Greetings
from Dancing Hen Farm!
Welcome to
Week 5 of our 2020 CSA! WEEK 5 IS A
CHICKEN WEEK!!! So, if you purchased a
chicken share, please be sure to check for a cooler at your drop site. Our site hosts are not able to store your
chicken for you. Week 5 is also an egg
week. Remember ordering for our CSA begins
every Thursday at 6 pm and ends on Sunday at 6 pm.
So not much
new on the weather front. Hot and humid
seems to be the theme. We are dry here
on farm and are hoping some of the forecasted showers for the next few days
bring us some rain. Recently the storms
have been going around us. I will get
reports from neighbors less than 5 miles away receiving a quarter inch of rain,
but here, we only got a few drops. We
have irrigation to most of our fields, but there is nothing like a good soaking
rain to revive crops.
Our fields
continue to looks good. Tomatoes are starting
to come on as are cucumbers. Summer
squash and zucchini should continue to be available along with kale and
chard. We are working with an Amish
grower friend of ours to obtain some eggplant and we are hoping his will be of
harvest size by next week. Our first
planting of string beans is done and our second planting is not quite mature
yet, so there may be a gap in bean availability. We are lucky to be working with some
certified naturally grown and certified organic farmers and the beautiful
lettuce we have been putting in your boxes is from them. We are hoping the leaf lettuce and possibly
the romaine will continue to be available.
Last week I
talked about our resident hummingbirds and this week I had a cool hummingbird
moth visiting the flowers on our back porch.
These clearwing moths move and hover like a hummingbird as they drink
nectar from flowers. Another one of my
favorite bugs! Speaking of bugs. I have some herb plantings around the house
and many of the perennial herbs have been blooming. I try to keep the blooms trimmed from the
plants to encourage more vegetative growth.
But, this year when I went to trim the flowers off of the thyme and
oregano, I couldn't bring myself to snip them off. The number of bees and beneficial insects
swarming around these flowers was amazing!
Large bumble bees, busy honey bees and the tiniest of wasps! These tiny wasps are generally too tiny to
cause any problems for humans, but they are very beneficial to the farmer. These wasps often belong to species of wasps
which actually parasitize and kill crop pests.
Ok, I will
stop ranting on and on about bugs!
Our kitchen
has been fairly quiet recently. Farmer
Don is still not eating a lot, so when we cook we seem to have tons of
leftovers and therefore our refrigerator seems to be constantly overflowing
with leftovers. And leftovers we must
eat! However I did have the first of one
of my summertime favorites, an open faced tomato and grilled cheese sandwich. I used a fresh loaf of crusty whole wheat
bread Farmer Don picked up at the farmer's market, an heirloom tomato and some
extra sharp cheddar. WOW, how can you go
wrong with those ingredients? I also have
been keeping a jar of pickled eggs and beets in the fridge again for a light
lunch or a nice afternoon snack. Recently
I made a batch of my mother's bean salad and have been eating that all week as
well. I should have halved the recipe,
since I am having to eat this myself and the recipe makes a ton! I think I will be eating bean salad all
month!
Don't forget
Farmers Don and Phil are at the Back Mountain Memorial Library Farmers Market
every Saturday. The market is held at
the Dallas High School. They usually
have Dancing Hen Farm Apple Orchard Pork, Pastured Chicken, free-range eggs and
an assortment of vegetable available for sale.
If you go to market, please stop by our table and say hello! The farmers love to meet our farm members!
Ok, it is
getting late and I want to be certain I get this newsletter out before I turn
in for the night.
Until next
week.......
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