Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!
Buying club ordering is open for deliveries this
weekend. Ordering closes tomorrow,
Thursday, morning at 5 am. We have lots
of eggs and pork available, as well as a limited supply of storage vegetables.
Each week when I get ready to write the farm newsletter, I
ask Farmer Don if he want me to mention anything. This week his comment was, the crazy
weather. So, as always, we will touch a
bit on the weather.
It seems lately our weather pattern has been spring
springing and then winter roaring back with a vengeance. Our low last weekend was 5 and I see this
weekend lows are to be near 10, with a possible snow storm the beginning of
next week! Perhaps this will be the
"onion snow" and then we will see spring? Wishful thinking, I am sure. But, today the
sun is already shining and the breeze should help to dry some of the mud.
Yes, the weather has, once again, impacted our crops. We had
several beds of greens which we overwintered under plastic. These plants were looking really good and
starting to grow. Unfortunately, their
growth was a bit too early. This young
tender growth was very vulnerable to last weekend's super cold temperatures and
we lost many of these plantings. As
Farmer Don always says "Mother Nature bats last". Although we are disappointed with these
losses, these beds will be turned over quickly and replanted and we should
still have greens to harvest by sometime in April. Farmer Don is, also, starting to play in the
dirt, well, the potting mix. Flats are
being filled and seeds are being planted.
By the middle of this month, we hope to be working in our fields. We try to get peas planted in March, followed
closely by potatoes.
In the kitchen we have been in soup mode. The most memorable was, over the weekend,
when Farmer Don made a really delicious French onion. As always, he uses a Cook's Illustrated
recipe, this one called for caramelizing the onions in the oven. Onion soup is one of Farmer Don's favorites and we
have always struggled with caramelizing the onions on the stove top. I think we never left them cook long enough
to obtain the beautiful brown color or sweetness. The oven/roasting method for the onions is so
simple and produces nicely caramelized onions and delicious soup. Here is
a link to the recipe http://www.food.com/recipe/french-onion-soup-the-cooks-illustrated-way-344164
Once again we can use help from friends and members of our
farm. This time of year, Farmer Don
likes to take some time out of his schedule to connect with the communities we
share our harvest with. He will be out and about this spring visiting our drop
sites for some "meet the Farmer" events. Farmer Don is, also, available to set up
information tables at community events or give short presentations to groups in
your community. Please contact the farm
is you know of events coming up in your community or groups looking for
speakers. Thanks in advance for your
help!
I also want to, again, thank everyone who has joined and
paid for a 2017 CSA share. As I have
said in the past, Farmer Don and I are always humbled by the number of people
who return year after year to share the harvest with us. We also want to welcome and thank all of our
new members. We do still have shares
available for the 2017 season.
Memberships are taken in the order in which membership is received and
we anticipate limiting egg and vegetable shares this season. As always, if you have questions for us,
please do not hesitate to contact us.
The sun is shining.
Farmer Don and the dogs are out and about taking advantage of today's
beautiful weather. My coffee intake is
at my limit. So, I think I will end this here.
Until next week.......
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