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Farm Fresh Produce - Naturally Grown - Stewardship of the Land

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E-Newslett= er April 22, 2010

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Highlights:
A Great Start!
Membership Update
Why Annie’s Acres?
In the Next Issue

= Calendar

Read on for the details!

= A Great Start!

Our 2010 Season is off to a g= reat start with the weather cooperating quite well! Planting is going well but we are = still holding off on many items as the soil temp is still a little low. Cool weather items are in along wi= th two of the three varieties of potatoes and some of the heirloom tomatoes. We are planting additional apple t= rees and have added some pear trees as well.&nb= sp; This year is such a blessing compared to the truly nasty weather we = have experienced in past years that have been complete with April snow storms, excess precipitation and unusually short growing seasons. Our hopes are for that elusive “normal” year this time around and it looks like this year so f= ar holds that hope.

Update o= n the Membership.

We have picked up 2 new membe= rs so far this year, one by referral by a current member and one from the fliers = that we have posted around Mineral Point and Darlington. We try to target April 1^{st as
a date where members sign up so we can plan our planting. That “deadline” also p=
rovides
us the much needed cash flow during the part of the year where the bulk of =
the
expenses for Annie’s Acers are incurred. For whatever reason, this year is =
a very
down year for membership overall.
We’ve purchased seed and started plants for roughly 25 to 30
members but have commitments (and checks) right now from only a hand full of
members. Annie and I don̵=
7;t
want to read too much into this just yet as regardless of
“deadlines”, the bulk of our membership dues usually come in mu=
ch
past those dates. It does mak=
e us
nervous though and we are concerned about meeting the cost of the operation=
. The truth of the matter is that th=
is
year, we will of necessity take on members right up until the time of the f=
irst
delivery which hopefully this year will be the end of May.}

We have speculated as to the = reason for the downturn and some possibilities have come to mind. 1.) The economy. 2.) Quantity or q= uality of our offerings. 3.) Level of service to or communications with our customers. 4.) Lack of buy in= to the CSA model of agriculture. While I’m tempted to delve into the specifics, I will just simply say that = it does cause us concern and we very much want to know if we are on track with Annie’s Acres. We also = need some honest feedback from our members so we can improve where needed. We will be sending out a membership survey as soon as possible to current (and past) members and really need yo= ur help on this in the form of very honest and specific response. We’ll try to make it an easy, circle the number type survey and we’ll keep it brief and to the point. We truly want to do th= e best we can for all involved with Annie’s Acres.

I think one thing is importan= t to remember. A special teamwork between grower and member is essential in a Community Supported Agriculture initiative. That requires the right match regar= ding membership with an understanding that WE are all involved in a type of farm= ing that has some very big implications regarding local economy and stewardship= of the land. We’ve talked = about how our prices are lower than buying the same quantity at Wal-Mart but if c= ost, or in our case, income is the only reason for our doing this, we’re missing the point.

Why Annie’s Acres?

For those of you who know Annie and me, you kno= w our history on this little farm has been filled with challenge. I am certainly not complaining as = there have also been so many great blessing that have come our way. Many of those blessings have come = through and been shared with our friends at First Baptist Church in Darlington. It would be impossible for me to h= ide the change that has come into our lives as a result of our faith walk with = God and our shared life with church family. Both Annie and I share unique but equally complex histories that did not always include this faith walk or the disciplines that truly enhance life. Our parents however did plant spiritual seeds in our early lives and among the values instilled in me by my parents was the need for “stewardship” of the resources entrusted to us. That concept of the forgotten mess= age of “stewardship” largely drives our efforts with Annie’s Acr= es and this little chunk of land we temporarily care-take.

As to the train of events that brought Annie’s Acres into existence, a bump in the beekeeping road w= as probably a big deciding factor. My family’s involvement with beekeeping goes back to 1887 and I have personally been ke= eping bees as long as I can remember. In 2004, after I and others were “downsized” by a large corporatio= n, we carefully considered my skills in beekeeping and the lack of jobs to be = had and made the decision to dramatically increase our small beekeeping operation i= nto one that would hopefully support us. We worked through the FSA and were able to obtain a low interest loa= n to purchase stock and equipment for the business. To our shock, we lost 80 percent o= f the bees in the first year of business and suffered one of the lowest yields I = had ever experienced or witnessed. After questioning my own skills, we learned over the course of the n= ext few years that we had chosen the wrong time to get big into bees. It was like booking passage on the Titanic! We were devastated a= nd soon learned that the whole beekeeping industry was in trouble. At the time of this writing, a loc= al beekeeper in the Darlington area, who I respect, has lost 80 percent of his nearly 1000 colonies of bees. We truly made an unfortunate business choice and the timing clearly wasn’= ;t the best. We realized that ou= r involvement with the bees needed to shrink quickly and “something” else nee= ded to replace it. Because of the commitments and investments that we’d made it was also clear that the “something else” needed to be agricultural.

Annie and I looked at the res= ources that we were stewards of and decided we needed to find a way to make the fa= rm pay for itself. We also under= stood that we needed to believe in whatever endeavor we choose to pursue. After much research (and inward se= arch) we settled on the Community Supported Agricultural model as a perfect fit f= or our physical resources and felt we could grow into the skills needed to accomplish it. (We would need= to be quick learners!) We also note= d that there was a great and unmet need in that industry for the acknowledgement of God and His creation and that we could be a gentle witness there. Hence Annie’s Acres came into existence with a few great friends helping us out with memberships. AND THEN, we hit the books! AND TH= EN the challenges continued!

The next three years were “difficult” regarding weather.= CSA’s everywhere were struggling and some folded or had to relocate. One year, we virtua= lly lost our entire planting as it was washed away. The soil formed a hard crust on it= that wouldn’t let any of the surviving seed break through. We had to do a total replant! Despite the challenges, the CSA co= ntinued to grow with the addition of a packing room with refrigeration, an irrigati= on system, a small greenhouse, and the addition of an orchard and the beginnin= gs of a vineyard. Today, we are = closer than ever to seeing Annie’s Acres achieve what we were hoping for whe= n we and our charter members started it.

I hope this hasn’t come across as too pretentious or as just “too much information”. We just hope it will help give you= a better picture of what Annie’s Acres is all about. We do need your help in order to m= ake this work and appreciate every membership commitment we receive. Each membership brings us a little closer to building what we believe to be an environmentally sound and God honoring business.

Again, thank you so much for your support!

Your Gardeners,

Mark and Annie Ranum

PS Please let me know if y= ou did not receive the membership letter sent earlier this month. It contained some extra brochures = and outlined some incentives for helping us find new members.

In the Next Issue:<= /p>

More Information on Annie’s offering of Joe Rupert’s Grass Feed Beef!

Calendar

May= 15th, (or up to day of first delivery) 2010 Membership Application due with f= irst payment.

June 1, (or earlier!) 2010 Full and Half Share "Week #1" Delivery