WEEK 2: Weathering the weather.

Rain is certainly the name of the game around here. The cows and pigs do not seem to be phased at all. The chickens are growing and grazing just fine. But the farmers. . . soggy and dripping with one eye always to the sky. . . . would welcome some high and dry weather. A silver lining to this weather business. . . little did we know when we agreed to work with Andy for the summer that he would be our own personal meteorologist. As a youngster, Andy had his own website where he compiled radar images and his knowledge and pumped out his own forecasts. We have learned that this last slug of rain and wet is called a "cut-off low" and that there is no real end in sight.
We are trying to not stress about the waterlogged soils and our succession plantings getting pushed back. We schedule all of our seedings in the winter months and follow a strict calendar to make sure we always have greens, baby lettuce, cilantro and young carrots coming along. When we can't prepare soil to seed these crops, our schedule gets messed up. This means, for us and for you, that there will be some gaps in the supply of salad mix and beans and perhaps other direct seeded crops.
"You can't change the weather" is what I keep reminding myself. Prentice related an anecdote from a Canadian grain farmer this morning and it is something like this: "10% of stress is from the event/situation itself and 90% is from our reaction to it." This rings true to us, so we are trying to think creatively, work on other projects, hope for a brilliant high pressure system to blast through, and/or divine intervention. (And we are trying to not stress out.)

This little farmer doesn't mind the rain a bit. He has been sighted recently in the baby carrier visiting the pigs, chickens, and even helping with some barnyard projects. He is catching some ZZZZs in the laundry basket; his second favorite spot -- the best place being in someone's arms.

THE WEEK'S HARVEST

Belfast members picked up beet greens bunches, lettuce heads, spinach, cilantro and scallions this week. Farm members will enjoy the same array Tuesday. We devoured a huge "mess" of beet greens for lunch the other day. Amanda scored the biggest beet roots with a knife (helping them cook faster) then steamed the greens and roots whole for 10 minutes. We like lemon juice on top or butter and salt and pepper. Laura recommends honey mustard, which will be our next taste test.

NEXT WEEK

Snap peas are ready to harvest.
as are a rainbow of radishes.
Baby carrots are already being picked by the two big Grassi boys
Chinese Cabbage for fresh slaw or for stir frying
More herbs and scallions
Salad greens/lettuce/spinach

As always, be in touch with questions or comments.

~Polly

First Greens: Week 1

Week One of the 2009 Season. First of all, a sincere thank you to one and all for allowing us to be your farmers for the growing season ahead. It is truly our pleasure and we look forward to sharing the bounty with you in the weeks ahead.

A bit of news to begin with. Abel Grassi joined the farm team here on June 8th. He is a strapping lad weighing over 10# at birth and gaining by the day. His big brothers are nothing but love and kisses (so far) and his days seem to pass quite blissfully. Joseph and Ben are out and about much these days, catching toads and frogs, picking flowers and helping on carpentry and garden projects.

Prentice, Andy, Amanda and Laura have been transplanting like crazy. Getting corn transplants in, cukes, winter squash, the fourth batch of brassicas (broccoli and relatives) which we succession plant to provide you with broccoli, kale and cabbage all summer long. 1000 lettuce get transplanted every other week and new ones get sown in trays every other week. Truly a revolving door of baby plants these days.

The new "egg mobile" is almost finished and will be quite an abode for the new flock of pullets getting ready to produce eggs come August. It is getting a paint job and a "porch" and will be ready for animals in a week or so. Just in time!! A fox got 5 broiler chickens a few nights ago. More secure housing for the layers will be good for everyone. (Except Foxy).

At last, some green goodness from the Village Farm!

This week you received:
Spinach

Kale (a sub for the chinese cabbage which really needed another week to size up)

Cilantro

and Salad greens

• The spinach is so tender and flavorful, we sometimes don't even dress it. To try the Shyka family classic spinach salad: red onion chopped fine, shredded cheddar, bacon (if you are inclined) and vinaigrette.
• Kale, a cousin of cabbage and broccoli, is most often enjoyed sauteed in a stir fry or sauteed solo with some garlic and oil. You may steam or blanch it first then sautee or toss with oil after that. It can also be chopped and added to soups.
• Cilantro is a traditional, beloved herb in many cultures. We use it liberally around here, but most often it finds its way atop beans and rice, into fresh salsa or black bean and corn salad. Here is a recipe for Cilantro Pesto, delicious alongside a curry or as a sandwich spread. I learned this from an Indian woman I apprenticed with, so thanks to Sheila. . .
  

Cilantro Pesto

In blender or Cuisinart: 1-2 garlic cloves, 1" of fresh ginger root, peeled if you care to, and as much fresh jalepeno pepper as you dare (or none at all) . Blend well. Add 1 bunch of cilantro, chopped coarsely on a cut board first, 1/4 cup sunflower or other vegetable oil (olive oil is too strong tasting), juice and zest of one lemon or a lime, and salt to taste. Adjust texture with more oil. Enjoy!

Also, from the Resources tab on our website:

Vegetable Identification and Storage Guide is a very entertaining link to Angelic Organics' CSA site.

Recipes galore, developed by a CSA farm, for using all of your vegetables.

COMING: Radishes, more greens, kale and herbs then we will add peas, broccoli, scallions, carrots and tender white spring turnips.


As always, be in touch with questions or comments and check this blog weekly for news and recipes from your farm.



Fondly, Polly

Work Day and Farm visit POSTPONED

This picture is from a few weeks ago, but also captures what we are up to these drippy days of early May.


Hello again!

We are POSTPONING the onion planting detail planned for this Saturday due to the amount of moisture in the ground. We just cannot get the ground prepped for planting. We would like to invite all of you NEXT SATURDAY, May 16th, 9-12 for the same gig and this time, we will do it rain or shime. If it is too wet for planting we will have another task to work on as a group and some time to see the animals, woods and share a bit of food.

Have a good weekend. Happy Mothers' Day to all the mothers out there.
Best,
Polly
and all at Village Farm

Early May work party at Village Farm

Dear friends,

With the month of April waning, the farming season is gaining the familiar springtime pace. In other words, it's starting to feel a bit crazy. This time of year is filled with Spring cleanup, machinery tune-ups, and construction projects amidst steady seed-starting, caring for the seedlings and planning for the planting season. While we have sowed our first peas, beet greens, carrots and cilantro in the field, we spend more time in the gardens kicking clods of dirt, hemming and hawing and testing for dryness before we bring the tractor onto a particular piece of ground. This is the warm-up, so to speak, before the gardening starts in earnest. We also have new life on the farm in the shape of two new calves born in the barn and 50 tender laying chicks under heatlamps in the greenhouse. With any luck, it will be 16 weeks to our first 50 eggs! 4 piglets arrive this week to round out the "barnyard".

We expect two interns, Andy and Amanda, to arrive later in May, and a third worker, Laura, to start in June. We also have our own farmhand (new baby!) arriving in June to join older brothers Joseph and Ben. Lots going on, but we have lots of support and are perpetually grateful for what we have here.

And we are excited for another season of work, inevitable surprises and food from this land. Thanks, too, for your support of our efforts. It is meaningful for us to have people involved and invested in the farm. Going into our third season of full-time farming on this land, I have been particularly aware this Spring of the farm as a perpetual work in progress- with constant decision-making, tuning, planning and working to try and make it more successful in the broadest sense, for the land, our family and the community. I have really begun to see it lately as some kind of odyssey. I guess you call that Life.

So, we'd like to invite you out to the farm this Saturday, May 9 from 9-12 for a morning on the farm. Planting onions is a great job for many hands. We thought we could work on the onions for a couple hours, and then have some time to look around the farm a bit, visit the baby animals if you'd like and share a light lunch. We'll plan to have some soup. If you were able to bring a snack to share that would be great. We hope to see you then! If it's really raining, let's put it off. Please call with any questions or to check in about the weather. 382-6300

Please join us even if you don't want to get on your hands and knees in the dirt for some planting. There are jobs for many hands and all abilities, and we always need supervisors ( a.k.a. talkers!).

Kind regards,
Prentice