Though a new calendar year begins January 1, for me, there’s always a second “new year” and that is marked by the strong feeling, arriving each spring, that a new farm season is about to begin. This is happening now at Common Roots. We are all about prepping for the 2021 season and, as you will see from the articles that follow, our CSA sign-ups are here, and our spring plant sale, too!

The farm is literally buzzing and the excitement is palpable. Summer, our farm dog, is taking her gopher hunting seriously, in between sunny, lazy naps. Farmers Nina and Lori are working with our generous regular volunteers to spruce up the farm, move and repair fences, adjust irrigation and finish up a new post-harvest area that several of our neighbors from Coastal Haven have been beavering away on. It feels like a big year ahead.

As the COVID-19 vaccine rolls out, teachers are reaching out to us to inquire about bringing special education students back to the farm. Our board is finalizing new COVID-19 protocols so that we can again invite our volunteers and others starting in early May for the 2021 season. For everyone's safety, we will limit the number of people who are on the farm at any one time. Interested volunteers can sign up here. We'll contact prospective volunteers about scheduling once we have determined our available time slots. Also, as construction winds down at the adjacent Coastal Haven pocket neighborhood, the redo of our accessible garden and its adjoining accessible perimeter path is about to begin. Dare I say, it feels a bit momentous.

We intend to celebrate these milestones sometime in late summer, when we hope more will be vaccinated and we can safely share the beauty and bounty of our farm. To all of you who support us in countless ways, a new season is also a very good time to say, “Thank you!” Without you, Common Roots Farm would remain just a dream. Thanks to you, we are entering our fourth production season, growing steadily, and creating opportunities for people with and without disabilities to grow high quality food and flowers in an ecologically responsible way.

We are excited to announce our 2021 CSA! CSA stands for “Community Supported Agriculture” and is one of the best ways to support local farms and enjoy seasonal, local food. A CSA is a reciprocal partnership between a farm and its community. At Common Roots Farm, CSA members become active participants in our local food system by investing in a "share" while providing opportunities for farmers living with developmental disabilities to grow their skills, too.

The 2021 CSA season will be from June 1 to October 22, excluding Labor Day (the week of September 6). CSA customers receive a weekly share of fresh produce and fruit as well as seasonal flowers; a weekly newsletter filled with photos from the farm, interviews with our farmers; recipes and cooking tips for the produce; and — new this year — an invitation-only farm tour for CSA members to meet your farmers! CSA pick-up will be on Tuesdays in Mountain View and Fridays and Saturdays in Santa Cruz.

Your weekly share enables you to eat what’s locally in season. We are particularly excited about our strawberries, raspberries, sweet peppers, slicer tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, zucchini, beans, peas, lettuce, delicata squash, kabocha squash, and herbs. We even have some other surprises in store for our customers.

We will be including a selection of seasonal flowers every week, too. We are passionate about local, organically-grown flowers for their beauty and contribution to biodiversity on the farm. Local, organically-grown flowers are still a very small part of the overall flower market in the US, and we hope to provide our customers with the freshest blooms possible while following the best agricultural practices for our environment.

We will be featuring all the standards: tomatoes, sweet peppers, cucumbers, summer squash, lettuces, cabbage, cauliflower, and raspberries, as well as select annuals and perennials, such as day lilies, stattice, yarrow, borage, provence lavender, marigolds, zinnias, and sunflowers. We will even have a few dahlia tubers popping that will also be available!

We will also have a limited supply of honey available for purchase too, and don't forget to take home a jar of our strawberry jam or a bottle of our strawberry shrubs or green hornet pepper sauce for special spring taste treats.

The farm is lush and green in spring, so feel free to wear your sturdy shoes and take a walk while you are here, enjoying the many species of birds making a home on and around our farm. As usual, please wear your mask when you visit.

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