17 Nov Tue 2009
yes! there will be garlic! garden is still producing
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we have potatoes, onions, squash, kale, Chinese cabbage, arugula, lettuce, mustard greens, bok choi, daikon radishes, red globe radishes, broccoli, chard, beets, and turnips. Whew! Long list. The garden just doesn't want to quit!
Pickup this week is regular time, Wednesday afternoon, 3:30 until 6:00. Next week, you pickup on Tuesday, same time. If this conflicts with your Thanksgiving travel plans, say something this week and we'll see what we can arrange. I think I'll be able to scare up a few brussels sprouts for next week, plus more of most of the things we are having this week. This time of year, there aren't too many new things appearing in the garden. Although those greens I planted to harvest in October are looking nicer and nicer all the time!
Here is a link to a nice article about the fall bounty and the pleasure of eating seasonally, especially this time of year. http://www.localharvest.org/newsletter/20091116/
Good news. THE GARLIC IS PLANTED. When the weather turned dry and the condition of the soil improved, I hustled up some really nice seed garlic and got it planted in a couple of not-too-cold days. So (barring any winter disasters), there should be garlic in the 2010 share. Can't wait for scapes!
One reason I was able to plant the garlic is that the place I had planned to plant it finally opened up. There were potatoes in the garden next to the farm driveway. Some of them, we dug in October, but there were so many, and I was so sick of working in the mud, I decided to let the last 8 rows or so stay in the ground. That's the place I had planned to put the 2010 garlic if possible. My friend, Susan Jutz, found out about my plan and she couldn't stand the idea of all those potatoes going to waste, so she called in her volunteer troops. With two major events two afternoons in the first week of November, the volunteers - primarily associated with Metro High School in Cedar Rapids - picked up almost 2 tons of potatoes. We were able to donate 3300 pounds to the teachers at Metro to distribute to the families and neighbors of the school, plus, we took 150 very large, very nice bakers to the Free Lunch in Iowa City were they will be served in a baked potato bar on Wednesday. Very big treat. I'm sure glad we went to the trouble. Lots of people are going to get to enjoy some really great potatoes, thanks to all the help from the big group of volunteers.
Please, remember that there are 2 cute kittens here, still waiting for families who will let them live inside the house. Still adorable. If you know anybody who needs a kitty, send them here first.
Here's a link to a new slide show developed to promote a more socially just food system in this country. A lot of the slides are from Immokalee, Florida, where I used to live. I was a Church of the Brethren worker who managed an emergency service center for migrant and seasonal farmworkers and the homeless. Things there were pretty tough. I think it's still pretty bad there, but there is a glimmer of hope for farmworker justice with the work of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. I sure enjoyed seeing the photos from Immokalee. I really enjoyed living and working there, and what I learned there has a lot to do with the kind of person I am today. http://www.fairfoodproject.org/
See you Wednesday,
Laura
Laura_1
01:31 PM CST
09 Nov Mon 2009
two nice warm weeks, pickup on Tuesday this week
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we have potatoes, onions, squash, probably a few skinny leeks that escaped harvest this summer, a little bit of spinach, daikon radishes, and some beets. The greens will be head lettuce, Chinese cabbage, kale, mustard greens, beet tops, arugula, and some red leaf lettuce. Vegetable pickup this week is on Tuesday, November 10, 3:30 until 6:00, in the big shed. Bring a flashlight if you are coming later than 5:00 so you can get back to your car safely.
The spinach is that I had planted for harvest for the regular CSA in October. It's finally making some bigger leaves, so we've been harvesting some of it. It has been helped by the cold and is very sweet, so use it in a salad if you can. Picking spinach is a VERY slow job; I'm not sure how we ever managed to provide it for everybody in years past. The beets will be some that we harvested from the main garden this summer. They've been in the cooler because, once again, I wasn't able to get enough from the fall crops to give at least a pound to everybody in the regular CSA. Beets can be stored for a long time, but since I've done the storage for you, I urge you to eat these soon. Chinese cabbage, arugula, and head lettuce will be from the hoophouse. All of the other greens are from the outside garden.
We had a great week of warm weather and are looking forward to another one. My corn was combined on Thursday and is stashed away in the big bin and in wagons. It had not dried completely in the field and was wet, 22% moisture, but that turns out to be the driest corn Ralph Jordan had combined up until then. I've got the big fans running to dry it further, to about 15%, so that it will store well. Moist corn and sunny winter days can be a recipe for mold to grow in the kernels of stored corn. Molds are a concern for me because they decrease seed quality, but they also can create toxins that are very, very dangerous in corn that will be used for food and feed. Moldy corn can't be sold, or is discounted heavily. So, we farmers are running the fans and dryers as fast as we can. The warm, dry air is a real blessing because it helps drying to continue for the corn in the field, and can actually reduce the moisture level in the stored corn if it is pushed through the pile long enough. My little operation here is using electricity as fast as we can, but my bill is likely only $30 or $40 per day. I can't imagine what kinds of big electric bills the crop farmers are accumulating. Once again, I'm glad I raise vegetables.
Again, remember that you pick up vegetables this week on Tuesday, November 10, 3:30 until 6:00. Next week, we'll be back on the Wednesday night schedule. I'll be in Ames all day this Wednesday. Thanks for giving me the flexibility to attend my meeting. One thing I am trying to arrange for my trip is to pick up about 50 lbs of seed garlic. As you remember, I gave up on planting garlic and gave you the seed to eat in October. Well, guess what. Now the ground is fit for planting, and we are looking at a dry week, and now I want to plant some for the 2010 season. The problem is, of course, there is almost no seed left in Iowa because it's all been planted or eaten. So, I'm calling all my buddies, trying to get a bit here and a bit there. Hopefully, I'll get enough and get it planted and we'll have some fresh garlic next summer, or at least some scapes.
See you tomorrow evening,
Laura
Laura_1
08:33 AM CST
02 Nov Mon 2009
first week of Late Fall CSA season, eat more squash, it's warm and dry!!!!
Greetings Late Fall CSA shareholders,
Welcome to the first pickup of the new CSA. This Wednesday, we'll have kale, potatoes, onions, daikon, Chinese cabbage, mustard greens, baby Red Russian kale, arugula, squash, cilantro, chilies, and a little broccoli. Depending on how cold it gets tonight and what I am able to find, I might also be able to cut some leaf lettuce and small cabbages.
Like Saturday, we have quite a lot of squash that needs to be taken care of right away. You will be able to have as much of that as you would like. Even with the good squash that appears to be blemish-free, don't let down your guard. It could change quickly, so if you are trying to keep it for later, keep an eye on it. I'm going to try to give you squash every week from now until Christmas, so I'll probably give you the ones that are least likely to store well first.
They are predicting a warm, dry week. WOW!!! That will be great if it really happens. The crop farmers are absolutely, completely frustrated by their inability to get the crop in and the financial losses that are occurring. I sure feel sorry for them. I know how stressed the weather makes me; now multiply it by about $250,000, and that's how they feel right now. I expect my little field of open pollinated corn will be combined sometime this week. The Jordans are coming here as soon as they finish their soybeans. It doesn't take very long to combine such a small field, but it's a hassle when there is so much other work on their own farm that needs to get done. I really appreciate their help, so I'm spending today and tomorrow getting everything ready so they can get in and out of here quick. The open pollinated corn is an heirloom that has been grown on this farm since 1903. I sell it for seed to livestock farmers all over the Midwest, primarily organic dairy farmers. Abbe Hills OP is quite different than modern corn hybrids in both performance and in quality characteristics, and it is valued by my customers because it makes a very high quality feed, especially important for dairy cows. It's what keeps me busy over the winter.
Most of what I am harvesting for you this week is coming from the garden. Only the Chinese cabbage will be from the hoophouse. If it does stay warm and sunny, there should be arugula, radishes, and a couple of kinds of Asian greens that will be ready to pick in the next 10 days. Finally! I planted them to harvest the first of October! We might even get a few brussels sprouts if the warm stretch lasts three weeks. And, the things in the hoophouse look really nice, too. The lettuce isn't quite ready to cut, but will be in about two weeks, about when the main garden should start to fizzle out. It just might work out perfectly.
We still have about 2500 hills of potatoes in the field by the entrance driveway. We don't need them; I have so many potatoes in my garage that I'm sure I'll even have quite a lot to donate to Green Square Meals when we get closer to the end of the season. But, I hate to let the ones in the garden go to waste, so we're working to line up a team of kids from Metro High in CR to come sometime this week and dig them. They will take the potatoes back to distribute to the Metro families. All we need is a couple more dry days to make it so we can get into the field. It will be nice to cross off "dig potatoes" from my list!
Pickup is this Wednesday, November 4, 3:30 until 6:00. Come in the farm driveway and go out the house driveway, like we have been doing. You can park nearer to the shed since there will be fewer cars, but please do pull in at least so you are even with the front of the shed so we don't block the entrance too much. Maybe you won't have to dodge any mud puddles. That would be unusual. Bring bags and maybe a flashlight. It will be dark by 5:15.
One more thing. I would like to attend a meeting of the Fruit and Vegetable Working Group in Ames next Wednesday, November 11. The meeting will take all day and I won't get home until about 5:30. Because of that, I'd like to change pickup next week to Tuesday night, 3:30 until 6:00. If that WILL NOT work for you, please let me know this week. I'll make a special delivery to your house, or make arrangements for you to pick up here later that night, or something. This meeting was announced after I make the arrangements for the CSA or I would have mentioned this to you earlier. Sorry for the inconvenience.
See you Wednesday,
Laura
Laura_1
07:38 PM CST
30 Oct Fri 2009
last pickup this season, muddy again, Soup Supper tomorrow night at SE Linn
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we have potatoes, onions, kale, mustard greens, cilantro, garlic, a little arugula, and squash. I also hope to have daikon for you. We dug it, but didn't get it out of the garden before the rain began. Not sure if we can get close enough to it today to get it out of the field. I hope so, because it is delicious, very sweet and crunchy (but you have to take off the skin; it's bitter and a little hot). Like last week, we aren't going to have the big armload of vegetables I like to give you this time of the year. Too bad, because I think the fall things are the best.
I've given up trying to get the garlic planted for next year, so I'm going to give you the bulbs we saved for seed from this summer. Garlic is usually planted sometime in October and dug in July. We had a ton of winter kill last winter, so rather than giving any of the very small harvest to you, I was saving all the bulbs to use a seed for the 2010 crop. But, there's just no way to get it into the ground in time, so we're going to eat them. I'll buy some fresh seed in October of 2010 and start over then.
As usual, wear your mud clothes on Saturday. As I write this, I've got 2.75" of rain in the bucket, but it looks like we might get a bit more before it goes away for a few days.
The squash will mostly be bonbon, acorns, and sweet dumplings. "Bonbon" http://www.harrisseeds.com/storefront/p-3735-squash-bonbon.aspx is a really nice buttercup type and is one of my favorite squashes. It's tastes a little nutty, not so sweet. Another good one is "Sunshine" http://www.harrisseeds.com/storefront/p-543-squash-sunshine.aspx , similarly nutty and very dark orange flesh. We went to the field this week to pick up the last half of the squash crop, but were extremely disappointed to find out that nearly all the remaining butternuts, spaghettis, Sunshines, and heirlooms weren't good enough to harvest. Too bad. There was A LOT of very nice squash out there. The hard freeze on Oct 11 (about 4 weeks before it should have happened) caused the tops of the thin shelled squashes to soften. Then, the deer and mice took a few bites out of some of them (but only the nice big ones), bugs drilled into some of them (notice, the bugs were not killed by the 22 degree night!), and fungus coming up from the wet soil started to dissolve them. We picked up a few of the best of them, but left lots of squash behind to become fertilizer for next year.
If you haven't looked at or eaten the squash you got the last two Saturdays, you better check it immediately. I'm guessing that you could have some problems, especially with the thin-skinned butternuts and spaghettis. To salvage squash, bake the parts that are still good and then put the flesh in ziplocks in the freezer. I baked 3 messy butternuts this week and they were surprisingly good, but wouldn't have lasted another week. Now, they live in the freezer and will be good for side dishes and baking over the winter. If you find any soft spots on the squash you get this week, either from cold or deer or rodents or bugs or fungus or a broken stem, COOK IT and enjoy!!! It won't keep.
There are still a few things in the lost and found. Some Monday person left his/her (can't tell!) sunglasses here about 2 months ago. There's also a green grocery bag, like the kind they have at Gary's, that somebody left here two weeks ago that has some squash and red peppers in it. I've been keeping it cool, so the fresh things inside might still be good. If you couldn't find your acorn squash one time, it's here.
Three kitties still don't have homes. Please spread the word that they are available and as cute as any vertebrate can possibly be.
Remember the CHILI AND SOUP SUPPER AT SOUTHEAST LINN Saturday night. Serving begins at 4:00 and will run until 8:00, or whenever we run out of soup and sandwiches. Adults $6, kids $3, little kids free. Put on your costume and come over to Lisbon for all the fun. It's a GREAT time for the kids.
Also remember, THANKSGIVING TURKEYS can be ordered now. The details are in last week's newsletter. Call Susan Jutz (929-5032) to make your order. Pickup will be here at the farm on Tuesday, November 24th, 4:30 to 6:30.
Thank you very much for your participation in the CSA in 2009!!!! It's been an interesting year, full of challenges and stress, but also full of some really good food. Thanks for sticking with me though all my farmer whining and griping about the challenges. You've all been great, very supportive and accommodating. I hope you had a good experience and learned some more about eating locally and seasonally, and I hope you'll let me grow food for your family again next year.
See you Saturday,
Laura
Laura_1
09:23 AM CDT
22 Oct Thu 2009
lots of squash, too much mud, Soup Supper, turkeys
Greetings shareholders,
This Saturday, we'll have potatoes, onions, daikon radish, squash, chilies, arugula, kale, turnips, and herbs. We'll also have a little bit of mustard greens and chard. You'll be taking home less food than usual. The never-ending bad weather is catching up with us again and has really limited what I've been able to grow and harvest for you.
One strategy I use to make sure that we always have a nice selection of vegetables is called "relay cropping". It means that I plant the same crop several times in sequence, timing it so one planting will be ready to harvest just as the previous planting is fizzling out. It usually works pretty well - but not this year. Remember the 28 rain-free days in September? At the start of that time was when the crops were planted that we should be harvesting right now. But, since it didn't rain, they couldn't germinate, and then when they finally did, they couldn't grow because it was so cold. So, the beets and turnips are a little too small to harvest, the daikon are considerably smaller than usual, the broccoli and cabbages never really made the right parts the right size, the spinach is about the size of quarters, the Asian greens are dots with leaves, the radishes are like peas, etc.... It's not like you haven't heard this story already this season!!! More than once!!!! What a year.
I'm not the only one griping about the fall. The crop farmers are very worried about harvest. We are about a month behind where we should be in harvesting the corn and soybeans. Plus, the air is so damp that the seeds in the pods and on the ears can't dry, so when they are harvested, they have to be dried down ($$$$) to a moisture level that will preserve their quality during storage. Plus, there have only been a few days when it hasn't been raining, or so muddy that the machines will sink in the fields. One good thing, prices are going up to reflect the worry that that everything won't be harvested before snow gets here. It's a tough time for farmers of all sorts. Running up against Mother Nature like we have this year makes you realize how vulnerable our food supply really is.
The shiny anti-deer tape seems to be working. So, maybe the lettuce will regrow enough that we can have one more lettuce salad next week. The regrowth doesn't know that there was a freeze, so should be of very nice quality.
We have butternut, spaghetti, sweet dumpling, and acorn squash this week. There is still quite a lot of buttercup and kabocha squash in the field, but the stems are still green and juicy, so it's not yet ready to cut. No matter what, I'll cut it next week so we can have it for the last pickup. All of the squash was a little bit frozen in the very cold night two weeks ago. You can see the freeze damage on the skin of the squashes, on the part that was facing up. It didn't hurt the flesh inside, but it probably means that the squash won't store forever. If you are saving them for later, keep an eye on them and cook them if they look like they are starting to deteriorate. You can freeze cooked squash. It comes out perfect.
There are probably a million websites with squash recipes, so this may not be the best one, but it does describe the different kinds of squash and show pictures. http://www.recipetips.com/ All you have to do is type in the squash type and lots of info will pop up. We have a few Long Island Cheese squashes this time. That one's not on the website. "Cheeses" are very much like butternut, only cooler looking. I've got a few more heirloom squashes still in the field, just about ready to cut.
We dug quite a few of the Viletta Rose potatoes this week. Thanks to the Barnyard Buddies 4-H club for their help. I never would have started on the patch if they hadn't been here. Vilettas are a red storage potato. They are excellent for boiling and mashing or for adding to soup. Because they spent so much time in cold, wet soil, they developed "scabs" on their skins. Sounds worse than it is. The little bumps don't go into the flesh, didn't change anything about the eating quality, and will basically disappear when you boil the potatoes with skins on. They are cosmetic. Enjoy the potatoes in spite of their blemishes.
Everybody is invited to the Halloween Soup Supper at Southeast Linn Community Center next Saturday, October 31. It's the night the town of Lisbon turns goofy for Halloween, shuts down Main Street, decorates all the businesses and lets the kids go crazy. So, bring the kids for trick-or-treating, then come by for soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Or, come over just to eat soup. We serve from 4:00 until about 8:00. Adults are $6, big kids are $3, kids under 5 are free. It's a really fun time and the biggest fundraiser for our Community Center.
Local Harvest CSA is taking orders for organic free range turkeys for Thanksgiving. Henry and Ila Miller, family farmers near Kalona have been providing turkeys for their CSA members for at least 7 years. They are wonderful tasting fresh turkeys. The price is $2.90 per pound. You will pay when you pick up your turkey. (Henry says to expect smaller turkeys this year, 12-15 lbs. They have not been growing as fast as expected.) The turkeys will be available for pickup on Tuesday afternoon, November 24, at Metro High School or at Abbe Hills Farm. If you wish to order a turkey, please send a message with the number of turkeys, preferred weight, (We try our best to get you a turkey close to the size you request, but along with the weather, the growth rate of a turkey can be unpredictable), and a phone number where we can reach you if we run into a last minute problem on pick-up day. You can make your order directly with Susan Jutz, 319-929-5032, or localharvestcsa@southslope.net .
See you Saturday,
Laura
Laura_1
11:30 PM CDT
15 Oct Thu 2009
we survived the freeze, we hate deer, eat more greens
Greetings shareholders,
This Saturday, we'll have potatoes, onions, winter squash, chard, red radishes, daikon radishes, turnips, beet tops, arugula, mustard greens, baby Red Russian kale, big kale, and herbs. Hopefully, there will also be lettuce. As usual, it's going to be cold, muddy, and gray, so wear your boots and a coat that could get a little mud on it.
There are some Stripetti squash from ZJ Farm left from last week, so if you want another one, we will have it. Tomorrow, Friday, we will start harvesting winter squash here. I hope there is so much that we can't get it all done in one day, in spite of all the awful things the ground squirrels did to ruin it for us back in June. Not sure what kinds we will have for you this week, but some selection of acorn, sweet dumplings, butternut, buttercup, and kabocha, and maybe some more I can't remember. It should be good, now that it has had it's cold snap (actually, a little colder than I had in mind when I made the plan).
Daikon radishes are big, long, crsipy, white things that are a bit intimidating. But yummy. You have to remove the peel because it is bitter and tough, but the flesh is mild and sweet, and not very radishy. You can eat them raw, or dip them in something, or grate them and make slaw, or stir fry them. Quite versatile and quite nice. We've got three kinds this year.
Beet tops are a little like chard, only better. Might as well eat them since there probably isn't time for them to make beets. Saute them in a little butter and they are fabulous. We'll have lots of greens this week and next, maybe even for three weeks. Even though it got awfully cold last Saturday night, they pretty much survived. You might find some damage at the leaf tips of a few things, but basically, it was a miracle, and we still have greens. It's that time of year. Arugula, mustard greens (spicy, taste like a bite of French's), baby kale, regular size kale in two colors. There are also a few Chinese cabbage for people who didn't get one last week. Next year, we'll plant more of them for this time of year. They are so beautiful and fun.
Which brings us to Queen Green - lettuce. The good news is that the lettuce survived the freeze Saturday night. Not surprising, because lettuce is full of antifreeze and can take it pretty cold with only minimal damage. Unless you touch it while it is frozen; then it turns to wet Kleenex and it can't recover. The bad news is that the deer danced through it while it was frozen on Sunday morning and stomped it down. In the following evenings, the areas that they didn't ruin by walking on it, they ate. In about 3 nights, they ate or wrecked almost all of the lettuce that I was saving for you. And, it was fantastic. I hadn't cut any of the really good stuff yet; I was saving it for the last three weeks. So, I'll salvage as much as I can for you for this week, but it likely won't be enough to make you happy. The areas that I cut earlier in the month will regrow when it warms up next week, and if I can keep the deer out of it, we might have more lettuce for the last couple of weeks of the season. I've got the DNR guy coming tomorrow to take a look. Hopefully, he'll give me permission to send a few well-fed deer to their final destination - somebody's freezer.
We're going to dig potatoes again in the upcoming week, Monday and Tuesday are supposed to be dry and nice. I am still trying to get some of the good winter-storage red potatoes for you. They are a kind called "Viletta Rose", and I think we are going to like them if we can just get them out of the ground. So, if you're in the mood for some exercise, join us. This might be your last chance for a while.
See you Saturday,
Laura
Laura_1
11:13 PM CDT
09 Oct Fri 2009
killing freeze this weekend, rainy and cold, wear your boots Saturday
Greetings shareholders,
Tomorrow, we'll have potatoes, onions, the last of the eggplant and peppers, chilies, herbs, radishes; turnips, arugula, kale, chard, broccoli, lettuce, and a winter squash called "Stripetti". http://www.recipetips.com/glossary-term/t--35482/stripetti-squash.asp . Local Harvest CSA gave us the squash because they have too many of this kind. We'll be cutting the squash out of our gardens this week. Hopefully, they've all yielded well and we, too, will be overwhelmed with squash.
The potatoes will be either the white ones, "Superior", or "Russets", which are the oblong brown potatoes used for baking and making French fries. They're not huge like the ones at the store because they haven't been overdosed on fertilizer all their lives. Instead, they are medium sized and huge on taste.
Turnips are root vegetables. They are usually harvested a little bigger than the ones we have now. Peel them, and then you can eat them raw (crunchy and sweet), or steam or saute them, or mash with potatoes, or roast with meat, or put in soup. They have lots of uses, and have a flavor a little like sweet cabbage when cooked.
The eggplants, peppers, chilies, and broccoli left in the garden will all be killed when the temperature drops this weekend. What a goofy year. Rain, cold, dry, cold, flooded, cold, pounding rain, and now, a killing freeze way too early, before we have even had a light frost. I hope this is the last time I have to farm in such extreme weather for a few years. Sheesh. It has been never-ending surprises and foiled plans. We're going to have to hustle to have everything as ready as possible for the weekend. It's possible that, if it gets really cold for more than a couple of hours, even the lettuce and greens could be damaged. Won't know until it happens. I've got lots of other things in the garden for you that I hope we will still get to enjoy this month, things like beets, Asian greens, spinach, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, turnips, chard, herbs, daikon radishes .... but we need them to survive the deep freeze and then get some heat and sun to grow just a little more to reach harvest maturity. Hope for the best!!!
Don't forget the CROPWalk this Sunday. You can contribute by putting a donation in my donation envelope on the checkin table. A good chunk of the donations to CROP will be given to our food pantry at the Southeast Linn Community Center. The rest will go for international food and development aid through Church World Services.
I've collected a few of your things over the summer that you might like to have back. They will be piled on the checkin table. Please look them over and take what is yours. I'm keeping whatever is left over, and there is some good stuff in the pile.
Please come prepared for rain and cold on Saturday, Wear boots (there is mud everywhere) and coats and gloves that could get muddy (some mud on the food, too). I worked really hard this week to keep everything as clean as possible, but it's been a challenge. And remember, please park on solid parts of the driveway, where there is rock, and leave the spaces on the grass near the shed for the people who have trouble walking far. Thanks for your patience with all the mud and yuck.
See you tomorrow.
Laura
Laura_1
09:10 AM CDT
02 Oct Fri 2009
more rain, no frost, lots of peppers
Greetings shareholders,
This weekend, we'll have white potatoes, very nice onions, mountains of sweet red peppers, eggplant, chilies, fantastic leaf lettuce, red globe radishes, arugula, green beans, a few tomatoes, kale, chard, and herbs. We open at 10:00 Saturday morning, although if it is still raining by then, you might want to delay your arrival if possible. We've got a hayrack in the middle of the shed loaded with vegetables that we thought we might lose in the frost that was predicted this week, and I don't want to pull it out into the rain if we don't have to. We'll stay open until 2:00, although if we get a late start, I can keep the food out until 3:00. At 3:30, I have to leave, so please be here before then.
The potatoes are called "Superior". Make sure they are fully dry (it's been a rainy week and they never dried out from washing them) and in the dark, and they should last a long time. The onions are "Big Daddy". Keep them dry, cool, and in the dark, and they should be good keepers. Never keep onions or potatoes in plastic bags; they need a paper bag or cardboard box so they can breathe a little. We really do have a mountain of sweet peppers. They are just marvelous. I love growing sweet peppers just because they look so pretty this time of year. Plus, they taste great. If there are too many for you to use in a week, you can roast and freeze them, stuff and freeze them, or slice and freeze them. Roasted red peppers make a great side dish when it is snowing and cold.
The lettuce continues to be beautiful. Lettuce loves cool weather. We also have arugula now. Arugula is a spicy green in the mustard family. I think it tastes a little like walnuts with tabasco sauce. Some people like to saute it and eat it with pasta or eggs or cheese. I think it is very good when mixed (in moderate quantities) with lettuce in a tossed salad. It gives the salad a little spunk. We should have arugula and radishes from now until the end of October, so you'll have several opportunities to find ways to use them. The radishes this week are the regular red globes, but we also have a few shunkyo radishes now, and soon we'll have a couple of kinds of daikon. Radishes also love cool weather. They can be eaten raw in a salad or sandwich, or shredded for a slaw, or stir fried like water chestnuts. All yummy.
No winter squash yet. As most of you know, I'm a believer is letting the winter squash get good and cold out in the field. I think it helps with ripening and makes the squash sweeter. So, don't panic. There will be squash, and it will be great. While we wait for the frost, buy some homegrown squash from some farmer's market vendor to get you through. Then, really enjoy squash when the good stuff is ready in a couple of weeks.
Anybody have a 4-H club or youth group that might like to help with potato digging? We'll be back at it as soon as the mud becomes a little less muddy. Let me know if you would like to help.
The Mt. Vernon/Lisbon CROPWalk is going to be Sunday, Oct 11. Registration starts at 1:45 at the Presbyterian Church. Walkers walk to Lisbon, then back to the Methodist church in Mt. Vernon for at light dinner. Everybody is welcome to walk, and EVERYBODY is welcome to make a donation to support a walker. Donations to CROPWalk are used by Church World Service to support international food relief and anti-hunger development, and to support our local food pantry at the Southeast Linn Community Center. I'll be walking, and since I know so many people, they are calling me a "celebrity walker". Please, please, please - don't let me embarrass myself! Help me maintain my celebrity and help me make a great big donation. You can donate $1, $5, $500, or anything in between. We'll have donation envelopes available on Saturday, in case any of you or your kids would like to join me on the walk.
Please take a look inside the hoophouse sometime. It looks beautiful now with the greens that I'm growing for the Late Fall CSA shares that I will be offering. I've got most of the details on the new mini-CSA figured out, and will be posting to the website and sending you sign-up information very soon. There will only be enough for 30 shares, so be ready to register when you hear from me. It looks like weekly pickups will be on Wednesday afternoons from the first week of November until the week of Christmas.
See you tomorrow,
Laura
Laura_1
11:13 AM CDT
21 Sep Mon 2009
We have lettuce!! Sounds crazy, but we need some rain
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we have potatoes, onions, pretty good looking tomatoes, ripe peppers, eggplant, edamame, broccoli, gorgeous green beans, chilies, lettuce, chard, kale, and herbs. Everything looks very good right now; I think you will really enjoy the vegetables this week. Apparently, lettuce can live on fog, because we've got fantastic mixed lettuce now. Covered with road dust, but lovely otherwise. I didn't expect this lettuce to be ready to harvest until the first of October, so I was very surprised when I found it tonight. Don't know how it happened, but we're rich in lettuce! It tastes great now, and will become even sweeter as the nights get cooler, and with bigger leaves once it gets a good drink. There is about nothing better out of the garden than fall lettuce. It is so much nicer and so much easier to grow than lettuce in the spring.
You'll get some pretty tomatoes this week. Some are from us, and some will be from the Local Harvest CSA in Solon. One great thing about no rain for 23 days is that the tomatoes stopped dying! So, we've been able to get some good tomatoes. Finally.
I spent a good chunk of my time last week setting up the trickle irrigation system to get the fall greens, radishes, spinach, broccoli, turnips, etc.... up and growing. Unfortunately, it doesn't work. I can't figure out if the problem is with gravity and the long run of ups and downs between the pump and the garden, or with the new life form that seems to be living happily inside my filter system, or something else. I worked all weekend to sort it out, but still can't get water to the garden. Because of the dryness and the delay, we might not have the greens like I like to give you in the fall. Or, I'll get it figured out, and right after that, we'll get a nice gentle, half-inch of rain, and the crops will come flying out of the ground because they are so happy to get a drink of the good stuff.
The deer have found the lettuce patch. I intend to make good use of that lettuce over the next 8 weeks, and my plan does NOT include any deer. It looks like there might have been a polka party out there sometime in the last few nights. If you have a practical suggestion about how to keep them out of the lettuce that doesn't involve me sitting up all night with a shotgun in my lap, and also will not result with me getting my name in the paper, I would be happy to hear your idea.
Never-ending potato digging continues this week. Tuesday for sure, possibly Wednesday, and Saturday for sure, unless we get enough rain to make us quit. Only about 2 miles of potato row left to go. Everybody is welcome to join in.
For those of you coming up from Iowa City, Highway 1 is still closed on the north side of town. To get the the farm ignore the signs and ignore your GPS. Just stay on Highway 1 to downtown Mt. Vernon, turn left at the stoplight, turn right on 8th Avenue, go out of town a little more than a mile, turn left on Abbe Hills Road, and you'll find us about a mile west.
VERY IMPORTANT ITEM FOR YOUR CALENDAR: This is the last week that you pick up on your regular Monday or Thursday night. For the week that starts on September 27, everybody picks up on Saturday, October 3, between 10:00 and 2:00. The last 5 pickups of the season will be the 5 Saturdays in October.
ANOTHER VERY IMPORTANT ITEM FOR YOUR CALENDAR: Family and Friends Harvest Celebration is next Sunday, September 27, 4:00 until sundown. Please bring a main dish, and either a drink or dessert to share for the potluck. We'll have hayrack rides, roast some marshmallows, and enjoy the evening. You can bring a lawn chair and your neighbors, but not your pets. Please plan to attend. It's usually a very nice time. Everybody is welcome.
In case of rain, check the website. www.abbehills.com. I'll put any cancellation information up by 2:00 Sunday afternoon. Hope not. But do hope for some rain before then.
See you this week,
Laura
Laura_1
11:12 AM CDT
13 Sep Sun 2009
lots of potatoes, finally warm and dry, now we need some rain!, Saturday pickups start in two weeks
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we have more of the same: potatoes, onions, eggplant, peppers, chilies, edamame, chard, kale, tomatoes, and herbs. We'll have lots of nice potatoes, I think from now on. We dug Red Norland and Superiors this week, and I think there are a few Yukon Golds left in some of the boxes. Remember that the potatoes weren't sprayed with any pesticides, so it is perfectly safe to eat the skins, and I think almost any potato dish is just as good with the skins. My family eats mashed potatoes all the time that have little pieces of skin mashed right into the mix, just like in the expensive restaurants. Except ours are better because they are free of pesticide residues and are really fresh.
Since the potatoes weren't sprayed, they suffered quite a lot of fungal disease this cool and wet summer. I'm pretty sure that the disease problems will shorten their storage life. The best thing is just to eat them every week, but if you do want to store them, put them in a dark, moderate temperature, dry place. Never keep them in a plastic bag as it traps moisture near them. While in storage, check them frequently so you can take out anybody who starts to get stinky.
Big thanks to the potato digging helpers last week: Coe Environmental Club including Clarissa, Sydney, Brian, Ayla, Malyssa, and Mai. Also Sarah Benesh and Cindy Strong. You wouldn't have potatoes without the help of these volunteers. We'll be doing it again this week on Tuesday, Wednesday maybe, Friday, and Saturday. Let me know if you want to help. So far, everyone agrees that it is a weird sort of fun job. Except Brian from Coe. He refused to comment.
The onions will be nice now, too, although not as sweet as the early summer onions. Since they're not as sweet, they will keep a little longer. I think we'll have Yellow Sweet Spanish this week. I've got lots of red onions so you can take a few every week, probably until the end of October.
We should have a few more tomatoes this week, like maybe even more than a pound per share! I can't stand to pick the tomatoes this year - they are too sick for me to look at them without getting sick myself - so my worker, Tricia, is in charge. She thinks we'll have a nicer harvest for the next couple of weeks for sure. You might even be able to make yourself a BLT in a couple of weeks, if the L grows just a little more and the T's can stay alive a while longer.
I'm sorry that there's not more variety in your shares this month. It was a tough summer, much worse than 2008 for getting seeds planted and weeds killed, and plant disease was more widespread than I have ever experienced. A lot of the things we thought we would grow for this time of the season failed. Whenever we could get into the gardens between rains, we planted, so we have broccoli, green beans, cabbage, daikon radishes, beets, cilantro, lettuce, and turnips almost ready to harvest. However, that's right where they have been stuck for a couple of weeks. We got the warmth, but now they need rain to reach harvest maturity. Asian greens, arugula, mustard greens, radishes, and a little spinach are further behind, but with the right combination of rain and warmth still might be possible to harvest in October. We'll keep optimistic, but I'm planning to pull out the irrigation this week anyway. Watch, as soon as I get it all out and lugged up the hill, the rain will get here.
Calendar items: We have only 1 more full week where you pick up on your regular night, September 21/24. Starting the week of September 27, everybody switches to Saturday pickup until the end of October. So, if you are a Monday person, your pickup schedule is Sept 14 (this week), Sept 21 (next week), October 3, Oct 10, etc... If you are a Thursday person, your schedule is Sept 17 (this week), Sept 24 (next week), October 3, Oct 10, etc..... There are five Saturdays in October. Pickup times on Saturdays will be 10:00 am until 2:00 pm. I'll send you a couple of reminders, but if your memory is anything like mine, it wouldn't hurt to put these dates and times on your calendar right now.
Remember the "Taste of Mt. Vernon" this Thursday night at the Farmers Market. Tickets are $20, with a portion of the ticket sales going to benefit the market. Six local chefs are going to cook tasty little treats using foods grown on farms around Mt. Vernon. It should be fun. There are only a few more tickets available, so be sure to get yours in the early part of the week. I have a few more and will have them on hand Monday night during pickup.
The Family and Friends Harvest Celebration is back on the schedule by popular demand. Sunday, September 27, 4:00 until the kids (or Laura, whichever comes first) have to go to bed. It's a potluck dinner- hayrack rides -marshmallow roast - type event. Please bring a main dish and either a dessert or drinks to share. Lawn chairs would be helpful, but please, no pets. Bring your relatives, neighbors, and friends. Everybody is welcome. I'll arrange for the picnic tables if you'll agree to pitch in a couple of bucks to help with the rental fee. It will be fun. I hope you can come.
See you this week,
Laura
Laura_1
11:21 PM CDT
06 Sep Sun 2009
a lovely week, good looking fall crops, plant disease primer
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we have potatoes (nice ones this time), onions, beets, eggplant, peppers, tomato (or maybe, tomatoes, if we are lucky), kale, chard, edamames, chilies, and herbs. We've been able to dig more potatoes and, while they are not disease free, they are much nicer than the ones that had been underwater during the big rains of two weeks ago. We will be finishing up the white, sweet onions this week, and also the summer beets. There are lots of eggplants, but peppers and tomatoes are being very, very slow to ripen.
I will be cutting edamame plants for you this week. Edamames are soybeans that are eaten green, and are a common snack food in Asia. The variety we have was bred at Iowa State for Midwestern conditions. To fix edamames, you quickly blanch the whole pods, then cool in cold water to stop the cooking. Sprinkle with a little salt or soy sauce, then squish the little green soybeans out of the pods. The beans are the part you eat. They are great, kind of nutty and beany and green all at once. They are slow to eat, but that's part of what makes them such a good snack food. I'll be giving you a handful of plants. I don't have enough time to take all the pods off the stems, so you can do it at the farm and leave the stems for the compost pile, or you can take the whole handful and let the kids pick the pods off the stems at home.
We had a nice warm week, which was great for drying out the soil and getting plants to grow and make fruit. But because it has been so cool and so wet for so long, most of the summer crops are either way behind schedule or dead from disease. This has been the worst year in my memory for plant disease. It's been on almost every kind of plant, and some plants, like the tomatoes, have at least 3 diseases at the same time. You may have seen or heard the spray planes in the country nearly continuously for the last two months. They have been spraying fungicides - poisons that kill fungus that causes plant disease - on the corn and soybean crops. Strong fungicides, applied over and over, are about the only way we have to fight plant diseases, except for the resistant varieties and garden sanitation practices used by organic farmers. Either way, diseases are tough, and in a cool and damp year, they take their toll. That's why we have so few of the late summer crops that we expect in abundance - tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, chilies, cucumbers, summer squash, cabbages, beans, even the parsley is sick - yields have been reduced in every crop because of very serious disease outbreaks. They aren't the type of pathogens (disease causing organisms) that can cause disease in us, but they really affect our food crops. That's why you can assume that almost all fruits and vegetables you buy at the store, and even from some farmer's market vendors, have been treated with fungicides, even if the plants weren't sick. Conventional farmers can't afford to take the risk of losing a crop to disease, so they treat just in case.
So once again, the beauty of Community Supported Agriculture becomes apparent. By your subscription, you are helping me absorb the risk of crop failure. Because of that, I'm able to grow your food without the use of dangerous pesticides. Usually we have good crops, but sometimes we have a bad crop, but in the big picture, it works out OK, plus you don't have to worry about eating pesticide residues, and I don't have to worry about their consequences on the farm ecosystem. Not enough tomatoes? Eat more kale!!!!! (OK, maybe that's a bad example, but you get the idea.)
Thanks to the volunteer potato diggers last week: Cindy Strong, Maureen Boots, Sara Benesh, and the Coe girls. We'll be digging potatoes again this week on Tuesday, maybe Wednesday, and probably Saturday, if you would like to help. It's kind of fun. In a weird way.
To settle last week's debate, I looked up the spelling of the word for the small, green, hot things we use in salsa. "Chili" is one hot pepper, "chilies" is more than one, "Chile" is the country, "chili" is the soup, and "chilly" is when you feel cold.
The fall crops look really happy. The lettuce beds are coming along nicely. Fall cabbages are as yet disease-free, and there are lots of daikon radishes, turnips, and beets. There is a little bad news: after 5 tries this summer, I never did get a carrot to grow, the spinach is skimpy, and I think the brussels sprouts are sick. I had planted spinach, radishes, and greens the evening before the last big rain. The rain really pounded the beds and washed out a lot of seeds, so I am redoing all those beds the first part of this week. They might run a little late, but I'm pretty sure we will have lots of arugula, Asian greens, and mustard greens by the middle of October. I'm almost afraid to tell you that the winter squash field looks beautiful, in case I jinx it. Although we only got about 30% of the seeds we planted to germinate (remember the ground squirrels?), the plants are really healthy and it's possible that we'll get lots of winter squash from them. We've got the soil fertility, the bees, the moisture, the sunshine - everything seems good, so that leaves only about 5000 other things that can go wrong before we start harvest at the beginning of October! Hope for the best.
Here is a link to a whole page of articles on local food http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/food-for-everyone/theme-guide-food-for-everyone . And a link to a story in the NYT about a new food-labeling campaign dreamed up by the food manufacturers http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/05/business/05smart.html?_r=1 . You're going to love this one. And one to this month's issue of "The Nation", all about food http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090921 .
Have a safe holiday,
Laura
Laura_1
09:59 PM CDT
30 Aug Sun 2009
more mud, 7.5" rain in two days
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we'll have onions, potatoes, leeks, beans, bell peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, chard, kale, chilies, and herbs. The Monday people will get sweet corn if we can get the tractor to the field without getting stuck in the lingering mud, and Thursday people will get corn if it stays nice until then. The sweet corn seems to be maturing more unpredictably than usual this summer, and has not been as sweet as we expect, probably from the cool weather. This will be the last week for corn.
Well, it's been quite a week since the last newsletter. We didn't have any rain for 3 days last weekend and so were able to dig lots of potatoes last Tuesday, even though it was still pretty muddy. Then, late that afternoon, I was finally able to do some tillage (it was still too muddy, but it had to be done then or not at all) and to throw some spinach, radish, and greens seeds into the ground before the rain began Tuesday night. Between Tuesday and Friday, we had about 7.5" of rain, not as much as some places got, but waaaaaay too much. The radishes are peeking out of the ground tonight, but with the amount of soil that moved during those heavy rains, I'm guessing that the spinach and greens might have washed away. So, the first half of this week I'll try again to get some spinach and other fall greens to grow. The lettuce I seeded on the 15th looks good, a bit battered, but alive. Spinach, on the other hand, is turning out to be a challenge.
My buddy Schanckenberg doesn't think it's going to rain again until Thursday, so we're going to try to get more potatoes on Wednesday afternoon of this week. Hope it will be dry enough by then. Please zap me a note if you'd like to help. Maureen Boots and Jan Scharnberg came by last week to help with digging and seemed to have a good time. Digging potatoes is a little like Easter and Christmas, with mud.
When the rain started on Tuesday night, the potatoes we had dug were still in the buckets from the field. The buckets filled up with water and stayed full for at least 2 days before I was able to dump them and wash and dry the potatoes. I don't think sitting in water that long was good. I'm not sure, but the potatoes might have been damaged and we might find that they cannot be stored. So, to be sure that they don't go to waste, EAT THEM. Look for some good potato recipes and fix them a couple of times in the upcoming week. We'll work our way though the ones that were soaked and next week or so be back to the regular cured ones that can be stored longer.
We had a great crew of about 25 incoming Cornell students who came to do some volunteer work on Saturday morning. It was a real pleasure to have them here. They made a big dent in the work that needs to be done to get the hoophouse planted for winter, harvested crops for this week, and weeded the chili peppers. I sure appreciated their help.
I think I might have a secret admirer. I woke up last Monday morning to find a big pile of wonderful, rotten manure on my compost pile. What a great gift!!!! Whoever you are, thanks!!!!!
See you this week,
Laura
Laura_1
11:12 PM CDT
23 Aug Sun 2009
more sweet corn, more mud delays fall planting, digging potatoes this week, we hope
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we have sweet corn, onions, beets, green beans, cabbage, chard, kale, tomatoes, green peppers, eggplant, squash, and herbs. The sweet corn will be some combination of Bodacious and/or Serendipity, depending on which is nicer the day we are picking for you. Again, the ears aren't big and fancy (because of incomplete pollination because of too much weed pressure because of the broken tractor in June when first cultivation should have happened), but are very tasty. I think you will enjoy either kind. Serendipity is a white/yellow "bicolor' type; Bodacious has all yellow kernels.
We will finish the Ailsa Craig onions this week. If you've still got some at home, eat them fast. They aren't going to last much longer. We'll be starting on the Super Star onions, another very sweet type that won't store very well. Beans will be round or flat-podded, either yellow or green. I think you'll find the flat, or Italian type beans, to be sweet and tender, although you might not guess that by looking at them. They are my favorite bean now.
The tomatoes are in pretty bad shape from all the cold and wet, especially those in the first planting. Overall, the sauce types are far more healthy and productive than are the slicer types, so start thinking about recipes that use more "meaty", less juicy tomatoes. This week, we started picking the Juliettes, a small "saladette" type that you can use like a cherry tomato. The plants in the second planting are still alive and making new fruit, so if we can keep it warm for 3 or 4 more weeks, we might finally get the volume and quality that we expect in late summer in Iowa, except it will be early fall by then. Until then, we'll keep trickling them out to you!
This might be the last week for summer squash, and I think the cucumbers are finished. The winter squash look very nice with little disease and few insect pests. At least right now, it looks like we might have a nice squash harvest in October.
No potatoes yet. It's still too muddy to dig them. We have a crew lined up to try again on Tuesday morning (which will be 3 1/2 days since the last rain!!! Yippee!!!) and are hoping to get a pretty big pile of potatoes dug. If you want to help, let me know. After a morning of digging potatoes, you really feel like you've accomplished something.
Rain update: Sunday, August 16, 1.2" in the morning. Monday, August 17, .3". Wed, August 19, 1" in the afternoon. Thur, August 20, .5" rain overnight, then .1" in the afternoon. Friday, August 21, drizzle all day, .3" total. Total for the week: 3.4". A few dry days in a row: priceless.
The never ending rain has caused a significant delay in planting the fall crops. Usually, I get the fields ready the first week of August (usually quite dry), then plant the second week and wait for a little bit of rain to get the seeds growing. Luckily, I listened to my buddy Schnackenberg and last Saturday I mudded in some lettuce seed in the garden west of the farm driveway. It's come up nicely, so I'll bet we'll have lots of nice fall lettuce in October. Spinach planted the same day is having a little trouble germinating, so as soon as I can do some more tillage, I'll be planting lots of spinach and hoping that it hurries itself along so we can have spinach in October, too. Asian greens and radishes grow more quickly, but they need to be planted pretty soon, too, if we expect to enjoy them in October. October is the month for the green things!
I can't believe I am saying this, but I need you to bring plastic grocery bags. I try to keep a VERY FEW bags around here for the rare times that you might forget to bring yours, but with the way we've been using them for sweet corn, I've run out. Please bring enough for yourself this week, plus 3 or 4 more to leave here for somebody who forgets theirs. Please DON'T bring any more than that. I can't keep them on hand because they blow all over the shed and yard when we open the big doors during the day, and worse yet, mice eat them and use them to make nests for their babies if I leave them anywhere for very long. So, I'm not in the bag business, except for a couple more weeks while we have sweet corn. After all, you ALWAYS remember to bring your own, so I shouldn't need them!!!
I lose my last two daytime workers this week. Darn kids keep going back to college. I'm going to miss them.
Looking forward to seeing you this week,
Laura
Laura_1
10:20 PM CDT
17 Aug Mon 2009
muddy again, eat more onions!, welcome new shareholders
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we'll have onions, leeks, tomatoes, broccoli, green beans, squash and zucchinis, cucumbers, green bell peppers, eggplant, cabbage, kale, chard, and herbs. There will also be sweet corn, but probably fewer than a dozen per share. The Monday people will get potatoes, but we probably won't have any for Thursday shareholders this week.
Welcome to the new shareholders who are joining Abbe Hills Garden CSA this week. Be sure to introduce yourselves to me. For you old timers, this is the 11th week of our summer season, halfway though. Wow, it happens so fast.
The onions I am sharing with you now are a sweet variety called "Ailsa Craig". Please eat them as fast as you can. They are cured, so you can store them outside of the refrigerator, but they are not good keepers. They contain so much sugar that they start to rot fairly quickly, unlike the storage onions we will have late in the fall that can be stored almost until spring. The Ailsa Craigs and the next ones, Super Star, are sweet and mild and are meant to be used in summer. I'll set out my "Onions, Onions, Onions" cookbook to give you some ideas about how to use them up.
There are actual mushrooms growing under the tomato plants today. Not a good thing. I harvested about 60 pounds of tomatoes this afternoon, the first harvest of the year, from the first planting of 178 tomato plants, which are about 1/3 slicers and 2/3 sauce types, planted on June 1. The plants are very sick with every kind of fungus and bacterial disease, the result of too much rain and cool, and have set relatively little fruit on most varieties. The second planting, 275 plants on June 16, has much healthier foliage and is just now setting its fruit. It includes the small saladette tomatoes, slicers, and about 100 sauce type plants. Let's hope for some warm and dry weather in the next 6 weeks to help the later tomatoes keep healthy and make lots of tasty fruit. And to get rid of those ridiculous mushrooms.
A new planting of green beans is just now ready to pick. They are gorgeous, and we'll pick them as fast as we can for you. At least you can pick green beans in the mud!
You'll notice that potatoes are going to be a problem this week. And, maybe next week, too. It's not like we don't have them. There are LOADS of them in the field. We usually dig potatoes one or two days every week this time of year, always digging a few more than we will need so we can get all of them out of the field before fall. (Actually, before my workers all go back to college, but we've kind of already missed that deadline!) But, we can't dig them in the mud. And we can't seem to get rid of the mud. We had 1.5" rain on Aug 7, .6" on Aug 9, .5" on Aug 10, .6" on Aug 13, and 1.2" so far today. As soon as we get 5 days in a row without rain, we'll dig like mad. You're all invited to join us! But, until those dry days come, we can't dig them because we can't see them. We tried on Friday of last week, and everything just looks like mud. So, we'll have potatoes on Monday until we run out, but no more after that until we get a break in the weather.
A couple of instructions for the new people and reminders for the old: Remember that we have a 1-way street around the buildings on Mondays and Thursdays. Come in the farm drive and go out the house drive. Please park as far away as you can; the best place is on the right side of the house driveway. When you park on both sides of the drive as it passes through the farm behind the shed, it gets to be a pretty skinny slot through which to slip. Drive out a little more and walk a little farther. You'll feel better and I won't worry about anybody getting sideswiped. If you can't walk that far, you can park in the shade in front of the open-front shed (and I promise I won't hassle you as long as I see you limp!) Also, please remember - no pets. I've seen the calmest, most disinterested, most unathletic dog you can imagine squish though a 1/4 open car window to take off after a kitty.
We're open from 4:30 until 7:00 on pickup nights. If you've got any questions about how the CSA operates, check out the website at http://www.abbehills.com/faqs/index.htm, or zap me a note.
Looking forward to seeing you this week,
Laura
Laura_1
12:51 AM CDT
09 Aug Sun 2009
finally -- it's HOT!, big wind, sweet corn time
Hello shareholders,
This week, we'll have sweet corn, green beans, cabbage, broccoli, zucchinis and summer squash, cucumbers, beets, chard, onions, potatoes, herbs, and maybe bell peppers.
The sweet corn on Thursday will be the variety called "Incredible"; Monday people will get whichever one is better when we pick in the morning, either "Incredible" or "Bodacious". I'm pretty sure I'll again have extra sweet corn to sell on Saturday morning, August 15th. I'll put out a sign-up sheet at the check-in table. The price will be $4 per dozen.
Well, I didn't see my hoophouse flying down Abbe Hills Road this evening, so I guess we survived the storm OK. We had a very nice and badly needed rain on Friday, about 1 1/2 inches. I think we've had about .4" so far today, Sunday. The mud and heat has made it pretty difficult to harvest over the weekend and I expect that Monday will be tough for my workers. We'll try to get some fresh green beans on Monday (if they are out there to get), but the Monday people might get some beans we picked last week if we can't get it all done in time tomorrow. They've been in the cooler and will be fine, but you shouldn't plan on storing them long (don't store anything! go on a vegetable eating frenzy! there will be more next week!). By the time it's time to get beans for Thursday, we should be able to get back in the garden.
The cucumbers and squash really needed the moisture on Friday. I expect they are as big as baseball bats since we haven't looked at them since Wednesday afternoon. Big cucumbers usually taste fine, but you might want to scrape the seeds out if they are tough. Big zucchinis are good on the grill or in baking. Really big zucchinis go to the chickens.
I think we can find enough big bell peppers to give everybody at least 1 this week. They should take off with the moisture and the heat. Finally, the heat we've been waiting for got here. YEAH. Tough on the workers; good for the garden. I'm spoiled and only like to eat bell peppers when they are ripe and have changed color, so I'm going to harvest the green ones conservatively so that we can have as many ripe peppers as possible later in the summer.
In preparation for the rain on Friday, we planted 16 rows of fall crops, including more beets, cabbage, kale, beans, turnips, and carrots. This is the 4th or 5th time I've planted carrots this summer. Maybe this time they will take. It is about impossible to get carrots to emerge out of the ground, but I'm hoping the warm soil and rainy weekend will give them the boost they need to get going. Fall carrots are fabulous. We'll be planting fall lettuce this week, and will be planting in the hoophouse within the next two weeks to get ready for the November/December shares that I hope to offer.
Here is a link to any article in today's New York Times about some of the difficulties in our food system. Farmers in the NE have been hit very hard with a tomato disease called "late blight", and the associated problems have gotten lots of press. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/opinion/09barber.html?_r=1 So many people have mentioned to me that their tomatoes are sicker than normal this year. We may not have late blight in Iowa, but we have lots of other diseases that strike tomatoes and their relatives (potatoes, eggplant, peppers, chilies). For a real horror show, check out this publication on tomato diseases from Iowa State. http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM1266.pdf
My entry in the biggest cabbage competition at the 100th anniversary of Sauerkraut Days in Lisbon was totally humiliated by the winner. My biggest cabbage weighed 7 1/2 lbs, much too big for most of you, but was nothing compared to the winner, an 18 1/2 lb monster. It certainly was the biggest cabbage I've ever seen. Lucky for you, most of the cabbages we grow for you are bred to weigh between 2 and 4 pounds when we harvest them.
I've got more sweet corn than we can use, and will have to start mowing it down as it gets over-mature. I'd like to donate some to the food pantries and soup kitchens in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, and/or Lisbon, but don't have the workforce to make it happen. If any of you could mobilize a small group of people who could pick corn, husk it, and then get it to town, it would be a real treat for hungry people who don't often get fresh sweet corn (which is a pity, in my opinion, when we have it in such abundance). We harvest corn on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings, starting about 8:00. A half dozen retired Presbyterians could pick 20 dozen ears in way less than an hour. It would need to be husked, and we would need boxes to put it in for transport. I can keep it in my cooler for a while, but would need somebody to deliver it to its destination later that day. If you've got a group, maybe from a church, who you think could handle a harvest and delivery, zap me a note. We will have excess corn this week for sure, and hopefully, for a few more weeks in the future.
See you this week,
Laura
Laura_1
10:33 PM CDT