less work in the fields, so we’ve been keeping ourselves busy with marathon planning sessions. The field has been mapped out bed by bed and we just put in our seed orders.  We’re excited for the upcoming growing season and the vegetables we expect to stock CSA shares with and bring to market.  We’ll be trying out new crops including peppers, eggplants, dry beans, corn, and sweet potatoes.  Also, we are growing more of most crops and plan for many successions of staples like lettuce and carrots. A complete list of what we plan to grow this year is posted on our website here: http://pitchforkandcrow.com/csa/vegetables/.

As we’ve mentioned in the past, we’ve moved the farm to a closer location twenty minutes northwest of Salem on Grand Island.  We are leasing land from Oakhill Organics, a CSA that serves the McMinnville area.  As their name implies, their farm is certified organic, including the field we’ve leased.  We’re working on making Pitchfork and Crow certified as well.  We’ll let you know when we are officially “Organic.” We are excited to embrace the label, as there is more to being “organic” than simply not using chemicals.

Part of the organic certification process includes soil conservation and the use of organic seed sources.  We are thankful that the land we are farming this year has been under excellent care.  The Class-1, fine sandy loam soil has been amended with literally tons of compost and protected from erosion and nutrient leaching all winter with a cover crop of rye, oats, vetch, and clover.  With this fertility, your freshly harvested vegetables should be nutrient dense and very tasty. Pursuing the organic certification also required that our seeds come from organic sources.  During our crop planning, we went an extra step by selecting smaller family farms and heirloom varieties when possible.  This means that your participation will not only support a network of other organic farms, but also promotes sustainable family farming and the conservation of genetic diversity.

If you are interested in becoming a CSA member and getting a weekly box of vegetables from June 5th through November 20th, just send us the commitment form found on the CSA page. Details can be found there as well. We still have some spaces left in the CSA and may advertise a little beyond our email list soon. If you are not ready to commit to a weekly vegetable box, we look forward to seeing you at the Salem Saturday Market this year, and look forward to having a diverse supply of healthy food to share with our community.

We thank you for your support and look forward to seeing you soon!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler and Jeff Bramlett