Dear CSA and Friends of Shalom Orchard,

The rain is becoming damaging – it is bringing slugs everywhere and rot in the lettuce.  Crops are also at least a week behind where we were at this time last year and that was a year in which it rained all of May!  Hopefully when the tropical storm passes out to sea, we will begin to get some dryer weather.

It was very disappointing to have to cancel our Apple Blossom Celebration and have the weather clear!  However, the good news is that the bees had a good long period to pollinate.  We have a good set in the Jersey Macs and moderate set in the regular Macs and Chickadee Macs.  We can’t get into the orchard with the tractor to spray kaolin clay to keep down the plum curculio damage, so the crop is still a question mark.

I had asked all of you to “save the date” of 6/24 for a Summer Solstice Celebration.  I am now thinking that we could have the first pickup on Sat., July 1 and celebrate summer with a tasting of Jim’s new wines.  He recently bottled four new wines:  blueberry, pear, honey mead and maple mead, in addition to our apple on hand.  These are wonderful wines and we thought it would be fun to celebrate the beginning of the season with you tasting these wines and picking up your first shares.  The following pickups would be on Wednesday afternoons from 3:00-5:00.

We  will have chicken available after 2/27 and eggs are available all the time.  It looks like, with some sunny days, we will have lettuce mix, radishes, spinach, beet greens, napa cabbage and broccoli ready for the first pickup.

Please get back to me if you are unable to do a pickup on Sat., July 1.  As soon as I know for sure about the date, I will send out more details and names and numbers for the groups in Bangor and MDI.

Please implore your sources for sun!!!

Charlotte and Jim