Green Thumb Farm Huntington CSA

Happy Autumn!

Dines Farm not coming this week! Jay is in Florida on a well needed holiday post-Thanksgiving and Mary would have had to drive down from the farm to meet up with Larry so Larry could get to Huntington with the meat & eggs. IF our orders were large enough that it made financial sense for them to come down it would have happened. Since the Nyack greenmarket is closed for the year, our small orders aren’t enough to make sense to come down. I understand regardless of what happens next week (my guess is they won’t be coming next week either…though I could be wrong) Dines Farm will be at the CSA on closing day, December 16th.

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.

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. Many years ago there actually was a woman who joined for the last two weeks of the CSA AND put all her hours in within the two weeks so it’s not so farfetched to keep this in the email!

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 FOUR (4) people from 3:30pm to 5:30pm and FOUR (4) people from 5:30 to 7:30pm…anyone who’s completed their hours welcome!
2. What you’re getting at the CSA this week (subject to change without notice…farming is like that!)
3. Armchair Activist – GMO Sugar Beets…Just Say NO! Do it before December 6th.
4. BRING BAGS!
5. Son of a Farmer Interview
6. Order Certified Organic Plants/Seedlings (grown at Green Thumb Farm) for your garden this season…
7. Online cooking school
8. Fun, Cool & Interesting Stuff to Do (new events added weekly)
9. It’s time to weigh our food!


1. HELP!!! Your CSA does need you this week!!! We need FOUR (4) people from 3:30pm to 5:30pm and FOUR (4) people from 5:30 to 7:30pm…anyone who’s completed their hours welcome!

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 EXCEPT for Savory

December 2, 2010
Week #33

1. Sweet Potatoes
2. Lettuce – 1 head
3. Kale – 1 bunch
4. Broccoli Raab/Rabe/Rape – 1 bunch
5. Thyme OR Savory ** – 1 bunch
6. Squash, Winter: Nepali Farsi *
Total Items: 6 (?)

*SAVE THE SEEDS – Why? Farmer Bill brought the seeds for these back from a 3 month hiking/camping winter trip to Nepal. He planted them at the farm and has been growing them ever since. He needs us to save the seeds to continue to grow them as he can’t buy them ANYWHERE! He could go back to Nepal to find them but with 3 young children, I think his travelling days are over for a while longer.

DO NOT SAVE THE BUTTERNUT SQUASH SEEDS…however, if you feel compelled to  …DO NOT MIX WITH THE NEPALI FARSI WINTER SQUASH!!!!! Label correctly if you do…don’t just write Winter Squash. They don’t want a hybrid and that’s what would happen if these guys grew near each other.

How to save these seeds…
1. Scoop out the seeds and place in a bowl of water and rub off ALL of the orange gunk (botanical word for…pulp and/or membranes  ). If you don’t get all of it off, it can be make the seeds get moldy/nasty and then not be able to be used as they are now diseased and must be discarded

2. Place on a cookie sheet, cutting board, or a piece of cardboard (NOT on paper towels as the towels may contain non-organic chemicals/dyes…whatever…Farmer Bill asked us not to do it), spread out in a single layer and let air dry for at least 7 days (do not expose to heat to speed up the process…it will kill the seed)…every day stir them about and re-spread in a single layer to help dry evenly and faster

3. When dry, store in a PAPER BAG or paper envelope or wrap in paper towels…plastic will make them get moldy (even though they appear dry they may not be)…and label them “Farsi”

Scroll to the bottom to see what they should look like…very clean!!!
http://www.realseeds.co.uk/wintersquash.html


**Savory info…
http://www.apinchof.com/savory1075.html
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/s/savsum24.html
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/savory
http://www.sallybernstein.com/food/columns/gilbert/savory.htm


3. Armchair Activist – GMO Sugar Beets…Just Say NO! Do it before December 6th.
A Not Sweet Holiday Treat: USDA Proposing Interim Planting of Illegal, Genetically Engineered Sugar Beets: Tell USDA To Say No! Farmers and Consumers Will be at risk

https://secure3.convio.net/cfs/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=349&JServSessionIdr004=xqugj6c3c1.app306a

Spread the word!!!



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. Son of a Farmer Interview

Eric Herm is a West Texan who’s returned to the family cotton farm and wants to change things…no GMOs, not spraying pesticides or herbicides…but his dad is still alive and skeptical and so he’s written a book and here’s his website...
http://www.sonofafarmer.com/

CSA member Dylan Skolnick heard and interview with Herm and thought I’d like it so I’m sharing it with y’all…
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/2010/nov/23/son-farmer-child-earth/

*File this under…ya learn something new every day – when you open a bag of GMO seeds, you need to WEAR GLOVES when handling GMO seeds…apparently it’s on the label. Who knew?



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. Online cooking school…

Looked interesting…not a personal indorsement…online video cooking school…$15 month, $99 a year, 1st 7 days free!
http://rouxbe.com/?l=t



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, December 3rd

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, 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.

Monday, December 13th

6:30pm

NOFA-LI Chapter Holiday Gathering
Love Lane Kitchen
240 Love Lane
Mattituck
$35 per person (Cash Bar)
RSPV by December 9th
Call: 631-298-8989
Email: farmer@gardenofeve.com

All NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association) members welcome!
For more info and to join NOFA-NY:
https://www.nofany.org/


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. 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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