2019 CSA Week 8 News

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

Welcome to Week 8 of our 2019 CSA.  Week 8 is not an egg week.  If you placed a buying club order, your extra items will either be in your share box, in a separate box with your name or in a cooler at your pick up site.  Please remember to check for your buying club orders.

Wow!  Last night's CSA pack was another challenging one.  Right off the bat, I want to thank Lori, Maria and Alex for their perseverance and help getting boxes packed, despite a very leaky roof and limited lighting.  Soooo, just as we were finishing harvest and getting our pack line set up, the sky got dark and the wind started to blow.  At first it appeared as though the storm would pass to the south of us, but within minutes, the rain began, followed by hail and more rain.  Unfortunately, the storm also darkened the farm, as we lost power.  With night setting in, Farmer Don and Alex scrambled to get the generator going and the extension cords laid.  We were able to power a few things in the house, and some lights on our pack line and packing boxes commenced, as did the rain and thunder and lightning.  This all brought back memories of our very first CSA pack (12 years ago!), when we also packed boxes without electric.   That year, we didn't have a generator, so candles, lanterns and flashlights lit our pack line and our help was Farmer Don's sister Gail, visiting from Florida.  A vacation I am sure she will not soon forget!.

Speaking of weather, although strong storms seem to be coming again today, this weekend is to be beautiful.  The perfect weather to visit your local farmer's market.  Farmer Don and Farmer Phil can be found, every Saturday, in Dallas at the Back Mountain Library Market.  This market is now held at the Dallas High School and has really grown in the last few years, with a great variety of vendors.  Market hours are from 9 am to 2 pm, but be sure to arrive early as many farms sell out before 2.  On Sunday, Farmer Don is at the Mountain Top Farmers Market.  This market is held at the Crestwood High School, also from 9 to 2, but like the Saturday market, most farmers are sold out before 2.  This market is also growing with new vendors this year.  If you visit either of these markets, please stop by our table and say hello.  Farmers Don and Phil really like to meet friends and members of the farm.

Our fields continue to look good this year and our fall seeding and planting is just about complete.  Summer crops are moving along nicely, with tomatoes and peppers beginning to ripen and eggplant sizing up.  Tomatillos are now being harvested in small numbers and should have a larger flush in the coming weeks.  Our first and second plantings of summer squash varieties are starting to slow down and we anticipate a lull in harvest as we await our final planting to produce fruit ready for harvest.  Chard and kale continue to be available.  New plantings of lettuce are sizing up, as well as some Asian greens.  Yellow wax beans, purple snap beans and Dragon beans are growing nicely and should be ready for harvest in the coming weeks.  We have begun harvesting our potatoes for storage and they should be available into the fall.  With our tomatoes being so late this year, Farmer Don has been working with a couple of our neighbors to secure some certified organic tomatoes, so look for those on the availability soon. 

This time of year in the kitchen, I am always scrambling to use all the produce which keeps appearing in my fridge!  Most recently that included fennel and a watermelon.  I had been craving some massaged kale salad and used the power of Google to find a salad with watermelon and kale.  To my surprise, I found one with watermelon, kale and fennel (and a bunch of other ingredients I had as well!).  Very easy to make and it passed the taste test, so it will go in the keeper pile.  I didn't have any radishes, so I left those out.  Here is a link to the recipe https://www.loveandlemons.com/watermelon-feta-salad-kale-avocado/    Farmer Don brought more harvested fennel home from market on Sunday, so on Monday, I searched the cookbooks for a good fennel main dish recipe.  I always think of fennel in the fall with roasted pork or chicken, but I really wanted something a bit lighter.  I found a very easy recipe for a Greek fennel skillet.  It was basically a stew of fennel, tomatoes, onions and garlic, with some feta cheese stirred in at the end.  I served it over some soft polenta and the flavors really blended well - another keeper!   Again, Google helped me find the exact recipe from my cookbook online for our readers (no olives in the pantry, so I left those out).  https://openhandsfarm.com/recipes-2/fennel-recipes/ 

One of my sisters hinted to me that I might be bringing up bugs too much in my newsletter, so I was prepared this week with a dog story.  But, this newsletter is already getting a bit long, so I think I will save the dog story for another day and who knows by then maybe some other great insects will charm me into telling their stories!

As always thanks to each of you for your support of us, our farm and local sustainable agriculture.

Until next week, be safe, be well and enjoy those veggies.