Heat Index:1018 degrees! Whoa Nelly it's hot. When I lived in Maine the natives would say,"It's a real scawchaw out they-aw, a-ya." That meant it was hot, a real scorcher out there, yes. A couple of news notes: The new restaurant in Fallston, Acappella, is using some of our produce and also Hayfields Country Club in Hunt Valley! In the Rousedale market this week: Green Beans Black Raspberries Sugar Snap Peas Napa Cabbage Summer Squash Zucchini Cucumbers (regular and English) Regular Cabbage Swiss Chard Leaf Lettuce Turnips Red Russian Kale See you soon!

Locally Yours, Vicky and Steve

Week 5

Hi Everyone,

I'll find any excuse to come inside today and get out of the heat! When everyone asked where I was going, I said I had to go and send our CSA members week 5 info. Thank you for being here for me!! 

This week you will find in your shares:

Napa Cabbage (the Kim Chi cabbage)

Cucumbers

Red Russian Kale

Leaf Lettuce

Yellow Squash

Zucchini

Zephyr (the yellow and green squash)

Turnips (best of the season so far)

Swiss Chard

Blueberries (pick your own)

Herbs (in the market so you can take whatever you would like)

We will have string beans for next week and they are delicious!!

See you tomorrow!

Steve

Week 4

I forgot to post week four and five. So....

Hi CSA'ers,

Week four is here and away we go!

A couple of new and different items this week. Some of our romaine lettuce has now grown into heads, so you will be getting a head and also a bag of another variety of Romaine leaf lettuce. Our salad mix lettuce is slow coming due to the warmer weather last week. New arugula has been planted and should be ready in three to four weeks.

This is your first week with Swiss chard. Chard is used a lot in Mediterranean cooking and is one of the healthiest greens. This week you get the plain green chard. Next week you should get the "bright lights" chard. It's beautiful with a multitude of different colored stems. Cabbage is a new addition this week. Not a lot to say about it....it's cabbage. We are also throwing in what I will call a "herb medley". It's 2 or 3 stalks of various herbs from the herb garden. Could be oregano, basil, curly parsley, Italian parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (start singing here) tarragon, lemon thyme etc. We will let you know what you have when you pick up.

Our blueberries are ripening each day and are ready to pick. You guys get first dibs on picking tomorrow. Your share will include a pint of pick your own blueberries. More are available at $4 per pound.

In your share this week:

PYO Blueberries

Zucchini

Yellow squash

Zephyr (a yellow and green summer squash maybe slightly sweeter taste)

Swiss Chard

Cabbage

Curly Kale

Romaine Head

Romaine Leaf

Radish

Turnips

The exclusive purple heirloom cauliflower

Herb Medley

Steve, Vicky and Crew

Farm Update

Here's what's happening down on the farm. It's a shocking thing when customers come into the market and ask , who ever is working at the time, if he or she is my son or daughter! It happened again today. When someone asked if Annabel, our morning shop keeper, was my daughter. Annabel is a lovely English woman with a daughter in college and two high school kids. We all laughed, guffawed, chortled, snickered, chuckled, giggled and there may have even been a titter. I was caught off guard with the question, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized my surprise shouldn't have been a surprise at all. I guess, in my mind, we were around the same age. Thus the laughter when someone suggested that she was my daughter. Imagine my devastation when I came inside to type up this newsletter and suddenly realized...the laugh was on me, she could be my daughter!! I hate surprises like that. There's nothing good that can come from them. That's why, after I'm done writing this, I'm going to take a bath in Epsom salts, try to avoid looking at my naked body in the bathroom mirror and lay down for a while. On a happier note... More good veggies are coming in at the farm. This week we have: Cucumbers Carrots Cabbage Summer Squash Zucchini Kale (curly and red Russian) Radishes Bok Choy Turnips Leaf lettuce Garlic scapes Purple heirloom cauliflower I'm off to check my AARP card for benefits.

Locally Yours, Vicky and Steve

CSA Week 3

Hi Everyone,

As I sit here sweating all over the keyboard, I keep reminding myself how much I love this life. 92 degrees at the moment here at the farm and most of your CSA share is being sorted and bunched or bagged by Tina and Ginny with some help from new farm helper Annabel. I, on the other hand, am planning to sneak off to the farm pond as soon as this email is complete for a nice soothing dip.

I have to make a Cauliflower statement..... When the heads of the cauliflower get sun on them they start to turn slightly purple. This would be the normal cauliflower color if it were not for the leaves curling up and around the heads to blanch them white. Many of our head's leaves did not cooperate in the blanching department. Thus a purple cast to your cauliflower. It has been tested in the Rousedale test kitchens and has been deemed to taste just like cauliflower. When you cook it, it turns a little gray. Some have roasted it where there is no color variation. Some have just cooked it their normal way and gone with it and some have made a delectible cheese sauce to mix in with it. Just want you to know it's fine and taste good. I could make up an incredible story about the heirloom purple cauliflower grown on American soil for the first time since 1754. The most nutritional vegetable ever and blah, blah, blah. I'd rather go with the truth.

In your bags this week:

The incredible heirloom Purple Cauliflower

Bok Choy

Summer Squashees (little)

Leaf Lettuce

Spinach

Curly Kale

Spring Onions

Radishes (they are big, but still excellent)

Perpetual Spinach (chard type green)

Garlic scapes

Turnips

Don't forget the availability of our herb garden as well!

See you tomorrow,

Steve

Farm Update

Here's what's happening down on the farm. Wow, what a soggy week! Sloshing around this week I noticed a couple of things. 1..Things were really starting to take off in the fields. Potatoes, tomatoes, beans, greens etc. And 2.. Our honey bees were missing pollinating the squash flowers all together. I felt that since I single handedly pollinated the squash myself last year, the bees felt that they may not be up to the pollinating standards that I achieved. As I was pontificating on the subject, Vicky said that she would help pollinate if she didn't have to listen to any more "of this!". Well, she ended up doing all the pollination and must have done a great job because we may have some yellow squash and zucchini for the weekend. She asked why I hadn't helped with the pollination this year and I told her years ago I could pollinate 15, 20 or 30 plants at a time, now after one or two I feel like I need a nap. Available at the farm: Summer squash Zucchini Kale Leaf lettuce (variety) Iceberg Lettuce Radishes Spring onions Strawberries(call first) Sugar Snap Peas Honey Eggs We are looking for a couple of things: Growers of organic produce and workers. Demand is growing all the time for clean, healthy, organic produce. We would love to have a group of community folks contributing to the farm. Let's us know if you're interested. We are also looking for people to help around the farm. Looking for: Bright eyed, bushy-tailed, self-starter, eager-beaver, situationally aware, go-get-‘em, teachable, positive, non-complaining, grateful, rejoicing, get’erdone, dependable, faithful, perseverant, and take responsibility types of individuals. With an interest in organic farming, self sufficiency and sustainability. Could be field work. Could be work in the market. Check out our face book page for "Pet of the Week" Hours:  Tuesday-Sunday 10-7.  Open at 8am Saturday.  Closed Monday

Locally Yours, Vicky and Steve

CSA Week 2

Hi everyone,

Week two is upon us already! Hope you feel so much healthier with all the greens you ate in the past week. I also hope you realized that you have to wash everything. I always seem to forget to tell you all to "wash everything!" when you pick up your share. Many of the greens will need a REAL good washing after the rain last night.

Many of the same items this week in your share. Asparagus is really slowing down at this point, but we should be able to get a bit to you. Turnips will be added this week. The Hakura white turnips you'll get are my favorite. Mild taste and solid. A sugary glaze. like glazed carrots, sliced and fried can't be beat!

This week:

Broccoli

Radishes (wow, they're getting bigger)

Turnips

Leaf lettuce

Iceberg Lettuce

Spinach

Red Russian Kale

Spring Onions (red and white)

Garlic Scapes

Asparagus

See you tomorrow 9-8!

Steve