What’s in Upic?……
Flowers Herbs Cherry Tomatoes
Cabbage, cabbage, cabbage…Yes there is more cabbage this week. Hope fully not too many of you are cursing us humble farmers every time you open the fridge and see…cabbage. Here’s the reason we have had so many weeks of this hefty vegetable. The last week of August and the first week of September was the hottest and longest heat wave to span those days on the calendar in Maine history. This pushed our end of the season cabbage forward by many weeks. We plan our plantings for temperatures to be gradually cooling starting at that time and when the weather doesn’t cooperate…we have a lot of cabbage, all at once. While we did plan on giving you all of this cabbage, we didn’t plan on giving it to you in so many consecutive weeks. Look for take-home cabbage recipes at pickup.
There was a great article in the New York Times this past Saturday about Americans and their dreadfully low consumption of vegetables (cabbage is a vegetable). Amongst the many interesting points in the article (including carrot vending machines in the NYC schools) was that in today’s fast paced world, cooking vegetables is a substantial effort and this is the big stumbling block to increasing their role in the American diet. This hits the nail right on the head –eating well is an effort. By choosing to work with raw produce each week instead of opening boxes and cans is, all of you are bucking the trend and making an investment in your family’s health. Here’s the link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/25/health/policy/25vegetables.html?_r=1&hp
Tranquil Tuesdays and Frantic Fridays. Over the course of every season many of you who started out picking up on Tuesday slowing drift to Fridays. We want you to have flexibility in your pickup days but if you are finding Fridays to be too busy here for your taste you might want to try to switch to Tuesday, which is always much quieter.
CSA sign-up for 2011 begins this week. We will be taking deposits ($100) for next years CSA shares starting this week. These deposits help us plan for next year and support the farm through the winter months as well. By signing up now you also get on our winter payment plan which divides the share cost over three payments in February, April and June. As always, payment in full is great too. We will begin opening up shares to our waiting list starting art the end of the month so if you would like a share for next year please don’t delay.
What to expect in your share this week…
Lettuce Potatoes Broccoli
Cabbage Arugula Carrots
Kale Chard
Asian Greens Chickories
Onions Winter Squash
When will it end? We will continue to harvest through the end of October, making Friday the 29th our last pickup day of the season.
Local Food Feast. The Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust will be holding a local food feast called “Hand and Hand with the Land” Sunday October 17th from 4-7 pm at Frontier Café in Brunswick. The event will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the land trust and celebrate their efforts to save open space and important agricultural land (like Crystal Spring Farm). Local farmers and chefs are pared together to create a seasonal menu and bluegrass music will round out the event. There will be activities for the kids run by Cathance River Education Alliance. We will be working with Henry and Marty’s restaurant. Tickets are $25 for adults ($40 per couple, kids are free) and will be available at CSA pickup, during the Saturday market and at the land trust office on main street.
Crystal Spring Farm Lamb. Starting this week we will have order sheets for whole and half lamb for your freezer. Talk to us a pickup for more details.