Week 4 Newsletter

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!  Welcome to CSA Week 4 and welcome to July.  We hope everyone had a happy, though wet, Fourth of July.

Yep, it is still raining.  We got another inch plus over the weekend and have had showers every day so far this week.  I did get some wash done and dried on the line on Sunday and Monday.  Our crops are really starting to show the signs of too much rain.  Disease is setting in and the weeds are taking over the farm!

Although the fields are wet and weedy, we still have some healthy crops coming on.  Cooking greens are looking good.  Our first run of Asian greens are starting to wind down, with a second planting ready to go in.  We will be taking a bit of a break from salad mix in the next few weeks, as we wait for our fields to recover from the deer invasion of a few weeks ago.  Beans are growing nicely and we anticipate a long run of snap beans.  Peas are still going strong, but starting to wind down.  Shelling peas are done for the season and snaps and snows should hang on for a few more weeks.  Planting 2 of our summer squash is producing nicely with plantings 3 and 4 getting big and starting to flower.  Our greenhouse cucumbers are still producing and our field planted cucumbers are growing.  Winter squash is looking good and barring a disease or insect invasion we should have a good amount of winter squash this winter.  All our melons are planted, although the resident groundhog seems to be taking a liking to them.  We will keep you posted on how melons progress.  The sungold tomatoes in the greenhouse are loaded with flowers and fruit and the wait for the first ripe tomato continues.  Field grown tomatoes look good and will be staked this week.  Field and greenhouse peppers are looking healthy, flowering and starting to produce some tiny fruit.

Our apple orchard pork inventory is starting to be depleted.  We are sold out of bacon, ham steaks, ham hocks, loin roasts and pork chops until the fall.  We now have a plentiful supply of pastured chicken available, both halves and wholes.  Our chicken this year is some of the nicest we have produced with nice consistent weights.  We still have extra eggs for sale, as well.  All of these products are available through our buying club or at the Back Mountain Memorial Library Market.

Speaking of farmers markets.  We will be at Forks Farm Market in Orangeville this Saturday from 10 to 2 selling vegetables.  Then next Saturday, July 18, is the opening day for Back Mountain Memorial Library Market.  We are really excited for the Back Mountain Market this year.  The hours will be the same, 9 to 2, but the market is moving to a new location.  This year we will be setting up in the parking lot at the Dallas Elementary School.  We are excited to have more space for vendors and more parking for customers.  We will be selling vegetables, eggs, chicken and pork at the Dallas market.  If you visit any of the markets we attend, please be sure to stop by and say hello to Farmer Don.

In the kitchen, we are happy to have so many fresh vegetables to cook with.  As I type this newsletter, Don is in the kitchen making dinner.  We are having salmon packets on the grill.  I glanced at the packets before he sealed them and they are overflowing!  Squash, kale, beans, carrots, potatoes, parsley, and of course Wild for Salmon, salmon portions.  Last night we had fresh chicken on the grill, along with roasted potatoes and grilled zucchini. 

The basil we are harvesting looks beautiful right now.  We have several varieties of basils available at this time.  Most everyone is familiar with sweet basil.  We grow two varieties of sweet basil.  The traditional smooth leaved and an Italian sweet or Genovese basil, with a larger frilly leaf.  These sweet basils are a favorite for pesto and pair well with tomatoes.  Another sweet basil we grow is Red Opal basil.  This basil has distinctive deep red leaves and can be used in place of sweet basil in most recipes.  Red basil pairs well with salmon and here on farm we often add it to the foil packets of salmon we cook on the grill.  Speaking of salmon, another basil which pairs well with fish is Mrs Burns Lemon Basil.  This heirloom basil has a distinctive lemony scent and pale green leaves.  I love the aroma of lemon basil and use it in salads and with fish.  Lemon basil also makes a great simple syrup for use in lemonades, iced tea or fruit popsicles. The final basil we grow is Thai Basil.  Thai basil with it distinctive purple stems, holds up a bit better to cooking than sweet basils so is a good addition to soups, stir frys and curries.  Here is a website from a farm in California with some really good recipes.  http://www.mariquita.com/recipes/basil.html   If you need larger quantities of basil, please contact us for availability. 

Speaking of herbs.  Fresh herbs store best at room temperature in a glass of water on your kitchen counter.  Treat the herbs like flowers; cut the stems fresh and place them in water.  Preserving herbs is also easy and simple.  Try freezing herbs in olive oil in ice cube trays.  Once frozen, transfer the cubes to a plastic bag.  When you are ready cook simply melt an herb and oil cube in the pan and you are ready for a tasty saute or stir fry. 

We just finished our delicious supper.  Farmer Don has headed out to do night time chores.  The kitchen is even cleaned up!  Time to end this ramble for the week.

 Please remember to return your boxes.  Have a great week!

Buying Club open this week!!!!

Greeting Dancing Hen Farm Buying Club Members!

Yes, Farmer Don has made the call and our buying club will be open this week.  Ordering is now open and will close Thursday morning at 5 am.  Deliveries will be Friday night from 5:30 to 6 at Bloom Naturally in Bloomsburg and Saturday morning from 10 to 10:30 at Dallas and from 11 to 11:30 at Forty Fort.  On farm pick is after 4 on Friday or any time on Saturday.  If you have questions about pick up site locations, please do not hesitate to contact us at the farm.

Please note, this is our extended season buying club and is separate from our CSA and the buying club we offer to CSA members.  Back Mountain Memorial Library Market starts July 18, so this will most likely be our last extended season buying club until the fall.

We will be at Forks Farm Market this Saturday selling vegetables.  If you would like to pick up your order at Forks, please contact the farm and we will have your box behind the table.

Looking to keep up on farm news?  Please check our facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dancing-Hen-Farm/111155465564952) or our blog (http://dancinghenfarmcsa.blogspot.com/).  Farm communications and pictures are posted at both of these sites.

Thanks again for your support, as I have said in the past, without you, our community, we would not be able to do what we do, sustainably farm this bit of hilly land in northeastern Pennsylvania.

2015 Week 3 Newsletter

Independence Day greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!  We hope everyone is enjoying their Week 3 boxes.

As seems to be the trend this summer, I am a bit late getting the newsletter out.  That means ordering for Week 4 is well under way.  Just a reminder ordering opens at 6 pm Thursday and closes at 6 pm Sunday for the next week’s box. 

July already!  Where did those cold winter days go?  It seems just recently we were huddle in the house waiting patiently, well maybe not too patiently, for the ice and snow to melt so we could get planting.  Now here we are ready to celebrate the fourth.  Tomorrow looks to be a bit rainy and cool, but I am thinking the rain will stop before evening picnics and fireworks. 

Rain!  We have really been getting soaked by rain recently.  The yard is a swamp and our road is washed out again.  We now get to sleep to the sounds of running water as the usually dry ditch across from the house is still running freely.  May was so dry we had problems getting plants growing, now all the rain is causing disease to move into our crops and our plants to stress from too much water.   One of my sisters has predicted July will be hot and dry and we will have more flooding towards the end of August.  We could use a bit of hot dry weather right now, the flooding, I am not so sure about. 

This past week on farm, Rosie, our border collie, added another saga to her life story.  Many of you have met Rose and most of you have read stories about her in the past.  She is a bit accident prone and maybe a bit too curious for her own good.  This past Monday, Farmer Don was done with packing boxes fairly early.  He decided to take the dogs for a walk around our fields, as he does most evenings.  Rose likes to nose around in the fence rows looking for what we always assume are the farm’s resident groundhogs.  She ran up the farm road a bit in front of the farmer and our other dog.  She was not gone long when she came sprinting back, running through the high grass and rubbing her face on the ground!  Farmer Don got a strong smell of skunk and that quickly Rose was gone.  I then began smelling really strong skunk at the backdoor and immediately knew someone was skunked!  Yep, Rose, had her second encounter, with a skunk.  Needless to say, no one, animal or human, was too happy Monday night.  Shady, our other dog, kept a wide distance from her sister.  Rose got several special baths and was forced to sleep the night in our workshop in the cellar.  Currently, she doesn’t smell too bad, but, from past experience she will be stinky for months, especially if she gets wet.  Let’s hope the predicted hot and dry July comes true!!

Well, it seems to be the year of the skunk.  I had this newsletter all ready to send out and was waiting for Farmer Don to read it over lunch when I learned of another skunk encounter.  Shady, our other dog, met up with the skunk this morning!  I guess she was nosing around in the same hedge row where Rosie got sprayed.  At least we now have a pretty good idea where the skunk lives!  And thankfully, it seems Shady did not get as a direct hit as Rose.  Looks like baths for all at Dancing Hen Farm tonight!  I am thinking as long as we are bathing Shady, we might as well put the de-skunk solution on Rose again, as she is still fairly stinky.

Speaking of pets.  This week we said a sad farewell to Tigger.  Tigger was a large orange Tabby which had belonged to my parents.  He was older and his health had been failing for several years.  I already miss his loud motoring purr and his constant demands for attention and food.  He felt it was his job to be sure the food and water bowls were kept full and if either was lower than he liked, he was sure to track someone down and let them know.  Rest in Peace Tigger and thank you for sharing your life with us.

In the fields, we continue to plant, plant and plant some more.  Most of our major plantings are complete for the season, including winter squash.  This week we will finish up with some late peppers, eggplant and okra.  This does not mean planting is complete for the season.  We will continue to plant, on 1 or two week rotation, many of our cooking greens, salad greens, snap beans, as well as some other crops.  Our herbs are doing well and our field planted basil has sized up nicely and appears on Week Four’s choice list.  Our summer squash, zucchini, yellow squash, and eight ball zucchini are really starting to produce.  We also have patty pan squash planted with this same rotation, but they take a bit longer to mature.  Patty pan squash should appear on the choice list soon.  My most recent trip through the greenhouse revealed many tomatoes on our sungold plants.  Get your cherry tomato recipes ready, as it will not be long before sungolds appear in your boxes.  Of course, what I hear from many members is that the sungolds barely make it home!  There are two crops we grow which I cannot resist right off the vine, sungolds are one and peas are the other!

How about the size of some of the Chinese cabbage going out last week!  Wow!  I often take Monday off as a vacation day from my off farm job to help on farm with harvest and pack.  Last Monday, I was working our field rinse station and when these cabbage came in I was amazed.  They looked beautiful. This morning I see Farmer Don has his kimchi recipes and notes out on our kitchen table, so I am thinking the fermentation crocks will again be getting some use over the weekend.  When you see Don at market, be sure to ask him about kimchi and good bacteria.  He may even have some kimchi with him for sampling.

In the kitchen, we made a nice rolled flank steak this week.  The recipe called for stuffing it with a spinach, cilantro and peanut pesto.  Since I didn’t have spinach or peanuts, I substituted kale and walnuts.  I should have taken a picture to post on facebook and our blog, as the pesto stayed bright green and contrasted beautifully with the meat.  Farmer Don declared the recipe a keeper, so if I make it again, I will be sure to take a picture.  Another favorite and quick dinner for us consists of eggs and greens over polenta.  I saute the greens, whatever is harvested, in a pan with a bit of olive oil and garlic.  When the greens are just about done, I make several holes in the greens, crack an egg in each hole, add a couple of tablespoons of water, put the lid on the pan and allow the eggs to steam/poach.  Serve the greens and eggs over some fresh soft polenta.  For me, keeping the egg yolks on the soft/runny side is perfect to mix with the polenta.  Farmer Don, however, prefers the yolks cooked more firmly. 

With grill season in full swing, I thought I will continue on the food and cooking theme and talk a bit about veggies on the grill.  Any of the summer squash are really great on the grill.  We usually marinate them in a bit of oil and vinegar based Italian salad dressing, grill them briefly on both sides and then top with a bit of fresh grated parmesan cheese.  Eight-ball zucchini, the small round zucchini, going out in our summer squash melody are nice to grill.  Cut them cross-wise to make coins.  I like to make zucchini pizzas out of the eight balls.  Cook each slice on one side, flip over and top each slice with a tablespoon or so of red sauce and a sprinkle of cheese.  Close the lid to the grill to allow the squash to finish cooking and the cheese to melt.  For the meat eaters in your family, top each slice with a piece of pepperoni before you add the sauce and cheese.  Another veggie good on the grill are garlic scapes.  Brush the scapes with a bit of oil and grill, flipping once.  Scapes can even be used at skewers for grilled veggies.  For squash, cut your squash in cubes and carefully thread onto the scape.  The non-flower end of the scape will be stiffer, so start your veggies at this end.   All this talk of grilling veggies, I can’t wait for tomatoes and eggplant and okra!!  The grill will be busy here at the farm!

Let’s see.  I talked about ordering, the farm, the pets, cooking, and the weather, of course.  I am thinking it is time to wrap up this week’s rambles with my weekly box reminder.  Please remember to return your boxes so we can re-use them.

Have a great holiday.  And as Farmer Don always says:  “be safe, be well and enjoy those veggies”

Week 2 Newsletter

Welcome to Week 2!  Happy Father’s Day! and Happy Summer Solstice!

Week 2 was not an egg week.  Egg weeks are odd weeks, so Week 3 will be an egg week.

Rain, rain, rain.  That is the weather topic of late.  I think Wednesday this week was beautiful and dry, but it seems daily rains are the norm recently.  It is hard to believe we are still under a drought watch.  Bill brought us over 2 inches of rain last weekend and the forecast is for another 2 inches this weekend!  Now in all honesty our fields are wet and our crops are starting to show some effects of too much rain.  We will need to monitor closely for disease.  And boy does the rain make the weeds grow!!!!

Hopefully everyone has figured out the routine for the CSA.  Remember ordering opens on Thursday night at 6 pm for the next week’s boxes and closes Sunday night at 6 pm.   That means ordering for week 3 is open now.  Please remember all items are available on a first serve basis and each week some items will be limited in number.  Don’t worry if you forget to pick items, you will still get a box, a farmer’s choice box.  Sometimes farmer’s choice boxes get some items not on the pick list.  Farmer Don is estimating harvests almost a full week before we actually harvest.  For this reason, there may be items ready for harvest he did not anticipate being ready.  Also please be aware, that we occasionally will need to make substitutions if items are not ready for harvest as anticipated.

We are busy as ever on farm.  We are continuing to plant daily.  We are almost done with the main planting of our summer crops.  There are still some pepper and eggplants to go in the ground.  Many crops we plant almost continuously throughout the growing season.  In fact we have one field we are ready to turn over and completely re-plant for a second time this year.  This field had some early greens and cover crops growing.  Now it is ready to be tilled and replanted with a different crop. I took a walk through our large unheated production greenhouse yesterday and was happy to see lots and lots of flowers on the sungold tomatoes.  Sungolds are always a favorite!  I will be watching closely for the first fruit to appear!  I will have to really be on the lookout if I want to get the first ripe one, as Farmer Don is way better than me at finding the first ripe fruit.  Speaking of which, I have been watching our wild blackberry bushes carefully for ripe berries and had even found a few to eat.  Then yesterday, Farmer Don comes across the yard with at least 2 cups of berries cradled in his shirt tail.  It seems he has a secret stash I didn’t even know existed!

Animals are busy on farm as well, both friend and foe animals.  Our pigs now have a bigger pasture to romp and play in.  The pigs love the rain, as it keeps their wallowing areas filled with water and mud.  Pigs wallow in the mud to control their body temperature, keeping them cool on hot summer days.  Our second batch of meat birds are now on pasture and looking good.  The laying hens are providing us with an abundant supply of eggs.  These hens spend their days roaming the farm eating bugs and vegetation and at night they return to the barn and coop to their roosts to sleep the night away.  Unfortunately their nights have not been peaceful, as they are being visited almost nightly by a hungry predator.  We are fairly certain this is a raccoon.  Whoever the predator, it seems to have a good appetite, taking almost a chicken a night.  Speaking of nightly visitors.  Several weeks ago, we noticed a beautiful tiny baby deer in our orchard.  We knew Mommy deer was close by.  Now it seems Mommy and baby have found our veggies and are visiting the chard and lettuce beds nightly.  Like the raccoon, they also seem to have a healthy appetite and from the amount of chard and lettuce which has been eaten, we are thinking they are hosting a nightly dinner party for their friends and relatives!


In the kitchen this time of year we are often looking for quick meals.  We rely heavily on leftovers, often cooking several chickens at once to be eaten cold all week.  We also eat lots of salads.  A favorite of Farmer Don’s is an Asian slaw featuring napa cabbage.  I generally just throw together a dressing for this, using very little oil, just a few drizzles of sesame oil.  I am thinking the recipe/ration would be around:  3TBS of rice vinegar, 3 TBS of lime juice, 1 TBS of soy sauce, 1 TBS of sweetener, a bit of fresh chopped ginger, a shake of red pepper flakes and a drizzle or two of sesame oil.  I also tend to thin the dressing by adding just a bit of water.  Whisk everything together, taste to adjust the flavors and pour over some thinly chopped napa cabbage.  I usually also add some thin sliced onion or scallions.

Please remember to treat your share boxes gently.  Slide, rather than pull the flaps open.  Don’t forget to return share boxes to your sites so we can re-use them.  We also re-use egg cartons and blue/green berry or portion boxes.  These items can also be left at your pick up site.

Thank you again for your support.

Week 1 Deliveries

Farmers Don and Matt are out and about in the van making today's deliveries.  Say hello, if you see them.

2015 CSA Week 1 Ordering Starts this week.

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

It is finally time.  CSA deliveries start next week.  That means ordering starts this week!  Ordering for Week 1 will begin Thursday, June 11 at 6 pm and will end Sunday, June 14 at 6 pm.  You will need to log into our website using your email and password you registered with, in order to make your selections.  If you are having difficulty, please contact the farm.  All items are available first come first serve!  Happy picking! 

Please note all OFF FARM CSA deliveries are on TUESDAY.  We guarantee your box will be at our drop-site after 4 pm.  All ON FARM CSA pick-ups will be on Thursday, with boxes available after 4 pm.  Please watch for an additional email with the details of your pick up site.

There will be NO buying club this week!  We will be busy getting ready for Week 1 CSA and Forks Farm Market.  Please consider visiting us at Forks Farm Market on Saturday.  If you wish to pre-order anything from us for pick up at market, please email us.

On farm we are continuing to plant, plant, plant.  Our fields are filling up.  We have most of our tomatoes planted and peppers and eggplants should go in soon.  We continue rotations of greens, beans, cucumbers and summer squash.  Our greenhouse planting of cucumbers are looking good and should be ready for harvest in the next few weeks.  Summer squash has flowers and should be setting fruit soon, so again we should have a harvest in a few weeks.  Salad and cooking greens are sizing up nicely.  Shelling peas are filling out and sugar snap and snow peas are flowering.

For Week 1, we are looking to harvest lots of greens.  Cooking greens should include mustard, kale, chard, tatsoi, napa cabbage, and turnip greens.  We should be able to harvest some arugula and Farmer Don is watching the lettuce closely for size.  We may have a surprise harvest of some cucumbers out of our high tunnel.  There will be some fresh herbs and a half dozen eggs on the choice as well.  Please note Week 1 is an egg week for members purchasing an egg share.  This half dozen would be in ADDITION to your egg share. 

This week I would like to talk a bit about mustard greens.  Mustard greens have a peppery/horse radish flavor and can be cooked or added raw to salads.  Cooking will mellow the peppery taste.  Mustard greens are extremely nutritious, with high levels of Vitamin K, C and A, as well as copper, manganese and calcium.  All this for only 36 calories per one cup serving!  If you have a favorite massaged kale salad, try substituting mustard for the kale.  For massaged salads, after massaging the greens with salt and olive oil, I like to dress the salad with a bit of honey dissolved in cider vinegar.  Here is an actual recipe for massaged mustard greens (http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/mustard_greens_salad.html ).  Here is a basic braised mustard greens recipe.  Note this braising technique can be used for any cooking green and the bacon is optional.  Try varying the vinegar you use as well, I often finish braised or sauted greens with a splash of balsamic vinegar.  http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/9143-bacon-braised-mustard-greens

The farm does have a pinterest page, where I try and post recipes and other helpful websites.  I have not been keeping it up to date over the winter months, but I will be adding recipes as the season moves along.  Thanks to everyone who has sent me recipes.  I will be trying to get them added in the next few weeks.  https://www.pinterest.com/dancinghencsa/

This Saturday we will be at Forks Farm Market (www.forksfarmmarket) from 10 am to 2 pm.  This is a really great market on the Hopkins family farm.  This market is well known for its variety of vendors and products available, well worth the drive.  We will be there with a variety of greens and transplants.  If you come to market, please stop by our table, say hello and see what we are harvesting!

We do still have a few CSA memberships available.  Please contact the farm, so we can arrange for your first delivery!  If you have signed up on our website and we have not received payment or you have not contacted us concerning payment, you will not be able to sign onto our website to order and you will not receive a box for week 1.

There are a multitude of reasons we do what we do, but most important to us is to be able to share our harvest of nutrient dense vegetables with our community.  Thanks to each of you for your support of our farm and local agriculture.

Farm News and Buying Club News

Greetings from cooler wetter Dancing Hen Farm!

So, so nice to see yesterdays rain!  We received around an inch here at the farm, causing the entire farm a collective sigh of relief.  Everything already looks greener!  Irrigating our fields just does not compare to the positive effects of a good rain. 

Also, nice to have the rain hold off during our open house yesterday.  Thank you to everyone who took time out of their Sunday to visit our farm.  Farmer Don had just completed the farm tour before the first storm made its way across the farm.  Visitors are always welcome on farm.  If you would like to visit, we do ask that you call or email us first to be certain someone is down near the house to greet you.

Yes the buying club is open this week.  We will once again be harvesting some cooking greens for sale.  Greens will again be limited, so order early for the best selection.  With summer in full swing, it is grill season.  Our chicken and many of our pork and beef cuts cook nicely on the grill.  A dancing hen farm favorite are grilled ham steaks.  We generally baste the steak with a bit of maple or shag bark hickory syrup before and during grilling.  For a treat, grill some pineapple to serve with the ham.  In addition to meat and greens, we do still have no-spray potatoes available.  There potatoes were grown by a neighbor of ours and a perfect baking potato.

Strawberries!  A true early summer treat!  New this week, we will be offering a neighbor's no-spray strawberries to our buying club members.  Strawberries are just starting to ripen and this grower is estimating that the berries will be ready by the end of this week, but to quote Farmer Don "Mother Nature always bats last".  That means, if the berries are not ready this week, your orders will be filled the following week. 

On farm this week, we were busy installing a new grass waterway.  This waterway will help with erosion and runoff control.  Hopefully last night's rain will help the newly seeded grass to germinate.  A HUGE thank you goes out to a group of Bloomsburg University students who volunteered on the farm last week.  They helped us to secure the erosion control mats on the waterway.  This was a really big job, as thousands of small stakes needed to be pounded to secure the mats.  Pounding anything into our rocky soil is never and easy task!  The mats are necessary to hold the soil in place until the grass roots become established.

Our crops continue to grow and continue to be planted.  We are excited to see cucumbers forming on our cucumbers planted in our high tunnel.  We have also been filling the high tunnel with tomatoes.  Summer squash and greens in the fields look good.  Last week we ran drip tape in our peas as they were suffering badly from lack of water.  The shelling peas are flowering and setting pods and we anticipate the snap and snow peas to be flowering this week.  We have a planting of string beans which are sizing up nicely.  Cooking and salad greens have already been planted twice on farm and should be ready to go by our first CSA delivery.

This week we see the arrival of our pigs.  They will summer high on a hill in our old apple orchard.  In the fields we will be planting winter squash, tomatoes and more greens.  We still have a late planting of potatoes which will also hopefully be planted this week.  Our peppers are growing nicely in our plant nursery and should be ready for planting in the next few weeks.  We will be seeding more transplants for planting, including summer squash, cucumbers and lettuce.

We have had a surge of CSA member sign ups.  Thanks and welcome to all new and returning members!  We do still have a few spots remaining in our 2015 CSA.  We are looking at our first delivery to be on Tuesday, June 15 for off farm deliveries and Thursday, June 17 for on farm pickups.  The last delivery will be 22 weeks later during the week of November 9th.  Please watch your email for details concerning the first delivery and when and how to order the items for your box. 

As always when we see new members, I like to remind everyone that we are on several social media sites.  These include facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dancing-Hen-Farm/111155465564952), pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/dancinghencsa/) and a blog (http://www.dancinghenfarmcsa.blogspot.com/). 

As always thank you everyone for your support of our farm and local agriculture.

Until next week.....