Thanksgiving
First, I must say that this is my most favorite holiday of the year. We are blessed with around 30 Kittredges each year, and have been hosting all of them since somewhere around 1978 or so.
These days Thanksgiving marks the end of the active selling here. The CSA is done after 26 weeks, the turkeys are gone – God rest their souls, the pigs too, and the old layers, and the meat birds. The last of the apples has been processed, and the pears. Thus, this is the beginning of the relative rest period of the farm and the dreaming and actualizing what wonderous accomplishments we can manifest in the new year.
There is a cloud this year, however, and I wonder if you are worried too. Not since the Cuban missile crisis have we been so close to nuclear conflict as we are with the recent escalation on both sides in the Ukraine war. Are calm heads working behind the scenes to keep us from nuclear disaster? It all comes back, for me, to what I can do, to support peaceful relationships in the world I live in, and a lot of praying.
If you find yourself with nowhere to go on Thanksgiving, give us a call and plan to come on over. Dinner is at 2 pm. We would love to include you in our family celebration.
Special Gratitude this week
It is hard to single anyone out this week, as everyone in and around the farm has worked so hard to get us to this denouement. That said, I want to spotlight two people this week.
Since Jennifer decided to pass on the website, Leslie has become a house a fire getting it changed over to offer our 2025 shares. And when I shared my anxiety over what to do with 66 eggs each day now that the CSA is over for 26 weeks, she jumped into action to set up an egg subscription for the intervening months. And then called all of our egg customers to sign them up. Leslie’s marketing instincts (which she insists don’t exist) are on high alert. Watch out! Thank you, Leslie, for investing yourself so totally.
Leslie working on the egg subscription language
Marcia is a working shareholder, good friend, and fellow Circle of Song member. As she did when we put on our Clare/Jack party back in June, she appeared as an angel to support the massive house cleaning effort that we undertake at this time of year. This past week she came an extra day, and when I mentioned to her and Jennifer that I needed to consider lunch on Monday, they both jumped to offer to take care of that 12-person detail for today’s lunch. As a matter of fact, Marcia regularly brings a pot of soup for lunch on Mondays. And somehow, between working outside on the farm, she keeps the kitchen cleaned up and organized. I like a clean and tidy house, but it always seems so overwhelming with the constant traffic through here every day. Thanks, Marcia, for having my back on this one.
Luke, Marcia, and Jennifer on the back of the truck
What is in your Fall CSA Share this week?
Special Note to all Shareholders:
Pick up is on Monday this week for everyone!
Fall shareholders please return your share bags to your delivery sites, either today, or in the next week. We will collect them and have them ready for next year.
If you have a moment, could you also take a moment to please fill out the Fall Evaluation. It will take just a couple of minutes.
- Brussels sprouts – sorry, we couldn’t get to them last week
- Carrots
- Kale
- Leek
- Pears
- Arugula
- Rutabaga
- Potatoes
- Garlic
- Cilantro
- Spinach
- Collards
What, already time to sign up for next year’s CSA?
Yes, you can get in on some end of the year savings if you sign up by December 31. We have gotten rid of the sliding scale, as it was too confusing to folks, and are back with one price. Production costs for us go up across the board, and we also plan to give our salaried staff a $1/hour pay increase in 2025. And we appreciate early commitment to this venture, which comes to 50% of our budget, and are encouraging you to commit early by offering this discount.
- Small share: $475 before January 1; $500 in the new year
- Medium share: $640 before January 1; $675 in the new year
- Large share: $835 before January 1; $875 in the new year
- SNAP share: $Small – $425; Medium: $525; Large: $725
A New Offering from December to May: Bi-weekly Egg Deliveries to locations in Athol, Holden, Worcester, Gardner and Shrewsbury
It starts next week on December 2. Sign up now for the best eggs from the happiest, healthiest and completely free range certified organic chickens that you will encounter.
Volunteering at MHOF
This weekend we hosted Julie as a volunteer. She helped Shantel and me make lard, move birds, sort pork, and get the vehicles ready for the turkey slaughter.
Jennifer’s Recipe for the Week
Butternut Squash Custard
After ordering a whopping 89 pounds of winter squash from Dan, I’ve been on a mission to find creative and delicious ways to enjoy it all. This recipe has quickly become a household favorite for dessert. While I initially crafted it with butternut squash, I’ve since experimented with pumpkin and red kuri squash, so feel free to try it with other varieties of winter squash!
Preserved Foods for Sale
- Frozen Apple sauce (nothing added) – $7/quart
- Frozen Pear sauce (nothing added) – $7/quart
- Frozen Peaches – $6 per pound in bags of approximately 2-3 lbs
- Canned Tomatoes – $10/quart
- Canned Apple juice – $10/quart
- Pawpaw puree – $5 for ½ pint
- Dried Peaches – $10/pint
- Garlic powder – $12 for a 2 oz. jar
- Grape seed and skin powder – $10 for a 2 oz. jar
- Comfrey, Hemp and Calendula save – $10/jar
- Bitters tincture – $20 for a 4 oz. bottle
- Lavender soap – $8 for a 5 oz. bar
- Peppermint soap – $6 for a 3.5 oz. bar (seconds)
- Some fresh frozen pork cuts – $15/lb
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AEA Blog | 11.20.24
Balanced Mineral Nutrition for Market Gardens
Soil testing and mineral amendments
By John Kempf
The previous posts in this series have discussed how to create the conditions for thriving soil biology in market gardens, by regulating temperature and moisture; adding biology through compost, teas, and inoculants; and feeding that biology every day.
The reason for focusing on soil biology is that biology can release nutrients from the soil and make them available to plants. I have previously said that biology can supply 100% of a crop’s nutritional requirements. This is true, with an important caveat: biology cannot supply nutrients that aren’t there to begin with, that is, minerals that are not present in the underlying geology. In such conditions, we may need to add nutrients.
Adjusting mineral profile
To know what minerals are present in your soil, I recommend that market gardeners take 2 types of soil tests.
The first test is a geological assay. Miners use this test to determine the presence of minerals in soil. It will show a complete readout of minerals present in the soil’s mineral profile. They might not yet be available to your plants, but the test will show your soil’s potential for providing plant nutrition once it develops thriving biology to unlock those minerals.
The second test is a more typical CEC soil test. At AEA, we use this test in a limited capacity. We find it useful only for determining the soil’s levels of sulfur, boron, and zinc, and its Calcium/magnesium ratio. Otherwise we defer to the geological assay. Comparing the two tests can determine what minerals are present versus what minerals are available. I only recommend you pull these tests once, as your base mineral profile will not change.
If you’re interested in taking a deep dive into soil tests, I’d recommend my webinar “Soil Testing 2.0“.
Once we have data from soil tests, we enter into the world of fun management questions:
- Do we need to add minerals to our system, or do we develop biology to release minerals that are already there?
- Even if a mineral is present in the soil, should we add a small amount to kickstart the soil biology and our plants?
- Should we apply minerals to the soil or directly to the plants via a foliar spray?
These are manage-able questions produced by manage-able data. Next week, in the final post in this series, we’ll discuss some considerations when designing a foliar nutritional spray.
Paramagnetism
So far, we’ve only talked about minerals from a nutritional, molecular standpoint, but it’s important to consider that the true growth-inducing property of a molecule is the energy contained within that molecule. This is a nebulous subject that I won’t explore in too much detail here. I will simply point out observational data that shows that highly paramagnetic soils support high levels of biology. So you’ll want to add highly paramagnetic rock powders, like basalt, to your soil. You can also add paramagnetic powder to your compost pile–it will have the double effect of stimulating the biology in the compost, and then entering the soil when that compost is added to the garden.
Farm Doins
Today I want to give an individual shout out to all the staff and volunteers at MHOF, beside the two above already mentioned.
To Luke, who was our head sprayer this year, clocking many hours each week managing our foliar nutrition program.
To Paula, who this week has managed the house cleaning, window washing, labeling, jarring operations.
To Amanda, who uses her organizational support services to help us. Here she is talking to a Paypal rep about how to get our “button” in place on the website (there were some moments of frustration!)
Marissa – fast, competent, and irreplaceable
Stu – our class clown who actually can do almost anything on the farm; also our head weeder
Danny – head carpenter and fix it guy with incredible executive skills
Matt – who manages all of our equipment, and pig matters, and who masterminded the Community Fridges project this year
Jennifer – whose calm and competent demeanor saw us through the pork pick up, and dispersal on Friday. A MHOF rock
Nick – no job is too odious, no weight is too heavy – Mr. Over and Above
Shantel, Alexandria, John and Sophie – the stalwart weekend crew. Sophie and John helped get the turkeys to slaughter on Sunday
Jim – head mower, chainsawer and cleanup guy
Jack – the behind the scenes guy with whom I share every decision
I am indeed Thankful!
Julie
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