Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm! Welcome to Week 20 of our CSA! Week 20 is not an egg week. Our CSA is 22 weeks long, so there are 2 more
weeks after this week.
WOW! Only 2 weeks
remaining in our CSA season. This has
been one of our more challenging years and I again want to thank all of you,
our community, for your understanding and support. I must admit we are anxious for this season
to be behind us. But, we are already
starting to plan for 2016. Watch your
emails for some exciting changes, as we continue to strive to make our farm
sustainable, for the environment, for our community and for our family.
This week, in the sky, we witnessed another full moon, the
Hunter Moon. It was large and beautiful
Monday night. However, the clouds last night
kept it from shining so bright. Right
now the clouds have brought the rain. We
are expecting rain and wind most of the day from the remains of Hurricane
Patricia. It is still dry, so we can use
this soaking rain. I am thinking the
wind will bring down many of the leaves remaining on the trees, so perhaps our
fall color show will be coming to an end.
Yesterday, Farmer Don was in planting mode as he tried to
beat today’s predicted rain. Yes,
planting. He finished planting the
majority of our garlic crop for next season and planted cover crops in some of
our fields. Garlic is one of the unique
crops on a vegetable farm that is planted in the fall for harvest the following
summer. He also cleaned out our chicken coop and
worked the chicken litter into some of our fields. Although our laying hens are free range, they
still return to the barn at night to roost and this area needs cleaning out on
a regular basis. Our soil really does
represent the foundation of our farm and we try to do what we can to preserve
and improve it. In an organic system
this means utilizing cover crops and compost to build soil tilth and fertility.
Currently growing in our fields are some beautiful
greens. The mixed Asian Greens are
really nice right now. This mix includes
Vitamin Green, Bok Choy, and tatsoi and is perfect for a base for a stir fry or
for simple braised greens. This mix
should continue to be available through the remainder of the CSA. Kale and Chard should also continue to be
available well into the fall. We are also
harvesting some beautiful turnip greens right now. Turnip greens are loaded with nutrition and
can be handled and cooked as you would any cooking green. We are happy to say that next week we will be
adding a customer favorite of arugula to our choice list.
We have these greens protected from the frost with low
tunnels. Low tunnels are temporary mini
greenhouses we construct, over our plants, using wire hoops and plastic. These simple structures will hopefully allow
us to offer greens into the winter through our buying club. In the past we have utilized a large
unheated greenhouse for winter and early spring production. This year we have decided to take this
greenhouse out of production. In the
next few weeks we will be removing the plastic from the structure. This will allow the soil inside the greenhouse
to be exposed to the full force of winter, including the low temperature and
precipitation. Our goal for removing the
plastic, is to decrease our pest and disease pressure in the greenhouse and
improve our soil fertility. We will be
replacing the plastic early next spring and the greenhouse will be replanted
for next season’s production.
Winter squash should also be available for the remainder of
the CSA and into the fall for buying club.
Winter squash are really versatile, holding up nicely for roasting,
baking or soups or stews. Stuffed winter
squash is a fall and holiday favorite on farm.
Farmer Don makes delicious stuffed acorn squash from a recipe in an
older cookbook we often use.
Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a good duplicate on the
internet. However, while searching for
this recipe, I came across a great site offering a basic formula for stuffing
any winter squash. For me this site is
perfect, as I can mix and match ingredients I have on hand. Here is the link http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-stuffed-roasted-squash-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-101662 Another fall go to recipe for us, Butternut
Harvest Stew, is from one of our favorite seasonal cookbook (Simply in
Season). This recipe features pork,
butternut squash and apples and I was able to find the recipe online. https://graceseedsministry.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/butternut-harvest-stew.pdf
As long as I am posting and talking about recipes, I will
bring up our pinterest site. Yes, the
farm has a pinterest site. Unfortunately,
I have not been updating it much lately.
Life, computer problems, the list of excuse is endless, but let’s just
say pinterest has not been a priority this summer! Once the days get even shorter, the
temperatures colder and the snow begins to fly, I am planning on making this
site more active. Mostly I will be
posting links to recipes, but there are also some pictures of the farm posted
and information on books you will find in our farm library. Here is the link to our pinterest site: https://www.pinterest.com/dancinghencsa/
For us, farmers markets are over for the season. I would like to take this opportunity to
thank everyone who visited us at market.
We enjoy doing markets, as they give us the opportunity to meet and talk
with our customers. We will be extending
our market (and CSA) season utilizing our winter buying club. We have added a Mountain Top drop site to our
buying club. Winter buying club members
order online using our website and pick up their orders the following
weekend. For details, contact the farm
or visit our website.
Well, it is still raining and blowing here on farm. Farmer Don and the dogs are in from
chores. Well, I should be honest. Farmer Don and Rosie are in from doing
chores. Shady opted out of chores and
decided instead to take a nap on Farmer Don’s chair! In any event, it is time to show Farmer Don
this newsletter and get it emailed out to everyone.
Have a great week and enjoy your veggies!
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