Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!
We hope everyone enjoyed their Week 13 boxes. Ordering is now underway for Week 14 of our
CSA. After Tuesday's delivery, there are
6 weeks remaining in the CSA. Week 14 is
not an egg week.
With the fall equinox knocking on our door, today really feels
like fall has arrived. Cool and cloudy,
just what the vegetable diseases ordered!
Every night the local news media seems to be interviewing another farmer
who is talking about crop loss due to this year's challenging weather. I notice the pumpkin fields near us are being
harvested, but the plants are near dead from mildew. This grower is bringing in a harvest, but
from the looks of the plants and pumpkins, his harvest is most definitely
smaller than he anticipated. These are
the same fields I watched being aerial sprayed with fungicides earlier in the
summer. Watching fields being sprayed by
a helicopter is quite a sight and actually a bit scary! These fields have a power line running down
middle. The pilot would swoop over the
field and release the spray. As he
approached the power line, he would abruptly turn the helicopter what seemed to
be straight, nose up and pop over the line, only to level it out on the other
side. Not only was this maneuver scary,
but also the fact that these fields were being sprayed in the middle of the
day, beside a busy road and very near houses with laundry hanging on the line
and possibly even children playing in the yard!
I remember doing field work for the University of Florida, too many
years ago to admit. Our research plots
were on large commercial farms and these growers utilized aerial application
for most of their pesticide applications.
The pilots of these planes and helicopters would do a fly over the
fields to look for workers and if they spotted anyone in the field, they would
continue to circle, getting quite low over our heads, until we left the
area. It was nice to be warned, although
a bit unnerving to have a plane or helicopter buzzing you so closely! In our fields, thankfully, we don't have to
worry about being chased out of the fields by aerial applicators!
As with every year, our fields are a mix of some crops
coming to an end and others growing nicely.
, Most of the summer crops have succumbed to disease and weeds. But we have worked hard to get some plantings
of greens going and they are looking good!!
Watch for these greens to become available in the next few weeks. Mixed baby Asian greens should be available
first, followed closely by some arugula.
The Asian greens will be young and tender and therefore can be eaten raw
as a salad or lightly sauted or stir fried.
Winter squash varieties continue to be harvested. Storage crops, including carrots, potatoes,
sweet potatoes, and cabbage, should continue to be available through the end of
the season.
In our kitchen, last night, we most likely had the last of
summer time staple, BLT's. Although we
had to modify the recipe a bit and make BKT's, substituting kale for lettuce. Those
of you who know Farmer Phil know that his BLTs are made with bacon, lettuce and
toast, as he does not like tomatoes. He
calls the sandwiches with tomato, BLTTs.
So I am thinking, according to Farmer Phil, we had BKTT's for dinner!
Last week's newsletter talked about counting your
blessings. I do try to spend some time
each day counting my blessings and during one of these meditations, I realized
I forgot a huge blessing for our farm.
That blessing, is our CSA members and farm friends. We are so blessed to have a great group of
people who support us and our farm. As I
have said in the past, it is you, our community, who keeps up growing.
The clock is telling me Farmer Don will be home from market
soon so I will end here. Have a great
week, enjoy the veggies and don't forget to count your blessings.
