Month: October 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!