Start of our Fall CSA

Dancing Hen Farm Fall/Winter CSA 2017 Week 1

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!  Welcome to Dancing Hen Farm CSA!

You are receiving this email because you are a member of our 2017 Fall/Winter CSA.  In the next few days you will receive additional emails, including one with details for your specific pick up site and another newsletter.  Sorry for all the emails!  Once the season gets rolling you can generally expect one email a week, our weekly newsletter.

It is finally time. Our first Fall CSA delivery is Tuesday, October 24.  That means ordering starts today!  Ordering for Week 1 will begin today, October 19 at 6 pm and will end Sunday, October 22 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!  If you forget to order, or chose not to order, you will still receive a box, a farmer's choice box.

Please note all CSA boxes will now be available on Tuesday.  We guarantee your box will be at our drop-site after 4 pm.  On farm CSA boxes are available on Tuesday, after 9 am.

Please note, WEEK 1 IS AN EGG WEEK.  This means if you signed up for an egg share, you will receive eggs in your box this week. 

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.

Be safe, be well and watch your inbox for site details and farm news!

Week 18 Newsletter

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm.  Welcome to Week 18 of our Summer/Main Season CSA.  Week 18 is the final vegetable delivery of the summer season.  So, if you did not sign up for a fall share, the box you received yesterday, Tuesday October 17, is your last veggie of the season.  Week 18 is not an egg week.  If you purchased a chicken share this year, you will have one final chicken delivery next CSA week on Tuesday, October 24.

Fall/Winter members:  The first fall delivery will be Tuesday, October 24.  That means the window to sign onto the website and pick the items for your box will begin on Thursday, October 19 at 6pm and close on Sunday, October 22 at 6 pm.  Fall members will be receiving a number of emails in the next day or two.  Thank you for your patience, as much of the information is a repeat of our summer info emails, but, we do have new members for fall.

Big news on farm were last night's low temperatures.  We recorded 27 at our weather station up above our barn, near our production fields, and 32 on our back porch.  27 means most of our summer crops were killed or had significant frost/freeze damage.  We were able to salvage beans and peppers by harvesting, but summer squash, okra, and basil are done for the season.  We will store the beans and peppers in our cooler and make them available to our fall members.  Farmer Don just reminded me the frost also killed many of the weeds -- something to really celebrate!  Also time to celebrate greens.  Many of the greens we grow love the cooler weather and will actually become sweeter with frost.

Monday  was a flurry of activity on farm.  Mondays are our big harvest and pack day for Tuesday's deliveries, so it is always a long day in the field and in the pack house.  However, yesterday was even busier as Farmer Don and Farmer Mike scrambled to put the end walls up on our large unheated greenhouse.  We still have some sungold tomatoes in this greenhouse and we are hoping to harvest from them for a few more weeks.  The end walls combined with the lower side walls, will give protection to the tomatoes until overnight temperatures fall into the mid to low 20's.  In addition to harvesting for pack and building end walls, we also were busy getting crops harvest and covered with row cover to protect them from the frost.

    

Farmers Markets are quickly coming to an end, which means we will be starting our winter buying club in the next few weeks.  Our winter buying club is separate from our CSA buying club.  The winter buying club is a "pay as you go" buying club and requires you meet us at a designated location (or on farm) on Saturday morning to pick up and pay for your items.  If you are interested in this buying club, you will need to log into our website and "purchase" a free winter buying club share.  Once we activate your account and open the buying club, you will be able to order items for pick up.  Please watch your email for announcements concerning the opening of the winter buying club.

Speaking of buying clubs (both the CSA and winter buying clubs).  In the next few weeks, you can expect to see eggs and chicken returning as items for sale.  And by the end of next month our Apple Orchard Pork will also be available.  If you are interested in bulk pork to fill your freezer, please contact the farm for details.

Our kitchen is quickly moving from the grill to the oven.  Last night for dinner we had, what we consider, a very summer like meal.  Chicken, roasted zucchini and roasted potatoes.  Generally we cook this entire meal on the grill, but with the shorter day lengths and cooler temperatures, we cooked the entire meal in the oven.  Last night's chicken was a real treat for us.  We have been sold out of chicken for most of the summer.  So not only have we not had chicken for sale, we also have not had chicken for our own use.  Soon we will have stew hens available, as well, and I cannot wait to replenish my chicken stock supply. 

Boxes.  With this being the last week for delivery, we are asking everyone to return boxes to your drop site so we can pick them up next week.

We are already reflecting on this season and planning for next season.  We may be finally adding some sheep to our production system and have plans to grow some additional crop varieties.  If you have ideas on crops you would like to see us grow, please send us an email.  As always This growing season has been filled with successes and challenges.  We have been happy with our late season bean harvest, our cucumbers, and swiss chard.  Tomatoes and peppers did well, but the cool wet summer delayed ripening and caused disease to establish.  I would say the weather and deer, as always, presented our biggest challenges.  The summer months arrived cool and wet and then our traditionally cooler fall months arrived hot and dry!  However, if Mother Nature had told us this was Her plan, we would have planted our fall crops for summer harvest and our summer crops for fall harvest!  As Farmer Don likes to say "Mother Nature always bats last".  For next year we are hoping to invest in some fencing and better row covers to deter our area's growing deer population. 

Thanks again to all of you for supporting our farm.  We hope everyone has enjoyed sharing the harvest with us. 

So, the sun is rising quickly, the morning coffee has me fully awake.  Time to end this newsletter.

 

Please watch your email for farm announcements.

Week 16 Newletter

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!  

First on the agenda:  announcements and dates.  The CSA boxes delivered on Tuesday, October 3, was Week 16 of our summer CSA.  Week 16 was not an egg week.  There are 2 weeks remaining in our Summer/Main season CSA.   This coming week, Week 17, will be the last egg week.  The last week for vegetable deliveries is October 17.  Chicken Share members:  You will receive your final chicken share delivery on Tuesday, October 24.  Fall/Winter share members.  We need to receive payment for your share prior to deliveries.  Week 1 of this 8 week, extended, season will be Tuesday, October 24 and will be an egg week.  

On to the weather.  Last week brought temperatures in the low 30's to the farm.  This means we were nipped by a light frost.  Most of our plantings were unaffected by this, however our summer squash and snap beans lost a few of their top leaves.  But, we do not expect harvest to be reduced.  Hard to believe we were dealing with frost less than a week ago, with temperatures back in the upper 70's and forecast to be in the low 80's this coming week.  Crazy weather!  Summer in October!  We are even experiencing the dry weather we usually see in the summer as well.  We do need rain.  Farmer Don tends not to put irrigation tubing down in fall/winter crops.  Our irrigation system is not frost-free, so we need to shut it down in the fall to prevent frozen pipes.  Generally this lack of irrigation does not pose a threat to our late season crops.  But this year that is not the case and these crops need water.  So, we are now watering  these fields by hand with a garden hose!  Not the most efficient way to deliver water to our crops, but hopefully we will pull them through this bit of a drought.  

On farm, other than doing the best we can to keep water to our crops, we are still in a bit of a transition.  We are still harvesting summer crops, including some tomatoes, summer squash and beans.  However, our fall crops are also being harvested, including greens, root crops and winter squash.  I anticipate heavier frost in the next week or two, which will officially bring an end to our summer harvest.  We are slowly putting some fields to rest for the winter.   This involves removal of crop residues, some minimal tillage and planting cover crops.  Cover  crops build organic matter in our soil and help keep nutrients available for our crops.  In the next week or so, we will be planting garlic for next year.  Garlic is one of the few crops grown which gets planted in the fall for harvest the following summer.  We are also getting crop planted fields ready for protection.  We will be building low tunnels over many of our crops to protect them from the cold temperatures sure to come in the next month or two.  Low tunnels are mini greenhouses build using bent pipes covered with plastic over top of row crops.  These temporary structures will protect our salad and cooking greens, allowing us to extend our harvest.

In the kitchen we are also anticipating cooler temperatures.  Every fall Farmer Don and I make at least two batches of sauerkraut.  We have a beautiful German fermenting crop which holds approximately 10 pounds of fermenting cabbage.  We feel cooler temperatures are better for the fermentation process, so we wait for a cool down.  We make a very traditional cabbage kraut, without adding caraway seeds or carrots.  We do ferment some other vegetables in addition to cabbage, including carrots and turnips. I will keep you posted on how our fall ferments progress.  Watch our buying club, as some of our sauerkraut may appear there.

Speaking of the kitchen and cooler temperatures, fall and winter also means the appearance of winter squash.  This year we will have delicata, acorn and butternut squash and small pie pumpkins.  Delicatas are a smaller, thinner skinned winter squash.  It is one of the few winter squash with edible skin.  We like to roast sliced delicata squash in a hot oven, coating with a bit of butter and maple syrup right before serving.  Acorn squash are good for stuffing.  Cut in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, fill with your favorite filling and bake.  On farm, we stuff these squash with a mixture of sausage, onions, garlic, rice and greens.  Butternut squash is a sweet winter squash and hold up well in soups and stews.  One of our favorite recipes for butternut squash comes from the cookbook "Simply in Season".  It is a pork stew with apples and butternut squash and oh so tasty.  I found a link online http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/butternut-harvest-stew-144857

Speaking of pork, come November, we will have Dancing Hen Farm Apple Orchard Pork available.  We sell our bulk pork by the half and whole and are now taking reservations.  Please contact the farm if you are interested in bulk pork.  A whole hog will yield 125 to 140 pounds of meat and will require at least a 7 cubic feet of freezer space for storage.  We will also have a limited amount of cuts available for purchase through our buying club.  

Farmers markets are starting to wind down for the season.  The last Back Mountain Market is October 14, so if you haven't made it to market yet this might be the Saturday to make a visit.  The Mountain Top Market is scheduled to go through October, depending on weather and availability of our products.

Hard to believe I started this newsletter hours ago!  I so easily get side tracked.  Now I will allow Farmer Don to proof read and hopefully get it sent out before I head to bed!

Until next week.

A Radicchio Salad and Week 15 Newsletter

Greetings farm a cooler Dancing Hen Farm!  Welcome to Week 15 of our Summer/Main Season CSA.  There are 3 weeks remaining in this CSA.  Our new  Fall CSA will start immediately following our Summer CSA.  Week 15 IS an EGG week.

Wow!  What a difference 12 hours makes!  Last night when we went to bed it felt more like the end of July then September, with temperatures outside still in the 70's and the humidity high.  This morning we awoke to temperatures in the low 60's, lower humidity and cool breeze.  I am thinking our 90 degree days are over for 2017.  I will be honest, these past days of heat, humidity and no rain have been tough on Dancing Hen Farm.  Farmers and animals all have been moving a bit more slowly.  Everyone has been spending more time in the shade and drinking lots of water.  And believe it or not, some of our greens are showing signs of heat stress.  Who would have thought I would be talking about heat stress in plants this time of year?  It seems the gnats are the only thing loving this heat!  Perhaps we jinxed ourselves on the gnats?  We had just been saying we thought they were not as bad this summer.  Well, the past week or so, humans and dogs alike, have felt like the needed to be wrapped in mosquito netting just to step outside the house!  Let's hope the cooler temperatures put the gnats to rest!

Continuing with the heat.  Our fields are quite interesting and mixed right now.  I am not sure I remember a season where this late we were talking about summer crops continuing to grow, but that is what we are seeing this year.  Peppers and okra are actually pushing a new set of flowers!  I doubt the pepper flowers will mature into fruit, but okra develops fairly rapidly, so I have no doubt some of the okra flowers will produce okra.  Our late summer squash planting is looking good and we will continue to harvest from these plants until frost.  Tomatoes are winding down, as they are finally succumbing to disease.  Although, next week we are anticipating some nice plum tomatoes becoming available.  As much as I hate to admit it, Farmer Don won the bean debate.  It looks like we will get a harvest off of our beans which were topped by the deer.  The plants were able to recover from their pruning and beans will be available starting next week.  As with the squash, we should be able to harvest from these plants up until frost.   Our small planting of flat Italian beans are also looking good and will continue to be available in smaller numbers until frost. These flat beans were a bit of an experiment for us, hence the small planting.  They are a pole bean variety and we have them growing over one of our small hoop houses.  They seem to be doing well, and I think we have decided to continue to produce them next season.  Unlike our summer crops, our fall crops have not been nearly as happy with the recent heat wave and are starting to show some signs of heat stress. We have re-planted some of our greens to compensate and hopefully some of our fall root crops will be fine now that the temperatures are cooling.  Cauliflower and Broccoli do not like high temperatures and for that reason our quantity and quality on these crops has been lowered by the weather.  It is too late to re -plant these crops and we will do our best to harvest what we can.  Lettuce is looking good and our fall salad mix should remain available.  Loose leaf radicchio (a chicory) and a new escarole planting are looking good and these also should remain available.  This may be the last week for summer herbs, such as basil, as these herbs do not like cooler weather.

A bit more on radicchio and escarole.  Escarole is the green traditionally used in Italian wedding soup and this cooler weather, means soup season has begun.  Farmer Don is the Italian wedding soup chef in our house and for years he has used the recipe on the back of the orzo pasta box.  My Mother loved escarole, but being Pennsylvania Dutch, she preferred her escarole wilted with hot bacon dressing.  There never was a recipe for hot bacon dressing when I was growing up, my Mother and Grandmothers, "just made it".  Years later, when Don and I started sending out recipes to our customers, I found a recipe online, which after consulting with Mom, I determined was close to the dressing I grew up eating, although my Mom says she rarely added flour.  She felt the egg(s) thickened the dressing enough. Here is the link   http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/153678/hot-bacon-dressing-pennsylvania-dutch  .Oh yes, I was talking about radicchio and escarole, not my Mom's hot bacon dressing!  So, the radicchio Framer Don is growing is a cutting radicchio or chicory.  This means the harvested portions will be loose leaf and not a tight head.  Radicchio/chicory is a slightly bitter Italian green and can be used in a salad or cooked.  As with all greens, a quick steam or blanch will reduce some of the bitterness.  Radicchio pairs well with the sweetness of beet or fruits, such as pears.  Deborah Madison has a nice recipe for a radicchio salad recipe.  Farmer Don and I have made this recipe and usually do not have walnut oil on hand, so we substitute olive oil.  http://www.foodonthefood.com/food_on_the_food/radicchio-salad-print.html   Here is another salad recipe I recently found and we may have to try it this week with beets and green bean available along with radicchio!  https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/green-bean-and-radicchio-salad-with-roasted-beets-and-balsamic-red-onions-109576

In our kitchen, we are still in summer mode.  As much as I want to start roasting meats and veggies in the oven, we are still primarily cooking on the grill and stove top.  Lots of our meals contain tomatoes and summer squash.  I usually do not preserve summer squash, so zucchini and its summer squash cousins are truly seasonal foods for us.  Therefore we eat lots and lots of summer squash when it is in season.  I do can tomatoes, but there is nothing like a fresh heirloom tomato!  We are still eating BLT's almost once a week and I often have a tomato or grilled cheese and tomato sandwich for lunch.  Last night, dinner was late, so we had a quick meal of pasta and veggies. The sauce consisted of sauted zucchini, yellow squash, chard, peppers and cherry tomatoes.  Garlic and fresh basil were added at the end and everything was topped with some grated cheese.  Simple, quick, but nothing can beat the fresh from the garden taste!
  

We do have a few spots available in our Fall CSA, although we are getting close to our capacity.  This CSA will run for 8 weeks immediately following our Summer CSA.  Membership in our CSA is reserved, once we receive payment.  We will need payment in full before the start of the Fall CSA.  Add on egg shares are also available for fall.  We also will have a limited amount of chicken and pork available through the CSA buying club.

Thanks to everyone who actually reads my newsletters.  Farmer Don comes home from market almost every weekend telling me he met another person who follows my newsletters.  Even if you are not on signed up with our website, I do post all of newsletters to our blog  http://dancinghenfarmcsa.blogspot.com/   I am still trying to convince Farmer Don to write a few newsletters before the season ends.  When we started the CSA, Farmer Don wrote all of the newsletters.  At that time, we did not email them, but, instead printed them and placed them in each member's box.  I was given the task of reading the Farmers handwriting and typing them in to our newsletter format each week.  I actually think I would prefer to write the newsletters then type them.  Farmer Don loves to use small scraps of paper and sometimes he would write and entire newsletter in tiny little script on a piece of scrap paper!  Oh the memories!

Oh how long this newsletter is getting.  I think I will wrap things up.  Thanks again to everyone for their support.  Enjoy this cooler, but beautiful, weather. And from Farmer Don: "be safe, be well and enjoy those veggies".

A farm visitor and Week 14 Newsletter

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm.  Welcome to Week 14 of our Summer/Main Season CSA.  There are 4 weeks remaining in the Summer CSA.  Our new 8 week Fall/Winter CSA will begin immediately after the Summer CSA ends.  Week 14 is NOT and egg week.  Week 14 IS a Chicken Week.

The dog days of summer seem to have arrived in September this year.  Almost as if Mother Nature got her months mixed up, with cool August and now a hot September.
  

We are not complaining about the warm weather here on farm, as we have some late planted summer crops which are really enjoying this bit of a heat wave.  Our last planting of summer squash is looking beautiful and we should be harvesting off of these plants for several weeks, or until we get a hard frost.  We have a small planting of flat Italian green beans which also are starting to sizing up nicely.  We will have to see how the other beans recover from their deer attack.  We have our fingers crossed that our broccoli will size for harvest as well.  Lettuces are looking good, so salad mix should continue.  We should continue with small okra harvests and tomatillo harvests until a hard freeze.  Greens, including a nice planting of radicchio, are looking really good.  Our high tunnel (unheated greenhouse) is planted with fall and winter greens, including a beautiful bed of Asian greens to be harvested as a stir fry mix.
  

We had an unexpected visitor on farm this week.  Monday morning, just as everyone was gathering to begin harvesting, we spotted a large bald eagle perched in a lone apple tree in one of our pastures.  It sat there for quite awhile, as if it were watching over the farm.  Most likely watching over our chickens and contemplating its next meal!  We were convinced it was large enough to carry off a small child or one of our dogs.  Although eagles pose a real threat to our free range chickens, there was something quite magical about this beautiful bird perched high in a tree.  What a nice sight to start the morning with!

Several weeks ago, I had another beautiful and exciting, although maybe not quite as majestic, sighting.  We have quite a bit of wild milkweed growing on our farm and I make it point to stop and check them often for caterpillars, monarch butterfly caterpillars, to be exact.  In the ten plus years that we have owned this farm, I have rarely seen a monarch caterpillar, so I was quite excited to spot a late stage caterpillar on one my surveyed milkweed plants.   I was hopeful this year, as I have been seeing many more adult butterflies.  Maybe the monarch population is starting to rebound, just as the bald eagle population seems to be rebounding and perhaps both of these beauties will become regular visitors on our farm.

Ah, yes, from nature, to the kitchen!  We are still busy cooking on the grill.  Farmer Don is really excited to still be eating grilled zucchini -- one of his favorites.  Tonight we are having a grilled ham steak.  I like to grill pineapples alongside the ham steak.  Out of convenience, I often use canned pineapple and I like to marinate the steak in the juice the rings are packed in.  We also have been really enjoying our fall salad mix and are once again having salads nightly.  When we aren't having fall salad mix as our salad, we have been enjoying massaged mustard greens.  Very easy and really good alongside fish or grilled meats.  As with any massaged greens salad (think kale), start by placing cleaned greens in a bowl, sprinkle with some coarse salt and some olive oil.  Next, use your hands to massage the salt and oil into the mustard greens. When the mustard greens begin to wilt, they are ready to be dressed and served.  We like to dress this salad with a balsamic reduction.  And I like a sweeter dressing, so when I make balsamic reduction,  I mix one half cup of balsamic vinegar with 2 tablespoons of honey.  Bring the vinegar/honey mixture to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes to reduce the volume.  Allow the reduction to cool and drizzle atop individual servings of greens.  Extra reduction can be stored in the refrigerator.  Note: if you are not a fan of sweetness, you can eliminate or reduce the amount of honey.

It looks like another beautiful weekend for a farmers market. If you haven't visited your favorite farmers market this season, this weekend might be a good time to get out, support your local producers and shake the hand that grows your food.  Farmer Don and Farmer Phil will be at the Back Mountain Market on Saturday.  This market is at the Dallas Elementary School.  On Sunday, you can find Farmer Don at the Mountain Top Market, held at the Crestwood High School.  If you go to either of these markets, please stop by our table and say "hello".

In closing, I want to again, thank each of you, friends and members of our farm, for your support.  As I have often said, without your support, we would not be farming and preserving this rocky hillside we call home.  We need to preserve small family farms and to preserve small family farms, we need consumers willing to support these farms.  So, thank you for doing your part!

In Farmer Don's words:  "be safe, be well and enjoy those veggies" 

Week 13 Newsletter

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm.   This is Week 13 of our Summer/Main Season CSA.  Hopefully all our CSA members are enjoying their boxes.   Week 13 is an egg week.  There are 5 weeks remaining in our Summer CSA.   Next week, Week 14 is a chicken week.

And speaking of chicken.   We are happy to announce we will have a limited amount of chicken available at markets this weekend.  We will be at the Back Mountain Memorial Library market on Saturday.  This market is located at the Dallas Elementary School and is open from 9 to 2.  On Sunday, from 9 to 1,  we will be at the Mountain Top Farmers Market at Crestwood High School.   And speaking of markets.  Farmer Phil is back from vacation and will again have "Farmer Phil's produce" for sale at the Back Mountain Market. 

On farm, our harvest is slowly turning from summer crops to fall and winter crops.
   

First summer crops.  Our field grown tomatoes are coming to an end and will be available in only limited numbers from here on out.  The exception to this is sungold cherry tomatoes.  We have a nice bed of sungolds in our greenhouse which should continue to produce a fairly good supply of sungolds for a number of weeks.  Tomatillos should be available until frost kills the plants.  With warmer temperatures predicted this week, we are hopeful for a small, late season, harvest of cucumbers.  These vines have fruit on them and just need to size up a bit.  Likewise, we have a planting of a variety of summer squash we are still hoping to harvest from.  We had two large beds of purple, yellow and dragon beans planted, the plants were beautiful and were flowering and starting to set small beans.  Then, last week we noticed the plants looked a little odd.  With closer examination, we discovered deer had been in both beds and eaten the tops off of virtually all the plants.  Farmer Don has not given up these plants, but I fear we do not have enough frost free days for them to recover and produce beans.  The deer also ate several beds of sunflowers, so sunflowers will also only be available in limited quantities.  Can you tell deer are not our favorite animals on farm?  The other morning they were camped out in our yard eating fallen crab apples! 

And now cooler season crops.  Greens are looking good and you can expect greens to be in abundance for the remainder of the season.  We are harvesting baby mustard and turnip greens right now.  These greens are absolutely beautiful and are young and tender, requiring very little cooking.  Kale and Swiss Chard will continue to be available.  Salad greens will also continue to be harvested.  We are also harvesting some nice arugula right now, along with broccoli rabe.  Asian greens are planted and should be ready to soon. With so many greens being harvested, Farmer Don asked me to tell everyone about a book we use frequently for greens (Greens Glorious Greens by Johanna Albi and Catherine Walthers).   This book features 35 different greens, providing not only  recipes for each, but nutritional information, storage, and preparation information, as well.  We find the recipes fairly easy, but delicious!

More cooler season crops.  Winter squash is slowly starting to come in and Farmer Don will make the varieties available as they are harvested.  Carrots and Cabbage should also continue to be available, along with potatoes and onions.  We have been in touch with our neighbors for certified organic sweet potatoes and they are starting to harvest now.  Sweets like hot weather, so this cooler summer is making yields a bit less than in years past.  We have more salad radishes planted and hopefully they will mature and be ready for harvest before the end of the season.  Rutabaga, storage/winter radishes and turnips are planted and we are awaiting them to size up a bit before harvest.

As long as we are talking about cooler season crops, let me again mention that this year we are offering a limited number of fall/winter shares.  The fall/winter season will run for 8 weeks immediately following our summer season.  Egg shares are also available for purchase during our fall season.  Please note, we reserve your share when we receive payment.  Thanks to everyone who has already signed up!

In the kitchen, we continue to cook based on what we are harvesting.  Recently, I was looking for a  new recipe using tomatillos and I came across this Tomatillo soup recipe.  (http://sarahstone-365norepeats.blogspot.com/2011/11/november-8-mexican-tomatillo-stoup-with.html)  Farmer Don gave it a thumbs up, which means I can make it again.  I substituted our own spicy sausage for the chorizo, skipped the cheese and used all chicken stock, as Farmer Don was reluctant  to sacrifice one of his beers.  We also continue to eat around tomatoes - with BLT's and grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches being a stable in our diet this time of year. 

So, I started this newsletter late last night and now it is early morning.  Time to wrap things up and move on to the next task. 

Have a great week!

Week 12 Newsletter

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!  Welcome to Week 12 of our Summer/Main season CSA.  Hopefully all of our CSA members are enjoying their boxes.  Week 12 is not an egg week.

It seems like it has been raining for days!  Although I know it hasn't, since Monday was a beautiful day for harvest.  But, Sunday was a wash out and the rain started Tuesday afternoon and continued right through last night.  I am ready to dry out!  It is, however, fairly easy to keep our rains in perspective, by simply following any the news outlets.  Texas is still drying out from rain measuring in the feet and now Hurricane Irma is, literally, destroying entire islands and bearing down on Florida.  Yes, we are lucky to be in relatively dry Pennsylvania.  It is all a matter of perspective.

These cooler rainy days are helping some of our crops and bringing an end to others.  Greens, both salad and cooking, are growing well and enjoying the cooler temperatures.  Most of our summer crops, however, are not so happy.  We are continuing to harvest some beautiful tomatillos and our sungold tomatoes planted in our greenhouse look beautiful.  The majority of our tomato harvest, however, is quickly coming to an end and you can expect to see fewer and fewer tomatoes available.  Our final planting of snap beans look great and are flowering nicely and starting to produce beans. Hopefully the beans will mature before fall and frost really set in.  We have another summer squash planting and like the beans, we are hopeful for a harvest before frost.  Peppers are producing and we are watching our eggplants in hopes of a small harvest.
  

Our fields are just about completely planted for fall and winter harvest.  This week we are focusing on getting our greenhouse planted for fall.  We will allow the sungold tomatoes to continue to produce, but other crops planted in the greenhouse will be removed, these beds will be turned over and greens will be planted.  We are excited for a nice fall harvest of greens this year.

Speaking of fall we are six weeks away from the start of our new fall/winter CSA.  For fall we have full and part shares available and add on egg shares.  The fall share runs for 8 weeks and begins immediately following our summer/main season.  You do not need to be a member of our summer CSA to become a member of our fall CSA.  Registration is now open on our website for fall memberships.  As always, if you have questions or need additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Continuing with our fall theme.  Fall, on farm, means more protein becomes available.  We will once again be offering apple orchard pork.  Freezer pork will be available by the half and whole.  In a few months, we will also have some individual cuts of pork available for sale through our buyers clubs and at markets.  Watch your email for more details on pork or email us with specific questions.  We have increased our production of chicken for this fall and soon we will, also, have some chicken available through our buyers club and markets.  Chicken has been in short supply this season!  For most of this season we have been sold out of chicken and Farmer Don and I are eagerly awaiting having chicken for our own dinner table soon!

Boxes!  Yes, boxes again!  First, thanks to everyone one who treats our boxes with care and returns them each week.  And then my usual reminder:  Please return your box to your pick up site! If we deliver you box to your house, please leave empty boxes and coolers on your porch for us to pick up.  As I have said in the past, we try hard to keep our operation sustainable.  By returning your box, not only are you helping us to be financially sustainable, but you are helping the environment by keeping these boxes out of our ever growing landfills in Pennsylvania.

Our kitchen has been fairly quiet recently.  I did freeze beans last weekend and still would like to find time to can some salsa verde.  My plans were for more tomatoes, but with our tomato harvest quickly coming to an end, I am thinking the sauce and tomatoes in the pantry now will have to last the winter.  I will still make and can some applesauce and of course, sauerkraut is still in the plans.  If I get really ambitious and somehow find an additional day in an upcoming week, I may also try and can some pickled beets.  Dinners this time of year tend to be fairly simple, using ingredients from the farm.  We tend to eat late in the evening, after chores are complete and darkness has fallen.  Maybe not the best for our bodies, but reality on a busy farm.

So it is now light out, the dogs are begging for breakfast and I need to get this day started. As usual, I will pass this over to Farmer Don to read and then send it off to all our farm members and friends.

Be safe, be well, enjoy your veggies and have a great week.