Adventures in Agriculture: Week 2 Distribution
by Eric Richard
One week has already come and gone. The good news is that we got through nearly everything in the week 1 distribution. So, we’re on track so far!
Here’s the week 2 distribution:
- 1 bunch (1/4 lb) of scallions
- 1 bunch (1 lb) of summer turnip
- As much as you want of oregano, golden thyme, and sage (we took about 1 oz. of each)
- 1 lb of spinach
- 2 sprigs (1 oz.) of basil
- 1 bunch (1/8 lb.) of parsley
- 1 lb of broccoli (we had our choice of broccoli, radishes, tastoi, mizuna, green chard, or arugula)
- 1 bunch (1/4 lb.) of tosano kale (we had our choice of tosano kale, green leaf kale, or russian red kale)
- 1 head of boston lettuce
- 3 quarts of strawberries
One other observation is that we’ve been tracking the monetary value of the food we have received and almost 50% of the monetary value has come from the strawberries. Our understanding is that we’ll get another couple of weeks of strawberries.
on June 24th, 2007 at 4:50 am
Because we ate our Lindentree strawberries last week, I bought more at Verrill Farm, likely not organic, on Friday for $5.50 per quart to make jam. They were fresh-picked (you can just tell) and the jam was delicious. I suspect that much of the cost of farm-picked strawberries goes to the labor required to pick them!
on June 24th, 2007 at 7:35 am
Liz, you are correct that much of the cost of strawberries comes from the labor required. I grew up near a farm that hired local kids to help with the harvest, including strawberries. (I never worked at the farm in question, but I had enough friends who did that it’s on my list of reasons why farming is not romantic.)
Even when you don’t pay the labor much, the cost adds up quickly. Unlike a lot of crops, there really isn’t an easier method than getting people in the field manually picking.