Green Thumb Farm Huntington CSA

Happy Autumn!

CSA member, Vickie Muller (member of the Holistic Moms Network chapter in Oyster Bay), lost her mother last week. If anyone wishes to express condolences, please email me and I’d be glad to forward them to her.

Last day to order Honey!!!
To order biodynamically raised Honey from Farmer Bill’s daughter who lives upstate NY near the St. Lawrence River (the same we got last time)…please bring in an envelope with your name on it, the number of jars of Honey you want and the amount in the envelope, and leave it at the Sign-In desk at the CSA. You can also email me to make sure I know it’s there. The Honey is $10 per one pound container and you can pay by check/money order (made out to Halseys Green Thumb) or cash. Last time is was in Honey Bear plastic squeeze bottles and it will be the same this time (unless we get surprised and get them in glass like we did the time before). Just read that in addition to being antibacterial and antiviral, Honey can be an effective cough suppressant, more than most over the counter medicines and without the side effects or taking pharmaceuticals!

PLEASE CONTINUE TO WEIGH OUT YOUR FOOD CAREFULLY.

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 weeks 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 TWO (2) people to work from 3:30pm to 5:30pm and ONE (1) person 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. Fun, Cool & Interesting Stuff to Do (new events added weekly)
7. How to use Honey for allergies
8. CSA article in this past Sunday’s NY Times magazine which was “The Food Issue”…



1. Your CSA needs you!! looking for TWO (2) people to work from 3:30pm to 5:30pm and ONE (1) person 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!)

October 14, 2010
Week #26

1. Sweet Potatoes
2. Lettuce
3. Beans: Black Eyed Peas OR Romano
4. Tat Soi
5. Leeks
6. Daikon
Total Items: 6 (?)



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, October 15th

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, October 21st

7pm

No Impact Man
Sustainable Institute at Molloy College
Farmingdale
FREE but RSVP required
To RSVP:
http://www.renewableenergylongisland.org/calendar.cfm?calendarID=446&month=10

Free food! (local snacks, popcorn & beverages) Networking! Good environmental movie that talks about eating local/organic! Co-sponsored by the Renewable Energy Long Island (RELI).


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.


Sunday, December 5th

Green Thumb Farm
Rt 27
Water Mill, NY

Our CSA farm’s farmstand’s last day of operation till May 2011! There might be some pretty good deals to be had.



7. How to use Honey for allergies

The theory is that the honey (made by bees living near the source of your allergens) could stimulate your immune system and act as the equivalent of allergy shots.

TO BE DONE WITH YOUR DOCTOR’S APPROVAL AND KNOWLEDGE…
A. Seek out Honey from within a 10 mile radius of where you live (don’t have allergies so have no idea how far this would be…if you want to find someone local, contact the LI Beekeepers Association)
B. Get Honey that was collected/produced during the time of year when your allergies are at their worst
C. A month before your normal allergy season begins, take one teaspoon three times a day OR one tablespoon twice a day
D. Track your symptoms and see if this helps
E. Not sure how long (or at what amount) you’re supposed to keep eating the Honey for (didn’t say in the piece I read)



8. CSA article in this past Sunday’s NY Times magazine which was “The Food Issue”…

My guess is the author was a member of the Quail Hill CSA in Amagansett…

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/magazine/10lives-t.html?ref=magazine

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