Spring at The Farm

A cluster of raspberry buds. Oh they will be good.

A new greenhouse cucumber that matures at about 4-5 inches. 

Life long friend Ellen shows my great nephew how to unload
aged horse barn compost for the new raised beds. He is working the controls. 
Thanks Ellen!

My great niece is showing Grams what goes where while 
Ellen and the little girl's brother unload the trailer.

Ellen, Florencio, Angie and her son help unload the compost. 

Beets growing in the greenhouse.

The first tomatoes growing in the greenhouse.

My great nephew who is 6 wrote these tags for us!

The newly pruned orchard.

The bees are working hard.

Pear trees on the left, white barked fig trees on the right.

The new raised beds for perennials that aren't happy in the wet soil in the winter.

Beets have grown!

Broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower starts from seed.

The first basil is up and smelling delicious.

Zucchini, yellow crookneck squash and patty pan squash to
grow very early in the greenhouse.

Indigo Rose tomatoes in the front, Swiss chard starts
to the right with colorful stems.

Bright lights Swiss Chard.

  6 different kinds of lettuce.

Tomatoes, sweet peas and onions.

Some seeds are tiny.

My friends Jane and Vickie came out and helped plant seeds.
Jane is planting nasturtiums.

Harvesting daffodils.

Tiny seeds grow tiny plants.
15-20 seeds in each cell are coming up. This is trailing Lobelia.

My great niece is checking out the greenhouse tomatoes.
They have grown. (So has she!)

Scott starts rototilling, then the poor tiller has a mechanical issue.
Another nephew, Andrew, ordered the parts and fixed it this last week.
Our family has skills.

My great nephew, the 6 year old, took this picture of the apple tree.
Also the one of Scott tilling. Nice work!

Some onion seeds are blue.

The little cherubs found worms in the compost
and then took a picture of it. Nice.

Old straw from the barn is lining the bottom of
the beds. The kiddos help Scott.

We have a new addition to the farm family!
She is soooo adorable!

Little fingers help plant, too. She is planting peas.
Some critter ate off the little plants that were growing in the garden. We thought if we planted bigger plants there the critters might leave them alone.

The new raised beds await the two trucks of
other compost that is on order.

Unloading the compost.

Compost has been dumped here and is still steaming, it is still breaking down.

Scott on the tractor moving large amounts, Florencio smoothing it out.

Kidlets put on the finishing touches.

Bugs are searched out and examined. :)

She shares with her brother.
They then look for more critters.

Compost has been spread out.
Many muscles are tired.

More helpers planting peas.

Eating peas are being planted here.
Brea helps out on Tuesdays after school. 

Greenhouse tomatoes have shot up. Florencio does a good job with them.
Mary is checking them out. She found some blooms. We are excited :)

The greenhouse is brimming, waiting for warmth outside.

Even little ones can plant seeds with mom's help.

She is almost two and can also harvest chives.

Artichokes are enjoying the nice day.

Lady bugs are good guys in the garden.
encourage them to stay around. Here she is on parsley.

The first greenhouse cucumber. 

Pepper plants are doing well.

Basil in the raised bed inside the greenhouse.
Boy does it smell nice.

The lettuce has grown enough to also be planted
in the greenhouse raised beds.

Four kinds of eating peas are coming up strong. 
No critters are eating them while they get a head start in the greenhouse.

Nasturtiums, which are edible, have come up well.
They will be planted out well after the last frost has passed.

New little things coming up. We are doing more succession planting. The idea is to plant some things early, what a while, plant some more then repeat. Then there will be things to harvest throughout the summer.

Onions in the foreground, 
staked up cucumbers to the side.

Yellow crookneck squash almost ready to eat.
We are trying to grow them in the greenhouse.

Another wave of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower.

More lettuce started on 4-2.

Patty pan squash in the greenhouse. 

Speckled leaves on a new kind of zucchini.
These are producing in the greenhouse, too.

Many cucumbers have set on this plant.
Each blossom will be another cuc.

We expanded the space for growing large potted veggies in the greenhouse.
The wire counters in the middle have cucumbers growing up between them. The vines will grow outward and probably try to hang down. Another experiment this year.

Blueberries are flowering like crazy.

Raspberries have many small buds.

Pears are forming. Flower petals have blown away.

Another apple blossom with the
bee protective roof showing in the background.

One of the hives is "humming" with activity.
The other 3 aren't quite so busy today.

Triple Crown blackberries in the front, then Marionberries,
then blueberries in the background.

The orchard is leafing out.
The early bloomers are indeed blooming.

The pink dogwoods Dad planted for Mom many
years ago are blooming like crazy. They both would have loved this image.

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2013 CSA Informational Sheet

If you are interested in buying into our harvest box shares from Shady Maple Farm, please  read through this page and then email Lorrie at: shadymaplefarmcsa@gmail.com. Last year we offered 15 harvest boxes a week and this year we will be offering 20. We will process new requests beginning March 17th in the order they appear in my email. New shareholders will be notified and emailed a contract as soon as possible.

Ken Meier started Shady Maple Farm in 1960 and ran it until his passing in 2011. We have continued our Dad’s love of gardening and good, healthy food through our Shady Maple Farm CSA. Shady Maple Farm is the home of a wide variety of fruit trees, berries, and perennial vegetables. Each week you will receive a harvest box filled with the latest bounty from our garden.

Below is a sample of what we intend to grow and provide this year:

Fruits

apples (crab, king, Granny Smith, red delicious)
black berries (Marion, Kotata, Sylvan, Siskiyous, Triple Crown, Waldo)
blueberries

melons (cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelons)

pears (Asian, Bartlett)

plums
raspberries
rhubarb

table grapes

Vegetables
artichokes

asparagus

beans (green, purple)

dried beans (end of the season)

beets (red, orange)

broccoli

cabbage (green, red)

carrots (orange, yellow, purple)

cauliflower (purple, white)

corn (several varieties)

cucumbers (slicing, lemon cucs)

eggplant

greens (kale, spinach, Swiss chard)

kohlrabi

lettuce (head, loose leaf, Romaine)

onions (Walla Walla Sweets, white, yellow, green onions)

peas (snap, snow)

peppers (hot, mild, many colored bells)

pumpkins

radishes

squash (acorn, butternut, patty pan, spaghetti, delicata, yellow crookneck, zucchini)

tomatillos (green, purple)

tomatoes (small, medium, large; Heirlooms; red, orange, yellow, green, purple)

Herbs basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme, French sorrel, lemon grass, lavender, cilantro, parsley

Cut Flowers a bouquet every week

Decorative Gourds at the end of the season

Tea 

Everything contained in our weekly harvest boxes is grown at Shady Maple Farm. All weekly boxes will contain the same items in roughly the same quantities, as the harvest provides. Your first “harvest box” for 2013 will be available for pick up on May 28^th. Your last on September 24^th. That’s 18 weeks of farm fresh fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers.

                                 Ordering Information

Payment options:

Option 1: $450 if paid in full by May 1^st;

Option 2: $475 >> $160 by May 1^st with $315 due by June 1^st.

Option 3: $500 >> $200 by May 1^st with $100 due on June 1^st, July 1^st, and August 1^st.

If you are interested in quantities for canning, juicing, pickling, salsa making, or freezing, please contact us at the email listed above. We hope to have extra berries, pickling cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, peppers, grapes, apples, pears and plums for sale in addition to what is provided each week in your box.

Our pickup location is Shady Maple Farm – 8005 Portland Road NE, Salem, Or 97305 (northwest corner of Quinaby and Portland Road). Our weekly pick up time is Tuesdays, 4:00-6:00. We would be happy to discuss other options for pick up, just let us know.

Once you have been notified that you are one of our 20 shareholders, we will email you a contract to sign and return that in part, will include the following:

"By signing and returning this form you are committing to your chosen payment option and the terms and conditions of the Shady Maple Farm CSA.  Your signature also commits you to accepting the liability for the well being of yourself and any others that might come on to the property of Shady Maple Farm, also that you will not hold anyone associated with Shady Maple Farm liable in regard to this well being.  You also understand that gardening involves many things outside human control such as but not limited to: weather, disease, critters. Gardening annoyances vary greatly and add challenges to that which mother nature helps us grow. We will do our best to provide you with quality, variety, and abundance in your weekly harvest box from Shady Maple Farm’s garden."

We hope you consider joining our 2^nd season of healthy harvest boxes.

Shadymaplefarmcsa@gmail.com to communicate information