Year: 2009

What’s in Upic?……

Thyme Chives Basil

Parsley Cilantro Beans

All Flowers

August comes to a close this week and we enter fall in full force. This passing month is traditionally one of celebration as plants begin to fruit and all of us finally settle into summer. In Old World agricultural society this month was set aside for families to get together and eat, enjoying the first harvest of grains and baking the first bread of the new season. Lammas or Lughnasa are pagan holidays from English and Irish calendars that mark this special time when the harvest begins but before the preparations for winter need to be addressed. Interestingly the August vacations many of us take with family still address this need to celebrate before buckling down again with work, school and the rapidly approaching winter.

As a farmer I see other significance with this time as well, watching the light rapidly disappear. Both crops and weeds transform almost before our eyes at this time as they prepare for their last month of uninterrupted growing. As the days shorten, plants that in June or July would be twelve or eighteen inches tall before they began to set seed, start this process at three and four inches, sensing that there is no time to waste in fulfilling their reproductive responsibilities. At the farm we use the changing light to our advantage by seeding large quantities of greens for October. Plantings of arugula, lettuce mix, asian greens, and kale that would be sown three weeks apart at the height of summer are seeded just seven days from each other. The rapid loss of light speeds up the succession time between these plantings during the first days of their emergence from the soil. These same plants push towards maturity and then hold their quality in the cool October air, allowing us to cut them each week for you.

One crop that we hope to have through the end of the year is baby bok choi. This is a staple in our greens mix and match and is great by itself or paired with more substantial vegetables. Here’s a quick and easy recipe for stir-fry using bok choi http://crystalspringcsa.com/archives/category/recipes/bok-choi.

Hopefully by now you have all had a chance to chat with our stellar group of apprentices this season. Kate, Kelsey, Douglas, and Bethany are the one of the best groups we have had in thirteen years of farming. Aside from mastering the daily running of this place (my vacation a few weeks ago attests to this), they are just great people that Maura and I really enjoy having around.

Pigs for sale. Order your whole or half pig and fill the freezer for the winter. These are our own pigs raised here at the farm and processed however you like them at a USDA inspected butcher. This is a great way to have the best quality farm-raised pork all winter long. Those of you who have ordered lambs from us or freezer meats from other farms know by that by buying a whole or half animal you can save money without compromising quality or conscience. Bacon, ham, sausage and ribs are all included and packed as you like. Neighbors and families can split halves or quarters. Whole pigs are $4/lb. hanging weight and halves are $4.25. Talk to us at pick-up for more details.

CSA sign-up for 2010 begins this week. Get on board early and beat the spring rush for CSA shares. Sign up now with a deposit and get on the easy winter payment plan. A $100 deposit will hold your share with payments in February, April and June of next year.

What’s in Upic?……

Thyme Chives Basil

Parsley Cilantro Beans

All Flowers

I made a big mistake this past week. I mentioned a few times that we could use a bit of rain. One would think that after the summer we have had I would have been able to contain the urge to vocalize such feelings…but apparently not. For my mistake we received two and half inches of rain on Sunday and another half inch Monday, just as a bonus. An inch would have been plenty especially given the fact we are still trying to get our June Hay into the barn. Now if I were to meet myself on the street I wouldn’t guess that I was the superstitious type. I have to say that for most of my life I have been a relatively rational person. Farming has driven me to believe deeply in any number of intangible forces greater than myself, the most hocus pocus of these being the power of suggestion. The farm crew has learned by this point in the season not to strongly praise one crop or even express relief about something going well until that crop is harvested or the task is done. To jump the gun is to invite a visit from Murphy (as in Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong probably will) or at least a loud shoosh from me.

Pig preordering starts this week. These are our own pigs raised here at the farm and processed however you like them 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 $4/lb. hanging weight and halves are $4.25. Talk to us at pick-up for more details.

More Leeks this week…Are you running out of creative things to do with them? Here’s another recipe idea…

Carmelized Leeks and Noodle Soup

· 2 medium leeks

· 1/2 Tbsp olive oil

· 1 Tbsp butter

· 1/2 Tbsp dark brown soft sugar

· 1/2 pound noodles

· 2 heaping Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

· 1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil

· Salt and black pepper to taste

Preparation

Split the leeks lengthways and wash each layer thoroughly. Slice across into thin strips, including the green part.

Heat the Tablespoon of olive oil and butter together over a gentle heat. When the butter has melted, add the leeks and toss well. Cook slowly, uncovered, for about 10 minutes or until they start to soften.

Sprinkle over the sugar. After a couple more minutes, mix well. Continue to cook for 15 to 30 minutes, until the leeks have begun to collapse into a sticky mass. Add small amounts of hot water if required to stop sticking. While the leeks are cooking, cook and drain the noodles. When the leeks are done, add the parsley, olive oil, cooked noodles and seasoning to taste. Toss well and serve.

What’s in Upic?……

Thyme Chives Basil

Parsley Cilantro Beans

All Flowers

Summer has arrived with a vengeance this week…ah to be a ripening tomato in this weather. The heat has been a bit intense and the farm crew has wilted slightly. Like the crops that have shallow roots from the constant rain of the early season, we are not used to real summer weather. That being said it is nice to have things feel somewhat normal for the season. In between harvesting chores we’ve been spending a lot of time weeding. The weed family that seems to be thriving this year is grass, more specifically crab grass. I have been saying for the past two months that this is the year to have a lawn mowing business as the grass has been growing like never before. The sheep appreciate this growth in the pastures but the vegetables in the fields do not. Grasses are one of the hardest weeds to beat as they have great root systems and the get a hold fast. Most years we don’t have huge problems with the stuff as we can get in early with the tractor or the hoe and kill them young as they are just emerging. This year the constant rainfall caused us to miss many of those cultivating windows and early hoeing and hand weeding just moved the young plants around, allowing them to re-root in the wet conditions. Few things are as competitive with vegetable crops as grass. The plants make quick root systems that out compete almost anything for water and nutrients –think of your lawn. In areas where we have not been able to beat the grass back the vegetable plants are stunted and have poor color –mostly from lack of nutrients that have been washed out of our soils after so many soaking rains.

We hope to harvest a beautiful shallot crop this week. For those of you who are unfamiliar with shallots they are the close cousins of onions but they have a sweetness that likens towards garlic. Smaller than onions they are easy to do almost anything with we use them for salad dressings, soups and right in the pot when making rice. They store well and taste great raw, sautéed, and roasted. After harvesting they will need to cure in the greenhouse for a few weeks so that they will keep and then they’ll be ready to share with you.

Organic Blueberries will be available this week. There is still time to order for Friday’s delivery if you have missed out so far. Please let us know by this evening (Tuesday) at distribution or by email. These are certified organic, raked the day before berries from Stoneset Farm in Brooklin, Maine. The berry crop is plentiful this year and does not seem to be adversely affected by the poor weather at the beginning of the season. 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 next week and we’ll start a list.

Berry prices are: quart (not pint) for $8.75, 5 lbs. for $25 and 10 lbs. for $48.

What’s in Upic?……
Thyme        Chives        Basil
Parsley    Cilantro    Beans
All Flowers

Summer it appears has finally arrived to Maine after an extended wet     spring. Some of our crops are fairing well, like the leeks you will be seeing this week, but others are not. The biggest loss to note, and I can hear the collective gasp as I write, is our tomato crop. Over the past 2 weeks late blight, fueled by rain and fog has taken the whole crop, about 850 plants. This breaks my heart. In the 13 years I have been farming I have never seen a year like this, and I hope to never see another. Potatoes have been another victim of the blight, but we hope to be digging them, small as they are, in the next couple weeks. Luckily the harvestable part sits below the ground and is less susceptible to the dreaded fungus. Needless to say, we are forging ahead with hope that the last few months of the season will yield some semblance of normal fall crops and yields.
The one product of this farm that I can praise unequivocally this year is your support. CSA is a relationship and in a normal year your trust in us pays dividends in produce as we meet and exceed our yield expectations. This year we will fall short of our goals and it is your understanding and enthusiasm for what we are bringing in that keeps us focused and looking up. Thanks for your kind words and support, it allows us to do what we love.
Leeks arrive in abundance today and we thought it wise to give you the scoop on them as we hope to be harvesting this planting for a couple weeks and we don’t want them to pile up in your fridge. Leeks are a sweet, tender, member of the onion family. They have a light flavor –unlike an onion, and can be used like a scallion, shallot or garlic to add sweet savory flavor to whatever your eating whether its raw or cooked. One of our favorite ways to have is on the grill. We slice them in half long ways, slather them in olive oil and put them right over a hot fire until the begin to blacken –the heat caramelizes them and turns them into candy. More info on grilling leeks and other vegetables are on our website http://crystalspringcsa.com/archives/category/recipes/leek .
The upic field is doing well this year and beans are the big story this week. There are eight rows of them ready to go right now –so please pick them! Flowers and herbs are also doing well. All the flowers in the field are open for picking right now. Herbs with labels are ready as well. When harvesting herbs please use scissors and try to only cut one third of the plant, leaving a third of the plant to regenerate new leaves for cutting again. Those that like a bit of work with their upic can pull Japanese beetles off the zinnias and put them in the buckets of soapy water next to the beds or pick rocks from the field and put them in the big blue barrel at the gate by the scissors. Many hands…
Milkweed Farm Pastured Eggs now available at distribution. Milkweed Farm is right down Woodside road from us and Michael and Lucretia Woodruff raise pastured animals and eggs. We think their eggs are some of the best we have tasted since we stopped raising them ourselves. They keep their birds on pasture twenty-four seven so they have new grass everyday which makes their yolks bright yellow and maximizes the “good” fatty acids that come from all the beta-carotene in the grass.
Organic Maine Blueberries . We will be taking orders for fresh Maine organic blueberries next week (August 11-15)…order in quart or 5lb. sizes. More info as well as prices and pick-up days coming in next week’s newsletter.

What’s in Upic?……
Snap Peas and Snow Peas
Thyme        Chives        Basil
Parsley    Cilantro    Beans (one pint Plz)
Flowers with signs

The Upic field adds many new items this week as summer arrives with a vengeance. This field has been a real bright spot this year as it has really started to look great even with the poor weather. The flowers are coming in early this year and thanks to many hours of help from CSA members Bob Leezer and Barb Harvey we have the healthiest looking plants we have had in many years.
Those of you new to the upic experience at the farm here are a few points and guidelines to keep these crops 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.
•    Find a farmer and ask us if you are unsure how or what to pick.

The bad news for the week is that late blight has arrived in our tomato crop. We are trying to prune out the unhealthy foliage and pull whole plants that have the disease in their stems but we’re not sure if this will work. If the weather improves we may have enough healthy plants to make a season out of it. We just have to hope.
I mowed a third of our potato crop on Saturday trying to minimize the loss in the plants that are still healthy. We will begin digging really small potatoes in mid-August, which is about a month earlier than usual.
The tactics for managing this disease out break have really evolved over the past couple weeks as the infection has spread to pretty much everyone we know in the northeast. Usually we try to pull infected plants immediately to stop the spread of the disease to other farms, but the level of infection is so widespread that farmers are starting to now try and save sick plants with the hope of bringing in some kind of crop.

What’s in Upic?……
Snap Peas and Snow Peas

The upic field starts its second week with snow and snap peas open for picking. Flowers are blooming early this year and we hope to open them up for next week. Snap beans are coming along as well and the first planting has flowers and the good flush of beans starting. Please remember not to pick anything that is not labeled with a sign.
Dreaded late blight has arrived to this farm. Over the weekend we discovered late blight in our potatoes. This fungus is very destructive to potatoes and tomatoes and when conditions are right can take down an entire crop in a few days. We are trying to manage the infection in the potatoes and hope to keep it localized to a few varieties but it will affect our yields considerably. Late blight is something we deal with almost every year but usually don’t see it arrive until September or October –once the affected crops are done with harvest. This year the infection is earlier and stronger than usual because infected seedlings were brought into the northeast from the Alabama to be sold at Walmart, Home Depot and Lowes. These plants quickly released spores into the air, which the cold wet weather provided the perfect conditions to spread. There is currently late blight reported from Maryland to Ohio to Northern Maine. You can read more about this problem in a NY Times article http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/nyregion/18tomatoes.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=late%20blight&st=cse  Please try and buy your plants from local producers next year!
On a farm scale we are dealing with this fungus using two organically approved controls, one that kills the germinated spores on the leaf surface and another that kills the spores as they land on the plants. We are hoping to keep the loss to a minimum but there will be loss. If you have tomatoes or potatoes in your home garden please check you plants every few day for greasy looking splotches on the leaves and stems. When the weather is damp the splotches will be ringed by white mold. Pull these plants right away and either put them in a plastic bag and throw them away or bury them –don’t compost infected plants! The Fungus can survive in the compost pile but not underground. I’m sure I’ll have more to say on this problem in future newsletters.
We’re happy to be harvesting what we can from the fields right now. Those of you wondering when more crops will be coming in…we are too. The farm is still paying the price for five weeks of rain. There have been stories of other CSAs who have stopped harvest and distributions altogether until the crops return so for now we’ll count our blessings.
Carrots are a bright point and it looks as if we will have them for a while to come. Last week’s harvest was seeded on April 12th and, unlike many other things came in right on time –although they are a bit smaller than we like. There is nothing like a fresh local carrot after eating the stored and shipped varieties from the supermarket. My kids have been eating so many I’m thinking about having their blood sugar levels checked.
Seal Cove chevre is back in the share room as is nitrate-free bacon from Maine Farms. We are still waiting for more A to Z cookbooks…we’ll let you know when they arrive.
Frontier resturant and cinema www.explorefrontier.com is showing a great new film tonight and tomorrow about why we all need to eat local. Food Inc. explores the industrial food system and its effects on consumers, farmers, workers and the environment. Great interviews with Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food), as well as farmer/celebrity Joel Salatin (Everything I Want to Do is Illegal).

What’s in Upic?……
Snap Peas and Snow Peas

The long awaited opening of Upic is this week with just one crop to start out…Peas! These are sweet eat-the-whole-pod snap and snow peas that rarely make it to the car, much less all the way home to family members. As we open the upic field with just one crop we ask that you only take a pint (will be provided) per share this first week. This will ensure that everyone can take some of these home to enjoy. We will open up some of the other crops next week as well.
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 225 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 eleven 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.
•    Find a farmer and ask us if you are unsure how or what to pick.