Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!
The buying club is now open for deliveries this weekend! The window to order will remain open until 8 pm tonight. After this week, buying club deliveries may become a bit more sporadic as Farmer Don has some commitments coming up during the months of March and April. We currently have available proteins, including eggs, and storage crops for purchase.
In case you haven't guessed it yet, I am back in the writer's seat, at least for this newsletter. Farmer Don wants to write some newsletters when he has the time, so we will be switching back and forth a bit, at least until the growing season really gets busy. We are trying to get a newsletter out to you each week and will hopefully continue this through the summer.
Is anyone else feeling that we have made the weather turn towards spring? Yes, I know I am probably being optimistic, but the weather has been so warm recently. Have you heard the birds starting to sing more in the mornings? And yesterday I saw a robin! Of course today is cool and cloudy with a storm brewing for tonight and tomorrow morning! But, I am feeling very optimistic that soon I will be sitting on the porch with Dilly watching the birds! I may feel differently in March when we are still getting snow, but for now - spring is just around the corner!
On farm the buzz for the 2022 growing season has begun. We are busy ordering seeds and supplies and getting the seed house nursery cleaned up. In the next week or so we will be starting seeds for some of our early transplants and in several weeks we could be planting peas! Farmer Don and I are feeling motivated and excited to 2022. Very much like the early days of Dancing Hen Farm. We have had a tough couple of years health wise, but we are ready to get growing food for our community. The farm doesn't look quite like we envisioned it when we started, but we have spent time this winter reflecting on the farm and we are happy with where the farm is, happy with what our farm has become, and happy, for the most part, with the direction our lives are taking.
We are excited to be going back to the Back Mountain Library Farmers Market this year. Farmers Don and Phil are excited to see all their old friends at market. I know is quite a long ways off, but if you go to market please be sure to stop by our table and say hello to the farmers! We are hoping Farmers Neil and Krislyn will also be joining us at market this year. Farmer Neil worked for us a number of years ago and he is eager to get involved in the farm again. He and Krislyn have turned their small yard into a farm and are growing some really beautiful food. Look for their items to appear on the market table and in our CSA share boxes.
Please note registration for our 2022 CSA is now open. There are a limited number of shares available and your share is reserved in order in which payment is received. Thanks to all for your support. CSA registration is one of my favorite times of the year. We see the true sense of our community as we see people signing up who have been with us since year one. It is also excited to see unfamiliar names appear as new members are finding and signing up for our CSA. The CSA is the backbone of our farm.
In the kitchen we are still eating lots of soups and stews. Every weekend we usually cook a chicken. I then eat leftover chicken for lunch during the week and we make stock out of the bones. I do love our chickens -- they taste great and by making stock, we feel we are really stretching the meals from one chicken. The other week we stewed half a chicken and made chicken and dumplings. So, good! Nice rich broth, filled with chicken, carrots, corn and potatoes and then topped with some fluffy dumplings. We are also trying to use up our canned and preserved foods. Last year we canned salsa verde and this winter we made a really delicious white chicken chili featuring this salsa. That recipe is a keeper for sure! https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/white-chicken-chili-bake/
Ah yes, Dilly. Dilly is very much the Queen of Dancing Hen Farm (we even have a picture of her in her Queen clothes!). She loves doing chores with Farmer Don and loves running deer and other invaders off the property. Even the invaders no one can see! Yes she is a barker! So far we are living with her barking and trying to give her no attention (positive or negative) for barking in the hopes that she will outgrow this latest Dillyism. Even with all of this barking, she is still a cuddle bug. In fact, if I am sitting on the couch on the computer, guaranteed she will paw at me and computer until I give up and allow her to cuddle up next to me and put her head on my lap. As much as I hate having her stinky, little, farm body on the couch it is so nice to have her cuddle up next to me. Of course, I won't be speaking so sweetly of her the next time she chews up the newspaper or drinks my coffee. And by the way, it is coffee she likes. I can have a cup of tea and she will not bother it, but coffee she will lap up any chance she gets! Trust me she does not need to have the added caffeine in the coffee!
Well, I need to wrap this up and move onto finishing up organizing and inventorying our seed. A much bigger task then I anticipated! Look out Farmer Don, your seed tote will never be the same again!
Thanks again for your continued support. And thanks for reading. We consider all of you our community and community is very high on Dancing Hen Farm's values list.
Until next week........
