End of the Season

Our last day as a full crew, until next year.
Thanks!

Last Harvest of the Extended Season

It's the last of the extended season harvest. Hope you enjoyed the season.

Garlic
Peppers
Hot Peppers
Eggplant OR Winter Squash
Radishes
Turnips
Beets
Beet Greens
Swiss Chard
Potatoes

and a few grab box items: baby carrots, broccoli, green tomatoes

-adrienne

Solar House Foundation Walls Go Up

The block foundation walls went up this week. Special thanks to Whitney, Baily, Cox and Magnani engineers Dick Magnani and Rob Murray for designing the foundation pro-bono and providing on site support during construction this week. Rob was the 2005 Solar House Project Manager. He and the others on the 05 UMD Solar House team have shown exemplary follow through with this project. Mr. Dick Magnani has been a great mentor to the Solar House team and to us at Red Wiggler. We can't thank these people enough.

Extended Season 3rd Harvest and Mulching Garlic

In addition to continuing with our "extended season" harvests the growers have finished planting next years garlic crop. This week they are mulching the garlic with straw generously donated to us by Jean Phillips of Phillips Farm. Thanks Jean!

A chilly, windy third week of the extended season but we still have lots of fall crops.
Here is what we've got:
garlic
eggplant-lots
peppers-lots
a winter squash
radishes
turnips
beets
chard
arugula

Also there are still lots of hearty herbs and flowers in the PYO

-adrienne

Solar House Footer Pour!!!!

Today workers were pouring concrete footers for the Solar House. Next week they will be working on the block work for the foundation.

Extended Season 2nd Harvest & our First Autumn Frost

Here is a photo of our post harvest routine today. Also we should note that over the past two nights we have experienced our first hard frosts of the fall season. These frosts killed off our basil, pepper plants, eggplant and the last of the tomatoes. Recognizing the coming frosts the growers harvested all our peppers and eggplant this past Friday. And our extended season CSA members will enjoy those last summer fruits.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Garlic
A winter squash
lots o' eggplant
lots o' sweet peppers
lots o' hot peppers
radishes (d'avignon and crunchy royale varieties)
turnips (2 bunches of hakurei)
beets (red ace and chioggia)
swiss chard
braising mix
a few more tomatoes

That's what we have for you this 2nd extended season harvest.
-adrienne

Solar House Ground Breaking !!!

I am happy to post these pictures of last weeks Solar House ground breaking activities. Workers were installing the sediment control fence. They should be digging the foundation and installing the gravel driveway this week! We'll post images weekly that will illustrate our progress. We are grateful to the University of Maryland 2005 Solar Decathlon Team for donating this home to Red Wiggler. The 800 square foot house will serve as affordable housing for Red Wiggler Staff.- Woody

Extended Season 1st Harvest & garlic planting

Here the growers, with the help of "service learning" volunteers
are planting the 2008 garlic crop

The extended season begins, tomorrow, October 24th.
Here's what the harvest looks like:

beets & their greens
turnips & their greens
radishes
tomatoes
peppers
eggplant
hot peppers
salad mix
garlic
A winter squash
okra
broccoli

The PYO is open and there are PLENTY of flowers and herbs to harvest for your home!
There are a few cherry tomatoes to be had also.

-a2

Week #18--The Last Hurrah!

Here's a picture of us sorting tomatoes in OCTOBER! Crazy that we still have them, but we won't deny that they're still great. So on an endnote of the last harvest, here's the list:

Apples (from a neighbor's yard-not pretty, but good for baking and eating too)
Garlic
Eggplant
Green Tomatoes
Red Tomatoes
Heirloom Tomatoes
Sweet Peppers
Hot Peppers
A Winter Squash
A Pumpkin
bag of broccoli/carrot mix
Radishes
Greens
*Cherry Tomatoes are Pick-your-Own

As always, thanks for your support. We'd love to see you again next year! Please don't forget to fill out your Shareholder Survey.

Week 17 News and Notes

We've begun the process of removing the oldest of our tomatoes in preparation of the incoming fall garlic planting.

Reminder!! There are 2 weeks (including this week) left of our regular season CSA. The extended season starts October 24th.

In celebration of another season, our 12th, passing we invite you to join us for a Muffin-luck on the last Saturday (October 13th) pick up from 10-Noon. Bring muffins to share. We'll have coffee and juice.


The harvest for week 17:
Garlic
Green Tomatoes
Peppers
Hot Peppers
Eggplant
Cherry Tomatoes
Red Tomatoes
Heirloom Tomatoes
a green--not sure which one yet. . .

-adrienne

Week #16 and Notes

Loran, Tyler, Adrienne and David goofing for a picture by Jerry

Oops, I guess we didn't get published last week when I was gone. So here's this week's news, notes, and harvest list.

This week marks Loran's last week with us this year. Please take a moment to offer your thanks to him for all his hard work at Red Wiggler this year.

Also, David, one of our growers has moved on and now is working at Target in Germantown. Thanks are also due to him for all his hard work!

Arugula
Beet Greens (just like chard)
Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Sweet Peppers
Hot Peppers
Okra OR Eggplant OR Beets OR Tomatillos

Harvest Week #14 and New RW Merchandise

Here's a quick look at the barn on Auction night!

We're back from a week off attending to the Annual Supper and Silent Auction. It was a great success. Thanks to all who helped out!

Harvest:
Cherry Tomatoes
Red and Pink Tomatoes
Heirloom Tomatoes
Hot Peppers
Sweet Peppers
Eggplant
Apples
Arugula

Also, we have new Red Wiggler Merchandise for sale!
T-shirts in 3 colors: Green, Brown, & Red $15
Tote Bags $10
Baseball Caps $15

Harvest #13

There is NO pick up next week due to the Annual Supper and Silent Auction!

Pears
Potatoes
Hot Peppers
Sweet Peppers
tomatoes
summer squash
zucchini
beets
beans

-adrienne

Week #12 Harvest and Newsletter

Hello!

**Please note that the lower cherry tomatoes are now open for pick-your-own. If you would like more than what we've already picked for you, please help yourself. They are located just to the left/west of the PYO patch and start in the row above the hot peppers. Enjoy!

Pears--from a local neighbor
eggplant
hot peppers
sweet peppers
potatoes
beans
tomatoes
cherry tomatoes
zucchinis
summer squash
okra and tomatillos--optional

This weeks CSA newsletter
-adrienne

Week 11 Harvest

Have you seen our new electric golf cart and trailer rolling around? It's a great new addition to the farm for hauling produce out of the fields. Yeah!

Yellow Wax Beans
Garlic
Eggplant
Hot Peppers
Sweet Peppers
Heirlooms
Red and Pink Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Tomatillos
Cucumbers
Summer Squash
Zucchini
and a few okra for the hardcore!

-adrienne
This weeks CSA newsletter

A steamy hot WEEK #10

Hazy, HOT and humid is tomato season in all its' abundance this season! We are grateful to have an adequate irrigation system that allows us to grow these ripe, nutritious wonders of the world.

Tomatoes
-red
-pink
-heirlooms
-cherries
Cucumbers
Summer Squash
Zucchini
Eggplant
Sweet Peppers
HOT Peppers!
*which many cultures believe that when you eat hot peppers they actually cool you down!
Tomatillos
Garlic

-adrienne
This weeks CSA newsletter

Harvest #9--We're back!

We're back after ARTFARM and rolling in the tomatoes. Get out your canning supplies because we've got 'em here for you.

Red Tomatoes
Heirloom Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Garlic
Eggplant
Sweet Peppers
Hot Peppers
Cucumbers
Summer Squash
Zucchini

-adrienne
This weeks newsletter link

No CSA this Week--It's ARTFARM!

Join us this week for ARTFARM!

Here at Red Wiggler from 10am--4pm. There will be music, storytelling by a nationally recognized storyteller, art of various mediums, and Red Wiggler produce!

Harvest #8--NO Pick up next week!

Cucumbers
Summer Squash
Zucchini
Turnips
Sweet Peppers
Hot Peppers
Cherry Tomatoes
Swiss Chard
Red Tomatoes

-adrienne

*David and our plethora of cukes!









Reminder, next week there is NO pick up due to ARTFARM! Please consider joining us on Saturday, July 28th 10am-4pm for a wonderful event.

Week # 7 and Newsletter

It's hot out here now, but hopefully by the time you come to get your veggies it'll have cooled down. The photo above is of the growers rolling out straw as a natural mulch for our next planting of summer squash.

Cucumbers!!
Summer Squash
Zucchini
Swiss Chard
Sweet Peppers
Hot Peppers
Radishes
Cherry Tomatoes!

click here for this weeks CSA member newsletter

-adrienne

Harvest #6 and Newsletter

Swiss Chard
Turnips
Summer Squash
Zucchini
Cucumbers
Sweet Peppers
Hot Peppers
Beets
Garlic
Butler's Blueberries

Click here for this weeks CSA member newsletter

**Remember Wednesday's pick is moved to Tuesday in observance of the 4th of July holiday.
-adrienne

Harvest #5 and Newsletter / Recipes

Arugula
Swiss Chard
Spring Onions
Butler's Blueberries
Garlic Scapes
Kohlrabi
Summer Squash
Zucchini
Turnips
Radishes

click here to see this weeks CSA newsletter

-adrienne

Harvest # 4 and Newsletter

Kale OR Collards
Arugula
Swiss Chard
Salad Mix. . .it's nearing the end
Turnips
Radishes
Beets
Butler's Blueberries
Summer Squash

click here for this weeks CSA member newsletter

-adrienne

Harvest #3 and Newsletter

This week it's a choice of either or's.

Turnips
Radishes
Salad Mix
Spring Onions
Garlic Scapes
Kale OR Collards
Braising Mix OR Arugula

click here for this weeks CSA member newsletter

See you later this week.
-adrienne

Harvest #2 and Newsletter

This week's pick up:

Garlic Scapes
Arugula
Hakurei Turnips
Swiss Chard
Spring Onions
Butler's Strawberries

click here for this weeks member newsletter

-adrienne

First CSA pick up of the 2007 season! and Newsletter

I'm nervous; I'm always nervous for this first pick up. Later on it gets easier but this first one always gets me nervous. To add to my nervousness is that our spring weather hasn't been totally cooperative--very cold and little rain. We've always come through, but. . . .

So here's what we have for you this first pick up:
Spring Onions
Easter Egg Radishes
Braising Mix (with some Spinach added in)
Butler's Strawberries
Kale/Collards

In the Pick Your Own (PYO):
Lovage
Sage
Oregano
Thyme
Mint
Lemon Balm
Catnip
and. . .Sugar Snap Peas

click here for this weeks CSA member newsletter

See you soon.
-adrienne

A Gaggle of Goodness

Hey! It's a picture of us after a hard morning of planting! We just put in hot peppers, basil, and cherry tomatoes. We'll have to wait a few months before harvesting them, but they're on their way to being productive plants/food.

In other news, Saturday, May 19th is scheduled as our "Welcome the 2007 Farm Season Gathering and Muffin Potluck" from 10am to Noon. Put it on your calendar. There will be more news about it coming your way shortly.
-adrienne

Seedlings Ready for Planting

The growers have been working this week to ready our plants for setting out in the fields. We hope to begin transplanting flowers by the end of the week and we may be able to get our early tomatoes in the ground as early as next week!


The above photo is of our growers laying out the irrigation in the roots patch!

This photo is of of our garlic- we are gowing about a half acre of garlic this year!

A cold stretch slows us down, but . . .

. . .that doesn't keep us from going. We've been doing a bit of farm maintence. Tree and brush pruning; rock removal; barn cleaning, etc.
We're waiting for the sun to come out and dry out the soil. Hopefully, the seeds that are in the ground now are just waiting for some sunshine to come along and grow into beautiful plants/food!

Here's a picture of a few of the guys riding in the wagon on a cold day.

Bluebirds Abound

All this past week our crew of growers sited numerous couples of Eastern Bluebirds scoping out nesting sites on the farm. We are all hoping they will choose our location to settle and make baby bluebirds this spring. We are working closly with Park Naturalist, Denise Gibbs, to provide habitat for these very personable creatures. My armchair reasearch tells me that these little birds love to eat cutworms during the spring and so we are quite happy to welcome these workers to our team. It takes a village!
Woody

Spring is Here!!!

The growers spent some time this week in the 60 degree weather cleaning and sharpening our hand tools. Once the ground warmed up our Field Manager was able to begin discing our early planting fields. Dispite a warm winter we have found the early spring to be quite cold and wet. Thus, we feel our planting is running about a week late at this point.
We are grateful to Park Naturalist Denise Gibbs for supplying us with 15 bluebird boxes. We will assist in monitoring these boxes for bluebirds throughout the spring and summer. Here in this photo the growers are installing one of the new boxes. These are now 20 bluebird boxes ringing our 12 acre farm! habitat.

Growers begin the new season's work

Last week the growers began cleaning seed flats (photo above) and planting seeds. We already have kohlrabi plants germinated and growing under lights in the office. About 20 other flats are seeded and being watered and watched for germination. This week we are setting out new blue bird boxes (thanks to the MC-MNCPPC park system for their assistance) and we are preparing to plant potatoes, onions and peas as soon as the ground can be worked. Our CSA is full to capacity with 80 "shares" pre-sold and now it is time to begin the planting season! We have a great team of growers led by Adrienne Altstatt, Red Wiggler Field Manager, who has spent the winter preparing for a productive season. 2007 is looking to be a great year! WW

CSA Winter Meeting

Our CSA focus meeting was a success. Thanks for those who came. Here's a picture of part of the crowd.

We spoke at length about various factors, including:
* the usefulness of the blog.
* communicating more human interest stories about the farm.
* getting more recipes dispersed to members
* how to get members to bring their compost to the farm.
* the flowers and herbs in PYO
* how to get CSA members to volunteer on the farm.
* shares going to group homes housing adults with developmental disabilities.
* possibily having a 'trade/take it or leave it' box at pick up.
* build more training and community building into the CSA shares.
* new crops intended for next year.

-adrienne

Winter Projects

Just a quick update from us here on the farm.

• We just got back from a conference in Athens, Ohio that focused on The Community Food Secuirty Project grant from the USDA. We' are developing a program to bring more of our vegetables to the low-income folks living in group homes in Montgomery County, MD.
  
• Tomorrow we are off to the PASA Conference (Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture) were will be educated by many exciting topics involved in farming and farming sustainably.
  
• Part of 2007 seed order has been delivered to the farm and after PASA we begin the slow push to start the 2007 growing season. Soon we'll convert the office into a green house again!

Hope all is well and warm for you.
-adrienne

2007 CSA Season SOLD OUT in 24 hours!

We are humbled by the quick response by folks who were waiting patiently to download their CSA commitment form at get it in asap. One person overnighted her form and others hand delivered. It is logical for us to assume that some out there may be asking the following question:
Why do you limit CSA Membership?
We have experienced an overwhelming, positive response to the Red Wiggler CSA program in the past year. Much of this interest has come folks like you who have read news articles, have been browsing websites for local CSA’s, or simply heard about our CSA from friends or family. While the response is positive, exciting, and speaks volumes about people rethinking the way they eat and being conscious of where their food comes from, we cannot accommodate everyone who has shown interest.

There are several reasons why Red Wiggler has to limit their number of memberships each
year.
1. We have a high retention rate. 78% in 2006. In the past, we have offered last year’s members an opportunity to sign back on for the coming year first. This is generally how we determine how many open "slots" we will be able to offer to the public. As you can imagine, happy CSA members stay for a while.
2. Space and fertility. We grow vegetables, flowers, and herbs on a little less than four acres.(The rest of our land is fallow, resting and regenerating in a system of cover crops that are designed to increase fertility for future years.) You can grow a lot on this amount of land, but the land, water, soil, and human resources that it takes to produce a good crop do have a carrying capacity and we must establish a reasonable number of memberships based on this capacity. Overexerting these resources to accommodate a larger CSA is not an option and defeats much of the purpose of our CSA.
3. Red Wiggler Community Farm is an organization that is dedicated to providing sustainable employment for its staff and growers. We seek to find balance between our abilities and our capacity to better serve the community. In order for us to remain within these philosophical parameters, we limit our CSA membership.

2007 CSA open to a limited number of new customers

We are please to open our Community Supported Agriculture program up to new customers begining today. At this time over 80% of the 2006 participating members have re-joined leaving only a hand full of spaces open for new applicants. If you are interested in joining please look over our CSA page on our regular web site and click on the application pdf for more details. Last year the open spaces were sold out quickly since space is limited to a total of 80 "shares". Subscriptions are sold on a first come first serve basis with the exception of a small number of shares which are reserved for low income households in Montgomery County. (Group homes serving adults with developmental disabilities.) Follow this link to see what crops are grown over the season and when we project to harvest those crops. Also, on the left of this page is a history of previous posts in the "archives" that contain lists of actual harvests over the 2006 season which illustrates when crops came in week by week. Please note that every season is unique and we offer no guarantees with respect to variety and quantity to be harvested. We are grateful to our CSA customer base for sharing in the inherent risks of farming along with us. As always we strive to deliver high quality, chemical free vegetables at a value over our harvest season. Harvests begin the first week of June and this "core" season ends in the middle of October. There is also an option to subscribe to our extended 4 week fall season at an additional cost. Please note that we also take two weeks off during the season as well. One week off just prior to our Annual Farm Tour (Art Farm) and also the week leading up to our Annual Supper and Silent Auction. See our Events page for dates and details.

Our growers are excited about the upcoming season. We will begin planting in March and we are expecting a productive season. We hope that you will consider joining our Community Farm as a way to contribute to your own health and well being while supporting our unique program that seeks to serve the community through a multi-dimensional Mission. Our Mission is set up as a set of initiatives that advance our organization towards achieving our organizational Vision.

Red Wigglers Vision is this:
“We create fertile ground to nourish a healthy and inclusive community.”

Red Wigglers Mission
We are community farm that cultivates healthy food through:
• A Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program that provides fresh, locally-grown produce.
• Meaningful employment for adults with developmental disabilities.
• Educational and service opportunities for youth and adults.
• Environmental stewardship.

Core Values
Red Wiggler Community Farm believes in:
1. Reconnecting people with the source of their food and the local community.
2. Creating an environment of respect, cooperation, integrity, and innovative thinking.
3. Ensuring purposeful work and equal treatment for all stakeholders.
4. Fostering opportunities for outreach and meaningful education of youth, adults, and employees.
5. Building local food security for our community.
6. Being a catalyst for community collaborations and volunteerism.
7. Practicing environmental stewardship through ecologically sensitive best practices.

Soon we will be updating the above set of organizational statements to include our "Farmers Pledge" which specifically articulates how we work with the land and our growers to grow healthy crops for our community. These statements are, when taken as a whole, are the nuts and bolts that show how we work each day to create fertile ground to nourish a healthy and inclusive community.

Shannon Varley Transitions

Five years ago this January, I pulled into Frederick with a U-Haul and moved into my first apartment to take my first “real” salaried job after graduate school…I recall that my first weeks of work at Red Wiggler coincided with one of the bigger snow storms in recent MD history….(we haven’t even had a month of hard freeze this winter making that snow storm and that winter seem like a million years ago)…I remember a huge snowdrift lapped up against the sliding glass door at the old farm on Peachtree Road that prevented us using it for a long time that winter.

For many of you that don’t know my story, I came to Red Wiggler by sheer coincidence and happenstance. I happened to cross-reference Red Wiggler during a research project for a neighbor back in my hometown in PA whose son had developmental disabilities while also job-hunting for a job that was far from the farm management position Red Wiggler was advertising for that Fall… I happened to find both quite separately from each other. Thinking that Red Wiggler had been looking for a farm manager for some time, I overnighted my resume just in case the job still hadn’t been filled. Woody still likes telling that story- that my resume arrived in overnight mail. He also likes telling the story that I arrived at the interview with a thick photo album documenting my farming and CSA experience (just in case they didn’t believe me). When I arrived at the old farm on Peachtree Road, I didn’t need to be convinced that I would feel fulfilled in every possible way if I was offered the job. And I was right.

Just as I arrived in those fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants conditions, my tenure at Red Wiggler and in my personal life in the last five years have had the same kind of funny, uncanny flavor that caused my being here in the first place. If you would have told me five years ago what could possibly happen in the next five years time, I would have never believed you. But you couldn’t have convinced me of any other path when I arrived for my interview in the Fall of 2002 at Red Wiggler on Peach Tree Road. I remember standing in my parents kitchen back in PA recounting the interview at Red Wiggler earlier that day and feeling the most complete sense of joy and belonging at being offered the job. And having a very solid and strong conviction that taking the job at Red Wiggler was exactly what I was to be doing at that particular moment in my life.

If I had to think of one word to describe my tenure at Red Wiggler over the last five years, I would use the word, “transition.” I arrived as Red Wiggler was on the threshold of major change and growth. We moved to Ovid Hazen Wells, increased the CSA significantly, moved CSA to all on-farm pick-up, acquired more full-time employees, and increased the number of growers and volunteers by leaps and bounds. And about a million other things too many to mention. And while much of that growth if still happening, my first few years coincided with what I believe was the beginning of the “future” Red Wiggler. I think this was one of the best, most educational times to be a part of a small, non-profit. While there has been an obvious amount of reward and learning and positive movement in the last 5 years, you can’t have those without very poignant periods of struggle and re-thinking and hard work. And those are the moments you learn the most about a job and about yourself.

One of the things I treasure the most from these last five years are the friendships and relationships that any one of us who is involved with Red Wiggler has a chance to establish. From customers since that first summer on Peach Tree Road to the board to the growers and the volunteers, I consider myself very blessed. What a fine group of people working together in different spheres to support the basic mission of Red Wiggler. That is one of the things that makes Red Wiggler so special…it creates an opportunity to bring so many different people from so many different backgrounds together to work toward a common good and a common goal. And that is where I have found the true meaning of what we do at Red Wiggler. I never questioned the meaningfulness of my work. What a wonderful feeling that is. Thank you to all of you who support and have supported Red Wiggler over the last 11 years.

I write to say “goodbye” for now and “thank you” to all of you that have blessed my life through Red Wiggler as I prepare to have my second baby. I resigned in December to stay at home for a little while, be present for my family, and get my bearings. My life has been richer, fuller, and more blessed for having overnighted that resume back in 2002.- SV 01-02-07

Shannon- Thank you so very much- Woody