Peak Veg

What’s in Upic?……

Flowers      Herbs         Beans

Cherry Tomatoes

A short newsletter this week as Seth and the Family take a few days off the farm to swim, play and sleep!

Here’s what to look for in your share this week:

Chard                  Arugula

Kale                     Summer squash

Lettuce                 Melon

Peppers                Tomatoes

Asian Greens       Chickories

We are coming upon peak season this week with melon, tomatoes and the end of summer squash. Look out for our first winter squash in the weeks to come and potatoes in September!

Labor on Labor Day. Come out for our traditional labor on labor day harvest party. Monday September 6 at 10 am. We will be harvesting our potato crop this morning. This is a blast for all of us and a great way start the fall season. The tractor digs the potatoes and we pick them up. Its a great event for kids and adults. We’ll meet in the field. Just look for the equipment and park where you can.

Watermelon

What’s in Upic?……

Flowers      Herbs         Beans

Cherry Tomatoes

Here’s what to look for in your share this week:

Chard                  Arugula

Kale                     Summer squash

Eggplant              Lettuce

Green Peppers     Tomatoes

Cucumbers          Cabbage

Asian Greens       Chickories

What is summer without watermelon? Well thankfully we don’t have to figure that out as our favorite melon variety, Sugar Baby, comes in this week. These melons were close to being lost completely as we decided yesterday morning to not pick them this week, the thinking being that another week on the vine would give us even better consistency in sweetness and color. Yesterday afternoon we were picking tomatoes right next to the melon and noticed that crows had destroyed over fifty melons from the back part of the planting we hadn’t looked at earlier in the day. Needless to say, we put it into high gear and harvested all of the Sugar Babys, saving them from the local crows and ensuring that all of you will have one in your share. There may be a few “underdone” melons in the bunch. Our apologies if you get one of these…blame it on the crows.

Our organic pastured eggs are coming in well these days and the birds are really starting to make use of the green forage around the eggmobile. Having fresh grass in their diet helps the birds maintain their health but also ensures their eggs are packed with omega 3 fatty acids. These are the polyunsaturated “good fats” we all need and our bodies can use to for energy and metabolic function without raising cholesterol levels. All you have to do is notice the deep orange color of the yolks and you know these are not grocery store eggs. If you eat eggs, take a look at the following link to the NY Times from this past Sunday that gives detail to how most eggs are produced in the US. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/weekinreview/15marsh.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=farming+eggs&st=cse

This is the point in the season when harvest takes over our lives on the farm. From mid-August until mid- September there are so many crops coming in such abundance that we barely have time to move the sheep on pasture and collect eggs. Yesterday we harvested about 1200 pounds of watermelon, 300 pounds of tomatoes, 160 pounds of eggplant, and 150 pounds of summer squash in addition to processing 200 pounds of onions that we picked last week.  Today we will cut 25 pounds of tatsoi, 65 pounds of lettuce mix, 20 pounds of mustard, 15 pounds each of endive and escarole, 60 pounds of chard, 20 pounds of kale, 30 pounds of baby bok choi, and 40 pounds of arugula.  Add in the washing and weighing of all of these crops and you’ll understand why we’ll be panting when you show up at 2:00 today. The best part of all of this work is seeing all of you take this food home to your families; the end result of us watching, waiting and nurturing these plants over the past few months.

Labor on Labor Day. Come out for our traditional labor on labor day harvest party. Monday September 6 at 10 am. We will be harvesting our potato crop this morning. This is a blast for all of us and a great way start the fall season. The tractor digs the potatoes and we pick them up. Its a great event for kids and adults. We’ll meet in the field. Just look for the equipment and park where you can.

green and red

Who moved Maine below the Mason-Dixon line while I wasn’t watching? This heat is crazy –but the produce loves it as long as we can keep the water to them.

Tomatoes arrive in your share this week along with a return to a wider selection of greens.

The next few weeks are going to really be the golden days of the CSA this year. Tomatoes, red peppers, and watermelon will all be coming in together and great meals will just seem to spill out of the bags you bring home from the farm.

We have been irrigating quite a bit this past week and will continue until at least the weekend. It’s great to have the option of adding water to the fields (much easier than taking it off, which is what we needed to do last year!). The process is complicated though as we have a single well for irrigation that must serve all of our fields on both sides of Pleasant Hill. To do this we run aluminum pipe in 30 foot lengths through the woods, along the ditches and under the roads. The aluminum pipe ends at a green reel that holds 400 feet of black tubing with an irrigation gun at one end. To water sections of the field we pull the black tubing off the reel and set up the gun at the end of it. When the water is pushed through the tubing and out the gun it sprays a 120 foot swath and once the tubing is pressurized a winch on the green reel pulls the tubing back in very slowly. With over 400 feet of tubing we can water over an acre each time we set up the system. The downside is that to add an inch of water to this big area requires about 10 hours. The real kicker for the farmer is that if we irrigate during a sunny day we lose a large percentage of the water to evaporation which means we try to water in the evening and at night, times when farmers would rather be sleeping. Pray for rain everyone and we’ll keep the coffee brewing.

Here’s what to look for in your share this week:

Chard                        Arugula

Kale                                    Summer squash

Eggplant                        Lettuce

Green Peppers            Tomatoes

Cucumbers                        Cabbage

Asian Greens             Chickories

Superstar farmhand Bethany has two cats that she is looking to find a temporary home for. If you have space and would like a couple quiet feline guests talk to Bethany at CSA distribution this week or email her bethanylallen@gmail.com

This is the last week of Farm Camp here at Crystal Spring and it has been a solid success thanks to Maura and Emily’s efforts over summer. The young farmers have been working hard around the farm caring for all of our livestock (feeding and collecting eggs has been the favorite chore) and helping out in the fields. Yesterday they transplanted over a thousand Swiss Chard plants that all of you will be enjoying in your shares come

late September. We have all really enjoyed having their energy and enthusiasm around the farm. The smiles on kids faces when they get to share in true meaningful work recharges us all and reminds us how even in this modern world we all still have some basic need to get our hands dirty.

Stay cool and eat well.

Eggplants are Friendly

Eggplant is the crop of the week as these plants are coming in strong.  We have both the well-known “Italian” eggplant (pear shaped, thick skin) as well as the lesser-known Asian variety (smaller, slender and tender skin) in the fields this year. Both the Italian and the Asian actually originate from India but pasta is really from China, so names and origins can’t be too closely connected. Eggplant in general is not a vegetable that tends to make or break anyone’s CSA experience.  We rarely get comments on it in the end of the year survey and after week three of taking it home some of you may regard it along the same lines as cabbage or kale: More eggplant!  What am I going to do with it? The growing habit of this crop is such that we have to enjoy it while we can. Eggplant is started in the greenhouse in April and set into the field in late May with row cover over it and black plastic under it to make the conditions in Maine something like those in Central India. From planting it takes six weeks before the first flowers form and two months before we have our first fruit. Unlike carrots or lettuce where we have several successive plantings we just have one shot to get eggplant, so we have to enjoy it while we have it!

With the Italian variety always more popular, I have to put in a few good words about the stunning Asian eggplant.  Unlike the Italian eggplant, this smaller, more slender variety called Orient Express is a truly versatile dream in the kitchen.  Its skin is thin so no peeling is required.  It is easy to cut thinly which makes quick cooking possible.  In addition, the texture of this crop is tender all the way through, lacking that pithiness that the pear-shaped varieties can have.  I’ll share two easy ways we like to use Asian eggplant. One way is to slice thinly on the bias (diagonally) into quarter inch pieces and toss into hot (almost smoking) oil (peanut or canola with a little sesame are great) and turn for a few minutes until it softens then add bok choi, broccoli and tofu or tempeh. A sweet rich Asian sauce goes great here. Try one of our sauces from the website: http://crystalspringcsa.com/archives/category/recipes/sauces .  A second simple way to enjoy this crop is on the grill.  Slice the eggplant lengthwise, slather liberally with olive oil and throw it on the grill along with summer squash (prepped the same way), potatoes kabob or this week’s sweet onions.  Don’t turn them until they are almost black – wow!  Peanut sauce, hot sauce or even a tart salad dressing finish this off nicely.

Here’s what to look for in your share this week:

Chard                        Potatoes

Kale                                    Summer squash

Eggplant                        Lettuce

Green Peppers            Sweet Onions

Cucumbers                        Broccoli

Organic Blueberries. Our second and final week of organic blues from Stoneset Farm in Brooklin, Maine will be delivered today and Friday. If you still want a quart, 5lb. or 10lb. box let us know by Wednesday at noon and we can have them for you on Friday. We will have a few extra quarts for sale on both days.

Maples Organic Gelato has new flavors…sea salt with caramel and ginger cardamom and really good.

The Potato Story: Surprise!

What’s in Upic?……

Flowers                Herbs   (more Beans next week)

I know we keep talking about how early this season has been but potatoes in July is just too much. Here is the story….  We plant seed potatoes in mid-May when the soil warms to about 45 degrees.  For those not in the know, potato plants are grown by planting small potatoes or pieces of large potatoes that then sprout and grow into plants that then produce more potatoes amongst their roots. Prior to planting we use a technique called green-sprouting to kick the tubers into high gear before they are put in the ground. This process usually entails putting our potato seed (all 1500 pound of it) into a small room in the barn and heating that room up to about 75 degrees for a week. Then we take the seed to the greenhouse and empty it in single layers into big vented trays that allow sunlight to hit the now sprouting tubers. The greenhouse is kept at about 60 degrees night and day while the seed is there. During this time the potato seeds begin to sprout from their eyes. If we’re lucky we can start planting after about 14 days in the greenhouse. This spring we received our potato seed in April and one variety, Carola, was already sprouting.  It must have been on a loading dock for a while or in a hot part of the warehouse.  By the time we went through the green-sprouting process with all of the other varieties of potatoes the Carolas were beyond sprouting; they were growing! The sprouts coming from the eyes were over half an inch long, deep green, and ready to hit the soil. After planting, the Carolas were the first up and looked strong. Being the first ones up they were also the first to be hit by the dreaded Colorado Potato Beetle. We watched closely and thought we were keeping ahead of the beetle but in in the course of a few days their population exploded and the Carolas went down.  This is a very sad thing to see as a farmer.  A strong beautiful plant skeletonized over the course of a few days.  Once the foliage is gone from the plants there’s no going back so we mowed off the stems and a week later here we are, sharing some small but tasty potatoes. Carolas are great roasters. Just toss them in olive oil, salt and pepper and put them on a cooking sheet in a 400 degree oven for 30-40 minutes. More potatoes to come, but hopefully not too soon.

Here’s what to look for in your share:

Chard                        Potatoes

Kale                                    Summer squash

Tatsoi                        Lettuce

Mustard                        Napa cabbage

Cucumbers                        Broccoli

Organic Blueberries will be delivered this week for those that have preordered. If you missed  out on this order don’t fret we will be taking orders again this week for delivery next week. We will also have some extra quarts for sale on both Tuesday and Friday if you want try them out…they make oatmeal sexy.

Our first group of pigs for August are sold out. If this is disappointment to you don’t fret. We will have another group available for order come early October. Watch the newsletter for more info.

Crystal Spring Farm Lamb now available at CSA pick-up. Look for our own loin chops, lamburger, legs and more. Talk to a farmer about what we have available.

Eggs are coming in…the girls are ramping up production so hopefully if you haven’t had a chance to try a dozen there will be one available at your next pick-up.

Beans!

What’s in Upic?……

Flowers                Herbs         Snap Beans

Help we’re drowning! Those of you that woke up to my emergency email on Sunday morning I imagine we’re surprised to find a call to the farm to pick beans en mass. Well the heat of this year has blown us out of the water more than a few times so far and this was yet another case. Even though all of you know that we work with mother nature here at the farm (and she is not exactly one to run on railroad time) we still try to make it look like we know what’s going on around the place. Maura went out to pick beans for dinner on Saturday evening and came back overwhelmed by what was out there. Sure enough, the beans we thought were coming on well mid week had come in big and needed to be picked before the plants fell over! Thanks to all of you that came out to lend a hand. Thanks to your efforts the plants will keep producing and all of you who need beans on Tuesday and Friday will have a fresh flush.

Many thanks to Louise, Julie and Seth who threw in with the crew this week to battle weeds. Every hand counts in this battle. We’ll be out there again this Wednesday and Saturday at 9:00 a.m. to fight the good fight if you wan to join in.

Here’s what to look for in your share:

Chard                  Carrots

Kale           Summer squash

Tatsoi                   Lettuce

Mustard      Napa cabbage

Cooking demo cancelled this week. We have to cancel our cooking demo with Becky Shepherd, CSA member extraordinaire. We hope to reschedule her for a future date.

Field walk with Farmer Seth, today at 4:30 today. Meet at the CSA distribution building. Walk the fields and ask those obtuse agricultural questions that keep you up at night.  It will be fun. Really it will.

How about those eggs? We premiered our first eggs of the year last week to a strong response (they all sold). Those of you that brought them home, What did you think? Bright yolks? Bold flavor? Let us know. We really like these eggs (and believe me we eat a lot of them). Nothing beats a fresh, pastured, organic, local egg (any other adjectives I can add?) Try them.

Pigs are great workers, and they taste good too! Our own pastured pigs available for pre-order this week. The first four of our group will be available in Mid-August. Pre-order your whole or half now and fill you freezer with bacon, sausage hams and chops. Talk to us at CSA pickup for the details.

Crystal Spring Farm Lamb now available at CSA pick-up. Look for our own loin chops, lamburger, legs and more. Talk to a farmer about what we have available.

Grass-fed Beef from Harpswell. Two Coves Farm in Harpswell is raising grass fed beef and we have T-Bone steaks, London Broil and Burger for sale at pick-up.

Tempeh – local and organic!  Available for sale at pick up; made by our friends and neighbors at Lalibela Farm in Dresden – a great addition to a healthy diet. Look for an info sheet and recipes at pick up.

July feels like July!

What’s in Upic?……

Flowers                Herbs

Things are cooking along out in the fields. Tomatoes have lots of green fruit, eggplant are in flower and melons are moving along as well. I expect to have more napa cabbage next week and broccoli the week after. Carrots arrive in the share this week. The farm campers helped harvested about 200 pounds of the 300 we pulled from the ground yesterday! They loved the task and we loved the help.

Here’s what to look forward to in your shares:

Kale                     Carrots

Chard                  Lettuce

Tatsoi                   Mustard

Summer squash    Various chicories

We still need you help beating back the weeds! Thanks to Otey and Liz who came out this past week. The vegetables are loving this perfect season, but so are the sinister weeds. Help. Wednesdays and Saturdays, 9am in the fields

Maine Organic Wild Blueberries will be available starting Tuesday July 27th and we will begin taking orders this week and next. These are certified organic, raked the day before from Stoneset Farm in Brooklin, Maine. As those of you who have ordered in the past know, these are top notch wild blueberries. No twigs, firm berries, amazing flavor. The berry crop is early this year (like almost everything else) so jump in and buy enough for your summer cereal, muffins, pancakes and martinis, as well as enough for the freezer. We will have a few quarts for sale in addition to the preordered deliveries and if there is enough interest we may do another order for next week. Let us know if you are interested in ordering for pickup on Tuesday the 27th or Friday the 30th and we’ll put you on list. Berry prices are: quart (not pint) for $9, 5 lbs. for $26 and 10 lbs. for $50.

Cooking Demo. Next Tuesday July 20th at 3pm Wild Oats Bakery and Café Chef and longtime CSA member Becky Shepherd will share her insight on cooking with CSA produce here at the farm. Just show up at 3:00 by the distribution barn and learn ways to use the week’s harvest.

Eggs! Hens are working…we’ll have a few dozen for sale this week on a first come, first served basis. Our new hens are doing their thing, enjoying their pastures and making bright orange yolks and stand tall whites. Nothing is better than a fresh, pastured egg.

Pigs are getting big….Our pigs have been doing a great job turning compost in the barns and turning sod in the fields. They are healthy and happy eating grass, grain and liberal supply of exotic kitchen scraps from El Camino Restaurant. Who new Maine pigs would come to love tortillas and avocados! We are opening orders for whole and half pigs this week with delivery in mid August. Order your half or whole any way you like and fill the freezer with chops, hams, sausage and bacon. Talk to a farmer about signing up when you come to pick up your share.

Grass-fed Beef from Harpswell. Look for local grass-fed beef from Harpswell’s Two Coves Farm. This is the real thing. This beef has amazing flavor and it was raised overlooking Casco Bay –what could be better! Look for T-bone steaks, London Broil and Ground beef.
Enjoy the harvest this week!

Hay!

Upic Peas continue for another week, but they are waning in a serious way. Thanks for all of your hard picking; they have been a great crop for us this year. We will be planting fall peas in a couple weeks, so you’ll see them again come September. We’re going to give the flowers a bit more time to bloom so there will be enough for everyone – so if you can wait another week or so, we’ll let you know when you can pick some flowers.

Weeds are choking us! The weed population is getting the better of us in a few crops and we have started putting other things on the back burner to try and catch up. Its amazing, wet year or dry, the weeds know their niche and they keep coming back. What is the best tool we have to controlling big weeds is lots of people. We need you help. Wednesday and Saturday mornings we will be down in the fields starting at 9am and going until… It’s a great time to chat with the farmers and save your favorite vegetables from the jungle. Look for us in the fields and pull into the nearest driveway along Pleasant Hill Road.

Here’s what to look forward to in your shares:

Kale                                    Baby Bok Choi

Chard                        Lettuce

Tatsoi                        Mustard

Scallions                        Kohlrabi

Summer squash            Various chickories

A couple weeks ago I wrote about making hay as winter feed for our sheep. These dry square bales take two consecutive days of dry weather to make, which in most seasons is doable but in the past few we have really been struggling. With the new pattern of really wet Junes (we escaped this pattern this year) we found ourselves making hay in July or even August, after the quality of the grasses and clovers was past. This year we are trying something new to us, hay silage. When making silage, instead of drying the grasses and clovers in the sun to preserve them like bailed hay, we cut the grass green and preserve it anaerobically, like making sauerkraut. The green hay is cut and make into a pile, covered with plastic and the oxygen is sucked out, making an anaerobic cocoon that will preserve the forage until the winter when we feed it out to the sheep. Last fall we applied for a grant to research making hay silage using a technique popular in New Zealand. Many of you have seen the big round bales wrapped in white plastic on farms in Maine and beyond. These also are silage bales but the method of making them is very expensive to get in to (close to $50K, not including the tractor). The system we are researching costs less than $20K and the forage made is (hopefully) of better quality and uses a tenth of the plastic. We’ve already made several piles here at the farm and on two other local farms participating in the project. If we’ve done a good job we’ll open the piles in the winter and be able to feed the ewes the best winter forage they have ever had. For those of you who might want more detail on the project, our grant proposal is posted on the web: http://www.sare.org/MySare/ProjectReport.aspx?do=viewRept&pn=FNE10-690&y=2010&t=2

Cooking Demo. Tuesday July 20th at 3pm Wild Oats Bakery and Café Chef and longtime CSA member Becky Shepherd will share her insight on cooking with CSA produce here at the farm. Just show up at 3:00 by the distribution barn and learn ways to use this week’s harvest.

Chickens, Pigs, and Lambs The chickens are laying eggs but they are still small.  We’re hoping in a few weeks we’ll have some for sale at CSA pickups.  Say hello to the lambs & chickens by the CSA barn.  You can check out the pigs while you’re in the Upic field – on the south side of the field.
Enjoy the harvest this week!

Food and Art

What’s in Upic?……

Snap Peas            Snow Peas

What’s in the share?

Cabbage                       Napa Cabbage

Broccoli                       Lettuce Mix

Chickories                   Chard/Kale

Baby Bok Choi           Spindleworks Art

Those of you reading closely will notice the Spindleworks art item listed in today’s share. Spindleworks Art Center here in Brunswick has offered us an “Art Share” this week. They were inspired by the community centered around this farm and wanted to share their work with all of you. For more info on Spindleworks and their amazing, and famous artists please visit their website www.sprindleworks.org

Upic continues this week and peas are open. Please take what you can use. Pick carefully so that we can keep the plants healthy.

Here’s the skinny on how Upic works. We prepare, plant, and weed this ½ acres plot just for you, the members of the farm. Growing there you will find cherry tomatoes, green beans, herbs, flowers, and most notably this week, peas. These are crops that are particularly rewarding to harvest and can add a lot of value to your share as they often are great accompaniments to the “field crops” we harvest and wash for you each week.

The important thing to understand about this field is that it belongs to everyone who has a share in the farm. There are 240 shares this year and we try very hard to plan each planting so that everyone will be able to sample every crop. The idea is that all of these crops are compliments to the field crops and not necessarily staples in and of themselves. While we would love to be able to plant enough basil for everyone to make pesto for the winter or sow enough beans to share with your neighbors, it’s just not possible in the space we have to work with. Those of you that split shares, we ask that you be particularly aware of your picking quantities.

With the exception of these first couple weeks we will not suggest amounts for you to take from the upic field. The idea is that we all take our share and consciously leave behind enough for everyone else. The upic field has always been our grand experiment in community spirit and in twelve years of CSA growing all over the Northeast we have never been disappointed.

Here are a few points and guidelines to keep Upic going strong all summer:

  • Picking is open on Tuesday, Fridays, and Sundays from dawn to dusk. Please pick just once a week.
  • Look for the signs we post in the field indicating what is ready to pick. If you don’t see a sign, please don’t pick it.
  • Scissors are provided to help in cutting things that need to be cut (not peas). Please use them –clean cuts help keep the plants healthy and productive. Please don’t put scissors in your pockets! You’ll remember them when you get home. The loop on each pair is to go around your wrist and keep them handy for picking.
  • Be gentle with the plants when picking and use both hands, one to hold the plant and one to cut or pick. Parents please teach your little ones how to do this before letting them loose.
  • Be aware of where you are walking and try to walk between the beds and not on them.
  • Know and teach your young ones that all of the fencing at the farm is electrified, including the fence around the upic field.
  • Make sure the kids (and adults) stay out of the buildings and off of the tractors and farm equipment. The farm is old and there are numerous serious dangers to be found.
  • Weeding, picking rocks and squashing bad bugs are always welcome. If you question whether a bug is bad leave it be: it could be an ally.

Upic Field Open with Peas!

What’s in Upic?……

Snap Peas            Snow Peas

Our first Upic crop starts this week with Snap and Snow Peas. They are crisp, sweet and two weeks earlier than we have ever had them before! As we open the Upic field with just one crop we ask that you only take a quart (will be provided) per share this first week. This will ensure that everyone can take some home to enjoy. We will open up some of the other crops next week as well. There will be more info about the Upic field next week in the newsletter. Ask Bob or David (our Upic Gardeners) for help while you’re out there.

June is the month for greens. The greens you are taking home these first few weeks are the best of the year. Tender and sweet, greens benefit from the long days and gentle temperatures. After you get them home the best way to keep them fresh is to get them right into the fridge. We keep greens in sealed plastic bags that have a damp paper towel in with them. The paper towel regulates moisture in the bag, helping the greens last up to 2 weeks. Don’t get overwhelmed with the greens –get creative. Last week loyal CSA members emailed us, “There is no such thing as too much kale!” Becky Shepherd of Wild Oats Bakery and Café makes pesto with any of the cooking greens (kale, chard, etc)  – which can also be put up in the freezer. Just steam or blanch the greens and toss them together with nuts or bread crumbs, olive oil or butter and whatever cheese you have around into the food processor. Chop and put the pesto into a sealable cup size container for the freezer. Nothing tastes better in January than greens on pasta or rice.

Here’s what to look forward to in your share this week:

Kale                     Lettuce Heads

Chard                  Lettuce Mix

Baby Bok Choi    Various chickories

Tatsoi                   Mustard

Scallions              Kohlrabi

There are a couple great recipes for Kohlrabi on our website… http://crystalspringcsa.com/archives/category/recipes/kohlrabi

The great weather continues, I say that knocking on wood of course. We had a great week for getting things done and are whittling down our list a bit. We will transplant pumpkins and winter squash this week and get our first jump on putting up hay for the winter.

Make Hay While the Sun Shines…We usually put up 2000 to 2500 square bales of hay to feed our sheep in the colder parts of the year. Making hay is a two-day process that is highly weather dependent (even more so than growing vegetables). On the first day we cut a 2-4 acre parcel of hay field which consists of various grasses (timothy, orchard grass, ryegrass, etc.) and legumes (red and white clovers, vetch, trefoil, etc.). If we’re lucky, the legumes are just starting to flower and the grasses are just putting out seed heads, which mean both are at their highest nutritional content balanced against having the greatest biomass. The cutting is done with a special mower that crimps the hay after its cut. The crimps allow for the long leaves and shafts to dry more easily.  The cut hay lies in the sun for a few hours and then we turn it over to dry on the other side. It then lays in the field over night and then in the morning after the dew dries off we turn the hay again and let it dry some more. Bright sunshine and no rain are vital to this process. To maximize the nutritional value of the hay we want to store for winter feed we want to dry it as quickly as possible. If conditions are right by noon on the second day we are ready to rake up the hay into windrows (long piles) and begin the process of baling the loose hay into bales. More next week on making hay silage and our USDA research grant this year.

Weeding Wednesdays and Weeding Saturdays. Many of you have asked about weeding on Saturdays! Great! Come jump in with the crew Wednesday and Saturday mornings starting at 9am and going until… It’s a great time to chat with the farmers and save your favorite vegetables from the jungle. Look for us in the fields and pull into the nearest driveway along Pleasant Hill Road.