Greetings from a sunny and warm Dancing Hen Farm!
The buying club is now open. You have until Thursday at 5 pm to place an order for Saturday pick up. Once again Seedling Creek (Farmers Neil and Krislyn) have beautiful greens and transplants available. New this week are tender nutritious beet greens. They have also added pepper plants and some more flowers to their transplant availability. New this week are Black Krim Tomato plants. Black Krims are one of my favorite tomatoes, ripening to a beautiful dark maroon and oh so flavorful!
After last weekend's heavy rains, it is so nice to finally have a stretch of sunny weather. And the weeds are growing like crazy! But, our crops are also starting to grow. The peas are looking good and we are starting to see some germination in our other direct seeded crops. This time of year, the seed house is a flurry of activity as we scramble to get our summer crops seeded for transplant into our fields, once the danger of frost is truly behind us. Our laying hens are looking good. The pullets have begun to lay, so we should have eggs for the CSA and for the Back Mountain Farm Market. The first batch of meat birds are looking healthy; outside enjoying the sunshine and fresh grass. And so far Dilly has not been harassing them too much. She did dig under their pen the first day they were on grass, allowing 3 birds to free range, but thankfully she seems to have lost interest.
However poor Dilly's adventures continue. I always called Rosie "Calamity Rose", but I am starting to think Rosie's calamities were nothing compared to Dilly's. Dilly is barely 2 and already has a large list of adventures, she is a true Calamity Dilly! If any of you follow Farmer Don on Instagram, you already know that Dilly had yet another run in with a porcupine! Yes, you read that right "another run in with a porcupine". This was her second adventure with a porcupine in her 2 years of life! The other night I was making dinner and was beginning to worry a bit. Farmer Don and Dilly were not in from doing chores yet. Just as I was about to head out on our back porch and ring the bell, Famer Don appeared at the back door and told me he would be eating dinner late. Dilly had tangled with a porcupine and had quills stuck in her snout. Ouch, poor Dilly! Farmer Don got busy collecting the tools for quill removal, securing Dilly in the workshop, and got to work. Dilly screamed, literally screamed, but he was able to get all the quills but one. She was losing her patience and getting a bit grouchy and snappy. Farmer Don decided both Dilly and he needed a break. He got Dilly comfortable on her bed and grabbed a beer for himself. I am happy to say the final quill has been removed and we are declaring Dilly quill free once again. Of course, less than 24 hours after meeting the porcupine, she was across the road barking wildly at something. Lucky for her and us, she did not find the porcupine or skunk again. Stay tuned for more updates on the "Adventures of Dilly". I have a feeling as the summer moves along there will be many more Dilly stories to tell. Let's hope for her sake, happier and less painful stories!\
Like the weather, our kitchen is starting to transition from winter to spring. It is so nice to have some early spring greens to be cooking with and eating right now. On Monday, I made a cream sauce featuring spinach, mushrooms and sundried tomatoes. I ended up putting it in a casserole to finish, as Farmer Don and Dilly had their date with the porcupine quills! We are also trying to use up preserved food stores before the fresh veggies start to be harvested. So, tonight we are having a Pennsylvania Dutch favorite, ham and green beans. A easy meal to make and tasty to eat. I like to add a bit of apple cider vinegar to my ham and green beans. One of the remaining days this week we will have leftovers and I am thinking a Dancing Hen Farm standard of sausage, kale and roasted potatoes another day. This is a nice meal, as we often have just enough leftovers to add to eggs either for a hearty breakfast or an easy supper. I do love to cook and one of my goals right now is to move back into the kitchen! I will keep you posted on how this goes.
Our CSA is scheduled to start in June and we do have a few spots available. We are excited for this season. Excited to be partnering with Neil and Krislyn up at Seedling Creek. We are already seeing the beautiful vegetables and transplants they can grow! Krislyn will also be helping out here on farm, nice to have some new younger energy on farm.
So, I really need to wrap up this newsletter. It is after 2 and want to get a few things done before I get started on supper. So in Farmer Don's words: be safe, be well and enjoy those veggies. Don't forget buying club. Greens are looking beautiful and I can attest to the fact that it really feels nice to again be eating locally.
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