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If you’re on Facebook, be sure to Like Provider Farm to get their updates directly as the season approaches. They’ve got two new calves on the farm, and have moved their first plantings from greenhouse to ground. Max and Kerry are dancing around like crazy to get some more of those April showers.

Also, we’ll have a big email going out shortly to let you know about limited supplies of Circle C Maple Syrup available again this year.

If you haven’t yet signed up for your work shifts, please do so soon — you are required to help out during two distribution shifts sometime during the season. Pick your dates now at VolunteerSpot. (And please sign up with the same email you used to register for the CSA, so we can credit your membership accurately.)

Finally, we have three shares left to sell, so if you have a friend or neighbor who’s been dithering, now’s the time to sign up.

Kerry writes in from the farm:

Well here it is 65 degrees outside and its only the middle of March. This has got to be the earliest spring we have ever seen here on the farm and we are making good use of it. Last week we started all of our onions, leeks, scallions and the first lettuce in the greenhouse. We are just starting to see the first onions poking up out of the ground. We grow all our own seedlings and over 60% of our crops get started in the greenhouse so we have many hours of seeding still ahead of us. This week we will be seeding beets, chard and cabbage.

Our greenhouse adventures began with a late Saturday afternoon recovering of our greenhouse. Every four years, the plastic on greenhouses needs to replaced as it is weakened by the sun and light does not transmit well through it. We had plans to cover the greenhouse early on a Sunday morning (calm mornings are important when you are pulling a giant heavy piece of plastic over a structure. Don’t want it to end up in the trees with one gust of wind!) but after sitting on our duffs all day at an organic agriculture conference, we were energized to get started on a Saturday afternoon.

We started by detaching the old plastic from the frame. By 5:00, we were ready to pull the new pieces onto the greenhouse. We debated it knowing full well we would be working in the dark if we started but decided to go for it since it was calm. So one by one, we pulled the sheets of plastic over the greenhouse (greenhouses are typically covered with two layers of plastic. A fan blows air in between the two layers to create an insulating bubble which helps keep the heat in the greenhouse). To get the plastic sheets over the greenhouse we tied ropes to the plastic (using a tennis ball to keep the rope from pulling off the plastic) and then all three of us grabbed a robe and pulled it over the greenhouse, hard! By nightfall, we were reattaching the new plastic to the frame and completed our project in the truck headlights. Not bad for an evening of work.

Max has started plowing up our early fields, getting the ground ready for peas, carrots, early greens and lettuce. It is still too early to seed anything but it is nice to get into the field and get things started. It is incredibly satisfying to turn over new ground at the beginning of each season. It feels great working late into the evening with the sun still out and a warm breeze blowing.

Our cows are not quite sure why we’re feeding them an hour earlier, I guess they don’t know about daylight savings time. Our girls are watching the pastures with interest, waiting for the first flush of new green grass. We have three pregnant heifers on the farm right now. They should be having their calves in the next month and we are looking forward to the new additions to the farm.

We have also started pulling some of the bigger rocks out of our field. I’ve heard rocks referred to as ‘New England potatoes’. They are always the first crop we pull out of the field in the spring and the last crop we pull out in the fall. We are in the process of organizing a rock picking party. Many hands make light work and it will give us a chance to share a meal together and enjoy some time in the fields together.

All members are reminded that they are required to work at two distribution shifts at some point during the season. Please pick your dates and times at VolunteerSpot:

There are three shifts each Tuesday:

• Set-up, from 4:30 to 5:45, requires lifting trays of vegetables from the delivery truck and/or fine penmanship.
• Bridge, from 5:30 to 7:15, requires a friendly demeanor and a passing familiarity with a broom.
• Closing, from 7:00 to 8:30, requires wiping, bagging, and stacking skills, plus a little carrying.

When you go to VolunteerSpot, you will be allowed to choose your own two shifts on whatever available dates are most convenient for you.

(IMPORTANT: Please sign up to volunteer with the same email address you used to sign up for the CSA.)

If for some reason you find it impossible to set aside two distribution shifts during the summer, you can fulfill your CSA work requirement by volunteering twice at the Our Lady of Sorrows food pantry on a Wednesday or Friday during the season. If you want more information about this option, please contact us at info@grandstreetcsa.org.

We still have some room for 2012 but we’re filling up fast — now’s the time to sign up! Tell your friends!

REGISTER NOW FOR THE 2012 SEASON.

Especially if you know anyone from the now-defunct LES CSA, please make sure they know the Grand Street CSA is their only chance for fresh, local, organic produce delivered to the neighborhood.

Sign up today!

A nice piece today on our favorite local news site:

There are plenty of reasons to participate in a CSA. It’s lovely to get fresh local vegetables every week. It’s fun to figure out new things to do with some of the more exotic or abundant ones. Eating seasonally is hard to argue with, too. And it feels good to know you’re part of a community supporting a local farmer. When the weather cooperates it’s also a good deal. But CSAs aren’t meant to be a deal, and some years your biggest reward for participating will be the knowledge that you made a tough year a little bit easier for a local farm.

Read the whole thing at the Lo-Down.

Registration is now open for 2012 season. Click here to sign up online.

Max and Kerry send this update from the farm in Salem, CT:

Hello Grand Street CSA,

We hope winter in the city is treating you well. Things are good here on the farm. We have been taking advantage of this unusually mild winter and are getting ready for spring. We have to remind ourselves that is the end of February because these days it really feels like the end of March. We are enjoying our last bit of down time on the farm before things really kick into gear. Our greenhouse is all set up and we will be firing up the heaters next week! Onions are the first thing we start in the greenhouse and they go in March 5th. After that Kerry and I will be spending many long days starting our seedlings waiting for our apprentices to get here April 1st.

Our cows are in pretty high spirits these days. I am sure they can’t wait to get onto lush spring pastures but they seem content to munch on their hay in the barn. I am not sure if their optimism is rubbing off on us or vice versa but it seems like spring is right around the corner. We will be plowing, planting and seeding in the fields before we know it!

We really want to thank all of you for your continued support of our farm. Your share deposits are helping us purchase all the seeds, supplies and equipment we need to have the best season possible! We really couldn’t do this without you. We hope that Manhattan has been as warm as South Eastern Connecticut this February and we are counting down the days till June!

Your Farmers,

Max and Kerry

P.S. Don’t forget to check our facebook page for lots of photos and updates from the farm @ facebook.com/providerfarm

Our Meet the Farmers event tonight is your chance to meet our new vegetable growers, Max and Kerry Taylor, ask questions about how our CSA works and what Max and Kerry are planning to do to make the most of their farm, and register for the 2012 season.

Please join us at 7pm in the Seward Park Co-op Community Room at 268 East Broadway. (If you don’t know where the room is, please ask the security guard or follow the signs posted inside.)

We’ll have laptops set up so you can fill in our online registration form, and we’ll be accepting your checks and credit cards to pay for your CSA membership.

If you can’t make the meeting, you’ll be able to register online right here starting at 8:30pm.

(We don’t have the same limit on shares that we’ve had for the past three years, so we are opening up registration to everyone at once — old members, people on our wait list, the whole community — and we will not need to turn anyone away. So don’t worry about logging in exactly at 8:30, you are not going to lose your spot.)

Kerry wrote to tell us that she and Max are looking forward to our Meet the Farmers meeting on Monday, January 30 at 7pm in the Seward Park Co-Op Community Room.

She also wanted to let us know that she can bring down some Provider Farm grass-fed beef and veal for anyone who would like the makings of a hearty mid-winter meal.

They’re offering a beef and veal box special composed of 6 lbs of beef steaks and beef and veal sausages at $50 a box.

Or you can order by the cut from the price list below.

Email Kerry at kerry@providerfarm.com with your order, and you can pick it up and pay at the Meet the Farmers event on Monday.

The Grand Street CSA has new farmers, and they want to meet you and answer your questions.

Registration for our fifth CSA season will open after the meeting.

Tell your neighbors! We’re hoping to make 2012 our best year yet!