Feb. 7, 2009
Today I got my subscriber's issue of Martha Stewart Living
There is a beautiful story on the CSA on page 112. It is beautiful.
Chard has never looked so good. 2008 CSA members - these were your veggies.

Thank you.
joan and drew

p.s.- Joan, and the chard, may look better in the pictures.

January 13, 2009
Whoops To those of you who recieved the email- before I learned how to send out a lot of emails... the link to the sign up page is incorrect. So much for checking it a hundred times. It is http:// not www. if you make that change you will see the sign up sheet. I would post it here but I wanted to send it out to all previous shareholderss before I made it public. I should have it posted by friday. Thank you for your patience while I continue to learn email.

January 13, 2009
This week I finished the updates to a program that will allow you to sign up online and pay with a credit card. I sent out some emails last night, but didn't know I would get locked off for sending out 500 emails. I can send more out tonight. WE can get emails but not send them .The link to sign up will be added this week.

December 8, 2008
Please take a moment to read and sign the petition mentioned below (after my signature) regarding the selection of a new U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. The sustainable ag community has developed a list of six names that would be appropriate choices for this post, or perhaps some other appointment in the new administration. There is a nationwide effort underway to get as many signatures as possible on this petition in the next 24 or 48 hours, as time is now of the essence. Please feel free to forward this appeal to your friends and business associates in sustainable ag.

http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/

November 2, 2008
The website is not letting me change pictures on the other pages. This is only page I can update and change. So here is a new recipe- tied and true AND  Andrew approved **** a real new favorite. Curried Roasted Cauliflower- from a JHSPH CSA member Break up cauliflower into florets. Make a vinagrette and add some curry powder. Roast at 350 for about 30 min. Purple cauliflower turns almost blue . The house smells great and everyone calms down and waits for dinner. (Not the panic that ensues when the smell of liver wafts through the house. No I do not make that but  you get the point.) The season is coming to a close the last week of the CSA is the WEEK BEFORE THANKSGIVING.  So
Monday last drop day is Novmeber 18
Tuesday ---November 19
Wednesday -- November 20
Thursday ---Novmeber 21
Saturday --November 22, 2008

Talking Turkey
If you are looking for turkeys for the holidays here are several farmers. Call ASAP to order both have less than 100 birds. Carriage House Farm -Gaylord Clark- 410-415-5845-free range, heritage turkeys, also on pasture. no hormones or  antibiotics Albright Farms-Tom Albright- 410-329-3269

You can also check the website www.localharvest.org

Here is the link to the article in the New York Times written by Michael Pollan titled 'Farmer in Chief ' that I keep refering to at the market. Please take the time to read it. I think you will be proud of yourselves.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/10-13

The season is winding down, but we still have a lot of produce. Here is a picture of the cauliflower and 'cosmic' cauliflower ready to be roasted. Yum!


Here is the Purple, Cosmic, and Orange- (or pre-cheesed ) Cauliflowers

Before you think you are finished with some pictures here are a few more...Barbara (Neopal @ Belvedere Sq) and I at the market- I swear I was telling the truth...

This morning we were featured on the show 'Maryland Living', WMAR at 9 am. Steve Rouse came out on Wed.- the coldest day of the week. It is hard to look all together when you are trying to talk without your teeth knocking together. He got a real dose of the

'Hereford Zone.'

For those of you who who have not met the men who deliver for you. Here they are

Nestor Lopez


Little Miguel or Jr. Perez

OCTOBER 16, 2008 
I have been trying to get a customer this photo of her and her son. He wanted a big sunflower. So we grew it and brought it to the market for him. Maybe one day soon he'll show up and we can take his picture next to the tent leg. Sorry we won't have a big sunflower for him to stand next to. If you see him at the market, ask for his autograph. I will warn you he has eaten many years of organic veggies and he is a bit taller.

In this picture is Carmela and Tony with his head down. He is the one we named the tomato after- our 'Tony tomatoes'.



Weeder Geese coming in to say hello. I now keep my distance since I saw a Utube video of a girl getting bitten on the rump- and the goose wouldn't let go. You can't see it in these pictures but they have teeth. The guinea hen in behind the geese. He has these waddles that look like parenthesis.

This summer repairs became necessary. The barn was falling apart. A main beam had been replaced about a year ago. Rotten from water getting in. So we repaired the roof and  put on new siding. I feel like I have moved! Thanks Cory Brown. This winter we will replace the floor in the barn. It is rotten, and I don't want anyone falling through it. When the harvest year is over we will move everything to the packing shed and replace the floor.

In August my daughter, Sarah, donated her hair to children with cancer. She had to wait until it was 10 inches long. It is the first time her hair was cut short since she was in the second grade. The braid looked like an aputation on the tray.


Drew after seeing her for the first time with her new haircut.



I don't think ground hogs eat watermelon.  Look at the hole immediately to the right of the watermelon.


Miguel wanted you to see how big the watermelons were this year. This one was bigger than his head.

He needed help to get this one up on his shoulder.




Bags at Waverly
This is a photo of the Friends's students handing out bags at the market on Saturday.

August 4, 2008

Hello CSA Members,
Our goal this year was to eliminate the use of plastic bags. I looked out my window one day and saw a plastic bag in a tree near our house. It is 30 feet up in the tree flapping in the breeze like a flag. It made me angry that I was so careless. It is so ugly. So that was the impetus to order bags.

Cheryl Wade, Mill Valley Garden Center, and I began a search for bags. We tried to find an American company who made the kind of bags that I wanted. There are none. All are made in China. One day while in The Common Market in Frederick, I found a bag that seemed interesting. When I got home and looked up the company who made the bags on the Internet, 1BAGATATIME. This company has the “factory monitoring is done by the non-profit organization Verite.” The bags are fair traded. 1 BAG AT A TIME also contributes 1% of our total sales to an environmental non-profit group through our membership in 1% for the Planet. This is a company I could spend my money with. We ordered bags to be delivered in June.

You might ask why now in August are we getting the bags. Remember I said it was a fair traded company? Well when there was an earthquake in China they let all the employees go home to check on their families. Guess whose bags got delayed? They are here now and the story continues.

On April 21, 2008 I received and email from Judy Sandler the third grade teacher at Friends School:

Hi!
My name is Judy Sandler and I teach 3rd grade at Friends School of Baltimore. This year on Earth Day, the third grade decided to sell their gently read and used books to each other--a quarter for paperbacks and fifty cents for hardbacks. The sale was a great success--the children taught each other about some good books and they tried to save some trees in the meantime. The class would like to donate the money they collected to One Straw Farm in support of your efforts to continue to produce organic food and use the food locally. I would like to send you a check in the amount of $90.00.                           

We decided to use this money towards the One Straw CSA Reusable bags. The recycled book sale project would ‘support’  local organic food and reduce the use of plastic bags, thus recycling just like them. A ‘pay it forward’ idea.

Recently legislation was introduced to the City Council by James Kraft to ban plastic bags at grocery stores.

City plastic-bag ban fails
Council votes down anti-litter measure

By John Fritze | Sun reporter
July 22, 2008

Legislation that would have made Baltimore the second city in the nation to ban plastic bags at grocery stores and retail chains was killed by the full City Council last night.

Intended to keep plastic bags from clogging waterways, the proposal would have required large stores - those with $500,000 or more in gross revenue - to bag groceries in paper or reusable bags only. Days after it was approved by a committee, the full council voted against the proposal, 11-3.

"I know there has been a lot of pressure on this bill," City Councilman James B. Kraft, the lead sponsor, said of opponents who have lobbied against the measure. "I think they're wrong about this."

Well I supposed we need to show them how it is possible. If third graders could make use of old books, we can certainly continue the effort. My hope is that when they see these bags walking the streets of Baltimore they begin to realize that the efforts of even a third grader makes a difference.

Imagine what will Baltimore could be when children like these become the politicians that govern us. I can hardly wait.

Some of these children will be handing out bags at the 32nd Street Farmer’s Market Sat August 9, 2008 to hand out the CSA bags to members there. Every CSA share will receive one bag. If you would like to order additional bags they can be delivered with your shares. They will be sold at The Mill Valley Garden Center, and all our farmers markets. Any profit from these bags will be donated. At all of our farmers markets we will have donation containers. For every person who uses no plastic bags, we will make a $.10 donation. There will be several choices to drop your donation in. So no one is punished for using a bag; but encouraged to not use them.              

Thank you the Friend’s Third Grade Class of 2008, now fourth graders, for setting such a great example for the rest of us.


Pictures of 2008
July 2008 Pictures - Updated July 12, 2008

July 30, 2008   Pictures July 30, 2008
Well it only took 2 weeks for Verizon to fix my DSL. It was intermittent for 1 week. It allowed us to read an email then would shut down before you could get any work done.I tried to use my sister-in-law’s internet- hers was down too, Comcast. Drew is sitting at the kitchen table next to me. It is 10:30 pm and he is fixing a carberator while I am writing a diary entry. I think this counts as a date.

There are some new items…finally. The green tomatoes were the idea of a CSA member who really wanted tomatoes. If he couldn't get red ones, why couldn't he have green ones? I never thought of it. So you can thank him. Fried Green Tomatoes at the CSA today- sounds like a book I once read. There are other things to do with green tomatoes. Green tomato chutney, pickles or Green tomato apple pie. Yes I did find a recipe for that on the internet as well. I lost the recipe I was given for a perfect pie crust so I haven't tried the green tomato pie. You will not be seeing kale or collards for several weeks, they were mowed down this week. Is that a sigh of disappointment or relief I hear?

There is a bit of lacinato around, it still looks good and the harlequin beetles have not found it. As soon as they do it will be gone as well. Last year we kept kale and collards all summer to fill wholesale orders and try a "Greens Project." What ended up happening was an infestation of harlequin beetles that desimated the fall brassicas, like broccoli and brussle sprouts. This year we got rid of the kale and collards hoping to break the life cycle and reduce their numbers. I wanted to try the Guniea hens in the field but they don’ follow me too well. I had wanted to build a movable house for them- it hasn’t happened. The big green house went up instead. Corn is making its appearance. Some sites will have eaten some by now. It is a variety that still tastes like corn and not just sweet. The kids that work the markets with me eat it uncooked. There was a bit of a break because one planting didn't get finished before the plant were to big to transplant.. But there is 4 planting of corn with 6000 plants each. Each corn stalk usually produces 1 ear of corn, so there is enough for everyone.

Fennel, kholarabi, are new to our summer crop list this year. I have been stir frying the fennel with onions and zucchini. I want to try a new soup I heard at Atwater’s yesterday. Fennel soup.

Agustine and Mauricio cleaned up my gardens and pruned all the trees. I don’t recognize my house. They even trimmed the wheeping willows. These willows are the direct descendants of the Whomping Willow in the Harry Potter books. They attack whenever you mowed the grass under them. Large branches beat you in the head, while smaller ones poked you and leaves fell everywhere. It might have had something to do with the long strands of leaves getting caught in the mower, but Whomping Willow is a very accurate description.

Tomatoes are trying to ripen. They are ‘breaking.’ That is the term for changing from green, to vine-ripe status. I usually say that tomatoes ripen when you sweat in bed after taking a shower, even with the AC on. It sounds like this weekend may provide us with that opportunity. Week #5

Please pick up your share at the site you choose. We are having some difficulty with people missing their pickup time and wanting to go somewhere else. If your site needs to change, it needs to be a permanate change so our orders going to that site are correct. You can send someone else to pick up your share, or your share will be donated to that site at the end of the day; but it may not be picked up elsewhere at another time.

There is a new herb in town Papalo.

It is stonger than cilantro but use it as you would cilantro. Below is some information sent by a CSA member:

September 27, 2007 by Rose Marie
Papaloquelite, Porophyllum ruderale known as papalo or summer cilantro, is a Mexican and Central American herb. The leaves have a warm pungency like cilantro with a hint of citrus and a more powerful flavor. I recommend using about 1/3 as much papalo as cilantro when preparing salsa and then adjust flavor to your taste. In Mexico, restaurants often place a little vase of papalo cuttings on the table and the diner adds leaves as desired.
The use of Papaloquelite “butterfly herb” predates the introduction of cilantro, Coriandrum sativum to Mexico by thousands of years. It’s easy to understand why cilantro with it’s similar flavor was so quickly adopted. It is used for salsas, sandwiches, guacamole, salads or simply sprinkled over rice and beans.

The flavor is lost when cooked.

This Cornell U website has information on papalo.
http://www.gardenmosaics.cornell.edu/pgs/science/english/papalo.htm
The intense flavor may possibly substitute for cilantro in Indian and SE Asian cooking. If you enjoy cooking with unusual herbs this is one to try.

Week #4
Today is Wednesday, June 24, 2008. I made diner for Drew and Meredith, (the 86 year old who lives with us) before I went to the Whole Foods Market. I decided to par boil the chard before I left to help Drew get dinner made quickly. Can you see what is coming? I called home at 5 and guess what. I had burned the chard. No kidding. I turned it on at 2 and left forgetting to turn off the stove. David came in the house and it was full of smoke.

“What were you trying to cook?” Glad I ate out, never really wanted to try smoked chard.

Why do I still have greens- Where are all the things you said we'd have in June and July? Like Zucchini and cucumbers?

You are now very familiar with ‘greens’ Let me explain why a few expected June vegetables are so late. I got this from a very reliable source, Drew, the husband. I got the information on our way to the beach to see his sisters and Dad. Our 24 hour beach day one Sunday. He was stuck in the car with me for 2.5 hours EACH WAY. He could not get away or go fix something. He had to listen and answer my questions. Remember, He grows it and I sell it. There has not been a lot of time to get all my answers. But in 2.5 hours I managed to get the scoop.

First of all this May was the wettest month on record. The arugula and beets were replanted three times, (some of you wonder why beets were ever replanted). The rain came down so hard packed the soil so the seeds could not break thru the crusted layer when they germinated. This happened twice. The third planting came up, but it was planted almost three weeks after the first planting. Thus the delay on beets.

So where is the arugula you might ask? It bolted with the early hot days in June. Arugula is a cool weather crop. Between the late planting and hot weather it bolted overnight.

A 1 inch rain in spring can keep a farmer out of the field for a week until the ground dries enough for the equipment to get in the field. This time of year late June a 1 inch rain may only take 2 or three days to dry. The warmer temperatures help dry out the fields.

One Straw Farm farm is in the infamous ‘Hereford Zone.’ This is a small microclimate in Baltimore County. (You can look it up in Wikipedia. Hereford Zone.) Our weather is cooler than anywhere around. In fact, our frost date is May 15th, significantly later than Baltimore frost dates.

Field preparation takes several stages. It must be plowed down. Next it takes some time for the cover crop to break down. This enables the nitrogen to become available to the new crop. This is especially important in the spring since the fields will be used all season.

Now there is the wild life. Ground hogs are so cute… When I tell you they ate some of your lettuce – you say it’s ok, I still got lettuce in my share this week. But they also ate some of your broccoli, and even peppers. One ground hog can eat ¼ are of broccoli in an afternoon. That is several hundred plants. They then have to be replanted in the greenhouse and wait the few weeks until they are big enough to transplant. So as you eat more collards, remember the groundhog ate your broccoli.

Bryan Hendricks has been hired to clear out some hedgerows. We did not eliminate them, but cleaned them up. Instead of a 30’ wide hedgerow we have a 10’ hedgerow. He had never seen so many ground hog holes in a hedgerow. That’s because they are so healthy eating ORGANIC PRODUCE! We now call that section of hedgerow Ground Hog Alley. Look at the pictures for June 2008 for pictures.

Week #3
Nestor is finally here. Today, Thursday, he’ll be driving with Miguel Jr. The delivery route is a bit different this year, and I don’t want to start the learning curve again. So with two people unloading they may even be early.

Miguel Sr. just informed me of the ‘Son of a Gun’ groundhog. That ‘Son of a Gun’ is eating all the broccoli he had just transplanted. It amounts to about a ¼ acre of broccoli plants. Jesus said,"He is a fat ‘Son  of a Gun’, just like Agustine, ( Miguel’s brother-in-law). He has teeth that work very fast like you Agustine….

It is like the movie Caddie Shack, One Straw Farm style. Instead of a golf course and a gopher, its is One Straw Farm and 'Fat Son of a Gun' groundhog.

My daughter Sarah, is going to the post office to pick up my new peeps. These chickens are to replace the egg laying chickens the fox ate. I am working on the electric fence to find where it is grounded. Eventually the guinea hens and geese should help protect the chickens. Now we begin the long wait for fresh eggs- 21 weeks. Ugh what a long wait.

Every year the weather influences when crops are available. The late spring down pours crusted over the soil. Beets and the arugula couldn’t break thru the crusted soil and had to be replanted – twice. That put those crops back two weeks. So those of you who remember last year we had arugula and beets the first week. They didn’t appear til this week this year- two weeks late. The sugar snaps are coming, along with the fava beans. Both these are a bit late as well. But since the strawberries made it I am not complaining.

The markets are all open. The newest one to open is Harbor East. It is across from Living Classrooms on Lancaster ST. All deliveries and markets are at the correct sites on the correct days- whew/!

There was just an article on CSA’s on Good Morning America today June19, 2008. Here is the link: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Consumer/Story?id=5197055&page=2

There are links to other CSA’s in Md if you are curious on how other CSA’s work. In addition, you could check out www.localharvest.org for information on farms. Pick your own or links for other farm products.

All Markets open and at correct sites now.

Newsletters 2008   
Thursday night. AT Boordy tonight I offered a strawberry to Sidney Hobbs. Sidney does not like berries. We called Hannah, my niece, to see if it was worth trying the strawberry. Well Sidney tried the strawberry- she licked it and declared it was ok. Now she has some homework. She is going to try some 10x sugar, and chocolate on the berries to see which way she likes them the best. I hope she tries them plain again as well. That would make it the perfect trial. That is what Hannah and Carl did when they tried the strawberries again. I'll let you know what Sidney decides.

See Sidney, I did write about you.
joan

Week 2 June
Thank you for all your patience this first week. Trying to schedule drops times efficiently is a challenge. Miguel Jr. has done a great job. This is his first time driving the Isuzu, and making the drops. Next week the regular driver, Nestor, should be here. I will send Miguel with him the first week to show him the new sites.

Dad and Mom have been wonderful getting the information compiled. ( Be glad it wasn’t me.) Even with Dad being in charge of the excel spreadsheet, I have managed to mess up a few things.

The strawberries are still delicious. My niece, Hannah, didn’t like strawberries until she tasted Uncle Drew’s. She got her brother, Carl, to try them as well. They got  to get ‘points’ on their “Trying Chart” for tasting the berries. They then decided to try them with 10X sugar, granulated sugar, and ice cream and with chocolate. Look at all those points collected for trying new things.

Charley, another nephew, tried them as well. He decided that they were pretty good. Not like the ones in the store. (If Hannah and Carl were going to eat them he was not going to be left out.) I had to explain that these berries are different than the ones in the store. He should try one. Charley wouldn't try them with his vanilla ice cream. He was afraid the berries would ruin it.

Here is a email about the strawberries.

O-kay...so I finished up the strawberries I picked up on Saturday (a neighbor kid came over yesterday & said these were the bestest strawberries he ever had & the kids proceeded to eat about 10 berries each).  So today, I give my kids a bowl of the organic strawberries I paid a million dollars for at Q#$%.  They each eat one, and the 4 yr old, Justin says "Mom, where are the strawberries from Joan?"  I said "What do you mean?"  The 8 yr old, Hayden, says "We all know these aren't Joan's strawberries...can we have some more of those, please?"

I guess I'll have to buy extra this week!  Please stop making everything so darn good!  When we run out, it's almost a disappointment to have to eat the %%$#@ produce!

Do you  think we can get them to eat Chard? The following email may help.

Here is a letter from a new CSA member, she made it through her first week of greens. Her idea for chard sounds delicious. And hats off to his mom for cooking him chard as a kid.

You mentioned when we spoke on the phone that it might be difficult for just the two of us to use the full share with all the leafy greens in June. It was no problem at all. I wanted to share with you what we did the first night, because we found all the greens a bit daunting at first. But we liked our dinner (which took less than 30 minutes to prepare) so much that we ran out of vegetables very quickly, and can hardly wait for the delivery tomorrow.

I am embarrassed to say that I've never before eaten swiss chard, though my husband grew up with it and always loved it. I had no idea what to do with it. But, with the baby, we only have limited things in the house, and I end up just throwing them together. But, this was great, and I wanted to share in case you wanted to put it in your lovely collection online:

Tomato Gnocchi with Swiss Chard

1. Boil Water for Gnocchi
2. Heat Salt and Cayenne to taste in a pan, add olive oil and minced garlic (don't burn).
3. Add a bunch of chopped swiss chard and 2 chopped medium tomatoes. Add a splash of red wine.
4. Undercook the gnocchi, drain, and add to pan with sauce, cook until gnocchi are to taste.

We also made a wilted lettuce salad with egg (boiled in the gnocchi water), fake bacon, and thinly sliced onion. And garlic spinach with dried cranberries and pine nuts. Almost half the share was killed off with one dinner!

Week 1 June 2008
I told you it would be very green. Some crops are not quite ready. Now you can really appreciate the ‘in season’ part. Some crops are not quite ready, the cool temperatures have slowed a few things down. For example, beets, arugula. Mizuna, kale, etc. The CSA also started a bit earlier this year. I made the mistake of guessing when Waverly started. My son, Andrew, was born 19 years ago on the first day of the market. (I was not there that day.) The market always starts the Saturday closest to his birthday, June 10.  The markets method of starting is the second Saturday in June. That I didn’t realize since I have my own method. So I goofed this year and started the CSA a week early, according to the  market method starting the year. This is the extra week. Usually the CSA is 24 weeks. I added an extra week in this year by mistake, a bonus to you. AND if I started later, you would have missed the berries.

The strawberries are wonderful, WHEW! That is the only crop I really fret over. It seems to be the most Important thing. Any survey we have ever sent out put strawberries at the top of the list. It is also a finicky crop. But WHEW this year looks good and tastes great.

When you get home with your veggies, notice the smell your lettuce.
The lettuce will be to your door within 24 hours of being picked. It should last and taste great. The 2008 CSA Season has begun!

We will have plastic bags at all sites until the new bags come in. Please try to get in the habit of brining your own and reduce the need for plastic.

May 24, 2008 Letter
Feb 16, 2008
2008 First letter to CSA Members See below

May 24, 2008
Welcome all CSA members.
The first week of the market is quickly approaching. Letters have been sent to drop site heads. They should be contacting you with final pickup information for their sites. The details on my end are still changing. We added a new drop site yesterday Maryland Presbyterian in Towson, and before that a home drop site changed to St Bartholomew’s to make room for more people. So that adjusts all drop times. I just want to be respectful of your email inbox and give you information that doesn’t keep changing.

Once again my delivery schedule is almost final, and the times and addresses will be sent to you. If you are picking up at a home drop site, i.e. Catonsville or Mt Washington, the addresses of those homes will be sent to you along with their contact information.

Farm Happenings Here is a letter I received:

Hi!

My name is Judy Sandler and I teach 3rd grade at Friends School of Baltimore. This year on Earth Day, the third grade decided to sell their gently read and used books to each other--a quarter for paperbacks and fifty cents for hardbacks. The sale was a great success--the children taught each other about some good books and they tried to save some trees in the meantime. The class would like to donate the money they collected to One Straw Farm in support of your efforts to continue to produce organic food and use the food locally. I would like to send you a check in the amount of $90.00.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

The money donated to us from these children is bought recycled tote bags for you to carry home your CSA shares. (They will arrive in early July.)  Their money will continue to save trees, petroleum and our environment. It is my hope the children will see some their bags around town, and realize how their efforts have paid off. The work of third graders can change a part of the world.

I had hoped to have these bags for all of you for the first day of the market, to reduce our use of plastic bags. They will not be ready until July 1. Until then, I am asking that you try to bring your own bags to cut down on the use of plastic bags until my bags are here.

Bird update.

The other night the fox chewed a hole in the greenhouse plastic and made off with 8 weeder geese and all 18 of the guinea peeps. This is war.

We still have 7 geese from the first batch. I ordered and received 20 more geese and 20 more guinea hens. All the geese are adorable. They’ll follow us around honking and running after you. If you turn suddenly and scare them, then as a flock they run away. The new little ones are in the chicken coop until the fox can be dealt with. The ‘big girls are in the moveable chicken pen. My nephew Patrick has been helping me with all the birds.

We are sending out our first heads of lettuce (wholesale) today. Saturday May 24, 2008. So plan on eating salad for a few days. It is beautiful. Lettuce loves this type of weather. Cool. The strawberries on the other hand I am a bit worried. Cool and wet are not berry weather. Hopefully the next few days will dry things out and get them red and juicy sweet. The berries I had last week from the Eastern Shore were a bit blah. So pray for warm days, not too warm or too dry.             

November 17, 2007
The 2007 CSA Season is finished. Thank you for a wonderful season. It has been great to be the grower of your food. Enjoy The holidays and your winter. Mill Valley Garden Center will sell any vegetables we still have available. They also have our cans of#10 chopped tomatoes. There are several restaraunts that are purchasing and using our   produce. Some of the produce they saved this summer,(like the story of the grasshopper and the ant), other is still being delivered.

They are:
Black Olive - Bond Street, Fells Point
Boheme- Pratt St.
Dogwood Restaraunt- 36th ST in Hampden
Woodberry Kitchen- Clipper Mill

September 11, 2007
Grass Fed Chicken
Call Gaylord Clark
410-415-5845

Grass Fed Beef-- 1/4 and halves only
Call Bob Prigel
410-592-7276

SAVING SUMMER
Tomatoes: If you have a surplus of tomatoes, there are many ways to save them. They can be frozen whole. When they defrost the skins slide off, and they can be used in soup or sauce. I prefer to chop them up and roast them with olive oil and a bit of sea salt. In a very slow oven, for several hours, until they shrink to half their original size. Then bag them in qt ziplock bags and freeze. That can be used as sauce, soups, chili etc. the flavor is intensified and some of the water is gone.

Peppers can be chopped and frozen. Take out the membrane. I usually chop to save space. It works with hot peppers too.

Eggplant can be slice, I flour it lightly, lay on a cookie sheet until they freeze. Then I remove them from the cookie sheet and bag them. The flour just helps keep them from sticking together.

August 28, 2007
Now all my kids are back in school. Our house is quieter, and we are trying to get some order reestablished. Somehow all the clothes that need to go to Goodwill, show up after they leave, so I get to take them. There are the empty boxes and plastic wrap from the deodorant, shampoo and shaving cream. There was some shuffling in the bed linens; and as it turns out, both children needed new sheets for their beds. Sarah moved to an apartment with a full sized bed. Her dorm bed was an extra long twin. Andrew could have used Sarah’s sheets; but he really didn’t think he wanted hot pink sheets.

The watermelons have been especially tasty this year. The long dry spell early on usually has this effect. The rain had an effect on the summer squash and cucumbers. They got way too big. Those we left in the field. No one makes that much zucchini bread…

We have a bumper crop of tomatoes. The new field should have begun production last week. The rain kept the men out of the field for a few days so the tomatoes are really ripe. They are also very heavy. You may have noticed that you are getting stronger carrying home your bags. Summer crops are wet and heavy. Some of the watermelons are so huge we can’t fit them in the black crates. Those we sold wholesale.

Last week, when Drew took Andrew to college, (his first year), everything happened. Within the first 6 hours of his leaving we had two trucks down, first Sarah’s Toyota PU. It overheated and cracked the radiator. Then the Isuzu, it had no brakes.

So some deliveries were made in the pickup trucks. But Thursday drops were in the big truck, there are too many. The big truck is our wholesale delivery truck. It is a 33,000 lb. Refrigerated box truck. Many see me at the market driving the truck. IT is big, you need a class B license to drive it, and I do have one. It is cumbersome.

The first drop no problem. The second drop is Brown Memorial Park Ave. MICA was having move-in day. So parents dropping off their babies for college were everywhere. Roads were blocked and we can’t go down every road in that truck. So we finally get to the church and park in front of it with the flashers on. As Nestor begins to unload the truck, I get out to help direct traffic around the truck. The first woman to come around the truck drives too close and is a bit under the left rear of the truck. Yep. She took out both windows of her car on the right side. Very rightly so, she was un-nerved. We exchanged info and called the police. They took forever to get there. Now we were late for our other deliveries. And had not grabbed the notebook with the directions and phone numbers. But with two of us to unload at the other sites we did ok. And were not too late. I even did ok in Federal Hill with its narrow streets; Riverside Drive is, fortunately for me, wide.

David, the young farmer in training, fixed the radiator. Drew go the brake job. It is almost finished. It should be back on the road for today’s deliveries. Thank goodness.
Oh and my oven is fixed. Jarvis took care of everything.

August 13, 2007
I hate when tomatoes come in… that means the kids (college kids) start going back to school. Claire, my summer shadow, leaves Friday for her drive to Springfield College. (Drew, Andrew and David are already worried about who will make them cookies, go grocery shopping, pick up parts, make the odd ball deliveries, and dinner when I have market. ) Sarah and I will leave after market on the 25th for her trek back to UVM. Andrew is off to Montana State in Bozeman, next Tuesday with Drew. My son Andrew has had two friends leave today. One is off to college and football practice, the other has joined the reserves. It is never easy to see them go.

UGH, I hate when they leave! No wonder I don’t like tomatoes.

Watermelons should be to you this week. Be a bit patient with Nestor. Watermelons are not easy to move. All drops may take a few more minutes while he carries the melons to your drop location. Only three or four melons fit in a crate, at a drop with 40 chares that is 10 more trips back and forth to the truck. I think it will be worth the wait. The melons I have had are really good. Even one that looked pink was good. Melons get picked when the tendril just above the melon dries. So that is the first test to ripeness, of course sometimes melons don’t cooperate, but then some of the prettiest apples taste awful. Our ugliest tomatoes, heirlooms, have the best flavor.

August 8, 2007
This website is not really to advertise or complain. But I do feel the need to let any of you know some information that may help you in the future. We purchased a VIKING Stove from Jarvis Appliance in Jarretsville about four years ago. In the four years we had had the stove the igniters on the griddle, oven and broiler have all been replaced several times , this is not covered under any warrentee. This is a commercial stove. It should be a work horse. It is not. Viking refuses to do anything for this stove. It is and has been a problem since we bought it. My suggestion to you is don’t buy a VIKING STOVE. If for no other reason VIKING is not willing to stand behind their product. If you are planning to redo your kitchen please try another company. When the repairman came (this time) we spent almost $400 to replace parts. It did not fix the broiler, and we were told that the line behind the stove that brings the gas to the stove is no good. It is unsafe and needs to be replaced. We must have at least another $400 to put into the stove to make it safe to use. The repairman left a note on the stove to not use the broiler. AND now my kitchen smells like gas. WE all work too hard for our money. Save yours and buy another stove. DON’T BUY A VIKING STOVE.

August1, 2007

August 1, 2007
AUGUST? What happened to July? I knew I needed an entry in the diary but a whole month? Things are pretty busy, but I do apologize.

Let me explain this summer. Like every year it is a bit different. Just when you think you have it all together, something unexpected happens. (In some respects it is a lot like raising children.) June was ok, but greens went on much longer than other years. The cucumbers and zucchini came in late. Yellow squash always takes longer to show up and does not produce as quickly as zucchini. Just so you know, red chard does not grow as quickly as green chard.

“No Bunches”

Manuel is in charge of the packing shed. He is the one who gets all the crates together, knows the amounts that go in the crates, stacks and packs and loads all the trucks. Manuel calls you the “bolsa personas.” I think that means bag people in Spanish. His lingo from you started years ago with our first CSA drop in Catonsville. They got their shares delivered in bags. So since then the CSA people get called the bolsas.

Manuel apologized to me for not having any bunches in some shares. Shaking his head sadly he said, ‘Joan, No bunches para de bolsas.”  (If this is incorrect Spanish it is because we use our own dialect of Spanish at One Straw Farm.) So that was my ahah moment. Manuel thinks ‘the bunches’ are the ‘fancy’ good things for you. They take longer to pick so therefore they are better. Squash and cucumbers are common and easy. We’ll have a chat with Big Miguel and Manuel to straighten that out.

In all businesses communication is key. Communication with you and my employees. Sometimes that is the hardest part. My inability to speak Spanish is a major drawback. We did try night classes at the high school, but that Spanish was for people going to Cancun and needing to ask for a bathroom. That I can do. Most of the time I do pretty well. The hard things to overcome are the cultural differences. How do you explain that you (the bolsas) are tired of greens? To him they are the fancy items and he is presenting you with the best.

You “bolsa people” are changing our farm and how it operates. This we have been able to explain to the men and they are excited. They realize the crates save money, you are more patient with receiving what is a second to our wholesale accts, the delivery is faster than a farmers market, and we can always give you more. A wholesale acct only orders what they want, and someone else may offer it at a lower price to get rid of it. But there are changes for us as well. They are still culling out seconds that can come to you, giving you 6 tomatoes instead of 4. They seem to understand with cucumbers, giving you cucumbers in the shape of a letter C, in the past they went to the compost pile or were left in the fields. We have some growing pains understanding what you want and need. There is a fine line between enough for a week, and too much. Can you imagine if I gave you bigger bunches of all the greens in June? So that you had twice as much?  I do realize there is no such thing as too many strawberries or too many tomatoes. 

A reality is that not all shares, at all sites, will be the same in any given week. We now have 689 total CSA shares. That translates into 4134 ears of corn, or 689 globe eggplants, or watermelons. You are also not all delivered on one day. So what is ripe on Thursday may not have been ripe on last Monday. It will be ready for the next Monday. And it could run out for the Thursday people before they get it a second time. Like my children, we treat you equally just not the same.

June 30, 2007
Let me tell you our personal chard story. My children, who are now 18 and 20, were then 6 and 8 years old. At that point in our lives, I had my own business running a family owned day care out of the tenant house of my in-laws. It was about 20 min from the farm. I got to work at 7 and got home about 6:30. The two children and husband were tired and hungry when we returned home to cook dinner.

Unlike spinach, arugula and lettuce, chard gets picked and then more leaves grow, Kind of like grass. So we ate chard. The only way we did not have chard was on ice cream. Drew has not planted any crop in that field that grows all year. He tried tomatoes last year; but since I don't eat them, there was no need to pick them. This year the fields have romaine, and zucchini. I wonder what will be in them this fall?

Today at the market, several people stopped by who are CSA members at other sites. They noticed that there were items there they had not received in their shares. The items were not ready when we picked for their site, like zucchini. We planned on having it all last week and it wasn’t ready for all the Monday people. The Monday afternoon delivery missed the sugar snap peas last week.( I threatened bodily harm to all workers to be sure they got some this week.) There will be broccoli, zucchini, and sweet potato leaves as new items.

Just to prove a point about the availability of vegetables, when I wrote this entry I thought yellow squash was a week off. We had it for dinner tonight. It was not ready yesterday to be picked for the farmers market today but was ready this afternoon. It will appear next week.

The sweet potato leaves are treated like spinach. As with any green, you can sauté them with garlic and olive oil. One member told me she heats olive oil, adds mustard seeds and coconut to the sweet potato leaves.

Purslane is in your shares, a freebee. This can be added to salad it is similar in flavor to cucumber. It is used in Middle Eastern Countries in taboulee. And apparently it was Gandhi’s favorte food.
“Purslane just happens to contain alpha-linolenic acid, one of the highly sought-after Omega-3 fatty acids. And it is high in Vitamin C” http://landscaping.about.com/cs/weedsdiseases/a/purslane.htm
The Weston Price Organization has this information and recipes for purslane.
http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/purslane.html

This week eggplant is beginning; it does not mean all sites will be getting it this week. But expect it to start soon. Some sites will get some this week, and some next until they really kick in, and then everyone gets them. We keep  a list of what each site received and try to keep all sites treated fairly. As the year continues vegetables will come in and go out. You may be the last one to get eggplant and the first to get tomatoes it all depends on when a vegetable is ready to be picked.

Spring lettuce is gone until the summer varieties are ready. Cucumbers still on the horizon along with yellow squash.

The corn is getting big and the first planting has tassels! I read in the Baltimore Sunpaper dining at large blog site, that someone was looking for good corn, old-fashioned sweet corn good. Don’t tell anyone but we have it. It is not a super sweet variety. My husband the farmer, Drew, thinks the super sweet varieties are sweet with no flavor. So he picked one he liked.

All else here is going along. Tractors are breaking and need repairs. It did rain so I need to check on the shitake mushrooms. David and Andrew’s laying chickens are getting big. They are well past the ugly stage and look like little chickens, not the fat full mother-bird look. That will come. They should begin laying in August. So we are anxiously awaiting our own eggs. Meanwhile, I do get grass fed eggs at Boordy on Thursday evening from Carriage House Farms. We tried their duck eggs too. They were good!

June 20, 2007
Federal Hill Site has changed. 1121 Riverside Drive
Streetlite is located at 1121 Riverside Ave, just south of Cross Street in the middle of the block, on the east side of the street. The rec center has scheduled all the field trips for Thursdays, and some days would close early So another site has been located. Also a new site is being set up. It is in Fells Point at Eclectic Elements, 723 S. Broadway. If you are interested in changing your site or know anyone interested let us know.

On the farm things are moving along. We had to get a new manure spreader. The one we were borrowing kept breaking. We were spending too much time and money on someone else's equipment. That should be here soon. I think we should get our pictures taken with it for Christmas.

the garlic is about ready. The tops need to be 40% dry before you  pull them. Well I pulled some without waiting. They are beautiful and delicious. The drying will help with getting off the paper around the clove. It is a bit tough while it is wet. This garlic didn't produce any scapes...I haven't found out why. I'll keep you posted.

We had some much needed rain and the farmer got to sleep in this morning, it was still raining so I let him sleep in.

Monday night I spoke in Fredrick for the Maryland Humanities  Council about CSA's and the importance of buying local. It was a great group of people. Especially when they didn't throw me out for being late. I saw parts of Maryland that I had never even heard about. Once i had to look at the sun to be sure I was heading west. Maybe I should have taken the Beltway...

Zucchini is about to explode......you asked for it. The green leaf is over. The inside got burned with those hot days. Still some red leaf and romaine , most of you had sugar snap peas and the monday drops will get theirs monday..... Fava beans... and zucchini. And you thought you were sick of greens.....

June 14, 2007
It's the The Farm Bill time. Check out the link
http://www.bioneers.org/pollan
There will be others but this is a good start. Michael Pollan is a favorite at our farm.
How does it feel to be a revolutionary?

June 11, 2007
CHECK YOUR TIMES ON DELIVERY SITES.
THE NATURAL - DAY CHANGE - Thursday

After the first week there are always a few changes. The Natural asked to have the day changed since their large deliveries come in on Tuesday. Thursday will give the CSA more space.

Today we made our first deliveries in our 'new' $500 junkyard diesel truck. Yes, the trip to the diesel mechanic raised the cost of the truck significantly. It makes delivering you shares a dream. There is plenty of room in the box. We can easily seperate drop sites. It has a ramp so on big sites we can load a hand truck and roll right off. Now that may not sound thrilling to you; but after a very rainy delivery to Federal Hill last year it is a dream. One kid at the rec center said to me, 'Wow, You are all full of wet.' That ramp and truck will save me time, and help us stay organized. Thus reducing the chance of error.

It really is a junkyard dog. It had to be kept running at all t drops today  because the alternator was not working. Drew fixed that this afternoon. So we'll be out in it again tomorrow. Nestor is going to be our primary driver. I am riding with him this week. Next week he is on his own. Thank goodness for Mapquest.

Arugula and spinach are in your shares along with kales, and lettuces. The sugar snap peas are there but not full. So they should be there next week. Beets are coming too.

June 6, 2007
Well we have begun, and next week is looking great. We expected to have our delivery truck for CSA ready in time for deliveries. The mechanic said today, he is waiting for parts. Imagine that.So it should be done by Monday. We had to load into a pickup truck and we miscounted one drop site. Funny how 1+1+1+1+1 +1 doesn't equal three. I will always make good on any mistakes I make. Have no fear, I will mess up, and you will not be left out. But the guilt from my mistakes always works in your favor.

Two drop sites have their own bulletin and blog site. The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health has a bulletin. csa bulletin_week1

The Patterson Park Public Charter School has started their own blog site.

love and veggies

I have heard through the grapevine my trusty Claire is back from college. It is from a very good source, my mom. She is supposed to be getting a blog going for me, and a few other assorted other summer specials. (Ask her how much she likes to pump used vegetable oil in 99 degree weather) She almost lost it on that one.

Bon Appetite, the catering company at Goucher College recently awarded us with a check to support a new project. Drew and I decided to use the money to start our new young farmer and our son Andrew in a pastured poultry venture. So eggs may be on the horizon. The young chickens are so ulgy now. Like preteen birds, ugh. Feathers on their bodies and none on their heads. Really unattractive.

I'll try to add some new pictures of the farm so you can see your food.

Thanks for letting us feed you.
joan

Hello CSA Has Begun!
June 4 through the June 9th, 2007

Monday Deliveries June 4
Elkridge Harford Hunt Club
Mt Washington
Meadowbrook Swim Club
Woodberry Kitchens
Govan's Presbyterian
Church of the Messiah- Harford Rd

Tuesday Deliveries
Atwater’s Breads
Brown Memorial Presbyterian- Woodbridge
Zeke’s Coffee
Patterson Park Public Charter School
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health

Wednesday Delivery

Thursday Deliveries
Mill Valley Garden and Farmer's Market (Pickup avail Thursday-Sunday)
The Natural- 10am til closing
Brown Memorial Presbyterian,-Park Ave
Dickeyville, Dickey Memorial Presbyterian Church
Catonsville (3 Drops)
Dorsey Hall-Ellicot City
Mom’s Organic Market- Columbia
Boordy Vineyards

Saturday
32nd St Farmers Market –Waverly
So mark to be sure your calendar. The website has updated days and a general idea of the times. The times should be the earliest time avail to pick up. That may change, and we would let you know.
What to do when you get to your site.
Sign your name on the sheet.
Get a bag, (unless you bring your own.)
Check delivery sheet to see what and how many to take.
Please be gentle removing items, there will be others after you.

Farm News
Here is what is happening at the farm. This spring has been colder than the past few years. So for us many crops are a bit late.

Our farm is located, in the infamous Hereford Zone. The Hereford Zone really is colder than all areas around us. We are even colder than Lancaster to our north. The peonies were blooming in Lancaster a week and a half ago. Our just started to bloom this weekend. This is to remind you that the weather you have in Baltimore is not necessarily what we have here. Our temperatures are usually 5-10 degrees cooler. Sometimes that is a blessing and sometimes it is not. Welcome to farming.

This year the lettuce is beautiful. The cooler spring has made beautiful full heads. The color is bright and the flavor sweet. Hot weather tends to make lettuce bitter. You will be getting plenty of lettuce. So plan to take salads to every party you attend. Don’t forget lettuce can also make great wraps instead of tortillas. I have mentioned before that I have had grilled romaine; and, as my daughter Sarah says, “I am not a fan.” Hot lettuce does not appeal to me.

There will be greens. This spring we will start with kale, collards and Lacinato kale. There are pictures on the website so you know the difference between all three. The peas are a bit late. So this year they will not be in the first weeks share. And we are waiting for the garlic to produce scapes. The flower of the garlic plant. It gets used like garlic or a vegetable. It tends to be much milder than a clove of garlic. The chards are coming. Spinach had to be replanted along with the Arugula. So it too will be a bit late, probably the second week rather than the first.

Get out the recipes. We do have a few recipes

March 31, 2007
What an overwhelming response we have had this year for our CSA. New sites are springing up all over. AND all the 'old sites' still exist! Next week CSA members will recieve an email checking in to be sure we have everyone listed in the correct drop site. We accept new CSA members all year so it is never too late, and no we are not full.

Here is a great link to raising chickens in the city. Many of you could have 2-3 chickens. Then you would "know your eggs."   This is for New York but a great source of info. www.justfood.org/cityfarms/chickens

February 2007
One Straw Farm is accepting new members for the 2007 growing season so let all your friends and neighbors know there is space available. Your food should not travel 1000’s of miles to your dinner table. If your church, neighborhood, or office is interested and would like a One Straw Farm CSA drop site, a minimum of 10 shares is needed to start a new site. If a CSA Power Point presentation is needed; please call to schedule a date. We have several new drop sites already this year and a few others finalizing their details. This year has a 25-week growing season instead of 24. This year’s price increase reflects the extra week. Otherwise we did not raise our prices for the 2007 growing season.

In January we sent out a survey to get some idea of how we were doing, and what could we do to improve. Here is a general overview:
There are no favorite vegetables that everyone likes; Nor are there any vegetables that everyone dislikes.
Site times and locations were good (we do have new sites this year) Everyone would like more fruit- I could be really smart and tell you that any item that has seeds on the inside is a fruit (peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, squash)- that only items like greens or broccoli are vegetables;  but, I don’t think that was the idea.  Unfortunately we will not be growing tree fruit. That is another business we can't undertake at this time. But, we will try to keep planting more berries. This year we tried a new variety of strawberries that comes in later. Many of our strawberries ripened before the CSA started last year so we have altered the variety in hopes of having them in June and not May. The strawberries are planted and look beautiful. Currently there is a white tape around it with some deer repellent on the tape. The deer think that the strawberry plants are as VERY TASTY. The raspberries will produce more this year. They are established and production should increase.
We are going back to an old variety of watermelon- so we will have more this year. Last years watermelons did not produce as well as previous years.
There would some ideas on veggies to try again- carrots, spaghetti squash and beans. spaghetti squash we grew years ago- but since we were wholesale, had trouble getting them sold. But with a CSA we don’t have to ‘sell’’ them. So they were a great idea. We had sort of forgotten them. Carrots-We spoke to a few farmers at our conference last weekend and several varieties were suggested- so here we go again. Green beans will go in again. Believe it or not they can be temperamental. Lettuce-Miguel and I had a VERY large talk. I explained if Carmela did not plant 5 flats of lettuce EVERY MONDAY – all summer. There would be no bonus for him this year…So lettuce, should be avail throughout the summer. If it isn’t, it won’t be because it wasn’t planted. BUY LOCAL BALTIMORE campaign has been kicked off by the CSBA, (Chesapeake Sustainable Business Alliance). Check out the website for more information www.buylocalbaltimore.com. You can make a difference by buying local. See the businesses that support your neighborhoods. Thanks for keeping your time, energy, talents and money close to home by supporting local agriculture. Many thanks,2006 Beginning Sept. 26. 2006, I will publish the new diary entry first. that way you do not have to scroll down. http://www.urbanitebaltimore.com/sub.cfm?issueID=35&sectionID=4&articleID=366

September 27, 2006
Spinach Article
I just came across this article on the internet written by fellow farmer in California about the spinach crisis.
http://www.ladybugletter.com/articles/spinach.html

September  26, 2006
Spinach, Here is my opinion  The closer you are to your food... the better off you are.....
.........Local, local, local.................
Here is the information sent to us in an email from the Maryland Department of Agriculture.
***You may want to share this with local growers, especially those selling at farmers' markets.***
Consumers can be confident that
Maryland-grown spinach can be consumed
FDA clears spinach outside of three California counties

From FDA Spinach Update - September 22, 2006:
FDA has determined that the spinach implicated in the [current E. coli O157:H7] outbreak was grown in three counties (Monterey, San Benito and Santa Clara) in California.
Spinach grown in the rest of the United States has not been implicated in the outbreak. The public can be confident that spinach grown in the non-implicated areas can be consumed*
Processed spinach (e.g., frozen and canned spinach) is also not implicated in this outbreak.

FDA News - September 22, 2006
FDA Statement on Foodborne E. coli O157:H7 Outbreak in Spinach http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2006/NEW01462.html

Farm news. It is really fall here. The nights are cool, and you start your day wearing a sweatshirt. By midmorning it is off in a pile somewhere like on the workbench in the shop, over the chicken fence, over the bed of a truck. Thisis the time of year that outlayer gets lost. By evening, 5 o’clock or so, you try to remember where you left that sweatshirt…

Tomatoes is always a good place to start. We were beginning to pick the 3rd field of tomatoes when ‘Ernesto’ came through. His high winds knocked down the top of the pepper plants. They are still producing. The tomatoes received a present brought by the storm, late blight. Late blight kills tomato plants. Drew described it to another farmer as, ‘…the grey cloud that marched across the field. You could almost see it move.’ The tomatoes in that field were over. We do have one more field, the fourth planting this year. The tomatoes were very small when Ernesto came to town. This field has somehow not gotten the late blight disease. Keep your fingers crossed. They picked a few yesterday. The warm temperatures are helping to ripen them. It isn’t as fast as August ripening but we will take anything.

Today the AIWF (American Institute of Wine and Food) has their Days of Taste farm tour.

This group teaches 4th graders about food. Professionals take their time to teach the kids about food. The start by asking where does their favorite food comes from. They then talk about the parts of their tongue (sweet, sour, bitter, salty) and how chefs use that information. The following week they tour a farm. The third week they return to the classroom to make a salad with all the lessons combined.

The kids love to see and feed the chickens. This may not happen today. The weeds in the chicken pen are once again waist high. Chickens are 18” tall. I am not sure they will see them through the weeds. Somehow communication that the Gravely tractor used to mow that field, had been fixed missed me entirely.

The lawn mower tractor, the Husgavarna (I love to say that word) is broken. That is one of my favorite jobs. Basically mindless, with the drone of the engine (I wear earplugs), I cut the grass, I think, plan and come up with ideas for dinner. Immediately you see your accomplishments. Work is much more rewarding when you make a difference you can see.

Week #1
Here are HZ ponderings.......... Hereford Zone- it's a real thing.

Tonight is warm and if some of you were out you may have seen your first lightning bugs. This is the weekend I usually see them. Tonight I did not see lightning bugs but fireworks! This is really not too uncommon. One of our neighbors is a Pyrotechnic - they do fireworks for a living. It may or may not have been him. But they are beautiful. I love fireworks. (One year they tested the new ones in the neighbors field, that was a display to beat all.) They might have done it again but it really upset all the horses in the area.

I went out watched fireworks on my front lawn. As I lay in the grass to watch a warm breeze blew and the smell of drying hay was on the back end of the breeze. I could hear the puppies eating their dinner. [We have four lab puppies, Ted -the one we are keeping yellow and male, Big Girl-the largest with a square head and no neck, Fiesty-the alpha dog, and the other one, Norma. Fireworks to the west, dogs slurping and chomping to the east.] As I lay in the grass I hoped it was not where the puppies had been earlier in the day.  That is when I thought of all of you. This is what you want to know. We love what we do, and really like sharing it with you. A CSA is not just about food but what comes along with it. You may not be here when the breeze blows and you smell the hay drying, or to hear the puppies rustling in the grass eating my hair. But when you hear the stories you know somehow you were here. So when you eat that first head of lettuce, it was part of tonight.

As an aside, have you ever smelled lettuce? Could you describe what it smells like to anyone? Lettuce does have an aroma. It is very noticeable when you pick 300 cases and they are being washed in the packing shed. It is as strong as warm strawberries. Green, sharp, clear, and a hint of dusty, very different from cut green grass. Green has many different flavors. A school group was here last week. The men were cleaning and packing lettuce. That's when one of the adults in the group said, "Wow, I had no idea that lettuce had a smell. It really smells good." So here is a challenge. When you go home the first week (June 6,8 or 10) take the time to smell your lettuce. Shave off a bit of the bottom off (if you don't smell it right away). Take a sniff. Happy Memorial Day.

Week #2
Last week was the first for many things, the first CSA deliveries, the first deliveries for some new CSA sites; and lots of new CSA members! The first sugar snaps were picked. We are still waiting on the first fava beans, they will appear next week. 

Our Easter Puppies, most people get jellybeans, have now gone to good homes. The spring crops are in and the summer second plantings are going in, like tomatoes, peppers and watermelon. We have had some nice rain. Thank you to all of you who keep perfect weather in your prayers……

Many of you have told me about The Real Dirt on Farmer John on PBS (June 13). Unfortunatley, I missed it, so will have to catch the rerun.

Keep your eyes open on MPT for my smiling face, along with Bob Vid-Tech. MPT came out and filmed us with the AIWF’s (American Institute of Wine and Food) Day’s of Taste Program. Those of you with little wee ones may notice some of your veggies on TV.

The corn is now almost hip high (to me, not Drew). They are in front of the house. Close to people ………maybe the critters won’t eat too much if it is here.

It is our first time growing corn, we’ll see how it goes.

Week #3
Ok all of you, up the prayers for some nice rain. We had to turn on the overhead irrigation for the beets. The sugar snap peas would produce a bit more if a little rain fell. These last few hot days did a number on the lettuce. There will be a bit for this week, but that’s it. Fava beans are in. Try grilling and eating as “Appetizer Entertainment.” It gives a healthy appetizer, while occupying those hovering in the kitchen anxiously awaiting dinner.

Zucchini is making its arrival late this week. Next week beets, and cabbage will be in your shares. Arugula, mizuna, mustard are salad or braising greens.

Start looking for website changes. This week I hope to have Claire work on pictures of the farm, pictures of ‘what vegetable is this?’ and recipes. They are written but not added to the website. Maybe that will be easy.

The biodiesel is going well. Drew is having fun making it. We have made 3 batches so far. It is being added to the farm vehicle off road diesel tank. A little bit mixed with our regular off road diesel improves the exhaust fume smell. Everyone here who drives a tractor loves the new fuel. One man came back in ‘to get some of that fuel’ in the tractor he was driving. That tractor didn’t have any of the new fuel in it. He wanted some in it so the tractor didn’t stink.

July 13, 2006
Sweet Potato Leaves

Last year at a Food Coalition meeting I met a farmer who grows sweet potatoes. He was from another country and now I do not remember if it was Africa, Jamaica, or an island. He told me to pick the leaves and cook them like spinach. In his country, the leaves  provided food while the main crop, sweet potatoes, were still growing. Because of this, sweet potatoes were a very good crop for very poor countries. I was fascinated and of course came right home and tried them.

Later in the year a customer just back from China, asked me for sweet potato leaves. They eat them all over China they are fried in oil with garlic and soy sauce.

This week I brought some to the market and within minutes a man from Africa showed up and with a large smile asked if they were the sweet potato leaves. He immediately bought 6 bunches. Later he came back and bought 2 more. There are more recipes on the internet. I have added a few to the recipe section. Tomorrow I will add a picture as well.

July 2006
From the Tractor Seat (This is Drew's )
From the tractor seat lots of time spent doing mindless work, mind working overtime. Too many things to do, too many skills to know,
I am the Jack of all Trades, Master of None.
I need to make compost, Easy job, Carbon source, nitrogen source, water, air, two months later compost. ‘What’s your C:N ratio ?’ he asks me. I don’t know I go by the seat of my pants. 2 scoops of horse manure, with shavings,1 scoop of leaves, 16 round bales of spoiled hay, alfalfa grass, 1/2 scoop of chicken manure. C:N ratio?

Who knows, but it works.

“Do you use a fungal based compost or a microbial based compost? In certain situations, with certain plants one may work better than the other you know.” Too much information for me, not enough time to make two types of compost. The key word is in my mind was ( may) work better than the other, Jack of all Trades, Master of None.

The pump doesn’t work. The breaker is on, the pressure switch has volts on each side, but the pump doesn't work. ‘Must be a bad pump.’ Something nags at me in the back of my mind, if the pump burned, why was the breaker not thrown?  New pump $800, 4 hours of precious time, no water. I call a friend, explain my situation, ‘Did you check amperage?’ He asks. $25 pressure switch – Voila! – Flowing water. I am a plumber. I am an electrician. I can do both, but not well.

Jack of all Trades, Master of None.

Red wire hot, Black wire, Hot wire- common, Green wire ground.

Cool, piece of cake. Exception, a vehicle when black us usually the ground. Then there is the mysterious blue wire that runs through the conduit in my packing shed. I need to wire the ice machine to the panel. What to do with the blue wire? Is it hot? Or neutral, pull out tester. Wire it up everything works fine. Now the only problem I have is I can’t remember what the stupid blue wire does. So I’ll have to figure it out again next time.

Jack of all Trades, Master of None.
Calibrate the sprayer.
Gallons X 43560 - Area sprayed (ft)
Water used (gal) X 43560 area sprayed (ft)

I know how to do this. It is algebra. And to think all those years I thought Algebra was a torture, dreamt up by a cruel sadist to abuse adolescent boys.
Thoughts from the Tractor Seat…
Fix the pump, grade the driveway, plant the squash, fertilize the tomatoes, spray the peppers. The hard squash needs to be cultivated, but the soil is so hard from the recent rains I don’t think the torsion weeders will be able to clean the small weed from in the row. I wonder if I use a rotary hoe first, will it loosen soil enough to allow the torsion weeders to do their job? So many tasks to do so many skills to learn, so many problems to solve…
Lord thank you, I love this job.

Drew Week #9
It is hard to believe it is only week #9. We are not even half way through the CSA season. You still have 15 weeks to go, keep eating. This week’s weather affects even the plants.  So enjoy your vacation from the greens. They too are sensitive to the temperatures. Summer fruits like tomatoes seem to ripen overnight. They are a bit earlier maybe a week earlier than last year. Watermelon should be delicious. The long dry spell seems to sweeten the fruits. Watermelon should be here for you next week.

Tomatoes are here! We began really picking this week. Next week will begin the real push to get them picked and out. Now is the time to save some items if you can. The veggies left at the end of the week can be stewed or roasted together. Put in a ziplock bag, freeze and use it this winter. You can season it then.

Last night I attended a meeting at a 2000 member CSA in NJ. Located in Trenton they are within 10 miles of 80% of their customers. I drove off the highway thru a neighborhood, another mile and there I was. A comparison would be if my 82 acre farm was at Lake Roland. A large piece of rural land just outside of “town.”  There was no ‘suburbia.” It went from houses, large beautiful homes to farmland. There was no 3 or 5 acre lots for miles, with farmers 40 miles from their customers. I was very surprised.

The close proximity to their members allows for a very different CSA setup. It would be nice to have all of you come to the farm weekly, pickup your produce, and go visit the pick-your-own fields for what you wanted of the pick your own crops, and not have to drive 30+ miles to do this.

If all of you drove to me every week, I would never be late, never forget an item, always have extra bags, and you could see where your food is grown. But to have that many people drive here weekly, would be a waste of fuel. So we adapt our farm to you. We deliver to keep the cost for all of us down.

Last week we purchased a diesel delivery truck, a small Izuzu cab-over box truck. It is does not require a Class B license. It needs a few repairs before it goes to inspection. Brakes, transmission, and some box repairs; but what can you expect from a salvaged from the junkyard special?Progress is a bit slow. It is hard to get everything fixed when it is so hot.

The shop has no AC, and most vehicles get fixed on the cement pad outside the shop. Hot weather slows down a few repairs. And then there are the priority repairs. The tractor that was transplanting had a flat, two field trucks needed repairs- brakes and a starter, the irrigation pump needed attention, and another tractor needed an alternater.

We have a new café customer. Boheme Café. See her letter in the restaurant section.

August 21, 2006
It is really dry here. The last few storms have missed us. We see them to the north or the south. Yesterday I tried to make sure the rain came to us. I rolled down the windows in the car and hung out the towels on the clothesline. IF you hang out towels especially, they get really wet and take longer to dry. But even towels did not entice the rain to us. It did sprinkle, but not enough to even rinse the car.

The pond levels are dropping and irrigation pumps run all the time. We do turn them off at night. (Neighbors don’t like listening to pumps running all night.) Meanwhile Drew says you can add water but you can’t take it away. Two weeks ago there was a fire nearby. The fire department draws water from our ponds to put out the fire. A few more gallons are gone. I am sure it will rain soon. I would prefer Saturday night after 10:30pm and over by 6 am. That way it does not ruin any parties or events.

Meanwhile we keep going. The last of the fall plug planting is in, broccoli, cauliflower, chard, kale, and collards. We are still planting some of the seeds like chard. It is so dry. Drew planted for you colored broccoli and cauliflower; unfortunately the plants went in right before those very hot days. The temperatures got too hot for too long for those baby plants. We will have broccoli and cauliflower just not the fancy colored ones.

Corn is over for the year. For a first time I think it went very well. We will do it again next year. Watermelon and cantaloupe are about over as well. This year’s yields were not so good. It could have been one of several things. This year we planted twice as many watermelon plants. In the past we planted seedless and sangria (this one was the pollinator for the seedless). This year the seedless was supposed to self pollinate Well  it did, but not well enough. So next year we will have both seedless and sangria again. Just to give you an idea of the difference, Last year we had about 100 bins of watermelon. This year less than 20 bins.

The great news is tomatoes. Boy do we have tomatoes. This year we got four planting in. We are beginning the second planting. They will be in your shares in abundance. Boordy Vineyards Good Life Thursdays continue..... a great easy date night. Local musicians, farmers and wine.

The Black Olive has been out to the farm this week to fill in their deliveries. Gertrudes at the BMA has been seen at the market as well. Mill Valley Garden Center will begin having dinner on Friday evenings.

September12, 2006
September already! We have gotten plenty of rain recently. Sunday evening, the skies were clear, the sun bright, a gently breeze blowing across the fields so he decided to spray. Within hours rain began. On the intellicast radar, the only rain on the East Coast was here. The harlequin beetles and flea beetles destroyed the first planting of Arugula. Arugula will be 10 days later than originally planned.

It is cool here in the mornings and lots of dew on the grass. Drew just made fun of me for having my pants rolled up. I did not do it to be like the teenagers who run through here, pants rolled up to the calf. Damp jean bottoms on my legs rubbing my ankles drove me to roll them up. Fashion lost to practicality.

Tomatoes, which have been plentiful, and who have been ripening quickly will slow down with the cool weather. There are still plenty to pick, so don’t worry. Tomato season is not over.

That will bring us to the BIG question, ‘When is tomato season over?’ Summer crops, which include tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash, end shortly after a hard frost. The frost kills the plants and summer is officially over. September 15th is our earliest frost date. We have had frost that early. There have also been years where frost hit and killed the tops of the tomato plants. The bottoms were fine and we picked tomatoes until November . Giving us tomatoes for Thanksgiving. So we wait and pray that the frost comes late or it misses us and Indian summer comes soon.

You may notice some ‘checkering’ on the top of your tomatoes, small splits around the stem. ‘Checkering’ is caused by a sudden rain after a long dry spell.  The fruits had to absorb the water, causing them to split. They have healed themselves. It is their scar.

A plant’s job is to ensure it’s species future. The cool weather will force the plants to hurry up and produce fruit. Then mature seeds would be ready for another generation.

Now is the time to really enjoy your summer crops. Shortly they will be gone. Yes the fall things are coming in and that broccoli looks so good. It’s different and you are tired of zucchini, tomatoes and peppers. But remember these items will soon be gone. And they do net reappear for 9 months. Eat and enjoy the ‘fruits of summer.’ Keep in mind you can freeze the peppers. Core, and chop, freeze in ziplock bags. You can pull out a handful this winter for your stir frys.