Abbe Hills Farm CSA

Greetings shareholders and friends,

Whatever it is that you do when you want to get the attention of the universe - pray, sing, chant, gaze, dance - you better start doing it.? We need rain very very very badly.? Virtually all the soil moisture is gone down to about 6 inches, which is well below where the roots of wimpy little garden vegetables can reach.? They can't grow, so all they do is hang on. ?We stopped planting?anything?else?- transplants, seeds, field corn, everything - eight days ago, thinking we could wait it out until the soil conditions are better, but that's no comfort if the rain takes another week to get here and it's hot and windy the whole time until then.? There are thousands of little plants and one frustrated farmer wanting to get things going.? So we need it to rain on Sunday.? All day.? Slowly.? No passing showers.

I was thinking that I would have to address drought in August.? Of course, that means that none of the infrastructure is in place to start dealing with it now.? We're putting out irrigation line, upgrading the pump, planting as much as possible?onto plastic mulch.? But it's going to take some time to get the water flowing and to get some response from the plants.? I imagine there will be some delay in what we are able to harvest for you.? Or not.? Depends.

There's a photo contest sponsored by Mt. Vernon Creates and the Mt. Vernon Sun that needs your entries.? Here's a note from the organizer:??

I've picked some more spinach out of the hoophouse and put it in the Pepsi cooler in the big shed.? You can stop by this afternoon, Saturday, or later in the week if you want to buy some.? Or get?some from one of the other farmers at the? market on Thursday afternoon.

The registration form for the 2012 CSA is attached.? Thanks to all of you who have registered and paid.? I'm using the money to buy drought-remediation supplies!

Laura

 

Greetings shareholders and friends,

The market tomorrow is in Springville, 9:00 until 11:00, at the Community Center downtown.  I have another appointment tomorrow, but I expect all the other regular vendors will be there.  For sure, both Mary from Buffalo Ridge and the Strabala sisters will have lots of produce.  There's also a lady now who is bringing hand loomed rugs that are quite wonderful.  I hope you will stop in.

I have a lot of spinach and lettuce in the hoophouse, plus green garlic for another week.  If you would like to stop by and buy any of those things some afternoon, just give me a little warning so I can make sure I have enough harvested.  I'll be in the field most of the upcoming (dryish) week, but I can leave bags of vegetables in the Pepsi cooler in the shed so you can get what you want without me.

We've sure had some nice rain, but I'm ready for another break. We've got a few thousand more onions to plant, then two racks full of bedding plants that are ready to go to the field.  The fields are nearly perfect.  It's going to be a very busy week.

If you're up for an adventure and you've got time early tomorrow morning, David Miller is having a modern "barn raising".  He's built himself a new hoophouse and tomorrow is the day the giant piece of plastic is being stretched over the roof.  Should only take an hour or two, and I'm sure he would be happy to have your help.  Lots of things can go wrong in the 10 minutes that a 3000 square-foot piece of plastic is unattached to anything solid!  We had about 30 helpers when we put the plastic on mine and it was actually kind of fun. (And almost no one was lifted off the ground.)  He's promising juice and chocolates for the crew.  Below is his note:

I apologize for the early 7am start time; however, the wind is calmest in the morning.

Before I give you the location, I have to stress that you NOT use GPS or online maps to assist you getting there. They will likely lead you down a dirt road and you could get stuck in deep mud. (Some of you may recall the farmers' market email about the folks from Chicago who used GPS...and never made it to our place.)

Directions (See attached maps.)

-From Mount Vernon, travel north on Highway 1 approximately 2 miles.

-Turn right on Ellison Road.

-Travel east approximately two miles. (Ellison Road becomes 30^th Street across the Linn-Jones County line)

-You will see the frame of the high tunnel just before a curve. The road curves left and in mid-curve take a right.

-The sign cautions you about a B-grade road, but it doesn’t turn to dirt for a half mile. Park here and walk toward the high tunnel frame (about 400 feet).

-The actual address is 24501 30^th Street.

What to wear

-Dress in layers. However warm it is in town, it will feel about ten degrees colder on the prairie.

-Wear old clothes you don’t mind getting dirty (you shouldn’t get very dirty, but it could happen).

-Depending on sun exposure, you may get warm and need to peel off layers too.

-Wear old shoes or, preferably, rubber boots if you have them.

-Bring gloves and a hat just in case.

Just so you know

There is no bathroom—not even an outhouse.

There will be coffee, juice, water and hand-made croissants. And, of course, my wife's candy.

You do not need to stay until the final end of the project. If you can assist for one hour, great. Two hours is better.

If it rains, stay home. Be on the lookout for a cancellation e-mail should the forecast for mild winds change.

Thanks again.

If you have any problems finding the place, contact me at 319-310-6299 or Mickey at 319-310-6399

See you soon,

Laura

Greetings shareholders and friends,

The market tomorrow is in Mt. Vernon, 11:00 until 1:00, at the Community Center east of downtown.  I'll be there with eggs, spinach, leaf lettuce, stir fry kits, green garlic, and maybe a little cilantro that survived the winter in the field if it's not too muddy to cut it (but I hope it is).  I'll also have very early asparagus from Local Harvest CSA.  But it didn't grow very much this cold week, so the harvest will be small.

It just starting to sprinkle while I am writing this.  Hope it rains a lot, all weekend.  We really haven't had a good rain since last June, and it's starting to show.  The snap peas that I planted on March 29th still haven't emerged out of the ground.  Not because it's too cold (the usual situation), but because they haven't absorbed enough water to be able to germinate.  So a good, slow drenching would be a wonderful thing.  Plus, I could stay in the house and catch up on the paperwork that is getting completely away from me. 

The next event of the Mt. Vernon Vegetable Gardening Club (needing a better name) is coming up on Wednesday, April 25, 6:30 pm.  Join us for a walkaround at Jo and Brian Nowak-Thompson's farm and gardens.  Every kind of gardener with any skill level is welcome.  If you'd like to get a reminder notice, zap a note to Charlene Vig, our communications expert, and she'll put you on the mailing list.

Hope to see you Saturday,
Laura

Good morning shareholders and friends,

Good news!!!  We're having a special, unscheduled, emergency market tomorrow, March 31.  It will be in Springville, 9:00 until 11:00, at the Community Center downtown.  We didn't have any market scheduled for this weekend, but because of the warm weather, all the people with hoophouses have too many fresh vegetables that we've got to move!!!  So, the first market of the season specifically for leaves!!!

I'll bring eggs (lots of them), green garlic, as much spinach as I can pick between now and then, leaf lettuce, arugula, stir fry kits, broccoli raab, and radishes.  I know Mary from Buffalo Ridge will have much of the same, plus potatoes.  I think there will be at least one baker, hopefully some meat and honey, and a few other things.  It will be a smallish market, I think, but we'll have lots of the things you have been waiting for. 

Most of the oats and alfalfa are planted here, plus the first crop of snow peas.  The rain last night was PERFECT.  I haven't been out to look around yet, but Lucky's dish is full, so it must have been a nice amount.   We were becoming very dry.  My brother, dad, and I will start on the potatoes this weekend.  If you need a reason to get outside, come over and I'll let you help me take the mulch off the garlic so we can start cultivating the weeds out of it.  WOW, things are really happening fast this spring!

There was a great new film screened in Iowa this week.  I couldn't go to Ames or Cedar Falls to see it because I was growing food, but I've heard only good things.  "Symphony of the Soil", http://www.symphonyofthesoil.com/.  When it's released late this summer, I'll try to find a way to get it shown here, as long as I can do it without getting arrested (a few years ago, Walt Disney's attorney called me to tell me that I can't show his movies on the side of my shed to raise money for the food bank.  Or else.  Learned my lesson with that one.)  You can listen to a "Talk of Iowa" program from March 27 with interviews of the filmmaker, Fred Kirschenmann, and Francis Thicke by clicking here  http://iowapublicradio.org/news/talk-of-iowa/past-shows.html .  They talked about the things I like to practice here on the farm - growing a healthy soil food web in order to grow more and better food and to improve the land, air, and water we all share.  I was inspired.

 

Hope to see you Saturday,

Laura

 

 

Greetings shareholders,

This Saturday, October 15, we will have potatoes, onions, kale and collards, green tomatoes, mostly red sweet peppers, daikon radishes, regular radishes, several kinds of bok choi, several kinds of mustards, arugula, lettuce (yippee!!!), small Red Russian kale, hot peppers, a few red turnips, parsley and cilantro, swiss chard, and winter squash. 

We harvested almost all of the squash, but we're only going to give you about half of it.  We'll save the remainder for the final Saturday, October 22.  We've got spaghetti, butternut, acorn, Honeybear (a brand new, smaller acorn), buttercup, baby hubbard, kabocha, Delicata, and Sweet Dumpling.  Most of them, except the spaghetti, Delicata and Dumpling, can/should be stored for several months.  Butternut and kabocha seem to get better the longer they sit around at my house.  However, if you notice a soft spot on a squash, eat it.  They don't store well if their skin is compromised.  Luckily, there aren't too many with that kind of problem this year.  Here is a pretty useful guide to winter squash varieties.

Sunday, October 16, is World Food Day.  Hope you will celebrate it.  Here is an idea about how to do it.  

My friend Dan Specht just called to ask me to remind you that he has grassfed beef for sale.  He said he's had lots of calls and really appreciates your business.  He needs to make an appointment for the locker quite soon (competing with the deer hunters for locker space), so he needs to know how many steers to schedule.  If you are planning to order a half or quarter beef this fall, please talk with Dan by MONDAY, OCTOBER 17.  His contact info is Dan Specht, 12082 Iris Ave., McGregor IA 52157, 563-873-3873, 563 516-1007 cell, danspech@neitel.net . 

Also, remember that vegetable pickup time is 10:00 until 2:00 on Saturday.  If you just can't make it then, and you can't send a friend to pick up for you, let me know today or tomorrow and we'll see if we can work out something for you to get your things another time.  I hate to see you miss all the great fall food.

We had 1" of rain yesterday.  Perfect.

See you Saturday,

Laura

Greetings shareholders,

This Saturday, we'll have tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, radishes, arugula and other spicy greens for salad, little head lettuces, kale and collards, parsley, cilantro, eggplant, and spaghetti squash.  Pickup time is 10:00 until 2:00. 

Well, I'm losing confidence in my buddy Schnackenberg.  He promised - finally - a nice warm week this week, but instead I think we've had some combination of cloudy and/or drizzle and/or cold pretty much continuously since the last time I saw you.  Altogether, it's amounted to about 1/2 inch of rain, which we needed, but we need normal temperatures more.  Sun and warm would ripen the tomatoes, grow the lettuce, and dry down the corn and soybeans.   Nothing we can do to make it get here any faster.  But it's still aggravating.

We've got lots of ripe sweet peppers and hot peppers, fabulously happy parsley, but not so many tomatoes or good sized eggplants.  The lettuces this week will come from the hoophouse of my friend Susan at Local Harvest CSA in Solon.  The hoophouse has kept things a little warmer so her lettuce has jumped ahead of what I am growing for you in the field.  We've got small greens that you can mix with the lettuce to make spicy salads.  I'll make a sign to let you know exactly which greens are in the mix.  Not sure right now which ones we will cut.  It depends on who grows the most between now and Saturday morning.   I also might be able to cut some beet greens for you this weekend if they grow just a little bit more in the next day or two.

We're going to cut the spaghetti squash on Friday.  I'm not convinced that it is fully ripe, but it's at risk of being damaged if it sits in the field too much longer.  I'd recommend keeping it for a couple of weeks to let it sweeten up some more.  Unless you see a ding on the skin, then eat it.  Spaghettis don't store well if they are damaged.   There aren't going to be the mountains of squash like we've had in the past.  I had trouble with everything in that plant family this year, something you've already figured out weeks ago.  Who ever heard of a summer without zucchini?  Or a fall without watermelons?  I'm fairly embarrassed by this big hole in our production this year, but haven't been able to solve it.  Wait until next year.  I'm going to knock you over with zukes and squash.

There was a little miscommunication in the household involved in the cornmeal grinding operation (like that ever happens).  One person thought there was time for another batch; the other person was wiping down the machine and putting it away.  So, sorry, no cornmeal this year.  They'll notify us sooner next year.  They're going to love us - there were a lot of you who wanted to get some.

Don't forget about the Mt Vernon/ Lisbon CropWalk on Oct 9.  I'll leave my donation envelope on the sign-in table, in case you want to contribute.  Much of your donation will support our local food pantry, and the rest supports the work of Church World Service, a very well regarded development agency.

If you want to take a field trip to see the fall gardens, please feel welcome to walk up to the fields behind my house.  The fall crops are always so beautiful.  A little shrimpy right now, but still pretty.  The hens are up there, too.  Just follow the driveway and the trail around the house; you'll figure it out when you get there.  Remember that you are always welcome to see what's going on around here.

See you Saturday,

Laura