Year: 2011

Looking at this week’s share there is no mistaking that fall has arrived. Roots are the theme and before you get overwhelmed here’s a quick key to help you put these tasty tubers to use:

• Celeriac – This is week 3 for this starchy, savory relative of celery. Peel and cube it with potatoes the same size and roast or boil them together. One celeriac to six  potatoes is our favorite ratio. Grate celeriac raw into a salad as well. Here’s how the Brit’s do it …ideas.
• Turnips – This is the the vegetable that kept Europe alive each winter for millennia! Not enticing? Try this recipe with leeks and carrots.
• Rutabaga – Also know as swedes, this nuttier, sweeter cousin of the turnip makes a great addition to any soup or stew, Here’s a link to a basic mashed rutabaga recipe that is a sweet crowd pleaser. Add some cumin to make it more exciting.
• Sweet Potato – These are a no-brainer. Wash, rub the skin with oil and bake whole at 425 until the skin lifts off the flesh. Magic.
• Carrots – These go any and every way with all of the other roots.

Survey Says…

What’s Missing?

Every year we plant fifty different crops and every year we have some that exceed our expectations and others that don’t. Three notable crops that did poorly this year and are missing from the fall lineup are parsnips, pumpkins, and butternut squash. The butternut hurts the most as we had such a bumper crop last year. A hot, dry early summer and a stealthy herd of deer are to blame.

Many Thanks

Many of you have signed up for 2012 and we are so grateful.  Thank you.  Your support allows us to better plan for the coming season and also help us to relax a bit more this fall.

How Late will the CSA Go This Year?

Next week (October 25th and 28th) will be our last regular distribution of produce. We have yet to figure out if we will have a pre-Thanksgiving distribution. Watch the newsletter for updates!

Mac Apples and Cider!

More great fruit from Willow Pond Farm in Sabattus.  Pick up your Macintosh apples & incredible cider.

Apple Picking

Willow Pond Farm in Sabattus on Rt. 9, just off the turnpike is the place to pick apples this fall. This rolling farm has beautiful orchards and Jill shuttles everyone out to the trees on her horse-drawn wagon on Saturdays and Sundays. Here’s the link to their location Willow Pond.

Wolf Pine Winter CSA share Delivered Here!

Get the best Maine has to offer this winter by joining the Wolf Pine Winter CSA. Wolf Pine grows storage produce and buys from other great farmers to make up their winter CSA. The shares are boxed and delivered to Crystal Spring every three weeks November through May.  Option for local meat and pantry shares available. Read more and sign up at Wolf Pine’s website.

What’s in Upic?

Pigs to watch…but nothing left to pick.

What’s in the share?

Kale

Sweet Potatoes

Mix and Match Potatoes

Mix and Match Onions

Turnips

Rutabaga

Celeriac

Carrots

Lettuce

Leeks

Shallots

Brussels Sprouts

Bring Bags!

Our eco bags came in finally…don’t forget to bring some from home!

We had our first killing frost this past week with lows of 32 and 29 consecutively. While these temps aren’t usually considered “killing” frosts, the quick drop and the length of time the mercury stayed down really did some damage. We had prepared for the frost with all of our sensitive crops, pulling celeriac and sweet potatoes out of harms way. We had even covered some of the young lettuces you will be seeing in the next couple weeks just to protect them from the light frosts we see at this time of year -thankfully they fared very well.  We were surprised however to lose the chard to the frost.  This usually hardy green is know for surviving in the field all the way through late November but the rapid and prolonged temp changes we saw this past week were too much for it and we lost several hundred row feet. The upic field was another victim and the few flowers and herbs out there were done in by the cold.

The silver lining of frost is that almost everything coming out of the fields from here on out gets sweeter. Kale, cabbage, turnips, and carrots will all have sweeter taste from here on out.  The science behind this is phenomena is based in the plants reaction to temps below 32 degrees.  As plants make sugar through photosynthesis they store that sugar in their cells as starch.  When the weather gets cold the plants react by breaking down their stored energy and converting it into sugars like glucose and fructose. The sugar is stored in their cells and, like salt on the roads in winter, lowers the freezing point of the cells, thus protecting the plant from freezing.  The benefit for all of us is a sweeter vegetable. The one thing that will generally not improve in this weather is lettuce. It gets a bit tougher and doesn’t seem to sweeten…here’s to strong vinaigrettes!

Seeking Praise

As the farm winds down this season we also are starting the process of building the season to come. Field plans, financial plans, hiring, ordering, etc, etc, all start up and start to weave together into the picture that will make 2012. Integral to this process is attracting new members to the CSA.  While we do our part by putting up brochures, maintaing the website, and trying to stay visible, its really your efforts on our behalf that brings new people to the  farm. The conversations, meals and produce that all of you share with your friends, neighbors and co-workers are our marketing machine and we are forever grateful.  In this vein we would like to ask any and all of you to write us your thoughts about what the farm means to you and or how this great adventure in eating has affected you and your family. We hope to post these testimonials on our website to help encourage other to “take the leap” with us next season.

Many Thanks

Many of you have signed up for 2012 and we are so grateful.  Thank you.  Your support allows us to better plan for the coming season and also help us to relax a bit more this fall.

How Late will the CSA Go This Year?

We will be harvesting crops until the last full week of October (24th-28th) and may continue further but it looks like our greens supply will run out just about then. We were able to have a pre-thanksgiving distribution last year and we may be able to do that again this year but we won’t know for another week or so. Watch the newsletter for updates!

Organic Maine Cranberries

Sparrow Farm in Pittston is harvesting organic cranberries and we will be taking orders for 5 lb. bags this week for delivery next Friday (21st). These are great local berries that can go right in the freezer and pulled out cup by cup for thanksgiving and many scone, muffin, pancake and relish creations all winter long. Order five pound bags for $28 this week at pick-up or by email until Tuesday (18th) at noon.

Mac Apples and Cider!

More great fruit from Willow Pond Farm in Sabattus.  Pick up your Macintosh apples & incredible cider.

Apple Picking

Willow Pond Farm in Sabattus on Rt. 9, just off the turnpike is the place to pick apples this fall. This rolling farm has beautiful orchards and Jill shuttles everyone out to the trees on her horse-drawn wagon on Saturdays and Sundays. Here’s the link to their location Willow Pond.

Wolf Pine Winter CSA share Delivered Here!

Get the best Maine has to offer this winter by joining the Wolf Pine Winter CSA. Wolf Pine grows storage produce and buys from other great farmers to make up their winter CSA. The shares are boxed and delivered to Crystal Spring every three weeks November through May.  Option for local meat and pantry shares available. Read more and sign up at Wolf Pine’s website.

What’s in Upic?

Pigs to watch…but nothing left to pick.

What’s in the share?

Kale

Mixed Potatoes

Celeriac

Carrots

Lettuce

Bok Choi

Leeks

Shallots

Cabbage

Bring Bags!

Our eco bags came in finally…don’t forget to bring some from home!

With fall officially (and firmly) upon us we have spent the past week gearing up for the coming winter. Tomatoes are done for the year, cucumbers and zucchini are a distant memory and the beans and peas have faded from the upic field. On the surface this time of year is a bit sad for all of us, the passing of our favorite weather and the foods that come with it is wistful. Looking a little deeper I alsways find I am a bit excited for the first flakes of snow, days by the fire and a changing of gears from the outward drive of summer to the inward relaxation of the colder months.

These next few weeks are like a grand bon voyage party before all of us retreat inside. Maura and I will miss all of your faces, the conversations had and the daily interactions in the dooryard or on Maine Street. This is the time to give thanks for the relationship we have with all of you, a relationship that is somewhat unique in this world of global markets and internet transactions. Unlike the swipe of a credit card at Hannaford, your share brings you to this beautiful farm every week during the summer to relax, watch the animals, pick some flowers and just exhale. Your membership in this CSA is right in front of you each week. The $515 for each share goes towards seed from Maine seed houses, soil and compost from Maine and Vermont, wages for our hardworking crew, rent to the best local land trust in the state and support for this farm family. We are ever so grateful you make the choice to support what we do and in return we do our very best for you.

Conventional wisdom in the past few years has started to turn the nation towards knowing where your food comes from. Writers like Michael Pollan and Barabara Kingsolver  have directed the conversation in favor of “knowing your farmer” while films like “Food Inc.”, “Fresh”, and “King Corn” have helped us all see what’s wrong with trusting disconnected, profit-only corporations to make qualitative decisions about food, health and caring for our soils. As the greater nations talks and thinks about these things all of you are ahead of the curve. Putting your money where your mouth is and reaping the rewards.

Many thanks to all of you who have renewed your membership in the CSA for next year. Your are the foundation that we build the year’s work upon.

Celebrate Celeriac

Celeriac makes its appearance this week. This starchier and sweeter version of celery is a great addition to anything that goes in the oven. We roast them in 1″ slices, boil them with potatoes when we’re making mashed or grate them right into our favorite soups. To prepare peel the rough skin away and slice chop or grate away. Here’s a few of our favorite recipes.

Mac Apples and Cider!

More great fruit from Willow Pond Farm in Sabattus. Macintosh apples replace the Cortlands we had last week.  The world’s best cider flows on. There is nothing better for what ails ya. My doctor is under strict instructions to transfuse me with this stuff if I’m injured.

Apple Picking

Willow Pond Farm in Sabattus on Rt. 9, just off the turnpike is the place to pick apples this fall. This rolling farm has beautiful orchards and Jill shuttles everyone out to the trees on her horse-drawn wagon on Saturdays and Sundays. Here’s the link to their location Willow Pond.

Wolf Pine Winter CSA share Delivered Here!

Get the best Maine has to offer this winter by joining the Wolf Pine Winter CSA. Wolf Pine grows storage produce and buys from other great farmers to make up their winter CSA. The shares are boxed and delivered to Crystal Spring every three weeks November through May.  Option for local meat and pantry shares available. Read more and sign up at Wolf Pine’s website.

Sign up for your 2012 CSA Share

Sign up now for next season’s share. Your commitment now allows us to spend our time over the winter planning and working to improve the farm instead of marketing. Pass the word on to friends as well! Talk to us at pickup for more details.

What’s in Upic?

Flowers

Herbs

What’s in the share?

Red Peppers

Chard

Kale

Mixed Potatoes

Red Onions

Broccoli

Celeriac

Carrots/beets

Chickories

Lettuce heads

Bring Bags!

We have run out of bags and the fancy biodegradable ones we’ve ordered have still not arrived…Thanks!

With the beautiful weather of the past few days it’s hard to believe that we had a frost last week, or that October is just days away.  The transition from summer to fall that is upon us has taken hold of the the farm harvest list as we move into leeks and celeriac and pick our last tomatoes of the season.

It has been a good run with tomatoes this year, a full six weeks of harvest, averaging 4 pounds a week. We trialed many new varieties with hopes of finding a handful that could not only survive unrelenting disease pressure, but also burst with flavor.  Of the four “beefsteak”varieties, only two really had the right taste and texture. We also tried paste tomatoes this year with some success, although the flavor dynamic needs improving here as well.  In addition to finding disease resistant varieties we also tried grafting some of our heirloom favorites to heartier rootstock.  This technique has been practiced with fruit trees for decades but is relatively new for tomatoes.  Our own attempt was a huge success and favorites like brandywine and green cherokee flourished.  We hope to expand our heirloom growing next year now that we have a grafting as a tool to beat disease.

You’ll find the last tomatoes of the year this week in your share.  In addition to red tomatoes we have also picked a few green tomatoes for those of you that have been asking about them.  The late tomatoes would never ripen in time for the coming cold, dark weather so we’re glad a few of you will enjoy them.

Apples, Pears and Cider!

More great fruit from Willow Pond Farm in Sabattus. Cortland apples replace the Paula Red apples we’ve had the past couple weeks. Cortlands are good all-purpose fruit with bright white flesh that is slow to oxidize. This will be the last week for the Clapp’s Favorite pears so enjoy them while you can. The world’s best cider flows on. If you haven’t tried Willow Pond’s unpasteurized local cider you might as well spend fall in Florida. This stuff is amazing and puts that “cooked” stuff in the stores to shame.

Apple Picking

Willow Pond Farm in Sabattus on Rt. 9, just off the turnpike is the place to pick apples this fall. This rolling farm has beautiful orchards and Jill shuttles everyone out to the trees on her horse-drawn wagon on Saturdays and Sundays. Here’s the link to their location Willow Pond.

Wolf Pine Winter CSA share Delivered Here!

Get the best Maine has to offer this winter by joining the Wolf Pine Winter CSA. Wolf Pine grows storage produce and buys from other great farmers to make up their winter CSA. The shares are boxed and delivered to Crystal Spring every three weeks November through May.  Option for local meat and pantry shares available. Read more and sign up at Wolf Pine’s website.

Sign up for your 2012 CSA Share

Sign up now for next season’s share. Your commitment now allows us to spend our time over the winter planning and working to improve the farm instead of marketing. Pass the word on to friends as well! Talk to us at pickup for more details.

What’s in Upic?

Flowers

Herbs

What’s in the share?

Tomatoes

Red Peppers

Chard

Kale

Potatoes

Yellow Onions

Leeks

Kohlrabi

Broccoli

Bring Bags!

We have run out of bags and the fancy biodegradable ones we’ve ordered will not be in until the end of the week…Thanks!

This past Friday evening we were touched by our first frost. This is the earliest we have had in our eight years growing at Crystal Spring and came as a surprise. This time of year is always up and down with temps and the plants usually are ready for the cold. Luckily we had had a few cold nights prior to the frost and the hardy vegetables did fine.  The only real visible damage was in the vines of the sweet potatoes as they sit low to the ground where the cold air settles.  The burning they sustained should not affect them in the long run as long as we will get them out of the ground before the real frosts arrive in October.

Thanks to all of you who have signed up for next year’s share. We love being your farmers.

Cabbage returns this week. This time it’s Red! When in doubt shred it, dress it and go.  Mark Bittman, famed pragmatist chef, has a great article on stuffed cabbage that is easy for those of you with more cabbage than you know what to do with…click here.

Bring Bags!

Please remember to bring bags to pick-up. We do have bags here but the more recycling we can do the better! Many folk also bring their own tupperware containers of ziplock bags and put their greens right into them. Thanks.

Apples, Pears and Cider!

Add the world’s best unpasteurized cider to the low-spray Paula Red apples and Clapp’s pears from our friends Jill and Charlie at Willow Pond Farm in Sabattus and you’ll know you’re in heaven.

Apple Picking

Willow Pond Farm in Sabattus on Rt. 9, just off the turnpike is the place to pick apples this fall. This rolling farm has beautiful orchards and Jill shuttles everyone out to the trees on her horse-drawn wagon on Saturdays and Sundays. Here’s the link to their location Willow Pond.

Sign up for your 2012 CSA Share

Please consider signing up now for next season’s share. Your commitment now allows us to spend our time over the winter planning and working to improve the farm instead of marketing. Pass the word on to friends as well! Talk to us at pickup for more details.

What’s in Upic?

Beans

Fall Peas (one pint please)

Flowers

Herbs

What’s in the share?

Tomatoes

Red Peppers

Arugula

Tatsoi

Bok Choi

Lettuce Mix

Lettuce Heads

Chard

Kale

Radicchio

Red Cabbage

Mix and Match Potatoes

Yellow/Red Onions

Another beautiful week ahead.  Crisp, bright days, cool nights and still lots of summer food coming out of the fields.  Tomatoes are going strong as are peppers and Asian eggplant.  Look for more varieties of potatoes along with onions, shallots, carrots and sweet potatoes in the coming weeks.

With all of this food we harvest for you it may be easy to forget about the Upic field and the great food or flowers you harvest for yourselves. Looking out on sunny pick-up days and seeing the field filled with all of you finding treasures is what this place is all about.  Growing food that is eaten locally is important but sharing the farm and providing a place for everyone to watch soil transform seeds into plants trumps everything else.  Without even trying I can think of ten kids who we’ve watched grow from pre-schoolers into middle-schoolers, each one learning what lies behind the deep green leaves of the bean plants and how to explore the dark tunnels of trellised peas to find the pods the adults can’t get to. Some of these “farm kids” have grown up and visit the farm only now and then.  Some of them have done their high school service learning hours with us and some have even come back to work with us for a summer or two. All of them have been able to take away the experience of finding, picking and knowing their food which they will take with them wherever they land in life. Of everything we accomplish here in our busy lives as farmers, the work that we share with all of you in the upic field has proven to be the most important.

During our first few years here, we struggled to keep the upic field hardy and free of weeds with all the other demands in the fields.  Fortunately for the past few years the Upic field has been beautiful. The plantings are healthy, weeded and vibrant.  Many thanks for the hard work of two CSA members who log long hours out there every Tuesday and Friday.  Bob Leezer and David Houdlette are our Upic “stewards” and most likely they have helped, advised, or just chatted with just about every one of you when you have been out in the field.  Bob has been an instrumental part of this farm since our arrival in 2004.  He put up the greenhouse with us in 2005, has seeded hundreds of flats in the early spring, and is one of the kindest people we know.  A wonderful community member, Bob volunteers his time with Veterans for Peace, Literacy Volunteers, Freeport Players, among other groups, and cares for gardens and animals at his home, including two dogs rescued from the South.  Realizing that managing the upic field was a job for two, Bob recruited a mate!  He found David who for the past two years has proven to be dedicated & loves to work hard.  A retired contractor, the word around here is that he is always seen out helping his neighbors with yard and house projects.  We are all lucky.  Thank you Bob & David!

Sign up for your 2012 CSA Share

Please consider signing up now for next season’s share. Your commitment now allows us to spend our time over the winter planning and working to improve the farm instead of marketing. Pass the word on to friends as well! Talk to us at pickup for more details.

Fall Peas

We have the start of our short fall pea crop this week. The humid weather has not been kind to them and they are being slowly killed by downey mildew just as the get started. Please limit your picking to one pint per share.

Apples and Pears

We have low-spray paula red apples and pears from our friends Jill and Charlie at Willow Pond Farm in Sabattus. The world’s best cider will be coming next week!

Apple Picking

Willow Pond Farm in Sabattus on Rt. 9, just off the turnpike is the place to pick apples this fall. This rolling farm has beautiful orchards and Jill shuttles everyone out to the trees on her horse-drawn wagon on Saturdays and Sundays. Here’s the link to their location Willow Pond.

What’s in Upic?

Beans

Fall Peas (one pint please)

Flowers

Herbs

What’s in the share?

Tomatoes

Red Peppers

Arugula

Tatsoi

Chard

Kale

Chickories

Asian Eggplant

Kueka Gold Potatoes

Yellow Onions

Another great labor day potato harvest yesterday. By all estimates we had more potatoes and more pickers than ever before. Many thanks to the over sixty folks who shared their labor day holiday laboring with us in the field. We pulled about 13,000 lbs. of spuds during the two and a half hours -and we still have over a thousand bed feet of potatoes to dig! Luckily, we have a vigorous school group from Merriconeag coming this week to help out. Thanks again everyone.

All of the spuds are now in the barn where they will cure under ventilation for the next few weeks while we sort and grade them. This year’s crop looks relatively clean of disease and sound which means we will be able to save seed from them for next year. Potato seed isn’t true seed but really just smaller potatoes that we keep over the winter and then plant in the spring. The little tubers sprout quickly and establish strong plants but unlike true seeds that are formed through a sexual/pollination process, they are effectively clones of their parent plant. The lack of genetic diversity these clones have makes them vulnerable to being wiped out by disease, i.e. the great potato famine of Ireland in the 1850’s. As farmers we try to counter the possibility by growing five varieties, with the hope that if we did have a problem with one or two the other three would persist.

With the arrival of potatoes comes the gradual shift from summer to fall. Many of you are sending kids back to school, taking the last fews days of camping, making those “before the snow flies” lists, etc. As you transition over the next few weeks, so will your share. Potatoes, winter squash, cabbage, and storage onions will all sneak in alongside  tomatoes, peppers and eggplant for the next few weeks, easing you into the transition. Fall is such a great time in Maine and the produce seems to dovetail right into the cooler nights and crystal clear days, offering sustenance for the season ahead. Enjoy.

Savoy Cabbage is Classy

Savoy cabbage is in your share this week and we really think it is something special. This crinkled leaf (savoyed) cabbage is really sweet with a unique tangy finish flavor. It does really well in coleslaw mixed with that green cabbage you still have from last week or even braised quickly. Look here for our favorite recipes. The past couple years we have made an effort to grow smaller cabbage heads with the idea that everyone could use them in one or two dishes instead of having to try and figure out how to make four meals including cabbage in one week! We do this by planting them closer together in the fields, crowding the plants and making them share nutrients and water, keeping them smaller. Even with this effort though, many of these savoy heads are still quite large. You can always share some with the neighbors.

Canning Tomatoes for Sale

In the cooler months, you can enjoy the flavor and vibrance of summer with your own preserved tomatoes – whole, sauce, or however you please.  We will continue to have flats of “imperfect” slicing tomatoes from the fields for sale this week at $10 for a 10lb. flat ($.75/lb) for those of you who would like to start canning or freezing. Our own Roma tomatoes are also for sale at $17.50 for a 14lb flat ($1.25/lb.). The canning/roma tomatoes 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/

CSA sign-up for 2011 begins this week

We will be taking deposits starting this week for the 2012 season. Your commitment to the CSA in the fall is vital to our planning for the coming season.  We realize you have many great choices when is come to spending your local food dollars and we are proud to be your farmers.  A deposit of $100 will not only secure your share for next year but will get you on our winter payment plan. Having all of you sign up early is an enormous help to us for our planning process as well as reducing our administrative duties next spring, when we are busy in the fields.

What’s in Upic?

Beans continue….

Cherry toms (one pint per share please)

Various herbs

Flowers

What’s in the share?

Arugula

Lettuce mix

Chickories

Tatsoi

Baby Bok Choi

Chard

Cabbage

Tomatoes

Red Peppers

Potatoes

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