Farm News: Week of Saturday, September 3, 2011

Irene
We sincerely hope you all made it through the storm without any significant problems. We were spared any damage at all, and in fact the rain was about perfect: nice and slow and steady — just the right amount, a little over an inch.  Mrs. Mack, from one of the farms we work with, told me this morning when I asked her how they had fared, that it was the nicest hurricane they’d ever had! I know not all were so lucky, and we don’t mean to minimize the hardships some have had to face, but this time we were lucky.

On-the-farm
We’ve continued to be busy, busy, busy, harvesting like crazy every day.  Most crops look decent if not great. Many of our tomatoes are splitting from the rain. Varmints have taken a liking to our winter squashes and are chewing up the butternuts and acorns, which still need another few weeks to ripen fully for us here. Fall crops are coming along nicely. All in all we can’t complain.

CSA truck volunteers needed this Saturday
Somehow we ended up with one shift (the 9-11 where we need two people) unfilled for this coming Saturday. If it is an option for you, would you consider doing it and letting us know? Please don’t get involved with changing your schedule or doing anything that makes it complicated, because we’ll just take the first two people that say “Yeah!” We hope not to have a complicated back and forth working out the details.

[Photo: Mixed okra from the garden.]

Okra
We’ve been surprised to have had the best sales for okra that we’ve ever had. It has generally always been a hard sell, but not this year! We have only 100 plants, enough for about 20 or so pints per week, and we always sell out. So several times this summer I’ve tried getting okra from other farmers. And I’m always disappointed at the quality — it requires very careful handling so as not to bruise it. So for the rest of the year we’ll just stick with what we’ve got, and plan on planting more next year. Sorry we don’t have more!

Herbs
We still have a few more new items for you to try before we start repeating and mixing things around: stevia and sweet marjoram. 

 Produce list.

• Melons & fruit: grapes (Concord & seedless), cantaloupes, nectarines, peaches, pears, prune plums and new apples (Gala, Ginger Gold, Honey Crisp, Mollie’s Delicious). (There will be some sugar baby watermelons and blackberries and raspberries at the market stand.)
• Greens: arugula, cabbage, mixed chard, dandelion (red, Italian), lettuce (including Five Star mixed head lettuce!), kale (mixed & redbor), salad mix.
• Veggies: beans, beets, broccoli, carrots, sweet corn, cucumbers (pickles, salad/slicers), eggplant, garlic, okra, onions (sweet white, red), peppers (green, purple, red, orange snack, Jalapeno, mixed chiles), new potatoes, scallions, shallots, summer squash (yellow, zucchini, mixed), tomatillos, tomatoes (heirlooms, standards, yellow, green fryers, plum & cherry).
• Mushrooms: homegrown shiitakes are back!
• Herbs: basil, chives, cilantro, dill, lovage, parsley, peppermint, rosemary, sage, savory (summer, winter), sorrel, spearmint, stevia, sweet marjoram, thyme, and the Herb Sampler pack. Many of these are available as “mini-bunches” for half price. Also, Sorrel soup packs, complete with most ingredients and a recipe.
• Other food items: eggs, cheese, preserves. (Apple cider will be at the stand if you want any.)

Harvest Box contents
This week’s box contents are planned to be five-star lettuce, broccoli, slicing cucumber, garlic, salsa mix (green, red, chile peppers, tomatillos, red tomatoes), pattypan squash, Concord grapes, Honey Crisp apples (2), peaches (2).

CSA volunteers
Many thanks to Blake, Anna and Sarah Mae for their help handing out orders at the truck last week. We really appreciate it!

Thanks much for your support!
Randy, Chris & all at Star Hollow Farm

General farm info: starhollowfarm.com.
CSA-specific info: starhollowfarm.com/csa.
Online CSA store: store.starhollowfarm.com.

30 August Permalink

Farm News: Week of Saturday, August 27, 2011

On-the-farm
We’ve had some beautiful fall-like days here so far this week, making working outside in the fields a real treat: sunny blue skies, lots of pretty clouds, 74 degrees. We’re out there in the fields, whistling happy tunes while picking tomatoes, cucumbers, squash. Then sipping iced tea, gently rocking in the hammock, daydreaming our lives away. Ahh, the farmer’s life. The picture of tranquility — you get it!

[Our new herb circle garden.]

Herbs
Those of you who read this message last week know we have a renewed interest in herbs this summer. We’ve created a new garden (above) and grown a number of new kinds we’ve never grown before (lovage, chervil, winter savory, stevia, red sorrel, sweet marjoram). We’ve also thought about the ways many of you may be using herbs, and come up with a few changes to — hopefully — better address your needs and our aspirations of having more people use herbs in their cooking. We’d love to expand the garden and grow new kinds each year, as long as there is a decent market for them. 

Recent changes in the Herb Dept:

• Herb Sampler: this is a small bag with several different herbs each week, identified and described on an insert sheet, telling you a bit about them, how to use them, and with what. It’s not exhaustive, but should help. (And of course you can talk with Randy at the market or Google for more info.) The idea is that there’s just enough of each thing for a dish or two, so that we can keep the price low and you won’t have to feel bad about a bunch of potent herb going bad in the bottom of the refrigerator!
• Mini-bunches: new this week. We thought that there were a number of less common — or less-used — herbs that are pretty potent, even in small amounts, that perhaps we could apply the same thinking to as we did above with the sampler: smaller portion, lower price, less waste.
• Sorrel soup pack: we usually do this every year at some point, usually when we have extra sorrel. Sorrel is a little-known lemony herb, perhaps with fewer potential uses than some others, thus we don’t sell much. But there is one wonderful dish where it is the star: Sorrel soup. So we have gathered all the ingredients into one bag, inserted a recipe, and added it to our product list. Should be there for another month or so, until the weather puts an end to outdoor herbs. Try it sometime!

Cilantro and Dill
These two common herbs, popular year round, are not on our list every week. When I think of the most popular herbs (based on our sales) the list would go like this: #1: Basil, #2: Italian parsley, #3: Cilantro, #4: mint, #5, Dill. So why are #3 and #5 missing so often? It has to do with their production characteristics. Most other herbs we can plant the seeds in the spring in the greenhouse, then transplant outside when the weather is nice and harvest them all summer long (summer annuals). Cilantro and Dill are also summer annuals, but their haste in going to seed means that the leaf stage — the stage we want — lasts only for about 10 days. Thus, to have a regular supply of each means planting rows of them, outside, every 10 days or so. Once the season gets started, having such a requirement practically every week — so that we’ll have a dozen bunches or so — just gets left behind with all the other farm work to do. We’re going to work on a greenhouse method that will eliminate the summer weather problems (wet soil) and try to have them more regularly for you. There’s a lot of cilantro in the high tunnel now, and the Martins had some dill in theirs, so they are in the store this week (until gone).

Produce list.

• Melons & fruit: cantaloupes, nectarines, peaches and new apples (Gala, Ginger Gold, Mollies Delicious. (There will be some blackberries at the truck or market stand.)
• Greens: cabbage, mixed chard, dandelion (red, Italian), lettuce (including Five Star mixed head lettuce!), mixed kale
• Veggies: beans (green), beets, broccoli, carrots, sweet corn, cucumbers (pickles, salad/slicers), young eggplant, garlic, okra, onions (sweet white, red), peppers (green, purple, red, Jalapeno, mixed chiles), new potatoes, shallots, summer squash (yellow, patty pan, zucchini, mixed  (regular, baby & large), tomatillos, tomatoes (heirlooms, standards, yellow, green fryers, plum & cherry).
• Herbs: basil, chives, cilantro, dill, lovage, parsley, peppermint, rosemary, sage, savory (summer, winter), sorrel, spearmint, thyme, and the Herb Sampler pack. Many of these are available as “mini-bunches” for half price. Also, we have added some Sorrel soup packs, complete with most ingredients and a recipe.
• Other food items: eggs, cheese, preserves.

Harvest Box contents
This week’s box contents are planned to be buttercrunch lettuce, green beans, bi-color corn (2), fixins for ratatouille (eggplant, squash, pepper) and a recipe, salad cucumbers (2), sweet onion, mixed rainbow potatoes (2 lb.), red tomato, sprig of sage, 2 peaches, 2 Mollie’s Delicious apples, 2 Gala apples.

CSA volunteers
Many thanks to Matt, Angie and Rebecca for their help handing out orders at the truck last week. We really appreciate it!

Thanks much for your support!
Randy, Chris & all at Star Hollow Farm

General farm info: starhollowfarm.com.
CSA-specific info: starhollowfarm.com/csa.
Online CSA store: store.starhollowfarm.com.

24 August Permalink