Newsletter -- Week 9

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

Welcome to Week 9 of our CSA.  Week 9 ordering is well under way and will end on Sunday at 6 pm.  Week 9 is an egg week and a CHICKEN WEEK.  If you ordered a chicken share, please check for a cooler at your drop site.  Your chicken will be in the cooler.

On farm, we are still dealing with rain showers, almost every day, although I do think yesterday and today have been dry for us.  I should say, "yet", as the sky is looking pretty dark and threatening right now!  It looks like this weather pattern is to stay with us for the next week or so.  We are hoping the clouds part sometime over the weekend so we can head out to the yard and get a glimpse of the Perseid Meteor Showers.  With a new moon on the Saturday and the showers peaking Sunday night into Monday, this should be a good weekend for viewing.  Let's hope for some cloudless skies!

In the fields right now the word is tomatoes.  We have quite a few nice red slicing tomatoes starting to ripen.  Cherry tomatoes should continue to be available.  Heirloom tomatoes may be in limited supply this year.  Early in the spring, we lost over 500 heirloom transplants to either cutworms or a field vole.  We never spotted the culprit, so we aren't positive what mowed down the plants in one night!  Asian greens are looking good and should be back on the availability list soon.  Okra is starting to set fruit, despite being a favorite food of Japanese Beetles.  Eggplants are flowering and with continued luck we should have some fruit in several weeks. 

It is never a dull moment here on Dancing Hen Farm.  Each fall, I generally talk about "the running of the pigs", when we move the pigs down from the apple orchard to the barn.  Well this week our pigs decided to do some running of their own.  Of course, they picked the one day Farmer Don and I were both off farm to go for their run.  Luckily, Ann was here doing chores and watching the farm.  When she went up to feed and water the pigs, she noticed the fence was down and more than half our pigs were missing/gone.  She was able to capture one escapee and put her back inside the fence, but the others were nowhere in sight.  She called in help from my sister and brother-in-law and the three of them proceeded to search for the pigs, finding no pigs and no signs of them.  It's kind of hard for six 125 to 150 pound pigs to hide, but somehow it seemed they disappeared!  When Farmer Don and I got home, he sent everyone else home and took the dogs up to look for pigs.  I could hear him up there, beating on a bucket and calling "here pig, here pigger".  My hopes of him finding the pigs were low.  I had nightmarish visions of them eating all our neighbor's sweet corn, running wildly through the nearby campground or never being found and Dancing Hen Farm being responsible for a new feral pig colony.  But, Farmer Don can now be called a "pig whisperer".  He came down several hours later and told me "the pigs are in".  "What!!!????  Where were they?"  He said he found them walking down the farm access road headed for home.  He and the dogs then led the pigs to their fenced pasture and he finished mending the fence.  He told me the pigs seemed tired and they headed right for their water and food once got to their fenced area.  Needless to say, the next day was spent working on fences!  What do they say ""good fences make good neighbors"?  And a farmer who loves to interact with his pigs is priceless when they need to be called home!

Did you know this is National Farmers Market Week?  Do you think there is a greeting card for that?  I'm not sure about the card, but I do know farmers markets are in full swing right now.  Why not stop by a local farmers market, pick up some great local food and "shake the hand that grows your food".  On Saturday, Farmer Don and Farmer Phil will be at the Back Mountain Farmers Market in Dallas.  In addition to Dancing Hen Farm produce, Farmer Phil will also be selling veggies from his family's extensive garden.  If you go to the Dallas market, be sure to ask Farmer Phil what he has for sale.  On Sunday Farmer Don will be at the Mountain Top Farmers Market. 

So, I am already late getting this newsletter out, so I think I will end the rambling now. 

Until next week.