Buying Club Open

Hi Friends!

I've been down for a little bit (more on that in a later newsletter), but now I'm up again, my legs still work, head on my shoulders (just about), body a little weak, but feeling like I need another shot of Dancing Hen Community! So, what better way than to open the buying club! We have lots of nice Apple Orchard Pork, Pastured Poultry, Free Range Eggs (when they can sneak out around the fox), a lot of the girls out yesterday in the BEAUTIFUL teasing SUN! Also, some very small red and green cabbages. And I'll put a very small amount of spinach out there (overwintered) for purchase, small amount as I need some to build the muscles back up and build up Joan's muscles as well. We're getting back in shape for the long haul of the upcoming season. I think I can do some red onions and potatoes as extras to add on.

So, time to go get some really nice breakfast smoothie!

Lastly, we've gotten a really nice return on our opening for the 2020 CSA. We've received many deposits and will be crediting your accounts shortly. A very big thank you for the early season support. That support goes a long way to get us up and going!

More news will be coming shortly.

Be well friends!

Farmer Don

2020 Buying Club January 11

Hi Friends of the Farm!!

Happy Holidays to all!! Here's hoping you made it through the Holidays. We survived the holidays ourselves and are ready to move on in 2020. Wow, another year sharing the harvest with our friends and local community. Year 13 for Dancing Hen Farm. Another wow!

With the hustle and bustle over, it's time to open up the buying club! I know Farmer Phil is climbing the walls waiting to get out on the road and do deliveries! So here we come! We will have lots of Apple Orchard Pork (including Bacon), our Pastured Poultry, Wild for Salmon filets and burgers, as well as storage sweet potatoes and looking at our fields some fresh spinach and salad lettuce. To me this has been (so far) the winter that hasn't happened. I covered the greens with plastic, back around two months ago and the veggies look pretty good under there. I do have to check another bed we have for turnips and radishes. If I can share these I will add them on Wednesday. The last time I harvested, the turnips were so sweet!! Really hoping I can get some out to you. They are great right now in soups and stews!

So, the news from the farm this week is "BUYING CLUB IS OPEN!"

Details are the same, we'll be out on Saturday, 1st at the library, then down 309 to Forty Fort, then down 309 and up to Mt. Top. Some of you who had previous orders, I will be updating payments on Wednesday, and I appreciate your patience.

Our next newsletter should have updates about the 2020 CSA season. We'll be pulling the website together shortly for sign ups. Right now things are looking to be the same as last year with a shorter season and a little less memberships. So, keep your eyes open for that announcement.

Be well friends, and look for Farmer Phil and I out and about in the community!

Thanks again for your support!

Farmer Don

Happy Thanksgiving!

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Farmer Don and I wanted to thank everyone who came out this weekend to support the farm through our buying club.  Farmers Don and Phil had a good day sharing our harvest and greeting our customers.  I have said repeatedly, our farm would not exist without the continued support of you, our customers.

December is getting a bit crazy for us, so we are not certain we will be able to offer another buying club before the first of the year.  However, if you need anything, please contact us at the farm and we will work at getting the product to you.  We do have a good supply of pork and chicken right now, and a limited supply of eggs.  Depending on the weather, we may also have some greens available.  Please email the farm with your requests.

Even though we are busy, the farm is still settling in for winter, recovery mode.  For the most part our fields are all in rest mode until next spring and other then our laying hens we have no farm animals right now..  Our laying hens have responded to the shorter day length by decreasing their egg production.  Farmer Don and I are enjoying less time spent on chores and  more time to spend in the kitchen and catching up on our reading.  Even the dogs are low key, spending more time sleeping in the sun then running the farm.  

We will be spending a very quiet Thanksgiving with family.  Thanks will be given for our harvest meal and another year together.  And of course, we will be eating turkey!  The star of the meal, turkey, was raised, on pasture, by a past Dancing Hen Farm employee.  Some of you may remember Farmer Matt from the Back Mountain Farmers market.  Matt, Farmer Phil's brother, now works on a farm/plantation in Virginia.  He arrived in town, during yesterday's snow, with a farm fresh turkey for our meal! 

We wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving.  Hopefully your table will be overflowing with the harvest meal and surrounded by those you love.

Buying Club Ordering Open

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm! 

I am happy to announce that our winter buying club will be open for delivery this weekend.  Ordering will is now open for the buying club and will  close on Thursday (11/21) at 5 am.  Deliveries and pick-ups will be this weekend.  Pick up sites and times are listed on our website.  Contact the farm if you have questions

ATTENTION BLOOMSBURG Buying Club members:  We are still determining when we will be getting product to you.  If you place an order, we will contact you directly, either by email or phone to coordinate.  Again, contact the farm if you have questions.

A quick note on our winter buying club, for those of you new to this option.  Our winter buying club is a pay as you go option.  You will meet us at a designated location, pay for your purchases and pick up your items.  We also will need to activate your account before you can order, so please allow us time to do so.  I usually check our website several times during the day when ordering is taking place.  As always, contact the farm with any questions.

So what can you find on this week's buying club.  We are happy to say we have a good supply of 2019 Dancing Hen Farm Apple Orchard pork.  Most cuts of pork are now available, but be aware we sell out of some of the popular items very quickly.  Farmer Don tells me the hams this year are in larger, perfect for a ham dinner.  We also have a good supply of Dancing Hen Farm Pasture Raised chicken and eggs.  Despite the super cold temperatures, we are still harvesting some greens and Farmer Don has made a small harvest of greens available.  Again, first come.

Although not on our buying club, we do have a source for pasture raised ducks.  These ducks are being raised by a family friend.  Please contact us for more information or if you are interested in reserving a duck for the holidays.

Speaking of the cold, it is hard to believe that we have already seen single digit temperatures here on farm.  I am not complaining, as it seems we had some really beautiful days to mark the end of October.  With only our laying hens and a few shivering rows of vegetables to tend to, life is slowing down.  Now we will settle in for the winter! 

On farm, winter is a time for healing, resting and reflecting.  We will soon have our annual business meeting to discuss last season and make plans for next season.  This is an official meeting between Farmer Don and I.  We schedule a time and even type up and follow an agenda.  We always welcome feed-back and suggestions, so if you feel inclined, please send us your comments.

As always, thank you for your support of not only our small family farm, but sustainable and local agriculture.

2019 CSA Week 18 News

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

Wow!  Lots has happened since the last newsletter.

First, we delivered our last CSA box of the season last week.  Hopefully all our members enjoyed our 2019 CSA season.  Farmers Don and Phil will be making one last round of our pick up sites to pick up share boxes and any coolers left, so please return your boxes to your pick up site.

We also experienced our first hard frost several days ago.  This frost means our growing season for 2019 has come to an end.  All our tender, summer crops are finished or have been killed by the frost.  We do have some hearty crops still in the ground which we can continue to harvest until we get below freezing temperatures.  Greens, including salad mix, always flourish in the cooler fall temperatures.  Spinach and hakurei turnips have also been beautiful this fall.

This past week we also celebrated our annual running of the Dancing Hen Farm Pigs.  Those of you who have followed us over the years know that we raise our pigs high on a hill above our farm in an abandoned apple orchard.  The pigs spend a great summer relaxing under the apple trees and snacking on fallen apples.  Then, in the fall, we must move the pigs from the orchard into the barn so they can be loaded for market.  Farmer Don and our friend Jason spent the bulk of Sunday getting the runway and barn ready to move the pigs.  Finally when the field (or barn in this case) was set, the run began.  The pigs enthusiastically charged down the hill into the barn and oops! out the other side!  Five pigs decided to keep running up the road.  We joked they were headed for the local bar!  Thankfully our friend and neighbor Toby came by at just that time and helped turn the pigs around and return them to the barn.  Unfortunately this was not the last of the pigs adventures.  Farmer Don was off farm all day Monday and the pigs decided this was the perfect opportunity to explore the farm.  Again we were thankful Toby was available to help round up the pigs several times during the day and better secure their barnyard pen.  By the time Farmer Don returned on Monday evening, the pigs were peacefully sleeping in the barn, exhausted from their adventures.  Again we are counting our blessings for good neighbors and friendly pigs!

The kitchen has also moved into fall and winter mode, as the soup pot, rather than the grill has become the tool of choice for meal preparation.  Although, with the beautiful salad greens and spinach being harvested, we are eating our share of salads.  We are back into our cooler weather routine of roasting chicken each week and using the bones to make broth and a nice pot of soup.  These soups tend to be "kitchen sink" type soups made with whatever is available.  This week Farmer Don was soup chef and he created a chicken vegetable noodle soup packed full of end of summer and fall veggies.  He even added some tomatillos we had harvested.  I cannot complain, as the soup was tasty and we have leftovers for another meal.  Last night we had a delicious tomato sweet potato bisque.  This is an older recipe, I have made before, with the sweet potatoes adding a nice flavor to the tomato base.  Last week we featured spinach in a  salad of spinach, apple and sharp cheddar cheese, dressed with a balsamic maple vinaigrette.  Another simple and tasty recipe which will be made again.

Please watch your email for the start of our winter buying club.  If you have not already done so and are interested in participating in our winter buying club, please go on our website and purchase a free winter buying club membership. 

I again want to take a moment to thank everyone for their support over the years.  It is hard to believe this was our 11th season as Dancing Hen Farm.  As I have said before we could not possibly do what we do without the support of our farm members, customers and friends.  Thank you!

CSA Week 17 News

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

We hope everyone is enjoying their Week 17 CSA boxes.  Week 17 was an egg week and a chicken share week.  Ordering is now under way for Week 18.  Week 18 is the last delivery of our 2019 season. 

With the CSA and farmers markets coming to an end, I want to a bit about our buying clubs.  In the next few weeks we will be beginning our Winter Buying Club.  This Winter Buying Club is a pay as you go program and is separate from our CSA buying club.   To participate in the Winter Buying Club, you will need to sign onto our website and purchase a free membership.  Deliveries are on Friday evening to Bloomsburg and Saturday to Luzerne County locations. You can also pick up your order at the farm.  For delivery, we meet you at a predetermined time and location.  You will pick up and pay for your order at that time.  Around November 1, we will have a fresh supply of pork available on the buying club.  Please note, if you are a member of our CSA buying club and have not used all of your deposit, the deposit carries over and you can use it for purchases through the Winter Buying Club.  If you have questions concerning buying clubs, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Fall is in the air.  We have had a light frost here on farm, marking the end to our summer crops. As we transition from the summer growing season into fall, life here at Dancing Hen Farm starts to slow a bit.  We continue to have animal chores and we still have greens growing in our fields, but in general we have more time to work on projects and reflect on this past growing season.  We will spend these next few months planning our 2020 growing season. 

Fall in the kitchen means we transition from the grill to the soup pot.  Last night we had a ham and cheddar soup which had a unique, but good flavor profile as I used a frozen jar of pork stock.  I had simply labeled the jar "pork stock" and didn't realize it was left from a pork roast with fennel!  I am not sure I would have voluntarily added fennel to the soup, but once it was in the pot there was no going back.  So ham and cheddar soup with under tones of fennel it was!  It passed the Farmer Don test, as he had two large bowls. Although this soup was tasty, I wish I had saved the stock for a pot of more traditional vegetable soup!

 

As always, thanks to each of you for your support of our small family farm and local, sustainable agriculture.

Farmer Don's Newsletter

Hi Friends and supporters!

Farmer Don writing the newsletter this week as Joan is a little under the weather. Alot to talk about as we come to the end of the 2019 season.

First a correction to the last newsletter, we have TWO deliveries left for this season, this coming week (17) and the final week (18). The next delivery (17) will be the final egg week. Those members with two egg shares will receive eggs on week 18 as well. The next delivery (17) will also be the final Chicken Share delivery. Each chicken share will receive an extra 1/2 chicken this year to substitute for the free stew hen. The stew hens did not make the market trip this year and they are probably thankful that they didn't. So, the extra, free 1/2 chicken will need to serve as the stew hen. Thank you for your understanding. And finally the most important part of this newsletter is the move up of pick up day from Wednesday to Tuesday for next delivery (17) only, due to family stuff. We apologize for any inconvenience. So, NEXT PICK UP WILL BE TUESDAY!! NEXT PICK UP WILL BE TUESDAY. NEXT PICK UP WILL BE TUESDAY.

We will send out another reminder over the weekend so everyone will be aware of this one time change.

A couple of other farm notes.......frost coming Friday night, so I'll pick all I can. Tomatoes are done, a few peppers left and some beans left. Can't say how much of these, so they will probably hit farmer's choice. The direct seeding I did a few weeks ago has responded to the rain and is growing nicely. I have to do smaller amounts as each of these crops are nice but small so bear with the clamshell packaging. I'll increase the amount available. Acorn squash coming this week. Sweet potatoes will run through the end of the season. Pencil thin leeks will be bunched and put out for choice also. They didn't finish well with the lack of water the past few weeks, but we can still get them out to you. The radishes are nice and a favorite of mine.

Well, time to wrap this up and get busy with the other aspects of the farm.

Be well friends and thank you once again for your support.

Farmer Don