There are less than 4 weeks before the beginning of the 2017 Local Food Box program! It’s a busy time of year on our farms and we are getting excited about the first Local Food Boxes of the year (first in-town pickups on June 6, in Metchosin on June 9). All of the box options are still available… but maybe not for long. If you haven’t signed up yet its not too late to register. If you would like to make any changes to your registration don’t hesitate to contact us.
We had a great response to our early registration for the 2017 box program. We sold over 65% of our 100 available vegetable box shares in the first 2 weeks of registration in December and now there are only 8 vegetable boxes still available. 80% of last year’s members have signed up for another season, we are very grateful for this high membership retention rate. Big thanks to everyone who registered and recommended the program!
Flowers
Mother’s Day is this Sunday and we have a great gift idea: a subscription to the bi-weekly bouquet of local flowers from Ninebark Farm! After trialling flower bouquets at our Metchosin pickups last year and getting rave reviews, we are very excited to be offering Ninebark Farm flower bouquet subscriptions for the first time this year. The bouquets are beautiful and, as we learned last year, they are so fresh that they easily keep for a week or longer. Sign up here.
Meats
If you have been out in Metchosin lately you will likely have seen Parry Bay Sheep Farm and Stillmeadow Farm spring lambs out frolicking and grazing on the green spring grass. We have sold 30 meat box subscriptions so far, there is still room for a few more.
Eggs
We are very pleased to have agreements with three farms in Metchosin to supply our egg demand this year. We have sold 25 dozen eggs per week so far and still have room for more subscriptions. Thanks to Ninebark Farm and Wintercreek Farm, whom we have sourced eggs from in previous years, as well as Swallow Hill Farm, a new egg supplier for us this year. All three farms have small flocks (100 or less birds) that have lots of access to roam outside.
Vegetables (and some fruits)
All produce in the vegetable box is organically grown at Wind Whipped Farm. In the past months, we’ve had our inspection visit for our organic certification (we are in the process of certifying). Our orchard and strawberries are in full bloom and we are hoping for good pollination. We’ve also been direct seeding and transplanting every week throughout April and will continue with scheduled weekly plantings for the next few months. So far we have seeded peas, beans, spinach, carrots, dill, cilantro, turnips, potatoes, radishes, mâche and arugula. We transplanted onions, fennel, celeriac, more herbs, lettuce, pac choi, chard, kale, summer squash, winter squash, and tomatoes in our greenhouse. And this is only the beginning… Thankfully we have two new employees helping us out at Wind Whipped Farm this year, Corentin and Erin, and we have made several improvements to our operations over the winter (more updates to come).
See you in June!
We will be in contact with all Local Food Box members again before the start of the program as well as every week of the program via automated email reminders sent the evening before each pickup. As always, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions. We hope you are enjoying the spring and the promise of good things growing.
Alex and Virginie
Wind Whipped Farmers and Local Food Box Coordinators
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