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Welcome to Local Harvest CSA
You are one of almost 250 families we are growing vegetables for this year. I am the primary vegetable grower but work closely with two other farmers to provide the wide variety of vegetables you will be receiving this year. Jean Donohue grows the herbs and will be growing most of the vegetables for the fall/winter share. Laura Krouse who also operates Abbe Hills CSA in Mount Vernon grows potatoes, sweet corn and edamame for us. In exchange for these crops we start all of Laura’s seedlings in my hoophouse (unheated greenhouse) as well as providing backup for each other in case of a crop failure.
Here at ZJ Farm all of the vegetables we grow are for distribution to our CSA members. We do not sell at Farmer’s Markets or via any other venues. We harvest and distribute vegetables 3 days per week; Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Monday, we deliver to two drop sites in Cedar Rapids. We have one drop site on Wednesday at the Iowa City Farmer’s Market. Friday is our crazy day with four drop sites; Solon, North Liberty, Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. We also have a small number of people picking up at the farm on Monday and Friday.
The “we” mentioned above refers to me, the only fulltime person working on my farm, Jean, when she’s not busy working on her own farm, and a complicated mix of seasonal and volunteer workers. Thanks to the Local Food Connection and Laura Dowd, much of our early spring work gets done with the help of student volunteers from local colleges. This year Alpha Kappa Psi from the University brought 80 volunteers to the farm and under the direction of Brad McDonough took on the daunting task of tearing down the barn we lost last year in June and did an amazing job! Karla, who worked here, last year, is back leading the hoop house crew with assistance from two excellent volunteers, Julie and Heather. Allanah is once again dedicated to keeping the asparagus and rhubarb free of weeds! My three interns, Kirkwood students, started work last week and my sons, David and George will be working on the farm as soon as school gets out.
So what is in the ground so far? 24,000 onion plants, 1,700 broccoli plants, 6,000 kohlrabi plants, 1,800 cabbages, pok choi, tatsoi and lettuce too numerous to count, not to mention spinach, radishes, carrots, beets and turnips which we seed directly into the ground. We set out about 100 early tomatoes and 200+ summer squash that may or may not survive tonight’s frost if we get it.
I look forward to meeting all of you who are new to Local Harvest this year and reconnecting with all of our returning members.
Susan Jutz
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