Farm to Folk Newsletter August 12, 2008
Cindy Madsen will be delivering her pork and poultry products on Aug 12. Please order directly to her at vcmadsen@metc.net She needs to get the orders by noon on Friday.
Paul's Grains Check their website for products and prices, then email your order to Marilyn. They will possibly deliver on August 19 if there is a large order, or if not then it will be mid September when they deliver. http://www.paulsgrains.com/
Berry Patch: Now harvesting : blueberries, red and black currants, blackberries . Blueberries picked only Saturday mornings 8 -12,
please bring your own container (ice cream pail)
Notice change in pick your own hours for August : Wednesday and Saturday mornings 8 -12 noon.
Full Circle Farm: remember to pre-order your grass-fed beef and they will deliver each Tuesday.
Grains of Wisdom: Mary Beth will be delivering pre-ordered breads or get there early for the "first come, first served" bread.
August Greetings from Picket Fence Creamery!
Editor's Note: Here is an opportunity to put in some time helping on a farm!With the dog days of summer and an abundance of July rains behind us, the Picket Fence cows are still enjoying tasty grasses while the light breezes keep them cool under the shade trees! And kids, another calf was just born last Friday. Her name is Ginny and you'll have to come meet her!
The cows and calves, however, are probably oblivious to our next farm chore...that of walking the beans. Yes, it became too late for us to plant corn here, so we are instead raising non-GMO soybeans. We managed to get the fields cultivated once, but due to the wet conditions were not ever able to get back in for the second cultivation.
So...we are extending an invitation to anyone out there in Picket Fence newsletter land...to join us this Saturday morning to relive that wonderful summer rite of our youth - bean walking! We've had several "volunteers" sign up, and some are bringing their older kids to give them "the experience" of how they spent their summers! Bring your water jugs and your gloves, and stay for an hour and all morning. When you've had enough, we'll treat you to all the chocolate milk and ice cream you can eat! We'll start at 8 a.m., and will be walking till noon. Hope to see you Saturday!
Now, if you are taking a "pass" on the bean walking experience, we hope you will still join us for a great summer day in the country during our 'Fun in the Sun" 3-farm tour and... SAMPLE SUNDAY
August 10 Noon to 5 p.m.
Admission is FREE!
(Event held in conjunction with our great neighbors to the north, Prairieland Herbs and Northern Prairie Chevre.)
Food samples galore - FRESH PEACH ICE CREAM, fresh cheese curds, fresh cheese balls, fresh chocolate milk, elk sticks, tortellini, Italian herb bread, fresh peanut butter, Iowa wines, and more!
Lunch is served - Jeff will be at the grill again! Enjoy a grilled brat meal, complete with fixin's, chips, milk and ice cream for only $5! The kids' hot dog meal is $3.
Kids - Take a pony ride in the pasture, see the new calves, and pick up your free pencils (just in time for school), and Got Milk posters!
Super Deals!
1. Fresh cheese curds - $3 per bag (regular $3.29)
2. Fresh 90% lean ground beef - only $3.49/lb. with 10 lb. purchase (reg. $3.99/lb.)
3. Fresh Iowa rhubarb or apple crisp and quart of ice cream - only $10!
4. Fresh ham loaf - only $5.99 for 1.5 lb. package. Great for ham balls too!
5. Fresh, local, chemical free produce: sweet corn, tomatoes, onions & garlic.
6. Fresh peach crisps - $7.80 - absolutely melt in your mouth!
Shop our other in-store specials, and browse the foods from 89 Iowa families, including fresh breads, Kalona noodles, Pella Dutch letters, and also an array of natural and certified organic foods from Pennsylvania Dutch country (including shoofly pie mix!).
Just arrived...Tabor Home Wines of Baldwin, Iowa (including their popular Barn Dance Red).
Feel free to forward this message to friends and family in your address book who may be interested in spending a lovely and relaxing day in the country!
We hope to see you this weekend, Jeff, Jill, Jenna and James Burkhart
Meet the Members
This week, please join us in welcoming Robert Sullivan
(pictured) and Erica Hyink to Farm to Folk! They are new members this year from
Robert and Erica found Farm to Folk on the Local Harvest
website in their search for local sources of fresh
While most members may recall that the Marshalltown Swift
plant was the site of an infamous Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in
December, 2006, members may not know that Swift and Company was recently
acquired by
Iowa Fresh Produce
Hello all-Each year that I have been involved in a CSA I do a projections sheet. ie. what I expect to deliver during the CSA season. Although never written in blood it does give me some idea at a glance how on the year is progressing. This year the best I can say is that it is lagging behind other years...Crops are also later and don't seem to be as vigorous , no doubt to a stunted root system early on. We are about at the halfway point in the season and have yet to hit the halfway mark in what I had projected so please be patient and understanding.
We still have a lot of season left and though you may find that perhaps some of your favorite vegetables were absent this year hopefully the others will be abundant enough to make up for those disappointments. In that respect this season is typical of every other of the 20+ garden seasons I've seen come and go. It seems that each year some crops fail to live up to expectations and others surpass- only this year the limits seemed to have become distorted.
I just ventured about the farm and had hoped I would have beans again for this week but they are at the pinbean stage so most likely the following week you will begin seeing those again. It seems strange to me to have gone 2 whole weeks without picking beans-and it isn't near as satisfying as when you are picking on that last bed of the season.
This week we will be bringing:
Tomato
Cucumber
Lettuce mix
Bell pepper
sweet corn(1/2 dozen)
Carrot
We are finally getting around to mowing down all those flooded areas..... I can only wonder what passer bye'rs thought at the robust and lush patches of weeds. That has been a trouble spot this year as well as my primary tractor has been torn down now for hopefully the 4th and final time.....once for a clutch I had ordered thinking it was about due ( the tractor is 28 years old with the original clutch) and then 3 times to replace set screws on the drive train. Finally I opted to try a bolt and grind it down to seat it in place. The upside is that though I am no mechanic I can now split the tractor in half in just under an hour and put it back together again in less
than 2. With 15 hours of operation it seems that is finally the end of that saga.
There are wasps galore here now too! About 1 1/2 " in length with a 2" wingspan and buzzing about to make you take notice. I found out they are basically harmless unless provoked. They are cicada killer wasps and have taken up to burrowing in amongst the edge rows of the carrots.
And in keeping up with the Joneses, or in this case Stacey and Rick
Hartman, we now have a flock of ducks- After leaving them in their pens for several days to acclimate them yesterday I felt sorry for them and let them out. BOY! They checked out the whole garden from end to end. I never realized they meandered that much but at day's end we finally had them all corralled again save one. This morning there it was - outside the pen trying to get in.
Bruce
Small Potatoes Farm
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Hello Everyone,
Deliveries
I hope you aren't tiring of carrots, because we've got a lot them yet to
dig. We'll deliver them, along with some beautiful summer squash, 'Keuka Gold'
potatoes, onion, parsley, basil, pepper or eggplant, beets and a small amount of
tomatoes. For the potatoes, don't
wash them until you are ready to eat them.
Tomatoes have their rules, so read carefully, 1) never refrigerate them
or they will lose flavor, 2) these aren't supermarket tomatoes, they have about
a three day window to eat. Watch them carefully and eat them when they soften,
smell fragrant or get a bad spot. And 3) they are not all red and round. For
example, 'Tasty Evergreen' is ripe when it it green with yellow hues. It has
green flesh when ripe and is one of the best tasting tomatoes you will ever eat.
We bring tomatoes that are 1 - 3 days to ripe.
I know some of you may have skipped the green tomatoes last week.
Unfortunately for you, you've missed one of the best tasting tomatoes grown. For
those not receiving arugula, we are quite sorry. There was plenty there, since
we took a whole box home after the CSA was over. Farm to Folk must not have
opened it and put them out.
(Sincere apologies from the F2F team--we just missed the box) Greens Share will be
lacinato kale again, but hope springs - we will have some chard soon. If there
is any good arugula left, we'll bring a bag for the green share members,
too.
Happenings
We weeded the impossible
to weed winter squash field, although it could be cleaned up a little more.
Fruit growth on both the winter and summer squash was quite high this week. We
trellised the tomatoes again. They really hung in there through the first heavy
rain period, but really blighted up with the second. The high winds were likely
as much the culprit as the wetness. It is unfortunate to be sure. But we'll have
some tomatoes each week for the next month. Cherish them.
We are about finished
weeding the tomato/pepper/eggplant field, and the lettuce field by the house
(which doesn't have lettuce, but new greens and basil coming up). I've tilled in
several large chunks of fields that had dead and dying plants from too wet soil.
They have already been planted back to beans, spinach or buckwheat. Speaking of
cover crops, I mowed my first field of sorghum-Sudan grass. I really like this
stuff, what a biomass producer. The field actually gave off steam the day I
mowed it because so much respiration was happening. I will mow it shorter the
second time and till it in.
The mosquitoes have been
unnaturally, dare I say biblically, numerous. If I don't die from West Nile this
season I will consider it miraculous. I broke down and began using sun screen
this year. Coupled with the fact I started using ice again, I believe adding
mosquito spray usage might soften me beyond a point of redemption. I am going to
tough it out.
Although late, I have
added the humus recipe Stacy mentioned last week the hummus recipe http://www.smallpotatoesfarm.com/CSA_Cooking_Tips_Index.html and I mentioned the
picture of the snake trying to eat our eggs http://www.smallpotatoesfarm.com/August_2008.html . Marc H. newest and
possibly best beet recipe http://www.smallpotatoesfarm.com/CSA_Cooking_Tips_Beets.html.
In the Kitchen (by
Stacy)
I'll tell you what's not
happening in the kitchen...refrigeration. The compressor in our Amana fridge
broke for the second time in two years and we've been ruminating on whether to
repair it, buy a used fridge or buy a new one. The repairman who assessed it
confessed that the three or so main name brands all use the same parts, have
similar warranties, service call frequency, etc., and this in conjunction with
anecdotal evidence we've collected has led us to conclude that durable goods
these days, name brand or not, are generally junk.
If you feel strongly for
or against a brand or the new vs. used question, please send us your input. We
must act on this soon, as I'm tired of walking back and forth to the barn
several times a day to get something out of the walk-in cooler. And I must
confess, because of the inconvenience, poor Rick has been eating a lot of
granola bars and popcorn.
Most Notable
Events
The Iowa Department of
Agriculture and Land Stewardship announced this week 2.3 million acres (~10%) of
Iowa crop land suffered severe erosion damage with the record rain. This means
erosion of 20 tons or more PER ACRE. Total estimate economic loss of the
erosion, $40 million dollars.
Even more notable, the
state Natural Resource Conservation Service gauge of acceptable annual erosion
per acre is 3 - 5 tons.
The amount of soil that
moved off Small Potatoes Farm in 2008 = 0.
Is this blowing your
mind?
And, finally of note, we
have Giant Cicada Killer wasps killing cicadas and hanging out in our willow
trees. These wasps are huge, over two inches long and fat. They actually carry
cicadas through the air and together they look like little missiles. I think
they could knock you over if they hit you.
What Stacy's Mom is
Doing
Stacy's mom is considering
getting a job Prairie Meadows and moving to Altoona. She offered to let Stacy
rent her condo in West Des Moines so she could get out of this "situation"
(farming). Apparantly, I am to remain in Minburn and Stacy can "subsidize" me
with her "real" job.
Have a great week and
weekend.
Rick, Stacy and
Matilda
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Recipes
I found this information about black currants on the Prairieland Community Supported Agriculture website.Black
Currant Sauce
Wash currants and measure. Place currants in a heavy, non-aluminum sauce
pan. Add sugar in an amount equal to half or all of the currants, depending
upon your preference. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally to
mash berries and make sure they don't stick. When the mixture becomes
a thickened sauce after about 10 minutes, remove from heat and let cool.
If mixture is not sweet enough, add more sugar and reheat until sugar
is dissolved.
Use sauce over vanilla ice cream and serve with chocolate brownies.This sauce also is good over poached pears or pear ice cream. Alternatively, you can mix this sauce into your favorite barbecue sauce and add some chili pepper (a single chipotle works well) for a spicy, sweet sauce that is great on poultry and seitan. You may also add a pinch of cinnamon, a dash of cloves, and/or a few gratings of whole nutmeg to this sauce.
Black
Currant Italian Sodas & Black Currant Brownies
Put the finished sauce from above through a fine sieve or food mill. The
juice/syrup can be added to soda water to create something that resembles
an Italian soda. Save the resulting paste to flavor brownies by replacing
an egg with two tablespoons of currant paste. Store the syrup in a sterilized
glass bottle in your refrigerator as you would fruit pancake syrups. The
paste can be refrigerated for several weeks or frozen in a freezer bag.
Marilyn, Corry and Deb