Green Thumb Farm Huntington CSA: Huntington CSA **2023 Season** Thursday, June 29, 2023 Week #4

Happy Summer!

CSA weather report…warm, but there’s an Air Quality alert until midnight

Important…if you ever send anyone to the CSA to pick up food for you, please tell them to BRING BAGS!

This email includes…

What you need to know
Food safety and COVID-19…
What you actually got last week
And now, for something completely different…

*Anything in any of our CSA emails not directly related to the functioning of the CSA, feel free to take or leave at your discretion, and anything related to health issues always consult with your physician(s) before taking any action.

1.What you need to know (will be either new info to first time CSA members, or reminders/old hat to returning CSA members)…

Most immediate helpful hints…

Bring at least TWO bags to the CSA EVERY WEEK for wet and dry food items (and never the twain should meet)
When packing up your CSA food, start at the left side of the long table and work your way to the right and out the garden door. Why? We set out the food to be packed in that order so the heaviest food items will be on the bottom of your bag, and your food won’t get squished (another way to make your food go bad faster), and if you separate the wet from the dry foods you’re doing pretty good on having your food last longer! 😊
When you get your food home, if it’s in a plastic bag take it OUT of the plastic bag and store elsewhere…even if it’s in another plastic bag (the original bag will be too wet and your food won’t be happy there for long)
Plan on using your food in the order of how long it will reasonably stay fresh. Not sure as to what that is? Just ask! 😊

Before you leave the house…BRING BAGS to pack up your food (CSA members are responsible for packing up their own shares) – canvas/plastic/paper…bring whatever suits your fancy. The CSA does NOT provide bags for CSA members.

Time – 3:30pm to 7:30pm

Place – Sky Room Café in the Cinema Arts Centre at 423 Park Ave, Huntington

Parking – park in all the way around at the back of the building by the daycare center (you’ll see a fenced in playground area with a sandbox)

When you arrive at the CSA –

Check in at the sign-in desk with our friendly CSA worker
Read the Wall Chart that tells us every week what we’re getting, how much we’re getting, and what the farm charged us for it…some weeks it’s take one of everything but…SOME WEEKS IT’S NOT!!! So you have to make sure you read the Wall Chart every week, and not assume anything. You can also ask your fellow CSA members that are working that day what the story is for the day (they should have name tags on).

Before you leave the CSA – Make sure you have everything on the list (like the story of the 3 bears…not too much, not too little, but just right 😊)! If you get to talking with people, have kids with you, etc., it can be easy to be distracted and if you get home and find out you don’t have everything that was on the list, you’re out of luck because at 7:31pm the food is donated to a local food organization (Community Solidarity…read more about them in the CSA Events email under Tuesdays) that’s waiting to pick it up and get on their way.

Veggie info sheets are added as needed. This is the link to the: Veggie Info Sheets. Print them out, put them in a notebook and you end up with a cookbook at the end of the CSA season. Also, there are good tips on storage, prep, and nutrition.

The list…this is a general list and you’ll be sent another email within the next week with the detailed list after I get it (which isn’t till the day of the CSA…the list is subject to change without notice because farming is like that! 😊 However, most of the time it’s accurate and if it’s not…usually only one food item will be changed)…

CSA words to live by…when trying any new food you’ve never eaten before…START SLOW!!! Read up about it (make sure it doesn’t interfere with any medications you might be taking or any health conditions you might have), see what traditional/conventional ways it’s prepared (cultures that have been eating certain foods for many years basically have a good idea what they’re doing, and we can learn from that), try a small portion, see how your body/digestive system reacts, and proceed from there. Then try preparing in different ways and see what you come up with, and feel free to ask for suggestion/info/recommendations!

These paraphrased wise words by a nutritionist that I read (and don’t remember where I read it or who said it), BUT it’s pretty smart info regarding eating seasonally in our part of the globe…

Spring… is all about detoxing (what we get from the CSA at this time is a lot of green things that are really good to help clean us out from whatever we accumulated during the winter)

Interesting piece about spring greens (out of the 14 listed, we get 12 of them with our CSA…watercress nutritionally and botanically similar to Curly Cress/Peppercress) and detoxing…

http://www.nourishingmeals.com/2012/03/detox-with-spring-greens.html

Summer is all about being hydrated (the popular summer foods are all full of water…Tomatoes, Lettuces, Summer Squashes, etc.)

Fall/winter is all about storing energy (we get all the dense vegetables…Sweet Potatoes, Winter Squashes, etc…. that are energy powerhouses to fuel us through the winter) to get you through the winter to make it to…Spring!

Week #4

June 29, 2023

Onions– 1 bunch
Radishes – 1 bunch
Peas, Sugar Snap – 1 bag
Lettuce – 1 head
Marjoram – 1 bunch

Total Items: 5

Herb Share – June 2B

Cress, Upland AND Marigold, Gem

2.Food safety and COVID-19…

Watch writer J. Kenji Lopez-Alt (son of a Harvard University geneticist and immunologist, grandson of a chemist, and author of Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science), talk about COVID-19 and food safety…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkvw9lZ3v3I

And read in more detail here…

https://www.seriouseats.com/2020/03/food-safety-and-coronavirus-a-comprehensive-guide.html#covid-on-food

After keeping the CSA going thru 2020 and 2021 (with everyone staying healthy using the simple practices of wearing face coverings, hand washing, and social distancing), this is where we are now at this moment in time…

Face coverings are optional
Hand washing upon entering the theater is STRONGLY recommended (it’s always a good idea in preventing COVID as well as the flu and colds)

Why COVID HATES soap (works better than hand sanitizer or gloves), and we’re talking plain soap, NOT antibacterial soap (the use of which causes antibiotic resistance which could kill us all ☹)…

https://healthmatters.nyp.org/how-does-handwashing-with-soap-kill-the-coronavirus/

We will try and keep the CSA area relatively uncrowded
Enter near the Box Office entrance, and exit thru the door that leads out to the Cinema garden and upper parking lot stairs

3.What you actually got last week

Week #3

June 22, 2023

Onions, Spring – 1 bunch - $5.50
Peas, Shelling – 1 bag (1/2 lb.) - $4.50
Swiss Chard: Green OR Red OR Rainbow – 1 bunch - $5.50
Lettuce: Romaine – 1 head - $4.25
Savory, Winter* – 1 bunch - $4.50

Total Items: 5

Total Amount: $24.25

We pay our farm $22 per week for our CSA share…some weeks we get a bit more, some a bit less. This week, it was $2.25 over $22.00. Doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but it adds up over the course of the CSA season (at the moment it’s a total of $4.50 more food than what we paid). We seem to always get at least one CSA share’s worth of food every year that we didn’t pay for…some years two, and last year it was almost four weeks worth extra, so we’re talking almost $80 worth of food we got gratis…it’s all good! 😊

Flower Share – Week #2

Yarrow (everlasts – can be dried)

*No Veg Info Sheet so here’s some links to help out…

Savory, Winter…

With recipes…

http://www.campaignforrealfarming.org/2012/01/herb-of-the-month-winter-savory/

https://www.mountainvalleygrowers.com/satmontana.htm

good info…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_savory

https://www.motherearthliving.com/cooking-methods/savoring-savories

https://thegardendeli.wordpress.com/2013/01/07/what-to-do-with-winter-savory/

4.And now, for something completely different…

I’d watch this if I had Netflix (from the people who brought the world Hello Kitty)…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbZ3QDLq4Es&ab_channel=NetflixAnime

But then again, I’m a fan of quirky Japanese animation/tv.

The trailer here is dubbed into English…

https://www.netflix.com/title/81090127

I’m hearing about this almost 10 years after the fact (thank you NY Times food section)…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gudetama

And it’s given more context by the folks at VOX…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTAnJTB9roI&ab_channel=Vox

This Egg is so famous, it has its own train (and an airplane I’m told)…

https://press.ikidane-nippon.com/en/a00189/

https://www.seiburailway.jp/railways/gudetama/

If you want to see some of the original videos and read more about this critter and phenomena…

https://www.vox.com/2017/4/3/14685348/gudetama-sanrio-hello-kitty-explained

Motherload of videos on YouTube (not sure if any are translated from Japanese)…

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpZqbJnB1yr3pzNgYGjWvfw

More info (this character was created by a woman inspired by an Egg she was making for dinner) and images…

https://hellokitty.fandom.com/wiki/Gudetama

And if you become a fan you can buy Egg merch…

https://www.sanrio.com/collections/gudetama

Events…both near and far

*Please keep in mind that any events or services listed do not indicate a direct endorsement from Green Thumb Farm or Green Thumb CSA - Huntington

Thursday, June 29th

10am to 11am

IEatGreen radio show

To listen to the show live (or listen to the archived programs)…

https://prn.live/

Hosted by Long Islander Bhavani Jharoff. Older shows can be accessed in archives.

Friday, June 30th

2pm to 2:30pm

Green Street Radio

WBAI-FM/99.5FM

To listen live or check out the archives…

https://www.wbai.org/program.php?program=365

Join Long Islanders Doug & Patti Wood (founders of the Port Washington Farmer’s Market…the only all organic greenmarket in New York State), in their weekly show featuring conversations on health and sustainable living.

Sunday, July 2nd

8am to 12pm

Huntington Village Farmers Market

228 Main St.

Huntington

From now till November.

10am till 11:15am

Virtual Yoga Class – all levels - modifications offered (Zoom)

$20

For more info…

https://www.openenergylearning.com/class-schedule

To participate text or call..

917-562-5322

Join CSA Member Marylou Locker in an open energy and flow class with flowing movement, energizing breath, and strengthening and balancing postures.

Tuesday, July 4th

10am to 11am

Tai Chi class (may not be held this week because of holiday)

Cinema Arts Centre

Sky Room Café

423 Park Ave

Huntington

FREE

Join teacher Roger Sencer in this free Tai Chi class that’s been held at the Cinema Arts Centre for a number of years. All levels welcome.

7pm – Volunteers

8:15pm – Drive-thru distribution

Huntington Food Share

Community Solidarity

Fairground Ave. & 6^th St.

Huntington Station

FREE

For more info…

https://communitysolidarity.org/foodshares/huntington

To volunteer…

https://communitysolidarity.org/volunteer

Or to make a donation (they REALLY need a new truck)…

https://communitysolidarity.org/donate/funds

Community Solidarity (formerly Long Island Food Not Bombs) is an amazing group, doing much needed good works. These are the folks our CSA donates food to (and have for the last several years). If you’d like to volunteer, make a donation (they REALLY, REALLY need a new truck), or have need of their services (or know people who might)…get in touch/get information via their website (listed above).

They also need/accept donations of the following…Bicycles, Books, Clothing, Flowers (good for general mental health…taking care of the mind AND the body), Food, Medical Care (is there a Doctor or Dentist in the house? 😊), Plants/Seedlings, School Supplies, Toys and more. For details on donating items, please go to the Home Page, scroll to Donate, and read the appropriate listing (and scroll to Material Goods to see the topics not initially listed)…

https://communitysolidarity.org/

Here’s founder Jon Stepanian’s TED Talk (TEDxNYU) on Community Solidarity and Hunger Relief…

https://www.ted.com/talks/jon_stepanian_community_solidarity_hunger_relief

Wednesday, July 5^th

7pm to 8pm

Winding Down the Day from Yin to Yang (Zoom class)

$20.00

For more info…

https://www.openenergylearning.com/class-schedule

To participate text or call..

917-562-5322

Join CSA Member Marylou Locker in a bit of active practice and breathing techniques to prepare for a relaxing night and sound sleep!

Thursday, July 6th

10am to 11am

IEatGreen radio show

To listen to the show live (or listen to the archived programs)…

https://prn.live/

Hosted by Long Islander Bhavani Jharoff. Older shows can be accessed in archives.

Friday, July 7th

2pm to 2:30pm

Green Street Radio

WBAI-FM/99.5FM

To listen live or check out the archives…

https://www.wbai.org/program.php?program=365

Sunday, July 9^th

8am to 12pm

Huntington Village Farmers Market

228 Main St.

Huntington

From now till November.

10am till 11:15am

Virtual Yoga Class – all levels - modifications offered (Zoom)

$20

For more info…

https://www.openenergylearning.com/class-schedule

To participate text or call..

917-562-5322

Join CSA Member Marylou Locker in an open energy and flow class with flowing movement, energizing breath, and strengthening and balancing postures.

2pm to 6pm

LI Vegan Pop-Up

Good Shephard Lutheran Church

3434 Hempstead Tpke.

Levittown

FREE

For more info (but they don’t have much)…

https://longislandveganpopup.com/

100% vegan food, drink, art, music (live DJ), and more! Family and pet friendly.

Tuesday, July 12th

10am to 11am

Tai Chi class

Cinema Arts Centre

Sky Room Café

423 Park Ave

Huntington

FREE

Join teacher Roger Sencer in this free Tai Chi class that’s been held at the Cinema Arts Centre for a number of years. All levels welcome.

7pm – Volunteers

8:15pm – Drive-thru distribution

Huntington Food Share

Community Solidarity

Fairground Ave. & 6^th St.

Huntington Station

FREE

For more info…

https://communitysolidarity.org/foodshares/huntington

To volunteer…

https://communitysolidarity.org/volunteer

Or to make a donation (they REALLY need a new truck)…

https://communitysolidarity.org/donate/funds

https://communitysolidarity.org/

Here’s founder Jon Stepanian’s TED Talk (TEDxNYU) on Community Solidarity and Hunger Relief…

https://www.ted.com/talks/jon_stepanian_community_solidarity_hunger_relief

Wednesday, July 13^th

7pm to 8pm

Winding Down the Day from Yin to Yang (Zoom class)

$20.00

For more info…

https://www.openenergylearning.com/class-schedule

To participate text or call..

917-562-5322

Join CSA Member Marylou Locker in a bit of active practice and breathing techniques to prepare for a relaxing night and sound sleep!

Tuesday, July 19th

10am to 11am

Tai Chi class

Cinema Arts Centre

Sky Room Café

423 Park Ave

Huntington

FREE

Join teacher Roger Sencer in this free Tai Chi class that’s been held at the Cinema Arts Centre for a number of years. All levels welcome.

7pm – Volunteers

8:15pm – Drive-thru distribution

Huntington Food Share

Community Solidarity

Fairground Ave. & 6^th St.

Huntington Station

FREE

For more info…

https://communitysolidarity.org/foodshares/huntington

To volunteer…

https://communitysolidarity.org/volunteer

Or to make a donation (they REALLY need a new truck)…

https://communitysolidarity.org/donate/funds

https://communitysolidarity.org/

Here’s founder Jon Stepanian’s TED Talk (TEDxNYU) on Community Solidarity and Hunger Relief…

https://www.ted.com/talks/jon_stepanian_community_solidarity_hunger_relief

Monday, July 24^th to Saturday, July 29^th

49^th Annual NOFA (Northeast Organic Farmers Association) Summer Conference

Online (7/24 to 7/29) AND at Worcester State U, Worcester, MA (7/28 & 7/29 only)

Sliding scale from $250 to $50

To register and for more info…

https://www.nofamass.org/nofa-summer-conference/

Unfortunately, the website doesn’t have info yet about what workshops are being offered AND the 1 to 2 person room accommodations at the college are sold out. This is the NOFA conference that the general public usually attends. The winter NOFA conferences are more for farmers, who (for the most part) aren’t working at that point in time.

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Thursday, June 29, 2023

Huntington CSA 2023 Season Thursday, June 29, 2023 Week #4

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