2016 CSA Week 5 Newsletter

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm.  Welcome to CSA Week 5.  Week 5 IS an egg week.  Week 5 IS also a chicken share week.

What a glorious Monday.  Cooler temperatures, lower humidity, beautiful blue skies.  Monday is our big harvest day here on farm.  The farm was buzzing with activity earlier as crops were brought in, given a quick rinse and placed in our walk in cooler.  After they have cooled a bit we weigh and/or portion them.  Later tonight, Farmer Don will pack your share boxes with these same vegetables.

The weatherman is telling me that these pleasant temperatures will be short lived.  The heat of summer is to start back tomorrow, with highs near 90 until at least the middle of next week.  Summer in Pennsylvania!

 

On farm, the fields are starting to look full.  Lettuce is sizing up nicely and we should be offering more salad mix soon.  Chard continues to produce and our Red Russian kale is growing out of its earlier flea beetle damage.  This is most likely the last week for peas.  We may have a continued small harvest, but peas do not like the heat.  Our snap/green beans are finally flowering and we should have our first harvest in a couple of weeks.  Our first planting of summer squash continues to produce, although not as prolifically as we had anticipated.  Our next planting of summer squash is fruiting and we should be harvesting here within a week or two.  Look for eight ball zucchini and patty pan squash coming from this second planting.  As with the squash, our cucumbers are coming along slowly.  This weekend's harvest was a bit more than we had anticipate, so hopefully harvest amounts will continue to look good.  New potatoes should also be making an appearance soon.  Farmer Don checks them weekly and they are very close to being a good size for harvest.  Eggplant is looking really great, but again has several weeks until harvest.

 

Believe it or not, we are already starting to plant for fall harvest.  Last week we planted winter squash.  This week we will be busy in the seed house seeding fall greens, broccoli, kohlrabi, rutabaga and more!.  These crops will be planted in the fields mid to late August for fall harvest.  Kind of crazy that we will be seeding fall crops in 90 degree weather!  The heat does pose a challenge in our seed house.  We use a shade cloth over the plastic to keep the seed trays a bit cooler and we water frequently to promote germination.  Without the shade cloth temperatures quickly reach 100 plus degrees and these fall crops do not like to germinate or grow in that kind of heat.

Market season is in full swing for us.  In addition to our 100 member CSA, we are attending 4 markets this season.  We have added the Pittston market to our schedule and we will be back at Forks Farm this season.  We will also be returning to the Back Mountain Library Market and the Mountain Top Market.  Those of you who follow us may remember that our plan for this year was to simplify things and downsize.  I am not sure what happened to that plan?!  But, please visit us at market.  We love to meet our customers! 

We had visitors this weekend.  My nephew and his family are in the area camping and they stopped in on Sunday to meet our pigs.  I had fun driving the boys around on the buggy, getting them to taste veggies picked right from the field.  The peas went over fine, but the purslane, well, let's just say perhaps purslane is an acquired taste!  They helped me pick squash and had fun spraying the pigs with the hose.  Pigs are always a big hit with visitors.  Pigs are very curious and always come to the fence looking for a handout.  And they absolutely love to get a shower from the hose!

I have to  admit our kitchen has not been overly inspirational recently.  We are cooking and eating from the farm, but no great recipes or ways of preparing items.  Simply prepared meats and sauted or grilled veggies have been the norm.  I will mention a bit on beets.  I have never been one to use beets raw in salads, although I have eaten them that way and find them delicious.  I like to keep cooked beets in the fridge and add them sliced to the top of our green salads.  And, of course, in my family, who could resist my Mom's pickled beets!  And, don't forget "red beet eggs", the hard boiled eggs pickled with the beets.  Here is a recipe one of our members sent us for a beet salad.  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/beet-and-goat-cheese-arugula-salad-recipe.html  I haven't tried it yet, but it does look delicious!  Those of you who have been following us for awhile know that Don and I are both fans of Deborah Madison and we own a number of her cookbooks.  One of our favorite beet recipes comes from her Vegetarian Suppers cookbook.  The recipe is "Beet and Tomato Ragout with Twice Baked Goat Cheese Souffles".  Here is a weblink to a recipe which seems to be fairly close to the one in the book.  http://vegsuppers.blogspot.com/2010/12/beet-and-tomato-ragout-with-twice-baked.htm.  I will admit the recipe is a bit complicated for me, but Farmer Don has not problems with it, although he does save it for special occasions.

So morning became afternoon and now afternoon has become evening and night.  It is so hard for me to find a long enough chunk of time to simply type these newsletters in one setting!  Also, suddenly, I am not so sure today was so cool and comfortable as I had expected this morning.  Farmer Don is busy packing your CSA boxes.  I need to head down to our pack line and make sure all is well.  Which means I will be ending this week's rambles.

Thanks again for your support of our farm.  Be safe, be well, and enjoy the veggies (and eggs and chicken!)  And please remember to come out and see us at a local farmers markets.