June 6, 2009 Farm Message

STAR HOLLOW FARM NEWS

For the week preceding Saturday, June 6^th, 2009

General news & info

Hello all!

Produce: new (or back) this week are..

• Greens: Rainbow chard, green kale, red Boston lettuce, bunched spinach.

• Veggies: Sugar snap peas, Baby beets with tops, baby sweet white turnips with tops, kohlrabi with tops, French breakfast radishes, yellow tomatoes.

• Cheese: Goat cheese: ash log and demi-sec.

• Berries: STRAWBERRIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Other: This season's strawberry jam.

More changes to store checkout pages: Last week we added a graphic look to the pages, highlighting “page 1 of 4,” etc. with the idea of reducing the number of people that didn't get to page 4 of 4 (and thus not really submitting the order they thought they placed). It was not 100% effective. This week we've added a larger, more conspicuous “Continue” button, in a bright color, and renamed it “Next Step.” Maybe that will also call attention to the need to keep going. (It's our Star Hollow Farm “Next Step” program for recovering order abandoners.)

Another thing we're going to try to improve is the “SELECT PICK-UP SITE” drop-down box. Every week there are folks who don't select anything, or people in a hurry who select the wrong site. Until we get to that, however, if you would try to be extra thoughtful to select a site, and have it be the one you really want...

On the farm: We've been hard at it, trying to get field work done in between cloudbursts and thunderstorms. We got in our second acre of potatoes before a rain on Monday, and then were able to cultivate the first-planted potatoes that are already a foot tall and were weedy as could be, so now all of our potatoes are under control. For the moment. (And you don't want to mess with Out-of-Control potatoes, believe me.) (It's early, I'm tired, and this is what happens.) (Sorry.) (!)

Now it's time to shift over to our next largest crop, winter squash. We have planted 1200 plants each of butternut, acorn, delicata, and gray, green and red kabocha squash in the greenhouse. Still to go are 1200 buttercup. After the ground dries out again – we had a tremendous thunderstorm and downpour, knocking out our power last night – we'll start laying plastic mulch and transplanting out the squash.

We're also tickled that our shiitake mushrooms are starting to produce, although rather slowly. We've set up our “fruiting stand” and soak logs each day. Within a day or two the mushrooms start popping out of the logs! Pretty cool, though at first observation, it's not as many as we would have hoped :( I'm sure there is a lot more to learn about them, and they don't exactly have my undivided attention at this time of the year.

Star Hollow CSA blog: Why not cut and paste this link into your “bookmarks” now? (http://starhollowfarmcsa.blogspot.com/) We'll also put it in the weekly emails. Thanks Michele! email her (smcasto@gmail.com) if you want to become a “contributor.”

Open-farm dates: The first “open farm” is just 4 weeks away. Below are the dates we've set aside for our open-farm get-togethers. Those weekends are:

• July 4^th and 5^th

• August 1^st and 2^nd

• September 5^th and 6th

You're invited to spend anytime from Saturday noon to Sunday afternoon with us here. We'll show you around, talk, relax, eat, etc. We ask you to bring a dinner dish with you for Saturday evening, and we'll make you eggs and potatoes for breakfast Sunday. Camping is available anywhere on the farm... no indoor facilities are available for sleeping. If you're interested, let us know in advance and we'll email you directions.

CSA-Specific News

Planned CSA produce for this week: (“Strawberries,” he shouted.)

This week the plan is for a quart of our first strawberries, some Boston lettuce, microgreens, a few garlic scapes, an onion, one or two log-grown shiitake mushrooms, a red tomato, and a bunch of herbs (spearmint or oregano or chives). Enjoy!

Adams Morgan CSA volunteers. Thanks to Ruth and Eva and Jodie and her daughter for their help handing out orders last weekend. (Request from the farm: if you decide you can't make your shift the following week, and you cross out your name on the volunteer calendar, please tell Randy right then so he can ask people to sign up there at the truck.)

Thanks for your support!

Randy, Chris and all at Star Hollow Farm