This week’s share:
Raspberries, acorn squash, summer squash, sweet peppers, apples, lettuce, greens, radishes, broccoli or cauliflower
Dear CSA members,
Thank you for participating in the Sonoma Garden Park CSA this year. After today’s pick-up, you have only one left on November 4, 2009.
I have enjoyed the season and am already looking forward to next year. It has been an enormous learning experience for me and I hope you still have a palette for summer squash and apples.
This was also my first CSA that I managed solo and I wanted to share with you my thoughts and challenges from this year as well as my ideas for improvements. Please note that Sonoma Garden Park is a small operation with mostly hand-cultivated beds, this means we do not rely on a tractor that uses gasoline for energy.
1. I agree, the season started off very slow. Cool weather was definitely a factor and next year, I plan to increase my spring planting to beef up the bounty in the spring.
2. I realized how quickly a bed of carrots goes when feeding 15 families.
3. One of my major challenges this year was my inability to grow a nice crop of beans. I learned that gophers LOVE bean roots – probably because they are so healthy – and as soon as I turned my back on the crop, I lost another two plants. My strategy for next year is to 1) plant a lot more seeds, and 2) grow them in a different area.
4. Plant more onions, broccoli, and cauliflower, and next year I am hoping to plant parsnips, kohlrabi and much more.
5. I realized halfway through the season that I was over- supplying you with summer squash. Next year, I plan to increase my variety of crops so I can offer more selection.
6. This was a very good year for apples.
7. I loved growing melons and already have a plan to grow more varieties, including the Sugar Baby watermelon.
8. I plan to increase my perennial vegetable beds and have already added a new bed of artichokes and plan to do the same for rhubarb.
9. I also plan to pack the bag next year. I always felt bad for the last person to pick up, as he or she was sometimes left with the smallest pieces of produce.
Now, I am curious to hear your thoughts and suggestions so I can improve the CSA for next season, the first week of June to be exact. In the coming weeks an official survey will be sent out but also feel free to reply or add a comment to the blog https://sonomacsa.wordpress.com.
All the best and thanks for a great season,
Rebecca Bozzelli
The Sonoma Garden Park CSA 
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