Week 16, Sept 20 - 25, 2011

In your CSA bag

~ Gold Potatoes (1 quart)
~ Cukes (3 pickling)
~ White Acorn winter squash (1)
~ Lettuce (1)
~ Onions (4)
~ Peppers (1 large, 1 jalapeño, 1 mini orange)
~ Chard or Kale (1 bunch)
~ Herb:  Cilantro, Garlic or Parsley (choose 1)
~ Flowers U-pick (6 stems)

Recipe of the Week
Squash Pies

News from the Field

A special thanks to all of those that showed up at the farm last week, between Thursday and Saturday, to help us beat the frost.  We were able to harvest all of our winter squashes into storage.  We did have two frosts here at the farm this past weekend.  On Friday night the temperatures dipped to 30 degrees.  Saturday was a beautiful day and night temps dropped only to 33 degrees.  Then on Sunday evening they dropped again to 31 degrees.  We have lived here in Vermont since 1992 and find that first frost at our farm tends to be right around the 15th of September, which is right when it came again this year. 

Also a huge thanks to the Brewster River Mountain Bike Club who helped demolish a shabby falling equipment shed to the right of the farm stand.  Now only ashes and a great view remain.  Thanks!

Frost damage on your crop usually looks like a wet darker spot on the skin of the squash.  This kind of blemish can affect both its quality and storage life, being vulnerable to rot and mold.  The plant's live leaf cover can protect the fruit somewhat from the first frost, but when the leaves die, you should harvest immediately.

Several of our crops survived, including some lettuces and all the Brassicas like broccoli, cabbage and kales, which actually get sweeter in the cold air.  The carrots, turnips, potatoes and beets are all snuggled below the ground waiting their turn to be harvested.  If you drive by in the next few days, pause to watch our huge potato harvester and the 10 people it takes to rustle up another year of heaped potato bins.  Spectacular!

Only two weeks until the Vermont Organic Festival right here at the farm, all afternoon October 1st.  Bring your friends!

Thanks!
Anne

Week 15, Sept 12 - 17, 2011

In your CSA bag

~ Red Potatoes (1 quart)
~ Cukes (3 pickling)
~ Corn (4)
~ Lettuce (1)
~ Onions (4)
~ Peppers (1 large, 1 jalapeño, 1 mini orange)
~ Chard (1 bunch)
~ Kale (1 bunch)
~ Tomatoes (1 while they last)
~ Flowers U-pick pink/purple (6 stems)

Recipes of the Week
Cilantro Lime Dressing
Corn Salsa

News from the Field

I am so proud to be a Vermonter.  It is wonderful to watch so many different organizations putting together monies and items for the aid of commiunities and the farmers that were so greatly devastated by Hurricane Irene.  I would like to tell you of a few I know of:

• Grants and zero-percent-interest loans are awarded to farmers in need as funds are available.  To donate, please contact Kirsten Bower at the NOFA office, 802-434-4122 ext 16.  To make a donation by check, please mail your tax deductible contribution to the NOFA Farmer Emergency Fund, PO Box 697, Richmond, VT 05477.  Please write on the memo line "for Farmer Emergency Fund".

• NOFA also has an auction on their web site where people can donate items or buy items to raise monies for our flooded neighbors.

• A day care in Waterbury was in need of supplies and after a notice was put on Cambridge's "Front Porch Forum" here are the results:  1) The pre-school has enough materials for its temporary operations; 2) All physical donations are being stored at Lauri Boyden's until the pre-school and other child care facilities can move back into their permanent spaces.

• Brown & Jenkins Coffee has a monetary donation jar and will be working with Lauri on how the money should be allocated.

Sorry to tell you all that our tomatoes have been stricken with "Early Blight" and our season for tomatoes is ending much earlier than we had hoped.  On a good note we will have pumpkins earlier than usual.  So start dressing up your homes with fall decorations.

Sign up for a fall share.

Thanks!
Anne

Week 14, Sept 5 - 10, 2011

In your CSA bag

~ Potatoes baby reds (1 quart)
~ Cukes (4 pickling)
~ Kohlrabi (2) or cabbage (1)
~ Corn (4)
~ Bibb Lettuce "Nancy" (1)
~ Onions (1)
~ Peppers (1)
~ Chard (1 bunch)
~ Kale (1 bunch)
~ Tomatoes (1)
~ Flowers U-pick only shades of pink (3-6 stems)

Recipe of the Week
Grilled Chicken with Rice and Fruit in Lettuce Wraps

News from the Field

We are so happy to have lettuce back again.  When it gets too hot, like it did 3 weeks ago, all the lettuce tastes bitter and begins to bolt.  When it bolts it turns from a beautiful head of leaf lettuce into a pointed mini Christmas tree shape and the center core gets really large and it will rot very easily and it tries to make new seeds in an attempt to replace itself.  That's when we plow it under and move to the next planting.

The Lettuce Story

We start lettuce from raw or pelleted seed.  Raw seeds are extremely tiny about half the size of a sesame seed.  This makes them very hard to only plant one seed per cell.  It can be done with tweezers and a lot of patience.  Pelleted seeds have organic clay around each individual seed and ends up being little round balls big enought to pick up one at a time and place in an individual cell.  Jay pushes all the individual seeds into the soil plugs to get them started in the greenhouse.  It only takes a week or two for the lettuce to begin to sprout.  It needs to be in the brightest sun when this happens so it will not strecth for sunlight and get leggy.  It gets watered daily or more if hot out and when the plugs are about 4 inches tall they are transplanted into the fields.

We like to try different varieties.  This year you have had many different kinds of lettuce already.  Several Green Leaf:  Black Seeded Simpson and Tropicana.  Red leaf:  new Red Fire.  Romaine:  Pic 714 and Jericho.  Boston is also known as butter head or Bibb:  Nancy (XL) and deer tongue (pointed and smaller).  Our personal favorites are in the category called Summer Crisp, a cross between leaf lettuce and romaine.  We especially like "Nevada" that has a green whorled shape and "Magenta" with a red tinged edge.  Jay just started a new planting of Magenta that will be transplanted into the greenhouses for fall and early winter.  We will also plant more greens and spinach that will continue to grow inside the greenhouses and also under row covers, hopefully until February.  It's time for salads again before the tomatoes go by.

Sign up for a fall share!  8-week Fall Memberships start Sept 27th.

Thanks!
Anne