October 30, 2007
HARD FROST!
Hi folks,
I finally have a chance to sit and write a newsletter, as everything at
the farm is frozen solid this morning. In anticipation of the
freeze, I spent the better part of Sunday harvesting daikon, cabbage,
and turnips to bring them into the barn away from the "mushing effect"
thawing ice seems to have on these veggies. It was actually lots
of fun pulling these enourmous radishes out of the ground with Beatrice
and Tracy in the late afternoon sun and wind. If you haven't
tried the Daikon yet, I encourage you to cuisinart them with apples and
dress with cider vinegar and a touch of maple syrup. An excellent
fall salad.
We're finally getting to the last of our distributions for 2007.
For us it was a good growing year. For the most part, our crop
plan panned out, (save for the second round of corn that got munched by
the deer/raccoons). Our apprentices, Aliyah and Alissa, and our
hired hand, Rachael Gall, really worked well together, enduring the
challenges a farm season can pan out. We had lots of fun growing
your
food, and I think there's a good chance we may get some return apprentices for 2008.
As is typical for this time of year, we're finding a drop in attendance
from our CSA members locally, and I can imagine the same is happening
in NYC. Knowing there is generally less excitement around
Rutabegas than summertime tomatoes has helped us decide to cut back on
attempts to make distributions last all the way to Thanksgiving.
We thus free up land and energy to grow better and more melons,
tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and herbs and less turnips and rutabegas.
This is not to say, however, that we have lean amounts of carrots, beets, potatoes, celeriac, onions, daikon, brussels
sprouts, greens or squash. Enjoy the abundant harvest of nutrient
dense fall roots and greens!
Sorry to've missed the Saturday garlic planting due to rain. I was
looking forward to seeing y'all and hope you can reschedule for this
coming Saturday! I'll be workingharvesting alone this week as our
apprentices are finished for the season. It gets too cold at
night down at the farm for us to expect them to stay any longer than
the end of October. Thanks Aliyah and Alissa, what a great year! ...
It's actually a bit of break for me to work alone, as managing a crew
has its
demands/ challenges. Today I'll be harvesting brussels sprouts
and greens directly from the field, and pulling roots out of the root
cellar for distribution. Between distributions, I'll be planting
garlic, spreading mulch, collecting eggs, feeding the pigs and
chickens, making compost, etc.
Hope you've been enjoying the fall crops, I know we have!
Here's the harvest for the week:
Winter Squash
Onions
Brussells Sprouts
Rutabegas/Turnips
Carrots/Potatoes
Kale
Herbs
Mustard Greens
Daikon
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Archival Farmer Notes
October 23, 2007
October 16, 2007
October 09, 2007
October 02, 2007
September 18, 2007
September 11, 2007
August 21, 2007
August 14, 2007
August 07, 2007
July 24, 2007
July 10, 2007
July 3, 2007
June 26, 2007
June 19, 2007
June 12, 2007
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