Week 6

Hi Folks,

As always, a very busy week here on the farm. A lot of blueberry pickin' goin' on. It's very labor intensive as you can't just grab a clump and yank them off into your basket. There could be 20 berries in a clump and all have ripened a bit differently, so it's really a one berry at a time kind of thing. Helping big time in the blueberry picking category are Liz and two new helpers Lydia and Blanca. I started off perfectly with Lydia when she asked me how old I thought she was and I replied 28 and she disgustedly suggested she was 22. I've decided that from now on, if asked, I will reply 20 no matter what. This week some new items in your crates....carrots, beets, romaine lettuce, and basil. It looks like our first step into the world of potatoes may be next week, we'll have to keep our EYE on them.

We want to welcome Barbara and Tiffany who have begun volunteering for a couple of hours a week. They say it's therapeutic. I say it's hard work.

I don't want to jinx anything, but I was at our Baldwin field today and the winter squashes and melons are going gangbusters!

Could use a little shot of rain if any of you have any pull with Mother Nature.

This week in your crates:

Blueberries

Romaine

Beets

Carrots

Basil

Salad mix

Spinach

Swiss Chard

Onions

Garlic

See you Wednesday!

Steve and Vicky

Week 5

Hi Everybody,

Week five finds us at the farm beginning the transition from Spring produce to Summer goodies. Beans are starting to get little beans on the plants, there are a few little green tomatoes, summer squashes and cucumbers are growing, some small peppers on the pepper plants, eggplants are getting there, beets and carrots could be in your crates next week. That's the good news, the bad news? In the biggest befuddlement in gardening history, our plot in Monkton, where we planted corn, is a total loss. Virtually none of the seed germinated. Twenty six one hundred foot rows planted so far and nothing...really nothing. We added soil amendments that a soil test said we needed and spent some time getting it all together and I went over today to plant the final third of the field and there's nothing there. I even asked a local horticulturalist that works at the farm there and she was as surprised as I was. Very weird.

We invited many of you last week to take advantage of our farm pond "swimming pool" when the hot days of summer begin to hit. I know a lot of you have children and if you want to cool off with the kids it's our pleasure to offer up a nice refreshing dip. You will have to be responsible for your brood and yourselves, bring your own towels and pool toys, as Vicky nor I will be able to pull lifeguard duty or be party planners.

We will be taking off one week this summer and that week is August 15. There will be no pick up on 8/17. We are also looking for a place to rent in Rehoboth for that week. If any of you have a place or no of one, please let us know.

Our next batch of chickens will be available on July 28. Please let us know if you would like to order 1 or 20

Thank you to all of you that have brought us goodies that have been made with some of our fruit and produce. Everything has been delicious!

Some new items in your crates this week. Blueberries are here and delicious. Your share will include a pint of organic blueberries and we will be selling extra pints for $5. We should have a pint in your crates for the next few weeks. The garlic was harvested this past Sunday and is hanging in the front barn to dry. You will be getting a fresh bulb of garlic this week. The cauliflower is ready to go, you may have a white one or you may have an orange one. There's no difference in taste. Fresh parsley also this week and it won't be a big bag, but you will receive some spinach this week as well.

In your crates Week 5:

Blueberries

Garlic

Parsley

Onions

Salad Mix

Iceberg lettuce

Bibb lettuce

Radishes

Spinach

Kale

Cauliflower

See you Wednesday!

Steve and Vicky

Chickens:Sold Out!

Our first 100 chickens (broilers) were sold out in 8 days.  Due to our limited barn and pasture space, we can only do 100 at a time.  We have had good reports back from folks who have enjoyed the birds.  Our next 100 are in the back barn now and will be ready for the grill or oven July 28.  We are overlapping the meat flocks a bit so we don't find ourselves without any birds in the freezer...like now.  We get the birds back as whole chickens, unless we have orders for the birds to be cut up, de-boned or packaged a special way.  The whole birds run around 4 pounds and are $3.99 per pound.  Special orders are a bit more.  We already have a couple orders for the next 100, so if you're interested in a nice natural, free range, local bird, let us know.

One of our youngest CSA members

I thought I heard some chewing early the other morning and came out to find Helena not only pilfering a snow pea, but also taking up residence in one of the CSA crates!  If anyone knows where her parents Jamie and Brian are, please let us know or we'll have to count Helena as someone's full share next week.

Week 4

Hi Everyone,


Today was the kind of day that I would have stayed in the field 24 hours if the sun hadn't gone away....beautiful....and we have had some nice rain here at the farm the last few days. I had just started to water a few things and the rains came! As I may have mentioned before, we use row covers to cover up certain crops that are prone to be attacked and eaten up by bugs. The covers sit on metal hoops and then you hold the light weight fabric covers down by hoeing dirt on to their edges or places rocks or boards on the edges so they don't blow away, it's a definite time consuming hassle. In a "I wish that I had thought of this a long time ago" moment, or maybe even a complete DUH moment, I was reading about some new hoops that the row covers sit on in an online forum and the question came up as to how you hold the covers to the hoops and one guy said, "I just use clothes pins." Today I covered all the rows of beans and the covers look neater, tighter and it took half the time by fastening them to the hoops with clothespins!! I'm sure someone will come up with special "row cover fastener pins in natural vegetable colors" that will cost twice as much as just regular old clothes pins.

This week we have some broccoli and Napa cabbage, not enough for everyone, but a decent amount. So when you come make sure you ask for one or both if you would like them. We planted enough Napa cabbage for two weeks worth, but the sun and sudden hot weather scorched a few and honestly we have had such bad luck with spring broccoli in the past, this variety this year was simply a test to see how it would do. We think it survived the hot weather pretty well. I have found if I harvest it in the early morning and not in the hotter part of the day and immediately get it in the coldest area of the cooler it doesn't go wimpy. Some of the the broccoli last week I actually cut that afternoon when it was 96 degrees and it was a little limp on the plant. It seemed to taste pretty good unlike the extreme bitterness that seemed to plague other varieties when they ripened in the Maryland spring heat. The Fall broccoli, which are already tiny seedlings in the house, will be a bit more tasty.

New this week...Swiss Chard. Not to small, not to large, a nice green. We grow the rainbow chard so you may find stems of red, green orange or yellow. There are recipes on our web site and I believe some on the recipe newsletter.

The snow peas are getting larger, but still very tasty. I take the top and just pull the little side string off because that can be a little tough as they get larger.

We should have Blueberries next week!

We sold out of our first 100 chickens in a little over a week. There are new baby chicks in the back barn if the kids want to take a peek. They look just like peeps at this age.

This week in your crates:

Swiss Chard
Radishes
Salad Mix
Heads of Bibb Lettuce
Spring Onions
Baby Turnips
Snow Peas
Garlic Scapes
Broccoli (by request)
Napa cabbage (by request)

See you Wednesday.

Steve and Vicky

Week 3

Hi Everyone,

Boy, the weeks just shoot by and here we are at week 3 already. Wednesday will find a few new items in your crates..snow peas, Napa cabbage, broccoli and turnips. Don't all cheer at once for the turnips. These are young small turnips that I like to take a few of the spring onions, a little olive oil or butter, whatever you're craving at the time, and sauté them with the sliced turnips..nice. Or I had glazed turnips in a restaurant in Virginia this past winter. They were just liked glazed carrots only I think they brushed the glaze on them and then lightly fried...real good. We've talked about how tough it is to grow good tasting spring broccoli in Maryland because it gets so hot so fast and this year is no exception, but we tried a new variety this year and we think it tastes real good! The Napa cabbage is a beautiful cabbage with a wonderful tender texture and taste. This is the cabbage that Korean chefs have made Kim Chi out of forever.

Also the yearly "discussion" has happened between Vicky and me. The "discussion" of whether the sugar snap peas are now to big to give out. She says they should only be used whole in various stir fries or as a side dish and I totally agree that's the number one use, but what's wrong with shucking the bigger ones and enjoying the delectable nuggets inside? Shuck while watching TV, shuck while waiting for dinner, shuck for a late night snack or shuck out on the deck. We have friends who have shucked out on their deck for years. We shucked out on the deck just the other night and it was totally enjoyable.

The big news about this Wednesday is that Jeanne Fitzgibbon, The Vintage Baker from Federal Hill will be making up some muffins, homemade granola, and pound cake for all of us to sample. If it seems like something you love and would like to be able to purchase in weeks to follow, she would be happy to take orders and have the items ready for you when you pick up your crates. Who doesn't like a nice homemade, with local ingredients, all natural strawberry muffin after fighting down some kale chips. Jeanne is a friend of Rousedale Farm worker Liz, thus the connection.

This week in your crates:
Broccoli
Snow Peas
Sugar Snap Peas
Turnips
Strawberries
Kale
Napa Cabbage
Radishes (French breakfast radishes, wait until you see these)
Salad mix
Spring Onions

See you Wednesday!

Steve and Vicky