Two of our smallest fans

Luke doesn't have many teeth (does he have any?) but somehow eats up the corn!

Auggie shows farmer Steve how to drive Hank the tractor

Farm Update

The chicken is in the house!!  Although we have already sold a bunch of our fresh chicken there is still plenty more to be had.  We will start putting what's left in the freezer Saturday morning. Many of the largest wholes and cut ups have been sold, but we still have plenty of whole birds from 2.5 to 4.5 pounds and cut ups from 1.7 to 3.7 pounds.  We also have chicken livers and hearts packaged in one pound bags.  For you folks that like to make your own stock we have some backs and feet as well.  I want to apologize to the customers that came in around noon Wednesday to pick up their birds and they weren't here yet.  They were ready for pick up a little later than noon and I had forgotten I had a dentist appointment at one.  As anyone in his right mind would have, I seriously considered cancelling the dental appointment on the count of I had to pick up 117 chickens.  I can hear the conversation now..."um hi it's Steve Rouse.  I have an appointment in an hour.  Um, I'm going to have to postpone it.  I have chickens I have to pick up that are, um bagged and ready.  I mean, they're dead and ready.  I mean they were alive and not ready, but now, oh never mind, see you at one."  Plus I got thinking, do I really want to upset a guy who attacks your mouth with a drill and an assortment of sharp instruments? Tomatoes are slowing down, but surprisingly enough, the heirlooms, cherokee purples and brandywines seem to be holding on a little better than the standard big beefs.  Squash is all but done, but our fall squash and cucumber experiment is coming along nicely.  They are all up and the warmer weather has been their friend.  We do have to say, however, that many of the other fall crops are having a hard time because we have had no rain since they have been planted.  We have been watering, but it's not the same as rain water for the plants. We are doing our first taste test of this year's sweet potatoes tonight.  If they taste sweet, we will have them available this weekend.  If not, will wait another week and taste test again. This week's bounty: Sweet Corn Tomatoes Garlic Beets Chicken Eggs Local Raw Honey Red Potatoes Basil Green Beans (Picking Saturday Morning) Arugula

See you soon! Remember Fall hours are Wednesday through Sunday 10-6 Locally yours, Vicky and Steve

Farm Update

Can you believe that Labor Day weekend is upon us and school buses have hit the roads again?  Here at the farm, all of our fall plantings are pretty well done.  We are expecting more broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower plants to arrive any day and once they're in the ground that will put a wrap on it.  Planted so far: radishes, lettuces, broccoli, cauliflower, turnips, swiss chard, kale, beets, bunching onions, potatoes, carrots, spinach.  We also had left over summer squash and cucumber seed that we have planted just to see what will happen.  That is actually the Rousedale Farm motto soon to be seen on signs everywhere, "Well, we'll see what happens."  We think if we have a warm fall, we might get another crop.  Ok, I hear the groans, "please no more squash, I beg of you!"   We will have fresh chicken in our coolers next Thursday, Friday and Saturday before it hits the freezer.  Whole chickens $4.50 per pound and whole cut up chickens $6.50 per pound.  This is the time to get the freshest chicken around!  Most whole birds should run between 4-5 pounds with a few below and a few larger.  The cut ups should range between 2-4 pounds.  If you would like to order anything, now is the time to let us know.  We have some photos of our chickens on our web site, www.rousedalefarm.com to show you how they are raised.  Quite unlike the normal store bought chickens.  I wanted to put up comparison pictures to show the differences.  I was quickly vetoed by Vicky with one word, "Gross"! Would anyone be interested in receiving produce delivery??  We are kicking around the idea for the Fall season.  We haven't work it totally out yet, but the premise would be...we send out our weekly list of what's available, you call or email in your order and we deliver on delivery day.  Any thoughts?  Any interest?  Please let us know. This week's bounty: Sweet Corn * Green Beans Cucumbers Summer Squash Beets Red Potatoes (all sizes) Tomatoes Arugula Garlic Local Raw Honey Eggs Chicken (beginning Thursday 9/5) *Please let us know in advance if you need more than a dozen ears, as we are not getting as much in the market with the slower season, but can if we know you need it. We will be open Monday Labor Day, but closed Tuesday  9/3. Have a great Holiday weekend! Vicky and Steve

See you soon! A little different than the industrial poultry houses!

Farm Update

Here's what's happening at the farm! It should be obvious to you folks that have been receiving our emails for a while that our look has changed substantially. We are trying a new newsletter look with a few bells and whistles. Unfortunately with bells and whistles come mess ups and failures. While transferring all the email addresses last night until 2:30am, I may have dozed off a couple of times and a twitchy sleep deprived hand may have erased or added strange addresses or eliminated some. We hope you will let us know if any changes have to be made. We have been extremely busy this week harvesting and planting. Harvesting not only gives you some nice fresh organic veggies, but it also creates room to plant some new items for fall. Harvested this week along with the regular squash, tomatoes etc. We have dug 400 pounds of Red Pontiac potatoes and 80 pounds of sweet potatoes. The reds are ready to rock, the sweets will have to cure for 2-3 weeks to allow the enzymes in the potatoes to turn into sugar. Thus the name. Without waiting they would be called "tasteless taters". We found that out last year along with some of our customers. Don't worry we allowed those unruly customers, picketing out in front of the farm, to trade them in for another food item of their choice. This week's bounty: Sweet corn Our organic corn this weekend Tomatoes Red Potatoes Green Beans Garlic Beets Summer Squash Carrots Arugula Local Raw Honey Egg Plant (Friday through the weekend) Cucumbers (Friday through the weekend) Eggs

See you soon at the farm! Open 9-7 everyday. Locally yours, Vicky and Steve

Farm Update

Look at that Heirloom!!  I don't mean Vicky.  That was a two pound Brandywine

This is just one tomato in our 12 inch skillet

Newcomers to the farm

Can you see the black snake?  Nice surprise when I reached for the gate!

Hi All,

Okay two nights ago I was sweating trying to go to sleep, this morning the heater kicked on! What a crazy summer.

I have to apologize to the customer that was coming down the drive just as I spotted a hawk dive bombing the chickens. I was out planting, when I heard the chickens squawking and looked up to see them running for the coop as a small hawk was flying above them. I got up off my knees and sprinted, well I say sprinted, my sprint these days looks more like a slow gallop of an old hobbled sway back horse. The timing couldn't have been better as a car was coming down the drive just as I was galloping across the field screaming with my arms flailing, what would have seemed to the driver, directly at her car. She said she saw the hawk, but didn't see me. I'm sure if she had, she would have made a u-turn and a quick exit.

This week and weekend we have:

Corn (non-GMO grown conventionally)

Beets

Garlic

Honey

Zucchini

Summer Squash

Green Beans (tender and delicious)

Chicken

Eggs

Cucumbers

Tomatoes

We're finally getting some of our fall crops in the ground. Broccoli, cauliflower and spinach have been planted. We will get lettuce, radish, Swiss chard, kale, turnips and potatoes in the ground today.

Hope to see you at the farm!

Vicky and Steve

What's Going On

Hi Everyone,

It's been a damp and soggy last couple of days, which has set us a bit behind in getting our Fall planting started. Some of the things we are planting are: Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Salad greens, spinach, Swiss chard, kale, carrots, bunching onions, turnips, beets, radishes, arugula, potatoes. If there's anything else you would like us to plant for you, let us know.

New meat chicks arrived this morning. They come through the mail and the people that work in the Fallston post office love me. This morning the call that I received went something like,"Steve, oh my god can you come and get these noisy birds a sap!" I usually try to give them an hour or so of joyous chirping before I manage to get there.

We do have some chicken on hand from last week's processing. The next batch will go, we're thinking, the first week of September. We do have a few advance orders, but plenty of room if you would like to order in advance. You don't have to advance order, we will have chicken on hand to purchase as you go.

We have corn today (Wednesday) through the weekend. Cybee's chemical free honey and produce wanted to know if we would like any organically grown, no spray corn for our weekend customers. We were like, "DUH!" Buying it in volume we have been able to work out a price that is excellent for no spray corn. We will have that corn available Friday until it's gone.

Our Maple Border Farm regular silver king corn is $5.00 per dozen or .50 cents per ear

Our Rousedale Farm argent and sugar pearl organically grown corn already shucked is $8.00 per dozen or .80 cents per ear

Cybee's organically grown silver king will be $6.00 per dozen or .60 cents per ear.

Also now available:

Beets

Arugula

Tomatoes

Corn

Zucchini

Summer squash

Garlic

Green Beans

Cucumbers

Small onions

Green peppers

Eggs

Chicken

If you would like to call before you come to check on availability please do...410-215-6776

The sun will come out tomorrow! (now you'll be humming that the rest of the day, sorry)

Vicky and Steve

Heirlooms

So the heirloom tomato came in this morning and said,"Steve, I'm not feeling so good." I looked at him and said,"I think you need to be hydrated." The heirloom said, " I want a second opinion." I said, "Okay, you're ugly too!"

Well, we all know that the heirloom tomatoes are not that pretty, but have a huge taste. Vicky brought in some magnificent specimens today. There were some, however, that have cracked or in one way or the other have one or two blemishes. We feel that we can't sell them at the regular price. So, this weekend we will sell the blemished heirlooms for .50 cents a pound. Parts can be cut away and you should still get a lot of tomato.

Now that the tomatoes are really starting to come in, we will lower the tomato prices from $3.99 a pound for heirlooms to $2.99 a pound. The conventional tomatoes will go from $2.99 a pound to $2.49 a pound.

This weekend:

Tomatoes

Corn

Beets

Zucchini

Summer Squash

Onions

Garlic

Green Beans

Honey

Arugula

White Potatoes

Cucumbers

Chicken

Have a great weekend

Vicky and Steve