2019 CSA Week 9 News

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

Welcome to Week 9 of our 2019 CSA.  Week 9 is an egg week.  Hopefully everyone is enjoying their Week 9 boxes.

Yep, the weather again!  Last weekend was absolutely beautiful, dare I say almost fall like?  A nice relief after last week's stormy weather.  The storms were not overly kind to Dancing Hen Farm. As you know we lost power on Tuesday night and it seems that is not all Mother Nature had in store for us.   When Farmer Don went to water our pigs early Friday morning he discovered our farm well pump was not working and we had no water for the farm.  Luckily, our house has its own, separate, water source, so we were able to get water to our animals using five gallon buckets.  Ok, Farmer Don manned the buckets and I offered moral support!  Over the weekend a plumber confirmed what we had suspected, lightening had hit our pump.  However, we are again counting our blessings here on farm.  The controller to our pump was damaged, but the pump itself seems to be in working order.  The controller is not an inexpensive part for our system, but we are relieved to not also be having to replace the pump.  Now the search begins for a replacement controller which is compatible with the systems we have on our farm.  Without the controller we do not have an operational pump and therefore do not have irrigation, so we actually are looking for some rain!  Crazy to think we are looking for rain, when we have had such a wet year, but our fields of shale do dry out quickly.   I am not sure Farmer Don can water the fields with five gallon buckets, even with my moral support!  So, we need some collective energies to bring some nice soaking rains to the farm.

Our fields do continue to look good this year.  Farmer Don asked me to let everyone know we are in what he calls the "August greens doldrums".  This happens most Augusts as the heat of the season is not kind to greens.  We have greens in the ground and some ready to go in the ground and these plantings should be ready for harvest in a few weeks as temperatures cool slightly.  More exciting than greens to come are our tomatoes.  They are ripening and we are starting to harvest them.  Farmers choice boxes saw our own Julliette Salad tomatoes in their boxes this week and our own cherry tomatoes, including sungolds, will also be available shortly.  Fennel is coming to an end and cucumbers have finally slowed down a bit.  Cucumbers are often a boom or bust crop for us and the past few years have been booming.  The next bean plantings continue to look good as does our fall cabbage.

This weekend Farmer Don and I attended a really nice farm to table dinner at our neighbor's farm.  We rarely go out and barely leave the farm anymore, so this was a real treat for us.  Toby and Sarah own and operate the Blind Pig Kitchen in Bloomsburg and this dinner was a Meet the Farmers (Toby and Sarah!) Dinner for supporters of the restaurant.  The Blind Pig is a farm to table restaurant with most all food served sourced locally, much of it produced on their own farm.  The farm dinner was amazing, great food, great setting and even a bluegrass band for entertainment!  If you have not yet visited The Blind Pig Kitchen, I would encourage you to do so.  They are open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday and for brunch on Sunday.  More information can be found on their website (www.blindpigkitchen.com). 

Farmer Don is in from evening chores, the dogs are settling in for the night and I need to think about heading to bed.  So, I will end here with Farmer Don's words "be safe, be well and enjoy those veggies".