Blue skies and cool air have never been so welcome as they are today.  The past four days here at the farm have been dominated (to the neglect of almost all else) by the expectation, arrival, and passing of Hurricane Irene. During August we spend about 85% of our time just harvesting.  While this is a bit overwhelming at times (especially on Tuesdays and Fridays), the hope is that during this time we have caught up, minimized or finished altogether the other major tasks for this time of  year (planting, weed control, major livestock items, etc.).  Throw a large hurricane into the mix and the workload & emotions are quite the stir around here.

Since Thursday at about 5 am every task we undertook was viewed through the lens of the predicted 70 mph winds and up to 6 inches of rain. This farm, and every other vegetable farm I’ve ever seen is basically a large, green shantytown. Each field is dominated by teetering trellises, twisted landscape fabric and delicate structures of plastic sheeting held up with  stakes, twine and metal pipe.  Beyond the farmers architecture, the plants themselves are fragile constructions of vines, branches and leaves, all maxed out with fruit, ready for the all too heavy August harvest. For the farm crew, envisioning a 300 mile wide bull named Irene tramping through this living china shop, brought some pain.  All of our harvesting was focused not just on pulling the most perfect, ripest, tenderest produce from the field, but pulling what might be our last of these crops for the season. Uppermost in this mountain of concern was the tomato crop. Cautiously planted in late May we have just started to harvest good numbers for you and the thought of losing them was maddening.  When we harvested on Friday we picked tomatoes that were more “pink” than red with the hopes of saving some for an uncertain future.

Apart from harvesting as much as we could, we also had to consider the ballpark forecasts of top sustained windspeed, peak gusts, and overall duration of the storm against the hoped-for-strength of our greenhouses, tunnels, and barns.  Heavy winds can pull off plastic and remove roof panels but more worrisome is that these rips and tears weaken the whole structure, allowing wind to get inside and lift the whole building into the air and putting it down in in pieces somewhere inconvenient.  Waiting until the last moment on Saturday we made the call to take down the tunnel by the Upic field and do our best to shore up everything else.  In our ragtag collection of plastic covered buildings the least sturdy are the three tunnels that hold our tomatoes. They are also the least expensive and if we lost them they could be replaced without too much pain. The flipside is that they are holding another three weeks of tomatoes for you.  If we chose to uncover them to save the houses the tomatoes would surely be lost in the wind.  With the plastic left on them, the wind could destroy both the crop and the houses.  Not a fun choice to make.  We decided to risk the loss of the houses and spent a couple hours lashing them down with extra rope, tightening the plastic and weighing down the ends with stacks of pallets tied together.

Thankfully the storm was not as bad as forecasted and all of our houses, buildings and crops sustained almost no damage at all. It’s nice to make a bet and have the odds turn out in your favor. Picking tomatoes this morning has an added feeling of satisfaction and hopefully you’ll be able taste a bit of that as well when you bring them home this week.

Blueberries…we are still taking orders via email for some day this week. We will not be able to deliver Tuesday (tomorrow) due to hurricane delays in harvest but we hope to be able to deliver on Friday. We’ll keep you posted.

Crystal Spring Pork

We have sausage, pork chops, country style ribs and a roast or two. Look for them in the freezer when you come for pick-up.

Apples and Cider coming soon!

What’s in the Share

Cukes

Carrots

Eggplant

Tomatoes

Red Peppers

Watermelon

Spinach

Chard

Baby Bok Choi

Arugula

There is so much happening right now. Last week’s share was the biggest yet of the season and this week’s will be even bigger. We have reached “peak veg.”. Thankfully the connotation is altogether different from peak oil. The diversity and volume of crops we are harvesting are a bit hard to fathom, even for us. Yesterday the trucks went to the fields four times to harvest tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and carrots. Today we will make at least that many trips for watermelon, cantaloupe, lettuce, broccoli, chard, cukes, asian greens, arugula and spinach.

In all of the busyness and wonder of summer most of us don’t want to think about the rapid approach of winter.  For those of us up before 6 am it is heavily on our minds as the light is changing very quickly. The shortening days tend to become a topic of conversation come late September and October when the weather cools down. But over the next month we will go from our glorious 14 hour Maine summer days to equinox, where the days are but 12 hours. This change is vital for every single crop we have planted (and many crops we haven’t planted i.e. weeds). All plants, but especially annuals (which is what we grow here) are in a rush towards reproduction. From the moment the first leaves poke up above the soil, these plants are trying to gather sunlight and strengthen themselves to make fruit and finally seed. When the days shorten the crops ( and weeds) speed up this process and start to reproduce faster. For us farmers that means we need to be ready to harvest on  an almost daily basis and many crops that we would be able to harvest several times in the spring or summer are limited to just one cutting. The lighter greens are especially prone to “going to seed” this time of year. Crops like arugula, spinach, tatsoi or chicories, that we would usually expect to cut twice we can generally get only one cutting from (or if we miss the window of a day or two, not cuttings at all). The weeds this time of year are also keenly aware of the change and start to make seed when they are 3 to 4 inches high instead of 10 to 14 inches in the summer months, leaving less time for us to catch up with them!

Our last greens crops of the year will be planted this week and next week in the high tunnel. Spinach, lettuce mix and lettuce heads will thrive under the few extra degrees of warmth the tunnels will provide.  The farmers will thrive harvesting in a warm, dry tunnel come October too! We also are sowing fall grain crops into the field to protect them for the winter these next couple weeks. The window is very small to get them established before the days get too short for the plants to grow above a few inches. winter rye sown this week will grow to 12-16 inches by early December as compaired to rye sown the second week of September that will be lucky to grow to a short 6 inches by the same date.

Labor on Labor Day

Mark your calendars for our annual csa potato harvest. Join the farmers in the field on Monday, September 5th at 9am. In years past this has been our biggest (and best) event for CSA members to get out into the fields and harvest. Kids and adults alike love picking into bins potatoes that our digger has unearthed. Last year we brought in over 10,000 pounds of spuds in just 2 hours! Joins us in the first field on the left as you are coming from town…More about this in coming newsletters.

Canning Tomatoes for Sale

We have flats of “imperfect” slicing tomatoes from the fields for sale this week at $7.50 for a 10lb. flat ($.75/lb) for those of you who would like to start canning or freezing. We also have a trial crop of sauce/roma tomatoes for sale at $17.50 for a 14lb flat ($1.25/lb.). The canning/roma toms are low moisture/concentrated flavor and take less time to prep and sauce than the slicing varieties. We also have a few cases of wide mouth quart canning jars for sale at $14/case. Want to can or freeze for the first time here’s our favorite how-to site http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/

Crystal Spring Pork

We have our own pork sausage for sale this starting this week. Look for breakfast sausage and chops in the freezer.

Blueberries…

Blueberries are here this tuesday (today) for those that pre-ordered. We will taking orders for delivery next Tuesday (not friday) as well. If you are interested talk to us at pick-up.

What’s in Upic

Beans (2 healthy plantings)

Dill heads

Basil

Sage

Thyme

Flowers

What’s in the share

Lettuce

Broccoli

Cukes

Carrots

Eggplant

Tomatoes

Peppers

Melon

Watermelon

Spinach

Chard

Baby Bok Choi

It appears (now that us farmers are back from vacation) that summer is starting to wind down.  The temperatures are getting mild and weight of your share is going up. Look for a few new things this week, most notably cantaloupe, leeks, celery, and our first ceremonial tomato of the year.

Our tomato plants are just starting to produce so the single tomato this week is just a teaser…

Onion harvest party

Come join in for onion harvest this Thursday 9am in the field. We will be harvesting our storage onion crop this Thursday and bring them into the greenhouse to cure for the next few weeks. This is a great time to get out in the field and jump in with the crew. If you have been avoiding weeding -this is your task! Look for us in the first field on the left coming from town on Pleasant Hill Road. We’ll be the ones with the orange tractor.

Pigs still available…

If  you’re on the fence about getting a whole or half pig come talk with Seth this week at pick-up. This is a great way to fill your freezer with ham, pork chops and bacon, bacon, bacon for the winter. Each whole or half is processed as you like (more ribs, fewer chops, etc.) and vacuum sealed for long-term quality in the deep freeze.

Labor on Labor Day

Mark your calendars for our annual csa potato harvest. Join the farmers in the field on Monday, September 5th at 9am. In years past this has been our biggest (and best) event for CSA members to get out into the fields and harvest. Last year we brought in over 10,000 pounds of spuds in just 2 hours! More about this in coming newsletters.

Blueberries…the saga continues

The weather is not working with our blueberry farmers this year. Stoneset Farm rakes and cleans berries the day before they deliver to us but if the berries aren’t dry they turn to mush.  Rain has again delayed the harvest.  If you are planning on picking up berries this Tuesday (16th) your berries will be delivered on Friday (19th) instead.  If for some reason you can’t come Friday we’ll hold them over for you in the freezer.  As of right now we can’t take any more orders for berries.  If you ordered at the farm this past Tuesday or Friday your orders will be delivered on Friday.  If you ordered via email last week we will not be able to fill your orders with this week’s delivery.  Stoneset Farm is done for the season and due to the rain can’t fill any more orders. We are working on a second farm that may be able to deliver the following week. We’ll keep you posted…

What’s in Upic…

Beans

Cherry Tomatoes (just starting…)

Dill

Basil

Flowers

What’s in the share…

Tomato

Peppers

Cukes

Eggplant

Broccoli

Melon

Lettuce

Chicories

Summer squash

Leeks

Carrots

Beets

Celery

We’re out of the heat and it has started to rain again…August is a great time eat. Maura and I are on vacation this week (tuesday-saturday) and the crew is running the show. Here’s the skinny on what is happening on the farm.

Blueberries

Organic blueberries, raked the day before and ready fro your cereal, freezer or canning jars. If you ordered blues last week for pick-up this week they should be ready for you when you come for your share. If you want more or you missed the order, don’t fret. Put in your order this week for delivery next week.

Pork for your freezer.

We still have whole and half orders or pork available. Nothing is better that chops or a ham coming out of the freezer in December. Each order is custom butchered to your liking (no, they can’t do a “all bacon” pig. Talk to us at pickup for all the details.

What’s in the share?

Carrots/beets

Summer onions (last week!)

Asian greens/Bok Choi

Chard

Letteuce

Chickories

Peppers

We have to rein in our newsletter writing this week as we are busy… Here’s a bullet point look at the week ahead:

• Bring bags for your produce if you can.  We did order some bags, but the wrong sizes arrived and we haven’t received the new order yet.
• Nicole is on vacation this week, making our five-person crew a busy four.
• Eggplant and peppers are starting to come in heavy, look to the website for recipes.
• Cukes are multiplying like rabbits!   Maura made a delicious & refreshing agua fresca with them yesterday….
• Carrots are here! One of our favorite staples have arrived.
• We had 0.8 inches of rain last wednesday. The crops loved it. So did the weeds! Come help Wednesdays at 9am.  Immediate gratification and fun!
• 45 young farmers came to the farm Monday to see our weed control/rotation systems.
• We have harvested our first handful of ripe tomatoes…they will be in your share soon!
• Cantaloupes look great. They are turning and getting close.
• Storage onions, many tons of them, will be coming out of the field and going into the green house to cure next week.
• Blueberry orders start this week. These are the same great organic berries we have brought in the past couple years from Stoneset Farm in Brooklin Maine. Pre-order by the quart ($8.75) or the 5 pound box ($24). We freeze  them right in the 5 # box and add them to everything (literally) through the winter. Our family of four goes through 25 pounds each winter.
• Pork order forms available at pick-up. Reserve your whole or half pig now! Talk to us at pick-up for more details.

Thankfully the heat and dry of the past couple weeks has come to an end. We survived the sweat-soaked days but it is good reminder of why we live in Maine and not Virginia (although if the climate does continue to change maybe this will be the new norm).  We have been irrigating everyday for the past ten days trying to keep ahead of the dry wind. Here’s a shot of our leeks getting a much needed drink. The farm has but one irrigation well and it yields 45 gallons a minute. This may seem like a lot but when we’re trying to put an inch of water a week on 10 acres of vegetables it goes very slowly. Mostly we are doing very well with the weather, but the greens in your share will be a bit thin this week. We had some lovely red oak leaf lettuce that we planned to harvest this morning but the cooler weather came too late and we found our 275 heads bolted.  There are some very nice looking greens plantings coming up and we hope to have more of them in your share soon. Our old friend chard is thriving. Running out of creativity with chard? Look at our collection of recipes or jump onto the the csa facebook group for fresh inspiration.

Sweet onions are with us again this week and should be a regular part of your share for the next few weeks. Try them right on a sandwich or on the grill  - they are gifts of summer. Green peppers and eggplant have started and we have a mix and match this week so you should be going home with one or the other. The quantities on both should be increasing in the weeks to come. There is also more basil this week so find find your favorite pesto recipe, or ours: pesto . Great in the freezer to enjoy in cooler months!  Please DO NOT refrigerate your basil!  It is a hot weather crop and will turn black in a day at temps below 45 degrees. The best way to keep it fresh if you can’t use it right away is to trim the stems and put it in water on your counter.

Beans Step Up, Peas Die Back

Sadly the peas have come to an end. They were great while they lasted and we were a bit surprised that they held on so long in the heat. The good news is that beans are ready. Look for the signs in Upic.

Order Pork Now!

Whole and half pigs are available for pre-order. These are our own pigs raised here at the farm and processed however you like at a USDA inspected butcher. This is a great deal for high quality pork for your freezer this winter. Bacon, ham, sausage and ribs all processed and packed as you like. Neighbors and families can split halves or quarters. Whole pigs are $3.50/lb. hanging weight and halves are $3.75. Talk to us at pick-up for more details.

What’s in Upic?

Beans

Cilantro (in flower)

Dill

Sage

Oregano

Thyme

Flowers

What’s in the Share?

Sweet Onions

Summer Squash

Cukes

Pepper/eggplant

Cabbage

Chard

Basil