Friday, July 25, 2014

Welcome to Week 6!

Well, ok, Week 6 is coming to an end and we are well into choice for week 7!  Sorry for the delay in the newsletter this week.  We finally settled on a  ghost/guest writer as Farmer Don is busy with the flurry of the farm.

The tomatillos are really nice right now and if you haven't tried them, I would encourage you to do so.  They make a great salsa verde and pair well with pork.  I recently made this grilled salsa to top a sirloin we were having for dinner.  (http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/grilled_tomatillo_salsa.html )  Then the next day for lunch Farmer Don made a simple summer squash soup topped with salsa verde and we used the leftovers on the soup.  The recipe was from a Deborah Madison cookbook, but I found the recipe on line.  It is the same recipe, but the website does not mention the salsa verde?  I am not sure why, as we all thought the salsa made the soup.  http://www.sparklestories.com/blog/2012/08/08/sparkle-kitchen-summer-squash-soup/

As I said above, the farm is always a flurry of activity.  We generally have several interns and volunteers on farm as well as Farmers Don and Neil.  Each day we stop for a bit of an extended lunch.  Farmer Don generally cooks for all of us using farm ingredients.  This creates a nice time for fellowship and gets everyone in out of the heat for a bit.

How about those cucumbers?  Wow what a nice harvest this year!  We have been eating a cucumber salad almost every night for weeks.  I am hoping to make some pickles this weekend or the first part of next week.  If anyone is interested in making pickles, please contact the farm and we can go over pricing on bulk cucumbers.  I have also been pickling garlic scapes this year and they turned out better than we expected!  If you are at the Back Mountain market this week, stop by our table and ask Farmer Don for a sample.

Are you a part of our CSA buying club?  Farmer Don is starting to make more items available on this buying club.  Look for some additional value added products in the next few weeks.  We also have our chicken available through the buying club.  We sell our meat chickens by the half and the whole.  The price on the buying club is an estimate.  Most whole birds come in between 14 and 18 dollars per bird.  We will adjust your buying club balance accordingly when you make a purchase.  We also have stew hens available.  These are older chickens and are perfect for making stock.  If you have never made homemade chicken stock, it very easy and can be made in your crock pot or on the stove top.  Here is a great discussion  on the health benefits of bone broth, as well as a how to recipe for making chicken broth using a stewing hen.  http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/12/16/bone-broth-benefits.aspx

Market season is in full swing.  Back Mountain market started last week.  Farmer Don reports that it was great to see so many CSA members as well as our loyal farm market customers.  We will be back at the Back Mountain Library Market this week and will have veggies as well as chicken and eggs for sale.  Rumor has it both Farmers Don and Neil will be behind the table, so be sure to stop in and say hello!  This week is also a Forks Farm Market.  Forks Farm Market is a really nice market on the Hopkins family farm in Orangeville.  Vendors set up under the trees and there is music playing in the barn!  If you are at Forks this week, stop by our table and say hello to Joan.

Time to wrap this up, print it out and have Farmer Don give it a quick read before it gets sent to all our members.  In the words of Farmer Don "be safe, be well and enjoy those veggies"

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