Greetings and Welcome to the 2024-25 Winter Share Season!

How weird it feels to be writing this- a winter shares newsletter- when there are tomatoes in your

first box, when we are still in the thick of harvest season and, above all, when it’s likely to be

near 80 degrees all weekend!

Nevertheless I’m writing to update you on two areas of new developments this “winter” for the

CSA, and at Featherstone Farm in general.

First, we are sadly saying goodbye to Karin Wollan at the end of this month, at least in her

current role as CSA administrator / customer service person. Many of you are aware that the

CSA program at FF is at a key point of evolution; I have been rethinking many aspects of the

historical program, with the help of the four main farm managers, for the past year+. This re-

thinking is pretty wide in scope (see point #2 below), and it has created a churn in the leadership

in the program, starting with Patty’s departure a year ago.

Karin writes in recent posts that “the CSA job was not really mine to begin with” which is

accurate, at least in part. From my own perspective, anyway, Karin was/is the perfect person to

handle many aspects of the job, if she were able to work full time. But she was clear from the

start at FF 10 months ago: she just can’t be a full time employee anywhere, at this stage of life

(she runs an independent yoga practice, among other things). SO, she was a great 2024 summer

contributor, but her time with the CSA is up (her choice). All of us at FF are super grateful to

Karin for her work all season, and wish her well in the seasons and years to come!

We are now in the midst of a new search for a permanent, full time person or pair of people who

can guide and manage the CSA program for the next 30 years. If you know of anyone within 30

miles of Rushford (includes Winona and LaCrosse, not quite Rochester) who might be

interested, please let us know!! In the meantime, FF veterans James and Abby will be

administering the current winter program starting November 1, as they did last winter. Thanks

James and Abby!

Second, a quick update on offerings for this winter’s CSA offerings. Part of the “wide scope

of CSA (re)thinking” that I mentioned above, is a real emphasis on making the winter share more

diverse and sustainable for members, year in and year out. To make this happen, we have

several new initiatives in place, at various stages of development. Here is a quick summary of

these initiatives:

1. Apples and apple products (starting with frozen cider): full steam ahead!! We have

been picking apples for the last couple of weeks at Hoch Orchard, and you will be seeing

the “fruits of our labor” in boxes very soon. Local, organic fruit in winter CSA shares

will be a big deal, we are very excited about this!!’

2. Salad Mix and Salad Spinach grown in high tunnels, in boxes all winter. Good news and

not so great news, here. We built a third 7200sq ft high tunnel this summer, and all three

tunnels are chock full of absolutely beautiful salad greens. These greens will be in your

boxes all winter. But, we had really hoped to have a state-of-the-art salad wash line and

dryer in place by now, to send you “salad bowl ready” product right away this fall. This

equipment is part of a big grant application, however, and that grant is being pushed back

until early December (rats!!). So, stay tuned on “salad bowl ready” product!

3. Rigid, reusable plastic containers (RPCs) replacing disposable cardboard and plastic bag

liners for CSA packs. This was (IS!) another huge goal for FF, as part of the “new CSA”

initiatives. We’ve heard from you over and over again in surveys, about packaging waste

(and we couldn’t agree more!). I had really hoped that your first winter CSA shares

would be packed in new RPCs (starting next week). But the RPCs- and the equipment

we need to sanitize them to food safety standards- are also tied up in the big grant I

mentioned above. SO, like with “salad bowl ready salads” please stay tuned; its possible

you’d see both sometime later this winter. Hope springs eternal!

OK, there is much more I could say about this winter’s program, but that will have to wait for

future newsletters. Meanwhile, enjoy your tomatoes this “winter”! There are so many

premium quality, wonderful vegetables accumulating in our storage coolers right now- and the

high tunnels look so fantastic- that I am very optimistic that we all have a winter of healthy and

happy eating ahead!

Gratefully-