This week we are delivering our final winter CSA boxes. Thanks to those of you who joined us for winter! We’re busy with planting and tending the spring crops for the first weeks of the regular season starting March 20/21. (Check your account and make your payments now if you haven’t yet so that you take advantage of the lower price—see subscription info below.) Steve’s excited about some new varieties of vegetables he’s planting this year and has been working on converting the used seeder he bought at the Mulrooney auction to fit our scale and uses. The new greenhouse is filling up with starts. The strawberry and blueberry patches are looking good. Spring is in the air here, though we’ll enjoy the next couple weeks of late winter down time before we launch full into CSA mode again.
I usually end up giving bird updates around this time of year, because spring always makes me think of birds. It’s a little early for most of the spring bird migrations, but we have been seeing bald eagles flying over our farm, quite often with fish in their talons. It’s very encouraging to know that the slough is rebounding enough to provide habitat and food for these magnificent birds, who were first spotted nesting at Pinto Lake in Watsonville last summer. Our daughter Lydia caught one on video through the binoculars—they are impressive! Amelia, our younger daughter, 
just completed her Science Fair project on birds of the Watsonville Sloughs. There are five “fingers” to the freshwater slough system in Watsonville; Harkins is the one we live alongside, then there’s Struve, Hanson, Watsonville, and Galligan. Amelia and Lydia took the canoe out early in the morning 6 times over the past month and identified and counted birds in the different sloughs. It did turn into something more like a graduate thesis than a 6th grade science fair project though—Amelia was a little overwhelmed with the amount of data she’d collected! In all she counted over a thousand birds of at least 25 species, and identified 30 different habitats within the sloughs.
We’ve got most of our seasoned farm crew back on board for the beginning of the season plus chef Andrew Cohen doing his excellent recipes and cooking tips each week (he has some really good info on using those oil spritzers this week-see below). Sarah will be continuing to help you out with any administrative needs, connecting on Facebook, getting the newsletter out each week, and generally keeping things running smoothly for the CSA. She’s got some new pick-up sites lined up for the new season in Santa Cruz and Los Altos. Chef Joni Sare is also launching a new cooking class series in Los Gatos (see info below).
We are looking for two new CSA drivers for this season. (Rex will be moving on to another opportunity elsewhere, while Dustin will be helping Steve out more with the on-farm tasks, including equipment maintenance and tractor work and Sunday Farmers Markets.) If you know anyone looking for part-time driving work, please send them our way (job description below)!
We have just a couple weeks before the regular CSA season begins! Please make a payment to your online account to make sure you’re on the list for first spring delivery March 20/21.
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