I love doing this.  As you know I’m the one who takes most of the photos around the farm.  Its my self-appointed job to take a photo of every farm share that we put together during the Summer CSA.  Every week I whisk around repeating, “I’ve got to take the share photo,” which I usually do admist a rush to get everything ready for the pickups.  I’ve been doing this since my obsession with photography took hold in 2013.

I always do it with this blog in mind every year.  I wish to provide our wonderful and supportive CSA community a fond glance back at the season.  Thanks to everyone who was a part of making this happen at Ripley Farm for the fifth consecutive year.

But, I also do it for another reason.  One that is completely selfish.  During the winter’s cold and dark months, I need to look back and see evidence that we did it and that we can do it again.  These photos say to me:

Dear Mary Margaret,

• Yes, we did pull off 16 weeks of fresh veggies for 120+ families around Dover-Foxcroft and Bangor.  Our biggest season yet.
• Yes, we did grow all of it right here on our beloved land with our own hands.  That’s three sets in 2015: mine, Gene’s & Carmen’s. 
• Yes, that time will come again for fresh lettuce, tomatoes, and smiling CSA members’ faces.
• And this year, a new one: Yes, you can do it again even after the arrival of a baby.

Here’s what a 2015 Ripley Farm CSA share looks like from start to finish: July-October.

Week 1, July 1, 2015:
Lettuce, radishes, pac choi, 2 types of Asian green bunches, baby swiss chard, and garlic scapes.  Here’s Gene in the front PYO flower garden.  The plants are no more than 2 feet tall with no flowers at all yet.

Week 2, July 8, 2015:
Lettuce, baby carrots, salad turnips, beet greens, mesclun salad mix, dill, garlic scapes, and bok choy.

Week 3, July 15, 2015:
First week of peas(!), lettuce, salad turnips, radishes, baby kale, carrots, broccoli, and garlic scapes.  Here’s the first pic of Carmen, our first ever full time employee, with the share.  Sunflower plants behind are growing but still no buds or flowers.

Week 4, July 22, 2015:
Peas, lettuce, green cabbage, carrots, swiss chard, broccoli, garlic scapes, and the first summer squash/zuchinni of the season!

Week 5, July 29, 2015:
Peas, lettuce, scallions, cilantro, pac choi, summer squash, carrots, fresh green garlic, and salad turnips.  This week finishes the end of the spring/early summer reliance on greens.

Week 6, August 5, 2015:
First week of new potatoes, string beans & cukes, lettuce, summer squash, kale, and carrots.  Summer has arrived and the phlox behind Carmen is in full bloom delighting our CSA member flower lovers!  Check out the HUGE and raging sunflower plants that grew four feet in six weeks!

Week 7, August 12, 2015: 
First tomatoes & basil, lettuce, cukes, purlsane, summer squash, carrots, string beans, and scallions.

Week 8, August 19, 2015:
Tomatoes, parsley, lettuce, cukes, summer squash, carrots and green beans!  And I’m happy to be displaying the bounty!

Week 9, August 26, 2015:
Tomatoes, basil, lettuce, cukes, summer squash, scallions and green beans.  Are we getting into a pattern?  If so its a happy SUMMER crop pattern!  And look the first sunflower blossoms have started in the front garden…

Week 10, September 2, 2015:
Tomatoes, broccoli, lettuce, cukes, summer squash, fresh sweet onions, green beans, and carrots.  Mmmmm…

Week 11, September 9, 2015:
Tomatoes, basil, lettuce, cukes, summer squash, colored peppers, radishes, and carrots.  I love the colors in this share!  So vibrant!

Week 12, September 16, 2015:
Tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, summer squash, colored peppers, fennel bulbs, and carrots.  Look!  The sunflowers behind Gene are finally in full bloom.  Love it!

Week 13, September 23, 2015:
Fall is creeping in: Tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, Delicata winter squash, colored peppers, cilantro, garlic, fresh red onions, and carrots.

Week 14, September 30, 2015:
Yellow onions, lettuce, beets, Buttercup winter squash, more peppers, dill, garlic, swiss chard, carrots, and red potatoes.  Rain was the name of the game here.  We needed it!

Week 15, October 7, 2015:
Scallions, mesclun salad mix, salad turnips, kohlrabi, garlic, kale, and carrots.  Fall is decidedly here in this first October share.

Week 16, October 14, 2015:
Last Summer CSA share and here’s Carmen with the fall foliage in peak behind her.  Beautiful!  Leeks, bok choy, beets, winter squash, red cabbage, garlic, purple potatoes, and rainbow carrots.  Great way to celebrate the end of the season!

So, to our community and CSA members, thanks for sharing with me the successes of another great Summer CSA season in 2015.  I am looking forward to our sixth season of putting it on the table again.  This year they’ll be another set of tiny hands…

Ripley Farmers 2015: Carmen, Gene, & me (Mary Margaret)