This article highlights Dukes Farm’s Farm to Family CSA, available to families on food assistance.

by Estelle Slootmaker

June 21, 2021

SecondWaveMedia.com

Looking forward to spring?  If these warmer temps and sunshine got you thinking about your garden, you can now start planning what plant starts you want later in the spring.

We are offering plant starts in “4-packs,” “6-packs,” and “singles.”  If you order a flat or more you get a discount on that configuration.

Order whatever you want in our online shop, and pay with a card, cash, check, or SNAP benefits:  https://lakesuperiorfarms.com/shop/

Check out our plant start variety guide, here:  https://lakesuperiorfarms.com/plant-start-sale-list/

If you want help planning your garden, or have any questions, just let me know.  You can email at:  info@lakesuperiorfarms.com; call or text:  906-360-8710

What a year it has been!

Within the next couple of weeks we will start seeds in the greenhouse for planting in May and June.  Slow growing stuff like onions, celery, and peppers get going first.  It’s always wonderful to start the season off with a clean slate, in a hot sunny greenhouse, with the snow piled outside.

We are again offering our popular CSA for the 2021 season.  This year we have 3 sizes for the weekly veggie box, as well as some add-ons.  You can choose as many weeks as you would like.  We are also selling pickle, salsa, tomato sauce, Thai curry, pesto, and Thanksgiving boxes.  Check out our shop page.

Soon we will list plant start varieties that will be available for pre-order.  If you have any questions about anything, just let us know.  Text me, call me, e-mail me….

You’ll hear from us again in a few weeks or so.  Enjoy the last stretch of winter!

Gabriel

Greetings, from the farm!  It has been too long since I have had the time to post on the website, so I felt compelled to provide a short update on how the farm is doing this season…

It has been such a strange season, not even counting the pandemic.  The spring started off cold and snowy, much like last year, and then transitioned into Alabama-like weather for a while, which many plants did not appreciate.  Nonetheless, most of our crops are doing great and we are filling dozens and dozens of CSA boxes, wholesale orders, and online store orders every week.  We are busier than we have ever been.

Some of you may have noticed that we are not at the farmers’ market this year. Our decision to not attend the market was basically made for us due to the pandemic, as well as a desire to help keep the community as safe as possible.  But, to be honest, we have been evolving the past few years simply due to the changing nature of the farm and customer buying habits.  These changes are happening on a national level and, except for more high profile farmers’ markets, markets are increasingly not the way many people choose to interact with farms and purchase local food. Continue reading Mid season update at Dukes Farm

Winter showed up early and in full force this year, as you are certainly aware.  All of the snow isn’t that surprising, considering how wet the past two years have been.  It seems like when it’s not raining it has to be snowing.  In order to better adapt, this winter we are keeping the cover on only one of our high tunnel greenhouses.  One seedling greenhouse is plenty enough work to shovel out!

2019 was, overall, a pretty good season.  It wasn’t quite as challenging as 2018, but close.  Spring was cold and very wet; July was bone dry; and wet weather returned in the Fall.  Yet, we still showed up to every farmers’ market; delivered veggies to our wholesalers and restaurants; and kept up with each week’s CSA box.  After 15 years of vegetable farming, a few challenges aren’t enough to set us back!

End of season CSA survey

We think one of the reasons our CSA program is so compelling is that we take member feedback seriously, using our end-of-season survey and comments and suggestions throughout the season to improve the CSA from year to year.  This allows us to keep track of what CSA members like and don’t like and how we can change things for the next season to keep up with what everyone needs.

We received a lot of great comments and suggestions in the survey this year that we will be mulling over during the winter.  But here are some of the basics from the survey….

In 2019:

• 98.2% of our CSA members said that their delivery or pickup option was convenient
• 83.6% said the amount of produce in their box was just right; 14.5% said it was too much; and 1.9% said it wasn’t enough
• 100% said the produce was fresh when they picked up their weekly boxes, and 94.5% said the produce stayed fresh throughout the week
• 69.1% want to see recipes by other CSA members posted on the website during the season

Some of the things CSA members said they loved about the 2019 CSA in the survey:

• Ability to choose much of what goes in the weekly box
• Freshness of the produce
• Convenience
• Ability to have the CSA delivered to a workplace
• Variety of produce
• Cleanliness of produce
• CSA makes it easier to eat healthy

Some of the things CSA members said they didn’t love about the 2019 CSA in the survey (these are the kinds of things we work on improving over the winter):

• Need more tips on preserving food and how to use less common items
• Sometimes too much produce
• Sometimes get a veggie that is not enjoyed by the household
• Trying to use up all the veggies before the next box
• Not being able to get the CSA in the winter
• Odd quantities of some items

If you would like to see what the most popular and least popular CSA vegetables are for 2019, check out our page for that:  https://lakesuperiorfarms.com/dukes-farm-member-favorites-least-favorites/

Early sign up for the 2020 CSA

This is the first season we are accepting early sign up for our CSAs.  Some members have said they would like to purchase their own CSA earlier, and others would like to gift a CSA to a friend or family member in December.  If you do choose to purchase a CSA as a gift for Christmas (or any other holiday you may celebrate), we will send the recipient a holiday card with information on what they are receiving.

If you would like to sign up early for next season’s CSA, just fill out our easy membership form:  2020 CSA Order Form.  For more information on our CSAs, just visit our CSA page.

Enjoy Christmas, New Year’s and any other holidays you celebrate this festive time of year!