Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!
CSA Members: This is
Week 4 of our Fall CSA. Week 4 is not an
egg week. Thank you for your patience
with last week's ordering. Last Thursday
was a hectic one here on farm. More on
this below.
Buying Club Members:
The buying club will be open for deliveries this weekend. We should have eggs, veggies, chicken and
2017 Dancing Hen Farm Apple Orchard Pork is now available. Ordering begins tomorrow, Tuesday, morning at
5 am and ends Thursday morning at 5 am.
The weather first, of course. The end of last week brought "January in
November" to Pennsylvania, including our farm. The lowest temperature, for us, was Saturday
morning when we awoke to a low of 12.
Not bad, considering we had mentally prepared for single digit
lows! I am not sure a vegetable farmer
can ever physically prepare for temperatures in the single digits, but mentally
we were prepared to lose most everything in our fields and even our unheated
greenhouse. As we expected, we did lose
our sungold tomatoes in the greenhouse, but not a bad sungold season,
considering we were picking them up until the first week of November! We were able to cover some of our field grown
greens and were pleasantly surprised to find that many survived. We also were able to harvest and store other
greens and some celery. What this means
to our members, is that greens will continue to be available in smaller
quantities.
Last Thursday was a crazy day on farm! As we were scrambling to harvest and cover
what was left in our fields, another annual Dancing Hen Farm was also occurring. The annual running of the pigs. Those who have followed us for years know
that each summer our pigs spend their days high on a hill in an apple
orchard. They have a great life,
lounging under the trees, eating fallen apples, rooting for bugs and roots, and
wallowing in their personal mud hole. Each fall we move (or run) the pigs from the
apple orchard down to the barn. Every
group of pigs has a slightly different dynamic and therefore some years the
running is easier than other years. This
year the pigs were not completely cooperative, but we did get them to the barn
without too many issues. However the
real issues were only beginning. On
farm, Thursday was a day of drizzle and rain, resulting in wet grass and
mud. These wet conditions caused the
livestock trailer (and its truck) to become stuck in our yard. After multiple attempts involving winches,
tractors and trucks, the trailer was still stuck. Finally it was decided we would try Plan B
(or was that Plan D or J or maybe even M?) and the trailer was moved downhill
across the yard and out onto the road.
It was then backed down a firmer path and a corral was built using gates
and vehicles between the barn and the trailer and the pigs were pushed onto the
trailer. And the mud bogging began
again! Yep, trailer stuck! One truck stuck and another truck sliding
sideways towards the greenhouse. Finally
trucks were used to pull other trucks, quiet returned to the farm and the pigs
were on their way! I want to personally
thank everyone who helped us this year -- it was muddy, wet and frustrating,
but the mission was accomplished!
Most years the running of the pigs represents a slowing of
farm activity. We start to slowly
transition into winter mode. This year that is not the case. We are slowing
down a bit, but our Fall CSA is keeping us quite busy. The Fall CSA is about half the size of our
Summer CSA, but Farmer Don is doing all the harvest and pack for the Fall CSA
himself. We also are experimenting with
a late batch of pastured chickens, so we still have animals in the fields
needing care. With the recent turn of
weather to winter, we turned off our irrigation to avoid frozen pipes and now
all water for the chickens (broilers and egg layers) must be hauled from the
house (and chicken waters thawed when temperatures are too low). We are thinking the winter slowing will
happen around the New Year!
Speaking of the New Year.
We will be opening registration for our 2018 CSA soon. Watch your email for an announcement in the
next few weeks. As with past years, we
anticipate offering returning member discounts and early bird discount for
members registering and paying for their shares before the first of the
year. Again, watch for an upcoming email
with discount details. Egg shares and
chicken shares will also be available for 2018.
I want to take a moment for a bit of a public service
announcement. I know I have talked about
this in the past, but I want to revisit the topic. Please if you have a pet or animal which you
do not wish to take care of, do not drop these animals at rural properties
thinking they will be taken care of.
Realize that most farms and country properties have all the animals and
pets they need or can support. Also
realize that you could be jeopardizing the animals you are dropping. Kittens, for example, are extremely vulnerable
to being attacked (and yes killed) by other cats, dogs, or hawks. Most animals become territorial and
introducing new animals is often not an easy or pleasant process. Please spay and neuter your pets to avoid
unwanted kittens and puppies.
Ok this newsletter is getting a bit long. I type everything into Word and then cut and
paste it to our website and blog. I like
to keep newsletters under 2 pages in the Word document and this one is fast
approaching and about to go over 2 pages!
For that reason, I will end here!
Have a great week.
Thanks for your continued support!
