Green Thumb Farm Huntington CSA

Happy Spring!

STRAWBERRY Picking at the farm this Saturday…RAIN OR SHINE! See #7 below and look at June 18th.

Mystery solved…sunglasses claimed….who was that in her Foster Grants? Laura McKellar! 

This week’s mystery…Did any adult or child misplace a silver necklace charm? It’s a heart (approx 1 ¼” tall by 1 ¼ “ wide) made up of swirls attached to another smaller heart (approx ¼” ) with a link on the top. Could be an earring but seems too heavy. Anyone belong to this? It will be at the CSA Sign-In Desk this week.

Flower Shares and Herb Shares still available (see #5).

We may have a Green Thumb CSA – Huntington contingent at the NOFA Summer Conference this year! See August 12th under the events listings for more info.

BRING BAGS TO PACK YOUR CSA SHARE…now and forever! Put bags (paper/plastic/canvas) in every car you own so you’ll never be without. In your trunk, glove compartment, back seat…whatever works for you. You’ll be needing them every week for the next 30 weeks and the CSA is not set up to provide them. If you are sending someone else to pick up your CSA share (spouse, relative, friend, offspring), this is the most important thing to tell them.

We have 64 intrepid CSAers for the eighth week of the CSA season and we still have room for about 100 CSA members for the rest of the year. If each CSA member were to find ONE more member…ONLY ONE EACH…we could fill the CSA. Green Thumb Farms’ Brooklyn CSA is closed for membership with 200 members, their Queens CSA is closed for the season with 110 members and we’re last on the totem pole still trying to get to 100, and at that point seeing if our farmer will allow us to get to 150 members. Back a few years ago, he would have LOVED for us to have 200 members but since we’ve never come close, I think he’s given up hope…but would be amused and pleased if it ever happened. Plus it’s wacky…with everyone sharing, people having multiple email addresses, and the fact that there are people who want to get our emails who aren’t CSA members (events, veg sheets, etc), I’m sending this email to 110 email addresses! I’d be so happy if that translated to 110 CSA members but not yet!

Attached is the CSA “kit” consisting of the contract for new members, brochure and fee sheet. Let’s do this thing! The sooner I don’t have to beat the bushes for members, the more time I have for things like managing the CSA better, finding cool new things to add to the CSA mix (Mushrooms, Tempeh, a Winter CSA Share?) and doing the extra work it would entail.

I’d be happy to place brochures, do a lecture, call, email…do whatever’s needed to spread the good word about CSA. If you have suggestions, please make them known. So far this year we’re going to put an ad in the program for an auction at a local Montessori School. Next, will be an ad placed in the UUFH bulletin called The Beacon (never done before…silly CSA). Both should be reasonably priced. $40 for the Montessori ad and not sure about the UUFH one yet but I don’t imagine it will be very expensive (that one we may want to run a few times).

Any ideas for recruiting new members will be considered… how about jumping out of a van, putting a bag over some random person’s head, taking them to a warehouse in a discreet industrial area, feeding them amazing salads, juiced veggies, soups, vegetable delights made with CSA produce, and Dines Farm grilled marinated chicken thighs, Hamburgers and Hot Dogs (if they’re not vegetarians), and let the food do the talking? Just a thought  .

This email includes…

1. Help! Your CSA needs you this week! We’re looking for ONE (1) person to be at the CSA from 3:30 to 5:30pm…
2. Honey anyone?
3. The Unofficial Farm Report
4. The list…subject to change without notice…farming is like that!
5. We still have plenty of Herb Shares and Flower Shares available. Why would you want one?
6. Great film on the Long Island farming scene (featuring Farmer Bill, our CSA, yours truly, CSA member B Hanson, and other local folks) on cable this week!
7. Fun, Cool & Interesting Stuff to Do (new events added weekly)
8. Armchair activist for the week…We need all the clean water we can get!
9. What you actually got last week…
10. Certified Organic Seedlings Available from Green Thumb Farm!
11. If you haven’t heard, or felt you’ve learned, enough about E Coli…
12. If you still dare to eat sprouts (or want to)…check this out…



1. Help! Your CSA needs you this week! We’re looking for ONE (1) person to be at the CSA from 3:30 to 5:30pm…

If you didn’t get a confirmation email from Judi, you’re not on the schedule to work this week. If you did, you are.

IF you can work, please 1) respond to this email, 2) call 631-421-4864 and leave a message before 1pm on Thursday, 3) call the UUFH Hall Phone at 631-385-1079 after 3pm on Thursday and let us know you’re coming OR 4) show up a little before 3:30pm 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. Honey anyone?

The CSA will now be taking orders from this week to the end of June, for a July delivery of Honey….mid to end of July.

Cost - $10 per lb container (the classic Honey bear plastic squeeze bottle…no breakage in transport this way)

How to order?
Bring cash or check (made out to Halseys Green Thumb Farm) in an envelope with your name on it (and if you’re sharing with some, write…I share with – name of CSA member), number of jars of Honey and amount enclosed. Leave it with the person at the CSA Sign-In Desk and send an email to me letting me know that you dropped it of, to make sure it didn’t disappear between the desk and me.

Honey provenance – It’s unfiltered, unpasteurized Honey from Biodynamically raised bees, raised by Farmer Bill Halsey’s adult daughter on her property upstate NY by the St Lawrence River. Honey can not be certified organic (possibly it could in Canada or Hawaii where there’s enough land to make sure bees didn’t stray onto unorganic land), however, her neck of the woods is pretty isolated and if the bees are happy they don’t wander as far as if they’re not (average 5 miles if they’re not happy where they are).

Boy…wish I could have taken these classes! Gunther Hauk (he rocks!) was the founder of the Pfeiffer Center upstate…our closest source for solid Biodynamic gardening/farming education…Mac Mead, the new head of the Pfeiffer Center will be teaching a few classes at the NOFA Summer Conference…one of the reason’s I’ll be at the NOFA Summer Conference this year…
http://www.anthroposophy.org/nc/calendar/event-details/archive/2011/03//article/sustainable-biodynamic-beekeeping-543.html
Gunther’s beekeeping book…
http://www.amazon.com/Toward-Saving-Honeybee-Gunther-Hauk/dp/0938250140



3. The Unofficial Farm Report

Spoke to Farmer Bill today and got the latest…

The big news is that there’s been so much rain out east, the farm workers haven’t been able to get into the fields for an entire week! It’s too wet to plant, or use a tractor or any heavy equipment (it’ll just get stuck in the mud). What does that mean for us? Crops will be going in later than planned and this will effect what’s going to be ready come July and August. Not to worry…we’ve never not gotten food in the 13 past years of the CSA.

Looks like we won’t be getting Rhubarb this year as there isn’t enough for the CSAs. Darn! I think they’re planting more this year for next year. But, at least we’re getting Strawberries.

The Strawberries might not be as sweet and intense as they could be…blame it on the rain. More rain, more water in the Strawberries, the more diluted the flavor is, the less sweet it will be, the sooner they will rot and will be gone for the season. Rain, rain, GO AWAY!

One of the challenges of the CSA (or having a kitchen garden) is to see what Mother Nature has brought you from week to week (or day to day at a home garden), appreciate it for what it is and make the best of it. So, if a Strawberry isn’t as sweet as you’d like…add a sweetener (Sugar, Honey, Agave, Stevia, Maple Syrup…whatever). If it’s too watery…maybe cook it down and make a compote/sauce out of it and use it over pancakes, or pound cake, or ice cream, or whatever you can think of, to concentrate the flavor. It’s like thinking of the glass as half empty or half full. You can be unhappy on not getting the Strawberries of your dreams, or be grateful for what comes your way and get excited about what yummy treat you can create with what you’ve got. There’s pretty much always something you can do to make something taste better.

Cross your fingers…I think we might be getting Bitter Melon this year! Some of us will be SO happy. Some of us will want to trade it. And if you don’t know what it is…let’s see what happens and if we even get some. It’s germinated in the greenhouse which is a good sign. The last time they tried to grow it…nothing! The seeds were non-functional.

A farmer’s life is not easy and requires a zen-like attitude of acceptance. The weather it what it is and there’s not a darn thing you can do about it. It’s either too hot, too cold, too wet or too dry. Too wet is always the worst. You can always irrigate if there’s a draught in this part of the country (not the case out west and will be getting worse in the coming years) but when the ground is wet, there’s no way to get the water out of it. It’s NOT a good thing. I remember one year talking to Farmer Bill and there were TWO days out of the whole season that were what he wanted/needed weather wise! Suicide rates for farmers are very high. If you can’t work within and accept your present reality on the farm, it can drive you to drink and beyond. I know how lucky I am to be under the culinary care of such experienced and even-tempered farmers as the Halsey family of Green Thumb Farm.



4. The list…subject to change without notice…farming is like that!

Vegetable Info Sheets attached to this email (keep in a notebook – by the end of the year you’ll have a cookbook!)

Week #8
June 16, 2011

1. Strawberries
2. Lettuce
3. Savory, Winter*
4. Peas, Shelling
5. Peas, Snow

Total Items: 5

*Winter Savory Info…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_savory
http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/learn/savory_winter.php
http://www.mountainvalleygrowers.com/satmontana.htm



5. We still have plenty of Herb Shares, Basil Shares, and Flower Shares available. Why would you want one?

Why a Flower Share?

You’re paying $7 for a bunch of flowers that might easily cost $10 elsewhere (I just paid $10 for two VERY SMALL stems of Lilac the other week at the Sweet Hollow Hall market and they were on their way out after two days…the gal didn’t cut them properly as I learned in my research AND she should have had little packs of flower food to include for that price) AND the Flower Share flowers are organic. I get two Flower Shares every year and they are a joy to behold!

You don’t have to cut the ones in your garden and you can leave them to beautify your landscape.

They’re organically grown so you can sniff with impunity!

The first ones we usually get are Peonies (that’s enough of a reason for me) and then it may be followed by (and not in this order) Sunflowers, Zinneas, Sweet Williams, Snapdragons, Straw Flowers, Gomphrena, Flamingo Feathers…some are everlasts (can be dried) and some are not…all depending on what’s ready and when. The flowers do NOT come every week.

Why an Herb Share or a Basil Share?

Tired of eating the same vegetable more than one week in a row…USE HERBS! They can totally change the flavor profile of what you’re cooking.

Just like we get Vegetable Information Sheets, we have Herb Information Sheets (and we may put an order in for an Herb Wheel…later for that).

You can freeze or dry them for use during the winter (or when you don’t have them fresh on hand).

Herbs are amazing for our health. We don’t eat enough of them. They have more antioxidants than Blueberries! Use them in Juices (in small quantities), on Salad, in Salad Dressings, on most anything you cook…Vegetables, Meat, Fish, Eggs, Soups…anything!

Herbs are green…anything that’s green is ultra healthy. Here’s some info from Dr. Andrew Weil…
To turn down pain: Like some over-the-counter painkillers, some plants also act as natural COX 2 inhibitors, thus reducing pain and inflammation. Adding Basil to the diet may be useful for those with minor aches and pains.
To fight infections: In India, Basil is commonly used a home remedy for coughs and colds and topically for minor cuts and scrapes. Research has now shown that the herb indeed has potent antimicrobial activity and may reduce bronchial spasm, said Dr. Low Dog. Thyme is another herb to consider when fighting off a cold. It is approved in Europe for use in upper respiratory infections; it’s also effective against oral thrush. Likewise, Sage tea is effective for sore throats.
To calm and soothe: Rosemary is a traditional remedy for headaches—perhaps due to its anti-inflammatory properties. Sage is approved in Germany for those troubled by excessive perspiration, and herbalists commonly recommend it for menopausal women troubled with night sweats.
To improve your outlook: Another promising herb for brain health may be Sage. Dr. Low Dog presented some of the research that suggests the herb may improve some symptoms of early Alzheimer’s disease. She also noted that the word “sage” is used to signify a wise elder. Maybe the ancients were on to somethin
We DO get Herbs as part of our basic CSA share (this week we’re getting Parsley) but you get more of them with the CSA share…

We will most likely be getting Celery at some point this season…
Please Pass the Parsley … and the Celery
Parsley and celery contain a compound that may help protect against breast cancer, possibly by blocking the growth of tumor cells. This interesting finding, from a University of Missouri animal study, suggests that apigenin, a flavonoid found in parsley, celery, apples, oranges, nuts and other plant products, seemed to block or delay tumor formation in rats that had been programmed to develop breast cancer when exposed to MPA (medroxyprogesterone acetate). MPA is a synthetic hormone that has been found to accelerate human breast tumor development in women on hormone replacement therapy. In the rat study, apigenin blocked the formation of new blood vessels needed by breast tumors, and also reduced the overall number of tumors the rats developed. However, apigenin didn't stop cancer cells from forming in the breast in the first place. The investigators said that they're not yet sure what dose of apigenin would be appropriate for humans, but suggested that eating some parsley and fruit daily could help ensure that you're getting the minimal amount. The study was published online April 19, 2011 by Cancer Prevention Research.
How to I get an Herb, Basil or Flower Share after the CSA season start?

It’s easy…ASK or EMAIL! You need to join AT the CSA because…it’s a timing thing.



6. Great film on the Long Island farming scene (featuring Farmer Bill, our CSA, yours truly, CSA member B Hanson, and other local folks) on cable this week!

If you want to get a good picture about what it’s like being a farmer on Long Island in this day and age, do yourself a favor (you won’t regret it) and watch Farming the Future: the Future of Farming on Long Island. It’s a wonderful movie about our local agricultural history and future. I am proud to have been a part of this production. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you’ll be very glad you’re a CSA member supporting our local farm community be being a CSA member.

If you have a DVR you can save it for when it’s convenient for your viewing pleasure! We may have copies to sell at some point in the year. It’s a great thing to own to lend to friends and family and it’s a lovely gift (made up with a local foods basket…yum!)…

I have Verizon FIOS so if you have another cable company you’re on your own but here’s the schedule that I have…

Station name…WNJN – 2 (Channel 476 on Verizon FIOS)

Show Title – Farming the Future

Dates and Times…
Wednesday, June 15
10am, 4pm, 10pm

Thursday, June 16
4am, 10am, 4pm, 10pm

Friday, June 17
4am, 10am, 4pm, 10pm

Saturday, June 18
4am, 10am, 4pm, 10pm

Sunday, June 19
4am, 4pm, 10pm

Monday, June 20
4am, 10am, 4pm

It’s possible it may go beyond this date but that’s what’s listed at the moment.



7. Fun, Cool & Interesting Stuff to Do (new events added weekly)


Wednesday, June 15th

5pm to 1am

An Evening of Longevity with David Wolfe
Organic Avenue
116 Suffolk St
NYC
$100
For more info:
212-358-0500
love@organicavenue.com
For more info and to register:
http://www.organicavenue.com/events.php?event=10966
5:00pm - 9:00pm - A lecture on longevity and beauty, with intermission and hors d'oeuvres. David highlights studies on beauty, longevity and anti-aging featuring cutting edge Telomere life-extension research and foods for beauty. For $100, each guest enjoys David's information, gift bag, raw appetizers, chocolates and Organic Avenue Mocktails inspired by David's longevity research. Access to David's Longevity Boutique with unique product selection is also provided. {pre-registration required, seating limited}
9:00pm - 1:00am - DJ After-Party for Discover The Gift film (featuring David Wolfe, for info click here), with delicious complimentary chocolate samples from Sacred Chocolate. The cash bar will have invigorating Organic Avenue Mocktails and a special "Longevity Potion" inspired by David's research on longevity.

Bio: With a masters degree in nutrition, and a background in science and mechanical engineering, David Wolfe is considered one of the world’s top authorities on natural health, beauty nutrition, herbalism, chocolate, and organic superfoods. David has over 15 years of dedicated experience and understanding of the inner workings, the delicate chemistry, and hardcore mechanics of the human body and how the body is affected by the modern-day stressors of today’s fast-paced, over-worked, and unbalanced lifestyle, which is literally a “killer” to our beauty, health, and longevity.
David is the author of the best-selling books, Eating for Beauty (4th Edition), The Sunfood Diet Success System (8th Edition), Naked Chocolate (2nd Edition), David Wolfe on Raw Foods, Superfoods, and Superherbs, Amazing Grace (3rd Edition), Superfoods: The Food and Medicine of the Future (North Atlantic Books/distributed by Random House, 2009), and The LongevityNOW Program (www.longevitynowprogram2.com).
David Wolfe's celebrity fan base includes Woody Harrelson, Bryce Dallas Howard, John Assaraf, Anthony Robbins, Steve Jobs, Angela Bassett, and many others. A highly sought after health and personal success speaker, David has given over 2,000 live lecture events in the past 15 years. Today, David Wolfe continues to share the stage in the company of Anthony Robbins, Mark Victor Hansen, Jack Canfield, Buzz Aldrin, T. Harv Eker, John Gray, Les Brown, Barbara DeAngelis, Brian Tracy, and many more.
David Wolfe is also a gourmet chocolatier. He is a passionate proponent of the healing and beautifying power of raw chocolate (cacao beans). Just ask David about chocolate — he will tell you why chocolate is the greatest, most prosperous, nutritious, mood-elevating, highest energizing, and top weight loss aphrodisiac food on the planet! To try some of David’s exotic chocolate, visit: www.sacredchocolate.com.

Thursday, June 16th

6:30 to 8:30pm

Breast Health and Modern Toxicity
Organic Avenue
116 Suffolk St
NYC
FREE
For more info:
http://www.organicavenue.com/events.php?event=10971
Pre-register:
212-358-0500
love@organicavenue.com

In this FREE lecture, Dr. Loretta Friedman of Synergy Health Associates addresses not the question of “Am I toxic”, but “How toxic am I”.

Learn about the extremely noxious world we live in today and how your breast are the #1 target for toxins. According to the American Cancer Society one in two men and one in three women will develop some kind of cancer in their lifetime. Our ill health is directly related to the assaults we face every day. The lymph system is the other circulatory system and is a vital part of our body; it manages elimination of toxins and functions as the bodies primary immune defense. Learn how an organic diet, lifestyle changes, and lymphatic drainage can benefit you whether you are a man or a woman.


Saturday, June 18th

10am to 2pm

Annual CSA Member Strawberry Picking & Walking Tour
Halsey’s Green Thumb Organic Farm
Rt 27
Water Mill, NY
FREE
For more info:
631-726-1900

MEET your farmer! SEE where your food is being grown! EAT the Strawberries! This is one of two opportunities we have to tour the farm and spend time with the people that make it happen…Farmer Bill Halsey, his family and co-workers. This event is for CSA members and immediate family only! If you are sharing a CSA share with another person or family…you have to choose who’s going and register under the name of the CSA member as the farm doesn’t acknowledge the existence of anyone but the CSA member (person who’s filled out the contract and signed the checks). There are too many CSA members, and people sharing with those CSA members, between Long Island and NYC to accommodate everyone.

It’s a one hour walking tour followed by Strawberry picking in a designated field. Each CSA member gets one quart to pick (though no one is monitoring how many you may eat along the way  ). Tours will leave at 10am, 11am, noon, 1am and 2pm, from the field on Rose Hill Rd, just east of the Green Thumb Farm farm stand. RAIN OR SHINE! Dress appropriately for walking in possible muck if the fields are still wet, prepare for sun exposure, and bring rain gear if needed!


June 24th to June 30th

Edible New York’s…
Eat/Drink Local Week!

Great magazine’s…subscribe or pick them up for free if you know where to look (or subscribe to their email lists)…lot’s of fun events and good eating and to be had this week…

Too many events to list all over the place…search for yourselves!

Edible Brooklyn…
http://www.ediblemanhattan.com/guide/community/brooklyn/category/eat-drink-local-week

Edible East End
http://www.ediblemanhattan.com/guide/community/east-end/category/eat-drink-local-week

Edible Queens…
http://www.ediblecommunities.com/queens/edible-eat-drink-local-week/eat-drink-local-week-2011.htm

Edible Manhattan…
http://www.ediblemanhattan.com/events/eat-drink-local-week/


Monday, June 27nd

6:30 to 8:30pm

Breast Health and Modern Toxicity
Organic Avenue
116 Suffolk St
NYC
FREE
For more info:
http://www.organicavenue.com/events.php?event=10971
Pre-register:
212-358-0500
love@organicavenue.com

In this FREE lecture, Dr. Loretta Friedman of Synergy Health Associates addresses not the question of “Am I toxic”, but “How toxic am I”.

Learn about the extremely noxious world we live in today and how your breast are the #1 target for toxins. According to the American Cancer Society one in two men and one in three women will develop some kind of cancer in their lifetime. Our ill health is directly related to the assaults we face every day. The lymph system is the other circulatory system and is a vital part of our body; it manages elimination of toxins and functions as the bodies primary immune defense. Learn how an organic diet, lifestyle changes, and lymphatic drainage can benefit you whether you are a man or a woman.


August 12th to 14th

NOFA (Northeast Organic Farmers Association) 37th Annual Summer Conference
With Northeast Animal-Power Field Days
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA
For more info and registration:
http://www.nofasummerconference.org/

I’m going this year…and you? It’s fun, educational, reasonably priced, and anyone who goes WILL have a great time. Whether you’re single, family, senior…whatever…a good time will be had! Keynote speakers will be Eric Toensmeier (author promoting food forestry to sequester carbon) and Ignacio Chapela (GMO, agri-fuel and global food crisis activist and scientist). I’m going there to see ex-Long Islander and the person who’s responsible for turning me on to one of my all-time FAVORITE books, Common Sense Pest Control by Olkowski (not very sexy unless you’re interested in this stuff and then it’s most awesome and I personally think every human should own a copy), Steve Restmeyer…organic landscape expert and apprentice shaman! As well as Ellen Kamhi (the Natural Nurse…from Long island), Mac Mead (head of the Pfeiffer Institute…for Biodynamic study upstate), Lee Reich (fruit growing expert from upstate), and MANY other workshops, parties, etc.
There’s workshops for children, teens, if you’re interested in becoming a farmer, Permaculture, CSAs, and even one on making music about farming/growing things or just singing while you’re out in the garden!

This gives you a good overview of the game plan for the weekend…
http://www.nofasummerconference.org/program.php

Info about teen & the children’s conference and parties, etc…
http://www.nofasummerconference.org/program.php

This is the list of workshop descriptions…it’s overwhelming but awesome…
http://www.nofasummerconference.org/pdfs/2011_Workshop_Descriptions.pdf

Info about meals, parking, details, etc…
http://www.nofasummerconference.org/logistics.php


September 1st to September 30th

The NY Locavore Challenge

Eat fresh, local, in season, organic…for a day, a week, a month! Put on by the Northeast Organic Farmer’s Association, this is the 2nd year for this event.

For more info, to register, and to get involved…keep coming back as clearly it’s early in the planning stages…unless YOU want to help plan and be actively involved…
https://www.nofany.org/?q=node/237
https://www.nofany.org/events/ny-locavore-challenge


Monday, October 24th

Food Day
For more info:
http://www.foodday.org/



8. Armchair activist for the week…We need all the clean water we can get!

Tell the NY State Senate to extend the moratorium on fracking…
http://democracyforamerica.com/activities/535-pass-the-moratorium-bill?akid=939.600188.4LXUTj&rd=1&t=2



9. What you actually got last week…

Week #7
June 9, 2011

1. Lettuce: Boston, Green AND Leaf, Red – 1 head of each variety/2 heads total – $4.25
2. Cress, Curly (also known as Pepper Cress or Pepper Grass)* – 1 bunch - $2.25
3. Radishes: French Breakfast OR Red – 1 bunch - $2.50
4. Sage – 1 bunch - $2.25
5. Strawberries – 1 qt - $6.50

Total Items: 5
Total Amount: $17.75 ($.25 more than we paid…it adds up over the course of the year!)

*No Veg Info Sheet but…
http://www.simplesocialkitchen.com/2010/06/07/csa-cooking-curly-cress-jerusalem-artichokes-and-strawberries/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_cress
http://newarcsite.com/microgreens/peppercress/
http://jacquelinechurch.com/ldg/1303-eat-cress-and-gain-wit-curly-cress-gains-converts
http://noteatingoutinny.com/2009/04/20/peppercress-and-poached-egg-salad/
http://crabappleherbs.com/blog/category/herbs/peppercress/
http://www.endlesssimmer.com/2011/05/05/always-do-a-lap-before-you-commit/
http://becksposhnosh.blogspot.com/2006/11/hot-cress-fun.html
http://www.food52.com/recipes/10884_peppercress_aioli



10. Certified Organic Seedlings Available from Green Thumb Farm!

Order certified organic seedlings grown at Green Thumb Farm and have them delivered to the CSA for your garden!

How:
Have your credit card ready (to be paid only by credit card) and call the farm at 631-726-1900 between 9:30 to 4pm any day of the week and they will tell you, depending on when you place your order, what week they will arrive at the CSA…and make sure you don’t forget to pick them up!

How much:
$5.50 per pot (4” pot) with a 4 pot minimum order

What:
(if you don’t see what you’re looking for on this list, or want more details…call the farm and ask)

Flowers
Marigolds, Bonanza
Marigolds, Genie (edible)
Nasturtiums
Petunias

Herbs
Basil
Chives
Oregano
Parsley
Sage
Tarragon, French
Thyme

Tomatoes
Heirlooms
Minis
Red

Vegetables
Broccoli
Cabbage
Kale
Swiss Chard



11. If you haven’t heard, or felt you’ve learned, enough about E Coli…

Interesting E Coli articles…
http://www.slate.com/id/2296326/pagenum/all/#p2
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/05/deadly-ecoli-resistance-antibiotic-misuse
http://gothamist.com/2011/06/07/scientists_baffled_after_bean_sprou.php

Sensible one about E Coli…know where your food comes from…grow your own…learn good growing practices!
http://news.discovery.com/human/food-ecoli-outbreak-bacteria-110608.html

And good old Dr. Weil…
http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/TIP04092/Six-Tips-for-Safer-Salads.html
http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/ART02053



12. If you still dare to eat sprouts (or want to)…check this out…

Steve Meyerowitz IS The Sproutman and is a source for organic sprouting seeds and classes on how to sprout properly and safely (no mold, etc).

If you’re interested, get on his email list and Facebook page…
http://sproutman.com/

Wanting to be fair and balanced…here’s the CDC info…

What did I say about this being a precursor to irradiating more of our food rather than clean up the processes involved? At the end of the article (quickly read) I see that chemicals don’t work, heat effects germination rate but irradiation…well, that works just fine! I will have to sit with this to absorb all the science! I see that they don’t elaborate as to why the E Coli is in/on the seeds and there’s info missing as to why these outbreaks occurred…they just say there’s a lot of ways to screw up sprouts from seed to table and we don’t actually have a real handle on what exactly is going on but if you’re very old, very young, or have a compromised immunes system – the CDC says don’t eat them.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol5no5/taormina.htm

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