Green Thumb Farm Huntington CSA

Happy summer!

Alert!
The CSA setup is going to be different today as we are sharing the space with photographers for the UUFH directory. Not sure what is going to be where but Dines should be in the usual space as I hope anything wet would be and the rest…maybe we’ll fit in the room or we may have to use the entryway and/or gallery space to the right of where we usually are. We could have been outside but for the prediction of rain.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO WEIGH OUT YOUR FOOD MORE CAREFULLY. We actually did ok this week (it’s about time) so it seems like the farmer gave us enough food and we weighed it out ok. Let’s keep up the good work! Yay us!

SO CLOSE AND YET SO FAR!!! We still need to fill 40 spots to have the CSA filled for the year!!! I’m going to keep talking about this till Farmer Bill asks me to stop. 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.

Miss the Exchange Table? We don’t have one if there aren’t enough people to staff the CSA. This year, we need to figure out if it’s because we have less members and/or less working members. Hopefully, in the next week we can fill the CSA up and not have to contemplate everyone working more hours, or next year, putting a limit on how many non-working CSA members the CSA can sustain.

This email includes…
1. Your CSA needs you!! We’re looking for ONE (1) person from 3:30 to 5:30pm and TWO (2) people from 5:30 to 7:30pm!
2. Bulk Tomatoes Available Now!
3. What you’re getting at the CSA this week (subject to change without notice…farming is like that!)
4. It’s time to weigh our food!
5. BRING BAGS!
6. Order Certified Organic Plants/Seedlings (grown at Green Thumb Farm) for your garden this season…
7. Fun, Cool & Interesting Stuff to Do (new events added weekly)
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1. Your CSA needs you!! We’re looking for ONE (1) person from 3:30 to 5:30pm and TWO (2) people from 5:30 to 7:30pm!

We have NO ONE scheduled to be at the CSA from 3:30pm to 5:30pm.

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. Bulk Tomatoes Available Now!

Interesting in making Tomato Sauce for now and to last all winter long? Want to dry your own Tomatoes and make your own sun dried Tomatoes in Olive Oil? How about oven drying Tomatoes and freezing them (I think you can do that)? Any large gatherings coming up that might require Tomato Sauce (Ziti, Eggplant Parmesan, Lasagna)? Just got a call from Farmer Bill. There’s been no Tomato Blight this year (so far), so there are now 20 lb boxes of Red Italian Plum (Paste) Tomatoes available from Green Thumb Farm for $35 per box. To order, call the farm and place your order by no later than noon on Wednesday for Thursday pickup. They should be available for the next 3 or 4 weeks.



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

September 16, 2010
Week #22

1. Tomatoes, Mini – 1 pt
2. Winter Squash: Carnival (?)
3. Lettuce
4. Beans: Green
5. Squash, Summer
6. Peppers, Sweet
7. Eggplant: Asian, Green
Total Items: 7 (?)

Basil Shares

Herb Shares
Dill AND Rosemary

Tomato Shares



4. 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!



5. 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!



6. 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.



7. 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/


Wednesday September 1st thru the end of the month

NY State Locavore Challenge
Sign up…
https://www.nofany.org/events/regional-events/ny-locavore-challenge-signup

NOFA-NY is hosting its first ever Locavore Challenge to run throughout the month of September 2010. The Locavore Challenge serves multiple functions for NOFA-NY and for the organic movement in NY State. The first is as a general awareness builder, the second is as a membership recruitment initiative and the third is as a major annual fundraiser for the organization. The goal is to have more than 4,000 participants throughout the state involved in this event.


Thursday, September 16th

All day

Shop at Whole Foods Jericho or Manhasset and 5% of your purchases will go to benefit the NY Coalition for Healthy School Food
For more info about them:
www.healthyschoolfood.org


Friday, September 17th

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!


Sunday, September 19th

11am to ???

Back to Basis Good Food Festival
Gansevoort Plaza
NYC
$20 to $175
For more info and tickets:
http://goodfoodfest.com/

Join in a tasting of 30 farmers and chefs preparing a tasting of local food AND at the end of the day, a farm to table dinner. Benefit for The Feed Foundation’s 30 Project and Just Food


Monday, September 20th

9:30am to 4pm

Hunger Action Network of NY State Annual Meeting
St Mary’s Episcopal Church
521 E 126th St
NYC
$15 Non-Member Organizations/$10 Non-Member Individuals/$5 Non-Member Low Income & Students – suggested donation
For more info:
Mark
212 741-8192 xt 5#
dunleamark@aol.com

In the afternoon, we have two workshop sessions (three each) of exciting workshops: Hunger, Poverty and the 2011 State Legislative Agenda; Food Justice and the Farm Bill; The Safety Net: TANF Reauthorization; Health Care is a Human Right: The Future for Single Payer Health Care; Establishing Nutritional Standards for Emergency Food and Improving Nutrition for EFP Guests; and, Creating Jobs for Low-Income New Yorkers . The workshops are an opportunity to hear from leading organizers about campaigns in this area and to strategize as to how you and Hunger Action Network can impact on these topics.

We will conclude the meeting with reports from anti-hunger organizers from around the state about their exciting work (an excellent networking oppportunity), followed by a short march in support of Jobs and Economic Justice.

Tuesday, September 21st

8:30am to 3:30pm

Hunter Summit LI: 2010 – Challenging Business Leaders to Search for Sustainable Solutions
Adelphi University
1 South Ave
Garden City
FREE (lunch provided)
For more Info:
http://www.adelphi.edu/socialinnovation/hungersummit.php

Who Should Attend? Senior Executives, Business Leaders, Entrepreneurs, HR Personnel, University Staff and Faculty, Community Leaders and Not-for-Profit Executives.

Summit Objective: To raise awareness about the prevalence of hunger on Long Island, to understand how hunger and hunger relief impacts business and economics on Long Island, to discuss ways of fighting hunger, and to create new initiatives and strategic public and private partnerships to drive change


Thursday, September 23rd

Potluck Across NY - NY State Locavore Potluck Night
How to be a Potluck Host…
https://www.nofany.org/events/ny-locavore-challenge/potluck-across-ny

On a single evening in September (Thursday, September 23rd) groups of people will gather over potlucks across the wide state of NY, from Niagara Falls to the tip of Long Island, breaking (local, organic) bread together. These groups share a common interest in their concern over the current state of the US food system and a commitment to consuming food grown from local organic farms. We hope to eventually have potluck gatherings in each of NY’s 62 counties, and have thousands of individuals making this stance together, while remaining in their home communities


Sunday, October 3rd

10am to 4pm

19th Holistic Fair
Huntington Hilton Hotel
Rt 110
$5 - Adults/FREE – Children (Free Admission if you bring non-perishable food donations)
For more info:
631-385-7321

Organized by Huntington chiropractor, Dr. Linda Eisen, there will be presentations and lectures on nutrition, weight loss, yoga, reflexology, natural skin care, chiropractic, etc. Raffle prizes! Food donations are going to LI Cares.


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.

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