HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND!

Happy spring!
We still have about 60 spots to fill, hopefully, by June 1st! Attached to this email is the contract for new CSA members who’d be starting to pick up at the CSA on June 3rd, and the CSA brochure. Please feel free to pass this on to friends, neighbors, co-workers and relatives who might be interested in joining the CSA this season! If we all were able to find one person to join…we’d be done in a minute. Please feel free to suggest places to leave the CSA brochures or names of individuals/groups to contact about CSA (either just to give info or to give a talk about CSA/local eating).
Does anyone who lives in East Northport or Northport have any interest in sharing pickups with someone from Kings Park? There’s a woman who’d join the CSA but only if she can rotate pickups. She knows about the CSA from the Montessori School in Centerport (I think that’s the one) as her son goes there. If so, let me know and I’ll contact this person.
This email includes…
1. Your CSA doesn’t need you! At least not this week  .2. Updated version of The Meatrix!3. What you’re getting at the CSA this week (subject to change without notice…farming is like that!)4. Please tell the Senate that GMOs won’t help feed the world5. Order now for Honey in June!6. How fat cat speculators inflated the market and drove food prices up around the world…7. BRING BAGS!8. Here are some more very important armchair activist activities dealing with cloned animals and labeling GMO foods…9. Order Certified Organic Plants/Seedlings (grown at Green Thumb Farm) for your garden this season…10. Want to end hunger in America and around the world?11. What you actually got last week12. Remember the movie Supersize Me? 13. Event Calendar 14. Pay whatever you want at Panera!

1. Your CSA doesn’t need you! At least not this week  .
If you were sent an email from Judi or myself, you are scheduled to work this week. If not, you’re not. However…you can always just show up a little before 3:30 or 5:30pm at the CSA and offer to work if help is still needed…you never know!

2. Updated version of The Meatrix!
CSA member (and UUFH member), Frances Whittelsey, submitted this updated website of The Meatrix (if you haven’t seen this yet…it’s very cool), giving you a complete toolbox for fighting factory farms…in 50 languages!
The new Meatrix site and Meatrix Presentation Kit offer free movies, buttons, stickers, postcards, magnets and lots and lots of informative handouts on issues ranging from food safety to slaughterhouse practices.
http://www.themeatrix.com/
While developed nations, including the United States, struggle with the devastating effects of factory farms on jobs, communities and the environment, the biggest agri-businesses are racing to build more in nations where they can operate in a strictly unregulated fashion. Among the countries currently experiencing some of the most rapid proliferation of factory farms are Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, South Africa, Taiwan and Thailand.
For additional information or to use The Meatrix in your work or classroom, please contact Director Destin Layne at info@themeatrix.com or 212-991-1834

3. What you’re getting at the CSA this week (subject to change without notice…farming is like that!)
May 27, 2010Week #6
1. Spring Onions2. Sorrel3. Kale (last week till the fall)4. Tat Soi (greenhouse grown)5. Mustard Greens (greenhouse grown)6. StrawberriesTotal Items: 6 (?)

4. Please tell the Senate that GMOs won’t help feed the world…"At the end of the day, GE crops don't have much to offer farmers in the developing world," notes WhyHunger colleague Dr. Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, senior scientist at Pesticide Action Network. "Recent UN reports point to agroecological farming for more promising solutions to world hunger."http://action.panna.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2901
Here are some other armchair activist campaigns to click on…http://action.panna.org/
Sign up so you can get them directly (in case I miss any…which I do).

5. Order now for Honey in June!
What…Honey - not organic…organic Honey is not really doable…ask me to explain if you want to know…however she is using biodynamic and organic beekeeping techniques to keep the bees healthy –
Where…not local - the Honey is from NY waaayyyy up north by the St. Lawrence River in a rural area – so if you’re using it for allergy issues, this is too far away…but for anything else…yum!
Who…the beekeeper is the daughter of Bill Halsey, our farmer…he is trying to get her back to the farm by supporting her beekeeping project and I think he’d like her to come home and be the beekeeper on the farm
How…$10 per 1 lb glass container…pay by check made out to Halseys Green Thumb OR in cash…bring to the CSA Sign-In desk and leave with the person there
When…last day to order will be June 10th. When will it arrive? By the end of June.
Why…bees are dying and it takes good natural beekeepers like Bill’s daughter to help replenish the bee population

6. How fat cat speculators inflated the market and drove food prices up around the world…
Stop gambling on hunger!http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6241/t/8183/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=2223

7. BRING BAGS!
What more can you say about this?
At the CSA, we bag our own food. I’d suggest to bring a selection of plastic bags (especially for things that are dripping wet like Lettuces and other Greens which we get later in the season when they are picked from out in the fields…as opposed to the greenhouse where they are probably coming from now) AND paper bags (for things that don’t like plastic like Tomatoes…the moisture that plastic attracts will make them rot faster).
Keep a stash of bags in every vehicle you own, and replenish when the stash gets low! That way you’ll never be without. AND, if anyone is picking up for you…please tell them about needing bags!

8. Here are some more very important armchair activist activities dealing with cloned animals and labeling GMO foods…http://cfs.convio.net/site/PageServer

9. Order Certified Organic Plants/Seedlings (grown at Green Thumb Farm) for your garden this season…
Check out the attachment for instructions and plant list. This one has the phone number to the farm.

10. Want to end hunger in America and around the world?
Check this out…http://usfoodcrisisgroup.org/node/7

11. What you actually got last week (and a few before if you’re keeping track!)…
May 20thWeek #5
1. Scallions – 1 bunch - $2.502. Asparagus – ½ lb - $2.753. Mustard: Green OR Red (greenhouse) – 1 bunch - $2.754. Kale: Siberian, White – 1 bunch - $2.755. Oregano – 1 bunch - $2.256. Mibuna (greenhouse) – 1 bunch - $2.757. Jerusalem Artichokes - .4 lb - $2.00
Total Items: 7Total Amount: $17.25
Herb ShareWeek #1
Oregano AND Thyme
May 6thWeek #3
1. Asparagus – ½ lb - $2.752. Scallions – 1 bunch - $2.503. Kale: Russian, White – 1 bunch - $2.754. Mustard, Red – 1 bunch - $2.505. Burdock – 1/3 lb - $2.506. Mizuna (greenhouse) – 1 bunch - $2.507. Cinantro – 1 bunch - $2.25
Total Items – 7Total Amount - $17.75
April 29thWeek #2
1. Asparagus – ½ lb - $2.752. Kale Raab (Rabe/Rape), Green OR Sprouting Broccoli, Red – 1 bunch - $2.503. Turnip Greens – 1 bunch - $2.254. Collard Greens – 1 bunch - $2.755. Mustard, Red – 1 bunch - $2.506. Chives – 1 bunch - $2.257. Beans, Black Turtle – ½ lb - $2.25
Total Items - 7Total Amount - $17.25
12. Remember the movie Supersize Me?
If not, rent it immediately…it’s a classic! If you do remember it, I found this on the Morgon Spurlock (the director and star/guinea pig of the movie) Facebook page…
We are working on the Supersize Me 6th Anniversary DVD and wanted to hear what questions you'd like answered in the extras - we'll pick the 10 most asked questions and put them in the bonus material. Email your questions to jj@warrior-poets.comhttp://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Morgan-Spurlock/182171696782

13. Fun, Cool & Interesting Stuff to Do (new events added weekly)
If you don’t mind trekking into the city, these are two email lists to get on that have a lot of very cool food-based (local/organic) events…http://brooklynbased.net/http://www.eatingintranslation.com/
Friday, May 28th
9am to 10:30am
Morning Meditation with Rev. RatzlaffUUFH109 Browns RdHuntington, NYFREE
CSA member, Rev. Paul Ratzlaff conducts a morning sitting meditation every Friday. The schedule is as follows…9am to 9:45am – silent meditationBell is rungPoem or Buddhist reading is read aloudCheck in with everyoneReading a selection out of a collection of Buddhist stories and discuss itThe end!
Saturday, June 12th
The HotlineTerry G’s Steak & Seafood Grill354 Main StFarmindale516-854-9300
CSA member, John Morina is the drummer for The Hotline. If you like Blues, Rock, R & B or Funk The Hotline might be the band for you! They rock and provide a rockin’ good time….seriously  !
Saturday, June 19th
The HotlineGunther’s Tap Room84 Main StNorthport631-754-9659
Saturday, June 26th
Green Thumb CSA Member’s Annual Strawberry Farm TourDetails to be announced
Saturday, July 17th
The HotlineGunther’s Tap Room84 Main StNorthport631-754-9659
CSA member, John Morina is the drummer for The Hotline. If you like Blues, Rock, R & B or Funk The Hotline might be the band for you! They rock and provide a rockin’ good time….seriously  !
Saturday, July 24th
The HotlineGiacomo Jack’s248 S Ketcham AveAmityville631-691-2722
CSA member, John Morina is the drummer for The Hotline. If you like Blues, Rock, R & B or Funk The Hotline might be the band for you! They rock and provide a rockin’ good time….seriously  !
Saturday, August 13th to Sunday, August 15th
The 36th NOFA (Northeast Organic Farmer’s Association) Summer ConferenceUniversity of Massachusetts AmherstN Amherst, MAFor more info and to register…http://www.nofasummerconference.org/
Be there or be squarer than square! Featured speakers this year are Sally Fallon of the Weston Price Institute and Dr. Fernando Funes, father of the Cuban organic agriculture movement.
Saturday, August 28th
The HotlineGunther’s Tap Room84 Main StNorthport631-754-9659
CSA member, John Morina is the drummer for The Hotline. If you like Blues, Rock, R & B or Funk The Hotline might be the band for you! They rock and provide a rockin’ good time….seriously  !
Saturday, September 4th
12:30pm to 3:30pm
Wildman Steve BrillSunken Meadow ParkParking lot by the Sunken Meadow BathhouseSuggested Donation: $15, under 10 years old $10For more info and to reserve a spot…http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/
If you’ve never experienced Wildman Steve Brill and you like eating locally and/or organically…this is a must! You will leave with interesting things to cook for dinner, and may start to look differently at the “weeds” that come up in your backyard. You MUST read his website carefully and follow the instructions if you are to maximize your experience by dressing properly and bringing what you need to bring on this adventure. I’ve been told he’s corny…well, that’s true…but he’s also brilliant, and knows about eating and foraging in the wild like nobody’s business. Since he’s a fairly recent father, the event is a family friendly experience.
Saturday, October 16th
Green Thumb CSA Member’s Annual Tractor-pulled Hayride & Pumpkin Picking Farm TourDetails to be announced
Sunday, October 24th
12:30 to 3:30pm
Wildman Steve BrillSunken Meadow ParkSuggested Donation: $15, under 10 years old $10For more info and to reserve a spot…http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/
If you’ve never experienced Wildman Steve Brill and you like eating locally and/or organically…this is a must! You will leave with interesting things to cook for dinner, and may start to look differently at the “weeds” that come up in your backyard. You MUST read his website carefully and follow the instructions if you are to maximize your experience by dressing properly and bringing what you need to bring on this adventure. I’ve been told he’s corny…well, that’s true…but he’s also brilliant, and knows about eating and foraging in the wild like nobody’s business. Since he’s a fairly recent father, the event is a family friendly experience.

14. Pay whatever you want at Panera!
Panera does good work! Hormone free chicken is used in some of their recipes…http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2010-05-18-panerabread18_ST_N.htm
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