This is the time of year when I run out of things to talk about. With the farm going on twelve years now there isn’t much left to say. So I typically put out a request to our members to ask questions. Something you are curious about may be of interest to another member of the farm. So send in your questions and I will try to answer them in future newsletters.
Speaking of communications, with on-farm pick-up I get to talk to some of our members on a weekly basis. Though most of the time the conversations are about life, general topics or just random silliness due to being overheated from a long, hot day, occasionally I’ll ask about their CSA experience to date – especially newer members. This is a great opportunity for me to learn what we are doing right, what we are doing wrong and how we can improve. Those members who have participated in CSA with another farm have a special insight that is helpful. Sometimes we discover a vegetable they previously found appealing that we don’t grow. Other times they confirm our suspicion that many CSA farms deliver a LOT of kale. (As a side note, we once marketed our farm as the CSA that doesn’t grow kale. We had an overwhelming request from one of our members to grow kale. Now it is on our list of approved vegetables.) It is a great, interactive means for learning how we are doing.
Unfortunately we don’t get this same feedback from our delivery members. Their input is equally important and with delivery we have a certain challenge that on-farm pick-up doesn’t have – packing and delivery. Though we try our best to pack the produce and deliver it to our drop sites so that it is fresh and perfect upon its arrival, we have no idea if we succeed. Since the majority of our members are Minnesotan we never hear anything! So drop-site members, if you get a chance please let me know how we are doing, especially if you’ve noticed anything that is frequently an issue. If everything has been great that would be nice to hear as well. The employees of the farm do work hard and would appreciate knowing their work is valued.
Volunteers: This week the weather forecast is for perfect farming weather. If anyone is interested in lending a hand contact me to let me know when you’ll be out. This will give me time to clean-up the place. Next week (weather permitting) we will be digging the garlic. This is a very time consuming operation that lends itself to the many hands make light work ethos.
What will we have this week? Well, let’s start with the good news, bad news. The summer squash continue to produce. Now some of you are asking, “So what’s the bad news?” and the rest of you are asking, “So what’s the good news?” I guess it depends on your perspective on summer squash. Other than summer squash/zucchini we will have Sweet Corn!, green beans, yellow beans, cucumbers, onions, eggplant, fennel, kohlrabi, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and – if we have time and the ground softens from today’s watering – carrots!
We tried to dig the carrots this morning but we could not get the shovel into the hardened ground. I also tried a non-OSHA-approved approach to driving the cultivating tractor – standing on the implement bar while driving the tractor – no feet on the break or clutch. With the ground so hard the tool couldn’t penetrate even with my full weight on the bar! (Pretty much explains why farmers are always in the top ten most dangerous jobs. Might have something to do with “necessity being the mother of stupidity”, at least I think that is how the saying goes). All the rain from earlier in the spring turned the ground into concrete. Hopefully our running the sprinkler over the carrots will loosen the soil.
CheeseShare Update: Due to changes in the demand for their milk, Castle Rock Farm is no longer producing cream cheese. Back when they started the dairy they were selling more skim milk and needed a product to use up the cream so they produced cream cheese. Now the demand for whole milk has increased and there is no extra cream for the cream cheese. So we have to swap out future cream cheese orders for something else. Castle Rock suggested crème fraiche. Crème fraiche is like sour cream but less sour. According to Carla at Castle Rock, “This product can be used like sour cream and it can also be used with fresh fruits. I add a small amount of maple syrup to it when I use it with fruit. It is great on baked potatoes, many times I add it to cooked fresh vegetables instead of butter it is fantastic on potato pancakes. “ So I will switch all future cream cheese orders to crème fraiche. If you prefer something else please let me know and I will make the switch.
SeafoodShare and SalmonShare coming this Thursday. Sorry I’ve been somewhat silent on the status of the seafood. There was a last minute switch in the first shipment due to some timing issues and Sitka Salon Shares is continuing to work out their delivery schedule so I don’t know the exact delivery dates until the week or so before it arrives. For future reference the delivery windows for the rest of the season are as follows: August 26-29, September 29 – October 1, October 27-30. The last delivery may prevent us from delivering to drop sites due to the veggie season ending by then. Stay tuned and we will figure out what to do.
MeatShare arrives on Friday, August 1st. Plan to pick-up your MeatShare during our regular pick-up hours or by appointment. I am usually here all day on Friday so if you’d like to come during our non-pick-up hours park in the usual parking area and give me a call when you get here. If you are normally a delivery member and want to pick-up your veggies at the farm when you pick-up your MeatShare please let me know what day you plan to come so we can plan accordingly. On-farm pick-up hours are M, W and F from 3:30 to 6:30 and Th from 9:30 to 11:30 am.
Why didn’t anyone laugh at the farmer’s jokes? They were too corny.