Tuesday, July 21, 2020

2020 CSA Week 5 Newsletter


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.  So, in Farmer Don's words - "Be safe, Be Well and Enjoy those veggies!".  And I will add "stay cool out there".



Until next week.......

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