Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!
The buying club is now open for deliveries this
weekend! The window to order will remain
open until 8 pm tonight. After this
week, buying club deliveries may become a bit more sporadic as Farmer Don has
some commitments coming up during the months of March and April. We currently have available proteins,
including eggs, and storage crops for purchase.
In case you haven't guessed it yet, I am back in the
writer's seat, at least for this newsletter.
Farmer Don wants to write some newsletters when he has the time, so we
will be switching back and forth a bit, at least until the growing season
really gets busy. We are trying to get a
newsletter out to you each week and will hopefully continue this through the
summer.
Is anyone else feeling that we have made the weather turn
towards spring? Yes, I know I am
probably being optimistic, but the weather has been so warm recently. Have you heard the birds starting to sing
more in the mornings? And yesterday I saw a robin! Of course today is cool and cloudy with a storm
brewing for tonight and tomorrow morning!
But, I am feeling very optimistic that soon I will be sitting on the
porch with Dilly watching the birds! I
may feel differently in March when we are still getting snow, but for now -
spring is just around the corner!
On farm the buzz for the 2022 growing season has begun. We are busy ordering seeds and supplies and
getting the seed house nursery cleaned up.
In the next week or so we will be starting seeds for some of our early
transplants and in several weeks we could be planting peas! Farmer Don and I are feeling motivated and
excited to 2022. Very much like the
early days of Dancing Hen Farm. We have had
a tough couple of years health wise, but we are ready to get growing food for
our community. The farm doesn't look
quite like we envisioned it when we started, but we have spent time this winter
reflecting on the farm and we are happy with where the farm is, happy with what
our farm has become, and happy, for the most part, with the direction our lives
are taking.
We are excited to be going back to the Back Mountain Library
Farmers Market this year. Farmers Don
and Phil are excited to see all their old friends at market. I know is quite a long ways off, but if you
go to market please be sure to stop by our table and say hello to the
farmers! We are hoping Farmers Neil and
Krislyn will also be joining us at market this year. Farmer Neil worked for us a number of years
ago and he is eager to get involved in the farm again. He and Krislyn have turned their small yard
into a farm and are growing some really beautiful food. Look for their items to appear on the market
table and in our CSA share boxes.
Please note registration for our 2022 CSA is now open. There are a limited number of shares
available and your share is reserved in order in which payment is
received. Thanks to all for your
support. CSA registration is one of my
favorite times of the year. We see the
true sense of our community as we see people signing up who have been with us
since year one. It is also excited to
see unfamiliar names appear as new members are finding and signing up for our
CSA. The CSA is the backbone of our
farm.
In the kitchen we are still eating lots of soups and
stews. Every weekend we usually cook a
chicken. I then eat leftover chicken for
lunch during the week and we make stock out of the bones. I do love our chickens -- they taste great
and by making stock, we feel we are really stretching the meals from one
chicken. The other week we stewed half a
chicken and made chicken and dumplings.
So, good! Nice rich broth, filled
with chicken, carrots, corn and potatoes and then topped with some fluffy
dumplings. We are also trying to use up
our canned and preserved foods. Last
year we canned salsa verde and this winter we made a really delicious white
chicken chili featuring this salsa. That
recipe is a keeper for sure! https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/white-chicken-chili-bake/
Ah yes, Dilly. Dilly
is very much the Queen of Dancing Hen Farm (we even have a picture of her in
her Queen clothes!). She loves doing
chores with Farmer Don and loves running deer and other invaders off the property. Even the invaders no one can see! Yes she is a barker! So far we are living with her barking and
trying to give her no attention (positive or negative) for barking in the hopes
that she will outgrow this latest Dillyism.
Even with all of this barking, she is still a cuddle bug. In fact, if I am sitting on the couch on the
computer, guaranteed she will paw at me and computer until I give up and allow
her to cuddle up next to me and put her head on my lap. As much as I hate having her stinky, little,
farm body on the couch it is so nice to have her cuddle up next to me. Of course, I won't be speaking so sweetly of
her the next time she chews up the newspaper or drinks my coffee. And by the way, it is coffee she likes. I can have a cup of tea and she will not
bother it, but coffee she will lap up any chance she gets! Trust me she does not need to have the added caffeine
in the coffee!
Well, I need to wrap this up and move onto finishing up
organizing and inventorying our seed. A
much bigger task then I anticipated!
Look out Farmer Don, your seed tote will never be the same again!
Thanks again for your continued support. And thanks for reading. We consider all of you our community and
community is very high on Dancing Hen Farm's values list.
Until next week........
