CSA Week 8 Newsletter

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!  Welcome to August

Ordering for Week 8 of our CSA is now open and will close on Sunday at 6 pm.  Week 8 is not an egg week.

Last week brought us torrential rain and this week brings us crazy humidity and downpours.  Hopefully we are getting enough sun to ripen our tomatoes.  All this rain and humidity makes me nervous about disease in our tomatoes.  Most worrisome, is late blight.  Early this season, late blight was already confirmed in Pennsylvania and New York and we were convinced we would lose our crop before our plants even set fruit.  Then some drier weather moved in and the blight threat subsided.  Now the threat is back, especially with last week's storms coming from the southeast part of the state.  One way late blight spreads is in the air currents and these storms came to us via the areas with confirmed blight.  Humid, moisture filled air and foliage which stays wet for most of the day is heaven for late blight spores.  The only thing in our favor is the heat, blight tends to like slightly cooler temperatures.  We have our fingers crossed that blight will come to our fields later, rather than earlier.

Speaking of tomatoes.  We have tomatoes!   Get your recipes ready, or at the very least have your salt shaker nearby.  Cherries, including sungolds, are ripening nicely and should be available for many weeks.  Sungolds became available for choice by themselves this week.  Our large field tomatoes, slicing and heirlooms, are just starting to turn and I expect them to be available for choice next week, or maybe the next.  Please remember we pick our larger tomatoes on the green side and may require a few days on the kitchen table to fully ripen.

 

We continue to pick cucumbers!  Believe it or not we think we have harvested close to 1,000 pounds of cukes this season.   That's half a ton!!!  Definitely the year of the cucumber.  Our first summer squash planting has also been bountiful, but production here is slowing.  Our second squash planting looks good, but we anticipate a few weeks where summer squash is a bit scarce.  We are starting to pick green beans, with a few pounds going out this week, with lots of beans available in the coming weeks.  Also new this week are dandelion greens.  I would suggest pairing dandelion with a nice warm balsamic vinaigrette or hot bacon dressing.

On farm, this past week, brought both sorrow and joy.  First we lost yet another farm resident.  Wilda Mae, or Billie, as we called her, was Farmer Don's cat.  She was a one person cat, following Farmer Don around and sleeping under the covers with him.  Wilda was named after one of my Mother's school mates.  She was a stray at a friend of ours house and his grandson wanted to name the kitten William. Only William was a girl!  We brought her home named William, when my Mother suggested Wilda Mae, after a grade school classmate.  Wilda lived life on her terms and she died on her terms.  Rest in peace Billie.

On a more joyous note.  Farmer Don and I ventured up the river a bit to hear some live music.  In our younger years, live music was a staple in our lives.  Recently, we have not been out to see music for quite some time.  It took a bit of planning and all of Farmer Don's negotiating  and debating skills to get me there.  Eventually I gave in and off we went, even dragging our friend, Annie, from college, with us.  And, yes, Farmer Don, I have to admit, I had a good time and being out in public wasn't nearly as horrendous as I imagined.  If you see Farmer Don, thank him for pushing his wife out of her new homebody comfort zone.

In our kitchen, some summertime regulars are starting to appear.  This includes a perpetual bowl of sungold tomatoes!  And last week, we had our first BLT's of the season.  I haven't started any canning or freezing yet, but may try a quick batch of freezer pickles this weekend, depending on how I feel.   My freezer pickle recipe is very simple containing only cucumbers, onions, salt, sugar and vinegar, no spices.  In the fall and winter, I like to add a few of these pickles to my salad, sometimes as a replacement to any dressing.  I am hoping for tomatoes to can and beans to freeze, but that will probably be the extent of my preserving this year.

   

Speaking of preserving, we do still have bulk cucumbers available.  We sell them in half bushel boxes.  A half bushel box weighs about is 20 pounds and will easily make two batches of pickles.

 

Farmer Don spends his weekends at farmers market.  On Saturday he and Farmer Phil are in Dallas at the Back Mountain Market.  This market is now at the Dallas high school and you will need to follow the detour signs as Hildebrandt road is closed for construction.  On Sundays he is at the Mountain Top Farmers Market at the Crestwood High School.  If you come either of these markets, please stop by our tables, say hello and "shake the hand that grows your food."

Ok, it is getting late and I need to head to bed.  I will print this gibberish for Farmer Don to read and most likely email it out to everyone tomorrow morning.

Until next week.......