Sunday, July 31, 2016

2016 CSA Week 8 Newsletter

Greetings and welcome to Dancing Hen Farm CSA Week 8.  Week 8 is NOT and egg week.

This week we welcome August and we say good bye to Farmer Matt.  Monday is the first day of August and Friday is Farmer Matt's last day.  Farmer Matt has accepted a more permanent position at another farm in the area.  Rumor has it he will soon be trimming a lot of Christmas trees!  If you see Matt on deliveries this week, be sure to thank him for his help!  Farmer Matt you will be greatly missed here on farm, by the farmers and the puppies!  Don't be a stranger Matt!

We have been getting some much needed rain lately.  Saturday afternoon brought some heavy downpours, but also several hours of a nice soaking rain.  The weather looks to be cooling off a bit this week.  It will be nice to throw open the windows and air out the house!
 
In the harvest basket this week is our first pickings of eggplant and green beans.  As always, these first harvests are generally very small, with a much larger harvest coming in the next few weeks.  Escarole was another new item on the list this week.  We continue to harvest some beautiful salad mix and this week we are harvesting a large bed of butter head lettuce.  Chard, kale, squash and cucumbers also continue to produce.  This is probably our last large cucumber harvest, as this first planting is about done. 

In the fields, our field grown tomatoes are looking good.  They are setting fruit and the field grown cherry tomatoes are starting to slowly ripen.  Our third, and final, planting of summer squash is looking good and we anticipate having a good supply of squash for a number of weeks.  Tomatillos are looking really good.  They have set fruit and we will wait for the husks to fill before harvesting.  We have started to plant our fall crops, with our greens and winter squash planted and looking good.
 
Unless I am at Forks Farm Market, Saturdays are a very peaceful day for me.  I get caught up on housework and the dogs and I do animal chores.  Yesterday was a good on-farm day for me.  Rose and I watered and fed the broiler chickens, enjoying the view from our upper field.  Shady joined us, as we made our way up to the pigs.  The pigs are always an entertaining stop and yesterday was no exception.  The minute I turned on the hose they came running for a shower and a fresh mud bath.  I tried giving them some zucchini, but it seems they have had their fill of zucchini.  They opted to line up shoulder to shoulder and eat grass instead.  It amazes me how much vegetation our pigs eat.  I smiled as I watched our pigs, so relaxed and seemingly happy.  It saddens me to think so many pigs are raised confined, inside large swine barns.  I understand agriculture and I understand farmers everywhere are just trying to make ends meet and feed people.  But, I am so thankful our pigs are happy, outdoor pigs; free to eat plant, root in the dirt and play in their mud pond.  Yesterday, I also took the camera for a ride around the farm.  My hope was to get some pictures of happy pigs, but the pigs had retired to their hedgerow for an afternoon nap!  The dogs and the vegetables were more cooperative about getting their pictures taken.

Farmer Don asked me to be sure to let everyone know, we will no longer be attending the Pittston Farmers Market.  We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.  Please visit us at one of our other markets.  Every Saturday we are in Dallas at the Back Mountain Library Farmers Market and every Sunday we are at the Mountain Top Market.  On the 2nd and 4th Saturday we will be at Forks Farm Market in Orangeville.  As always, our products are also available for pick up on farm.  If you would like to pick items up on farm, please either call or email a few days in advance so we can have your order harvested and ready for you.
 
Today is Sunday and the hours are slowly ticking away.  Rosie has been patiently waiting for a walk and I have long list of house chores I am trying to get done.  I best get moving!

Have a great week!



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