The Final Harvest

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

Week 24 It's a Wrap

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hi Folks,

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

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

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

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

This week in your crates:

Blueberries

Romaine

Beets

Carrots

Basil

Salad mix

Spinach

Swiss Chard

Onions

Garlic

See you Wednesday!

Steve and Vicky

Week 5

Hi Everybody,

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

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

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

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

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

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

In your crates Week 5:

Blueberries

Garlic

Parsley

Onions

Salad Mix

Iceberg lettuce

Bibb lettuce

Radishes

Spinach

Kale

Cauliflower

See you Wednesday!

Steve and Vicky

Chickens:Sold Out!

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

One of our youngest CSA members

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

Week 4

Hi Everyone,


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

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

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

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

We should have Blueberries next week!

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

This week in your crates:

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

See you Wednesday.

Steve and Vicky

Week 3

Hi Everyone,

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

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

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

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

See you Wednesday!

Steve and Vicky

Week 2

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

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!

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

What's in the Mailbag

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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