CSA Week 21 Newsletter

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm and welcome to CSA Week 21.  Week 21 is an egg week.  Hopefully everyone is enjoying this week’s boxes.

The 2015 Dancing Hen Farm CSA is rapidly coming to an end.  Next week is week 22 and therefore our last week.  We will be back to the drop sites in the weeks following the last week to pick up boxes, so please plan to leave your share boxes at a drop site.

Haven’t the last few days been beautiful?  Temperatures in the 70’s in November, what’s not to like?  Farmer Don was working in shorts today.   He has uncovered our crops under plastic and they are flourishing in this nice weather.  I do have to admit, we were complaining a bit about it being hot outside!  Hopefully we will remember this day come January, when the high for the day is in the teens!  The forecast, however, is predicting that over the weekend and into next week, we will have more seasonal temperatures, but nothing too cold. 

Before I forget, I need to give some more details on our apple orchard pork.  Our prices for bulk or freezer pork will be 4.50 per pound hanging weight.  Hanging weight is the weight just before the meat is cut into roasts, chops, etc.  Some hogs are bigger than others.  Average hanging weight should be between 175 and 225 pounds.  Thus, half a hog would cost around $375 to $475 and a whole hog would be $750 to $950.  A half hog would put an average of 70 pounds of meat in your freezer and a whole hog around 140 pounds.   We have opted to have ham and bacon cured this year with a nitrate free cure.  Curing of the hams and bacon, as well as seasoning of the sausage is included in the price per pound.  There will be an additional charge if you would like scrapple ($15 per hog) or lard ($75 for a 5 gal bucket) included with your purchase.   If you have reserved pork, we will be contacting you very soon to confirm your order.  If you have not yet reserved pork, but would like to, please contact the farm as soon as possible, as our pigs are leaving the farm early next week.  We anticipate orders to be ready towards the end of this month or the beginning of December. 

As long as I am talking about pork.  People interested in purchasing individual cuts of pork will have the opportunity to do so through our winter buying club.  As with the bulk pork, these cuts should be available on the buying club in 3 or 4 weeks.  Please watch your email for details.

And as long as I am talking about the buying club.  Are you interested in continuing to receive vegetables once the CSA ends or ordering pork or chicken?  Consider joining our winter buying club.  It is free to sign up, but you will need to log into our website and “purchase” a winter buying club share.  The winter buying club is a pay as you go program.  We deliver buying club orders to Bloomsburg on Friday evenings and to Dallas, Forty Fort and Mountain Top on Saturday.  You can also pick up your order on farm after 4 pm on Friday, or any time on Saturday or Sunday.   You will pay for your order (cash or check) when you pick up your order. 

On next week’s availability you will continue to see an assortment of winter squash available, as well as cooking greens.  Our mustard greens look really beautiful right now, as do our turnip greens and Asian greens.   Of course all these greens are great added to stir frys, braised with garlic and olive oil or added to soups.  Raw mustard greens have a sharp spicy flavor, similar to horseradish.  Farmer Don likes to add raw mustard greens to salads.  You can also create a wrap sandwich using mustard leaves as a grain free wrap.  To make the leaves more pliable for wrapping, you can blanch them (dip in boiling water) briefly or simply allow them to sit out on a paper towel until they wilt.  Also worth mentioning is that the heat from the mustard green will mellow slightly with cooking.  I really enjoy cooked greens with a fried or poached egg.  Recently, I came across this recipe for a fried egg sandwich with mustard greens.  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/fried-egg-sandwich-with-canadian-bacon-and-mustard-greens-recipe.html

Another recipe, I don’t think I have mentioned yet this season, is what we call “Don’s soup”.  This is a really easy and filling soup for a cool fall or winter supper.  I guess a more descriptive title would be “greens and tortellini soup”.  I think at one point I may have had a recipe, but now we just make the soup as follows.  Add a bit of olive oil or butter to your soup pot and saute some diced onions, garlic and carrots.  Once these veggies are tender add several quarts of stock (chicken or vegetable) and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add tortellini and cook until the tortellini is not quite tender (6 or 7 minutes?).  Next add chopped greens (kale, mustard, turnip, chard, etc – your choice) and continuing cooking for several minutes until the greens are tender and tortellini is cooked through.  Once everything is cooked, stir in some crushed red pepper.  Ladle into bowls and top with grated parmesan cheese.

Farmer Don and I want to again thank each of you, our community members, for your support and patience during this CSA season.  As most of you know, we faced many challenges during this growing season.  It truly has been you, our community, which has kept us farming this season.  On farm, we are ready for the slower pace of winter.  Ready to reflect, regroup and re-energize. 

We have already been planning for 2016.  Registration for our 2016 CSA will open up soon.  We do have a few changes planned for 2016, so watch your email for details.

The dogs are eagerly staring at me waiting for their nighttime walk, so I will wrap things up.  Have a great week!