2015 CSA is now open!!!

We're half-way through winter, about to come out of deep winter, and sure to encounter our first snow storms of the year, but the tale told by lengthening days can't be ignored--it's just too thrilling!  The chickens linger ever longer outside the coop before heading in for the night, bird calls start much earlier in the day, and fresh skunk cabbage spears are poking up on the edges of the marsh under rotting logs.

The seeds are ordered; another hoop house is going up once the ground thaws; first warm stretch I'll cut down the dead asparagus foliage:  we're done with the resting phase of winter, and have entered the waiting phase.

Details about the 2015 CSA are on the right.  Prices for spring and fall remain the same, summer has increased $25 for a 15 week share.  Starting dates are tentative and will be confirmed as we see what spring has in store for us.

Please pass this along to anyone you think might be interested.  Thanks! 

Enjoy the rest of the winter!  Anticipate real food soon!

2014 Autumn CSA, FINAL WEEK!!!

Like our fine feathered friend, we need to fatten up before winter.  Gorge on good food, fast while the pickings are slim...

I go 7 days a week starting sometime in March until tomorrow, and though I hardly consider it work, the winter break is welcome.  We are most fortunate to live along the 41st parallel--our four seasons are nearly exactly even in length, so that just when I tire of one season, another moves in with its particular joys and extremes. 

Since the very cold and late spring, weather has been as close to perfect as a farmer could ask for, and it has continued late into fall.  I hear predictions of a very cold winter, but somehow I doubt it.  Luckily, I can edit that last line at any time.

Thanks so much to all for your support.  I hope you enjoyed the year as much as I did, and that you'll consider signing on again for next year.  Our main growing area a mile up the road, after 5 years of work, has become a very fine small farm.  We are happy to have a productive chicken flock again.  The asparagus field is monstrous.  The baby blueberries are coming along.

In this week's share:

Baby beets with greens
Turnips with greens
Spinach (only 1 bag per member please!!!!!!!!! Very tight supply!)
Arugula
Red Mizuna
Chard OR Kale OR Collard Greens
Potatoes--monster yukon golds!!!!!!!!
Green tomatoes
Apples (take 4, including 1 heirloom)


Heirloom apple alert!!!!!! From Red Jacket Orchards we have Baldwin, Golden Russet, Keepsake, and Northern Spy.  Wow!!! These are fantastic, different, fascinating apples.  Take 1 for the share, buy many more if you like them!!!! They are all good keeping apples, and only improve with time.

At the stand: grass fed ground beef, last of the jerusalem artichokes, plenty of juices, milk, cocolate milk, and tortillas!!  The tortillas freeze nicely.

Thanks!!!!!

Fall CSA 2014, Week 5!!!

That's this week's lettuce mix, the last of lettuce I'll be eating until late March, early April.  Boo!!!

In this week's share:

salad mix

arugula

senposai! Quickly becoming my favorite green.  Here's a killer recipe!

parsley

delicata squash

carrots!  Remember those baby carrots from many weeks ago--this is what they've become!!!!

potatoes

apples

tomatoes!  Lots of ripening ones; lots of green ones (unripe) for frying or tomato pie making or pickling or...--the last of the tomatoes for 2014... What to do with green tomatoes

At the farm stand: a few spaghetti squash, last of the sweet potatoes, Bosc pears, Honeycrisp Apples
 

Autumn CSA Week 4

Temperatures were forecast to fall near 30 or below Sunday night, so I frantically covered some crops, picked any ripening tomatoes, and harvested all the lettuce.  All of it!  Which means you get 2 bags (4 heads) this week!  Next week will be the last of the salad mix, and then you'll have to wait until April, 2015 for real lettuce!

We did have a hard frost Sunday night--tomatoes gone, beans gone, my nearly ripening ground cherries gone, basil gone, etc.  Still plenty of hardy greens and root crops left.

In this week's share:

2 bags of lettuce
arugula
cilantro
turnips (big ones!)  Big turnips make a great soup!
last of the peppers
delicata squash
tomatoes
apples

At the stand: some more of the pork shoulder (sold out fast last week!), last order of butter for the year, cider, juice, sweet potatoes(don't grow much of this because it needs such a long, long season, but what I have is very nice), and organic ginger from the Fingerlakes.  Eggs are back in stock--mine have slowed way down, and the other flocks I rely on are in the middle of molting, so they hardly lay.

Eat well!

Autumn CSA Week 3

Carnivore alert:  last call for turkeys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Sizes are 10-12, 14-16, 18-20. 20+.  $5/lb.  No antibiotics, no hormones, pastured!



Pork shoulder and bacon at the stand!!!!!!!



Mid autumn and we just keep chugging along.

In this week's share:

Lettuce

Tomatoes (dwindling)

Arugula

Delicata Squash

Red Mizuna: Mizuna is a delicious and mild form of mustard greens, one of the world's healthiest foods!  Likely your kids won't eat it, so fix it for the adults in the family! 

Peppers--who'd of thunk it--they like this cooler weather!

Beets!!!! 2 lbs. of them!  Delicious!  Eat enough of them and you'll never need a colonoscopy!  Beets are great for you!

Apples--back in stock from Woodland Farms!

2014 Autumn CSA Week 2

Hope is with you when you believe
The earth is not a dream but living flesh,
That sight, touch, and hearing do not lie,
That all things you have ever seen here
Are like a garden looked at from a gate.

You cannot enter. But you're sure it's there.
Could we but look more clearly and wisely
We might discover somewhere in the garden
A strange new flower and an unnamed star.

Some people say we should not trust our eyes,
That there is nothing, just a seeming,
These are the ones who have no hope.
They think that the moment we turn away,
The world, behind our backs, ceases to exist,
As if snatched up by the hands of thieves.

Czeslaw Milosz

Frost outlook is good--possibly none for the next 2 weeks.  The abundance continues:

In this week's share:

Lettuce

Arugula

Spinach!

Yukon Gold potatoes

Tomatoes

Cherry Tomatoes

Summer/patty pan squash

Cilantro

Quince!  How to Cook Quince

Enjoy! 

2014 Autumn CSA Week 1

We segue from a perfect summer into a mild and lovely autumn, with weather ideal for what we  grow.  Lettuce finally returns after we lost our final summer crop to the deer.

This is a very heavy share this week; please remember it as we pass through to late fall, when hard frosts may reduce us to only root crops...

Tomatoes continue, and likely will for next week...don't know about thereafter.

In this week's share:

Cilantro!!! Yes, I know some have some sort of oral bio-chemical reaction to it, but for the rest of us: Cilantro recipes   Also, cilantro pesto is a 3 meals a day staple in our house right now.

Pea Shoots!  Peashoot info! For newcomers, this is a staple of our shares.

Head of lettuce

Arugula

Bok Choy--fantastic crop!   Bok Choy recipes

1/2 lb green or yellow beans

1 3/4 lb. tomatoes

1 pint cherry tomatoes

1 pepper--last of the crop pretty much...better luck next year!

box of Seckel Pears or 3 apples

Enjoy!!!!!