Helsing Junction Farm Newsletter Archive
3-10-10
Helsing Junction Farm Update March 10, 2010
 Rosalio Pruning the Asian Pears We’ve been working on implementing a new computer operating system which has been built specifically for CSAs. The new Farmigo CSA management system will cut down on time spent on administrative detail allowing us to concentrate on our fields and customer service instead. Hopefully the transition to this new system is not too awkward and will be over with quickly. Please call or e-mail us if you have any trouble at all! Below are the links that will take you into our system and allow you to confirm/set up your own account. Thanks so much for your help and patience as we implement this new system! We need everyone who is a current member to confirm their details and/or arrange payment for their balance due for the 2010 season. Making payments should be far easier than in years prior! With our new Farmigo CSA management system, you can simply log in, review your account (it will show you what you signed up for and how much you've already paid) and then you have your choice of payment plans and payment methods (check, credit card or PayPal). If you choose the monthly plan the system will divide your current balance owed by 4 payments, so it will be a different plan than what you may have already received from us. If you choose the full payment option, it will be one payment of the current balance you owe. Please note: This system will automatically make the next payment due on the one month anniversary of your first payment. We are asking that all our current 2010 members click on the link below even if you are paid in full for the season, to confirm all your current contact info and the shares you purchased. It is important to always use the same email address for this account as this is the way we will track you in our new system. Please make sure to add the name/s of your share partners to your account so that we'll have them in our system and they will receive our newsletter as well. For all our current 2010 members who joined early with our old operating system and who were members in 2009: Please click the link below to sign-in and confirm your details/choose your payment plan. The email address you use to sign-in should be the one we are emailing you at now. The password is: helsingjunction You will want to create your own password so you can use the reset password option. https://farmigo-csa.appspot.com/payment/helsingjunctionfarm/summer2010 For new members for 2010 who joined with the old system and were not members in 2009: Please click the link below to sign-in and confirm your details/choose your payment plan. The email address you use to sign-in should be the one we are emailing you at now. The password is: helsing2010 You will want to create your own password so you can use the reset password option. https://farmigo-csa.appspot.com/payment/helsingjunctionfarm/summer2010 For those of you who have not joined yet for the 2010 season: Please click on this link below to take you to the sign-up wizard, where you can create your account, choose your shares, your payment schedule and method of payment. This link is also on our website as well. https://farmigo-csa.appspot.com/signup/helsingjunctionfarm/summer2010 Thanks so much for your help in making this transition a successful one! We hope the new system will not only match the complexity of our operation but enhance and improve it. From a farming point-of view, Farmigo will help to better manage data collected from the field (i.e. track crop rotations, soil management practices, pest and disease problems, as well as crop yield and harvest data) and allow to more easily explain and communicate our farming practices to our members. Farmigo will also help us expand and better network with other farmers and producers like we currently do with Provisions Mushrooms, Oakland Bay Farm and Bone Dry Ridge Farm. Although we are all a little nervous about letting go of the old and familiar tools, we are excited about the upcoming improvements and possibilities. Who knows, maybe this is the beginning, where high-tech is paying attention to developing scale-appropriate systems where future networks of small farms can effectively distribute healthy food to the majority of people in their local communities. We are busily preparing for the 2010 season here on the farm. We’ve been taking advantage of the early spring sunshine and dry weather to get a jump on the season. Besides our usual orchard pruning that takes place in February, on February 21st we plowed 5 acres for the new strawberries and raspberries we’ll be planting soon, which is the earliest we’ve ever plowed! We expect to pop the berries in the ground (all 15,000 of them) in the next few days if the weather cooperates. We will be sending all the berries we harvest to you this year when the yield from the new plants is low, but by next year when they are really producing we plan on starting a u-pick operation in addition to the new and improved farm stand we are adding this year. Our greenhouses are up and running nicely. So far we’ve planted 3 kinds of onions, shallots, leeks, parsley, 2 kinds of tomatoes, 3 kinds of peppers, eggplants and tomatillos. We’ve planted twice as many Sungold cherry tomatoes as last year, as well as more slicing tomatoes, more peppers and more eggplant. Just thinking about all that sunshine filled food makes us hungry! The next project on the agenda is weeding the garlic for the first time this season. It survived the cold weather with out a hitch-we were actually kind of amazed to see it looking so good! We will weed it another 2 times before we harvest it in early July. Most of our seeds have arrived in the mail and we are itching to plant them! We are trying to restrain ourselves by remembering years past when we thought we would get an early jump on the season only to have poor germination and wasted seed to show for our efforts. We’re growing some interesting new vegetables for the 2010 season, an early spring broccoli raab and some rainbow kale to name a few. We are trying to increase the variety in our early spring boxes and add some new greens to our repertoire. Well that’s all for now. Thanks again for all of your help! Please don’t hesitate to call or e-mail us with any questions or problems you might have. We hope you have a wonderful spring! Your farmers, Annie, Sue, Rosalio, Bonfilio, Tomasa, Adelpho, Victor, Oly and Zac Helsing Junction Farm |
