Green Thumb Farm Huntington CSA

Happy Autumn!

The last day of the CSA is today, December 16th. Though today is the last CSA pickup, if applicable, you’ll be getting emails in the next week or two regarding any unfinished CSA business. 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.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO WEIGH OUT YOUR FOOD CAREFULLY.

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, we can fill the CSA up next year and not have to contemplate everyone working more hours, or 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 THREE (3) people from 3:30pm to 5:30pm and ONE (1) person from 5:30pm to 7:30pm…anyone who’s completed their hours are welcome to participate!
2. What you’re getting at the CSA this week (subject to change without notice…farming is like that!)
3. Notes from the Farm
4. BRING BAGS!
5. What you actually got last week
6. Tragic death comes to the LI sustainable farming community…
7. New Farmer’s Market at Sweet Hollow Hall starting this Saturday?
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 THREE (3) people from 3:30pm to 5:30pm and ONE (1) person from 5:30pm to 7:30pm…anyone who’s completed their hours are welcome to participate!

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 the Black Turtle Beans BUT there is a basic info sheet for it)

December 16, 2010
Week #35

1. Kale: Lacinato, Red – 1 bunch
2. Beans, Black Turtle (dried)
3. Jerusalem Artichokes
4. Radishes, Winter: Black Spanish, Daikon, Misato (Watermelon)
5. Beets: Chiogga/Red
Total: 5 (?)



3. Notes from the Farm

December 2010

This is our last newsletter of the year and overall, it was a good growing season for us – some things, as always, doing better than others.

Our biggest support comes from our CSA members who enjoy and look forward to our seasonal bounty. From Strawberries and Peas in the spring to Broccoli, Sweet Potatoes and Green in the fall, we raise it all…over 350 varieties of vegetables, though some never make it to our CSA members (due to some crops being too delicate to travel at all like Summer Squash Blossoms, some not even making it to our farmstand…our crops can and do succumb to too much heat/insects/cold/drought/mold/drowning…or in some case too little heat/cold/moisture/dryness/insects, or some crops can just not being plentiful enough to get to our CSA members)…maybe next year.

So, our thanks go out to all our members for being part of the solution for sustainable eating, health and living…local, certified organic, small family farming.

Our last deliveries are this week. We will start up again spring 2011. It will be our 16th year of doing CSAs (14 for Green Thumb CSA – Huntington). We hope all our member will return and see what bounty nature has in store for us next season. Thanks again for all your wonderful support!

Organically yours and Season’s Greetings!
Farmer Bill (Halsey)



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. What you actually got last week

December 9, 2010
Week #34

1. Sweet Potatoes – 2 lbs - $5.00
2. Collard Greens – 1 bunch - $3.25
3. Turnips: Golden Globe OR Japanese Red, OR Rutabaga – 1 ½ lbs (1 bag) - $3.25
4. Garlic – ¼ lb - $2.50
5. Cauliflower: Green OR Romanesco – 1 head - $2.50
6. Squash, Winter: Nepali Farsi * - 1 - $2.00
Total Items: 6
Total Amount: $18.50

Herb Share
Dec 1A
Arugula AND Peppers, Hot (dried)

*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



6. Tragic death comes to the Long Island sustainable farming community…

What a mystery and how sad!
http://easthampton.patch.com/articles/report-industrial-accident-at-quail-hill-farm

There is a Trust being established for the children (ages approx 3/12 and 7 months) so if anyone wishes to make a donation….
http://www.peconiclandtrust.org/quail_hill_farm.html

There are 800 tractor deaths a year on average. I wonder…would Josh be alive if he had used the check list in this LONG article about Tractor Safety? Or was it a mechanical failure in which nothing could have been done to prevent this?
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ae200

And who knew there was such a gruesome yet interesting website??? Numerous other tractor deaths, etc, on farms in here…
http://weeklytoll.blogspot.com/



7. New Farmer’s Market at Sweet Hollow Hall starting last Saturday?

Did anyone go check it out?

According to Larry of Dines Farm, there’s a winter farmer’s market starting Saturday, December 11th at Sweet Hollow Hall in Melville.

It will be bi-weekly (monthly?).

Dines Farm will be participating at this market and therefore will not be delivering to the UUFH this winter.

HOWEVER, I’ve heard nothing about this in the media so far and am not convinced…A) this market will open by this weekend and B) this market will be financially viable to last thru the winter.

I’ll keep y’all posted as I get information.

Just found this online and they give the start date as January…
http://www.resprout.com/2010/11/long-island-winter-farmers-market-coming-january-2011/

CSA member Amy Hirschfeld saw a notice in the paper North Shore Today for the LI Winter Market starting on December 11th.



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 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!


Monday, December 20th

5pm to 7pm

Food Equity Fundraiser
Oheka Castle
135 West Gate Dr
Huntington
$150
For more info:
Katie Kelly 516-873-0230
http://www.sustainableli.org/event/food-equity-fundraiser/

Cocktails in Support of Food Equity…an elegant evening hosted by Sustainable Long Island in celebration of local efforts to increase access to fresh, affordable food in low income communities.

For the past two years Slow Food Huntington has worked with Sustainable Long Island as they have launched initiatives such as the wildly successful youth-run farmers’ markets in low-income communities. During this event, Sustainable Long Island will be honoring the work of Ann Rathkopf and Bhavani Jaroff in establishing the Huntington Chapter of Slow Food, and also the work of Joseph Gergela III of the Long Island Farm Bureau. There will be food, fun, and festivities during this cocktail party, with a brief program. Ticket price includes a one year membership to Slow Food USA.

Please join us in supporting Sustainable Long Island’s ongoing work for food equity in our Long Island communities.
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/


Friday, April 15th

10am

FARM SummIT!
SUNY Old Westbury
Old Westbury, NY
Details TBA

Featured speaker scheduled is Joel Salatin from Polyface Farm.



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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