Wednesday, July 1, 2020

2020 CSA Week 2 Newsletter


Greetings from Dancing  Hen Farm!  Happy Independence Day!!!

Welcome to Week 2 of our CSA.  Week 2 is not an egg week.

A few CSA logistics updates and then onto some farm news.  Delivery to central drop off sites are always guaranteed by 4 pm, but we want to give you our delivery schedule for this season in case you want to pick boxes up earlier.  Mountain Top boxes should be at the pharmacy after 10 am.  Boxes will be at the Dallas location after 11 am and to Balance Yoga, in Forty Fort after 12, noon.  We will have boxes to Bloom Naturally by 2 pm.  Remember if you are running late, please let your site host know.  Our sites are not able to hold your box for you. 

A quick word on boxes, green pint and quart boxes and egg cartons.  In an attempt to keep farm costs down, we do re-use these items.  Please leave them at your pick up site for us to collect when we deliver.

It does not seem possible that we are already celebrating July 4th!  It seems we have just recently started to get summer weather.  May and the first part of June were very cool and wet here on farm.  This delayed our planting quite a bit.  We also had a very late freeze this year.  We were lucky and although we lost some transplants in an unheated greenhouse, we did not suffer any real losses.  Other farmers in our area did not fare so well.  We have heard reports that the peaches in the area were hit very hard and some orchards are reporting close to a 100% loss.  That is a scary and hard loss for orchards to absorb! 

So the saga of my herb bed continues.  As some of you may remember, several years ago I had couple of snakes take of residence.  We even had some of members try and help us catch them!  They spent one season enjoying my herbs and had moved on by the next summer.  This summer in the same herb bed, even in the same location we have a groundhog!  Yes, a groundhog, basically right off the porch/patio!  We noticed it about a month ago and had the dogs watching the area for us and I was convinced it had moved on, tired of being harassed by the pooches.  But, just the other day, I was sitting, doing some work by the window and saw it perched on a log in that herb bed.  And this morning I saw it lumbering around in the yard not far from its herb house.  And unfortunately our dogs now seem to think this groundhog is part of the family! 

Our fields are starting to fill up and we are seeing, what we like to call some true summer crops beginning to ripen.  This week we picked our first summer squash of the season.  In the coming week, summer squash should be available for choice.  Peas are starting to slow and will be available in very limited numbers in the coming weeks.  We should continue to have greens, radishes and scallions available.  String beans, both yellow and green, are starting to reach maturity and will be available on and off for a number of weeks to come.  The tomatoes in our high tunnel are starting ripen and we should have tomatoes available, with cherries most likely being the first to ripen.  We continue to plant as weather and schedules allow.  Farmer Don is on the mend, but is still in recuperation mode, so we are happy to be working closely with some Amish friends/neighbors of ours to bring you some certified organic produce to supplement out harvest. 

Speaking of Farmer Don.  I am assuming most of you have been following along with his story this spring.  His treatments are finished I am happy to say he is getting his energy back.  I am truly amazed at how much he is already able to do on a daily basis on farm.  He still has some difficulty swallowing and speaking, but we have turned a corner and he is eating soft foods now and able to drink.  Thanks to everyone for your kind words, healing energies and prayers.  Life is good here on farm and we continue to enjoy every moment!

Ok, it is getting near suppertime and this newsletter is getting a bit wordy, so I will end things here.
As always, thanks to each of you for your continued support of our farm.  You, our farm community, make it possible to continue to farm this rocky hillside in a way which will help leave the earth a better place for future generations. 

Be safe, be well, and enjoy those veggies.


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