Have you felt the winter? Neither have we.
We’ve caught a glimpse of it these past few days, though, with about fifteen centimeters of snow covering our fields that have been bare for too long. Will it suffice to bring a semblance of chill to the air? Perhaps. However, your market farmers cannot afford to pine for winter, as spring will officially be upon us shortly, and we must prepare accordingly.
We are therefore very pleased to announce the launch of the 2024 season,
our 15th, which will officially begin on June 12 and end 22 weeks later, on November 10, including deliveries at our public market farmstands which will start on the 5th of July.
We have received all our seeds,
our paperwork is in order, and by the end of March, we will fire up the seedling greenhouse to kick things off. In the meantime, we invite you to visit our sign-up page, take note of all our offers (small and large CSA baskets, and at our market farmstands, our Petit Marché and Grand Marché loyalty cards), and if you are ready and willing, sign up and reconnect with an enjoyable summer habit filled with freshness and delightful surprises.
Fruitwise,
Mathieu from Diversibio has promised us strawberries somewhere in June. Even with 40% fewer blueberry plants in our blueberry patch since the close of last year, there are still enough plants (600!) to include these small fruits in your baskets at some point (or two) between mid-July and mid-August. We have also decided to increase our watermelon production to include them more than once in your baskets, somewhere towards the end of August (we’re hoping for a warmer – and sunnier – summer than this year). We will try to do the same with cantaloupes, although they are more finnicky fruits…
Vegetablewise,
last year’s ginger tests in our unheated field greenhouse were conclusive: we will be including some in your baskets towards the end of summer. We have decided to decrease our production of winter squash and favour certain leafy vegetables requested by many of you, especially spinach and arugula. There will still be winter squash, but in smaller quantities than in previous years. We would also like to include more leafy vegetables like radicchio, given comments from several of you last year, as well as some broccoli varieties that are easier to produce than the classic ones found in grocery stores, which are very demanding in terms of space and nitrogen inputs.
That said, all the key vegetables of any self-respecting garden will be in your baskets,
starting with our nightshades (tomatoes, eggplants and peppers – in all their many declensions), sweet corn, summer cucurbits, carrots and beets, not to mention our sometimes huge lettuces, Asian greens, leeks, and other alliums. In fact, if you have found certain vegetables missing from our baskets in the past, let us know asap so we can try to include them in our production plan.
And for all our fans of fresh sourdough bread,
take note that Capitaine Levain will be back for another year at our neighborhood delivery points in Montreal West, Town of Mount Royal and Westmount (unfortunately, due to our early departures on market days, their bakery schedules do not allow us to offer their bread at our Atwater and Jean-Talon farmstands). You know the drill: the links to their registration forms are also available on our sign-up page. Choose the formula that suits you; we will deliver their delicious organic breads and sweets along with your weekly CSA basket.
This note covers the essentials of the season’s start and
marks the beginning of our seasonal correspondence.
We hope to see many of you sign up for another season. We are already looking forward to seeing you at your respective delivery locations.