Welcome to Week Three!
And welcome to the first string of hot muggy weather. Still lots to do on the farm, so we are
slathering on the sunscreen and staying hydrated.
This week's newsletter is featuring a guest anonymous author
as Farmer Don is busy this morning with delivery coordination, veggies, dogs,
workers and chickens.
Yes, chickens. We are
raising meat birds for sale this year and starting this week our first batch
will be available. Our birds have
continual access to fresh pasture and are fed certified organic soy-free
grain. Farmer Don is still working out
the logistics of pricing, so watch your email for another note with price per
pound and average weight per bird. Send
us an email and we will reserve some chickens for you.
We are still feeding the local deer herd. Sunday seems to be their night to really
feast at Dancing Hen Farm's Buffet. This
Sunday night they finished off the lettuce bed (over 1000 heads total!) and
moved onto the escarole, endive and radicchio.
They even went as far as to tear up our row cover to get to the
radicchio. Unfortunately this is
limiting our harvest of these crops and we will not be able to replant until
fall since these plants prefer cooler weather. The little bit of radicchio going
out this week is all we could salvage and please note that it is a more open
leafy variety.
But we move on.
We had a surprise early harvest of zucchini and yellow
squash this week which some members are seeing in their boxes. Don't worry if you missed out, there will be
plenty of squash to come in the next several months. Farmer Don rotationally plants squash in
order to make them available for most of the season. Peas are still going strong. Our sugar snap peas are really plump right
now, but get even sweeter as they mature.
Our first planting of Asian greens are winding down with a small second
planting available soon. In the upcoming
weeks look for purple kohlrabi in your boxes.
Our green beans are looking good and starting to flower, so they will be
ready for harvest in the next few weeks.
As always we are thankful to our friends and fellow organic
farmers for helping us share the harvest.
We have a very close knit network of farmers in our area and we often
barter crops with them or purchase their excesses to help fill our boxes. We would like to specially thank, Terri at
Mad Dog Farm, John at Nut Creek Farm and Justin at Old Tioga Farm. What a great community of great people and we
are honored to be part of it!
Speaking of community, we try and share our harvest with our
local communities as well. This week we
donated eggs to the Wilkes Barre Peace and Justice Center's Peace Camp. Thanks to member Shannon for helping us
coordinate this. In addition a friend of
ours has recently started a job with Ample Harvest (www.ampleharvest.org). This organization helps get fresh produce
into area food pantries and has a great search engine to locate local
organizations willing to take produce.
If you have excess, please visit their website and consider donating it.
Have you been reading Intern Lydia's Nutritional
Newsletters? Not only is she providing
nutritional information, but she is also posting links to some great
recipes. This week the Lemon Mint Snap
Pea and Lima recipe looked really good!
If you don't have lima beans available the recipe would be great with
snap peas and/or snow peas.
Time to wrap up here!
As Farmer Don says - Be Safe, Be Well and Enjoy those Veggies!
FAQ's:
July 4th Reminder:
Our on farm pick up WILL BE ON THURSDAY JULY 4TH. If you are unable to pick up on the holiday,
please let us know. We can pack you a
box for Tuesday, July 2 or keep your box in our cooler for Friday, July 5 pick
up.
Share Boxes: We
reuse them, so please return them to your pick up sites. Please also remember to treat them gently and
slide rather than pull the tabs on the top to avoid tearing them.
Choice Members: You
are able to log on and choose items from noon on Thursdays until 6 pm on
Sundays. This allows Farmer Don time to
get harvest and pack lists together. If
you are having difficulties logging on, please contact us.
Here is a link to a great kale salad recipe sent to us by
CSA Member Pam :
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