2020 CSA Week 14 Newsletter

 

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

Welcome to Week 14 or our 2020 CSA.  Week 14 is not an egg week.  After this week's delivery there are 4 weeks remaining in our CSA.  Next week will be a chicken week, so don't forget to bring your cooler to your pick up site.

And suddenly it was Fall!  Here on farm we have had temperatures below freezing the past 4 mornings, including 2 mornings with temperatures in the 20's.  This means our summer growing season has pretty much come to an end.  We have been working very closely with 3 other farms this season and like us they lost most of their summer crops to these cold temperatures.  Some crops are protected under row covers and plastic, so we are hoping to continue to bring in limited harvests of a few select crops.  These cold morning temperatures are almost a month earlier than predicted.  This week you will see some substitutions due to crop loss from the freeze.  Most notably, cherry tomato season has ended for 2020.  Our plants and our cooperative growers' plants were all killed by the freeze and none of us had the time or man power to harvest prior to the cold temperatures.  Some tomatoes were harvested prior to the frost and are in cool storage, so hopefully some of these will continue to be available.  So, we are again asking for your patience as we continue navigate this challenging growing season.  As I have said in the past this has by far been our most difficult production year.  What does this mean to the CSA?  You will see a sharp drop in the variety of crops available as we will be forced to scramble to fill boxes with cold hardy greens and storage crops.  As Farmer Don often says, "Mother Nature bats last".   Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Never ever did I imagine I would be writing two good bye newsletters on back to back weeks, but that is the reality of this past week.

It is with great sadness that I have to tell you about the loss of another true keeper of our farm.  This week our beloved dog, Shady, followed her sister and crossed over the rainbow bridge.  Like Rose, we knew Shady was ill, but she had been doing really well the past month.  It is almost as if she held on to support us and Rosie.   Shortly after we moved to this farm, Shady appeared at our house on one fall day as a stray.  We tried to locate her family, but it soon became evident she was a member of our family.  As my Mom used to say "Shady chose you!".  Shady was our happy dog, happy just to be with us, laying at our feet or with her head resting in our lap.  Shady really loved the farm and the farm loved Shady.  She loved to hunt frogs in our pond.  To Shady, hunting frogs consisted of staring them down.  But, most of all, Shady loved Farmer Don and faithfully followed him around for farm chores and field work.  She soon learned she could ride on the seat of our buggie and she and Farmer Don could often be seen enjoying a crop "walk" with Shady safely tucked onto the seat next to Farmer Don.  As with Rose there are so many Shady stories I could share and many I have shared over the years.  Instead, I will simply say "Shady Marie Magillicutty the farm is just not the same without you, you are missed greatly.  Please look after your sister and may it forever be "Shady's din din time".  Until we meet again my love."

So on this sad note, we are trying to move on with our 2020 season.  Times have certainly changed this past year and as I am sure many of you will agree, we are more than ready for a better 2021!

Thank you again for your support and understanding.  All of you are a part of our farm family and you are helping us heal and move forward.

Be safe be will and enjoy those veggies.