Endings and Beginnings (and kids book reading!)

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!

Frosty Cider

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

Upic: The heart of the farm

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

Spudtastik

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