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2009 Summer CSA Week 7: July 27 - 31, 2009

Dear Friends,

We had the amazing opportunity to host an Associated Press photographer on Wednesday. He was here because the AP is writing a story on the NOFA Summer Conference and they wanted some farm shots. Well, he sent along one of his masterpieces. Check out the link for some real enjoyment.

Julie and Jack;

Enjoyed visiting your farm for the upcoming story on Organic Farming and the conference. Haven't edited it down to the top ten images, but did put out two nice features yesterday.

MSNBC used one of the frog in the garden as a top ten image of the week.

Here is the link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32108390/from/ET/?beginSlide=10

When Mark is done with his story and the photos are released I'll pass along some more links if I find them.

Thank you again for a great day.

Charlie

CSA Recipes for Week from Nina

Having just gotten back from a week-long tax conference in Reno, and eating restaurant food, I have been pouring over magazines looking for recipes for fresh local veggies.

I hope you try one of these recipes, all from Vegetarian Times.

Speaking of beets, our first two beds of beets don't look so good - I am not sure why, but most are small and the leaves are substandard. We bunched them small beets and all last week, but I am going to buzz through them and pick out only the larger ones this week so we can turn them under and get on to greener pastures as it were. Beets are amazing and you will find ours taste good too. Great for the liver and the digestive system.

So we got 6, 7, 8 inches of rain this week? I have lost track. When we went out to harvest on Friday morning we found ¾ of the farm under water. We sloshed through the fields to do our picking. Well, most of the water receded, but then we got another couple inches on Friday night and then again this morning. Yikes! Our plants are holding their own, in large part, I think, because of our nutrient drenches. Clare and Rich spent 5 hours Thursday morning putting down fish, microbes, some sugar to help them eat, calcium and humates. This is a "growing" spray. Next week we will do another growing spray on our green things and a fruiting spray on our fruiting crops.

I got a frantic call from a farmer friend at Linden Tree Farm in Lincoln this week. He has been hit by late blight in his tomatoes and potatoes. It comes in and pretty much just kills all those plants. 50 farmers showed up at a workshop in Eastern Mass and most of them have the late blight. The only certifiable organic approach to this is copper sprays, which have a bad MO for the long term if not the short term. Luckily, our tomatoes look great. The hoop house tomatoes are particularly nice. We will keep our fingers crossed as I will not use copper on them. Oh, and the potatoes also look very nice.

Beans soon, leeks coming, onions beautiful, cukes flowering - things to wish for.

Food for this week: Squash, carrots, kale, lettuce, mint, oregano, parsley, cilantro, chard, peas (Monday for sure - can't say for the rest of the week), beets, dill, red raspberries, and flowers

Chickens available - we have a few at $5.50/lb. They average 6¼ pounds.

This note from CSA member Melanie Robinson:

Hi Julie,

I just received a message from my friend that volunteers for Abby's House in Worcester. It is a shelter for women and children. Apparently due to increasing need they are having a hard time keeping their kitchen stocked.

They are asking for donations of all types of food including fresh produce. I am going to put a message on our google board to the Worcester CSA members letting them know this is a good option for any veggies that might go to waste. If the farm ever has extra that might go to waste I would be happy to come pick it up and deliver it.

I'm looking forward to seeing the farm tomorrow.

Melanie

What happened to Liz Leidel and Jesse Gingras' bag on Friday? It was not in the cooler when the Worcester folks came to pick up. Please, please, please, check your bags carefully when you come for pick up.

Thank you so much for all of your gifts of bags, etc. They help us keep running with less expense. Here are the gifts that we really appreciate -

All other things we will have to take to our local recycler if you bring them here.

Let's hope for very little rain this week! I hope you are enjoying the summer days that we do get, or even the parts of summer days that we get.

Julie