Week 10 Newsletter

 

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

Welcome to Week 10 of our 2020 CSA.  Week 10 is not an egg week.  Week 10 is a chicken share week, so if you have purchased a chicken share, don't forget to pick up your chicken.

It seems fall is over and we are back to the heat and humidity of summer.  We had a nice, but short, shower here the other night, but we are still really in need of rain.  The landscape is suddenly appearing more brown then green.  Our neighbor's fields of corn and soybeans seem especially hard hit.  We are seeing already turning brown and soybeans almost appear to be shriveling in the fields.

So many of you will be familiar with this newsletter.  This is the annual "thank you" newsletter.  When Farmer Don and I take a bit of time to thanks everyone who makes Dancing Hen Farm possible.

How can I write this newsletter with talking about Farmer Phil?  Many of know Farmer Phil as he has worked for us for a number of years and has become Farmer Don's right hand man.  On Tuesdays, Farmer Phil can be found heading up our pack and wash station.  He portions and weighs product for the CSA and manages boxes for us.  Farmer Phil also is our delivery assistant and spends most of Wednesday in the van with Farmer Don.  He spends Saturdays at the Back Mountain Farm Market, where he waits on customers, assists Farmer Don with sales and even sells some of his family farms' produce.  Farmer Don tells me Phil has quite a following at market.  If you see Phil, be sure to say hello and thank you!

We have several others who work on farm to keep us running smoothly.  Joyce, Farmer Phil's Mom, works on pack days and has become our head herb harvester.  She also helps Farmer Phil in the pack house and helps both Don and I with transportation to doctor's appointments.  New to the farm this year is Susan.  Susan has been volunteering to come out and help Farmer Don on her days off.  Susan helps in the fields, helps with animals and rumor has it she is Rosie's favorite visitor.  Thanks to Jason, who does farm projects for Farmer Don and helps with bagging chickens for delivery.  Jason often has one or both of sons with him on farm to help as well.  We also want to send a thank you out to our neighbor Dave.  Early in the season Dave mowed many of our overgrown fields and this summer he has kept our large lawn mowed.  I also want to thank all our friends and family who organized work days this spring to help us clean up the farm.  If you know or see any of these individuals, please say thank you to them for helping grow and produce your food.

A huge thank you needs to go out to our site hosts.  These individuals offer up their businesses for our use to drop boxes.  Thanks to the Sonya and all the employees at Crestwood Pharmacy.  Thanks to Gwen and the artists at Verve Vertu Art Studio.  Thanks to Corrine and her staff at Balance Yoga.  And last, but not least, thank you to the employees at Bloom Naturally in Bloomsburg.  Please take a minute to thank these site hosts!

And finally.  I want to thank all of you, our friends, members and family of the farm.  Thank you for your continued support of our farm and of us.  The kind words, cards and the notes and drawings left in share boxes bring a smile to our faces!  It is you, our community who makes this all possible.

With that I will close - be safe, be well and enjoy the veggies.

 

 

Week 9 Newsletter

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

Welcome to Week 9 of our 2020 CSA.  Week 9 is an egg week.  Next Week 10 will be a chicken week.  So, if you purchased a chicken share you will be getting chicken on Wednesday, August 26th.

Such beautiful weather we have been having!  It almost feels like fall, but the calendar says August, so we know there is more heat and humidity to come.  But for now our windows are open and we are enjoying this cooler weather.  Have you noticed Mother Nature is starting to tell us fall is on its way?  The days have gotten noticeably shorter and the other day I heard the distinctive honk of Canadian Geese flying over the farm.  The hawks which nest in the tall pines across from the house seem to have moved on and I haven't seen the Rose-breasted Grosbeaks recently.  I have noticed some leaves starting to change color, but I am not certain if this is season or drought related. 

In the fields we are slowly transitioning to fall as well.  You can look for more greens becoming available as the weeks go by and we should begin harvesting winter squash soon.  Unless we get a very early frost, we should also have summer crops continuing, including tomatoes, peppers and string beans.  Farmer Don tells me our okra is finally starting to set fruit and he anticipates small numbers being available for Week 10.  We continue to watch our broccoli closely and the plants are large and beautiful, but still no heads being formed.  Cucumbers have been slow to set fruit as well and we are uncertain what the future harvest will be. 

As most of you know, each year we raise pigs in our abandoned apple orchard.  Over the years, I have really learned to like pigs.  Each year our small herd of pigs seems to have a unique personality.  We feed the pigs seconds produce from the farm and this year's pigs really like greens.  They also seem to really like taking a stroll and we have been struggling with getting our fencing set so they cannot escape.  This was very evident the other morning.

Farmer Don and I were watching the morning news while finishing our second cups of coffee and discussing the day when our phone rang.  An early morning phone call is often not a good sign.  This particular morning it was our neighbors.  It seems eight of our pigs were happily rooting around in their front yard.  Not a good call at all!  Farmer Don put on his boots and he and the dogs headed out across the field to fetch the pigs.  Rosie, our Border Collie, who is bred to herd and gather animals, took one look at the pigs, decided chaos was about to happen and retreated quickly to the safety of our porch.  Shady, our mixed breed, typical farm dog, showed her loyalty to Farmer Don and stayed close to his side, ready and willing to help.  Lucky for us the pigs seem to have bonded with Farmer Don and he was able to basically lead them, with the help of Shady and our neighbors back to their fenced area.  Now when the pigs go for what seems to be their daily stroll, Farmer Don carries a pan and stick with him.  He beats on the pan with the stick and the pigs follow him back home.  A bit like the Pig Pied Piper.  Rosie stills feels her role in pig herding is to watch from the safety of the porch. And Shady, our pig herder, eagerly helps Farmer Don by bringing up the rear and making sure the pigs continue to move along.  So if you visit our farm, don't be surprised if you see a pig parade being led by Farmer Don and his pan drum, with Shady bringing up the rear.

The sun is setting, supper is over and I need to finish the newsletter and move on to cleaning up the kitchen. 

As always, thank you for your continued support of us and our small sustainable family farm.

Be safe, be well and enjoy those veggies.  (and this cooler weather!)

Pigs resting up for a stroll!

2020 Week 8 Newsletter

 

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

Welcome to Week 8 of our CSA.  Week 8 is not an egg week.  Ordering for Week 9 is now underway.

Pennsylvania weather this summer is even more diverse than ever.  On farm we are in dire need of rain, in spite of receiving over an inch and a half of rain from Tropical Storm Isaias.  However some areas very close to us received over three inches of rain last Friday morning when a strong thunderstorm swept through the area.  And areas in Southeastern Pennsylvania are experiencing almost daily severe thunderstorms and flash flood warnings.  This is in addition to the eight plus inches of rain some of these areas received from Isaias.

The dry weather on farm has been really good for one weed, oops I mean crop, which is growing beautifully here on farm.  Purslane.  Farmer Don claims we are growing the best purslane we have had in years.  Purslane is a very interesting plant which most of you would recognize.  It looks a bit like a jade plant and loves dry weather.  Purslane is also a bit of a nutritional powerhouse.  It is one of the few plant sources for the heart healthy Omega-3 fatty acids we hear so much about and is rich in potassium, magnesium and Vitamin A.  Purslane has a tart flavor and the leaves and tender parts of the stems are a good addition to salads or can be added to soups.  Purslane pairs very well with cucumbers in traditional cucumber yogurt salad.

As I think many of you know, I was a raised in a family where summertime activities (including eating!) revolved around a large vegetable garden.  My sisters and I all have continued this tradition.  This year my one sister claims her garden has become a sci-fi horror film.  What?  She tells me she has huge green worms with a horn for a tail devouring her tomato and pepper plants.  Whenever I call to talk with her, Farmer Phil, tells me his Mom out "picking worms".  She diligently exams her plants several times a day and picks off any hornworms and feeds them to the chickens.  Yes, my sister's garden has been invaded by tomato hornworms.  Don't tell my sister, but I actually kind of like hornworms.  They are a magnificent large green caterpillar with a prominent horn for a tail.  The adult of the hornworms are actually hawk or hummingbird moths.  See why I say I kind of like hornworms?  How can you not like hummingbird moths and giant green caterpillars!  Ok, ok, because they are so large, the caterpillars can be very destructive, eating an entire branch of a mature tomato plant in one night.  If you find your garden invaded by hornworms, the best defense really is hand picking them.  But if you see a hornworm with what appears to be white oval projectiles attached to its body, don't kill it.  These white projectiles are actually really tiny parasitoid wasp cocoons.  These wasps are good guys and once they emerge from their cocoons, they will find other hornworms to invade.  A biological control example at its finest! 

Sorry, I have once again slipped into Entomologist mode! 

Thankfully we are not seeing the defoliation on our tomatoes that my sister is and therefore, tomatoes should continue to be available.  Peppers are starting to be available.  We do not have summer squash or zucchini right now for harvest, but we have more planted and with any luck we will be able to harvest from these plants before the season ends.  Cabbage should be coming on soon.  And believe it or not fall crops, including winter squash, will be available before too long.  Not veggies, but you will also see pullet eggs on this week's choice.  Pullet eggs are smaller, but are often prized by bakers.

Ok, this is getting long and the hour is getting late.  Time to start to unwind for the evening.

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

Be safe, be well and enjoy those veggies.

CSA Week 7 Newsletter

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

Welcome to Week 7 of our CSA.  Week 7 is an egg week.  I wanted to take a moment to talk about substitutions.  Please remember that Farmer Don (and our associate farms this year) are making harvest predictions on crops almost a week before the crop is harvested for your CSA box.  Some times for reasons beyond the farmers control when we go to harvest the crop is just not ready.  Perhaps fruit did not mature as we had anticipated or maybe an insect or disease has destroyed the crop.  When this happens, Farmer Don is forced to make a substitution for the unavailable crop.  Your patience with this is greatly appreciated.  As I mentioned in the past, this growing year has been one of our most challenging on many levels.

I hate to say this, because I know our neighbors to the east and south of us did not fare as well with the recent tropical storm.  But, wasn't yesterday's rain beautiful!  Here on farm we received about an inch and a half of nice steady rain.  A very needed rain.  By evening, when the sun came out, I think I could hear all our crops collectively sighing over the relief this rain brought.  We feel blessed to have gotten this much needed rain.

We are hoping this rain will push along some of our crops which seem to not be maturing as we had hoped.  Look for a second harvest of string beans coming soon.  With the rain we are hoping cucumbers will be available in larger numbers soon and hopefully summer squash will continue to mature and be harvestable.  We are hoping the rain also will bring about some more harvestable eggplant.  Peppers are now being harvested and hopefully will be available for a number of weeks to come.  Lettuces and cooking greens should respond well to the moisture and cooler temperatures, so will continue to be available for CSA boxes and market.  Winter squash is in the ground and the plants are growing nicely.  We are watching the broccoli closely and hoping it forms some heads in the next few weeks.  A second planting of scallions should be available in a week or two.

"You need a hobby".  This is the latest prescription being handed down by several of my doctors.  I politely smile and say "yes", trying hard not to laugh.  Laugh, because for years my family and I joked that my hobby was cleaning the house and doing laundry!  I was working a full time off farm job and basically also working full time for Farmer Don.  My free time was spent on household chores.  And I didn't really see anything wrong with that!  However my life has changed a bit in the last year.  The doctors are correct, I am finding myself with spare time on my hands and I am having trouble adjusting to that.  So, at the doctors' suggestion, I have been contemplating hobbies.  I suggested cleaning out my closets.  This brought hysterical laughter from my family as they told me "hobbies are supposed to be enjoyable".  I told them I would really enjoy those clean closets!  They were not going for it. Continuing on the closet theme, I suggested getting my old work office switched from its current status as a walk in closet into a farm office.  Reactions to this suggestion didn't even warrant a laugh, just "a look".  Then I argued I do have some hobbies.  I preserve our harvest with canning, freezing and pickling and I have a nice houseplant collection and in the summer add potted herbs and flowers to this collection and I love to read.  At least no one disagreed these were hobbies, but everyone encouraged me to look for a new hobby.  I have thought about photography and have been researching upgrading my old 33 mm to a dSLR camera.  I have also considered crocheting and knitting, maybe finally getting started on the afghan I bought yarn for several years ago.  In reality, I still haven't decided on a new hobby or hobbies to add to my life.  But, those closets still need cleaned out! 

Our kitchen is still pretty quiet.  I haven't done too much preserving yet this year.  I am patiently awaiting the ripening of paste tomatoes so we can get started on our first sauce for the season.  And of course, it will be a few months before we start making applesauce, one of my favorites.  We brought an old reliable recipe out last week.  Kale, sausage and garlic roasted potatoes.  This is a recipe we make often and as the weather cools it will become a weekly item.  The nice thing about this recipe is any leftovers are great with eggs either as a hearty breakfast or another supper.  This recipe is from a favorite cookbooks, Serving up the Harvest by Andrea Chesman.  If you like cookbooks and you are not familiar with this one, I would suggest looking it up. 

Speaking of the kitchen, it is getting near suppertime.  I need to print this so Farmer Don and proof read it for me while we eat and hopefully I will get it emailed out to everyone this evening.

As always, thank you to everyone for your continued support of our small family farm and local sustainable agriculture.

Be safe, be well, and enjoy those veggies.

Week 6 CSA Newsletter

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm! 

Welcome to Week 6 of our 2020 CSA.  Week 6 is not an egg week.  Ordering for Week 7 is now open.  Thanks to everyone for treating their CSA boxes gently and returning them to us.  Please also remember to return the green pint and quart boxes for the farm to reuse.  And as always, if you have questions or concerns for us, please do not hesitate to contact us at the farm.

Welcome to August!  Can you believe it is already August!  Soon we will be talking fall.  I already think the days are noticeably shorter!

The weather for this summer has been hot and dry.  We had a couple of downpours Tuesday morning and some nice steady showers last night.  But what we really need is a good soaking rain.  The weather forecasters are saying Sunday may bring us a soaking rain.  We are dry here on Dancing Hen Farm, but we are counting our blessing as farms to our west are drought dry.  On a recent drive, we saw corn stunted and dying in fields and soybean plants wilting in the fields.  Without some rain soon, the harvest will be greatly reduced from these fields.  These farmers will therefore see not only a loss of income, but also a reduction in the amount of feed available to for their livestock this winter.  On a positive note, on some of these same drought stricken farms, we saw some beautiful hay being bailed and stored in barns.  So I am asking you, to keep your fingers crossed, say a collective prayer or do a rain dance, that Sunday brings us a nice soaking rain and some cooler temperatures.

The harvest of our summer crops is pushing into full swing.  Last week we saw our first eggplants hit CSA boxes.  We should have more eggplant in the coming weeks.  Peppers are near ripening and tomatoes and summer squash should continue to be available.  We are hoping to continue to make cooking greens available and with any luck (and some rain) lettuce should also continue to be harvested.  We have broccoli in the ground and after fending off a small groundhog attack it is now struggling to make heads.  We are hoping as the weather cools a bit the broccoli plants will react with some fruit.

In the next few weeks we are anticipating a real burst in our egg availability.  Unfortunately this spring we had a fox in our hen house and lost quite a number of laying hens to Mr or Mrs Fox feeding their babies.  Thanks to some helpful neighbors, we now have our chicken house on lock down!  Electric poultry netting now encases the house as well as an area of pasture and so far (knock on wood) we have not lost anyone to the fox.  In the meantime, Farmer Don got word of some pullets (teenage chickens) which were available from a friend of ours.  He arranged to pick up 150 pullets and they will be starting to lay any day now.  For a few weeks they will lay small eggs, but before we know it they will be laying one large brown egg a day.  So, look for more eggs on our buying club and available for sale at market.  Chickens by nature go inside their coop to roost each night and Farmer Don now shuts them up as an added protection against predators.  In the morning when Farmer Don goes up to open the coop door, he reports the chickens rush out in a big red wave.  If he doesn't quickly get out of the way he will have multiple chickens fly full speed into his head and face!  Not an enjoyable experience!

Farmer Don asked me to thank everyone for coming to market on Saturdays and saying hello.  He really enjoys catching up with our members and meeting new members.  As a reminder Farmer Don and Farmer Phil are at the Back Mountain Farmers Market every Saturday from 9 to 1.  This market is at the Dallas High School.  Come by on Saturday, support your local farmers and say hello to Farmers Don and Phil!

Our kitchen has been fairly quiet lately.  We are cooking lots of veggies, of course.  Farmer Don made Lion's Head meatballs this week.  Farmer Don loves meatballs and these are a favorite of his.  He uses a recipe he found in one of his favorite magazines, Cook's Illustrated.  It is an interesting recipe in that it calls for the pork to be worked with a stand mixer.  This is opposite of what I have always been told about making meatballs.  I was always told to handle the meat lightly or the meatballs will become dry and tough.  But, this recipe really does produce a large, tender and tasty meatball.  This week he served the meatballs with ramen noodles and kale, as we had both of these on hand.  Here is a link to a recipe which seems to be based on the Cook's Illustrated recipe.  https://lynnandruss.com/2019/12/21/here-me-roar/.  I didn't do any preserving this week and I have decided not to can peaches this year.  Instead I am hoping this fall to can extra applesauce.  Farmer Don and I eat more applesauce than canned peaches, so extra applesauce just makes more sense.

It is getting late and I need to start to unwind before bed.  Thanks again for all of your support.  We feel so very lucky to have so many friends and members of our farm.

So, in Farmer Don's words:  "be safe, be well and enjoy those veggies".

2020 CSA Week 5 Newsletter

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm! 

Welcome to Week 5 of our 2020 CSA!  WEEK 5 IS A CHICKEN WEEK!!!  So, if you purchased a chicken share, please be sure to check for a cooler at your drop site.  Our site hosts are not able to store your chicken for you.  Week 5 is also an egg week.  Remember ordering for our CSA begins every Thursday at 6 pm and ends on Sunday at 6 pm.

So not much new on the weather front.  Hot and humid seems to be the theme.  We are dry here on farm and are hoping some of the forecasted showers for the next few days bring us some rain.  Recently the storms have been going around us.  I will get reports from neighbors less than 5 miles away receiving a quarter inch of rain, but here, we only got a few drops.  We have irrigation to most of our fields, but there is nothing like a good soaking rain to revive crops. 

Our fields continue to looks good.  Tomatoes are starting to come on as are cucumbers.  Summer squash and zucchini should continue to be available along with kale and chard.  We are working with an Amish grower friend of ours to obtain some eggplant and we are hoping his will be of harvest size by next week.  Our first planting of string beans is done and our second planting is not quite mature yet, so there may be a gap in bean availability.  We are lucky to be working with some certified naturally grown and certified organic farmers and the beautiful lettuce we have been putting in your boxes is from them.  We are hoping the leaf lettuce and possibly the romaine will continue to be available.

Last week I talked about our resident hummingbirds and this week I had a cool hummingbird moth visiting the flowers on our back porch.  These clearwing moths move and hover like a hummingbird as they drink nectar from flowers.  Another one of my favorite bugs!  Speaking of bugs.  I have some herb plantings around the house and many of the perennial herbs have been blooming.  I try to keep the blooms trimmed from the plants to encourage more vegetative growth.  But, this year when I went to trim the flowers off of the thyme and oregano, I couldn't bring myself to snip them off.  The number of bees and beneficial insects swarming around these flowers was amazing!  Large bumble bees, busy honey bees and the tiniest of wasps!  These tiny wasps are generally too tiny to cause any problems for humans, but they are very beneficial to the farmer.  These wasps often belong to species of wasps which actually parasitize and kill crop pests. 

Ok, I will stop ranting on and on about bugs!

Our kitchen has been fairly quiet recently.  Farmer Don is still not eating a lot, so when we cook we seem to have tons of leftovers and therefore our refrigerator seems to be constantly overflowing with leftovers.  And leftovers we must eat!  However I did have the first of one of my summertime favorites, an open faced tomato and grilled cheese sandwich.  I used a fresh loaf of crusty whole wheat bread Farmer Don picked up at the farmer's market, an heirloom tomato and some extra sharp cheddar.  WOW, how can you go wrong with those ingredients?  I also have been keeping a jar of pickled eggs and beets in the fridge again for a light lunch or a nice afternoon snack.  Recently I made a batch of my mother's bean salad and have been eating that all week as well.  I should have halved the recipe, since I am having to eat this myself and the recipe makes a ton!  I think I will be eating bean salad all month!

Don't forget Farmers Don and Phil are at the Back Mountain Memorial Library Farmers Market every Saturday.  The market is held at the Dallas High School.  They usually have Dancing Hen Farm Apple Orchard Pork, Pastured Chicken, free-range eggs and an assortment of vegetable available for sale.  If you go to market, please stop by our table and say hello!  The farmers love to meet our farm members!

Ok, it is getting late and I want to be certain I get this newsletter out before I turn in for the night.  So, in Farmer Don's words - "Be safe, Be Well and Enjoy those veggies!".  And I will add "stay cool out there".

Until next week.......

CSA Week 4 Farm News

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

Welcome to Week 4 of our CSA.  Week 4 is not an egg week.  Hopefully everyone is enjoying their veggies!  And since I am late getting this newsletter out, Week 5 ordering is open!

As usual, some CSA notes to start the newsletter.  Please remember your CSA box is labeled with your name.  The name which you used when you registered for your 2020 share.  If there are any issues with your pick up site or your home delivery, please email us at the farm.  

You know by now that right about now in my newsletters, I talk about the weather.  Today brought a cool cloudy day to the farm, but before today we had a nice string of a couple of beautiful days.  Clear, with a nice breeze and cooling off a bit at night.  Perfect weather for me to spend time on our back porch watching nature and the goings on of the farm.  Also perfect weather for me to get some laundry done.  I like to hang my wash on the line and the threat of storms a week ago kept me from trusting my laundry would not get a second rinsing!  However, if the weather predictions are correct, it seems the hot and humids will be back by the weekend and into the first part of next week.  I cannot complain, this is summer in Pennsylvania!

 

Our fields are looking good, although as is usual for this time of year a bit weedy.  The first planting of beans is coming to an end, with our second planting growing nicely.  Peas are pretty much done for the year.  Zucchini and summer squash continue to be harvested.   We are starting to pick cucumbers.  We should continue have some nice kale available.  We are also bringing in some beautiful chard right now.  We are hoping to keep potatoes available for the duration of the season.  Peppers and eggplant have been planted and we are patiently waiting for them to produce fruit.  Again thank you for your patience as we work hard to get product to you  this season.

Farmer Don and I always feed the birds.  Year round since we moved to Dancing Hen Farm.  We enjoy watching them and notice the changes in species as the seasons move along.  This year, however, I have a new feeder, a hummingbird feeder.  I have had  a hummingbird feeder in the past, but never found the time to keep it clean.  After reading how dirty feeders can actually kill hummingbirds, I decided killing off hummingbirds kind of defeated the reason for having a feeder!  I threw the feeder out and the next year decided to plant more plants hummingbirds like.  This year I have a bit more time on my hands and decided it would be a good year to try a feeder again.  So, we found a simple feeder which seemed easy to take apart and clean.  And I have been loyally keeping the feeder clean and changing out the sugar water.   More importantly, we have really been enjoying watching the hummingbirds.  We have discovered that hummingbirds really do seem to eat a lot - either that or we have a whole flock of humming birds hanging out on farm!  We have also discovered that hummingbirds actually like to perch - perch when they eat, perch on my clothes line, or perch in nearby trees.  I have never observed them perching so much before, sometimes I am convinced Dancing Hen Farm hummingbirds must be extra tired and lazy!  Hummingbirds are also quite brazen, flying very close to us, often right at us!  They will eat from the feeder with us standing right beside it, seemingly unfazed by humans.  They are also quite territorial and will dive at  and chase each other if two try to eat from the feeder at the same time.  And I am reverting back to my childhood! When I was a little girl my Dad fed the squirrels and I named them, convinced I could tell them apart.  Now I am convinced I can identify some of the hummingbirds from each other.  At least I haven't started naming them -- yet!

Enough about hummingbirds -- on to the kitchen.

In the kitchen - preserving has begun.  With lots of beans coming in this week, I got out the blanching pot and started freezing.  Previously, this year, I froze some berries for use in our winter smoothies.  I am feeling a bit more energized this season, so maybe I will ramp up the preserving kitchen this summer?  I already know we will be canning tomato sauce and apple sauce.  We also have plans to can some peaches this year, if we can find peaches.  This was a hard season for peaches.  In my preserving dreams, I will also make zucchini relish, zucchini muffins to freeze, catsup, can some whole tomatoes, make a small batch of tomato relish and freeze corn.  And I need to dry some herbs this year, as my stock in the freezer is getting low.  I will keep you posted if any of my dreams become realities!

So it took me an extra day or two to actually sit down and write this newsletter and now it seems I can't stop going on and on!  So I will end here.  Thanks to everyone who actually read this to the end!

And as always thanks to each of you for your support of us, our farm and sustainable farming.

Be safe, be well, and enjoy those veggies