Final Fall CSA delivery and Buying Club News

Greetings from a cold and windy Dancing Hen Farm!
 

CSA Members:  Tuesday's delivery, Week 8, was the final delivery for our Fall CSA.  Week 8 was not an egg week.  Thanks to each of you for your support!

Winter Buying Club:  We will be delivering for the winter buying club this weekend.  Ordering is now open and ends tomorrow, Thursday, morning at 5 am.  This will be the last buying club delivery until after the New Year.

This weekend we will also be doing a market at The Whole Life Center for Health on Route 309 in Drums from 1 to 4 pm.  Farmer Don will be there selling some organic produce, pasture raised chicken, apple orchard pork and CSA Shares for 2018.  If the weather allows he will also be grilling and handing out samples.  We will be discounting our 2018 CSA memberships for this market only.  If you pay in full (on Saturday, at the Whole Life Center) you will receive a $50 discount!  This is on top of our early bird discount and returning member discounts.  We will donate $25 of each discount to the Valley Food Pantry.  Come on by on Saturday, learn about the Whole Life Center, say hello to Farmer Don and pick up some locally produced goods.

It looks like cold weather has arrived!  On farm, we have only received a dusting of snow, but today the temperature is struggling to reach the 20's and the wind is howling.  But, a quick check of the weather shows, temperatures returning to the 40's by the beginning of next week.  It is hard to believe that in just about a week we will be celebrating the Winter Solstice.  The Winter Solstice is marked by the shortest day of the year, but more importantly is also means days will start getting longer!  Yes, longer!  I know there are many, many weeks of winter weather and snow still ahead for this winter, but longer days already brings joy and hope for an early spring.

On farm, we are preparing for the holidays.  Our Christmas tree is up and decorated and the house gets more festive each day.  Our Christmas tends to be very low key, quiet time at home.  This week brought our annual hanging of the barn wreath.  Thanks to Stacy, this year, for her wreath building talent!  Farmer Don has started baking cookies, chocolate chip, of course.  Unfortunately he needs to bake them frequently, as one batch tends to only last a few days in our house! 

We will be announcing the opening of our 2018 CSA in the next week.  For 2018 we will be offering a Summer Season Share of 20 weeks.  Add on egg and chicken shares will also be available.  We will be limiting the number of CSA shares available this year to 75 members.  Egg and chicken shares  and buying club options will also be limited.  Please note:  Memberships are reserved in order by which payment is received.  Watch your email for 2018 CSA registration opening and details.

I want to take a bit of time to talk about our buying club options, as this is a bit confusing.  We offer 2 different buying clubs.  One is our Winter Buying Club.  This is a stand alone buying club and is free to join and no deposit is required.  With this buying club, you will need to purchase a free Buyer's Club membership and you will need to place your order online using our website.  We meet members with orders at a designated spot and designated time on Friday night or Saturday depending on the location.  Orders are paid for at the time of pick up.  Our other buying club is offered to CSA members.  This CSA buying club is offered to allow CSA members to purchase additional items to be delivered with their weekly boxes.  The CSA buying club does require a deposit.  Your orders will be deducted from this deposit.  As always, if you have questions concerning the buying clubs, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Farmer Don has, once again, been the resident chef. Over the weekend he made a really delicious pork roast with sauerkraut.  Pork and sauerkraut is one of my favorite meals, so it is always a  winner for me. Even if he did serve it with roasted, rather than mashed potatoes!  We will repeat this meal for a traditional New Year's Day meal.  We once again have chicken to eat. For most of the season we had been sold out of chicken and this included the extra chicken we produced for ourselves!  It is nice to bring chicken back into our rotation of proteins.  There is nothing like a Sunday dinner of roast chicken!

Well, the hours is getting late and my creative juices are succumbing to sleep, so I need to end this newsletter and move on to a cup of herbal tea and bed.
  

Be well, be safe and have a joyous holiday season.

Fall CSA Week 7 Newsletter

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!  We hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving!

I apologize for not being on top of newsletters recently. 

CSA members:  This is week 7.  Week 7 is an egg week.  There is ONE week remaining in our 8 week Fall/Winter CSA.

Winter Buying Club Members:  There will be NO buying club delivery this weekend.  Currently our plans are to resume deliveries next week.

Farmer Don and I spent a quiet Thanksgiving on farm.  We had an invitation to travel a bit south of here and join my nephew and his family for dinner.  However farm chores kept us close to home.  We still have a batch of meat birds on pasture which are requiring quite a bit of attention to keep them in food and water.  We did take time during our meal to be thankful that most of the food we were enjoying was produced on our farm or neighboring farms.  We have so much to be thankful for, including easy access to locally produced, nutrient dense food.

Here on farm we are slowly shifting to winter mode.  This week we will shut our irrigation down until next spring.  We had already drained most of the system, but some of the buried lines to the greenhouses and lower fields have remained open.  With cooler temperatures predicted for this weekend, we will need to drain and shut down the entire system to prevent freezing of our pump and above ground outlets.  This will increase our workload as we will now have to haul water from the house to keep plants and animals watered.  Speaking of animals, the shorter days and cooler temperatures have caused our chickens to decrease their egg production.  Our barn cats, on the other hand, have increased their production. Their production of fur that is!  Two of our barn cats have long hair and it always amazes me how much fluffier they become during the winter. Come spring this same fluff will fall off in big clumps.

 

This past weekend Farmer Don and I spent a few hours planning for next season.  We are finalizing our plans for the 2018 CSA.  It is hard to believe this will be our 11th year of production on this farm.  We are still (and probably always will be) tweaking systems.  And, again this year, we will make some changes to our CSA.  This past season, we tried a slightly new approach to our CSA.  We shortened our main/summer CSA and added an extended Fall CSA.  We feel our fall harvest has been a mixed level of success.  Although storage crops are looking good, many of our greens did not survive a hard early November freeze.  For this reason, we are going back to a slightly longer Summer CSA, with, at this time, no commitment for a Fall season.  Later in the summer or early fall of next year we will make a final decision on extending the CSA.  In addition, we will be limiting the CSA to 75 members and we will be limiting the number of egg shares we sell.  Watch for an upcoming email announcing details for our 2018 season and when registration can begin.

In the kitchen, I am making a bit of an early New Year's resolution.  I am committed to making bone broths on a regular basis.  For years, I saved all of our bones and vegetable scraps to make broth and I always had a supply of homemade broth in the fridge and in the freezer.  Recently, I have gotten out of this habit.  But, when I cooked down our turkey carcass and tasted the delicious nutrient packed broth, I knew I needed to put the stock pot to use more often!

Speaking of the kitchen, the dishes are not washing themselves!  I will end this newsletter and here and move onto getting the kitchen in order.

Thanks, once again for everyone's support and please watch your email for details of our 2018 season.

Fall Week 4 Newsletter and Buying Club Open

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

CSA Members:  This is Week 4 of our Fall CSA.  Week 4 is not an egg week.  Thank you for your patience with last week's ordering.  Last Thursday was a hectic one here on farm.  More on this below.

Buying Club Members:  The buying club will be open for deliveries this weekend.  We should have eggs, veggies, chicken and 2017 Dancing Hen Farm Apple Orchard Pork is now available.  Ordering begins tomorrow, Tuesday, morning at 5 am and ends Thursday morning at 5 am.

The weather first, of course.  The end of last week brought "January in November" to Pennsylvania, including our farm.  The lowest temperature, for us, was Saturday morning when we awoke to a low of 12.  Not bad, considering we had mentally prepared for single digit lows!  I am not sure a vegetable farmer can ever physically prepare for temperatures in the single digits, but mentally we were prepared to lose most everything in our fields and even our unheated greenhouse.  As we expected, we did lose our sungold tomatoes in the greenhouse, but not a bad sungold season, considering we were picking them up until the first week of November!  We were able to cover some of our field grown greens and were pleasantly surprised to find that many survived.  We also were able to harvest and store other greens and some celery.  What this means to our members, is that greens will continue to be available in smaller quantities.

Last Thursday was a crazy day on farm!  As we were scrambling to harvest and cover what was left in our fields, another annual Dancing Hen Farm was also occurring.  The annual running of the pigs.  Those who have followed us for years know that each summer our pigs spend their days high on a hill in an apple orchard.  They have a great life, lounging under the trees, eating fallen apples, rooting for bugs and roots, and wallowing in their personal mud hole.  Each fall we move (or run) the pigs from the apple orchard down to the barn.  Every group of pigs has a slightly different dynamic and therefore some years the running is easier than other years.  This year the pigs were not completely cooperative, but we did get them to the barn without too many issues.  However the real issues were only beginning.  On farm, Thursday was a day of drizzle and rain, resulting in wet grass and mud.  These wet conditions caused the livestock trailer (and its truck) to become stuck in our yard.  After multiple attempts involving winches, tractors and trucks, the trailer was still stuck.  Finally it was decided we would try Plan B (or was that Plan D or J or maybe even M?) and the trailer was moved downhill across the yard and out onto the road.  It was then backed down a firmer path and a corral was built using gates and vehicles between the barn and the trailer and the pigs were pushed onto the trailer.  And the mud bogging began again!  Yep, trailer stuck!  One truck stuck and another truck sliding sideways towards the greenhouse.  Finally trucks were used to pull other trucks, quiet returned to the farm and the pigs were on their way!  I want to personally thank everyone who helped us this year -- it was muddy, wet and frustrating, but the mission was accomplished! 

Most years the running of the pigs represents a slowing of farm activity.  We start to slowly transition into winter mode. This year that is not the case. We are slowing down a bit, but our Fall CSA is keeping us quite busy.  The Fall CSA is about half the size of our Summer CSA, but Farmer Don is doing all the harvest and pack for the Fall CSA himself.  We also are experimenting with a late batch of pastured chickens, so we still have animals in the fields needing care.  With the recent turn of weather to winter, we turned off our irrigation to avoid frozen pipes and now all water for the chickens (broilers and egg layers) must be hauled from the house (and chicken waters thawed when temperatures are too low).  We are thinking the winter slowing will happen around the New Year!

Speaking of the New Year.  We will be opening registration for our 2018 CSA soon.  Watch your email for an announcement in the next few weeks.  As with past years, we anticipate offering returning member discounts and early bird discount for members registering and paying for their shares before the first of the year.  Again, watch for an upcoming email with discount details.  Egg shares and chicken shares will also be available for 2018.

I want to take a moment for a bit of a public service announcement.  I know I have talked about this in the past, but I want to revisit the topic.  Please if you have a pet or animal which you do not wish to take care of, do not drop these animals at rural properties thinking they will be taken care of.  Realize that most farms and country properties have all the animals and pets they need or can support.  Also realize that you could be jeopardizing the animals you are dropping.  Kittens, for example, are extremely vulnerable to being attacked (and yes killed) by other cats, dogs, or hawks.  Most animals become territorial and introducing new animals is often not an easy or pleasant process.  Please spay and neuter your pets to avoid unwanted kittens and puppies.

 

Ok this newsletter is getting a bit long.  I type everything into Word and then cut and paste it to our website and blog.  I like to keep newsletters under 2 pages in the Word document and this one is fast approaching and about to go over 2 pages!  For that reason, I will end here!

Have a great week.  Thanks for your continued support!

Fall Week 3 Newsletter and Buying Club Open

Greetings from a snowy Dancing Hen Farm!

CSA members:  This is Week 3 of our Winter CSA.  Week 3 is an egg week.

Buying Club members:  Buying club ordering is NOW open for deliveries this weekend.  Ordering closes at 5 am on Thursday morning.  Look for chicken, eggs, and some veggies on the list this week. 

Looks like a change is in the air.  Today the farm experienced the first snow of the season, with some light accumulation of the white stuff on the grass.  This weekend temperatures are predicted to be around 10.  We will not be surprised to see single digit lows here!  That is a bit cold for the first week of November.  What does that mean for the farm and our crops?  I would say tomato season has officially ended.  Generally our unheated greenhouse will offer protection for tomatoes with temperatures in the mid to upper twenties.  Ten will most definitely bring an end to our sungolds.  Storage crops, for the most part have been harvested and are being stored inside at cellar temperatures, so these crops will be fine.  Farmer Don will spend the next few days covering our greens with row cover and plastic. We have our fingers crossed that the greens will survive, but a lot will depend on how low the temperatures actually fall.  Unfortunately the warm temperatures recently have plants still growing and this will make them more susceptible to freezing.  Stay tuned to next week's newsletter to see how our crops fared.

Farmer Don and I will be missing the sungold tomatoes! We have gotten used to having them around for snacking and adding to salads.  I have to admit it has seemed strange to be picking tomatoes in November!  And I also have to admit, I am ready for some cooler temperatures.  Of course, I may be looking for a return of warmer temperatures come Saturday morning!

As this growing season winds down, we are already planning for our 2018 season.    Currently we are getting ready to open registration for our 2018 CSA.  Please watch your email for when registration will open.  We do anticipate offering an early bird discount again this year.  For us, shorter days and cooler temperatures signal a time for re-energizing.  In the next few months Farmer Don and I will have our annual farm business meeting.  We try to combine this meeting with a shot vacation of sorts, by spending a rare weekend off farm.  Being away from the farm means we are away from distractions and can focus on evaluating this past season and planning for next season.  And the weekend away is not all business, we do take a bit of time to relax.

Sorry for another short newsletter, but it is getting late and I still have not adjusted to the time change, bed is calling me.   Until next week - be safe and be well.   

Fall Week 2 Newsletter and Buying Club Open

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!  Welcome to November!

Yesterday, Tuesday, CSA members received Week 2 boxes.  Week 2 is not an egg week.  There are 6 weeks remaining in our extended season CSA.

Our winter buying club is now open for ordering.  Ordering ends Thursday at 5 am and deliveries will be this weekend.  New on the buying club this week is a true seasonal favorite, fresh pressed cider.  We also have pastured chicken and eggs.  Pork is sold out for the season, with fresh pork being available the end of November.  And as always we have a variety of organically grown greens, root crops and storage vegetables available.

Our new item for this week are rutabagas.  The rutabaga, or Swedish turnip, is said to be the result of a cross between cabbage and turnips and it has been cultivated here for over 200 years.  Rutabagas are nutty and sweet with a mild turnip like flavor.  They are delicious roasted, or added to soups and stews.   In our kitchen, once we start harvesting rutabagas, we always mix rutabagas in with our mashed potatoes. This time of year we also make roasted vegetables often and we find a good mix to be rutabaga, beets, carrots, onions and potatoes.
  

On farm, we are still tightening up and preparing for cooler weather.  Some greenhouses are now covered in plastic and side and end walls have been erected.  These greenhouses are either planted with crops for winter and early spring harvest or will be heated beginning late winter for seedling production.  We will be removing the plastic from smaller greenhouses we use as nurseries for our seedlings.  These greenhouses will not be used until next spring and removing the plastic will prevent snow and ice from not only damaging the plastic, but also causing damage the houses structure.   Next week, we will be placing plastic over some of our field grown greens. This will allow us to harvest from these plots even after lower overnight temperatures.  All this winter and spring preparation and we are still harvesting greens and root crops! 

I will apologize now for this shortness of this newsletter.   Hopefully next week I can carve out some extra newsletter time.

For now, I will end by, as always thanking everyone for their continued support of our farm and local, sustainable agriculture.

Buying Club open this week!!!

Good Morning Dancing Hen Farm Winter Buying Club members!

The buying club is now open for ordering, for delivery this weekend!  Ordering will close Thursday morning at 6 am.  We deliver buying club orders to Bloomsburg on Friday nights in the parking lot at Bloom Naturally between 5:30 and 6 pm.  On Saturday we meet in Dallas (100 Lake Street), in the parking lot from 10 to 10:30 am.  We meet on Saturday from 11 to 11:30 at 900 Rutter Ave in Forty Fort.  This week only, Mountain Top orders will be available at the Mountain Farmers Market from 9 am to 1 pm.

 

Availability this week includes a fresh batch of Dancing Hen Farm pastured chicken, eggs, a variety of cooking greens, salad greens, winter squash, sweet potatoes, no spray apples, and limited cuts of our Apple Orchard pork.

As always, if you have questions for us or need additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

And as always, Thank You for your continued support of our farm and local sustainable agriculture. 

Last Chicken Share for 2017 includes a Stew Hen

Tuesday, October 24, is the last chicken CSA share delivery of the 2017 season.  This delivery will include a stew hen.  Here is how Dancing Hen Farm cooks stew hens.

This is the last chicken share delivery of the season, so everyone is getting a bonus chicken.  A stew hen.  Stew hens real value is in the nutritious, rich broth they produce when cooked down.

There are many ways to cook a hen.   Here is Dancing Hen Farm's  rendition.

 

Placed  a thawed stewing hen (cut up, if you would like) in a large stock pot with enough cold water to cover the bird and 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar.  Allow the chicken to sit in the cold water for 30 mins to an hour.   Next, add to the pot, a large quartered onion, 2-3 coarsely chopped carrots, several stalks of chopped celery (include the leaves!), a few cloves of garlic, a bunch of fresh parsley (if available) and some thyme.  Note that the vinegar does not change the taste of the broth, but,  helps extract minerals from the bones, increasing the nutrient content of your broth. 

Bring the pot to a boil and carefully skim off any foam that rises to the surface of the pot.  Turn the heat down and allow pot to slowly simmer for 10 or 12 hours.   After simmering, allow pot to cool slightly and pour contents through a fine strainer or cheese cloth.   Once the bones and meat have cooled enough to handle, remove meat from the bones.  Discard the cooked vegetables and cleaned bones.  Allow broth to cool and skim off any excess fat.   Broth can be used for soups or stews or in any recipe calling for chicken broth.  Broth will keep in jars in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for several months.

Stewing hens tend not to be very meaty, so don't be surprised if you end up with a small amount meat.  The meat can be added back to the broth for soups or stews or saved and used for chicken salad, tacos, etc.