Green Thumb Farm Huntington CSA

Happy summer!

DINES FARM NOT COMING THIS WEEK! Short story is Jay Dines was in a car accident a week ago and is basically ok but is recovering. They’ll be at the CSA next week. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause anyone.

This week, we weigh! Read info about it below and plan your CSA pickup to take a little longer this week as there may be lines at the scales. It will get faster and easier.

SO CLOSE AND YET SO FAR!!! We still need to fill 41 spots to have the CSA filled for the year!!! You will be hearing about this until either they’re all filled or until Labor Day (when Farmer Bill stops accepting new CSA members) whichever happens first! Attached to this email is the contract for new CSA members, the CSA brochure AND a CSA fee sheet for the rest of the season. 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). I’m happy to do whatever is needed.

This email includes…
1. HELP!!! Your CSA needs you!! We’re looking for THREE (3) people from 3:30 to 5:30pm and FIVE (5) folks from 5:30 to 7:30pm
2. What you’re getting at the CSA this week (subject to change without notice…farming is like that!)
3. It’s time to weigh our food!
4. BRING BAGS!
5. Order Certified Organic Plants/Seedlings (grown at Green Thumb Farm) for your garden this season…
6. Event Calendar
7. Protect Children from Toxic Chemicals with a Click!


1. HELP!!! Your CSA needs you!! We’re looking for THREE (3) people from 3:30 to 5:30pm and FIVE (5) folks from 5:30 to 7:30pm

If you were sent an email from Judi or me, you are scheduled to work this week. If not, you’re not.

IF you can work, please 1) respond to this email, 2) call 631-421-4864 and leave a message before 1pm OR 3) just show up a little before 5:30pm and offer to help out. You can always 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! Everyone that’s scheduled doesn’t always show up on time…or at all.



2. What you’re getting at the CSA this week (subject to change without notice…farming is like that!)

July 29, 2010
Week #15

1. Swiss Chard
2. Tomatoes
3. Peppers, Sweet
4. Okra
5. Squash, Summer
6. Cucumbers
7. Parsley, Italian Flat Leaf
Total Items: 7 (?)

Flower Share



3. It’s time to weigh our food!

Yup! It’s that time of year. Sounds easy right? Put food in the scale and weigh it, right? Not exactly .

A. Bring reading glasses if you need them OR have the person by the scale read it for you

B. Please follow the instructions given by the person(s) at the scale. There may be more than one food item that needs to get weighed at the same time on the same scale. It may not make sense to you or seem necessary but our farmer has asked us to do so. Will be glad to explain if you want to know the specifics.

C. Most important…If you can’t get an exact weight (it happens), DO NOT GO OVER THE WEIGHT POSTED ON THE CSA WALL CHART!!!!
I can’t emphasize this enough. All we need is a few people thinking that it’s no big deal to be a smidge over the amount and….it becomes a big deal! Just think about it…1 oz…what’s that? Two Green Beans? So what???? Ok…we have 82 CSA members and if 32 of them go over by that 1 oz that adds up to 2 pound and it may mean that one or two people don’t get ANY Beans at the end of the night. Serves them right for coming late, huh? That’s not how the CSA works. Everyone paid the same amount to receive the same amount of food so it’s up to each one of us to make sure that happens.

D. Please stand directly in front of the scale and make sure the red line (weight indicator) has not “disappeared” behind the colored tape on the readout part of the scale. If you stand to either side of the scale…you can still see the red line but you’re going to go over the correct amount (it’s the customer’s equivalent of the story about the butcher that keeps their finger on the scale to skew the weight).

E. There may be a plastic bag in the scale…if there is, don’t take it with you! We use it to keep the vegetables from falling out of the bowl and, believe it or not, keep the weight consistant. Different plastic bags weigh different amounts. So, weigh it in the bag that’s in the scale and then dump the food into your own bag/basket/carrier. Thanks!

F. Please don’t drop the scales…the top sometimes sticks to the bottom and lifts it up when you’re getting your food out of the measuring bowl and so the bottom then drops on the floor and breaks…just be aware and please be careful…thanks!



4. 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!



5. 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 AND I put it as a PDF because some folks couldn’t open the Word version.



6. 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, July 30th

9am to 10:30am

Morning Meditation with Rev. Ratzlaff
UUFH
109 Browns Rd
Huntington, NY
FREE

CSA member, Rev. Paul Ratzlaff conducts a morning sitting meditation every Friday. The schedule is as follows…
9am to 9:45am – silent meditation
Bell is rung
Poem or Buddhist reading is read aloud
Check in with everyone
Reading a selection out of a collection of Buddhist stories and discuss it
The end!


Thursday, July 29th

7:30pm

Let’s Eat! Films on Food presents…The World According to Monsanto
Cinema Arts Centre
423 Park Avenue
Huntington, NY 11743
www.cinemaartscentre.org
$9 Cinema Members / $12 Public / includes reception.
For advance tickets and more information: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/117784

An event co-presented by Slow Food Huntington and the Cinema Arts Centre!
From Iowa to Paraguay, from England to India, Monsanto is uprooting traditional food supplies and replacing it with their patented genetically engineered seeds and systems. And along the way, farmers, communities, and nature become collateral damage. Monsanto’s controversial past combines some of the most toxic products ever sold with misleading reports, pressure tactics, collusion, and attempted corruption. They are the world leader in genetically modified organisms (GMOs), as well as one of the most controversial corporations in industrial history. Since its founding in 1901, Monsanto has faced trial after trial due to the toxicity of its products, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polystyrene, devastating herbicides like Agent Orange, used during the Vietnam War. Today, Monsanto has reinvented itself as a "life sciences" company converted to the virtues of sustainable development. They now race to genetically engineer (and patent) the world’s food supply, which profoundly threatens our health, environment, and economy. Combining secret documents with first-hand accounts by victims, scientists, and politicians, this powerful film exposes why Monsanto has become the world’s poster child for malignant corporate influence in government and technology. USA, 2008, 108 min.; Dir. Marie-Monique Robin
For more about the film: http://monsanto.bravenewtheaters.com/

About Guest Speaker Steve Storch
When Water Mill biodynamic agriculture expert Steve Storch was growing up in Coney Island, the depletion of farm soils was the last thing on his mind. But when he married into the Halsey farming clan and moved to the East End to study marine biology 24 years ago, all that changed. Mr. Storch now runs Natural Science Organics, which he calls “part of the farm organism” at Larry Halsey’s Green Thumb organic farm on Halsey Lane. He’s a relatively strict adherent to the spiritual-based agricultural practices first proposed by the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner in 1924, in which every part of that “farm organism” is treated as an interconnected link to the rest of the farm. In that world view, human health, soil health and vegetable health are all dependent on factors that have as much to do with spirituality as science. http://www.naturalscienceorganics.com/


Wednesday, August 11th

7pm

Fresh (the movie)
Molloy College – Suffolk Center
7180 Republic Airport
East Farmingdale
FREE
RSVP: 516-678-5000 xt 7562
For more info:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=135267159840444

If you missed it at the Cinema Arts Centre, here’s another chance to see a great movie about sustainable agriculture and the local food movement. Check out the Facebook site because I couldn’t copy the info off the Facebook page and it looks pretty good…local food, free popcorn and beverages, literature table and networking possibilities.


Saturday, August 13th to Sunday, August 15th

The 36th NOFA (Northeast Organic Farmer’s Association) Summer Conference
University of Massachusetts Amherst
N Amherst, MA
For 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.


Thursday, August 26th

7:30pm

Let’s Eat! Films on Food presents…The Botany of Desire
Cinema Arts Centre
423 Park Avenue
Huntington, NY 11743
www.cinemaartscentre.org

An event co-presented by Slow Food Huntington and the Cinema Arts Centre…more info to come!


Saturday, August 28th

The Hotline
Gunther’s Tap Room
84 Main St
Northport
631-754-9659

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 Brill
Sunken Meadow Park
Parking lot by the Sunken Meadow Bathhouse
Suggested Donation: $15, under 10 years old $10
For 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 Tour
Details to be announced


Sunday, October 24th

12:30 to 3:30pm

Wildman Steve Brill
Sunken Meadow Park
Suggested Donation: $15, under 10 years old $10
For 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.



7. Protect Children from Toxic Chemicals with a Click!
Last week, leaders in Congress proposed a new law that will protect children from persistent chemicals, now and for generations to come.
Persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals (PBTs) can harm our health, build up in our bodies and are nearly impossible to control. Many states have already taken action on these chemicals, and countries around the world have created an international treaty to get rid of persistent chemicals that travel the globe on wind and water currents. A strong new law on toxics will move us one step closer to protecting future generations.
To keep this strong bill moving forward, lawmakers from across the country need to demonstrate support for it today…
http://action.panna.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4478

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