Available at GFF August 19

 

We will have a slightly different schedule tomorrow, please read carefully.  We will ONLY be at St Andrew's during a slightly later time slot.  The "other" jobs are getting in the way tomorrow!  Also note, we are limiting egg orders to 1 doz per family this week.

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Waverly : Wednesday August 19  5:30-6:00 pm St Andrew's Church parking lot

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Delivery Method: Please maintain appropriate physical distancing.  We will place your order into a tray and put it on our table.  Once we step away, place your order in your bag/box you bring.  then set the tray in the 'dirty' pile next to the table.                                                  

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Available to members (order by 1pm today!):
    eggs - $3.50/dozen (limit 1 doz unless you order for two families)

    green beans $3/pound (lots of beans!)

   green bean FREEZING/CANNING special order 5 pounds or more - $2/pound!  We estimate we have 60 pounds currently picked and more coming in.

   garlic $2 head

   frozen broiler chicken $3.60/pound (avg 4-5 pounds)

   eggplant $1 each (only a few)

  snack/cherry tomatoes $3/pint

   tomato $3/pound

   cucumbers (Boothby's Blonde) - 2 for $1 (limited)

   zucchini - $1 ea (limited)

   Green bell peppers - 2 for $1

     

We will send out a gentle reminder after 1pm that will confirm orders so that you will know if we have what you wanted.

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THE GFF NEWS

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1. Upcoming Schedule

• August 19 - Waverly (St Andrew's)
• August 27 - Cedar Falls (Jorgensen Plaza)
• Sept 2 - Waverly (St Andrew's and Yogi Life)
• Sept 10 - Cedar Falls (Jorgensen Plaza)
• Sept 15 (Tuesday)- Fresh Broiler Chicken delivery (anticipated - no egg/veg delivery this week)
• Sept 22 (Tuesday) - Waverly (St Andrew's and Yogi Life)
  

2. Crop & Poultry Report

The potatoes are ready for harvest and we hope to be able to get to that in the coming week.  This year, we only have a couple hundred row feet of potatoes and they are the blue and red fleshed varieties (no yellow or white).  The other planting rotted in the ground with the early wet weather.  Green beans are going very well right now - which is one of our favorites to eat, so we are happy about that.  Tomatoes and peppers are just starting to show up and should be with us for the next month or two. 

The turkeys are learning to do what we call a 'crowd gobble,' which can be very amusing at times, but much less so if you have a headache!  Our flock was quite calm earlier in their lives but they are now showing much more spunk.  Whether that is good or not, it doesn't matter, because that's who they are right now! 

The new hens (they are graduating from the name henlet) have revealed that they do, in fact, have a rooster among them.  The new rooster is an Americauna breed and we have decided to name him Stu.  Welcome Stu, we hope you are a decent barnyard manager.

3. New blog material for you

We have MORE good posts in the past week plus.  We hope you enjoy at least some of them.

• We have a follow up post on the derecho storm that went through Iowa last Monday.
• There is a mildly amusing post with respect to the social media metrics we get fed to try to entice to feed Facebook money.
• We took a moment and looked at an old newsletter item from 2008 and updated it for 2020.
• And finally, a post featuring Twin Springs in Decorah.
  

4. Update on the Farmers

We have had some cooler weather the past couple of days and we can't be blamed if we are starting to feel like it is Fall.  The daylight hours are rapidly changing, as are our expectations for the season.  On top of it all, the Wartburg school year is starting sooner than usual as part of their response to the pandemic.  Thus far, I think it would be fair to say that Tammy and I feel like 2020 has been a roller coaster ride on a rickety wood frame that is currently on fire.  There has been a fair amount of yelling, but we're still rolling!

Our current strategy is to try to prepare the farm as best as we can for 2021.  While we are starting some late, cold season crops, we are preferring to get some projects done that will allow us to be in a better position for future efforts.  This was, after all, the entire point of stepping back a bit in 2020 and it would be a poor payoff to ignore that decision.  Even with that decision, we are still a bit overwhelmed by the length of the things that reside on our 'to do' list.  But, you all know us by now - we're going to give it our best effort.

5. 2020 Pre-Paid Farm Credit Program

We will run the system in $50 increments.  In other words, you can purchase a minimum of $50 of farm credit at a time.  We will cap the maximum amount of credit at $200 and you can refill your farm credits at any point.

Like the CSA program, this gives you the advantage of not having to pull out money at each delivery.  Instead, we will have a ledger with tracking for your current credit balance.  This also provides us with some working capital to start the season.  Also, like the CSA program, we will give participants better pricing and opportunities than those who might prefer to 'pay as they go.'

A major difference this year is that farm credits can be used for ANY farm product the Genuine Faux Farm offers.  If you buy farm credits, you can apply them to purchasing meat chickens, vegetables, eggs or any other thing we offer this year.

We are accepting purchases of credits now and throughout the season.

6. Welcome!

If you are new to this email newsletter for the Genuine Faux Farm, we would like to welcome you.  If you are an 'old hand,' we want you to feel welcome too - but we were gently reminded that we need to introduce people a bit more to the system.

The basics are as follows:

  - we deliver once per week - alternating between Waverly and Cedar Falls locations.

  - Waverly is on Wednesdays

  - Cedar Falls is on Thursdays

  - anyone with farm credits can order from either location, you just have to arrange to get what you order.

  - to order, you only need to respond to this email - sent the day prior to the delivery.

  - a "gentle reminder" email is sent the day of the delivery.  This email confirms that we have received orders by listing those from whom we have received orders.

 - delivery instructions will be in this email each week.  Please pay attention as circumstances may require a change.

Be Well!

Rob & Tammy