Abbe Hills Farm CSA

Greetings shareholders,

This Saturday, we'll have tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, potatoes, onions, radishes, another spaghetti squash, butternut squash, parsley and cilantro, kale and collards, arugula, edamames, beet tops and/or swiss chard, and several kinds of braising / stir fry greens, including a couple of kinds of bok choi, yukina tatsoi (dark green, mild flavor, you loved it last fall), purple and green mustards, Asian mustards like Ho Mi Z, and baby Red Russian kale.  The lettuce is still a little too small to cut, but I'll bet we'll have it next week, along with daikon radishes.

Remember that Saturday pickup times are 10:00 until 2:00.  If it's absolutely impossible for you to make it during those times, let me know in advance and maybe we can figure something out to make sure you get your vegetables this week.  Better yet, bribe one of you neighbors to come for you in exchange for something leafy and green.

I can't believe we have edamames in October!!!!  Incredible good luck.  Not so much luck on the tomatoes.  They just refuse to ripen, and the little frost last weekend made about 10 million of them fall on the ground.  Unfortunately, nobody offered me a dollar for every green tomato out here, so I guess I'll be farming again next year.

Not sure about the quality of the butternuts this week.  I haven't tried one yet.  I think they could ripen considerably more, so eat other things this week and let those squash sit around and get sweeter a while longer.  The squash must have taken ripening advice from the tomatoes.

The sweet peppers are SOOOO beautiful.  I sure didn't expect them to turn out so nicely this fall.  Remember back in July when they had so much mold on them that they looked like snowballs?  Somehow, they hung on through it.  I think the best thing for this farm was the inch and a half of rain that we got over Labor Day weekend.  It sure pulled victory from the jaws of death!!

Of course, we could use some rain any time now to keep the leafy things in good condition.  I'm beginning to tire of irrigating.  The sunny dry weather really made things grow this week and also made my farmer neighbors who are combining soybeans and corn very, very happy.  Made me so happy that my hair curled!

My friend from McGregor, Dan Specht, now has grass-fed beef available for sale in halves and quarters.  He brought some hamburger to the field day in August and it was marvelous.  Here's what one shareholder from Abbe Hills has to say about it.  "We purchased 1/4 share of a grass-fed cow from Dan Specht earlier this summer.  The beef was outstanding.  It makes fabulous hamburgers and we have had many delicious stews using the beef bones.  Best of all, I know when I am feeding my children they are getting NO artificial growth hormones, NO pesticides, NO herbicides, and NO antibiotics from cow feed. It does NOT come in a grocery store package that says "injected with a 12% solution" and you have to WONDER just what is in the solution.  We loved the beef so much we just ordered our next 1/4 cow.  Looking forward to more of the best beef around.  Yours in healthy eating, Kelly Schoen".  If you want to learn more about his prices and how to buy meat directly from a farmer, contact Dan.  His contact info is Dan Specht, 12082 Iris Ave., McGregor IA 52157, 563-873-3873, 563 516-1007 cell, danspech@neitel.net.

This Saturday is the Tour de Coop in Cedar Rapids.  It's a chicken house tour!  Sounds like fun, and if you're interested in having your own laying flock, in town or outside, it might give you some inspiration. 

Finally, here's a wonderful 4-minute video by Sesame Street about child hunger in the US.  This is the time of year when we think most about hunger.  This Sunday is the Mt. Vernon / Lisbon CropWalk.  Next week will be the celebration of the World Food Prize, and next Sunday, October 16, is World Food Day.

See you Saturday,

Laura