Happy Birthday Farmer Phil and the Buying Club is open!

Hi Friends! A couple of quick notes to pass along.

Number one: Aunt Joan and Uncle Don want to pass along Happy Birthday wishes to Farmer Phil! Happy Birthday Phil! We're looking forward to your help around the farm this coming season and getting back to doing the weekly farmer's markets with you this summer! Aunt Joan and I can't begin to describe how much your help on the farm means to us, and from me to you, Phil, you and I running buying clubs, doing farmer markets and all of our various activities puts a warm feeling in my heart and a smile on my face...may we have many, many more to come! Happy Birthday PHIL!

So, energy levels continue to build around the farm, despite the roller coaster weather. 6 inches of snow last Tuesday, 80 degrees and sun on Sunday, and now this morning 35 degrees with 15mph winds...just when I was ready to put the long underwear away, now I'm chopping wood and burning the wood stove....

This morning I updated all accounts, recorded payments received and activated all accounts for summer CSA. Still shooting for early June to open. The cold temps I can handle....but with all the rain and wet weather it has been tough to get into the fields to get some real work done. Spring has always been the toughest season to manage, and this spring has proven to be just that. We take our opportunities to work when we have them and move forward. We've been moving forward for 15yrs now with you, the Dancing Hen Farm's community support, and will continue to do so. Through thick and thin the farm comes together. Thanks again for all of the support.

Buying club is open again this week. We will keep adding new items as we can, and are featuring items from Neil's little farm up by Forksville. Neil and Krislyn have been working hard to be producers and are now in a position to share their harvest with you. Look for their items on our website.

Time to start the day's activities, get Joan another cup of coffee, run Dilly so she and I will sleep well tonight and enjoy another adventure filled day on the farm.

 Be well friends, thanks again for your ongoing support, and when you see Farmer Phil, wish him a Happy Birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHIL!

 

Buying Club April 23

 

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

Farmers Don and Phil will be out and about on Saturday (April 23) delivering buying club orders.  These are preorders placed on our website through the winter buying club.  Ordering for Saturday's buying club ends tonight at 5 pm.  If you have questions or are having trouble navigating the website, please contact us at the farm.  We will do what we can to help you place and order and get some local products to you.  Farmers Neil and Krislyn have been busy and are supplying the buying club with some tender spring greens as well as some wild harvested ramps.  Dancing Hen Farm has a good supply of eggs, pastured pork and some storage crops available 

How about this weather?  Spring in Pennsylvania is always a bit of a roller coaster ride.  Recently that ride has been on the wild side.  Lows in the low 20's and upper teens, followed by 7 plus inches of snow, and a couple of days in the upper 70's, has left us all a holding on waiting for the next curve Mother Nature has up her sleeve.  And yes the ride continues, we had snow, lots of snow, on Tuesday and 80 and sun is predicted on Sunday.  Hard weather to farm in!  This time of year we are even more obsessed with the weather.  Waiting patiently for fields to dry and overnight temperatures to stay warm enough to sustain our summer crop transplants. 

In spite of the weather we have been busy!  Farmer Don was able to get peas planted a couple of weeks ago.  Not quite St Patrick's Day, but we were so happy to get them in before the snow.  Now we will wait for the soil to warm just a bit for germination.  We have other fields worked and ready for planting as soon as things dry out a bit.  After peas, we usually plant onions and potatoes, followed closely by greens, both salad and cooking greens.  True summer crops, such as tomatoes, peppers and squash, will not be planted until after the threat of frost.  For our farm we consider the very end of May or the first of June to be a safe no frost date for planting these more tender crops. 

 Just a quick update on our instagram account.  Our instagram account is @Dancing_Hen_Farm.  Sorry for any confusion, Farmer Don had someone help him put instagram on his phone and they decided to create a new account.  Farmer Don will be using this account throughout the season to keep everyone updated on farm activities.  So go ahead follow him and enjoy the pictures he has been taking!

 There is still much to tell, including some Dilly stories, but I will end here for today.  As usual, I have been working on this newsletter all day!  Crazy how I can write all day and get very little written.  So my friends, be well, be safe and send us some warm weather vibes.