12 Jun Mon 2017
Hot and windy, not so good for spring crops
Greeting shareholders,
This week, we’ll have spicy mixed mustard greens, more bok choi, radishes, the last of the green garlic, and sugar snap peas (yeah!). We also have some basil and parsley plants that you can take home to grow on your patio if you would like them. Bring a baggie or a small pot. They are small, but they have huge potential.
Remember that you can eat the whole stem on green garlic. Just cut off the leaves and chop up the rest. You can find recipes to use it at Local Thyme recipe service. If you need instructions for signing up for your free membership, zap me back a note. Or try one of these custom-made recipes for this week: Mustard Greens and Green Garlic Pistachio Pesto, Smoked Salmon Snap Pea Pasta Salad, Farfalle with Mustard Greens, Ricotta and Breadcrumbs, or Creamy Pea and Radish Salad.
Sugar snaps are the kind of pea where you eat the whole thing, pod included. Just snap off the hat and pull out the little string. Wash and eat raw, or just barely cooked and served hot or cool. The kids will love them. They are a delicious spring treat.
Aaron will be bringing bread on Monday; Jill will be here on Thursday. Their emails are above – in case you would like to get your name on their mailing list or reserve a loaf for pickup this week. Additionally, my neighbors, Michael and Sara Brannaman, will be here both Monday and Thursday afternoons with their home-raised angus beef. They will be selling ground beef, roasts and an assortment of steaks. Sara’s email is above in case you’d like to know more.
The weather is getting to be a problem. We irrigated as fast as we could last week, and that has helped considerably in the fields we were able to reach. But there are still gardens that are too far from the pond or too complex to irrigate – potatoes, onions, broccoli – so we just have to wait for a good rain to give them the boost they need to insure beautiful crops and good yields. We also have a few crops left to plant, but I am waiting for a little rain to loosen the soil so I can do tillage to get the fields ready. And then, there is the other problem about the weather - that spring crops mostly HATE wind and heat. Things we plant in the spring, like broccoli, greens, peas, lettuce, radishes were selected by farmers and breeders for the last 5000 years to do their best in the cool conditions and regular rain we should have this time of year. They get less wonderful when it is unexpectedly hot and dry – becoming bitter or hot, woody, taller, shorter, or smaller. Taken all together, it’s a tough time in the garden. A nice rain would be a welcome relief. So get out there and do your rain dance!
Remember that we have slightly shorter hours at the farm this season. Monday and Thursday, 4:30 until 6:00. You were great last week!
See you this week,
Laura
Laura_1
07:40 AM CDT
05 Jun Mon 2017
Start the season this week
Greetings shareholders of Abbe Hills Farm CSA,
You are on the list to pick up your veggie share on Mondays, starting today, June 5. Pickup time is 4:30 until 6:00 pm. The farm address is 825 Abbe Hills Road, Mt. Vernon. If you think you should not be on the Monday list, please let me know. We’re easily confused around here right now.
We’ll have bok choi, radishes, and some gorgeous green garlic Bring a bag. Green garlic is garlic that cleverly escaped the digger last summer, survived the winter, and has been screaming, “Eat me! Eat me!” since March. OK, we will. It’s good chopped up on pizza, sautéed with eggs, and stuffed into a chicken. Unfortunately, we don’t have lettuce yet, which is embarrassing. I’m a little bit famous for the nice lettuce we are able to grow here, but this spring’s alternating hot and cold seems to have messed up its internal messages, and it stopped growing. Our second and third plantings look much better and should give us some lettuce in a couple more weeks, I hope.
Remember that you have access to a free account at Local Thyme recipe service. The instructions for registering are attached. This week, you’ll find Hot Pot with Tofu, Bok Choy and Radish, Blackened Catfish with Radish Raita, Smoked Salmon Flatbreads with Radishes, Asian Grilled Chicken with Bok Choy and Radish – all recipes designed for our weekly share. And if you don’t like those ideas, look around the website for more ideas about what in the world to do with bok choi!
Here are a few instructions for this CSA season:
Pickup times at the farm: We’ll be open from 4:30 until 6:00, a slightly shorter window than last year.
Pets: Please, no pets. Too much going on here on pickup evenings, and Lucky insists on being the alpha mammal on this property.
Parking: As always, we use the farm driveway for the entrance and the house driveway for the exit, making a one-way street around the farmstead on pickup evenings. There is parking for handicapped and elderly people on the grass near the shed, but everybody else, please keep driving and park out on the house driveway. All parking is on the right so driving can be on the left. I’ll have signs, or else you can just do what the more experienced parker in front of you does.
Here’s a generic farm driving tip: Never drive anyplace the grass has not been mowed. There are frequently big dangerous, tire-destroying things lurking in the tall plants.
Missing a week: Three options, from best to less best. 1) have a neighbor or relative come to pick up your share for you at your regular time. 2) email me on Sunday afternoon that you want to switch nights that week. I make the weekly lists on Sunday afternoons, so if you tell me too early, I’ll likely lose you. And if you tell me too late, we’ll have already harvested too much or too little on Monday morning. 3) email me no later than noon on your pickup day that you need us to bag your share for you. You can pick it up from the cooler the next morning.
Eggs: While it is true that my hens lay a lot of eggs every week, there are nowhere near enough for all the CSA members to get in on them. Our practice in the past has been to give first go at the eggs to the people who are year-round customers, who make the special trip to market or to the farm to get eggs even when the snow is ten feet deep. Then, if there are any left, other people can buy them. It’s not a perfect system, but it mostly works OK. If I can estimate that we’ll have extras, I’ll bring them to the pickup with me for anybody else to buy.
Looking forward to seeing you tonight,
Laura
Laura_1
07:31 AM CDT
25 May Thu 2017
2017 Season starts June 5
Greetings new and returning shareholders of Abbe Hills Farm,
Contrary to my original plan, which seemed quite reasonable in back February, we’re not able to start CSA pickup next week. Nothing’s growing! Our CSA pickups will begin the week of June 5. Monday people, your first pick up will be June 5 at the farm, 4:30 until 6:00. Thursday people start June 8 at the farm, 4:30 until 6:00. And I’ll see the Saturday people first June 10 at Noelridge Christian Church, 8:00 until 9:00 in the morning.
It’s so cold! The only thing good about this is that weeds aren’t doing so great, either. Nothing wrong at this farm that wouldn’t be solved by four solid days of sunshine! And, today would be a great day to start that sunny stretch. I’ve posted a photo on the farm Facebook page showing a very small, slow growing radish.
Shareholders in Abbe Hills Farm CSA get a complimentary membership in Local Thyme recipe service as part of the share. Each week, the chef at Local Thyme will develop recipes that will use the contents of that week’s share. Very helpful for the less experienced vegetable preparers. Instructions for registering for the service are attached to this email. Note that there are slightly different instructions depending on if you had the service last year, or are totally new to it. I think you will really enjoy Local Thyme You’ll find veggie photo ID, information about cleaning and storage, and hundreds of simple and delicious recipes using seasonal ingredients. Register now so you’ll know what to do when your table is covered with leafy greens (although probably not June 5!!) you’ve never seen before.
Enjoy the sunshine today,
Laura
Laura_1
07:24 AM CDT
21 Apr Fri 2017
We've finally commenced planting! No mud!
Greetings shareholders and friends of Abbe Hills Farm,
The Mt. Vernon winter farmers market season ended last weekend. Bummer. I’ve got loads of eggs right now – of course – so if you want some, you can get all you want at the farm nearly any time that works for you. $3.50 per dozen, in the garage at the house. If you zap me a note before you come, I’ll make double sure the garage is unlocked for you.
What a week. No rain for several days! And none expected for a few more! We are working like maniacs. My staff, including my poor old dad who had to ride the transplanter for five hours, heroically planted about 20,000 onion plants (which is a little like planting thread) on Tuesday. Whew! We were able to finally do some tillage to start getting gardens ready, so we’ll be transplanting broccoli, cabbage, kale pretty soon, maybe even today. And we’ll finally be able to plant the potatoes, which makes me very happy. Probably you, too.
Thank you to everybody who has registered for the upcoming CSA season. It starts in five weeks if the weather goes as expected. As always, if you could put some brochures someplace where people who like to eat well are likely to see them, just let me know and I’ll make sure you have a handful. Registration form is attached.
Thank you for all you do to support Abbe Hills Farm,
Laura
Laura_1
10:41 AM CDT
14 Apr Fri 2017
Very muddy and cold, things to do on Easter weekend
Greetings shareholders and friends of Abbe Hills Farm,
Farmers market tomorrow morning, 10:00 until noon at the Community Center downtown. We’ve now got eggs to sell, but also lots of work to do at home. Unless it is impossibly muddy, I think we will need to stay home. I’m sure the other vendors would appreciate having you stop by. You’ll likely be able to get meat, eggs, wine, bakery, and coffee, and of course bump into some friends.
Finally, the young chickens we got in December have become women! Plus, the old ones are still hanging around, waiting to go to their new homes in freezers all over Linn County. (Need hens? I’ve got plenty, $2 each, alive.) There are a lot of eggs right now. You can stop at the house and get them nearly any time, but it wouldn’t hurt to zap me a note to make sure we have as many as you want and that I remember to unlock the door. It’s Easter weekend remember. People are going to want to eat eggs.
It’s been a busy week here. The hail storm Sunday night clobbered us, and thankfully, we were on the edge of it and didn’t get the serious damage neighbors even just one mile north experienced. House, windows, vehicles, buildings, animals, machinery – just minor damage. But the hoophouse is ruined. It looks like it has chicken pox. I put some pictures at the farm Facebook page. We can still grow our bedding plants inside for now, and I think it might hold itself together through the summer. We’ll rebuild in the fall, after the confugity that is our growing season settles down a little.
I was able to till and plant garden yesterday for the first time – peas, salad turnips, and greens. We are hustling this morning to get a few onions planted before today’s rain gets here. Rain and cool temps are starting to cause some serious delays. I feel like we are about 10 days behind schedule right now, and will get more behind if it is damp all weekend. The soil is surprisingly cold, considering how warm the air seems. But soil can’t stay warm when nearly freezing temperature rain regularly knocks out all the heat that we gain from a couple of days of sunshine. Here’s a very interesting map that shows soil temperatures statewide. We are at 52 degrees this morning. Seeds germinate, tulips bloom, trees leaf out, and frogs croak at about 60 degrees. Still got a ways to go.
Mt Vernon Firemen’s Pancake Breakfast is tomorrow morning, 6:00 until noon, at the new fire station. I hope you can attend on your way to farmers market! Got to support the fire department. They might be your best friends someday. And it’s a lot of fun to eat pancakes with 500 of your neighbors. Take the kids to the free Easter Egg Dash at the high school at 10:00, then up to the free Kids Show at the Community Center at 10:30.
Finally, the 2017 CSA season registration form is attached. Hope to hear from you. Thank you to all of you who have already registered.
Have a lovely weekend,
Laura
Laura_1
08:30 AM CDT
07 Apr Fri 2017
It was a muddy and cold week
Greetings shareholders and friends of Abbe Hills Farm,
Market tomorrow morning, 10:00 until noon at the Community Center in Mt. Vernon. We’re staying home again – too few hours of sunshine in the week to get all our work done if we keep going places. The other vendors will have meat, coffee, eggs, bakery, crafts, wine, walnuts. I know they’d appreciate your business.
Amazingly, the thousands of little plants in the hoophouse keep growing – just a little – and we’re headed in the right direction. The seed potatoes arrived on Monday, onion plants on Wednesday. Tomorrow morning we’re helping Local Harvest CSA in Solon pull a giant sheet of plastic over their hoophouse. The old plastic was ruined in a big wind over the winter. Kind of a fun job if you can get thirty people together at exactly the ten minute period when there is no wind. A 3000 square foot piece of plastic could lift you off the ground if you don’t have enough friends and you get in front of a gust!
After that, I’m headed to Monticello, hoping to trade for a new tiller that tills faster and better than the one I have. With all the mud and cold, we have done absolutely no field work. If we’re going to get those potatoes and onions and little plants in the ground, we’re going to have to work fast when it finally does dry out enough to go to the field without doing serious damage to the soil. The new tiller will be bigger and faster and will hopefully let us start planting a day sooner. During rainy springs, gaining one good day can make a big difference in what kind of food you get in your share sixty days later!
Thank you to all of you returning shareholders for your commitment to Abbe Hills Farm. And all you new people – YIPPEE! I think you’ll be glad that you have joined us. I so appreciate your confidence in me and my workers. We’re looking forward to a great season, even if this early planting is a bit of a hassle.
I have posters and handouts if you have a place where you work, exercise, worship, or drop off your kids where you can stick them. Please let me know if I can deliver anything to you.
Enjoy the sun,
Laura
www.abbehills.com
www.facebook.com/abbehillsfarm
Laura_1
10:44 AM CDT
31 Mar Fri 2017
Sure is rainy and cold
Greetings shareholders and friends of Abbe Hills Farm,
Market tomorrow morning, 10:00 until noon at the Community Center in Mt. Vernon. We’re going to stay home, but I expect there will be coffee, bakery, meat, and eggs from the other vendors. If you’re feeling the need to get some sunshine (basically, except for the vampires, that would be all of us) it should be a good morning to take a walk, get a cup of coffee, and see what’s going on uptown.
We’ll be home tomorrow sorting through about three tons of seed potatoes that are being delivered this afternoon. I’ve had so much fun getting to know seed potato farmers in Langlade County in northern Wisconsin. My dad and I like to go every spring to pick up the seed, but the order has become bigger than my trailer, so this year it was easier to have SpeeDee take care of it. Thankfully, only 2000 pounds of the seed we’re getting is for me to plant and the rest are for area farmers who share the order with us. Now it’s time to get the field ready – which looks like it’s not going to be very soon. Sheesh, we have had quite a lot of rain and cold. Some warm and sun for a few days in a row would be great now.
Thank you so much for all of your registrations for the CSA this summer. I appreciate your confidence in me more than you can know. We’re about halfway full, and I’m still looking for places to post a poster, hand out a handout, or talk a talk. Day cares, yoga studios, churches, big businesses, small businesses, chiropractor offices, schools – anyplace there are people who care about eating well might be a good place to let people know about Abbe Hills Farm CSA. If you’ve got an idea, I’m happy to hear it.
If you have one, please do your happy sunshine dance today. We’re all counting on you (except the vampires).
Laura
Laura_1
09:40 AM CDT
17 Mar Fri 2017
countdown to CSA season starts now
Greetings shareholders and friends of Abbe Hills Farm,
Market tomorrow morning at the Community Center in Mt. Vernon, 10:00 until noon. Eggs, meat, vegetables, coffee, bakery, soup mixes, crafts, black walnuts, wine maybe - please check it out.
As much as I love sitting around visiting with all of you, we're going to stay home tomorrow and use the three hours we'll gain to work around the farm. Got to use my brother's muscle when I can get it. In only ELEVEN! weeks, you'll be picking up your vegetable share, and there is a boat load of work to do before then. Soon, we'll be in the field, so anything that hasn't been picked up or fixed after that is going to be that way for at least eight more months!
Time to register for the CSA. The form is attached. Thank you so much to all of you who have already registered, encouraged your friends to join, and contributed generously to the community fund. Every share purchased matters this year. All my employees are getting raises thanks to the new Linn County minimum wage rule, and I'm happy about it. They deserve it, for sure. I just needed somebody to give me a push in the right direction, and the nerve to think it will work out.
Thank you for all your encouragement,
Laura
www.abbehills.com
www.facebook.com/abbehillsfarm
Laura_1
09:45 AM CDT
10 Mar Fri 2017
birds and garlic are signs of spring
Greetings shareholders and friends of Abbe Hills Farm,
Another farmers market tomorrow morning at the Community Center in MV. I'm bringing several dozen eggs - a welcome improvement on winter's egg poverty.
Spring is happening, even though it's a little cold this morning. Cold is OK right now. Loads of birds showed up at the farm this week - many of whom are now sitting in a tree in my front yard screaming their heads off. The garlic is completely emerged from its winter mulch and I can see nine rows of bright green tops. And there are about thirty piles of seed packages on my kitchen table being sorted and stashed away for a little while longer. All good signs.
Registration form for Abbe Hills Farm CSA is attached. Thanks so much to everybody who has registered already. I'm hugely encouraged every time I get the mail.
I'll bring a bunch of small Abbe Hills Farm handouts to market tomorrow. If you've got a flat surface at work or church or the gym or the daycare where they could be displayed, I'd be happy to give you a handful. I can bring them to you if that is more convenient.
Thanks,
Laura
Laura_1
08:28 AM CST
03 Mar Fri 2017
Ordering a lot of seeds for this season!
Greetings shareholders and friends of Abbe Hills Farm,
Market tomorrow morning at the Community Center in Mt. Vernon, 10:00 until noon. We're sending a few eggs and potatoes while we go to a big farm auction near Coggon. Still looking for the perfect piece of junk!
You can also pick up a registration form for this summer's CSA season at our market table, or use the attachment below. Family size shares are the same price as last year -$500 - I think a pretty good bargain. Like always, you will be able to pick up your veggies at the farm on Monday or Thursday afternoons. You'll also be able to buy bread, dairy, apples, maybe meat, and pick your own cherry tomatoes and herbs.
Additionally, we're also planning to do a delivery to Noelridge Christian Church in northeast Cedar Rapids on Saturday mornings, 8:00 to 9:00. If you're a CR or Marion person, and you have neighbors who might like to join a CSA but don't have time to drive to MV, please tell them about Abbe Hills. Everything they need to know is at the farm website, with regular updates at our Facebook page. I need 50 shares to make delivery to CR financially sustainable, so it's time to start hopping!
I'm ordering seeds this week, replenishing the seed stash and trying a few new things (broccolini seems to be the happening new vegetable). I'm up to about $2000 so far this morning and not quite finished. It's both scary and exciting to think about planting, weeding, and harvesting all the food that will come from so many seeds. Help me sleep at night - send me a friend who wants to get in on the good stuff!
Thank you to everybody who has registered. None of this could happen without your unfailing support and encouragement. You inspire me.
Laura
Laura_1
09:35 AM CST
25 Feb Sat 2017
only eggs and potatoes at market this week
Greetings shareholders,
Our little market - the first and oldest year round market in Iowa! - is tomorrow morning, 10:00 until noon at the Community Center in MV. We're bringing a few potatoes and a few eggs. Come see us. The primary reason we go to market this time of year is to visit. Bring some money because you might decide that you need a good cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll, plus a little bacon and a loaf of bread for home.
The registration form for the 2017 CSA season is attached. You can find out everything you need to know on the farm's new (temporary address) website, www.abbehills.farm. Nearly the same CSA as last year, except we've added a CR dropsite on Saturday mornings for the time challenged people. The rest of you will probably want to come to the farm on Mondays or Thursdays because this is where you'll be able to also pick up eggs, bread, dairy, apples, extra greens, meat sometimes, PYO cherry tomatoes and herbs.
Remember that your membership in Abbe Hills Farm CSA also gives you a free membership to Local Thyme recipe service, the best bonus of all. Got a friend who loves to eat but gets intimidated with piles of leafy greens and unfamiliar vegetables - please tell her about Local Thyme. Might make CSA membership and vegetable cooking more attractive.
Thanks to those of you who have already sent in your registration forms and payments. I'm finding lots of ways to spend it during this busy time of year!
Abbe Hills Farm Facebook page has a fun little video from New York brainstorming all the different names for CSA. The one I love the best is not on there, but it's the original name from Japan, where Community Supported Agriculture got it's start - "Food With The Farmer's Face On It."
See you tomorrow,
Laura
Laura_1
08:08 AM CST
17 Feb Fri 2017
Register for the 2017 CSA Season
Greetings shareholders and friends of Abbe Hills Farm,
Market tomorrow morning at the Community Center in MV. We're bringing a few eggs and a few potatoes. You could also get crusty bread, wine, coffee, meat, bakery, more eggs, more vegetables, black walnuts.
The website drama continues, but the GOOD NEWS is - we've got the information for the 2017 CSA Season available at a temporary website, www.abbehills.farm . We'll go back to abbehills.com just as soon as we can, but for now ABBEHILLS.FARM is the place to get the scoop and a REGISTRATION FORM. New website, mobile friendly. I'm feeling pretty modern.
We are excited to add a Cedar Rapids drop site, hoping to gain 50 new shareholder families this season. Our host is Noelridge Christian Church, 7111 C Ave NE, near Boyson Rd at the Bowman Woods entrance off C Ave. Pickups there are going to be all about the vegs. just 8:00 to 9:00 am on Saturday mornings. And if you love the downtown market, you'll be able to get your veggies and still get downtown in plenty of time to get a treat.
At the farm on Monday and Thursday afternoons, 4:30 until 6:00, we'll have all the bonuses that you love, including our favorite bread bakers, cheese and ice cream from Dan and Debbie's Creamery, apples shares and apples from Buffalo Ridge Orchard, and herbs and cherry tomatoes to pick. The people who pick up at the farm are going to have all the fun!
Sorry, but still no paying for your share with your credit card. We don't have the right technology yet, but it could still happen before the first of June. If you want to join and you just can't get yourself to print off a form, write a check, find an envelope, buy a stamp (a lot, I know), call me or zap me a note and we'll do it over the phone. 319-895-6924. I'll also have plenty of registration forms with me at the market on Saturdays. And I am perfectly OK taking cash!
If you need a lunch-n-learn speaker for your company, or moms group, or Sunday school class, or yoga school, or exercise club, or cooking collective, or whatever, please let me know. It's time to get out there and talk up the CSA. I know there are at least fifty more families that would find out that they like vegetables if they gave it a try.
See you tomorrow.
Laura
Laura_1
12:17 PM CST
10 Feb Fri 2017
Make a Valentine's feast
Greetings shareholders and friends of Abbe Hills Farm,
Market tomorrow morning, 10:00 until noon. We'll bring potatoes and a few eggs. We might not stay the whole time because two thirds of my staff - including me - is going to a farm auction at 10:30, and the other third might wear out before the market does. So, come early if you can.
The other vendors will have coffee, meat, vegetables, eggs, wine, dried blueberries, black walnuts, baked goodies, artisan bread, soup mixes, and crafts. This would be a good week to plan a beautiful and delicious meal for your sweetie, and get nearly everything from right here at home.
Michael and Sara Brannaman are selling beef, both quarters and cuts. Their price sheet is attached. Michael is my hay guy. Cattle went to the locker last week, so this is a good time to make your order while there is still a good selection. Their email is above.
Still no new website. I'll let you know just as soon as it's available. We're trying some new things this year that I'm pretty sure you are going to like. Another clue - cheese might be involved.
Tomorrow is going to be a lovely day. Hope you'll come to see us at the market.
Laura
Laura_1
10:20 AM CST
03 Feb Fri 2017
Technology improvement day
Greetings shareholders and friends of Abbe Hills Farm,
Market tomorrow morning at the Community Center in Mt. Vernon, 10:00 until noon. We're bringing potatoes. You should come for the other good stuff - eggs, candy, coffee, bread, meat, dried blueberries, vegetables, soup mix, black walnuts. The vendors really enjoy seeing you.
Lots of things happened at Abbe Hills Farm this week. I've got 95% of the details for the 2017 CSA season worked out and a totally new website that is ready to go up any minute. I know all the other CSAs are sending out their brochures and advertising information now, but please, delay your decision a couple more days until we can get ours to you, too. I think you'll be very happy with what we've got planned for this summer. I'm already looking forward to it, and I'm the one who has to do the work! Just think how great it's going to be for you!
Later today, we're going to move my emails to the new host. Should be painless, but sometimes bad things happen. Like last June when I lost all my mailing lists and couldn't find all of you for a couple of weeks. So keep looking for a note from me to confirm that all is well. If problems develop, I'll keep you informed on the farm Facebook page until we get it sorted out.
Hope to see you picking up your vegetables at Abbe Hills Farm (or our satellite location! A clue!) this summer. And we hope to see you at the market tomorrow.
Laura
Laura_1
09:14 AM CST
31 Jan Tue 2017
We're bringing back the blog!
Greetings shareholders and friends of Abbe Hills Farm,
We're developing a new website, and it doesn't have a place to archive newsletters, so we're bringing them back home to localharvest.org, where we started. As we get closer to spring, I'll start posting more information here.
If you'd like to get the newsletter directly, you'll find a place to sign up on the home page of the new website, which should appear the first week of February, I hope!
Looking forward to a great season in 2017.
Laura
Laura_1
08:16 PM CST