Spud School

We finished harvesting all of our potatoes about a week ago which is out last big crop to get out of the ground this year. Its always a substantial effort as many of you know from years past when we invited members to our labor day CSA harvest. This year we planted our crop much later than usual, trying to miss some the destruction of the Colorado Potato Beetle and this change made a labor dayIMG_7834 harvest too early. We were resigned to having the farm crew spend a week on this crop when we got a call from longtime friend and farm advocate Rick Wilson. Rick is a teacher at Brunswick High and among other things teaches a service learning class to juniors and seniors. The focus of his class is to give high school students a hands on sense of the real world beyond the doors of the school as the class visits and works around the community. Two sections of this class came to the farm, had a tour and a question and answer session followed by a good hour of picking potatoes with the farm crew. During this time we were able to get most of the potatoes up and the students had a real farm experience. Rick had them write reflection essays which he shared with me. Here are a few notable quotes; “Crystal Spring was an experience like no other where we allowed to get our hands dirty”, “It (farming) definitely  isn’t a career I’ll be pursuing though it was pretty cool” and “Crystal Spring Farm definitely gives a person a sense of place because the work that you are doing is for the people, and the people are also the reason that the farm exists today”. I followed up the kids visits to the farm with two slide and lecture sessions at the high school that gave more detail about how the farm works as a business. The whole experience was a grand success and it’s always comforting to hear that what we do here is “pretty cool”.

When is the Last Share Pick Up?

At this point, baring extreme weather, we are planning to have our final harvest during the last week of October. The last day of pickup falls on Friday the 31st, Halloween!

Sign-up for 2015…Now!

Many Thanks to all of you who signed up in the last week. If you are planning on it and haven’t yet, don’t wait! Sign up here online. We have more folks on our wait list than ever before and we want to be sure current members who would like a share are signed up first.

Farm to Table Dinner at the Farm

Place_settings-_Crystal_Springs_Farm_posterWe are hosting a farm to table dinner Sunday October 19th with Rosemont Market and Bakery. The dinner will be made completely from Crystal Spring produce and meats with wine parings and a cocktail to sip during a pre-dinner farm walk. The butcher shop at Rosemont is where most of our lamb is sold and they have a very successful business in the Portland that is based wholly on quality local food. Here’s the info link for the event. Tickets are $85 and can be purchased at brownpapertickets.com.

 

Stock up for Fall

Our cupboards are full here at the farm. In addition to lots of vegetable to take home we also have plenty of great local products…

  • Dark Maple Syrup
  • CSF Honey– doesn’t get more local!
  • CSF Frozen Blueberries– Enjoy summer all winter long
  • Willow Pond Apple Cider– This stuff is too good
  • CSF Ground Lamb– Our own Grass Fed
  • CSF Ground Beef– Our own Grass Fed
  • Sparrow Farm Organic Eggs

What’s in the share…

Carrots

Beets

Potatoes

Delicata Squash

Lettuce

Arugula

Chard/Kale

Salad Turnips

Peppers

Shallots

Sweet potatoes