CSA Week 1 News

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm.  Welcome to Week 1.5 of our 2022 CSA. Happy Father's Day!

Week 1 CSA boxes have been delivered and ordering for Week 2 is underway.  Hopefully everyone is enjoying their boxes.  Week 2 is not an egg week. 

CSA members please remember to treat our share boxes gently and either leave them at or return them to our CSA drop sites.  We do reuse these boxes and this year they have not only double in price, but they are in short supply nationally.  We are looking into alternate boxes for delivery.  The wax coated boxes are certainly not ideal, but they do keep our produce fresher and they fold flat for easy storage at our delivery sites.  We also reuse clean egg cartons and paper pint and quart "berry" boxes. 

Can you believe the wind and cool temperatures today?  Actually feels like fall out there.  I am sitting now typing with my sweatshirt on and my winter slippers!  Looks like the weather is to warm up towards the end of the week.  Strange we spend all winter craving the warmth of summer and all summer craving the coolness of winter!  But, right now the farm could use some warm temperatures to push along our summer crops.  Peppers and tomatoes don't like these cold temperatures!  Peppers will even drop their flowers if the temperature remains in the 50's for too long.  Once the flower has dropped from the plant it, the flower, cannot mature into a fruit, or pepper in this case.  Plants will make more flowers and hence more peppers, but as farmers those dropped early blossoms can mean an entire picking of peppers lost.

With that being said, our fields are actually looking pretty good.  Farmer Don is pushing this week to get as much planted as he can.  And our greens love this cooler weather.  He was looking at the spinach bed last night and decided what he wanted to plant there next when he realized the spinach he harvest for week 1 is trying to grow back.  He will give it another week and see how it does.  Usually in heat spinach immediately "goes to seed", meaning it diverts all its energy into making seeds and shoots up a large inedible flower stalk.  It is all up to the spinach at this point!  We will be holding off a little bit on planting our entire crop of cabbage.  This means Farmer Don has assigned me the task of "potting on" the cabbage transplants.  Potting on means removing the small cabbage plants from their flats and repotting them into bigger pots.  The goal is to keep the plant from out growing its space and gives the plant another boost of nutrients from our potting mix. 

 I apologize for the newsletter being a little late.  I have had kind of a crazy week.  It started by me making a mess of some emails I was sending out concerning drop sites.  Hopefully everyone was able to find their Week 1 boxes!  And again I apologize for any confusion this caused.

Friday kind of sums up how my week went.  Friday morning I woke up and got going on laundry.  The sky was beautiful blue and there appeared to be a slight breeze.  Perfect!  for getting some wash out on the line.  I proceeded to strip the bed, complete with the winter comforter, and collect dirty clothes from their various laundry piles and lugged an overflowing basket of laundry to the washer.  Stuffed the washer full and noticed the water level was on small.  Small! That wasn't going to work, reaching for the knob it wouldn't turn.  It seemed stuck and stuck good.  I even tried using the pliers thinking maybe I needed better leverage.  Nope, not budging.  In the meantime, I shut the water off, but most everything had gotten wet.  So, I pulled out wet laundry and gracefully, well many not gracefully, threw it on the floor and reloaded the washer with what I hoped was a small load.  First load done and second one loaded and I carried the first out to hang on the line.  Got about half hung up and I noticed the wind was a bit more than a breeze.  At which point, I was close to throwing my hands up in defeat, but instead I pulled most of the load off the line and threw them in the dryer.  My clothes line is a bit temper mental and tends to blow down with wind, especially when drying something as billowy as sheets.  On a positive note, I did get my laundry done, one small load at a time and I was able to avoid picking clothes up off the ground and having to have Farmer Don get the ladder out to re-hang the clothesline.

So, it is strawberry season!  I have already eaten enough to make myself feel sick.  But, I just can never get enough when they are ripe and local.  We purchase them from a neighboring farm and I generally freeze quite a few quarts.  I also need to get busy drying herbs.  Often drying herbs takes a back seat to other kitchen tasks and before I know it the season is over and I am left with no stored herbs.  So, let's say in our kitchen we are already busy with canning and freezing for the season.  We are also busy enjoying all the fresh veggies starting to be harvested!  I find myself really craving those first greens of the season.  Tomorrow night Farmer Don and I will sit down and go over meals for next week and I am thinking of adding a massaged kale salad to one of our meals.

Speaking of Farmer Don and supper.  He just walked in the back door to tell me he is going back up into the field to try and row cover what he just planted.  Then he has to give Dilly a bath, since she found something dead to roll in and then he will be in for supper.  Good thing leftovers are on the menu tonight and they can simply be turned down.

Alright, I know, this newsletter is pushing the limit.  So, I will end here with my usual HUGE thank you for all of your support.

 Be safe out there.

 

Transplants on the Buying Club!

Greeting from a windy Dancing Hen Farm!

 Ordering is open for this weekend's buying club deliveries.  This our final buying club before Memorial Day; as we will not be delivering Memorial Day weekend.  This is also most likely our final buying club before our CSA starts up. The items to look for on this week's buying club include transplants.  Farmers Neil and Krislyn at Seedling Creek, have worked hard to produce some beautiful, healthy transplants; tomatoes, peppers and flowers.  These are large, healthy plants and are ready to help you get your garden growing.  Kale, braising mix, spinach and beet greens are ready to help you reach your healthy, local, eating goals!  So happy ordering!  Farmers Don and Phil are eager to see everyone on Saturday.

 We have really had a nice run of beautiful weather.  Warm sunshine and little rain.  To the point where a day of slow, steady, rain would be a welcome site.  We are actually quite dry here on farm.  We are lucky to have irrigation on farm, but most crops really need a nice soaking rain to get them established.  We did not get the promised rains over the weekend or on Monday.  We have had some showers, but not nearly enough moisture.  They are saying there is a possibility of showers tonight, we will see if we get any.

 So this newsletter was going to be about insects, specifically, the hated flea beetles destroying our arugula.  But, Dilly steals the show again. 

Yesterday, I was sitting on the couch doing some computer updates, ok fine, I was actually taking a little nap!  When Dilly about scared me to death.  Suddenly she left out a howling bark like I have never heard from her before.  She was not happy about something or someone.  Dilly had been napping on the porch in the sun, one of her favorite activities.  I waited a bit to get up, because sometimes when I get up to see what she is barking at, my actions act like a release, and Dilly goes after whatever she is upset about.  So, I sat on the couch for a few more minutes and listened her run back and forth on the back porch making a huge racket.  Then I saw a large white blur go by the front window.  A huge dog!  Afraid someone was walking the dog and Dilly was about to bite them, I got up and looked out the window.  At that moment 2 huge dogs, the white one and an even larger black one went strolling by the window and started up onto the back porch.  This made Dilly really go ballistic.  Every hair on her back was standing up and she was crouching low to the ground as she lunged at the two stray dogs.  She proceeded to chase them back onto the road!  Of course, my dog Mommy instinct kicked in and I rushed out onto the porch just as Dilly was making her way back.  She was still really upset, barking and running from side to side on the porch looking around the house for the dogs.  I started screaming for her and did manage to get her into the house.  Dill was not happy to be in the house when she still had two villains to run off.  Eventually Dilly calmed down and I called my sister to come and check our chickens for me (Thanks Sis).  Luckily the dogs did not seem to have chicken on their minds and I was told another neighbor had the stray dogs and was going to post their information on facebook.  It seems the owners have already been found!  And other than being a bit tired, Dilly is no worse for the wear.  Another Dilly adventure and luckily another real disaster avoided.

Our kitchen has not been real exciting recently.  We are still enjoying spring greens and still eating out of our stored food from last season.  And of course, we are eating a lot of leftovers.  With only two in our family, we seem to have so many leftovers!  Leftovers are nice this time of year, when Farmer Don is so busy in the fields.  It allows for us to get supper together quickly, without a huge amount of pressure for him to be inside to eat at a certain time.  Life is good here and anytime we can make things run more smoothly is great.

Despite the fickle spring weather, we are still scheduled to start CSA deliveries the second week of June. And that day is almost here!  We do still have a few memberships available.  Please remember, unless you have contacted us, we do need to have your payment in full before the start of the season.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

 And don't forget about buying club this weekend.  This is your chance to get a jumpstart on your own garden with some transplants or to enjoy the taste of spring with some tender spring greens.  Again, if you have questions, please, do not hesitate to contact us.

Thanks again for your continued support and for allowing us to grow and produce food for you and your family.  We are humbled to have such a loyal group of supporters!

Believe it or not it is looking a bit like rain!  I need to wrap this up and get my laundry off the line before it gets a second rinse.

be well, my friends

Buying Club 5/14 and Farm New

 Greetings from a sunny and warm Dancing Hen Farm! 

The buying club is now open.  You have until Thursday at 5 pm to place an order for Saturday pick up.  Once again Seedling Creek (Farmers Neil and Krislyn) have beautiful greens and transplants available.  New this week are tender nutritious beet greens.  They have also added pepper plants and some more flowers to their transplant availability.   New this week are Black Krim Tomato plants.  Black Krims are one of my favorite tomatoes, ripening to a beautiful dark maroon and oh so flavorful! 

After last weekend's heavy rains, it is so nice to finally have a stretch of sunny weather.  And the weeds are growing like crazy!  But, our crops are also starting to grow.  The peas are looking good and we are starting to see some germination in our other direct seeded crops.  This time of year, the seed house is a flurry of activity as we scramble to get our summer crops seeded for transplant into our fields, once the danger of frost is truly behind us.  Our laying hens are looking good.  The pullets have begun to lay, so we should have eggs for the CSA and for the Back Mountain Farm Market.  The first batch of meat birds are looking healthy; outside enjoying the sunshine and fresh grass.  And so far Dilly has not been harassing them too much.  She did dig under their pen the first day they were on grass, allowing 3 birds to free range, but thankfully she seems to have lost interest. 

However poor Dilly's adventures continue.  I always called Rosie "Calamity Rose", but I am starting to think Rosie's calamities were nothing compared to Dilly's.  Dilly is barely 2 and already has a large list of adventures, she is a true Calamity Dilly!   If any of you follow Farmer Don on Instagram, you already know that Dilly had yet another run in with a porcupine!  Yes, you read that right "another run in with a porcupine".  This was her second adventure with a porcupine in her 2 years of life!  The other night I was making dinner and was beginning to worry a bit.  Farmer Don and Dilly were not in from doing chores yet.  Just as I was about to head out on our back porch and ring the bell, Famer Don appeared at the back door and told me he would be eating dinner late.  Dilly had tangled with a porcupine and had quills stuck in her snout.  Ouch, poor Dilly! Farmer Don got busy collecting the tools for quill removal, securing Dilly in the workshop, and got to work.  Dilly screamed, literally screamed, but he was able to get all the quills but one.  She was losing her patience and getting a bit grouchy and snappy.  Farmer Don decided both Dilly and he needed a break.  He got Dilly comfortable on her bed and grabbed a beer for himself.  I am happy to say the final quill has been removed and we are declaring Dilly quill free once again.  Of course, less than 24 hours after meeting the porcupine, she was across the road barking wildly at something.  Lucky for her and us, she did not find the porcupine or skunk again.  Stay tuned for more updates on the "Adventures of Dilly".  I have a feeling as the summer moves along there will be many more Dilly stories to tell.  Let's hope for her sake, happier and less painful stories!\ 

Like the weather, our kitchen is starting to transition from winter to spring.  It is so nice to have some early spring greens to be cooking with and eating right now.  On Monday, I made a cream sauce featuring spinach, mushrooms and sundried tomatoes.  I ended up putting it in a casserole to finish, as Farmer Don and Dilly had their date with the porcupine quills!  We are also trying to use up preserved food stores before the fresh veggies start to be harvested.  So, tonight we are having a Pennsylvania Dutch favorite, ham and green beans.  A easy meal to make and tasty to eat.  I like to add a bit of apple cider vinegar to my ham and green beans.  One of the remaining days this week we will have leftovers and I am thinking a Dancing Hen Farm standard of sausage, kale and roasted potatoes another day.  This is a nice meal, as we often have just enough leftovers to add to eggs either for a hearty breakfast or an easy supper.  I do love to cook and one of my goals right now is to move back into the kitchen!  I will keep you posted on how this goes.  

Our CSA is scheduled to start in June and we do have a few spots available.  We are excited for this season.  Excited to be partnering with Neil and Krislyn up at Seedling Creek.  We are already seeing the beautiful vegetables and transplants they can grow!  Krislyn will also be helping out here on farm, nice to have some new younger energy on farm.                                

So, I really need to wrap up this newsletter.  It is after 2 and want to get a few things done before I get started on supper.  So in Farmer Don's words:  be safe, be well and enjoy those veggies.  Don't forget buying club.  Greens are looking beautiful and I can attest to the fact that it really feels nice to again be eating locally.

News and Buying Club Open May 7

Greetings from sunny and warmer Dancing Hen Farm!

Buying Club ordering is now open for deliveries this Mother's Day weekend.  In celebration of Mother's Day we will be offering one dollar off all orders for this week's (May 7) delivery only.  Note, the discount will not be reflected on our website, but you will be charged one dollar less when you pick up.  Our buying club availability is growing thanks to Farmers Neil and Krislyn.  This week we have added tomato and flower transplants to our list.  New also have beautiful and tasty baby bok choy and braising greens to order.  Remember all items are on a first serve, first come basis, so be sure to order early.

We are getting busy on farm!  The seed house is filling up quickly and we have started to direct seed some hardy spring crops.  Our peas are finally germinating.  The recent cool temperatures have kept the soil temperatures down, which had kept our peas from germinating.  Lettuce, arugula, radishes and spinach should not far behind, these should be ready for harvest for our first CSA delivery.  Farmer Don has also been busy taking care of our soil.  In years past we have used our small truck to haul multiple loads of compost to spread on our fields.  This year we had a large amount of compost delivered to the farm.  This has been a huge time saver for Farmer Don, as now he simply has to go to the barn for compost as opposed to driving 10 or 20 miles down the road, sometimes multiple times in one day.  Taking care of the soil is so important on the farm and using compost is one of our main ways doing this.  Compost adds organic matter, tilth and fertility to our soils and keeps them balanced so we can continue to grow nutrient dense vegetables.

As I have mentioned in another newsletter, this year we are welcoming Farmer Neil back to Dancing Hen Farm.  Early this spring, Neil contacted us about getting he and his family involved with the farm again.  Neil worked for us for a number of years in the past and recently he and his partner Krislyn have been busy raising a family and turning their small property into a thriving homestead, Seedling Creek.  Farmer Neil and Krislyn have taken what Neil learned from Farmer Don to a whole new level of intensive vegetable production.  This season they will be growing for us on their property, as well as, helping us here on farm.  The energy and new ideas this young family is bringing to Dancing Hen Farm is perfect for the farm right now.  So, stay tuned as we keep you updated not just on the happenings at Dancing Hen Farm, buy also at Seedling Creek.

Dilly is sitting here next to me on the couch, as if to say "Mom, you are going to mention me in the newsletter, aren't you?".  So yes, Dilly you will get your paragraph! 

I think our other two dogs spoiled me.  Neither really liked the water.  They did not play in puddles, play with the hose or wade very deeply into the pond.  This is not true of Darling Dilly.  She tromps right through the puddles and loves to sprayed by and play in the stream from the hose.  This means she is often wet and well, wet dogs smell, but Dilly really smells!  Early this spring, actually probably late winter, Dilly had a conversation with the wrong end of a skunk.  Yep, you guessed it.  She was a stinky mess!  Farmer Don doused her in Skunk Off and diligently tried to rid her of this new perfume.  Unfortunately, as is often the case with skunk, the smell still lingers.  And the smell is really apparent when she is wet!  There have been a few nights when she has come in from doing chores with Farmer Don that I have been convinced she was sprayed again.  I have even gone as far as to chase her outside and told Don she has been sprayed again, only to realize she is really just wet.  So, I allowed her back in the house, but tried to keep her off my lap!!  As a warning, if you come visit the farm you will most likely be greeted by Dilly, a very stinky Dilly.  I am convinced she will smell like skunk for the rest of her life.  I am thinking we may need to change her name!

We do still have some memberships available for our summer CSA.  Visit our website or contact the farm for additional information.  It is hard to believe this will be our CSA's 15th year of existence! 

I think I will end this here.  Newsletters seem to take me all day to write!  And true to form, just as I started writing, my washer stop and I took a break to hang a load of laundry on the line.  Hard for me to believe that now that laundry is dry!  Yes, it is time for me to say done, wrap this up and bring my wash in.

So, following in Farmer Don's lead of this being a year dedicated the support we get from you, our community.  Thank you for your support, you make it possible to farm this stony hillside and hopefully leave this section of the earth a healthy place for the next generation.

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Farmer Phil and the Buying Club is open!

Hi Friends! A couple of quick notes to pass along.

Number one: Aunt Joan and Uncle Don want to pass along Happy Birthday wishes to Farmer Phil! Happy Birthday Phil! We're looking forward to your help around the farm this coming season and getting back to doing the weekly farmer's markets with you this summer! Aunt Joan and I can't begin to describe how much your help on the farm means to us, and from me to you, Phil, you and I running buying clubs, doing farmer markets and all of our various activities puts a warm feeling in my heart and a smile on my face...may we have many, many more to come! Happy Birthday PHIL!

So, energy levels continue to build around the farm, despite the roller coaster weather. 6 inches of snow last Tuesday, 80 degrees and sun on Sunday, and now this morning 35 degrees with 15mph winds...just when I was ready to put the long underwear away, now I'm chopping wood and burning the wood stove....

This morning I updated all accounts, recorded payments received and activated all accounts for summer CSA. Still shooting for early June to open. The cold temps I can handle....but with all the rain and wet weather it has been tough to get into the fields to get some real work done. Spring has always been the toughest season to manage, and this spring has proven to be just that. We take our opportunities to work when we have them and move forward. We've been moving forward for 15yrs now with you, the Dancing Hen Farm's community support, and will continue to do so. Through thick and thin the farm comes together. Thanks again for all of the support.

Buying club is open again this week. We will keep adding new items as we can, and are featuring items from Neil's little farm up by Forksville. Neil and Krislyn have been working hard to be producers and are now in a position to share their harvest with you. Look for their items on our website.

Time to start the day's activities, get Joan another cup of coffee, run Dilly so she and I will sleep well tonight and enjoy another adventure filled day on the farm.

 Be well friends, thanks again for your ongoing support, and when you see Farmer Phil, wish him a Happy Birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHIL!

 

Buying Club April 23

 

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

Farmers Don and Phil will be out and about on Saturday (April 23) delivering buying club orders.  These are preorders placed on our website through the winter buying club.  Ordering for Saturday's buying club ends tonight at 5 pm.  If you have questions or are having trouble navigating the website, please contact us at the farm.  We will do what we can to help you place and order and get some local products to you.  Farmers Neil and Krislyn have been busy and are supplying the buying club with some tender spring greens as well as some wild harvested ramps.  Dancing Hen Farm has a good supply of eggs, pastured pork and some storage crops available 

How about this weather?  Spring in Pennsylvania is always a bit of a roller coaster ride.  Recently that ride has been on the wild side.  Lows in the low 20's and upper teens, followed by 7 plus inches of snow, and a couple of days in the upper 70's, has left us all a holding on waiting for the next curve Mother Nature has up her sleeve.  And yes the ride continues, we had snow, lots of snow, on Tuesday and 80 and sun is predicted on Sunday.  Hard weather to farm in!  This time of year we are even more obsessed with the weather.  Waiting patiently for fields to dry and overnight temperatures to stay warm enough to sustain our summer crop transplants. 

In spite of the weather we have been busy!  Farmer Don was able to get peas planted a couple of weeks ago.  Not quite St Patrick's Day, but we were so happy to get them in before the snow.  Now we will wait for the soil to warm just a bit for germination.  We have other fields worked and ready for planting as soon as things dry out a bit.  After peas, we usually plant onions and potatoes, followed closely by greens, both salad and cooking greens.  True summer crops, such as tomatoes, peppers and squash, will not be planted until after the threat of frost.  For our farm we consider the very end of May or the first of June to be a safe no frost date for planting these more tender crops. 

 Just a quick update on our instagram account.  Our instagram account is @Dancing_Hen_Farm.  Sorry for any confusion, Farmer Don had someone help him put instagram on his phone and they decided to create a new account.  Farmer Don will be using this account throughout the season to keep everyone updated on farm activities.  So go ahead follow him and enjoy the pictures he has been taking!

 There is still much to tell, including some Dilly stories, but I will end here for today.  As usual, I have been working on this newsletter all day!  Crazy how I can write all day and get very little written.  So my friends, be well, be safe and send us some warm weather vibes.

 

 

2022 March, Spring is coming

Hi Friends of Dancing Hen Farm....we've moved into March, cool, now hopefully we can keep snow and cold weather away, looking to get peas in the ground , St. Pats day is the traditional planting day...fields are still defrosting so still too early to get out just yet.....starting some seeds in the house.......

so, the message for tonight's newsletter is to ask our community to follow us on instagram......I'm doing all I can to post the farm experience for all of you to share....we are planning a farm open house sometime in May, so everyone can visit the farm and see where the sustainable agriculture you support is produced.

Message...pictures are on instagram.. look us up .https://www.instagram.com/Danc... .. trying to share the farm as best I can....you've been with us for over 15 years now, I can finally show the farm to you... enjoy and feel free to comment...I will do my best to show you anything on the farm...gonna seed micro greens tomorrow, let's follow them from seed to your family..........psyched to involve our community in what you support us to do.......

Be Well Friends,

Farmer Don