Week 9: August 13 - 17, 2007
Hi folks,
Sorry about no newsletter last week. There was a big thunder storm on Friday night and our modem and router got fried. We weren't able to get them fixed until Wednesday. We are back in business now, however, and back from the NOFA conference. There were over 1400 people there, all of them focused on their part of the organic movement. It was an amazing time of connection and energizing for all of us. Our two keynoters, Bill McKibben and Hazel Henderson brought strong messages of hope and challenge for us as we work together to stop or slow climate change and be leaders in the move toward more sustainable development. Bill pressed the need for us to take charge of our political process. Hazel talked about whole systems thinking. Bill is doing another Step It Up event on November 3. There really is very little time left for us to act if we are to reign in the rapidly accelerating climate change. Here are a couple of websites: www.stepitup2007.org and HazelHenderson.com. Now more than ever we must all be part of the solution.
Okay, I am a little out of the loop. I haven't been on the farm since Wednesday, but here is my best guess of what we will be eating this week. Please don't be too let down if this list isn't exactly right. Beets, carrots, mesclun, cilantro, Leeks, dill, tomatoes, oregano, Cabbage, broccoli, beans, chard, collards, squash, cukes, potatoes, flowers and peaches.
This week we will move the pigs and in the place they are presently located we will plant this fall our garlic crop. Before then I hope to get a few loads of alpaca and llama manure from my friends down the road and get that all tilled in for ultimate fertility (the chickens went through last month also). We need to de-rock and replant our hay field in the west field (again, the pigs hill plowed it all up for us), make some hay to store away – let's hope for a couple of days in a row that aren't raining!, harvest onions this week or next, and mostly just take a lot of time picking all the vegetables this week.
I woke up this morning realizing, not unlike the Grinch who stole Christmas, that my heart has grown a couple of sizes this year since the folks at Almost Home started coming here. While Jack and I were at the conference getting ready for the onslaught of folks on Friday, Kathy, Becca, Edwin, Brian, Nina, and Shawnee were home managing the Almost Home crew. As you might remember, Friday was a very cold and very rainy day. Not only did folks pick in the rain and get all the orders together, but they stuck around long enough to finish all the "current" weeding, which included getting lots of grass out of our strawberry beds. I am told that at 10 am, after coming inside for a "power ball" break and hanging around the wood stove to warm up, everybody trooped out to finish the work (under Kathy's positive but insistent leadership). And when it was all done Edwin and Becca treated the whole crew of 17 folks or so to a weed, mud and rotten tomato fight. Ah, the entertainment options on a farm!
Wednesday morning at 8 am, our old friend Wilfredo Reyes from the Holyoke jail showed up with 8 pre-release prisoners to help out. These folks garden all summer long in a housing project in Springfield and visit local organic farms for "field trips". That day these folks did a tremendous amount of weeding. We will have mesclun, carrots, beets, cilantro and a few other crops well into the fall because of their efforts. One's heart can't help but grow with such blessings all around.
Julie
From Nina
Dear CSA Members,
For week Nine: this week's recipe is for a great squash casserole. I had several requests for this recipe. You can easily cut it in half for a smaller quantity.
Nina
Notes From Shareholders
I really appreciate all of your communications. Here is what we have received since the last newsletter:
Well Ted,
Son Dan bought a big salad spinner and has dropped it off here for us to use – lucky you and us. We will be doing Asian greens this fall – planting them today, matter of fact.
Julie
Hi, Julie,
If there was a newsletter this week, I didn't receive it. It isn't going into my spam folder so I don't know what is happening. By the time I arrived at the farm last night, there weren't any copies left either. Would you please re-send?
BTW, the mesclun last night was in perfect condition and delish. True confession: I ate the whole bag by myself with some MHOF carrots, some leftover roast duck, a few cherry tomatoes from a local farmers market and mustard/balsamic/olive oil dressing. It was yummy but made me crave tomatoes!!
Nancy
Hi Nancy,
There was no newsletter this week. Our modem was fried and we couldn't send any email. I had been out of town, and it was easy to drop. I will try to publish this week, but no promises as I leave on Thursday for the NOFA conference and won't be home until Sunday night late. I am the coordinator of the conference and it takes a lot of energy. Glad you liked the mesclun. Tomatoes are coming next week . . . .
Julie
Dear Julie,
Sometimes I feel like a New Yorker, the way I buzz in and buzz out of your family's farm!
I have to take some time to appreciate the care and labor and love that goes into our CSA shares.
I can't believe how great I feel this summer and how much I enjoy meals! I had major oral surgery today and I can't believe how strong and resilient I feel and I know the great food I am getting from Many Hands is helping out so much.
I'm really sad to think of the end of the season. The fresh greens are so nourishing and the potatoes, beans, garlic – all so flavorful.
Thank you for all you do the support a great life! May you be happy and free.
Shen
Thank you Shen, I do feel quite blessed these days, to be able to hang out in the field with good friends and play in the dirt, have a bully pulpit to express whatever is on my mind each week, and be part of a larger community of activists and leaders in our complicated and dynamic world.
Julie
Hi Julie,
My own observation is that the mesclun does not last long, even when it arrives looking clean and dry. So I'm not sure why washing and spinning it should help. But maybe it will.
If it needs to be washed and spun, what should I do if I don't have a spinner and don't want to add one to the heap of stuff I already have? I try (and fail) to travel light, and a spinner is an item I've always preferred to do without.
Again, respectfully, I think if you're saving lots of labor by growing mesclun, and if the mesclun needs to be washed and spun, it makes more sense for Many Hands to get a big spinner than it does for 50 of us to get little ones (those of us that don't have them already, that is). I also can't help wondering if the mesclun really saves labor, after you add in all that washing and spinning. You know better than I.
Incidentally, I find the cut Asian greens store quite well relative to the mesclun, and I notice we got some last week. I don't know if they grow well throughout the season, but if they do, to me that seems like a better option. I know some people love the mesclun though. Guess you can't please everybody. :o)
regards, Ted