Rousedale Farm: Organic Produce, Eggs, Chicken and Honey - CSA Program - Fallston, MD

The Final Harvest

2011-10-31T19:04:00.001-04:00

We can't have one more week to go, there's snow on everything!!

2011-10-31T19:02:00.001-04:00

Week 24 It's a Wrap

2011-10-31T00:57:00.002-04:00

Hi Everybody,

As we come to the end of this year's CSA, Vicky and I want to say thank you to all of you for joining with us in making our little piece of the world a little more natural, healthier, and less dependent on industrial food. I have to say that I looked forward to seeing you every Wednesday and especially being Farmer Steve to the kids! It is so cool to see them so into all the stuff around the farm, the pool (farm pond) doesn't count. Our, what became, regular Wednesday evening happy hours weren't bad either! We hope we met your expectations. It's so interesting, in each of the three years we have done this, how different each year has been. If you like to have control of your business this is not the business for you. We are totally at the mercy of the weather, pests and disease and if you're not into farming it's impossible to realize the affect it all can have. I never did.

We're suggesting that you bring a bag or two for your produce this week, so you won't have to worry about bringing a crate back. Speaking of crates, please make sure you bring back all the crates you have. There are a few members that have two out.

Along with your regular produce in your share this week, we will have a few extra things as we harvest most everything left in the fields that we didn't lose over the wintry weekend. Some of these items will have a limited quantity so it will have to be a first come, first serve situation. I will have them on the list below.

Please email us back if you want to continue your egg delivery and for those that didn't have egg delivery let us know if you want to get on the list. We deliver every other week. Also remember we have a freezer full of chicken that is all natural, free range chicken that along with their range diet get an all vegetarian feed with no antibiotics, hormones, steroids, arsenic or animal by-products at all.

We will be harvesting Cauliflower in a week or two. If you want to drop by and grab one, it's on the house.

We want to thank the members and actually one non member, for your reviews you posted on www.localharvest.org Very nice, we appreciate it.

Let us know if you ever used any of the United Harvest Newsletter recipes. We really haven't heard anyone mention it and won't subscribe again if no one found it useful.

As far as next year, we're not sure exactly what lies ahead. There are many options that we are looking at right now, but you folks will be the first on the list to have first choice on joining next year's CSA or any off-shoot we may come up with. We have a huge waiting list for next year. I hope there's a way we can accommodate most of them as well.

I think that's all the business to take care of and now.... in your crates this week:

Carrots
Radishes
Turnips
Spicy Salad greens
Mild Salad greens
Sweet Peppers
Hot Peppers
Garlic
Kale
Chives
Basil
Green Cabbage

Limited quantities of:

Bok Choi
Napa Cabbage
Broccoli
Butternut Squash
Kabocha Squash
Butter Top Squash
Baby Eggplant

See you Wednesday (sniff sniff)

Steve and Vicky

Week 23

2011-10-24T11:05:00.003-04:00

Hi All,

Holy Moly, next week is the last week! Can't believe it. What a weird growing season this year, but more on that next week. I just picked up rye seed that we will grow as a cover crop this year on most of our fields. I say most because we will leave the field with the lettuces, turnips, radishes and cauliflower alone and see how long the stuff will continue to grow. It's a very in depth scientific experiment....not really, we also have planted some garlic in that field for next year so we thought we will let the others veggies continue to grow and if you want any after the the CSA is done for the year, you can come over and grab some. I don't think the cauliflower will be ready for next week so that's something you may want to have. They look beautiful. Why rye for a cover crop you may ask, rye will actually germinate in very chilly weather and it's root system grows very deep, that will help with the tilth of the soil and it will add wonderfully to the organic matter in our soil when we till it in next spring. A cover crop will help with water and wind erosion during the colder months as well.

In your crates this week:

Green Cabbage
Butternut Squash
Mild Salad Mix
Spicy Salad Mix
Radishes (french breakfast and cherry belles)
Kale
Turnips
Basil
Chives
Broccoli (your choice)
Sweet Peppers
Eggplant
Yukon Gold Potatoes
Garlic

See you Wednesday!

Steve and Vicky

Week 22

2011-10-17T21:52:00.002-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Some real nice Fall weather the last few days. It makes it nice on the farm cleaning up and bringing the season to a close when your able to be outside on days like this! Some of the frustration of this growing season continues this week with the broccoli. The broccoli is beautiful and tastes awesome, but....each head is the home to a few cabbage worms. A good way to get rid of them is to totally submerge your broccoli under heavily salted water, you may have to put a plate on it or something heavy because it will want to float, some even add some vinegar to the water. This will, at least, detach the worms from the the underside of the heads and kill most. At least they come off and you can catch them in your strainer and send them on their way. I'm going to leave it up to you whether you want to mess with this process or not. The broccoli will be here if you want it.

On the plus side, the eggplant still is coming which seems a little unusual for this time of year, peppers too! The lettuces and root veggies are doing pretty well and the hens continue to be happy! As we get close to the end of the CSA think about egg delivery and whether you will want to continue it or, if you never had delivery, if you'll want to start it.

In your crates this week:

Garlic
Eggplant
Basil
Yukon Gold Potatoes
Romaine Lettuce
Spicy Salad Mix (arugula and red mustard greens)
Sweet Peppers
Radishes
Turnips
Broccoli
Kabocha Winter Squash

See you Wednesday.

Steve and Vicky

Week 21

2011-10-10T20:11:00.002-04:00

Howdy folks,

I was just out pulling radishes and some are the size of a banana. I couldn't remember what type they were so I came back in the house to check it out. They are a Chinese radish called Shunkyo, but the funny thing about it, the seed package said Shunkyo "semi-long"..not really.

We have got all the chickens from the back barn up in the new coop inside the front barn. They seem to like their new digs. There's been no drop in egg production at all and that usually happens when you disturb their schedule. Just a reminder that the chicken fence is close to the drive now and it's electric! (tell the truth, when you read "It's Electric" you thought of your favorite dance)

Just a reminder for you Fall soup makers, we have chicken necks, backs and feet to make your stock.

Went through all the bee hives today and there will be no Fall honey this year. A couple of hives had some excess frames of honey, but unfortunately a couple of hives didn't have enough for them to make it through the winter so I had to give them the frames full of honey. I just think that the incredibly wet end of summer didn't help.

In your crates this week:

Acorn Squash
Yukon Gold Potatoes
Spicy Salad Mix
Mild Salad Mix
Chives
Garlic
Sweet Peppers
Radishes
Turnips
Beets

See you Wednesday

Steve and Vicky

Week 20

2011-10-03T20:46:00.001-04:00

Hi Everyone,

The temp is 47 as I write this message and sure feels like fall around the farm. A fire is in the woodstove keeping us toasty and I love smelling the smoke from the fire when we go out. We are working hard at keeping things growing, even though it refuses to stop raining. This time of year we are also trying to clean things up and get things put away so when the CSA is over on 11/2 we are ready to till and plant our cover crop and hopefully we have enough time for the seed to germinate and grab hold. We will be planting rye on the fields this year and till it back in the spring to give us some nice organic matter in the soil.

We are building another large chicken coop in the front barn so we can move the hens that are out back in the back barn up front. That way we will have all the layers together and it will make things easier for the daily chores. It will also free up some space out back for the meat chickens. It seems that the extra light we are giving the hens is working so far, egg production really hasn't dropped off as it normally would as the days get shorter.

We finally will have some salad mix for you this week. The arugula and red mustard greens should make a nice combo for a tender salad with some kick to it. The radishes this week are what we call watermelon radishes. They are greenish on the outside and red on the inside. They are actually called Red Meat.

In your crates this week:

Napa Cabbage
Radishes
Spicy Salad Mix
Spinach
Butternut Squash
Turnips
Basil
Garlic
Potatoes

See you Wednesday,

Steve and Vicky

Week 18

2011-09-19T22:44:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Week 18 is upon us and wow, has it ever cooled off! I'm always anxious to get the first fire of the Fall going in one of the woodstoves, but Vicky suggested a sweatshirt and a quilt. I shot back with a couple of other ways we could heat things up if she didn't want me to build a fire and she asked where she could find the kindling, some paper and a match. Speaking of fire...I know we have had a good crop of hot peppers this year and they'll be some more this week. You will get a mixture this week of reds and greens. I would suggest sorting out the red ones and drying them for use this winter in some dishes that need a little spice. There are some nice sites on line that can help with that. Also, we have found a lot of different recipes for the jalapenos. You'll be getting some padron peppers too. The most popular recipe for those seems to be putting them in a fry pan with olive oil and your best sea salt, blister them and then eat them as an appetizer with a beer or glass of wine. If you can't find any recipes for them on our recipe page, you certainly can on line. I'm going to try to remember to save one of each kind out Wednesday so you know what you're looking at.

All the crops in the ground right now love the cooler temps, although all the rain seemed to slow down the salad greens. We will get them, it just may be a little longer than hoped.

The sweet potatoes were dug this past weekend, you may want to let them cure a bit in a warm dry area to let a little more sweetness build up.

The lights in the chicken coops seem to be helping so far. The girl's are still popping out the eggs at a good pace even with the days getting shorter.

This week in your crates:

Hot peppers
Bok choy
Sweet potatoes
Onions
Garlic
Kabocha Squash-from elm tree organics
Baby blue hubbard Squash from railroad organics
Chives
Beans

See you Wednesday!

Steve and Vicky

Week 17

2011-09-12T23:23:00.001-04:00

Hi All,

As we move into the last third of the CSA year, we just want to thank all of our farm hands that have helped so much this year and have gone back to their real jobs. Liz has taken a job teaching at Montessori Manor. Barb has gone back to her teaching job at Youth's Benefit. Lydia and Blanca have decided their job at the nursery is way to busy to come here as well after work. So that leaves Tina and Maggie who are still plugging away picking veggies, getting crates ready, putting on row covers, weeding and now beginning to do Fall clean up. Daughter Chelsea has been helping as well cleaning eggs and other must do chores around the farm.

Just to give you an idea on the rain we've received recently, as of last Friday we had 20.5 inches of rain in the previous 13 days. That's a lot and it keeps raining a little each day it seems. It makes it wet enough so we can't get some Fall things in that we were hoping to plant. Hopefully it will dry out enough in the next couple of days so we can till some ground.

We've installed some lights on timers in the hen houses to expand daylight hours for the birds that should keep them laying better as we get into the shorter days. Last Winter was crazy, we went from getting 10 dozen eggs a day to 3 on some occasions. We hope the light trick works! The only trouble with this plan is that we here the rooster in the back barn crowing at 4 in the morning!

I think we will take our final hundred incredible edibles (chickens) to the processor on 9/27 which means we will have them back on 9/29. We are keeping this group a bit longer than normal to get a little bigger bird. Hopefully we will have some 5-6 pounders in this group.

In your crates this week:

Green beans
Eggplant-both from here and Farmdale Organics
Green tomatoes
Yellow Squash-Outback Farm
Onions
Garlic
Zucchini-Windy Hollow Organics
Sweet peppers
Pumpkin
Basil
Bok Choy

See you Wednesday.

Steve and Vicky

Week 16

2011-09-05T17:34:00.001-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all had a nice Labor Day Weekend! We've been getting some nice rain for our Fall crops and everything seems to be doing quite well. I think the bok choy will be ready for harvesting for week 17! That really came on like gangbusters. Wait until you see the sweet potatoes this week. Some are huge! We had one, which would feed a family of six, and it was delicious. We should probably call week 16 "orange week", not for Syracuse fans, but rather a lot of orange in the crates this week. We do get back to a delicious green, though, the young turnip greens are tender and tasty. With all the splash up from the rain today, you'll probably have to clean them real well.

Do to various crop failures this season we will be supplementing your crates the next few weeks with some items from a Pennsylvania coop of organic farms. Everything is certified organic and we will make a notation of the items and the farms they came from on your weekly list. It's been a strange year starting with the bad corn seed, the inability to grow many squash, cukes, eggplant, or sweet peppers and the tomatoes have just stopped after a few 50 degree nights and the hurricane. I looked on some old posts from last year and we had tomatoes until October 16. It's amazing how much we take for granted until we actually are involved in the growing of food.

In your crates this week:

Sweet Potatoes
Pie Pumpkin
Winter Squash- butternut and acorn(the white acorn is from Liberty Branch Farm)
Green Beans
Green Tomatoes
Cucumber (Elm Tree Organics)
Turnip Greens
Onions
Garlic
Beets(Farmdale Organics)
Rosemary

See you Wednesday!

Steve and Vicky

Week 15

2011-08-29T23:53:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,

What a week..first tornado warnings, then an earthquake and then a hurricane, I'm sure California residents are feeling a bit jealous! Hurricane Irene hit the farm with a vengeance, as I'm sure it did with your places, Saturday into Sunday. We received 8 inches of rain and the high winds blew a large tree down by the back barn, sheared a fence post and collapsed part of a fence and flattened a couple of our young apple trees. Most of the crops seemed to fair pretty good, considering. Of course the summer squash was beaten down. I know someone has a summer squash voodoo doll that they're constantly stick pins in. I'm sure it's some member from last year when the summer squash was very, very prevalent...to prevalent. I know many are still without power. We usually lose power if there's a lightning flash any where in the world, but this time our power miraculously remained on.

We are combining a couple of things this week due to limited quantities because of the storm. You will either get eggplant or summer squash and you will get either a butternut squash or a Kabocha ( an orange winter squash that tastes very similar to butternut squash). We dug a few sweet potatoes just to see how they were doing and when you come Wednesday, I will show you the biggest, most beautiful sweet potato you've ever seen...it's huge! We planted the salad greens today, so we hope in about three weeks, we will get back to the delicious salads. We have 5 or 6 watermelons left..the early bird catches that worm.

In your crates this week:

Tomatoes
Beans
Winter squash
Summer squash or eggplant
Basil
Garlic
Onions
Carrots
Hot pepper assortment

We will have corn as well again this week.

See you Wednesday!

Steve and Vicky

Week 14

2011-08-22T15:06:00.000-04:00

Hi All,

First thanks to Liz and all the farm hands for holding down the fort as we went back and forth to the ocean a couple of times last week. Driving through the eastern shore we noticed a lot of corn fields that were ruined from, I'm guessing, a lack of rain early on in the season. It breaks your heart to see something like that as that might be a farmers main crop and thus income for the year. It's not an easy living, that's for sure. I just talked to a big produce grower Sunday and they were hit by a hailstorm over the weekend in northern Harford county. They were assessing the damage, but it didn't sound good. One two minute hailstorm wiped out all our strawberries last year.

I am beside myself with our summer squash situation this year. Last year members were begging off yellow squash and zucchini as it kept coming for months. I even included squash blossoms in shares not only because they are the coolest things to stuff and deep fry or bake, but to cut down on the squash production. This year I can't get a squash plant to last beyond a couple of weeks once it matures. I've checked out everything I can think off and still not sure what's killing them off. We keep planting them so we can get at least a few. The patty pans seem to be doing a little bit better, but not much.

Another batch of our chickens head to the processor tomorrow morning and will be fresh and in the coolers through the weekend.

The fall transplants seem to be off to a pretty good start. I think we got the Chinese cabbage slaughter I talked about last week, under control.

It was such a beautiful day today, but as we walked around the farm we could start seeing signs that the season is beginning to change. The tomato plants are beginning to die off, all the onions have now been pulled from the ground, all the winter squash has been picked, and the watermelons are pretty much done. As soon as we get a few more cooler days and nights, we'll get the salad green seed back in the ground and in three or four weeks be munching on those fresh salads again. I think they always taste better in the fall.

You'll be getting another winter type squash this week, spaghetti squash. Bake it or microwave until fairly soft then take a fork and drag it across the inside of the squash. It will pull off in strands that look just like spaghetti.

We will have corn on Wednesday.

In your crates this week:

Spaghetti Squash
Green Beans
Red Onions
Tomatoes
Rainbow Belles (grape tomatoes)
Watermelon
Patty Pan Squash
Sweet Peppers
Jalapenos
Parsley

See you Wednesday!

Steve and Vicky

Week 13

2011-08-15T15:04:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Just got back from a couple of days down the ocean and farmhands Liz, Tina, Maggie and Barbara have helped out a lot. It's a lot of work each day here with 400 chickens to take care of along with all the produce, the bees and everything else. All the Fall transplants and many seeds have been planted and received a nice shot of rain to get things started. The Chinese cabbage has been immediately inundated with flea beetles and we had to spray (organic) and cover the rows with row covers to try to save them. As the weather cools down the bug problem becomes less and less, but they're in full force now. This week you will see a little pie pumpkin in your crates. It can be used for a pumpkin pie or cut up, steamed or boiled and mashed like a winter squash for a tasty treat. We mash them and add butter, salt and pepper and a little maple syrup...very nice. The summer squash this week comes in the form of green and yellow patty pan squash. Just cut them up and use them like you would any yellow squash or zucchini.

We will have corn again this week.

In your crates for week 13 will be:

Tomatoes
Rainbow belles (cherry tomatoes)
Cucumber
Potatoes
Watermelon
Pie Pumpkin
Onions
Green Beans
Rosemary
Patty pan Squash
Hot Peppers

See you tomorrow,

Steve and Vicky

Week 12

2011-08-08T23:49:00.001-04:00

Hi CSAer's,

Hard to believe that we find ourselves at week 12 already. We are half way through this year's CSA! DON'T FORGET THERE WILL BE A PICK UP NEXT WEEK. Jeezs, that article in the Mason Dixon Arrive magazine, that most of us get for free in our mailbox every month, really has excited a lot of folks that there is an organic farm in their neck of the woods. In the last two weeks we have seen a lot of new faces dropping by. Speaking of dropping by, the folks from MPT dropped by on Friday again. They wanted to get some shots of ripe tomatoes on the vine. Well, their timing was impeccable as we had, just minutes before their arrival, finished picking the last ripe tomato. Through the magic of television, we were able to "arrange" some of the just picked tomatoes to make it look like they were on the vine.

I know a lot of you may have been disappointed that we went through the new crop of honey so quickly, all 65 pounds sold in one day, but....I was checking the bees today and we have at least one hive that is still going gang busters, so we should have a bit more towards the end of summer.

The end of summer may be a ways off, but believe it or not this past weekend and this week we are planting many of our fall crops. We will welcome back many things we offered in the spring. Things like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, kale, lettuces, spinach, radishes etc. It's interesting that many of the lettuce and spinach seeds won't germinate until it gets a bit cooler. We attempted to keep the salad greens coming through the summer, but nothing would even start in the heat.

This week we add eggplant to the list for the first time and it may be the last time. It's weird, the eggplant plants look the best I think they have ever looked, but they aren't setting much fruit. Also with all the melons coming in now, instead of having you choose this or that, we are giving everyone a half of a honeydew, a half of a cantaloupe and a half of a watermelon. We thought giving you three whole melons in a week might be a bit much.

This week in your crates:

Tomatoes
Eggplant
Cucumbers
Beans
Squash
Honeydew
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Basil
Garlic
Sweet peppers

We'll have corn this week as well.

See you Wednesday!

Steve and Vicky

Farm Photos 2

2011-08-02T00:38:00.002-04:00

It's been a long day
Liz with her wagon full of heirlooms
The kids were never this heavy!
Another Rousedale Sunset a nightly treat at the farm.

Week 11

2011-08-02T00:11:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Wait until you taste the cantaloupe. Wait until you taste the honeydews. Wait until you taste the watermelons. There really good, if I do say so myself. Along with the cantaloupes and honeydews we have two types of watermelon this week, the sugar babies and the rattlesnakes. The sugar babies are round and weigh in at around 8 pounds, the rattlesnake are the big oblong melons and one we weighed hit the scale at 25 pounds! Out of the four items, you pick two. We will have melons for at least three weeks, hopefully longer. We got a very needed bit of rain tonight, whack will help to keep the dust down this week as we clear out some garden areas and get them ready to plant the fall crops next week. Hard to believe that we are planting the fall stuff already!

Also please note.......I've decided not to go away the week of the 15th, so you will have a pick up on the 17th. I repeat...there will be a pick up on the 17th. I just couldn't bring myself to miss you guys for a week and....I couldn't bring myself to just let the veggies hang in the field for a whole week and not be around to take care of them. Vicky will go and hopefully I can join her for a couple of days. So now you get 24 weeks instead of the promised 23. 23 never sounded right to me anyway.

Great news for some, this will be the last week for beets for awhile! Also this week, you may see some yellow wax beans mixed in with your green beans and you might even have some purple string beans (that turn green when cooked) in the mix as well. Don't be frightened there all just bush beans with a similar taste.

I just heard on the news that July was the hottest month on record ever here. An average 24 hour a day temp all month of 81. A few things, that I had hoped would pull through didn't, the onions are way smaller than last year because of the heat, but all in all I think things did pretty okay considering.

We will have corn Wednesday and every Wednesday through Friday for the rest of the corn season. Remember I won't have the corn back here until 9am.

Our thanks to Vicki Franz and Rae Hamilton from the Arrive Magazine for the nice article they did on the farm in the August issue.

So to summarize.....melons yummy, fall planting soon, not missing a week of pick up, weird colored beans, July hottest ever, corn on Wednesday and beets on hiatus.

This week:

Tomatoes
Basil
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Honeydew
Potatoes
Carrots
Onions
Swiss Chard
Beets
Beans
Hot peppers
Cucumbers

See you Wednesday

Steve and Vicky

Week 10

2011-07-26T22:20:00.000-04:00

Hi Everybody,

I got so involved in getting the chickens organized yesterday, I totally forgot to send out the weekly email last night. Speaking of chickens, we loaded them up early this morning and drove them up to Elkton to Locust Point Farm. That's where I have had them processed for the last couple of years. They are now an official USDA inspected facility and the inspector is on hand on processing day. That is one of the reasons so many of the smaller processors are no longer around. My understanding is that there has to be an inspector on duty while processing is done and when you're only doing a few birds a week it isn't cost effective to have the inspector there. The cost to us, now that they have become an USDA facility, has gone up 30%. It doesn't make it easy for the small family farms. As you know the birds will be back here at the farm Thursday around noon. We will do another 100 in three weeks.

We had a gathering of all the folks who work on the farm on Friday night. I'm trying to find some pictures to put up on the site. Of course the high light of the night was farm hand Liz and her fire dance. Her dance area smelled like kerosene for two days.

This week the tomatoes are here! You'll get a blend of standard, heirloom, sauce and minis. We're including a big bouquet of basil to go along with them. Don't forget corn will be available tomorrow as well. We thought, and some of you commented, that the corn was delicious and lasted into Saturday still tasting fresh.

Melons and eggplant coming soon!

In your crates this week:

Tomatoes
Basil
Garlic
Onions
Carrots
Beets
Summer Squash
Cucumbers
Potatoes
Sweet peppers
Green Beans

See you tomorrow,

Steve and Vicky

Week 9

2011-07-19T00:31:00.002-04:00

Hi All,

Tomatoes are............not quite ready, but you will be getting some of the little rainbow bell tomatoes that are very sweet and we are including some green tomatoes in your crates this week. If you haven't had fried green tomatoes, you have to try them at least once. Just slice them, dredge them in flour salt and pepper and into the fry pan. Butter is best to fry them in, but if you're watching your butter intake any other oil will suffice. We will be extracting honey from our hives this Saturday. I'm not sure how much we will get, but hopefully enough for everyone who would like some.

It's going to be a scorching week, don't forget, the farm pond is available to you to cool off a bit.

A short report this week because I'm being pressured to get ready to go see Harry Potter this evening.

In your crates this week:

blueberries
cucumbers
summer squash
carrots
beets
Italian parsley
hot peppers
prairie blush potatoes (a cross between a red and Yukon gold)
onions
green tomatoes
rainbow bells
Swiss chard

See you Wednesday.

Steve and Vicky

oops

In my haste to get out to see Boy Potter, now Man Potter, I neglected to mention that we will have corn on Wednesday, picked that morning. I pick it up at 8am. So, if you want corn, it won't be here until 9. You can still pick up your crates from 8 til 9, if you don't want corn, as Vicky will be here to get your crate together. 13 ears will be $4 for CSA members. General public price $5 for 13 ears.

Steve

Week 8

2011-07-15T23:27:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Hot enough for ya? Today was a three dip day in the farm pond. Well, this past week apparently was Hollywood week here at the farm. Al Spoler, who co hosts "cellar notes" on WYPR and does TV work for MPT, stopped by with video camera in hand on Wednesday. He's working on an hour long TV special on local chefs, local food and local farms. Then Sunday morning Vicki Franz, owner and publisher of the monthly magazine "Arrive" dropped by to take some photos for an article their doing on local farms in their August issue. I'm figuring a call from Spielberg couldn't be to far off.

I had our first tomato on a sandwich for lunch today. Not enough yet for you all this week, but hopefully next week the tomato onslaught will begin. We've planted a huge variety. Many heirlooms and standard tomatoes along with cherry and grape tomatoes and some great sauce tomatoes too. I will have corn here a week from Wednesday 7/20. It will be $4 for you guys and $5-5.50 for the general public. That's for 13 ears. Remember it's not organic.

We hadn't planned on cucumbers for this week, but during my work around the place today, I noticed one then two and then many more, so cukes are in the crates this week along with:

Blueberries
Green Beans
Onions w/ a red onion included
Garlic
Cabbage
Beets
Summer Squash
Carrots
Rosemary
Peppers (not sure if they will be sweet or hot yet)
Cucumbers

See you Wednesday!

Steve and Vicky

Farm Photos

2011-07-08T17:26:00.003-04:00

Doesn't everyone mow their lawn in a bee suit?

Fire dancer Liz sorting out your Swiss Chard

Tina proud of her beautiful bundles

Week 7

2011-07-05T00:12:00.001-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all had a nice fourth. Our fourth was spent with us and most of our helpers working starting to gather all the goodies for Wednesday. Lydia and Blanca picked blueberries, the pickin's getting a little slimmer, Liz and Tina worked in our staging area to begin putting everything together that I was bringing in. Carrots, beets, cabbage, onions, and potatoes were brought in and they began the process of rinsing, bundling or getting in baskets. The highlight was at days end Liz did her fire dance to celebrate the fourth, complete with kerosene soaked balls that were ignited and then twirled all around her. Very impressive!! We made her perform next to the pool, just in case of a fiery mishap.

We had a half inch of rain Saturday night, thank God, that helped a lot with everything. There will be twelve different items in your crates this week! Before I give you the list, a question...We have an opportunity to purchase sweet corn at a decent wholesale price. Since ours was a crop failure, would any of you be interested in purchasing corn from us on pick up day. The corn wouldn't be organic and would be around $4 per dozen. Any interest? Please let us know.

In your crates this week:

Potatoes
Green Beans
Blueberries
Swiss Chard
Carrots
Beets
Chives
Onions
Sweet Peppers
Summer Squash (just the beginning of a long and loving relationship)
Radishes
Cabbage

See you Wednesday!

Steve and Vicky

Week 6

2011-06-28T00:45:00.000-04:00

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

2011-06-21T00:57:00.000-04:00

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!

2011-06-16T22:29:00.001-04:00

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

2011-06-16T22:13:00.001-04:00

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

2011-06-14T00:27:00.000-04:00

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

2011-06-06T22:54:00.000-04:00

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

Week 2

2011-05-30T20:24:00.000-04:00

Hi folks,

Did July come when I wasn't looking?? The spring produce is wilting in the field with this incredible early heat. We use row covers to cover crops that are susceptible to insects, it's the organic thing to do, but we had to take them off today as they do increase temperature a bit under them and with temps in the 90's.....kind of a catch 22 situation.

I was working with our new helper Liz, who just started today and was shocked when she said that she would be back tomorrow. What a trooper!

You'll be receiving a few new items this week, sugar snap peas, radishes and garlic scapes. I'm including a garlic scape pesto recipe with this email. The garlic scape is a shoot that the garlic plant springs forth this time of year and can be diced up and used in any dish that you might like a nice mild garlic flavor. For you Rousedale veterans, you know I waited a bit to long to harvest the scapes last year and they were somewhat tough, ok they were very tough, ok they were downright unusable. This year they are young and extremely tender and I think you'll get some nice use out of these weird looking things.

So in your crates this week:

pac choi
radishes
sugar snap peas (some have gotten a little big, but are still very tender and sweet..shuck a couple for the sweetest pea treat you've ever tasted)
spicy salad mix
mild salad mix
spinach
strawberries
kale (nice comments from some surprised kale haters)
garlic scapes
spring onions

Have had a lot of inquiries about when the honey would be ready. We take our honey off the hives around the fourth of July and hopefully will have plenty to stock the shelves.

Hope you had a nice holiday weekend! See you Wednesday.

Steve and Vicky

Week 1

2011-05-23T23:29:00.000-04:00

Hi All,

Week one is here and we begin a 23 week journey into the freshest organically grown food on the planet. I just tried a radish and wow...a nice little bit of hotness! I'm going to give the radishes one more week before they appear in your crates. This is what you will see in your crates this week:

Strawberries
Spicy Salad Mix (arugula, red mustard and green mustard greens)
Cress (I'm keeping that separate because it's a very unique taste and quite spicy, you may want to add just a little to salads)
Green Onions
Mild Salad Mix
Young Red Russian Kale
Spinach
Pac Choi (Bok Choi)

A lot of green stuff. I hope our systems are ready for all those vitamins and minerals!

I do have to say that I'm a little disappointed in the strawberries so far this year. They don't seem as sweet as they have been in past years and I think it may because there has been very little sun helping to produce the sugar for the fruit. Just a hunch, but that's the only thing different from years past.

We have subscribed to the United Harvest Newsletter that is designed for CSA members that includes a lot of recipes. I will include it with this update twice a month and will post it on our web site under recipes. Many of the recipes this week use ingredients that aren't quite ready, but you can hold on to them or go back to our web site to reference those things when they show up in your crates.

Also we have had a totally weird chicken experience here at the farm. A chicken that has been here for a year and a half dressed as a hen(female) has suddenly started to crow like a rooster(male). The comb(top of the head) and wattles(under the beak area) are a little larger than a regular hens, but is not really rooster looking. Further investigation will follow.

Speaking of chicken...we will take the chickens we grow for meat to the processor tomorrow morning and pick them up Thursday. We will keep them in the cooler for the weekend before moving them to the freezer. So if you are interested a whole 3.5 to 5 pound bird is $3.99 per pound. We can cut to your order as well, but I will have to know by tonight. The cost goes up with cutting and de-boning of course.

That's it for now. See you Wednesday!

Steve and Vicky

WARNING: Always wear your veil when working with your bees!

2011-05-01T22:39:00.000-04:00

My eye really only looks like this after one of our bees decides to give me a Botox injection.

What's in the Mailbag

2011-05-01T20:56:00.000-04:00

Hi Steve & Vicky
Just read your informative email. Exciting fresh garden harvest news. . .sounds like a great season ahead.

I had to let you know that the Asparagus that I got from you last week was so DELICIOUS!! And very tender and flavorful. That is the freshest asparagus that I have ever had. I took it home and cooked up some for lunch immediately. Then cooked some for dinner. Then two days later cooked up the rest. WOW!!

Good job!!! And thank you.
Mary Jo & Fred Carlson

thanks for the very long update--we love it. it's so good to have
someone who really seems to be enjoying tending the farm for us--bee
stings and all. the asparagus was great but you gave me so much i still
have a little left for soup. thanks again. we're looking forward to
our visits and your produce. we appreciate what you are doing.
Gay

Hi Steve and Vicky,
Great eggs - you guys are the BEST!!!!

Suz, Randy, Bill, Sage and Sherman

Farm Update

2011-05-01T17:01:00.000-04:00

Subject: Farm Update
Date: Sunday, May 01, 2011 4:50 PM

Hi Everyone,

As I sit in our office waiting for the daily rain to stop, I thought I would drop you all a line and update you on what's happening with your food. I've decided not to complain anymore about the rain because I know there will be a time this summer when we're needing rain desperately. With that being said....the wetness of the spring has had an affect on the potatoes. They are beginning to show their faces, mostly their eyes, ahem....but are taking way longer than normal. I've even dug some of the seed up to see if it was rotted or not and it seems fine and beginning to sprout. We planted more today and I didn't plant them at quite the depth I had the first batch. Maybe that will help them sprout a bit faster. We have Kennebec's (white) Red Pontiacs and Red Norlands, Prairie Blush ( Yukon gold and red hybrid), Yukon Golds and German Butterballs. We have never tried the butterballs, so have just put in a few to see how they do and how they taste. The spicy lettuce, the Chinese cabbage, anything with a more waxy leaf than a shiny leaf are under row covers. The flea beetles will eat them up if not covered. They don't bother the plants with the shiny leafs like the milder lettuces. They also don't bother the broccoli or cauliflower which have totally waxy leaves. Only Mother Nature knows why. I actually looked under the covers this morning to see how the arugula was doing and tore off a couple of the the baby leaves to taste and it's so tender with that nice arugula bite. I tried the mustard greens and cress as well, and they to were tasty with a little kick. We put in the herb area this past week with basil, rosemary, chives and a couple of types of parsley. Peas, radishes, broccoli raab, kale, Swiss chard, kohlrabi, spinach, turnip, carrots, beets, onions, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, etc. all coming along pretty well. The strawberries and blueberries are LOADED with blossoms.

We have laid our black plastic mulch and will leave it without planting for about a week to warm up the soil to get it ready for the summer crops that we will be planting this month. Also our two other organic growing areas in Monkton (corn) and Baldwin (melons and winter squash) are shaping up as we get them ready for planting.

We have had many takers of the asparagus and it's still producing. It's slowing down a bit, so if you would like to get a little more, you should probably email or call first just to make sure. Some thought they had to pay for the asparagus, we consider that part of your CSA membership even though it's not during the CSA season.

We are raising this year's first batch of chickens for the freezer. The first 100 should be ready to go in about four weeks. There seems to be a greater interest in the chickens this year already. We can have them cut and packaged any way you would like. It is more expensive the more cutting and de-boning that needs to be done. We have them processed as whole chickens unless we have any special orders. One customer has decided to pick up hers when they're fresh and just cut her own before they go into the freezer. You can email us if you would like any more details.

We have installed 4 new packages of bees, which hopefully means four new hives. The first package I installed without any protective gear on, because some members were here, (I don't want to mention any names Melly, Mark and kids) to get asparagus and I didn't want to take the time to suit up and one of the girls stung me right above my eye. Well, for two days I looked like I had been in a bar fight and hadn't done to well! Honey will be extracted in July.

Please feel free to drop by and take a look around the farm any time.

Many thanks to Tina and Mason for all their volunteer help. They tell me it's their therapy and I don't argue with that.

We will be seeing you soon!!

Steve and Vicky

Farm Update

2011-04-06T23:47:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Get ready for my very first weather complaint of the season. This will be followed, most assuredly, by many more. I'll give you a perfect example of how far behind everything is, so far, this year. I take Vicky's father Jack to opening day every year. Last year we sent him home with a nice bunch of asparagus, this year they have barely broken through the ground. I know in our last update I said that the asparagus had started, well it had and promptly was wiped out by a 22 degree night. We will have it, but it's going to be weeks behind last year. We had 2 clear days in March and the temps were way below normal for much of the month and it seems like it's been raining every other day. It's tough to get things in the ground when it's still so wet. Here's what's in so far:

Sugar Snap and Snow Peas
Turnips
Carrots
Spinach
Kale
Iceberg Lettuce
Red and White Potatoes

We have all sorts of transplants that are ready to go in the ground, but we need a few nice days first so they won't be shocked out of their leaves. With the CSA we have to time things a bit as well...for instance, we haven't planted radishes yet because they only take thirty days to mature and the CSA first pick up day is May 25. Your radishes would be the size of baseballs if they were in the ground right now. They will go in in a couple of weeks along with all the lettuces, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, etc.

SPEAKING OF PLANTING!!!!

We just got word today that the 6000 onion plants will be here tomorrow. We will start planting them this week end. So if any of you would like to come over Saturday or Sunday and help plant for any amount of time, we will supply the food (homemade soups and sandwiches) to keep you going. Yes the onion planting party is suddenly this weekend. Anytime Saturday or Sunday will work, and if you do plan to come, just know that, you, your clothes and your shoes will get dirty. Not that kids are particularly helpful planting little onion plants, but just in case you just want to stop by with the kids, we will have 100 brand new chicks this weekend.

We also have been working on getting our two new off farm planting areas ready. Both are raw land that have not had any sprays or chemical fertilizers on them ever. We will be planting our melons and winter squash on the Baldwin plot and our organic sweet corn on the Monkton plot. The people in Monkton have dogs that roam around the farm that supposedly keep the deer away, a very big consideration when you're planting sweet corn.

Hope to see some of you this weekend!

Steve and Vicky

PS If it's raining we won't be planting, but I will be complaining.

Farm Update

2011-03-22T00:32:00.002-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Things are starting to crank up here at the farm. Snow and Sugar Snap peas were planted Saturday, the garlic that was planted last fall is about six inches high and I just noticed today that a few tops of the Asparagus have made an appearance. The Asparagus will be harvested long before the CSA begins, so we will let you know when you can come over and grab a bunch. In the next few days, weather permitting, we would like to get the potatoes in, the broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, bok choy, and head lettuce plants hardened off and in the ground and start planning for the carrots, spinach, leaf lettuces, beets, turnips, onions, kale etc. We actually are leasing some extra land this year, don't worry it has either never been farmed or only farmed organically, for melons and winter squashes and organic sweet corn.

The bees had a tough winter. Our state bee inspector Cybil, has told me that the cold winter claimed 50% of the bee colonies in the state. Mainly the extremely cold December was the culprit. You always leave plenty of honey in the hives for the colony to feed on during the winter months, I found the bees in three of my four hives all dead with plenty of honey right next to them. They just couldn't move to get to it. I'm not discouraged, our one hive left is already going gang busters and I have ordered 4 boxes of bees to start another four hives. I'm sure one of the colonies will swarm and if I'm around so I can get it before they take off for wherever, that will give me the start of another hive. So we're hoping to have 6 hives this year. That's our plan and we're sticking to it. (Honey Humor)

We know that many of you have signed up for egg delivery, but for any of you who haven't and would love farm fresh free range eggs delivered to your door every other Thursday evening, just let us know how many dozen you would like and your address and you'll be good to go. The eggs are $4 delivered or you can pick them up anytime at the farm for $3.50 a dozen. The next delivery is this Thursday 3/24.

Don't forget if you haven't gotten your check in yet for your CSA membership, we have to receive it by 3/31 for you to participate this year.

Rousedale Farm
2604 Fallston Rd.
Fallston, MD 21047

See you soon!

Steve and Vicky

Farm Update

2011-03-01T00:15:00.002-05:00

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday was such a beautiful day around the farm, it really feels like we are on our way to Spring. The day inspired us to write you a short note on what is going on around here. So after fixing the split rail zig zag fence that the high winds blew down last week, and after pruning our 30 peach trees, 4 apples, one pear and 26 grapevines, brought in the last of the firewood, and washed a bucket of eggs, we sat down late last night and composed you the update email. As we finished up we checked out the correct spelling of Brussels for Brussels sprouts and internet explorer promptly stopped working and we lost everything we had written. We try again.

We received notification that our latest batch of strawberry plants have been shipped and we will have them this week.
These will fill the strawberry patch to completion and give us around 400 plants. We won't get many berries from the new plants this year, as we will pick off most of the blossoms to strengthen the plant for better production in the future years. Strawberry plants last about 5-6 years then should be replaced for optimum production.

We attended a seminar on blueberries Saturday. We got a few tips and we hope our three year old bushes will be loaded with fruit this year. They did quite well last year for two year olds, despite a very dry June. I think we had 4 weeks of blueberries for everyone, but hope to improve on that this year.

The cole crops are doing well under the grow lights in the basement and will continue as long as we stop hitting the light switch on the wall by the door every time we leave their room. The lights are on a timer and when the light switch is turned off, it messes everything up. It's the same reflex that we all have when the power goes out and we still go around attempting to turn things on. I think a nice piece of duct tape over the switch is in order.

We have a couple of birth announcements, other then Vicky's new seedlings. CSA members Brian and Jamie Kunkel Bartell welcomed Helena Isabelle in October and Kirk and Amanda Bolen welcomed Eamon James on January 26. We're sure that both of the future farm volunteers will be having some form of Rousedale Farm produce this summer or should we say produce in some form...strained beets anyone?

To summarize:

Strawberry plants going in this week
Cole crops doing well in basement
Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, brussels sprouts etc. starting next week
Raised beds being prepped for carrots and radishes
Being a member of our CSA could cause pregnancy

Have a great week.

Steve and Vicky

Farm Update

2011-02-11T22:11:00.002-05:00

Hi Everyone,

We wanted to let you all know that some of your vegetables have started growing!! Vicky has begun to work her magic with cauliflower, cabbage, Red Russian Kale, Bok Choy and Broccoli. It's hard to believe that these little spindly plants will grow into a major food plant in a few weeks. We start them in the sun room of the house that is right next to the wood stove, as they need warmth to bust through the soil. Then once they do they need a temperature more like 60 degrees to continue, so to the basement under the grow lights they go. Broccoli seems to be the biggest challenge of all the spring veggies. Here in Maryland it usually gets so hot so quick in the spring , just about the time the broccoli heads are ripening, they will turn bitter. The fall broccoli is great, but spring is always a question mark for us. Actually last year we tasted every single head of broccoli that was going in the CSA crates. About half made it, the other half found a home in the compost pile. At the end of last year I even made the announcement that I wasn't going to waste my time again on a spring crop of broccoli. You can see how long that lasted. What we are going to do with a lot of the spring plantings is try to get them in the ground as early as we possibly can and then use fabric row covers to protect them, warm the soil and give them a nice start. We'll see if we can get the broccoli to ripen a week or so earlier then usual. We really don't want to eat 14 pounds of broccoli again at one sitting. The after effects are murder.

Steve and Vicky

Welcome!

2011-01-22T19:14:00.003-05:00

Hi Everyone,

We wanted to take a moment to say welcome to all the new members of our CSA and welcome back to the CSA veterans. Our membership is full for 2011 and we’re very excited to get things going or maybe we’re excited to be done with this cold weather. We’re sure there’s much more cold weather to come, but that’s not stopping us from getting a start on the up coming season. Over the past few weeks we have been spreading plenty of “nature’s fertilizer” better known as manure, on the fields and building the PH of one field a little with wood ashes from our wood stoves. That particular field was a bit lower than the others in organic matter too, so it gets all the produce scraps that the chickens won’t eat as well. We have received most of our seed for this year and await the plants that will be shipped at our correct planting time. We are currently getting our tables and grow lights set up in the basement as our seed planting for transplants will start next weekend. That always makes us feel like Spring isn’t all that far off! Speaking of transplants, we planted about 1500 onion plants last year. Due to requests for more onions through the season, we are planting over 6000 plants this year. If any of you are interested in helping on onion planting day, the pay’s no good, but lunch will be tremendous. That will be in April and we’ll keep you posted. Also keep in mind Asparagus always comes in before the CSA start date, so we will offer up asparagus that you can come over and cut fresh or hold the bag as we cut it in mid April or so.

Please be aware of the risks involved with farming. There is no guarantee that everything we plant is going to be a success. Pests, disease, drought, etc. can be a factor and growing organically sometimes makes it a little tougher to fight the invaders.

Keep in mind everything we provide you is grown right here at the farm. Along with the produce, that includes our eggs, chicken and honey. You all have an open invitation to visit anytime and see how your food is grown. Please feel free to ask any questions any time. We’re proud to be your farmer and look forward to a fruitful season.

Steve and Vicky

P.S. Remember money due no later than 3/31

Week 24 The Final Countdown and Thank You!

2010-10-29T15:54:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Hard to believe, but this is our last week of the 2010 CSA. It's been an incredibly interesting season full of a lot of smiles, challenges and many learning experiences. I think if we had to pick one thing that really opened our eyes about farming this year, it would be how thoroughly dependent we are on the weather. I know I have written before on all the various trials we faced because of hail, drought, heat and flood, but it was consistently amazing to us what pawns we are to the big picture. We were also constantly surprised by how crops would struggle through and would almost hibernate until a favorable weather factor would arrive and off they would grow. Most importantly, we want to thank all of you for having the faith and trust in us to supply you with much of your food supply. We have never taken that lightly and never will.

We will send out a short survey in the next couple of weeks that I hope you will take a couple of minutes to fill out. It will help us make our CSA better in the future. We hope to see you all next year, but if we don't, thank you again and have a wonderful fall and winter.

In your crates this week:

Rousedale Farm Chicken
Salad Mix
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Cabbage
Turnips
Kale
Peppers
Rosemary
Kohlrabi
Snow Peas
Butternut Squash

Just a reminder we will continue to have eggs and chicken year round. Honey is sold out until next Summer.

Vicky and Steve

Week 23 and covering the crops

2010-10-25T10:29:00.000-04:00

Hi All,

Things are really winding down on the farm now. We have been cleaning things up around the fall crops that are still in the ground. This past week, taking out the tomato stakes and cages ended up in a tremendous pile of stakes and stacks of cages. Looking at them all reminded us of the work that went into starting the seedlings last spring, transplanting them in the ground in May, putting in the cages, staking the cages and wiring them together in June, mulching them all, watering the plants during the dry times of June and July, harvesting in July, August and September, and now, in October,the clean up and tilling the soil so it looks like nothing was ever there...... a lot of work, but they sure were good!

Thursday My Dad and his wife Joyce were visiting. We were talking in the kitchen when I looked at the outside temperature gauge at about 11pm and it read 39 degrees. I immediately panicked that a frost was on it's way, but decided to wait another hour to see what the temperature did. We are in a little "dale" so some of our planted areas do get frost, when higher areas may not. At midnight it was 37. At 12:30 it was 36. I hated to, but I told Vicky we had better get up to the front barn, grab the row covers and get the lettuces and peppers covered. So under the light of the full moon, we trudged to the barn, grabbed the covers and headed for the crops. We were back inside by 1am, the temperature was 35.6. I was up at dawn to see how far the temperature had fallen and it had fallen to......44! Apparently preparing our crops for the first frost had shot the temperature up to spring like conditions! Unbelievable. All the covers were out and crops were covered the next night and we had our first frost of the year on Friday.

In your crates this week:

Butternut Squash
Mild Lettuce
Spicy Lettuce
Swiss Chard
Basil
Turnips
Acorn Squash
Pumpkin

Enjoy, there's only one more week.

Vicky and Steve

Week 22 and the winners of the coveted Napa Cabbage

2010-10-16T11:44:00.001-04:00

Hi Farm Friends,

Before we announce the winners of the cabbage lottery, a word of warning. If you have won a Napa Cabbage and have Korean friends, watch them very closely. With the shortage of the cabbage in their native country, they may be willing to chance the loss of your friendship and snatch your cabbage. Please be careful.

The winners of the cabbage lottery are:

#1 Mel and Keith
#3 Rohini and David
#4 Tina
#5 Clara and Co.
#6 Jeni, Harold et al
#8 Nan and Jim
#9 Catherine
#10 Tracy
#13 Barbara and John
#14 Susan and Jerome
#15 Tina and Tom
#18 Amanda and Kirk

Congratulations to one and all!

In your boxes this week:

Cabbage
Hot Peppers
Potatoes
Carrots
Broccoli
Turnips
Tomatoes
Parsley
Kale
Garlic

Thank you,

Vicky and Steve

Rain

2010-10-12T23:25:00.001-04:00

Right oh yea

Week 22 and the cabbage lottery preview

2010-10-08T22:46:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Week 21 finds the fall produce coming into it's own. It's just my opinion, but when you plant the same thing in the spring and then in the fall, the fall stuff just seems to taste better. One of the bonuses in the fall is that the bugs are about gone for the year. I pulled up a few turnips today, just to see how they were doing, and they looked beautiful. Maybe that's a little strong language to described a turnip, okay, it looked better then it's spring counterpart. This week you'll be getting a pumpkin that should be large enough for use as a jack o lantern, if you would rather display it than eat it.

Vicky came in the other day and asked me if I had heard about the Kim Chi shortage in South Korea. I hadn't. Apparently Kim Chi is a side dish that most Koreans eat with every meal. It's mostly made up of Napa Cabbage and due to weird weather in Korea this year, the Napa Cabbage crop has been the pits. Usually Kim Chi is a free addition to any restaurant meal, much like bread is here. Well, it's not a freebie anymore, because Napa Cabbage is going for upwards to $14 per head! Guess what? We, somehow, got a few Napa Cabbage plants mixed in with our other cabbages we planted and it should be ready for week 22. There's only 7 or 8 of them in the field. So we figured that it was so rare this year, everyone just couldn't wait to get their hands on a Napa Cabbage. We don't have enough to go around, so next week all of your crate numbers go into a hat and we will conduct a cabbage lottery. More on the lottery rules and regulations after the farm lawyers have figured out the do's and don'ts when it comes to a cabbage lottery next week. Wow, now that's excitement!!

In your crates this week;

Broccoli
Pumpkin
Radishes
Peppers
Kale
Eggplant
Butternut Squash

Vicky and Steve

9.3 Inches of Rain!

2010-10-04T21:15:00.000-04:00

2010 Flood

2010-10-04T21:11:00.001-04:00

Week 20-Rain

2010-10-02T12:00:00.001-04:00

Hi All,

Remember when I asked you all to do what ever you could to bring us some rain? Well, stop it.....really. 9.3 inches Thursday along with 2.5 Sunday, Monday and Tuesday for a grand total of 11.8 inches should do us just fine for a while. Actually Thursday was pretty scary around the farm. I've never seen anything like it. I will upload some pictures to the web site in the next couple of days. Flooding and run off that was devastating. Our small run off creek was over it's banks with fast moving water and wiped out the chicken fence at the front barn. Along with the fence numerous chickens were swept away. I was watching as the water made it's way under the bee hives, expecting to see them tip over and go, but thank God they remained. The lower garden was totally under water for most of the day with the strong current wiping out one of the raised beds that was full of lettuce and carrots. The erosion to the fields that were laying fallow was unbelievable and water was rushing through the front barn like a river. We have 300 strawberry plants waiting to go in the ground, but it's still way to wet to plant. The garlic will go in Columbus Day, we're hopeful it will be dry enough by then to plant that. As I came in from checking everything Thursday I said to VIcky,"OK we've had hail, drought, the hottest summer on record and now a flood, when's the earthquake expected!" I don't know how, but stuff keeps growing. This week in your crates you'll find:

Butternut Squash
Tomatoes
Carrots
Radishes
Mild Lettuce
Spicy Lettuce
Summer Squash
Rosemary
Eggplant
Peppers

Also, we want to thank John and Susan, the innkeepers of the Van Diver Inn in Havre De Grace for putting on a delicious farm to table dinner this past Saturday night. All the stations at the Inn's outside pavilion were dishes made from local products. We contributed Chicken, Butternut Squash and Swiss Chard and Susan turned these ingredients into incredible dishes. All the dishes were paired with organic wine from Bonterra. More on the dinner and other contributors on another post on the web site.

Have a great week.

Vicky and Steve

Week 19-Slaughter at the chicken corral

2010-09-27T10:43:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,

I try not to get to attached to the animals that we have here at the farm, with the exception of Molly the dog and Jinx and Rose the cats, sort of, but I did get a bit attached to our rooster "the falcon". He came as a miscue in sexing at the hatchery. We were supposed to get all females in our order, but sexing day old chicks can be a tricky business and occasionally one of the opposite sex can slip through. As that bunch of chicks grew, I noticed he looked different than the rest. Ever so often I would call Vicky out to the back barn and point him out asking her,"what the heck is that?" I decided one day that he looked like a falcon, thus the name. Well, the falcon grew up to be a beautiful Araucana rooster. He graced the pages of Baltimore Magazine and our web site and while many roosters in the past have been pretty ornery, he was a nice guy. He also treated the ladies with respect. Most of the roosters we've had in the past would chase a hen down, grab her by the neck,slam her to the ground and in a cloud of dust have his way with her, the falcon did not. As I have explained to many visitors, he seemed like the "tentative" rooster. He was fairly large and slightly slow and would usually approach a hen as if to say,"excuse me, would you mind if I climbed on your back for a moment? I promise it will only take a couple of seconds." Much of the time it would look like she would say,"all right, but don't do that grab the neck thing" and that would be it. Some of the time as he would try to mount, she would run off as if to say,"not now you big oaf, leave me alone." He was an interesting fellow and always took care of his flock, no matter how disrespectful they were to him. We lost the falcon a few days ago as part of a fox attack. A total of 22 chickens lost their lives including him as, I suspect, he was trying to save the ladies. A fox will attack a chicken house and just go on a killing spree. He won't just kill one and drag it back to the den for dinner, he goes into a killing frenzy and leaves bodies scattered all over. It was bad enough to go about picking up the hens, but when I came upon the rooster, my heart sank a bit. It sure seems quiet around the farm without the falcon's crow.

As I convey my sad chicken story, good things are happening to the produce on the farm. It's getting cooler, we're getting some rain and the Cole crops are liking it very much. We took a walk last night and noticed the broccoli was starting to get small heads and the lettuces,radishes, carrots etc. were coming along well. So, this week we start that transition.

In your crates this week:

Mild Lettuce
Spicy Lettuce
Sweet Potatoes
Tomatoes
Basil
Beans
Summer Squash
Pepper/onion/garlic basket

Vicky and Steve

Week 18-Volunteer Uprising

2010-09-17T18:56:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Boy do these weeks fly by or what! Tina, who volunteers on the farm a couple of days a week, was very concerned when she saw me tossing unusable produce into a pile into the mowed area between our various fields. I asked her what was up and she said that she didn't like seeing things wasted. I made it clear to her that absolutely nothing is wasted on the farm. If we can't eat it or you guys can't eat it...it goes to one of two places, to the chickens or to the compost pile. It's amazing the difference in the amount of chicken feed we go through when the chickens are getting a lot of the "seconds". Apparently I got to serious for a moment because the next thing I knew I was hit in the head with a half rotten tomato. I felt THAT was very wasteful.

Speaking of chickens, a fox has made off with a number of the flock and our production numbers are down a bit. I am frantically looking for about 50 pullets to add to the flock. What is a pullet you ask? Now the educational part of the program....a pullet is a hen around 18 weeks old that is or just about to, start laying. Once a hen starts laying it also takes her about a month to get the eggs up to size. Her first eggs are quite small and slowly build to the size they will be.

In your crates this week you will find a bag of turnip greens. We think they taste pretty good. They have a little bite to them and may be nice to mix in to salads and of course you can cook them the old southern style with a piece of ham or ham hock and onion, sugar, and crushed red pepper. For measuring purposes, you have a pound of them. If you get a green gourd like thing, that is a buttercup winter squash, to be cooked like all other winter squashes. Also, we're throwing in a sizeable zucchini. Many people that have stopped by the farm have taken them to grate and freeze for winter zucchini bread. That's my story and I'm stickin to it.

Be aware that within the next couple of weeks we will be getting back into salad greens, radishes, carrots, and eventually cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, kale, etc. We sampled some arugula today, no bug holes, tender and spicy!

Week 18

Tomatoes
Buttercup and or acorn squash
Summer squash
Garlic
Basil
Beans
Turnip greens

Have a nice weekend and week!

Vicky and Steve

Week 17 a plea, a goodbye and what's that smell?

2010-09-10T20:12:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Please all, anything you can do to bring some rain would be wonderful! It will be three weeks Monday since we had a drop of rain, so the Fall crops that we had to delay planting because it was so hot, had a little rain on the 23rd, but nothing since. This has been now officially the hottest Summer on record and many farmers in Maryland have lost up to 70% of their crops because of it. It's a business that can succeed or fail no matter what you do, so much of it is totally out of your hands.

OK enough of the sad tale of farming.

There is however another reason I'm a bit sad today though...we are saying goodbye to a couple of friends that we have grown quite accustomed to, Beta Vulgaris and Cucumis Sativis. They have been good to us this season and I hope you've enjoyed there presence, but this will be the last week for beets and cucumbers. The Fall beets never germinated, so see you in the Spring. You will be getting a cute little pumpkin that is a pie pumpkin that you can use for pie filling or use as you would any winter squash.

Vicky's been making sauce all week and I've been eating it all week. Anytime you walk anywhere near the house the aroma of this incredible sauce is wafting through the air. It's like I've been beamed over to Italy and am wandering outside Luigi's trattoria. I sneak into the kitchen to dip a buttered piece of bread into the boiling caldron and inevitably am caught by the cook yelling," Get out of there, it's not ready yet!"

In your crates Week 17:

Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Beets or Eggplant
Rosemary
Summer Squash
Pie Pumpkin
Beans
Swiss Chard

Have a great weekend and week.

Vicky and Steve

Week 16

2010-09-03T15:17:00.002-04:00

Hi,

Well, here we are at week 16 and as I may have mentioned before, the winter squash is about a month ahead of where it usually is, due to the record setting heat this Summer. Thus you will start receiving some winter squash in your weekly crates. Although spaghetti squash is classified as a winter squash, winter squash to us is, Hubbard, butternut, buttercup, acorn, pumpkin, anything that is orange inside. We start you off this week with a Hubbard type called a Kabocha. Ours is a scarlet kabocha called sunshine. Flesh should be bright orange, smooth, sweet and great for baking, mashing and pies. The potatoes this week are small baking potatoes that can be baked, used as home fries, or the real little ones, steamed and mixed with salt, pepper, herbs and butter.

We worked on the grapes this week and they have grown incredibly this summer. All are seedless eating grapes and we hope to have a few next season. I let one concord vine set a small cluster this summer and tasted one this past Wednesday. Without saying a word I called for Vicky to come up and handed her one. I think her direct quote was,"Now that's what a grape is supposed to taste like." She apparently liked it.

This week in the crates:

Tomatoes
Potatoes
Hot Peppers
Garlic
Summer Squash Variety Pack
Beets
Parsley
Kabocha (winter squash)
Beans

Week 15 and The Case of "what did we just microwave?"

2010-08-27T22:37:00.000-04:00

Hey Everybody,

Week 15 finds the winter squash way ahead of schedule and the tomatoes beginning their slow down that will end soon with no more of those delicious fruits! More lettuces were planted today for fresh salads this Fall.

Spaghetti Squash is in your crates this week and we had never tried it before, so before we let you all crack into one I went out into the staging area (the garage) where all the veggies are brought in and sorted etc. and grabbed a spaghetti squash to try out. You can cut them up or cook them whole. You can bake or microwave. For the sake of speed and not really goodness, we decided to stick it in the microwave whole. I punctured it a few times so it wouldn't build up pressure and explode, set the timer for 12 minutes and off we went. When the timer dinged that it was done, we pulled the squash out of the microwave and let it sit for the prescribed 5 minutes to let the inside steam. When it was done steaming we took a knife, hacked the squash in half, and prepared to take the seed core out and test our spaghetti squash. Well, when we looked inside the squash was very watery in the middle and there was a greenish color all around the edges of the squash. Vicky looked at me and said,"Honey, I don't think we'll be giving out spaghetti squash, it looks horrible." I wasn't ready to throw in the towel. I examined the weird looking squash. I tasted the hot horrible tasting squash, and determined then and there that we had just microwaved..... a honeydew melon.

When we later cooked an actual spaghetti squash it was very good. Hope you enjoy them.

In your crates this week:

Spaghetti Squash
Summer Squash Variety
Tomatoes
Basil
Sweet Peppers
Young Swiss Chard
String Beans
Onions
Cucumbers

Steve and Vicky

Week 14

2010-08-24T17:16:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Week 14 finds many items in the crates. We are including a basket of Big Mama and San Marzano tomatoes, along with the regular Heirlooms and Beefsteaks. The mamas and marzanos are great for bruschetta and salsa. Just a reminder, for you sauce makers out there, we have crates of the Big Mamas and San Marzanos for $15 for 30+ pounds.

This will be the last week for the Cantaloupes. Last year we didn't have much luck with the melons and this year they came on like crazy. Next year we will stagger the planting to get them more throughout the season.

The Patty Pan squash (flying saucer) is cooked like any other squash, you don't have to skin it.

For you Sweet Potato fans...I dug into them yesterday to see how they were doing and found them to be massive and beautiful. They should cure for a couple of weeks after they're dug, so you'll see them coming to a crate near you soon!

Many of the Fall crops have been planted in the last week including, radishes, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, turnips, kale, a variety of lettuces, kohlrabi, snap and sugar peas, and beets.

In the crates this week:

Tomatoes
White Potatoes
Hot Peppers-the redder the hotter
Squash
Garlic
Eggplant
String Beans
Onions
Basil
Cantaloupe

Steve and Vicky

Week 13

2010-08-13T20:15:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Week 13 finds us relaxed after a nice rain and a day today, 8/13, that was in the 70's with a breeze...how refreshing after a Summer that has been consistently 90 or above everyday. We know we promised a break from the squash, however, a couple of new varieties are coming in a bit quicker than we thought and at least one will be in your crate this week. The yellow and green squash is called zephyr and is a hybrid of summer squash and zucchini. So now you can have all in one! Also, to cut down on the squash onslaught a bit, you will have a few squash blossoms. The female blossom makes the fruit and may have a little tiny squash on the end of it, and the male blossom does not have the fruit on it, but as everyone knows, plays a very important role in making the fruit happen. Without the very important male blossom there would be no fruit at all, none, not a thing. The female would just be hanging there and that would be about it. (excuse me for a moment...what Vicky.....that's enough about the important role the male blossom plays?...okay..sorry....where was I) Oh yeah, the squash blossoms, anyway, they are very edible and if you Google squash blossoms and then click on the seasonal chef site that pops up you'll find a bunch of recipes. We'll post some of those as well. I hesitantly ate one today and found it very tender and for me, it finished with a slight vanilla taste....very nice.

This week we celebrate the beginning of the Ravens season with a pint of purple potatoes...enjoy.

Week 13

Squash blossoms
Rosemary
Corn
Potatoes
Green Beans with a few purple ravens beans mixed in..don't worry they turn green when you cook them
Tomatoes
Beets
Carrots
Squash
Sweet peppers
Cantaloupe

Have a great week!

Steve and Vicky

Week 12

2010-08-08T08:48:00.002-04:00

Hi all,

Week twelve, we're halfway through the CSA season! The farm received a
much needed inch of rain yesterday. Many of the crops seemed to just stop growing, but I'm sure with this little kick in the butt things will
get back to business. This will probably be the last week for awhile
that you'll be getting summer squash and zucchini.....whoa...what was that...a group cheer, that's not nice. Green beans and beets make a comeback this week. The new chickens are here and in the coolers. Well, we wanted them smaller and guess what, they are. No more giants in this bunch. Most are the size of your typical rotisserie or broiler chicken four to five pound range and a few that we actually classified as Cornish game hens. In your crates this week will be:

Summer Squash
Cantaloupe
Green Beans
Beets
Swiss Chard
Eggplant
Cucumbers
Basil
Tomatoes

Good eating to one and all!

Steve and Vicky

WeeK 11

2010-07-30T20:42:00.000-04:00

Hello Farm Friends,

Week 11 finds us beginning to be overwhelmed with...........you guessed it tomatoes. They are really starting to come on now and you will find a hefty quantity in your crates this week. Paul Robsons, Cherokee Purples, Brandywines, Goldies, Big Beefs, Early Girls, Big Mamas and orange, red and yellow cherries. In "pepper world" a new pepper arrives this week it's a Hungarian Hot Wax pepper. They look somewhat like a banana pepper and are yellow-orange in color. They are a hotter pepper. We have had a couple of requests for green tomatoes. They are wonderfully tart when they are fried. Let us know if you're interested in having some.

This week's crate includes:

Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Yellow Squash
Corn (butter and sugar...yellow and white)
Onions
Garlic
Peppers
Basil

If you would like a fresh chicken, as opposed to frozen, the next batch will be in the coolers 8/5-8/8. These should run 5-6 pounds.

Also, you folks at Rohini's pick up on Park Heights, we would love to have you visit the farm and see where your food is coming from. Feel free anytime you would like.

BTW Thank you for the recipes. They are all posted on the web site under recipes.

Steve and Vicky

Week 10

2010-07-24T11:26:00.000-04:00

Hi Friends,

Wanted to thank everyone for their recipes last week. They haven't shown up yet because we are trying to construct a separate recipe page on the site. It should be done soon.

Week 10 is here and you will find some new items in your crates this week, eggplants and a variety of peppers. One of the peppers you may find is a long, crinkled up red one that looks deadly, it is not, it's a Jimmy Nardello sweet pepper that is supposed to be one of the best frying peppers there is. The drought didn't do any favors to the tomatoes, you may find some with cracks in them, but they still taste real good! Speaking of tomatoes you will find a horribly ugly heirloom tomato that is green on top and reddish on the bottom. It won't look ripe but it is, it's a Paul Robeson tomato and we think you'll find it delicious. Paul Robeson was an African-American opera singer in the fifties that was a star in Russia. They loved him so much they named a variety of tomato after him and that's the one in your crate this week. We've been experimenting with some lettuce during this scorching summer and most has not been successful, but the arugula is tender and tasty. It has a few holes in it, which proves it hasn't been sprayed with something to kill everything. It's really got a nice spicy kick to it.

Hope all is well and we'll see you this week.

Week 10

Arugula
Eggplant or Carrots
Peppers
White Potatoes
Green and Yellow Zucchini
Cucumbers
Tomatoes
Sweet Corn

Week 9

2010-07-17T10:45:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Thank you all so much for performing your rain dances! I understand many of your neighbors called the authorities while observing your strange behavior, but you at least got the rain here. We received nearly 6 inches of rain between last Friday and this past Wednesday. It's an incredible phenomenon to see what a good rain does to the crops. You can water your brains out, but it's just not the same as a natural rain. Things are looking great right now. We had almost given up on the last summer crops we had planted and then the rains came and everything has popped out of the ground and are beginning to grow.

We extracted 5 gallons of honey this past week. It's delicious. $7 a pint, that's about a pound and a third, and $12 a quart that's 3 pounds.

This week in your crates you will find:

The first of the tomatoes (yahoo)
Blush (a cross of red and Yukon gold) or white potatoes
Cucumbers
Zucchini (green and yellow)
Yellow Crookneck squash (buttery)
Green Beans
Carrots
Swiss Chard (new recipe on www.rousedalefarm.com
Sweet Corn!!!!!!!!!!

If anyone else would like to share any recipes, please do.

Have a great week!

Steve and Vicky

Maryland Farms

2010-07-14T12:48:00.000-04:00

For more information on local farms and their offerings check out

http://www.marylandagriculture.info

We were honored with having web site of the week on their site this week!

Honey, Chickens and Eggs, Oh My!

2010-07-11T23:42:00.000-04:00

I keep receiving inquires about the chicken, eggs and honey and whether they are available to just the CSA members or can non members enjoy them as well. The answer is that they are available to everyone. We always have eggs. We have chicken whole and cut up year round now and I am extracting, what I hope will be, many pounds of honey tomorrow. So if you're interested, just drop by the farm or drop us an email.

Week 8

2010-07-10T12:26:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting here Saturday morning writing to you as the rain is falling. You have no idea what a relief it is to us. So much of our time has been taken away from other projects so we could water every day and deciding what was the most important to water each particular day. Not only that, but the constant fear that you're stressing the well or well pump. So far, on our way to an inch and it still is a beautiful steady rain. OK...geez, I don't think I've ever been so emotional about rain.

You will notice that your shares will be in new 1/2 bushel wooden crates with the Rousedale Farm logo on the side. You're number is on the bottom and on the support corners on the top. These are solid, should last forever, and you won't have a crappy cardboard box to look at all week.

Week 8

Green Beans
Summer Squash
Onions
Garlic
Potatoes
Cucumbers

Cherry Tomatoes are ripening and the rest of the tomatoes are starting to move away from green. Corn next week?..could be.

Vicky and Steve

Week 7

2010-07-03T10:27:00.002-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Week 7 is here already and the farm is a very busy place, as massive watering has been added to the daily chores. We have had 5/8 inch of rain in the last 20 days and most crops like an inch a week, so we are very dry. The summer squash is coming on like gangbusters and the cucumbers have begun along with the red potatoes and carrots. The beans, corn and tomatoes aren't far behind. This week's share consists of:

Red Potatoes
Summer Squash
Pickling Cucumbers (you don't have to pickle them to enjoy them or be pickled to enjoy them)
Swiss Chard (recipe on web site)
Onions
Garlic
Golden Beets
Carrots

Remember we still have a stock of chicken in the freezer, eggs are always available and we will be extracting honey in another week or so with our brand new shiny extractor!

All the best!

Vicky and Steve

Week 6

2010-06-26T11:48:00.000-04:00

It's been 12 days straight with no rain here at the farm with temperatures consistently in the nineties and things are getting quite dry. We had one of our helpers Zak water yesterday and he literally watered for 8 hours. I don't know how he did it, I would have been an insane lunatic if I had to water for 8 straight hours. Our farm help, Michael, Tina, and Zak have been a great help this season and continue to accomplish so much when they're here. We planted 15 peach trees this week with hopes of having peaches as part of your share as we move into future years.

Here's what to expect for Week 6:

Saturday

Blueberries
Garlic
Beets
Spinach
Lettuce
Cabbage
Swiss Chard
Summer Squash Teaser
Kale

Wednesday

Garlic
Cabbage
Squash
Spinach
Lettuce
Swiss Chard
Beets
Blueberries?
Onions

Week 5 and the case of the "Radish Caper"

2010-06-19T10:53:00.002-04:00

We had found some rogue radishes and offered them up to anyone who enjoyed a nice refreshing radish on pick up day at the farm. So, a few of you took me up on the offer and left with a nice bunch of radishes on Wednesday along with everything else. If you have tasted the "radishes" yet, you're probably thinking to yourself or out loud to all around you, that those could have been the worst tasting radishes on the planet. That's what I thought too Wednesday night when I bite into one and that's when I figured out......those weren't radishes, they were baby beets!

Hopefully I'll be able to tell an onion from a blueberry in this week's box which will include:

Blueberries
Garlic Scapes
Onions
Mild Mix Lettuces
Arugula
Spinach
Peas
Beets

What to do with a garlic scape?

2010-06-19T10:48:00.000-04:00

Garlic Scape Pesto

The curly garlic scape made its appearance at many a farmers market this summer, confusing some with its curly, scallion-like appearance. The scape, which is the flowering, curly, central stalk of the garlic plant, has a pleasing, mild garlic flavor that translates well in this pesto. Try it on pasta or crackers or crusty bread.

(serves 8)
1/4 pound garlic scapes, chopped into one-inch lengths (seed bulb portion and above discarded)
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt or more to taste

Puree scapes and nuts in a food processor until finely chopped. With the machine running, slowly add the olive oil until smooth. Stir in Parmesan, lemon juice and salt to taste. Serve on bread, crackers or pasta.

Week 4

2010-06-11T10:24:00.002-04:00

Hi Everyone,

Here's what to expect in your week 4 box:

Blueberries
Spinach
Beets
Purple Kohlrabi
Onions
Mild Lettuce Mix
Sugar Snap Peas

Also chickens are fresh and looking good...most in the 7-8 pound range.

See you Saturday and Wednesday!

Vicky and Steve

Fresh Chicken

2010-06-09T11:14:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

The chickens will be in Thursday afternoon 6/10 and will be kept in the cooler fresh until Sunday evening at which time into the freezer they go. They are free range, all natural chickens, raised here on the farm. We will offer cut up and whole. I believe they will be quite large again this round, 8-lbs.. average. The price has been set at $2.99 per pound for whole and 3.19 per pound cut up. The cut up packages will include the whole chicken with the whole breast, the legs and thighs, and the back (good for soup). So four pieces. It's easy to split the breasts once you're ready to cook.

For the Saturday Park Heights crew, let's us know if you would like us to bring any with your CSA delivery this Saturday.

Steve

What the "Hail"

2010-06-06T23:22:00.000-04:00

Just wanted you all to know that Friday evening a tremendous storm came through the Fallston area. There have been some reports of a tornado touching down a short distance from the farm. We received incredible high winds, a virtual downpour of rain, and the farmer's nightmare...hail. Many of our crops received some pretty severe damage. We'll see how things play out, but you may see a slightly smaller box of goods the next couple of weeks. Walking around the place looking at the plants, it looks like they were just hacked up or shot up with buckshot. Many of the bigger leaves, like the spinach, has holes sliced right through them where the hail just plowed through. The strawberries really got mangled, so it's doubtful they will recover in time for Wednesday's pick up. You Saturday folks lucked out because we picked most of your items Friday afternoon, just before the storm hit.

It's amazing how in maybe two minutes, things can be totally wiped out. The good news is that we aren't totally wiped out and will be fine. The blueberry bushes seemed to weather the hail pretty well. Many of the ripe berries were knocked off the branches and onto the ground. The only thing we could do was to collect them and eat them immediately...there's always a silver lining.

Vicky and Steve

Rousedale Farm CSA Week 3....plus the broccoli and cauliflower quandry

2010-06-04T13:18:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone!

Your boxes for week three will include:

Cauliflower (more on that in a moment)
Strawberries
Spinach
Sugar Snap Peas
Snow Peas
Romaine Lettuce
Iceberg Lettuce
Mild Mix
Spicy Mix
Spring Onions
Radishes
Red Russian Kale

A quick note on Broccoli and Cauliflower.....

It is very tough to grow these two vegetable in the Spring in our area of Maryland. Many growers have thrown in the towel and given up on springtime B&C. The problem is, it gets so hot so fast, these two cole crops don't perform well in the heat. The fall crops of these two are usually wonderful. That's why many have decided to just go for the Fall crops instead of Spring and Fall. We keep trying. Last year we threw it all out. It looked great, but tasted extremely bitter. Last week we picked all of our broccoli, as it got so hot, and threw half of it out. We taste tested all of it and felt the broccoli you received last week was OK, not fall like, but not bad. That brings us to the Cauliflower this week...I harvested all the cauliflower this week as the extreme heat was killing it. It doesn't look beautiful, but we cooked some up and it tastes fine. We would suggest cooking it instead of eating it raw. Raw, a bit of the bitterness comes through.

This Fall you will see a huge difference in these two crops.

So, will we try again next Spring for Broccoli and Cauliflower? Vicky says no, I say let me try one more year planting it under row covers so we can get in the ground a week earlier and see what happens. Really that's all we're talking here is a week or two that could make all the difference in the world.....maybe.

Steve

Who Wants Peas?

2010-06-02T00:08:00.000-04:00

If you're interested...we have an abundance of snow peas and sugar snap peas that are delicious. Please email us and we can give you the price and a time to pick them up

What to do with that big head of Bok Choy in your box this week.

2010-05-22T11:47:00.001-04:00

Bok Choy is a member of the cabbage family and quite popular in Asian cuisine. Also known as Chinese white cabbage, among other names, it is frequently found in wonton soup and many stir-fry dishes ordered in Japanese and Chinese restaurants. Mildly flavored with a tender sweetness, bok choy is a welcome accompaniment to many meals without being overpowering. It can be found fresh year-round in supermarkets.

Important health benefits that have been associated with consuming bok choy include its abilities to aid in healthy digestion. It is high in vitamin A, vitamin C, beta-carotene, calcium and dietary fiber. The leafy vegetable is lowfat, low calorie, and low carb, and also contains potassium and vitamin B6. Some of the vitamins found in bok choy are also powerful antioxidants, making this tasty cabbage an extremely healthy treat.

The rich amount of beta-carotene inherent in bok choy can help to reduce the risk of certain cancers. Beta-carotene has also been known to reduce the risk of cataracts. Bok choy is also an excellent source of folic acid, and can also contain other healthful nutrients like iron.

Bok Choy Salad

1/2 cup butter

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup sesame seed

2 (3 ounce) packages ramen noodles (uncooked, broken up, & do not use seasoning packs)

1 (3 ounce) package sliced almonds

1 (2 lb) bok choy

3 stalks green onions with tops

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Directions

In large pan melt butter and add sugar, broken ramen noodles, almonds.

Brown and set aside to cool. After cooled, break up and set aside in small bowl.

Wash and chop/shred bok choy (smaller is better) and green onions in large salad bowl.

For Dressing

Mix vegetable oil, red wine vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce. Mix well.

Just prior to serving the salad, mix bok choy, ramen noodles mixture and sunflower seeds together. Then add dressing over salad and mix.

Note: You could also grill chicken that has been marinated in garlic, olive oil, red wine vinegar and soy sauce. Cube or shred chicken and add to salad for a complete summer supper.

Bok Choy Stir Fry Recipe

1 1/2 pounds bok choy or baby bok choy

1 1/2 tablespoons canola, vegetable or peanut oil

1-2 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

3 tablespoons broth or water (or 2 tablespoons broth/water + 1 tablespoon wine)

salt to taste

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

1. Start by trimming the stem off – don’t trim too much – just the end. Cutting the thick stem off will ensure that the bok choy cooks evenly. Separate out the leaves, keep the tender center intact and clean under running water. Drain.

2. Finely mince garlic and grate fresh ginger with a microplane grater. Grating the ginger helps break up the tough fibers! (and yeah, sometimes when the ginger is nice and fresh, I don’t even bother peeling off the paper-thin skin)

3. Place wok or frying pan on your stove and pour in the cooking oil. Add the garlic and ginger. Turn the heat to medium-high. Let the ginger and garlic gently sizzle in the oil. When the aromatics become fragrant and light golden brown, add the bok choy leaves. Toss very well to coat each leaf with the garlicky, gingery oil for 15 seconds. Pour in broth, water or wine. Immediately cover and let cook for 1 minute. Season with salt and drizzle a bit of sesame oil on top.

Some info and a couple of recipes for Broccoli Rabe...it's in your box this week!

2010-05-22T11:36:00.002-04:00

Broccoli Rabe - Information and Recipes

Broccoli rabe is becoming ever more trendy because of its nutritional benefits and savory qualities, but its pungent taste is not for everyone. Blanching it is a must.

Broccoli rabe (pronounced rob) is a member of the enormous brassica family tree and a relative newcomer to the U.S. culinary scene. It goes by many aliases, such as choi sum, rapini, broccoli de rape, taitcat and broccoli raab. A few of its many relatives include turnips, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, radishes, kohlrabi, rutabaga, and good old everyday broccoli. But its relationship to broccoli is a very distant one in spite of the strong family resemblance. Broccoli rabe’s character is far more brassy and in-your-face.

Broccoli Rabe Info for the Cook

Rabe is a bitter green and an acquired taste for many. Those who like other bitter or assertive greens such as endive, chicory, radicchio, or arugula will probably be attracted to it. It teams well with other strong flavorings, like garlic and heady olive oils. While many recipes do call for blanching it, there are those that do not. However, it would always be better to blanch it to tone down the bitterness a bit, as it will result in the best of both worlds. Those who like the bitter quality will have enough of it to be happy and those that don’t want too much of it will probably be all right with it too. Anything that could help increase broccoli rabe’s following is a good thing, as it has multiple benefits for the wellness gang.

Broccoli Rabe Nutrition

This cruciferous vegetable packs mega-doses of “healthy,” as do many of its relatives such as cabbage or Brussels sprouts. Just 85 cooked grams (~3 oz.) supplies 10% of recommended fiber, 77% of Vitamin A, 52% of Vitamin C, 10% of calcium, and 6% of iron, and all at a low cost of 28 calories. It is also a good source of Vitamins E and K, potassium, folate, and phosphorus. A complete listing of its nutritional benefits is at the USDA National Nutrient Database.

Broccoli Rabe and Sausage Sandwich with Sharp Provolone

1 small bunch broccoli rabe, stems removed

1 small minced garlic clove, optional

2 tsp olive oil

A few shakes of crushed red pepper

Salt, to taste

1 small 8-9 inch loaf crusty Italian bread (I like Ciabatta)

2 tsp olive oil

4 slices sharp Provolone cheese

Some crushed red pepper

2 links Italian sausage

1 tsp olive oil

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Boil broccoli rabe for 1-1 ½ minutes; drain. Plunge in a bowl of ice water. Shocking the rabe will maintain its vivid green color and stop them from cooking.
In a skillet, add 2 tsp olive oil and garlic. Sauté until garlic starts to turn golden. Add broccoli rabe, crushed red pepper, and salt. Sauté 1-2 minutes more. Remove from heat.
Slice loaf in half to make 2 sandwiches. Brush the center of the bread with the olive oil. Place under the broiler for 3-4 minutes, or until golden and crunchy.
Slice sausage links in half. Add 1 tsp olive oil to a skillet, and pan sear 5-7 minutes per side, or until they are brown and crispy.

To make the sandwiches, add the provolone cheese to the hot bread. Top with sausage and broccoli rabe. Season with crushed red pepper and salt. Serve right away while the cheese is hot and melty.

Rapini Saute

1 bunch Rapini

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

2-3 garlic cloves

salt and pepper to taste

To prepare:

Rinse Rapini and cut off base of stems. Cut crosswise into 2-inch lengths. Drop into large saucepan full of boiling salted water for 1 minute. Drain well.

To cook:

Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add minced cloves of garlic and cook 2 to 3 minutes. Add Rapini; cook and stir until just tender (about 5 to 8 minutes).
Season with salt and pepper and a dash of cayenne pepper, hot pepper sauce or red pepper flakes, if you wish.
Serve as is or add hot, cooked penne or other pasta. Or, try adding cooked white beans with plenty of shredded parmesan cheese for a topping.

Thank You Rousedale Farm Egg Customers

2010-05-19T01:37:00.001-04:00

Just a quick thank you very much for supporting local agriculture and in particular our endeavors to bring you great tasting all natural and organic products. The growth in our free range egg deliveries this year has been outstanding. We have increased ten fold compared to last year at this time. So, again, THANK YOU

Fresh Chicken the Weekend of June 12

2010-05-19T01:28:00.000-04:00

Our free range chicken will be ready for the grill, stove top, oven or freezer on June12. If you would like them fresh, let us know and you can pick them up on the weekend of June12. After that they will reside in the freezer. The all natural chicken is $2.99 per pound.

The 2010 CSA Begins!

2010-05-19T01:22:00.000-04:00

This Saturday and next Wednesday our 2010 CSA begins. We're excited, we have a full membership and already many on the waiting list for next year. It looks like the first share box will be filled with strawberries, bags of salad mix greens, both mild and spicy, a bunch of broccoli raab, a bag of spinach, a variety bunch of radishes, a jar of our honey, bok choy, a bunch of red kale, a bunch of spring onions, and we're hoping the sugar snap peas, the snow peas and the broccoli will make it for this first week. If not this week, very soon.

Remember for members picking up at the farm Saturday 5/22, the hours are 10-5. If you pick up at the Park Heights location Saturday, the hours are 12:30-2:30. If you pick up at the farm on Wednesday 5/26, the hours are 10-8.

Chickens in da house

2010-04-12T11:32:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to let you know that the first batch of the meat chickens have arrived and the incredible edibles will be ready for the grill or freezer by mid June. We will do a second batch this year to be ready in early September. The all natural, free range birds can be purchased here or send us an email for delivery. The cost this year should be around $2.99 per pound.

Spring Planting

2010-04-12T11:27:00.000-04:00

It's been almost a month since the last update, I'll try to do better. It's been very busy around the farm. Most of the spring crops are in the ground and we'll be adding to them as we go through the next few weeks as we try to stagger plantings so every thing doesn't come all at once. Beets, radishes, snow and sugar snap peas, onions, leeks, potatoes, spinach, salad greens, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, cabbage, broccloi raab, kohlrabi, strawberries and, I'm sure I'm forgetting something, are all in. The strawberries, that we planted last fall are growing gangbusters. The blueberries, grapes and asparagus are all doing well too. Ah, the asparagus....the asparagus is shooting up like crazy. I don't think I have ever had asparagus cooked up fresh five minutes after picking. Oh...my ..God incredible!!! Even bulkier shoots are tender as velvet. (I'm not sure how tender velvet actually is, but you get the picture) It's the first year, by asparagus law that we are allowed to pick some, so I don't want to go to crazy, but it's really good. A large area of crimson clover I planted last fall as a cover crop is growing well. We can't wait to see the red blooms covering the field. We hope the bees are appreciative. Speaking of the bees, all the colonies survived the winter and have been working hard these warm spring days. Even when nothing was blooming on the farm, they were bringing pollen back from somewhere. Standing by the hives you can see the saddlebags on their hind legs loaded with different colors.

Steve

Steve

Boy, it's wet!

2010-03-14T00:41:00.000-05:00

Well, there's good news and bad news....first the good news, all the snow is finally gone. Now the bad news, it's rained over two inches today into a ground that just absorbed four feet of melting snow. Yea, it's saturated. We do have many plants started inside, that's good news! I should be direct seeding a few things in a few days, don't see it happening, that's the bad news. So we work inside. Worked on a new chicken coop in the new barn so I can split up the flock. The purpose is to give them more ground to range on. Built a small area in the old barn for the broilers. They'll be coming April 7.

Noticed some erosion happening in one of the fields today with all the rain. Guess what, it was the one field I didn't get a cover crop on last fall. That won't happen again.

I have a friend who always plants his potatoes on St. Patrick's Day. I've always waited a little longer to get them in the ground, but I was thinking maybe this year I would try a few that early. I'm not sure that's going to be possible. A good sign that it's wet and muddy is when you're walking along and the next thing you know, you took a step, but your boot stayed in the mud behind you. I'm glad no one was taking any video of that dance.

Rousedale Farm in Baltimore Magazine!

2010-03-08T11:14:00.002-05:00

We have an incredible article in the March issue of Baltimore Magazine. You can read it in the magazine, complete with a few photos or check it out on line, minus the photos, at baltimoremagazine.net. A few months ago writer Jane Marion spent an afternoon with us talking a little about my past radio life, but mostly about the farm. You never know what to expect when someone shows up at your front door to write about you, but Jane is an incredible person and we enjoyed having her and loved the article. We had a great time with Cory Donovan too, who came a few days after Jane to take some photos. (hundreds of photos) I'm sure Cory's highlight was holding a frame full of bees I had pulled out of the hive so he could feel the weight of it filled with honey. It's funny, we never heard from him again.

Through that article we've received many emails asking about our CSA among other things. It really helped in getting the word out about what's going on here.

Thank you Jane!

Rousedale Farm eggs now at Savory Deli!

2010-03-08T11:06:00.002-05:00

Starting today you can purchase our eggs at Savory Deli in Fallston at Upper Crossraods on the corner of Baldwin Mill Road and 152 (Fallston Rd.) The eggs at Savory will be our brown eggs. Vicky and I discussed whether or not to include some white and green/turquoise eggs with them, like we do with our delivery customers. I felt people may intially be surprised and put off a bit when they opened up their dozen and had a turquoise egg staring them in the face. I mean, the egg itself is no different than any other egg, except the shell color, but if you've never seen one before..well... She thought it would be different and unique, I thought it would be scary. You're not going to beleive this, but I won! I still am in a bit of shock. I think that's the first discussion we've had that I actually got my way. What I'm expecting to happen is no one will by any eggs until we put a turquoise one in each dozen.

Thanks to Scott and the gang at Savory.

I think I smelled Spring!

2010-03-07T11:16:00.000-05:00

Oh man, Vicky and I went for a walk today and as we were walking up the road I told her I thought I smelled Spring. What a wonderful aroma that is. An earthy fragrance, that if it could be duplicated, could make an incredible room freshener. It seems so good to have the weather slowly getting warmer. I don't remember a winter like this ever and we STILL have snow on the ground in a lot of the garden areas. I was hoping to get a few early veggies in the ground soon under our row covers, but I may have to shovel snow to get them in! Up on the hill, where the blueberries are it's much better, drier and most of the snow is gone from the south facing slope. The strawberries? Still covered with snow. Happy to say that all three bee hives survived the winter. Now is a very important time to feed them some sugar water just to make sure they have enough to eat as the queen is starting to lay eggs and all the new brood will be hatching soon. The bees really need to be looked after this time of year. A lot of times you think you got them through the winter, but now is the time they will start eating the honey reserves in the hive more then during the colder months as they begin to come to life and start getting ready for Spring and if they eat up all the reserve and you aren't feeding them anything and there is certainly nothing blooming right now for them..it's bye bye bees.

We have such a great variety of veggies we're planting this year, we can't wait. Many heirloom varieties of vegetables will be grown. We have become a country that is so force-fed by the industrial food complex, that we have almost forgotten what a real tomato or carrot tastes like. If you haven't experienced trying some of the multitude of heirloom or different varieties, instead of the one or two you find in the supermarket, you're in for a treat when you do!

We have ordered our first batch of meat chickens. We'll start with 100 on April 7. They should be ready for the table by the first or second week of June. When they're done we'll start another 100. Hopefully we'll have plenty for sale from June through the end of the year.

Vicky's got many of our early vegetables already growing inside. I'm excited to get stuff in the ground!!

Steve

Winter Wonderland/Oily Food

2010-02-06T19:35:00.000-05:00

26 inches of snow here at the farm! Twenty six!! So that's two incredible snow falls this Winter so far. Baltimore, which were near, is close or may have surpassed the record snowfall for a winter season. While we've been snowed in, I've started to read Barbara Kingsolver's book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle." I wanted to share her insert in the book entitled "oily food". She writes, "Americans put almost as much fossil fuel into our refrigerators as our cars. We're consuming about 400 gallons of oil a year per citizen-about 17 percent of our nation's energy use-for agriculture, a close second to vehicular use. Tractors, combines, harvesters, irrigation, sprayers, tillers, balers, and other equipment all use petroleum. Even bigger gas guzzlers on the farm are not the machines, but the so-called inputs. Synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides use oil and natural gas as their starting materials, and in their manufacturing. More than a quarter of all farming energy goes into synthetic fertilizers. But getting the crop from seed to harvest takes only one-fifth of the total oil used for our food. The lion's share is consumed during the trip from the farm to your plate. Each food item in a typical U.S. meal has traveled an average of 1,500 miles! If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week. That's not gallons, but barrels. Becoming a less energy-dependent nation may just need to start with a good breakfast."

Another great book I've read this winter is "The Omnivore's Dilemma"

Seeds and plants are ordered for this season, more on what's going in the ground at Rousedale in the next blog.

Message to all....find a farmer!

Steve

Here's what's happening on the farm!

2010-01-01T19:29:00.000-05:00

Hi everybody,

This winter has been pretty rough and it's just begun! Thanks to neighbor Ken for plowing us out when we got 20 inches of snow a couple of weeks ago. I think we would have been snowed in for a week. The average snowfall for the entire month of December here is 1.7 inches and we got 20 inches in a day! It was so wet in the fall and now so snowy it's been tough to clean up some of the garden areas from the fall harvests. I finally took Hank the tractor and the big tiller out a couple of days ago and even though the top inch or so of the ground was frozen, I was able to till under much of the remnants of the fall crops like broccoli, cauliflower, lettuces, some herbs etc. and get them into the soil to start adding more organic matter. It just looks better all cleaned up too.

A lot of the newer chickens are beginning to lay their eggs right on schedule. It usually takes about 5 months for them to start laying. The first couple of weeks that they lay, the eggs are much smaller then what they will be once they get rollin'. Just a reminder, I deliver eggs in the Fallston area every other Thursday and once a month to many other areas. If you're interested just send me an email and we'll get you on the list for delicious fresh, free range eggs from happy chickens. Also if you're interested in having a small flock of your own, I will be happy to part with a few of the newer girls that are just starting to lay. These would be perfect for you to start with.

We're already starting to cruise through seed catalogs and are starting to plan for this coming year. I planted some strawberries this past fall in hopes we could have some fresh strawberries this spring for our CSA customers and for us too, without having to wait a year before we could enjoy them. They seem to have gotten a good foothold, we'll see how they winter over. Of course the garlic is in the ground and should be ready in June or so. This year we planted a type of garlic called "music". It's very tasty and the name is the best!

We have heated with wood for almost 30 years. Here at Rousedale for 17 years. Here we have two woodstove inserts in fireplaces that have done the job. This fall I purchased an outdoor wood furnace. This is not one of the hot water boiler types, but rather, a forced air system that I hooked right into the duct work of the house. It works pretty well and it keeps the dust and mess out of the house. When it's been really cold and windy, we still start the wood stove in the family room just make it a little more cozy. I do have to say, though, that the furnace is doing a pretty surprising job.

We still have a few spots still available for this year's CSA and plenty of eggs, drop us an email if you need any information beyond what's on the site.

Happy New Year!

Steve

Cream of Cauliflower Soup

2009-11-28T17:04:00.000-05:00

We had a luncheon for our CSA members at the farm at the end of the 2009 season and I remembered a soup recipe that I hadn’t made in years. Cream of Cauliflower soup. It’s really easy, really tasty and comes off as a very time consuming, forty ingredient, masterpiece. It’s a great way to use up some cauliflower too!

Prep time should take about 10 minutes.

Your ingredients are:

1 Large cauliflower
3 T butter
1 medium onion, chopped
3 T flour
3 cups milk
1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
3 vegetable bouillon cubes, crushed (a few times I couldn’t find vegetable bouillon cubes and used chicken bouillon with quarter cup of the cauliflower water in the roux)
Chopped parsley or chives and grated Parmesan cheese to garnish.

Trim cauliflower and steam until very tender. While cauliflower is steaming, sauté onion in the butter until softened. Add flour to butter and onion and cook for a few minutes, stirring to blend flour and butter. Slowly add 3 cups of milk, the sour cream or yogurt, and stir or whisk until thickened. Drain cauliflower and blend in a food processor until smooth. (this is where you can use some of the cauliflower steaming water as well). Process the milk mixture for a smoother texture. Add pureed cauliflower to the thickened milk mixture and stir well. Heat through. Garnish is the key to a wonderful finish on this soup. Salt and pepper to taste. Don’t over salt as the cheese adds a bit of salty taste.