May 13 Farm News

Greetings from a soggy Dancing Hen Farm!

Spring is in full swing and summer is just around the corner. This spring has been wet and cool.  Last week we were scrambling to cover plants and get fires going in our greenhouses, as the night time temperatures dropped into the 30's.  Our low was 33 for two nights and I can happily report, although I saw frost on our back roof, our plants suffered no damage.  Watching this morning's weather report, it seems summer will be making an appearance this week, with dry weather and temperatures in the 70's and 80's.  I guess we can put away the wool hats (at least for this week!) and get out the sunscreen and straw hats!

 

Spring is always a busy time on farm, as we are seeding and planting and getting ready for animals.  The seed house and plant nursery are filling up with flats of germinating seeds and our fields are slowly getting planted.  We have cooking and salad greens planted and a several nice beds of spring broccoli.  Farmer Don is experimenting with some broccoli varieties this year developed specifically for East Coast growers.  Broccoli is often a challenging crop for us.  If our resident ground hogs don't devour our plants, our weather causes the broccoli to not form heads and bolt, or flower, too quickly.  The varieties he is growing this year have been developed to grow well in our varying weather conditions.  Stayed tuned for how our spring broccoli harvest goes!

As a diverse farm, we are also preparing our fields for animals.  The area for our pastured chickens has been mowed and our first batch of pastured broilers will be moved from the barn to the pasture next week.  The pig area is almost ready for this year's pigs, which will arrive on farm next month.  Farmer Don continues to work on our fences, with the ultimate goal of adding sheep to our farm's production plan.  And of course, the longer days have our laying hens doing what they do best, laying eggs!

It is hard to believe this will be our tenth year of production on this farm.  One of our goals since our first growing season has been to take care of our soil.  Soil is an important and sometimes overlooked vital resource for sustaining life.  In the micro environment of our farm, the healthier our soil, the healthier our plants and animals are and therefore the more nutrient dense the foods we produce are.  As many of you probably already know, Farmer Don is passionate about soil!  When I asked him if he had anything he wanted included in the newsletter, he told me to talk about yellow clover.  Yes, yellow clover!  Yellow clover is a cover crop and as much as respect and love Farmer Don's new affection for yellow clover, I think a very general discussion of cover crops might be an easier read.  (and easier for me to write!)  To build and preserve our soil, Farmer Don plants a variety of cover crops.  We try to rotate between cover and cash crops and sometimes managing the cover crops becomes more of a challenge than managing cash crop!  Cover crops are diverse and each has separate (and sometimes combined) effects  on the soil and unique management requirements.  Each cover crop has unique planting requirements.  Some are combined with other cover (or cash) crops. Some get planted in the fall, others in the spring or summer.  Most either need to be mowed at a specific life stage or incorporated into the soil when green.  The benefits of these cover crops can be great.  Some make nutrients more available in our soil, some inhibit plant (think weeds) growth, others out compete weeds and most add vital organic matter and increase the tilth and water holding capacity of our soil.  There is a quite a bit of information available about cover crops and if you see Farmer Don out and about he would be more than willing to share his knowledge.  Or, stop by the farm for a tour and cover crop  demonstration!

 

As is usual for this time of year, we are getting lots of interest in our CSA.  We do still have memberships available for 2017.  We are a full choice CSA.  Members log into our website each week and choose the exact items they would like to receive.  We then custom harvest and hand pack each of our customer's weekly boxes.  Boxes can be picked up on farm or for an extra fee delivered to a central pick up site or your home or work.  We have pick up sites in Bloomsburg, Danville and throughout Luzerne County.  If you need information as to where a specific site is, please contact us at the farm.  All deliveries and pick ups are on Tuesdays.  New this year, we are offering separate summer season and a fall season shares.  Summer season deliveries will begin in June.  We do need memberships paid prior to the start of deliveries.  As always, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions.

I am starting to wrap up this newsletter, but how can I do that without talking about food and cooking!  We have been doing a happy dance in the kitchen.  Why?  Because Dancing Hen Farm's field to table dining is returning!  We are starting to harvest greens, so salads and stir frys are becoming frequent kitchen creations.  It is so nice to be eating off our land again and soon we will be sharing this harvest with all of you!!  Stay tuned for a possible buying club delivery and of course, the start of CSA deliveries.

One more announcement!  On Thursday (5/18) at 7 pm we will be at St Therese's in Shavertown talking about our farm as part of their "Healthy Eating: Loving ourselves and our World II" series.  This event is free and open to the public.

Ok, time to rest my fingers and your eyes!  Thanks again for reading and for your support of our farm and local agriculture.

2017 Memberships Available

2017 Memberships are still available.  See our website or contact the farm for more information:
www.dancinghenfarm.com
dancinghenfarm@epix.net

April 6 Farm News

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

First some happenings and announcements.  This Saturday, April 8, we will be participating in a pop up market at 900 Rutter Ave in Forty Fort, PA.  We will have eggs and pork products for sale and will be available to answer any questions about our CSA.  We will be setting up inside or outside, depending on the weather and the market starts at 11 am.  Later in April, on Sunday the 23rd and the 30th, we are partnering with The Blind Pig Kitchen for a series of Meet the Farmer Dinners.  The Blind Pig is a farm to table restaurant in Bloomsburg which sources their ingredient from local farms.  During their Meet the Farmer Dinners, they are offering a five course dinner using ingredients from a featured local producer.  Farmers will be present at the dinner to discuss their farm and growing practices.  So, if you attend on April 23rd or 30th, you will get to meet and hear from Farmer Don.  These dinners are reservation only and the last I talked with Chef Toby, the farm's dinner on the 23rd was sold out, with a few seat remaining for the 30th.  Information can be found on the restaurant's website (http://www.blindpigkitchen.com/info/)  or on their facebook site (http://www.blindpigkitchen.com/info/)
Finally, tomorrow, Farmer Don and Farmer Phil will be out and about in Luzerne County doing some marketing.  If you would like brochures, please contact us and they will gladly deliver some to you

Now, on to the weather, of course.  Yesterday was beautiful, but today is cool and rainy again!  As I sit and type, I can hear the rain pelting the roof and windows and I can hear the water rushing in the drainage ditch across from our house.  I even hear some thunder.  But, I would rather focus on yesterday.  Yesterday was beautiful and  busy day on farm!  Farmer Don and Stacy finished preparing our upper bed for peas and they were able to get our first batch of peas planted.  This made everyone on farm do a happy dance!  The snow, followed by cold rain, has really set us back and getting peas in the ground truly represents the start of the 2017 growing season.  Later in the evening yesterday, we took advantage of the longer day length and with the help of Brittney and Erica, we were able to plant herbs in our unheated greenhouse.  A huge thank you Stacy, Brittney and Erica for helping our farm grow!  And as long as we are thanking our early season farm helpers, thanks to Jason for his continued help on the farm and to Jane for sacrificing a spring break day to help in the seed house.

All things are starting to progress here on farm!  We have some spinach growing in both a field and greenhouse bed.  Believe it or not, the field bed of spinach was planted in February, before our March winter set in.  Spinach does not like heat, so for the spinach's sake, we are actually hoping for a little bit of cooler weather!  Also in our production greenhouse, we have good germination on some radishes and Asian greens.  In an upper, drier, field, Farmer Don has direct some lettuce, radishes, turnip greens and arugula, which should be up soon.  Our garlic has pushed through its straw mulch and is looking good.  Our nursery, heated greenhouse, is filling up and we have moved quite of few trays of seedlings to another unheated seedling house.  Kale, Swiss chard and mustard seedling look really good.  In the next  day or two,  we will be seeding our warmer season crops, including tomatoes, peppers, okra, eggplant, cucumbers and zucchini.

We anticipate "winter" buying club to start up in several weeks and we often get questions concerning our buying clubs.  We offer two separate buying clubs.   One is our winter buying club option.  This is separate from our CSA and there is no fee or commitment to sign up.  Winter buying club deliveries are generally offered before and after our farmers market season.  Winter buying club members either pick up on farm or meet us on Saturdays at a designated location to pick up and purchase their items.  All winter buying club orders are placed through our website.  www.dancinghenfarm.com  New members will need to navigate to our website, create an account and "purchase" a free winter buying club membership.  The second buying club is only available to CSA members.  The CSA buying club is a way for CSA members to receive additional vegetables or other farm items with their share box each week.   Participation in the CSA buying club does require a deposit and you can add this buying club option when you purchase your CSA share.

As long as we are talking about our CSA, we do still have memberships for the 2017 season available.  This is the time of year we get calls concerning the details of our CSA, so I will take a bit newsletter space to discuss a few things which make our CSA unique.  First, we are a full choice CSA.  Full choice means each week our members choose the items they wish to receive in their box each week.  We then harvest and custom pack your box for you.  New this year, we are offering two season.  A summer CSA season which will begin in June and run for 18 weeks.  The summer season will be followed by an 8 week fall season starting in October.  We offer 2 sizes of CSA shares.  Full share members receive 10 items in their box each week and partial share member receive 6 items.  In addition to vegetable shares, CSA members can choose to receive eggs or chicken.  Egg shares are one dozen eggs every other week and are available for both the summer and fall season.  Chicken shares are only available for the summer season and will consist of 5 deliveries.  Each chicken delivery will consist of 2 pasture raised chickens (1 whole and 2 halves).  Additional chickens for the fall season can be purchased through our buying club.  As always, if you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

So, this newsletter is getting lengthy.  I had some more philosophical topics to blabber on, but I think I will allow everyone to rest their eyes and end here.  Thanks for reading!  And as always, thank you your support of our small family farm and local sustainable agriculture.

March 22 News

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm

As seems to be usual on farm, this past week has been filled with weather.  A little over a week ago, the farm was blanketed by over 2 feet of snow.  While we still dealing with the storm, we welcomed spring to the farm early Monday morning with the vernal equinox.  I am happy to say spring has brought with it nice warming sun, which is quickly melting our snow.  Even with today's very cool temperatures and high winds, the sun is still shines brightly and if you are out of the wind, the sun warms your face.

On farm we survived the latest snow storm.  Last Tuesday's heavy snow brought some worries to the farm and meant Farmer Don spent extra time bonding with the chickens as he worked to keep their coops free of snow.  Our two chicken coops are modified Chinese solar greenhouses and are constructed, partly with PVC pipes and covered with clear plastic.  The fear was that the weight from the snow would collapse the structures, trapping and most likely harming the chickens.  I can happily and proudly say Farmer Don's diligence saved the coops and the chickens.  Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for three smaller greenhouse which did collapse under the weight of the snow.  These greenhouses were also constructed using PVC pipes and by ten o'clock Tuesday morning they were already folding under the weight of the snow.  In all honesty, we were forced to sacrifice these three houses as our focus needed to remain on the chicken coops.  The collapsed houses will be rebuilt in the near future and will be used to house transplants sizing up for planting into our fields.   I can also happily report that our two main greenhouses, constructed with much stronger metal pipes, handled the snow load with little to no damage.  Yes, we were disappointed to lose our smaller houses, but in all honesty, we are happy to have weathered the storm so well.

However, this late snow and cold temperatures has slowed our early spring production.  Farmer Don likes the folklore of planting peas on St. Patrick's Day.  Obviously this year, our peas are not in the ground.  Not only do we still have snow on the ground, but where the snow is melting, the mud is unbelievable.  We will need the sun, warming temperatures and winds to continue so our fields can dry enough for Farmer Don to get plots ready for planting.  But, we are still busy getting ready for this upcoming growing season.  Seeding has begun for early field production, including, trays chard, lettuce and scallions.  We also have begun turning over our large greenhouse (thanks Jason!) for some direct seeding of greens.  Stay tuned for how our spring planting progresses!

As many of you know we sell our products to some local restaurants, including The Blind Pig Kitchen in Bloomsburg.  This spring The Blind Pig is hosting a series of meet the farmer (and fisherman) dinners on Sunday nights.  These are five course dinners featuring ingredients form different local farms and producers.  On April 23, they will be featuring us, Dancing Hen Farm!  Farmer Don and I will be there to meet everyone and talk about our farm.  Reservations are required and there is a limited number of seats, so if you are interested, please contact Sarah at the restaurant.  The Blind Pig Kitchen's website is http://www.blindpigkitchen.com/homepage/  And their facebook site is https://www.facebook.com/blindpigkitchenbloomsburg/ 

A quick note on our buying club.  The buying club will be open on a very limited basis until we have some spring vegetables.  We are thinking a delivery sometime before Easter so customers can load up on eggs or ham for the holiday.  As always, if you would like to order eggs or pork, please contact us and we will do our best to get the product to you.

Time for me to check the on our supper!  Happy Spring! 

The Storm

Farmer Don on his way to save the chickens.

Not sure about all of this....

Cleaning off the chicken coops.

With some help from the tractor.

Collapsed greenhouses in the foreground. 

Nighttime Chores

The seed house smoking away.

The moon rising over the chickens.

Inside the germination chamber

March News and Buying Club open

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

Buying club ordering is open for deliveries this weekend.  Ordering closes tomorrow, Thursday, morning at 5 am.  We have lots of eggs and pork available, as well as a limited supply of storage vegetables.

Each week when I get ready to write the farm newsletter, I ask Farmer Don if he want me to mention anything.  This week his comment was, the crazy weather.  So, as always, we will touch a bit on the weather.

It seems lately our weather pattern has been spring springing and then winter roaring back with a vengeance.  Our low last weekend was 5 and I see this weekend lows are to be near 10, with a possible snow storm the beginning of next week!  Perhaps this will be the "onion snow" and then we will see spring?  Wishful thinking, I am sure. But, today the sun is already shining and the breeze should help to dry some of the mud.

 

Yes, the weather has, once again, impacted our crops. We had several beds of greens which we overwintered under plastic.  These plants were looking really good and starting to grow.  Unfortunately, their growth was a bit too early.  This young tender growth was very vulnerable to last weekend's super cold temperatures and we lost many of these plantings.  As Farmer Don always says "Mother Nature bats last".  Although we are disappointed with these losses, these beds will be turned over quickly and replanted and we should still have greens to harvest by sometime in April.  Farmer Don is, also, starting to play in the dirt, well, the potting mix.  Flats are being filled and seeds are being planted.   By the middle of this month, we hope to be working in our fields.  We try to get peas planted in March, followed closely by potatoes.

In the kitchen we have been in soup mode.  The most memorable was, over the weekend, when Farmer Don made a really delicious French onion.  As always, he uses a Cook's Illustrated recipe, this one called for caramelizing the onions in the oven.   Onion  soup is one of Farmer Don's favorites and we have always struggled with caramelizing the onions on the stove top.  I think we never left them cook long enough to obtain the beautiful brown color or sweetness.  The oven/roasting method for the onions is so simple and produces nicely caramelized onions and delicious soup.   Here is a link to the recipe  http://www.food.com/recipe/french-onion-soup-the-cooks-illustrated-way-344164

Once again we can use help from friends and members of our farm.  This time of year, Farmer Don likes to take some time out of his schedule to connect with the communities we share our harvest with. He will be out and about this spring visiting our drop sites for some "meet the Farmer" events.  Farmer Don is, also, available to set up information tables at community events or give short presentations to groups in your community.  Please contact the farm is you know of events coming up in your community or groups looking for speakers.  Thanks in advance for your help!

I also want to, again, thank everyone who has joined and paid for a 2017 CSA share.  As I have said in the past, Farmer Don and I are always humbled by the number of people who return year after year to share the harvest with us.  We also want to welcome and thank all of our new members.  We do still have shares available for the 2017 season.  Memberships are taken in the order in which membership is received and we anticipate limiting egg and vegetable shares this season.  As always, if you have questions for us, please do not hesitate to contact us.

The sun is shining.  Farmer Don and the dogs are out and about taking advantage of today's beautiful weather.  My coffee intake is at my limit. So, I think I will end this here.  Until next week.......