Farm to Folk Newsletter June 3,2008

“A little extra info from the farms to the folks”

Farm to Folk is now a member of the Buy Fresh Buy Local Campaign. Buy Fresh Buy Local puts out an electronic newsletter at this link:

http://www.drake.edu/news/dbletter/buyfreshbuylocal/

A La Carte orders - Please notice that we're beginning to have a few more options in fresh produce!

When you order, please give me the name of the producer as well as the item as some items are offered

by multiple producers. We have many new offerings. Check them out at

http://www.farmtofolk.com/What%27s%20available%20this%20week.html

We also put together a membership orientation guide, available for viewing at:  
http://www.farmtofolk.com/Farm%20to%20Folk%20Member%20Orientation.html

See it for answers to your questions.

Small Potatoes Farm - Coffee orders from Small Potatoes Farm for June 10 delivery are due May 31.

Hello Everyone,

  Deliveries

  Looks like we have begun regular deliveries. We will be bringing lettuce again this coming week, and 
it looks like radishes might be ready to add to that.

  Happenings

  We are still a little behind, but the cool season crops are looking very robust. Planting is up to date. 
We have been hoeing and hand weeding lettuce and carrots. We jump on weeding anytime the soil is 
dry enough. After we harvest green onions this morning, we'll try to weed until the next rain. Our delivery 
van sprung a brake leak this week (Stacy thinks all these brake problems points toward a sinister force trying 
to do us in). In addition, we've been working on the barn,

taking out a small fence by the barn, and arranging for mulch.

  What We're Eating (by Stacy)

  This week we've begun cutting lettuce so salad is on the menu. I make an herb vinaigrette dressing:

1/3 cup olive or salad oil 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar (or white, red, rice, etc)

1 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. dry thyme, oregano, or basil (herb de provence work well here)

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

1/8 tsp. black pepper

1 clove minced garlic

We like to add sunflower seeds and feta.

  To Read - We've had several submissions for reading

  (from Deb: there was not room to put the text in the newsletter but hopefully these links will be 
around long enough for you to get to read the articles.)

  From Pam P.

  DINING & WINE   | April 30, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/dining/30come.html?ex=1210219200&en=9a5008be8e0ec1e7&ei=5070&emc=eta1

By KIM SEVERSON

Saving plants and animals that were once fairly commonplace in America and are now threatened or 
endangered often involves urging people to eat them.

  From Mike G.

  I've been saving an article from Harper's for you on raw milk (it's really an article about the earth, what we eat, 
mono-cultures, cows and how it's all connected). It's one of the most wonderful things I've read in the past couple 
months and they've now posted it online. It's at  http://harpers.org/archive/2008/04/0081992

And from Robin K. -the whole article.

  May 11, 2008

Op-Ed Contributor

Change We Can Stomach

By DAN BARBER< 
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/opinion/11barber.html?scp=1&sq=Change+We+Can+Stomach+&st=nyt

Rick


Berry Patch Farm

Judy from Berry Patch reports that they are still hoping for ripe strawberries by June 10, but with all the cool weather, the fruit shares may not start till June 17. Farm to Folk Fruit share holders will get the first available strawberries from Berry Patch.

Iowa Fresh Produce

Thursday afternoon somewhere between all the rains:

Today sure has been one of those typically Iowa "unsettled weather" days..... Bouts of rain separated by downpours have left me stranded in an outbuilding more than once today. Also in these high tech times the internet is very sporadic as the storm clouds get larger. Its been a race several times for me to try to get to the computer before it would crash due to lack of a good signal..... so far I've lost that battle twice.

I did walk around the garden last night as I went to shut off the hydrant watering the greenhouse. I didn't bother to turn any of the others on as the forecast did look pretty ominous that we could expect some rain today though I wasn't quite prepared for what we've gotten. Looking out to the east or the West one can see newly formed ponds brought on my today's rains which hopefully will disappear just as quickly with this weekend's sunshine.

Hopefully then planting can resume as we've put in a bit of most things now but still have a ways to go in getting all the plants in the ground. The propagation house is now only about a 1/3 full so some progress has been made.

Until the weather does straighten out it is somewhat difficult to ascertain what you will find for distribution on Tuesday. A best estimate will be:

Green Leaf lettuce

Red Leaf lettuce

and possibly kohlrabi and radishes

-Bruce

RECIPES - send in recipes please!

See you Tuesday!

Marilyn, Corry and Deb