Green Thumb Farm Huntington CSA

Happy Autumn!

Please park in the UUFH parking lot spots and do not park your car in front of the CSA by the big tree (and if someone is picking up for you…it’s up to you to please tell them as well)…unless you are in a wheelchair or on crutches. The only exceptions for CSA related cars to be there are me (and if I leave mine there – and I’m not either setting up or breaking down the CSA - and I’m at the CSA…please remind me as I shouldn’t be there either) , Dines Farm, Green Thumb Farm, and if someone picking up the donated produce at the end of the night.

Next week the CSA is WEDNESDAY due to Thanksgiving being on Thursday. CHECK YOUR NEXT EMAILS REGARDING WHEN THE CSA WILL START!!! IF we have access to the room (which I haven’t found out yet), IF Farmer Bill can get here earlier (he usually wants to so he can avoid holiday traffic heading out east) we will open the CSA earlier than 3:30pm. I’ll tell y’all as soon as I know! When will the CSA close that day? I’ll stay till the last person picks up (hoping it’s earlier but if it’s 7:30pm…that’s ok and keep in mind…there’s the late delivery bench option). IF YOU ARE NOT PICKING UP NEXT WEEK…please let me know so I don’t wait for someone that isn’t showing up. Even if it’s a last minute thing and you don’t know till Wednesday…better late than never. Even at the last minute, call the CSA on Wednesday after 3pm on the UUFH Hall Phone (which you should have in your cell phone directory) 631-385-1079. The food left over that week is being donated to the group Food Not Bombs and being delivered for a Thanksgiving meal they are preparing in Farmingville. They distribute food (and other items…clothes, books, etc) regularly in Farmingville on Thursdays, Huntington on Tuesdays and Hempstead on Sundays.

The last day of the CSA is December 16th. 2011 contracts will be emailed to current members in January. New inquiries will be emailed contracts 6 weeks after you get yours to give current members a head start. As usual, there will be a limited number of memberships available for the “Spring” session (April & May) and then more members (and those who didn’t get into the Spring session) can be accepted in June for the rest of the season.

Please keep in mind the CSA opens at 3:30pm, if you come earlier there’s no guarantee you can pick up your food at that time. We try and accommodate but you may need to wait till 3:30pm (and sometimes later if the CSA workers for that day are running late or cancel without giving notice). If showing up at 3:30pm is an issue, the alternatives are…1) stopping by up till 7:30pm before the CSA closes (though if you call 631-385-1079 before 7:30pm there might be someone still cleaning up or who might be willing to wait a bit for you to stop by), 2) making arrangements with someone else to pick your food up or 3) having a CSA bag pre-packed (by pre-arrangement) and having it left on CSA member Debbie Greenwood’s porch bench to be picked up after 8pm after the CSA closes.

Anyone go to the CSA Fall Tour & Pumpkin Picking this year? Email me comments (positive OR negative) and photos (I may need help with the photos) and I’ll post in the next CSA email.

Got any pets that eat produce? Let us know! Gerbils, Rabbits, Horses, Turtles, Lizards are a few of the critter I know of that eat stray Lettuce leaves and unwanted Carrot Tops (or stray Carrots  ). If you could use these for your animal companion(s), ask at the CSA if we have any for you to take home.

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. Please feel free to tell this to friends, neighbors, co-workers and relatives who might be interested in joining the CSA this season and have them contact me! 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. HELP!!! Your CSA does need you this week!!! We need FIVE (5) people from 3:30pm to 5:30pm and FOUR (4) people 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. Are your vegetables nutritionally impotent?
4. BRING BAGS!
5. Notes from the Farm
6. Order Certified Organic Plants/Seedlings (grown at Green Thumb Farm) for your garden this season…
7. What you actually got last week (and the week before)
8. Fun, Cool & Interesting Stuff to Do (new events added weekly)
9. CSA member Haley Wiggins emailed this interesting vegetarian Thanksgiving recipe website from the NY Times “Well” column, including raw Butternut Squash Salad with Cranberry Dressing by Mark Bittman…
10. Lead found in reusable shopping bags…
11. It’s time to weigh our food!


1. HELP!!! Your CSA does need you this week!!! We need FIVE (5) people from 3:30pm to 5:30pm and FOUR (4) people 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 didn’t get a postcard today stating you’ve completed 12 hours at the CSA…you haven’t.

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!)

Veggie Tip Sheets attached to this email for everything on the CSA share list this week (Herb Share we have one for Sage but NOT Savory…neither Winter or Summer)

November 18, 2010
Week #31

1. Sweet Potatoes
2. Lettuce: Bibb
3. Broccoli – 1 head
4. Mustard Greens
5. Dill OR Cilantro – 1 bunch
6. Radishes
Total Items: 6 (?)

Herb Share
Sage AND Savory



3. Are your vegetables nutritionally impotent?

This is the blogger’s column title…not mine  …
http://www.thesweetbeet.com/vegetables-nutrients/



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. Notes from the Farm

November 12, 2010

Our season is coming to a close. Only a few weeks left! Our fall greens and cole crops are still looking good. The cold nights only make them sweeter and bring out the colors of the reds and purples. We still have plenty of Sweet Potatoes and Winter Squashes to be bringing to our CSA groups for the next several weeks (they’re being kept in storage).

It’s time to begin thinking about next year and how we can make improvements in our production and delivery systems. Any ideas can be forwarded to suzanne j zoubeck, your CSA Manager.

This year, as in all years, some crops did well while others did not. Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Melons, Winter Squashes all had good growing years whereas because of the heat and dryness, our Carrots, Scallion, and some other summer greens and root crops did not. Every year is different and next year will be different from those years that went before. We grow a wide range of crops but all do not make it to harvest time. So, we bring in what we have and enjoy whatever bounty is bestowed upon us. That’s the nature of farming!

Organically yours,
Farmer Bill (Halsey)



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. What you actually got last week (and the week before…and a bunch of weeks before that)

Hope you notice that NONE of the weekly Total Amounts are $16.50 which is what you paid for your CSA share…meaning our farmer is EXTREMELY generous to us. I will be totaling up how much extra produce he gave us this season after the last CSA day.

For those members who felt slighted when weighing produce because they were asked to weigh a smidge under and not over (which when going over the asked for weight can and DID cause CSA members to not get the food they paid for)…I hope you understand that our farmer has been doing CSAs for the past 14 years (with us it’s been 13 years) and they plan the entire year so you get good value for the money you pay them. It’s a whole different situation if a few rogue CSA members decide it’s ok to (or accidentally) take a little more that week because…it’s only a little more. It ends up with some CSA members not getting food they paid for and have every right to expect to get that week, OR there isn’t the correct amount of food at the end of the CSA if there are leftovers…most everything is counted before the CSA doors open so we know what it should be there when it ends. This is opposed to when the farmer asks us to weigh a tad under rather than over because then it’s a planned occurrence where everyone gets food that week and he knows he’s making up for any minor underages (if it’s not a word…it’s the opposite of an overage) over the course of the season. Capisce? That’s “understand” in Italian…I grew up in Massapequa/MotzahPizza so I know a few words.

Next year we will have digital scales which should make weighing easier. The alternative is to have things pre-bagged which means less choices on our end and more work and expenses for packaging on the farm end, and I know they don’t really want to do that.

In the 10 week period below, we’ve gotten a total of $16.25 more than we paid for which is just about an extra week’s worth of CSA produce ($16.50)…and that’s not including the other 25 weeks of the season which is yet to be totaled up! I think we’re doing just fine.

November 11, 2010
Week #30

1. Sweet Potatoes – 2 lbs - $5.00
2. Cauliflower: Cheddar OR Purple OR White – 1 head - $2.50
3. Leeks – 1 bunch - $3.50
4. Pak Choi: Red – 1 bunch - $2.75
5. Arugula – 1 bunch - $2.25
6. Lettuce: Oakleaf, Green – 1 head - $2.25
Total: 6
Total Amount $18.25


November 4, 2010
Week #29

1. Beans: Green and/or Romano – 1 bag (farmer gave no more info and I didn’t weigh) - $1.75
2. Broccoli: Green OR Purple – 1 head - $2.50
3. Mustard Greens: Red – 1 bunch - $2.75
4. Mei Quing Choi OR Bok Choi – 1 bunch - $2.75
5. Squash, Winter: Butternut – 1 - $2.25
6. Lettuce: Leaf, Red – 1 head - $2.25
7. Tomatoes, Mini (assorted) – 1 pt - $4.25
Total: 7
Total Amount: $18.50

Herb Share
Nov – 1A
Cilantro AND Rosemary


October 28, 2010
Week #28

1. Sweet Potatoes – 2 lbs - $5.00
2. Beans: Dragon Tongue OR Romano – ½ lb - $1.75
3. Broccoli – 1 head - $2.25
4. Chives OR Mizuna – 1 bunch - $2.25
5. Lettuce: Leaf, Red – 1 head - $2.25
6. Tomatoes, Mini (assorted) – 1 pt - $4.25
Total: 6
Total Amount $17.75


October 21, 2010
Week #27

1. Squash, Winter: Acorn OR Butternut – 1 - $2.75
2. Radishes – 1 bunch - $2.50
3. Beans: Green OR Cranberry (shelling) – 1 bag (the farmer didn’t give me the info and I didn’t weigh them) - $3.50
4. Jicama – ½ lb - $2.75
5. Eggplant (mixed types) – 1 - $1.50
6. Lettuce: Crisp, Green – 1 head - $2.25
7. Senposai – 1 bunch - $2.75
Total: 7
Total Amount: $18.00

Herb Share
Oct – 2B
Parsley AND Thyme


October 14, 2010
Week #26

1. Sweet Potatoes – 2 lbs - $5.00
2. Beans: Black Eyed Peas (shelling) OR Cranberry (shelling) OR Limas (shelling) OR Romano – 1 lb - $3.50
3. Leeks – 1 bunch - $3.50
4. Daikon – 1 - $.75
5. Tat Soi – 1 bunch - $2.50
6. Lettuce: Romaine, Red – 1 head - $2.25
Total: 6
Total Amount: $17.50


October 7, 2010
Week #25

1. Sweet Potatoes – 2 lbs - $5.00
2. Mustard Greens – 1 bunch - $2.50
3. Chives OR Dill – 1 bunch - $2.25
4. Beans: Romano OR Soy (shelling) OR Wax/Yellow – 1 lb - $3.50
5. Lettuce: Boston, Red OR Oak Leaf, Green – 1 head - $2.25
6. Radicchio: Chiogga OR Traviso – 1 head - $2.75
Total: 6
Total Amount: $18.25

Herb Share
Oct – 1A
Sage AND Sorrel


September 30, 2010
Week #24

1. Beans: Dragon Tongue and/or Green – 1 lb
2. Squash, Summer (assorted) – 1 lb – weighed together totaling 2 lb - $5.75
3. Squash, Winter: Acorn – 1 - $2.00
4. Lettuce: Boston – 1 head - $2.25
5. Cilantro – 1 bunch - $2.25
6. Pak Choi – 1 bunch - $2.75
7. Cucumber – 1 - $.25
8. Eggplant: Japanese – 1 - $1.50
9. Pepper, Sweet: Concho di Toro – 3 - $1.25
Total: 9
Total Amount: $18.00


September 23, 2010
Week #23

1. Beans: Wax/Yellow and/or Cranberry (shelling) – 1 lb - $3.50
2. Radishes – 1 bunch - $2.25
3. Squash, Summer (assorted) – 1 ½ lbs - $3.25
4. Basil – 1 bunch - $2.50
5. Lettuce: Crisp, Red – 1 head - $2.25
6. Tomatoes: Paste (Plum), Red and/or Regular, Red – 2 lbs - $5.00
Total: 6
Total Amount: $18.75

Herb Share
Sept -2B
Cilantro AND Parsley


September 16, 2010
Week #22

1. Squash, Summer (assorted) – 1 lb
2. Peppers, Sweet (assorted) – 1 lb – weighed together to 2 lbs total - $4.75
3. Squash, Winter: Carnival – 1 - $2.50
4. Eggplant: Japanese Purple OR Thai Green – 1 - $1.50
5. Beans: Green and/or Purple and/or Romano – 1 lb - $3.50
6. Lettuce: Boston OR Salad Bowl, Green – 1 head - $2.25
7. Tomatoes, Mini (assorted) – 1 pt - $4.00
Total: 7
Total Amount: $18.50

Basil Shares – 4 bunches per Share
Tomato Shares – 20 lbs per box


September 9, 2010
Week #21

1. Beans: Soy – ½ lb - $
2. Okra – ½ lb - $
3. Winter Squash: Acorn – 1 - $
4. Cucumbers and/or Kirby Cucumbers (Pickling Cucumbers) and/or Squash, Summer (assorted) – 1 lb - $
5. Lettuce: Leaf, Green – 1 head - $
6. Tomatoes: Paste (Plum), Red and/or Paste (Plum), Yellow and/or Regular, Red and/or Regular, Orange and/or Regular, Yellow – 2 lbs - $
Total: 6
Total Amount: $17.75

Herb Share
Sept – 1A
Dill AND Rosemary

Basil Share – 4 bunches per share
Tomato Shares – 20 lbs per box



8. 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, November 19th

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!


Saturday, November 20th

UUFH Services Auction
109 Browns Rd
Huntington
For more info:
Look on the tables on your way into the CSA

Some of the things being auctioned off thru Green Thumb Farm CSA – Huntington are…
1. Seasonal Basket of Plenty from Green Thumb Farm including a cookbook, Honey, and t-shirt
2. Romantic Dinner and BBQ package of Steaks, Hamburgers and Hot Dogs from Dines Farm
3. A year’s pass for two to the Cinema Arts Centre – Cinema Co-Directors Dylan Skolnick and Charlotte Sky are longtime CSA members


Sunday, November 21st

2pm

Healthy Planet Dinner/Lecture Series
16th Annual Turkey Free Thanksgiving Potluck!
Sweet Hollow Hall
Melville
For more info and reservations:
Call 631-421-5591
e-mail: info@healthy-planet.org
http://www.healthy-planet.org/Series/index.asp

Featured speaker will be Howard Lyman, the Mad Cowboy…made famous when he helped Oprah Winfrey when she was sued for saying on tv how she’d never eat a Hamburger again after knowing how they were made and what was in them.


Sunday, November 28th

2pm

Let’s Eat: Food on Film presents…
Colony – The Plight of the Honeybee
Cinema Arts Center
423 Park Ave
Huntington
More info TBA

Film and discussion with Beekeeper Rich Blohm and Green Thumb Farm’s own Beekeeper, Mary Woltz. Apitherapy presentation by Frederique Keller, a licensed acupuncturist who incorporates classical homeopathy and bee venom therapy as well as utilizes honey, pollen, propolis, royal jelly and bee bread. Meade tasting. It’s a day to celebrate honey bees- our most precious pollinators

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.


Tuesday, December 7th

7 to 9pm

New York City Beekeepers Association Meeting
Seafarers and International House
123 E 15th St (between Irving Pl and 3rd Ave)
NYC
To close out the year, bee expert and author Dr. Larry Connor will join NYCBA on Tuesday, December 7 for a talk on "Bee Sex in the City." Mini-Louboutins for your bees will not be provided, but Dr. Connor will review the basic reproduction of bee colonies, the development and mating of queens, and their mating behavior. A question and answer period will follow the talk. For further information about Dr. Connor, please visit www.wicwas.com.

Saturday, January 15th

9am to 5pm

NOFA-MA Winter Conference
Worchester Tech High School
Worchester, MA
For more info and to register:
http://www.nofamass.org/conferences/winter/index.php

Keynote speech by Michael Phillips, author of The Apple Grower: A Guide for the Organic Orchardist. This guy is the go to person for organic Apple growing in the northeast. If you have any interest in growing Apples, it would be very worthwhile to make the trip and attend this. There is also an all day seminar on Herbs for Family Health by master herbalist Nancy Phillips of Heartsong Farm Healing Herbs. I think I’m going to the Apple seminar. Anyone interested in the Herb one and we can share notes afterwards?


Friday, January 21st to Sunday, January 23rd

NOFA-NY Winter Conference
Saratoga Springs, NY
For more info and to register:
https://www.nofany.org/events/winter-conference

Many workshops, many excellent teachers, much partying, much good food.


Friday, January 29th and Saturday, January 30th

NOFA-NJ Winter Conference
For more info:
http://nofanj.org/winter_conference.htm


March 5th

NOFA-CT Winter Conference
Manchester, CT
For more info:
http://www.ctnofa.org/



9. CSA member Haley Wiggins emailed this interesting vegetarian Thanksgiving recipe website from the NY Times “Well” column, including a raw Butternut Squash Salad with Cranberry Dressing by Mark Bittman…

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/08/health/20101108_thanksgiving.htm



10. Lead found in reusable shopping bags…

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/environment/2010-11-15-toxicbags15_st_N.htm



11. 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 pounds 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 consistent. 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!

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