Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm. Welcome to Week 9 of the CSA. Week 9 is an EGG week. Week 9 is also a CHICKEN share week.
Sometimes I really do not know where the time goes! Here it is Monday night already and I am just
now getting a minute to sit down and write this newsletter. I cannot complain, because, for me, keeping
busy is a good thing. Now if I could
just somehow find an extra day in each week!
August arrived a bit cooler.
Cooler is a relative term. I am
just happy for the daily temperatures to be out of the 90's. And even happier to have the air conditioners
shut off and the windows open. It looks
like the beginning of this week will be sunny and dry. Perfect weather for ripening our field grown
tomatoes! Although it once again appears
the heat and humidity will be making a return by the end of the week, with
daytime temperatures predicted in the 90's and overnight lows near 70.
Our field grown tomatoes have been very slow to ripen this
year. We are finally starting to see
some ripening and have started picking sungolds. Watch for heirloom tomatoes to begin ripening
in the next few weeks. As with every
year, we are battling a bit of disease in our field grown tomatoes. Farmer Don has sprayed some copper on them to
fight the fungal diseases. Copper is an
organic approved fungicide and is one of the few sprays we use here on
farm. If you notice some blue residue on
your tomatoes, this is the copper. We
try to wash and wipe down tomatoes before they go out to our customers, but
sometimes we do miss some areas.
For several weeks now the farm has been serenaded by
hawks. I am convinced they have a nest
across the road, up behind our house.
Today the calls were even louder and seemed to be originating around the
willow tree by our lower field. Sure
enough, around lunch time, Rosie and I spotted a large hawk soaring over our
lower field. Diverse farms, such as
ours, have a real love hate relationship with hawks. As vegetable farmers, hawks are really nice
to have around the farm. They help to
control many of the smaller creatures which tend to wreak havoc with our
crops. And personally, I love watching
them glide and soar with the wind! However,
as chicken farmers, hawks are very much the enemy. We have watched hawks take down chickens very
close to us, our dogs, our house and our barn.
I have been working on training Rosie to respond to the hawks'
cries. She already does a really good
job at responding to a chicken's distress call and seems to know to look up for
a hawk. She will chase after the hawk,
if present, and I like to think she is chasing it away. My goal is to get her to chase the hawk
(based on hearing it) before it has its eyes (and talons) set on a chicken. Speaking of hawks and chickens. Our chickens are actually smarter when it
comes to hawks than you might think. If
they see the shadow of a large bird flying over, they run for cover. Literally, they run under the nearest bush
and hide. Now, I am not saying we still
don't lose our share of chickens to hawks, but I find it interesting to watch
the chickens' behavior. I often wonder
how they learned this?
In the fields. I have
already talked about the anticipated ripening (and harvest) or our field grown
tomatoes. New to pack this week, were
tomatillos. Our salad greens continue to
look good, as do our cooking greens.
Kale, chard and lettuces should be available for the remainder of the
season. We are harvesting our second
planting of beans. We have had some
issues with beans this year. Our first
planting was lost to the deer and this second planting was also hit hard by the
deer. The harvest numbers are small and
we apologize for this. Please be
patient, we have more beans planted and we are working to keep the deer and
ground hogs away from it. Summer squash
continues to produce, including patty pan and eight ball zucchini. Our first planting of cucumbers is finally
done. We have another smaller planting
of cucumbers which will be ready in a few weeks. Beets are done until later in the fall. We are continuing to dig red potatoes. Okra is slowly setting fruit and should be
available in a week or so. Our peppers
are setting fruit and hopefully we will have a small harvest in a few weeks,
followed by a larger harvest prior to frost.
In the kitchen, I am waiting patiently for some tomatillos,
so I can make one of my favorite recipes, roasted tomatillo bread salad. Here is a link to the basic recipe. http://www.tucsoncsa.org/2009/07/tomatillo-bread-salad/ I generally roast the tomatillos in the oven,
being sure to save all the juices. Other
than freezing some berries, I have not started canning and freezing yet this
summer. I wanted to make some easy
freezer pickles and hopefully we will have some extra cucumbers from the next
planting for me. I also have plans for
zucchini relish and, of course canned tomatoes.
Farmer Don will probably want me to make some salsa, as well. I generally freeze green beans, but will have
to wait and see how our next planting does.
We will buy in some sweet corn to freeze and some apples to make into
applesauce, as well. Stay tuned for how
my canning and freezing progresses!
Well, you all know, it is Monday night, which means Farmer
Don is packing tomorrow's boxes. I need
to make my way down to our pack line and see if he needs help. So, I will say "until next
week".
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