farming – Cane Creek Asparagus & Company CSA

In The CSA Box

We are so glad you have joined us for this 2025 Harvest Season. We are having a challenging start. Last year we grew sweet bell peppers which weighed one pound each! This year the plants are doing so poorly in the field soil that we planted new seeds in the greenhouse on Friday. The soil tests and ph are good, but the texture of it is off. No doubt our soil is suffering from Helene Trauma.

Speaking of Helene, during the extensive cleanup process, Robert found a piece of engraved metal which was given as a “reward for distinguished service with the Farm Bureau.” With the help of the Fairview Town Crier Editor we tracked down the son of the man whose name was on the plaque. We returned it to the family this weekend. It turns out his father started the Farm Bureau in Buncombe County decades ago. How ironic that this little part of the award washed up onto a family farm during the raging waters of Cane Creek last September!

Curtis Wright (holding our Helene Find) and Robert Ploeger (on the right)

Robert has a new toy to mow the fields with this season. The lay of the land is extremely rough after all of the heavy equipment that was required for Helene debris removal. I would take a video of him mowing, but it might make one nauseous to watch as he bounces up and down!

Your choice to eat local, organic foods is a commitment to consuming nutritious, energetic foods! By joining our CSA, you are engaging in conscious eating just as we are engaged in conscious farming. Our choices make us all rebels who believe that all food should be local–or as local as possible!

This week we will add romaine, escarole, and possibly lettuce and kale to the Joi Choi, Ching Chang, and Asian Delight. The Tatsoi is over as it is a very finicky plant growing only under the best of conditions.

Stay Tuned

We are almost one month into 2025. Not much has changed with respect to our farming situation except that one tractor is back for the second time from the repair shop. Robert has continued to removed what debris he can from the tree lines. All three tree lines plus 1100 feet of trees parallel to Cane Creek were collection sites for debris meaning there has been no shortage of places to work! One big difference is our view from the fields. Prior to Helene, it was impossible to see our gardening area. Now we can see lots and lots of neighbors–more than we ever realized existed!

We have spoken with the people who are going to repair our irrigation system. However, that work as well as the heavy debris removal will require soil which is dry and not frozen. All of this is to say, we are still uncertain as to what the 2025 Growing Season holds for Cane Creek Asparagus & Co CSA. Certainly, we will not be starting early in the season with spring veggies as these seeds need to be started in the greenhouse by the end of February or first of March. Perhaps a late summer garden is in the cards? We hate disappointing our CSA Members–some of you have been with us for twenty years or more! All we can say at this point is to “Stay Tuned” for future progress on our CSA farming situation!

Twenty years ago someone labeled Robert and I as “businessmen” and not ” farmers.” We say we are “business people who farm.” Bearing this in mind, it is necessary to increase our CSA Box price to $70 to continue being successful CSA Farmers. With our typical every-other-week CSA pickup, this would be $140 per month.

A reminder of the past and of the future we are visualizing!

Our Current Situation

On Tuesday, October 29, I went to the meeting of farmers with all of the various agencies involved in attempting to help. A representative from one of the agencies reported it could be five years before some “programs” to assist farmers would be implemented. Despite this, I will say I left that meeting feeling relieved that we no longer have to deal with animals and their feeding and housing as so many other farmers do. Strange where one can find positive feelings!

Never realized how many houses were on the other side of that beautiful tree line we lost!

We did get the internet back on Wednesday, October 30. And my very first phone call that came was from the USDA asking if they could come out and test our soil. Three people in three vehicles arrived on Thursday, October 31 at 9:00 a.m. and did just that! We were told not to incorporate the MUD into our soil until we got the results back just in case further testing is needed. We still do not have the results of those November 5 soil tests. One tractor has come back from repair and the second has been towed in.

The deposited layer is dense and cracked. This is what they are testing.

We do have a major rock field in a couple of the garden areas parallel to the creek (and water flow). We were told our planting methods allowed most of our top soil to be retained which is a very good thing! The fabric held soil in gardens perpendicular to the creek. Also, the dense staking of our peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes seems to have help retain the soil. Our deep-rooted cover crops did a good job of holding ground in our areas not tilled and those sections are “greening up” nicely which is a sign of healthy soil. Once again we are relieved, as apparently, it could have been worse.

Drip line and fabric are tangled within. The power pole and line has been replaced.

We and our neighbor have been concentrating on rebuilding our road to our houses. Robert has been doing some work in the gardens each day. Interestingly, it was still quite wet and muddy even five weeks after! We are going to need heavy equipment to remove debris and big trucks to haul that debris away. I will update as I know more.

More pieces of someone’s life; but in the distance, see how green the front field is!

This weekend we found this in one of our blueberry rows. Perhaps we can locate the owner! The 500-gallon LP tank which landed in the front field was claimed after three weeks, so there is hope.

I will send this photo to Milwaukee as a testament to the durability of their products!

Thank you for all of your well wishes. We realize Helene has been a stressful time for everyone and we are not alone. We all must look for the Blessings we do have during this upcoming Thanksgiving Season and be grateful for them.

Life Is A Journey

Life is a journey and the path we are currently on in WNC, Buncombe County to be specific, is a most challenging one. Patience is a MUST. Prayers are being made without ceasing. Robert and I have heard from many of our CSA Members asking how we are. None of our phones are in service at this time, but spotty texts do come in–often days after they were sent. Obviously, I have managed to find a location with power and internet service as I write this Blog! Robert and I are fine and our sons and their families, located in Buncombe County, are both fine.

Unfortunately, our entire farming infrastructure was washed away in this 500-year? 1,000-year? flood. The waters covered both tractors and destroyed the electrical system which operates the wells which we use for underground drip irrigation. Indeed, the power pole is laying flat in the middle of the field with the wires still attached to it, but also tangled up in a very, very, tall debris pile. The blueberry bushes are standing, but most all of the ground fabric, poles, fences, etc. and gone. Any fabric left is covered with many inches of mud–we think. Once the mud is removed, we will know for sure! Some very large rocks washed into the field and with tires, etc. What was once the outer garden and became a sand bar in the 2021 Hurricane Fred is now a gravel/rock bar. That area will never be a garden again. As I drove out today, I saw Dalton’s Fairview 66 Towing attempting to remove the second ten-foot container which was stuck in Cane Creek under the bridge at the edge of our property. I trust they will get the 1950 +- pickup truck next! What an adventure!!

We did harvest beautiful peppers and eggplant in the rain on the Thursday, September 26 before the flood. On Tuesday, October 1 we took CSA Boxes to Filmon Process Corp (which amazingly also escaped damage except for fallen trees). Understandably, no CSA Members ventured out; but if they had, they would have found their boxes! Thursday, October 3 was our last CSA Box pick up day at Troyer’s Country Amish Blatz off Old Fort Road in Fairview. I did attempt to notify all members who had a box for which they had paid in advance. Four or five families were able to show up; many more were unable to get there and asked that we donate the vegetables. This was easy as Troyer’s is a Mennonite Disaster Service site! Workers with travel trailers and tents and big equipment were there from PA and when that group left a crew from MI took their place!! Many mouths to feed after a hard day of labor repairing roofs and sawing up fallen trees in the community. By the way, water and miscellaneous supplies are available at Troyer’s if anyone is in need.

I am not sure what the future holds for Cane Creek Asparagus & Company CSA. Robert and I have always been able to do our own clean up after any “seasonal flooding.” However, this unprecedented disaster brought to WNC by Hurricane Helene is one of an entirely different nature. The cleaning up will take professionals with the appropriate “big boy toys.” We are grateful for the Blessings we have received. We know so many who are much worse off. For now, Over And Out.

CSA Starting

As of today every one of our CSA Members will have heard the date of their first veggie pick up. We are excited to get the 2024 Harvest Season started. The hail storm in early May is just a reminder that we are not in control of the weather. Also, a few “hail holes” do not change the delightful taste of our greens!

One of our sons brought over his drone and snapped some photos of Robert’s “works of art” from the sky. Above you can see the larger, first planted wave of crops at the top and the later, more recently planted waves toward the bottom of the photo. If you look carefully at the middle, more barren row, you can see the drip irrigation tape running down the middle. A drip tape runs down each row of veggies.

The potatoes are looking good! There is one bare spot at the far end where one variety did not grow well; but despite this, I think we will have enough to satisfy. Everything is so pretty this time of the year before the weeds begin to grow and start to take over like they always do. One just learns to love them, too.

CSA Member Families can look forward to eating Joi choi, the “second” choi, Ching Chang, Tatsoi, Kale, Asian Delight, and Green Romaine lettuce! We like the Tatsoi Fetta Pie and Quiche Cakes recipes which you can find under “T – Z” in the recipes. Everything else mixed together in a huge salad is our way of eating. If bitters are not your favorite, try drizzling a bit of local honey over your salad. Adding a handful of Craisins works, too. If you get tired of chewing, one inventive CSA Member tells me these greens make a delightful pesto! And in case you do not know it, pesto can be frozen in ice cube trays for later use as a sandwich spread or tossed into a soup for “greens” nutrition and seasoning.

The April 30 Garden

So much is going on in our gardens! The second garden to be included in the fence is in the process of being laid out as you can see below. That metal post you see is the hose bib where we attach the drip irrigation which runs through the garden to the drilled well.

Meanwhile, thousands of plants have been moved to the main stage in the first garden where we trust they will flourish and grow to fill our CSA veggies in mid-to-late-May. WHEN we begin harvest all depends on the weather in the next two weeks. The chois, etc. will be smaller in the first two weeks of the CSA, but these crops grow every day and soon one will practically fill the entire box! Please remember this!

If you look closely in the photo below, you can see the seven-foot deer fence which surrounds this first garden and will be extended to surround the second garden as well. The fencing is barely visible to the human eye; but the deer can see it! Over the years we have determined what crops the deer like to eat, so we simply enclose them.

Sprouts are starting to come up through the soil in the potato garden. The fabric has been laid between the rows and the drip irrigation lines are waiting to be set up. Within thirty days, one will not be able to walk between these rows because the potatoes will have grown so large–we trust!

Many other crops have also been planted including carrots, beets, peas and some I am forgetting to be sure! I will send out an email to each and every CSA Member when it is time to arrive at your pick up location for your first box of farm fresh vegetables. It will take us two weeks to get the CSA up and running because we operate on the every-other-week delivery system. These early veggies like cool weather as in traditional spring weather. Cool weather will prevent them from bolting early. Pray for this!

Keep Trying

We have daffodils beginning to bloom in our front yard. It is way too early and I fear they will be destroyed next week when the cold weather returns. In the event of nice days in February, however, they always try to grow! I pray some will survive to March which is a more realistic time for their arrival.

We have started two seed beds and another will be processed today!! It will not take long for the seeds to germinate into seedlings. When transplanting the seedlings into their small peat pots, I love looking out of my greenhouse windows and seeing a field of yellow daffodils.

We know many of our CSA Members are also trying to grow gardens of their own. We love this! Gardening and working with the soil is good for the Soul. If you want to have a garden, you must keep trying. Do not give up! There are many variables to growing a successful garden. So set realistic goals, and if one crop does not grow, try another. If that crop fails, try another. True farmers/gardeners never give up. They understand each day is an adventure into the unknown.

Our small, Fairview CSA Farm is our adventure! We never know from year to year or from day to day what will happen, what challenges we will meet (and trust we are able to overcome) and who we may meet. If growing your own garden is not your life plans, or if you just want to supplement what you are able to produce, join our CSA.

Farm shares are available for the 2024 Harvest Season from mid-May through September. We recommend every-other-week boxes for new members. Currently, we are planning for the upcoming adventure, so join now by submitting the registration and prepare for new, nutritional taste sensations!

Tag: farming