CSA Week 14

September 2, 2017
CSA Week 14 – September 5, 6, 8

Dear 2017 CSA Members,

Some folks have two bags
Especially if you have eggs and especially if you get two eggs, you are likely to have two bags for awhile. Your extra bag will be a paper bag and we will make every effort to make sure that it is sitting right next to your cloth bag (also with your name on it), but please carefully check for your second bag in these heavy and bulky weeks.

Still in Peach Heaven
Yes, we are in peach season and hopefully yours have been making it to you in decent condition . If they are bruised, eat them immediately. If they aren’t you might want to eat them immediately anyway because they are so good. Jack and I watch movies at the table at night and cut and freeze peach parts. They are on sale from now on – $12 for a 2 lb. bag. Many thanks to Lindsay who faithfully do the foliar feeding all winter last winter to help build tree strength. And we did a super pruning and thinning job too. Picking peaches right now with the drier weather has been magical as fruit quality goes up later in the season.

Some crops not in heaven
Never have I had such a slow year for summer squash and zucchini (last year was our best year ever), but the weather has been overall cold this summer. We even went below 40 degrees this week. Our first crop suffered from the early cold weather and I was not as diligent as I could have been about getting succession plantings in. They are coming now, but it might be too late if the weather continues to be cold. We could have a frost any day, or things could hold until late October. Time will tell.

Field tomatoes have been abysmal, but we are starting to get some good ones in the hoop houses. We gave out a reasonable quantity on Monday, and even better by Friday. Wednesday tomatoes were almost non-existent. We do a lot of mixing and matching over the week to make things more fair. Some folks got radishes, others broccoli, some got some mediocre green beans, others extra lettuce, in an attempt to make it all come out relatively even. Peppers are weak too, but you may continue to get one each week.

Though we had a marvelous fruit set on the apples this spring, the gypsy moths took out all but one of our 30 trees. Sorry no apples this year. They have struggled to refoliate. I am not sure how much trauma that will cause them for next year.

Crops going forward
You will see carrots and beets this week as plantings of those two crops are coming in again. We have been planting copious plantings of lettuce, arugula, and all the brassica family. If fall stays cold we may be covering a large number of crops with polyester row covers to extend the season out.

We harvested some onions last week and will finish them this week. You will notice a variety of size from small to large. We trialed a number of varieties this year as we look to replace Copra, a variety that has been discontinued. You will notice, however, the chink of super health in the onions, regardless of size.

We are starting potato harvest this week and you should enjoy those for weeks to come.

I haven’t done my farm walk for next week to let you know exactly what to expect, but your bags should be full.

Workshop at MHOF on Sunday, September 10
We will be encapsulating 35 years of farming into one workshop on Sunday, August 10. It runs 10 am – 4 pm here. There will be a pot luck lunch. Come learn about our cows, pigs, turkeys, chickens, our fruit trees and bushes, and our vegetable operation from seedling to food preservation. We will also show off our passive solar house, root cellar, attached greenhouse, etc. You can register here. http://www.nofamass.org/events/integrated-farm.

Volunteers on the farm
Many thanks to Cindy Bell, a shareholder who took one of her vacation days to come and volunteer on the farm. We had a great time and really appreciated her help on Monday – our hardest of all days. You are always welcome to come out and volunteer. I will feed you breakfast and lunch.

Recycle your paper and plastic grocery-size bags with us. You can leave them in your CSA bags. We also like rubber bands,. And don’t forget any corrugated cardboard. We can use it. We are enjoying your cardboard – thanks for sending that along. Black and white newspapers actually work nicely too if you have those laying around.

Julie
For The Many Hands Organic Farm staff