Farm Message for Saturday, October 31, 2009

Star Hollow Farm News
For the week preceding Saturday, October 31st, 2009
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Hi folks,
Another dreary, gray, rainy day here on the farm, but yesterday was beautiful, so I'd better not complain! I still have a bit of field work to finish off – pulling plastic mulch mainly – and we can't seem to get a string of warm days together to actually dry out the ground enough to be able to get the tractor onto the field. Two Saturday's in a row now I've come home from market to find 3 inches of water in the rain gauge.
This week's planned produce: New or back-on-the-list items are underlined. Some items sell out fast. As at any farmer's market it's first-come, first-served.
Greens: arugula, cabbage, chard (rainbow), cress, dandelion, lettuce (green, Romaine and red leaf), kale (Lacinato and Russian Red), microgreens, mizuna, pea shoots, rapini, spinach, tat soi.
Veggies: broccoli, carrots (orange and mixed), celeriac, garlic, leeks, onions (cippolini and yellow), parsnips, peppers (bell, paper lantern chiles), potatoes (five or six kinds), French Breakfast radishes, shallots, sweet potatoes, tomatoes (heirlooms), winter squash (acorn, buttercup, butternut, delicata, kabocha)
Herbs: basil, chives, cilantro, dill, parsley, peppermint, sage, rosemary, sorrel, spearmint, tarragon, thyme
Mushrooms: crimini, farm-raised Gray Dove oyster, portabella, farm-raised shiitake, white
Tree fruit: bosc pears, apples (Fuji, Gala, IdaRed, Stayman .
Other items: the usual eggs, butter and cheeses.
On sale or reduced:
5 pound bags of White potatoes
15 pound boxed of seconds potatoes
10 pound boxes of winter squash seconds
On the farm: We've definitely started to shift gears from fall harvest mode into more winter-oriented mode, but processing all those potatoes and squash take up a lot of time. Each week we wash, sort and pack 200-300 pounds of potatoes, a like amount of winter squash, and portion them for the CSA and online market. We're also selling some to the Co-op. I keep thinking I'm going to start having some “project time” real soon, but it hasn't happened yet.
Where have you placed online orders from? We tend to think that here we are on the farm in Pennsylvania, and there you sit in your offices or homes in DC and on Wednesdays you place your orders and they drop into our “in” box. Several years ago a customer told me that she had placed her order from Saigon on Wednesday, then picked up in Adams Morgan on Saturday. I was amazed. Jason stopped by the truck last Saturday and wondered if Amy had placed their order from her job in Peru. I was telling him how that possibility still kind of blew my mind, when Lindsay – handing out boxes at the truck – said that she had ordered awhile back while on assignment in Pakistan. Wow. I'm amazed, in part that they even thought about our farm and produce while in such exotic places. Which leads me to ask you all to let me know what sort of interesting places you've placed orders from – just for our own jollies). We'll report back next week (and we'll leave names off, so that your CIA covers won't be blown).
Upcoming market schedule (repeated): We have 5 more weeks until our schedule changes – Thanksgiving weekend. We do not come down then. There will be 3 markets in December before we take off for Christmas.
Winter schedule change (repeated): We plan to switch over to coming down every other Saturday this coming winter. We really need a break from the year-round routine after five years of year-round marketing, and figure that during the winter, most of what we have are storage items that hold perfectly well from one week to the next in your refrigerator just as well as in our cooler.
CSA-Specific Information
Planned CSA produce for this week:
This week the plan is for Romaine lettuce, cauliflower, green bell pepper, carrots, baby potatoes, leeks, chives, granny smith apples. Enjoy!
Adams Morgan CSA volunteers: Thanks to Chris & Heather and Lindsay for their help handing out orders last Saturday. We appreciate the help!

Thanks for your support!
Randy, Chris and all at Star Hollow Farm
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