First... a couple of reminders. This Sunday 8/2 will be our second "Yoga on the Farm" The first was, if I do say so myself, great! Please join us and the gang from Razz Yoga. Beginners to advanced students will enjoy being outside Sunday morning here. You can sign up for the class at www.razzyoga.com
Next Friday evening 8/7 will be the third in our summer series of cooking demos and tastings. This time join in-home gourmet chefs Bill "The Sauce Boss" Vollerthum and Lori Lee-Young. The menu will include: Marinated Roasted Beets with goat cheese and candied pecans Sauteed sweet corn with roasted red pepper and applewood smoked bacon Roasted chicken provencal with tomato-citrus sauce over pasta Golden peaches poached in red wine Have a taste of summer and take the recipes home with you. $25 at the screen door. This night, BYOB and BYOC, bring your own bottle and bring your own chair. Summer beverages provided. This should be a real fun night. RSVP at the farm market or email steve@rousedalefarm.com by Tuesday 8/4 This week in the market: Sweet Corn Swiss Chard Potatoes Tomatoes Kale Green Peppers Banana Peppers Jalapeno Peppers Yellow Squash Zephyr Squash (yellow and green) Patty Pan Squash Zucchini Heirloom Lemon Squash Garlic Onions (red and white) Scallions Cucumbers Beets (red, golden, chioggia) Carrots Green Beans (starting Thursday) Yellow Wax Beans (starting Thursday) Tomatillos Delicata Squash Chicken Eggs Honey Okra Organic Fresh Ground Flour Kohlrabi Zivot Probiotic Drinks Herbs and Mints See you soon! | ||
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Down on the FarmWhat a nice refreshing day this has been and in mid July? The weather has been so weird this year.Any time we hear crows and blue jays going crazy out back in the woods, we know that a hawk is near by. The red tail hawk that visits here often...to often, is huge. The wing span has to be four to five feet. It always amazes me what a time the crows give the hawk. Six or seven will circle the hawk in mid-air and really go after him. I don't know why the hawk just doesn't turn on them and bite their heads off, which he could do easy enough, but never does. And, of course, the lesson is, you can be a crow and you can be a hawk, just don't be a chicken. In the market: Carrots Sweet Corn Kale Swiss Chard Yellow Squash Beets (Red and Gold) Red Potatoes Romaine Lettuce Zephyr Summer Squash (yellow with a green tip, yummy) Zucchini Beautiful Fresh Basil Green Tomatoes (a few ripe ones) Fresh Ground Flour Zivot Probiotic Drinks (local) Cucumbers Honey Duck Eggs Chicken Eggs (if your timing is right) Green Peppers Arugula Green Beans Sweet Onions Spring Onions Garlic Mint (Mojito, Chocolate, Peppermint, Spearmint, Lemon Balm, Apple, Mint Julep) Herbs (Sage, Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary, Parsley, Basil, Lemon verbena etc) Our Sunday morning Yoga on the Farm was very cool. Try to make it next time, August 2. You can sign up at razzyoga.com The next cooking demo is tomorrow night with our third, in the summer series, August 7. Hope to see you this weekend! | ||
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 How about a nice relaxing Sunday morning joining Razz Yoga Instructor, Nilvis Frederick under the old shade tree at Rousedale! "Yoga on the Farm" will be next Sunday morning July 12 at 10am. Sunday mornings are quite on the farm. Birds chirping, the chickens clucking in the distance, it's a magical time. This will be an all level class in our peaceful outdoor setting, so regardless of your skill set, please join us. Bring your yoga mat, water and spend an hour to unwind. The class is $12 and you can register online at www.razzyoga.com Email or call us with any questions. Namaste..... | ||
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Down on the FarmSorry, I'm a little late with this week's newsletter. It took longer then I anticipated to swim from the garlic field to the house.We are so shocked that our corn supplier already has sweet corn!! We will have corn in the market beginning tomorrow after 12 noon. Remember, this is not our corn and it is not grown organically. It is a non-gmo corn. Our first cooking seminar was great, if we do say so ourselves. It was well attended and Chef Colleen, The Savory Chef, did a wonderful job. Everyone seemed to have a fun time, especially after a glass or two of wine! Please consider coming to our next one slated for July 17. More details to follow. Unfortunately, we are putting our delivery idea on hold, at least for the time being. This year has been so challenging to grow produce, we really have to make sure our CSA members are taken care of first and that we have stock for our market. Quite honestly, the extra that we would normally have just isn't happening this year. We appreciate all the bags we have received from our customers. It's the best type of recycling, to re-use them again. I do have to say, however, that we have found some interesting things in some of the bags. Of course a million receipts and other items. Like yesterday I grabbed a bag and it had some noticeable weight to it. Before putting the customers items in the bag, I reached in and pulled out a couple of drive thru packets of mayonnaise. I said to the customer, "Would you care for our complimentary packets of mayonnaise?" She replied very seriously, "NO, I don't want any mayonnaise!" Ok... In the market: Sweet Corn Green Beans Salad Mix Kale Zucchini Swiss Chard Collards Organic Non-GMO home ground flour Yellow Squash Cucumbers Onions Kohlrabi Honey Cabbage Zivot Probiotic Drinks Arugula Have a great holiday!! | ||
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Down on the FarmA lot to talk about, so here we go.There has always been a lot of us who wish we could find some help in cooking some of the fresh veggies from our fields. Our wishes have come true! Chef Colleen Palumbo, The Savory Chef, has agreed to hold a cooking seminar, under the old shade tree, on the farm Friday evening June 26 at 6:30. Chef's cooking demonstrations, with tastings, will include preparing quick and simple veggie creations featuring: Zucchini, Summer Squash, Kale and Spinach. Get a taste of summer and take the recipes home with you. RSVP today as space is limited. Stop by the farm market or email Steve at steve@rousedalefarm.com by Tuesday June 23 to register. The cost is $25 per person. Payable at the screen door. Make sure you bring your own chair for the lawn. Should be a fun evening! The other note of interest is The Flour! There was a lot of interest in the fresh ground whole wheat flour I mentioned last week and now we have it. Our friend Pat grinds hard and soft wheat from organic, non-GMO seed. The hard wheat is good for yeasted products like bread, rolls, pastries, pizza,etc. The soft wheat is more for non-yeasted products like cakes, muffins, pancakes, etc. It is purchased as whole wheatberrries from a few different regional sources and some she grows herself. It is all freshly hand-ground within the past 7 days. There are no preservatives at all and Pat recommends that you keep it refrigerated, where it will last for several months. I'm not sure you can find a fresher, more pure flour product. The two pound bags sell for $8. Ask for it when you come in. This week in the market: Zucchini Yellow Squash Cabbage Cauliflower Garlic Scapes Arugula Salad Mix Spinach Swiss Chard Kale Spring Onions Mustard Greens Leafy Head Lettuce-Boston Red&Baltimore Green Turnips Duck Eggs Eggs Honey Flour Zesty Greens Collards See you soon! | ||
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Down on the FarmOkay, let me get this straight, we were living in a tropical jungle full of hot, extremely humid, pollen filled air. Now, suddenly, we have found ourselves in the Pacific Northwest full of cool, damp, often rainy weather that won't seem to end. A thirty degree turnaround the beginning of the week! What's up?Farming is so full of delights and challenges. Even though it was "tough going" harvesting in the rain and mud for the first week of our vegetable CSA, we are under way for another year. We love seeing the folks we haven't talked to in a while along with all the new faces. However, there was a major devastation this week as well. A fox, we believe, dug under a fence in our broiler chicken area Monday night and killed all one hundred chickens. It's hard to have sympathy for a hungry animal that kills 100 other animals and leaves most of them behind. I can take the occasional loss. I mean, every thing has to eat and feed their young, but just killing everything in sight makes me crazy. Enough of that. When's the sun coming back? In our market this week: Arugula Mild Salad Mix Mustard Greens Spinach Bok Choi Spring Onions Kale Lettuce Collard Greens Spicy Greens Mix Duck Eggs Eggs Honey Swiss Chard Turnips Herb Plants We also have a variety of mints available, including: Mojito Chocolate Peppermint Spearmint Mint Julep Lemon Our thanks to Chef Colleen, the Savory Chef, for sharing some recipes with our CSA members. Soon we will be posting her delicious recipes on our web site. Also, we want to give a huge thanks to our organic growing partners Peggy and Joe Ardolino. They have started helping us during one of the most trying Spring growing seasons we have had. Also Also...we have been presented with an opportunity to carry organic, non-GMO, fresh ground, whole wheat flour. We have tasted some waffles made with this flour and they were delicious. No taste of bitterness you find sometimes with whole wheat. The difference....freshness. Let us know if this might interest you. | ||
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Down on the FarmTalk about a series of unfortunate events. A couple of days ago I was out collecting eggs. If you have been by the farm you've seen the white webbed fence around the chicken yards. That fence can be electrified to keep chickens in and predators out. So... I'm carrying a pail of eggs and decided to get into the chicken yard for something. No need to turn off the fence. I can get my legs high enough to get over without getting zapped. Apparently I'm not the Rock-ette I used to be and my second foot over got caught in the webbing and I was now straddling the fence on one leg unable to move. I couldn't get my foot out. A customer was driving down our lane witnessing me hopping around on one leg, holding a heavy pail of eggs with electricity shooting through my tender areas every 2 seconds. Always wanting to be the best in customer service, I waved to the lady in the car as I went down. Still trying to detangle my foot, I laid on the ground assessing the damage. Many of the valuable eggs were now scrambled and to add insult to injury, a chicken had ambled over and started to peck at my head. I heard the customer giggling as she drove away.This week in our market we have: Spring onions Red Russian kale Curly kale Radishes Arugula Mild salad mix Spicy salad mix Bok Choi Butter crunch head lettuce Swiss Chard Asparagus Spinach Eggs Honey Duck eggs Also, last fall many of you were asking about free-range heritage turkeys for the holidays. I may be jumping the gun a bit, but wanted you to know, I believe we have found a connection for these incredibly tasty birds. Keep you posted. | ||
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Down on the FarmRain, rain, wonderful rain! We needed it so badly. You can water all you want, but it's just not the same to the plants as rain. Vicky calls it the plants "vitamin water". Just walking through the field, you can really see the new growth in just a day or two after a good rain like we had. Actually received around 2 inches.Our new market hours are now Wednesday-Sunday 10-6. We have been going through the awkward transition, as we do every year, of going from self serve to full serve. So just to repeat..Self serve done, full serve has begun. Wednesday through Sunday 10am - 6pm. Closed Monday and Tuesday. In the market this week: Red Russian Kale Curly Siberian Kale Red Radishes Mild Salad Mix Spicy Salad Mix Arugula Spinach (limited) Spring Onions Bok Choi Mustard Greens Butter Crunch Head Lettuce Collards Pac Choi Heads Swiss Chard Asparagus (limited) Herb Plants Eggs Honey Duck Eggs We are working out the details for produce delivery to our area. Is your relationship like this? I want to find a used refrigerator truck for delivery. Vicky thinks coolers with some sort of cooling contraption will be just fine. I want a truck all painted up with vegetables all over it. Vicky thinks our farm pick up will do. I want to wear some sort of old time milk man uniform. Vicky thinks I'm crazy. We will keep you posted. Hope to see you down on the farm. | ||
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Down on the FarmA new customer came in today and told me she had been to another farm asking about organic veggies. They told her that she would never find a vegetable without some pesticide, insecticide, herbicide or chemically laden fertilizer on it. My response included two words. The first one started with a b. Enough said.I need to apologize to Brandon, a customer who comes in regularly. For some reason, I thought he had emailed me about saving him 5 tomato plants. So when he walked into the market I immediately started talking to him about his tomato plants that I saved for him. He looked a bit confused. I got his honey he wanted and told him to not forget about his plants. He looked more confused. He got his eggs and I showed him where the plants were. The poor guy finally said, "I guess my wife could use one or two plants." I looked confused. Off he went. I checked my saved email about the tomato plants, it wasn't Brandon who wanted them it was another customer, Ryan!! Brandon, if you really didn't want those plants and you bought them just to stop me from talking to you about "your" tomato plants, I will be happy to give you a full refund. Guess I've been in the sun to much. Speaking of the sun, a lot of it and no rain. We have received less than a quarter inch of rain since April 19 that's 25 days. Not good for seeds to germinate and new plants to take hold. We are watering like banshees. Melanie at Putnam Hill Nursery, once again this year, is sharing her wonderful herb plants with us. Now through the weekend we have: English Thyme Silver Thyme Italian Oregano Hot and Spicy Oregano Curly Parsley Dill African Blue Basil Sweet Basil Thai Basil Holy Basil Chocolate Mint Mint Julep Kentucky Colonel (spearmint) German Chamomile French Tarragon Lemon Verbena Stevia And we still have a few Cherokee Purple and San Marzano tomato plants left. Also this weekend in the market: Asparagus (will go fast), arugula, salad mix, red Russian kale, collard greens and red radishes. There will be a limited amount of all the items as things are just starting to get large enough to harvest. Eggs and honey available as well. Have a nice weekend! | ||
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Down on the FarmFirst the bad news...our egg prices will be rising on May 1 to $4.50 for large/extra large and $5 for jumbo. Now on to more pleasant conversation.We are interested to know how many of you might take advantage of produce delivery from the farm if it were available. We would deliver once a week to customers within a 10 mile radius of the farm. Please let us know if you have an interest. This cool spring has raised havoc with the cole crops. All the veggies are still alive, but are just sitting there. It almost seemed like I could see plants growing today as it warmed up a bit. Also as you come down the drive to the farm, you will see chickens "every where" as one customer commented today. We have changed our strategy with the girls a bit. Instead of fencing them in, we have fenced in our crops! So the chickens have much more freedom that way. We'll see how that works out. Getting back to the cole crops, which as you know I always thought was cold crops for most of my life, our friend Andy told us something quite interesting the other day. Where do you think the name "cole slaw" came from. It came from the cole crop it's made from, cabbage! I just have always excepted the name without ever thinking why this concoction was called "cole" slaw. | ||
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Down on the FarmStill no asparagus popping through the earth, but a lot of veggies have been planted in the last week. With Vicky and I now in couples therapy after days of "discussing" the planting map for the year, we have finally come to an agreement on where things should be planted. When I suggested that, maybe, next year we should start working on the map in January, she suggested that, maybe, I should stick the map in a place that doesn't get a lot of sunshine.Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage (green and red) spinach, various greens and lettuces, kale, chinese cabbage, pac choi, carrots, radishes, peas, onions, collards, kohlrabi, turnips and garlic are in. We have 230 pounds of seed potatoes to prepare to sow this weekend. Reds, whites, yukons, blushes and purple potatoes! We roasted some of our Jerusalem Artichokes or "Sunchokes" for dinner tonight. Cleaned them off. Cut them into small pieces. Tossed them in olive oil, salt, cumin,and pepper. They tasted very much like home fries. You could add a multitude of other ingredients that would work with them. Still open for self serve eggs, honey and artichokes 10-6 each day. Honey in 1, 2, and 3 pound jars Or bring your own container to save a buck. | ||
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Down on the FarmI can't tell you how excited I was when I hopped on Hank the tractor today and headed out of the barn to till up the lower field as we get ready to start planting for the season. The first group of cold hardy veggies is called cole crops. For years I thought this group was called cold crops, which makes much more sense. Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, Swiss chard, scallions, onions, bok choy, radishes, turnips, carrots, kohlrabi, spinach and some early greens will get us started for the 2015 season. One thing that was so evident to me as I tilled the field was the color of the soil. When we started the farm the ground here was a red heavy clay. With adding literally tons of organic matter over the years, our soil is becoming a darker, healthier terra firmer.The number one question I've been getting the last couple of days from customers stopping in for eggs and honey is, "When will the asparagus be ready?" Due to the harsh winter, I'm guessing it will be at least mid month before it shows. Speaking of this past winter, did you know that January, February and March, this year, was the coldest first quarter in history for our area. The average temp for the three month period at BWI was 31.8 degrees. If you don't see the chickens out much, it's because we are having so many hawk attacks. Once they find the all you can eat buffet, they keep coming back until, it seems, we break the cycle by keeping the hens inside for a few days. We will be getting our first group of broiler chicks in two weeks and have our first chicken for the dinner plate in mid June. From that point on we will have chicken through the rest of the year. Self serve eggs, honey and Jerusalem artichokes available in our market every day 10-6. Our produce CSA is filled for the year. Still a couple of spots remain in the Chicken CSA. | ||
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Down on the FarmAll the veggie transplants have been ordered. The pile of seed catalogs are scattered around the house with marks, circles, underlines and pages dog eared. Spring really will be here soon..really. Fields have been fertilized. The fox and hawks have had multiple chicken dinners and you can too! Still room in our chicken CSA program this year. You can sign up for 1-4 or more chickens per month from June-November. Chickens raised here humanely, fed a non-medicated, vegetarian, all natural diet and allowed to range free. Save money by signing up over purchasing in our market. Chickens are whole chickens weighing around 4 pounds. Packaged just like a grocery store chicken, but inside the package ain't no grocery store chicken. Plans are the same price as last year.Plan 1 One chicken per month $105 Plan 2 Two chickens per month $200 Plan 3 Three chickens per month $295 Plan 4 Four chickens per month $385 Email steve@rousedalefarm.com Money for your plan is due by April 1 The produce CSA is practically full for this season. We can accept 4 more members into the CSA. The cost this year is $525 due by March 1 We will, again, have our produce market at the farm this year. Looks like we will be helping a new restaurant with their produce needs this summer. Opening in June, One-Eleven Main in Bel Air. | ||
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Down on the FarmOn a nice icy day, I thought the best thing to do was to think about spring!We will be offering our two CSA's again this year. Produce and chicken. The produce csa will run 17 weeks from June 3 until September 23. The cost is $525. You can check out older posts on our web site www.rousedalefarm.com to get an idea of what was offered last year. The money is not due until March 1. The chicken csa will run for six months June-November. The cost will remain the same as last year. Full details are on our web site. Money for the chicken csa is due by April 1. There are a limited number of spots on both CSA's. Please let us know as soon as possible if you're interested in joining us this year. Email or call with any questions. | ||
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