The hanging of the wreath and some late season greenhouse work.

The wreath makes its way to the barn.  

The finished product, 2014.  Note the addition of garlic this year.

Farmer Tommy helps Farmer Don plant some late season lettuce.

Buying Club for December 19 - 20 and Farm News

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

Our buying club is now open for this weekend's deliveries.  As always, ordering opened at 5 am today, Tuesday (12/16) morning and closes Thursday morning (12/18) at 5 am.  Look for pork products, chicken, storage vegetables and kale.

Yes, kale!!! This warmer weather has melted the snow and given us the opportunity to harvest under the row covers here in our lower field.  I was able to harvest kale last night for dinner and it was beautiful and oh so delicious!  Just remember quantities are limited, so please order early.

On farm, last weekend, we finally got our Christmas tree and barn wreath up.  Lots of thanks go out to Jason and Tommy for their help with the wreath.  Tommy drew the design and Jason created the wreath.  There is even garlic on the wreath this year!  I will try and post some pictures on facebook and the blog.  Farmers Jason and Tommy also helped out in the greenhouse with some late season planting and bed preparation.  Thanks guys!!!

We finally tried this year's pork chops for dinner last night and we agree with our customers.  They were delicious!  Farmer Don declared them "the best cut from this year's pork"!  I baked them in the oven on a bed of apples with just a bit of brown sugar and butter.  Colcannon made with fresh harvested kale and a simple spinach salad completed the meal.  We still have a tiny, tiny bit of spinach under row cover as well, so the spinach was also freshly harvested. 

Earlier in the week, Farmer Don made sweet potato tarts.  I guess they were more like tartlets, as he made them the size of large cookies.  He uses a recipe out of the Vedge cookbook for the filling and then uses a butter based recipe from Cook's Illustrated for the crust.  He made them really early in the morning and boy was it nice to awake to a house filled with the aroma of baked goods.  I had two for breakfast!  There is filling left over, so maybe we will have a sweet treat tonight?

Other than cooking, we are busy on farm planning for next year.  As with every year, last year had many successes and also some "opportunities", as Farmer Don likes to say.  This was our first season as a full choice CSA and for next season, we will continue to allow all members to choose the items they receive in their box each week.  For the upcoming season we will be trying to make not only more variety of produce available, but also more quantities, so fewer members experience "sold out" items.  We learned a lot this year about which items were really popular and which not so.  We are taking a hard look at our harvest and planting lists from last year to help determine planting levels for next year.  We do like customer input, so please if you feel so inclined, send us an email and let us know what veggies you would like to see more or less of.

Speaking of the CSA.  Our early bird discount ends on December 31st.  You will need to register on the computer and submit your payment to us by this date to receive your $30 discount.  We also offer a returning member discount and this discount does not expire.  A big thank you to everyone who has already signed up for the 2015 season.  Your funds allow us to order seed, potting mix and other supplies needed months before your boxes of vegetables are ready for delivery. 

This Saturday is the final Forks Farm Market of the year.  Farmers Don and Phil will be behind the table selling eggs, kale and some storage crops.  Why not take a break from the hustle of the season and spend a bit of time at Forks Farm?  You can pick up food for the holidays and some last minute gifts.  At least for now, the weather doesn't look too bad. 

Speaking of weather, the local weatherman just reported it has been 9 days since we have had a sunny day!  Today we are to have rain, so no vitamin D to be had today!  But, never fear, the winter solstice is this Sunday, December 21.  Winter solstice marks the shortest day (longest night) of the year, after this day, the days start getting longer.  Gradually longer......   But, we will take any extra minute of daylight we can get! 

Speaking of daylight.  The sun (what sun?), is not up and I need to walk the dogs and check on the chickens. 

Happy, happy holidays from the farm!!!!

News and Buying Club Open

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

Our buying club is again open for deliveries this weekend.  Ordering opened this morning at 6 and closes Thursday (12/11) at 5 am.  We have plenty of pork, chicken and eggs on the list and a limited amount of storage vegetables.  We continue to get good feedback on our pork.  The bacon is very popular and we are almost sold out of ham hocks!  If you have questions about our buying club, please contact us at the farm. 

On farm, we are already in a holding pattern until spring.  Farmer Don continues to do a bit of planting in our greenhouses.  These crops will overwinter under plastic and then start growing and be ready for harvest early spring.  Spring seems a long way away today as the freezing rain in coating the farm with a sheen of ice!  But, come March we should have beautiful greens to harvest.  We do have some harvestable kale under plastic in our lower field, but the weather is not cooperating for us to get any harvest in for buying club orders.  We will be at Forks Farm Market next weekend, 12/20, and hopefully we will get a bit of harvest in for that market. 

Speaking of Forks Farm Market.  Fork's Holiday Market will be on Saturday, December 20 from 10 am to 1 pm.  This is another festive market to attend.  Why not stop in and pick up some last minute locally produced gifts or foods for the holidays?  Farmer Don and Farmer Phil are again scheduled to be at market, so be sure to stop by and say hello if you come to market. 

We were busy in the kitchen this weekend.  We finally cooked down our turkey carcass from Thanksgiving.  And what beautiful broth it produced!  I told Farmer Don I thought it was some of the best broth we have ever made.  Thick and rich!  I ended up with about 4 quarts.  2 of which went into the freezer and 2 were used in a wonderful turkey noodle soup.  On Sunday we cooked a pork roast and wow was it tasty.  No special way of cooking it, a simple herb rub and a slow roast in the oven. 

Thanks again to all of you, our farm community, for allowing us to share our harvest with you.  A special thank you to everyone who has signed up for our 2015 CSA.  Please remember to take advantage of our early bird discount, we need to receive payment by December 31.

Until next week, be safe, be well and enjoy some local foods!

Turkey Broth

One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving!  Turning the turkey carcass into beautiful broth.

News and Buying Club

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

The buying club is open!  Place your orders online between now and Thursday (12/4) at 5 am.  Deliveries will be made to Bloom Naturally Friday night (5:30 to 6 pm)  and Dallas (10-10:30 am) and Forty Fort (11 to 11:30 am) on Saturday.  You can pick your order up on farm anytime on Saturday.

On the buying club this week will be eggs, chicken, pork and storage vegetables.  All of the eggs, chicken and pork were produced here on Dancing Hen Farm, as are some of the vegetables.  Other vegetables are from our friend at Landisdale Farm.  Landisdale is a certified organic farm in Lebanon County.  Our pork has been very popular and we are getting lots of positive feedback.  The pork chops seem to be everyone's favorite.

We hope everyone had a happy and filling Thanksgiving.  I spent Thanksgiving with my sisters.  It is always nice to be surrounded by generations of family!.  Farmer Don has been working off farm recently and he actually worked on Thanksgiving!  But, he still got to eat turkey dinner, since we had Thanksgiving II on Sunday.  Thanks to our neighbors Toby and Sarah for providing us with a farm fresh turkey they raised.  The turkey was delicious and it was so great to look at our table and realize the vast majority of what we were eating was locally produced!

On farm we are still recovering from the cold and now the snow.  We do have a few rows of greens covered with plastic here in our lower field.  Farmer Don is hoping to take a look at them the weekend.  With any luck we may have a bit of kale to offer to buying club members in the near future.  Our greenhouses are planted, but the plants are tiny and will not be ready for harvest until early spring.

The chickens are so happy to see the snow melting.  When we get deeper snow, the chickens are forced to free range in our barn.  The first blade of grass sticking through the white sends them scrambling to eat some greens.  It is amazing to watch them and see how much vegetation they eat!  That vegetation helps keep the yolks of their eggs nice and orange.

I am always in search of recipes which use the vegetables and meats we have on hand.  Recently I was searching for a good way to use chicken and sweet potatoes.  I came across this recipe and after having it for dinner, Don and I decided it will most definitely be a keeper.  ( http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/chicken_sweet_potatoes.html  )   I used chicken halves rather than thighs.

Our membership drive for 2015 is in full swing.  We offer both returning member ($20) and early registration ($30) discounts.  To take advantage of the early registration discount, we need to receive your payment by December 31.  Thank you to everyone who has already signed up!  Seeing all those names appear on the website gets us excited to start planning for next season.

Thank you also to everyone who came out to shop at Forks Farm Market's Turkey day.  Farmer Don tells me he and Phil were busy!  He also told me he saw many, many friends and members of the farm.  There will be one more Forks Farm this year, December 21.  I am not sure if we will have much to sell, but we do plan to be there.

Well, the sun is starting to rise, the dogs are begging for a walk and I can hear the roosters crowing wildly in the barn.  Time to stoke the woodstove and head out for morning chores.  Be safe, be well and enjoy the local food!

Frozen Farm News!

Greetings from a frozen Dancing Hen Farm!

Although the weather is predicted to be warmer for the next few days, the damage has already been done.  We and our plants were not ready for January temperatures in November!  We lost most of our greens, even those we had tucked under row cover or growing in our unheated greenhouses.  The kale should be fine.  It will be a bit limp to touch, but will still be oh so sweet and good to eat.

Thanks to all of our buying club members for your understanding and support as we deal with this unprecedented cold!  Some of the items in your most recent orders really showed the effects of the freezing temperatures and other items we were forced to leave off of your orders.

Speaking of the buying club, we will be continuing the buying club on a limited basis in December.  From our farm we will have chicken, eggs, pork and a limited amount of winter squash and kale available.  We will also be offering storage crops from our friends at Landisdale Farm.  These storage items will include Landisdale's famous sweet potatoes, onions, potatoes and hopefully some beets and carrots.  Watch your email for when the buying club is open again.

This cold weather has turned our basement into a greenhouse!  Our unheated plant nursery was full with beautiful transplants when the temperatures took the plunge.  Rather than lose flats and flats of plants, we moved them all into the basement.  These plants are to be planted in our unheated greenhouse.  Every fall we fill our unheated greenhouse with transplants, lettuce, kale, scallions, beet greens.  Once planted, we cover the plants with row cover and allow them to overwinter.  In late February, the days begin to get longer and the plants begin to grow again.  By March we are harvesting greens!  This year, the cold came a bit too early and the soil in our greenhouse is frozen solid!  It does freeze most years, but not in November!  We are hoping to get these plants planted Monday and Tuesday of this week and we will keep our fingers crossed that the weather will stay a bit warmer and they can become established before the next round of temperatures in the teens and single digits.

I also want to thank everyone who has already signed up for our 2015 CSA and for remitting their payments!  It is always so exciting for us to see so many new and returning members sign up for the next year's harvest!  As most of you know, we are now accepting memberships for the 2015 CSA season.  Our CSA runs for 22 weeks and starts around the first week of June.  We offer 2 share sizes and multiple pick-up and delivery options, including home delivery.  Everyone of our CSA members is able to choose exactly which items they receive in their boxes each week.  We also offer egg shares to CSA members.  If you have questions or would like additional information, please feel free to contact us at the farm.

Dinners this past week included a one pot meal Farmer Don made using ribs with roasted winter vegetables.  This was a recipe from the most recent issue of Mother Earth News and boy was it good!  I don't generally think of cooking ribs and serving them almost as part of a stew or soup, but I really would recommend this recipe.  We saved the leftover broth and I will use it to make a vegetable and sausage soup this week.  Here is a link to the recipe  http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/short-rib-recipe-zmrz14djzmar.aspx#axzz3JhqUAK5r  I will keep you posted on how the soup turns out!

Speaking of winter vegetables.  We have these HUGE turnips growing randomly around the farm.  And when I say HUGE, they are HUGE.  Larger than softballs and pushing the size of a bowling ball!  When we first located them we laughed and joked about them and tried to determine where they came from.  We were certain, because of their size they would be strong tasting and woody.  The other week, I harvested one the bigger ones and presented it to Farmer Don.  He cut it open and proclaimed it beautiful!  I was still skeptical, convinced Farmer Don was again bonding with his vegetables a bit too much.  But, after I got done praising him for the rib and vegetable dish, he told me it contained half of his prized turnip!  I had to admit, the turnip was tasty, but I am not sure I can go as far as calling it beautiful!  So, if anyone is in the market for a basketball sized turnip, please contact the farm.

Thursday is Thanksgiving, that means this Tuesday is Forks Farm's Turkey Market.  This market runs from 1 to 6 pm and is always so much fun and very festive!  If you have the time, stop by and pick up some fixings for Thursday's feast.  Farmers Don, Phil and Neil will be behind our table.  Be sure to stop by and say hello!

You know the drill by now.  Once I talk about markets, the newsletter is drawing to an end.  Just in time, as I have two dogs starting to demand dinner!

From all of us here at Dancing Hen Farm, Happy Thanksgiving!  Be safe and be well!

News and Buying Club

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!

Our buying club will be open this week!  Ordering starts tomorrow (Tuesday 11/18 at 5 am) and closes Thursday (11/20) at 5am.  All orders need to be placed online.  If you have not already done so, you will need to register for a Free Winter Buying Club share.  Deliveries will be made to Bloom Naturally Friday night (5:30 to 6 pm)  and Dallas (10-10:30 am) and Forty Fort (11 to 11:30 am) on Saturday.

Yes, the weather, yes I need to say something about this weather.  COLD, that is the word!  The lows are being predicted in the mid to low teens the next few nights.  That is frigid for November!  And obviously not very conducive temperatures for growing vegetables!  Even with protective row covers, we may very well lose many of our plantings.  With more normal winter temperatures, we can harvest protected hardy greens into December.  Only time will tell how crops handle these temperatures and as Farmer Don always reminds us "Mother Nature bats last".

With that being said, a small disclaimer about our buying club selection.  We will do our absolute best to fulfill orders.  There is no reliable way to predict what will be harvestable on Friday.  Farmer Don has done his best to make our availability list reflect what he feels will survive these temperatures.  We may however need to make adjustments come Friday, our harvest day.  You may also see kale become slightly wilted.  This kale is still edible and will be very sweet, but the texture may be altered.

Pork!  Yes, our apple orchard pork will be on the buying club this week.  Look for cured bacon and ham; sweet rope and loose country sausage, chops, and roasts.  We will be selling these products by the pound and will not know final cost until we pack your order and weigh the exact item you are getting.  Farmer Don will list the price per pound in the description of the item and will give you an estimate of how much the pack will weigh.  However your online order total will only reflect .01 for any pork items.  We will have your actual order total when you pick up your order.  If you have questions about this, please contact us at the farm.

We continue to have chicken available as well.  Look for half and whole broiler chickens on the buying club.  Stew hens are also in good supply right now.  I cannot say enough about cooking a stew hen for some nutritious bone broth.  I put stew hens on to cook early in the morning and allow them to cook all day.  There is nothing to compare to coming in from the cold and smelling that simmering broth!  You can use your broth immediately, or refrigerate it of freeze it for later use.  Chicken broth can be canned as well, but you must use a pressure canner to safely can this low acid product.  My adventures with the pressure canner will have to wait for a later newsletter!  Let's just say, I have much better luck freezing broth!

We currently have plenty of eggs available for buying club members.  Stock up now for your holiday baking needs!

Speaking of eggs, we said good bye to one of our roosters this week.  Fancy Pants went to live with Jenn, Ed and family in Shavertown.  He was the rooster for our orchard flock of chickens.  We moved these chickens to the barn for the winter, but he still considered the orchard his home.  Every night he would make his way, alone, back up to the old coop and climb up onto a roost.  We were already worried about how he would interact with our other roosters and didn't want to see him spend a cold winter alone in the orchard.  Jenn and Ed were looking for a rooster for their backyard flock, so the other night Farmer Don picked Fancy off his roost, gently placed him in a box and delivered him to his new home.  He will be missed here, but we think he will be happy with his new small flock of hens.  Farmer Don told me Jenn and Ed's daughters were already taking pictures of him!

Next Tuesday (11/25) is one of my favorite farmer's markets, Fork Farm's Thanksgiving market.  The hours for this market are from 1 to 6 pm.  This is a festive fun market, with everyone shopping and getting ready for Thursday's feast.  We will be at market, but, as always, the weather will dictate what we have available.

Well, it seems my buying club newsletters area taking the same format as my CSA newsletters.  Talk about markets means time to end the newsletter!  So, I will end here!  Stay warm and thank you again for your support.