Farm Message for Saturday, December 19, 2009

Star Hollow Farm News
For the week preceding Saturday, December 19, 2009
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Hi folks,
It's getting closer and closer to Christmas, and my workload isn't going down at all and I haven't started shopping at all and........ (okay, enough of that!)
Do you know anyone who you think would really like to order online from us this winter? We're taking on new online COD customers (ie., not CSA) for our 6 winter weekends -- at Adams Morgan only. At the end of that time they'll either join the CSA or go back to shopping at the outdoor market. If you know someone who is interested, have them email me (randy@starhollowfarm.com). Please don't post this on some list-serve or run an ad in The Post; we don't want and can't handle 100 new folks. It's just if you have a friend or co-worker or roommate that live in or near Adams Morgan that would really be into it. (And whom you're willing to “mentor” if they need help figuring it out!)
Where and how should I store my produce? We had a CSA member ask this last week, so I told him in general about the several items he was wondering about, but it made me think that it would probably be good for me to create a chart (or better yet... link to a site) that tells you about what to refrigerate, what not; what likes moisture, what doesn't; and all that sort of thing. I don't think I can get it done for this week, but it will be a good project for the start of winter! Be on the lookout for it.
This week's planned produce: We are trying to clean up a lot of our produce inventory before the end of the year. Some items are not as plentiful as usual, some items come in multiple sizes, some are unusual sizes or packs, and many are on sale. New or back-on-the-list items are underlined.
Greens: arugula, cabbage, chard, collard greens, lettuce (bibb and baby green oak leaf), lettuce mix, spinach.
Veggies: beets, broccoli, carrots (orange and maroon), small celeriac, daikon radish, garlic, kohlrabi, small leeks, onions, parsnips, potatoes (five or six kinds), watermelon radishes, rutabagas, shallots, sweet potatoes, tomatoes (red & yellow), turnips (purple top, sweet white, scarlet), winter squash (acorn, buttercup, butternut, delicata, Gray and Green kabocha)
Herbs: basil, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, thyme
Mushrooms: crimini, Oyster, portabella, shiitake, white
Tree fruit: apples (Fuji, Granny Smith, Jonagold, Nittany, Pink Lady, Stayman).
Other items: the usual eggs, butter, cheeses and preserves. Back this week – if you missed them last week – are Keswick cheeses (feta and Blue-Moo). Also we are also offering our frozen stewing hens, for your stews, stock or pets.
On sale or reduced:
Collard greens
Jerusalem artichokes, kohlrabi and rutabaga
baby potatoes and Austrian fingerling potatoes
5 pound bags of rainbow mixed potatoes
10 pound boxes of winter squash seconds
Winter squash website: http://whatscookingamerica.net/squash.htm
Winter schedule: Here is our schedule for the next couple of months.
Dec. 19: normal online orders and farm stand
Dec. 26: CLOSED
Winter 2010: online orders only, every other week. Delivery dates will be: Jan. 2, 16, 30. Feb. 13, 27. Mar. 13, 27. Mark your calendars! And remember that during those winter months, the Adams Morgan hours are reduced to 10 AM til 1 PM. Early-birds take note!
CSA-Specific Information
Planned CSA produce for this week:
This week: small Romaine lettuce, garlic, 2 lbs. Sangre red potatoes, 2.5 lbs. Mixed root vegetables, dried cayenne peppers, small amount of herb (parsley, rosemary or thyme – we're out of sage!), and apples (Jonagold, Nittany, Pink Lady).


Adams Morgan CSA volunteers: Thanks to Alix and Brooke & Joe for their help handing out orders last Saturday. We really appreciate the help.

Thanks for your support!
Randy, Chris and all at Star Hollow Farm
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Farm Message for Saturday, December 12, 2009

Star Hollow Farm News
For the week preceding Saturday, December 12, 2009
Hi folks,
It's definitely wintry out there. I just heard the snowplow out on the road in the dark. We need to wash some purple potatoes today, but the hose line is frozen solid. It's not supposed to get above freezing on Friday while we're packing your orders in shed, so we'll need to have a kerosene heater blasting away to keep your produce – and us! – from freezing.
Last Saturday's market was fun. It was only the second time I remember significant snowfall during a December market. Our canopies, table cloths, wooden crates and more are still wet, and there doesn't seem to be any sunshine coming to dry them. Thanks for ordering online and coming for your orders, so that the day was not a complete loss for us.
Chickens date with destiny: I took our hens to the butcher yesterday, and then went back 4 hours later to pick them up. So today we are offering our “spent” hens as stewing hens for your (or your pets) delight. Note that these are year-old laying hens, so they're not going to make nice fried chicken dinners, but they would be great for stock. You're helping us out with buying them after their laying days are over helps “close the circle” so that there is no waste in our chicken/egg production.
Why so many shortages last week, or anytime?: Last week there were more than the usual shortages, and we felt bad about it. Here are some of the reasons shortages happen.
Q. Why are there sometimes shortages when I pick up my order, even though the store inventory showed there were still some available?
A. We realize it is saddening to place an order for something seemingly available, then discover when you pick up your order that you were shorted that item.  The reasons vary, but basically have to do with the fact that we're dealing with fresh produce.  We were unfortunately short the most items this year last week -- 4 different items were complete washouts.  If you had just ordered one of them, it probably wasn't a big deal, but some ordered as many as 3 of the 4, and we felt really bad about that.  If we built the store Friday morning, we'd be pretty darn sure about what we put in there being really available.  But that's not how it works.  In order to have time to do everything necessary for this business to work on our end, we have to build our online store inventory list on Tuesday afternoon and evening.  When I put in potatoes or garlic that are already picked and in my cooler, it's pretty darn sure you'll get what you order.  But what about those highly desirable baby greens and lettuces and Brussels sprouts that people are so crazy about? In most cases they are still growing in the field or greenhouse on Tuesday.  They're not even going to be picked until Wednesday, Thursday, or in some cases even Friday morning.  So when I build the list Tuesday, I or my farmer friends are guessing about what will be ready by the time I need to pick it or get it from them.  When all goes well, we get everything as planned.  But you know the real world... it doesn't always work that way. Two gray cloudy days can mean that the sprouts that should be large enough don't grow to acceptable size, and aren't ready. Or on the day that a field item was to be picked, there may have been a killing frost the night before.  Or we get the produce from a farmer, but decide that the quality is not up to our standards. Or the family could have an emergency. The list goes on.  That we have as few shortages as we do is pretty remarkable, considering we are guessing on half the items.
Q. When something that I ordered turns up short, could you email me so that I would know?
A. That would certainly be the decent thing to do, and good customer service, which we purport to practice.  We actually did that at first when we started the online market.  Then we saw what happened.  If one planned item fell through, I might have to send 24 different emails out.  Then people would say "oh, well, then can I substitute _____" and we're already out of that, but they want to try something else, and the whole thing took way too much time and just didn't work for us.  Last week, with four items unavailable, probably 50 invoices were involved, and it would have taken me an hour or more just to let you know what you weren't going to get.  And then real farm work that needs to get done wouldn't have gotten done.  So we know it would be better if we did it, but we're saying it just doesn't work at our scale.  There's no secretary just sitting there to ask to do it.
This week's planned produce: New or back-on-the-list items are underlined.
Greens: arugula, cabbage, chard, dandelion, lettuce (bibb and red leaf), lettuce mix, kale (Lacinato and Russian Red), pea shoots, spinach.
Veggies: broccoli, carrots (orange and maroon), Romanesco cauliflower, daikon radish, garlic, kohlrabi, leeks, onions (yellow & cippolini), parsnips, potatoes (five or six kinds), watermelon radishes, shallots, sweet potatoes, tomatoes (red & yellow), turnips (purple top, sweet white, scarlet), winter squash (acorn, butternut, delicata, Green kabocha)
Herbs: basil, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, sweet marjoram, thyme
Mushrooms: crimini, portabella, shiitake, white
Tree fruit: bosc pears, apples (Fuji, Granny Smith, honey crisp, Pink Lady, Stayman).
Other items: the usual eggs, butter, cheeses and preserves. Back this week are specialty goat cheeses (garlic/dill, ash logs, demi-sec rounds) and Keswick cheeses (English cheddar, feta, and Blue-Moo). Also Esther's blueberry and black raspberry preserves. We are also offering our frozen stewing hens, for your stews, stock or pets.
On sale or reduced:
5 pound bags of rainbow mixed potatoes
10 pound boxes of winter squash seconds
Winter squash website: http://whatscookingamerica.net/squash.htm
Winter schedule: Here is our schedule for the next couple of months.
Dec. 12, and 19: normal online orders and farm stand
Dec. 26: CLOSED
Winter 2010: online orders only, every other week.
(Winter delivery dates: Jan. 2, 16, 30. Feb. 13, 27. Mar. 13, 27)
CSA-Specific Information
Planned CSA produce for this week:
This week the plan is for parsnips, cabbage, onion, broccoli, baby potatoes, sweet potatoes, small acorn and delicata squashes, and Nittany apples.

Adams Morgan CSA volunteers: Thanks to Sangeeta & Gretchen for their help handing out orders last Saturday in the miserable weather. We really appreciated the help, especially last week.

Thanks for your support!
Randy, Chris and all at Star Hollow Farm
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Farm Message for Saturday, December 5, 2009

Star Hollow Farm News
For the week preceding Saturday, December 5, 2009
HAPPY DECEMBER!
Hi folks,
It's hard to believe we're into December already – just over three weeks until Christmas. Oh my... It certainly hasn't felt like December lately. While we have had some cold nights (25 degrees or so) there have been some beautiful warm days.
Hope you all had good Thanksgivings. Ours was quite enjoyable. We had about a dozen people here, both Chris and my mothers, Chris and my sisters and their husbands, all three of our children and my niece. Lots of eating, laughing, and “trivial” conversation (actually, we made the nice discovery that with such a wide-ranging group, one really good activity when everyone is just sitting around is passing around Trivial Pursuit question cards and seeing who can answer them. Much easier than fooling around with the whole board game, and everyone can answer something!) I had a nice break from market, and got some R & R time in – as well as plenty of non-farm work – like filling up the porch and carport with firewood for the winter. It was good. Now we're back.
How big is our farm? Anna was telling me how the kids at school (Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA) always ask her how big her farm is. She tells them 85 acres, and they're like “wow” but have no clue how big that is. So, for fun, I did some figuring. First of all, a square mile is 640 acres, so we're about 1/7th of that. (Right, like that really helps.) A football field is 1.32 acres, within the sidelines, so 64 football fields. Central Park in NY is 843 acres, so we're about 1/10th of that. The National Mall in DC is 146 acres, so we're slightly more than half of that. Golly, now you know.
This week's planned produce: New or back-on-the-list items are underlined.
Greens: arugula, beet greens, bok choi, cabbage, chard, dandelion, lettuce (bibb and red leaf), lettuce mix, kale (Lacinato and Russian Red), rapini, spinach, tat soi.
Veggies: broccoli, carrots (orange and maroon), Romanesco cauliflower, celeriac, daikon radish, garlic, leeks, onions, parsnips, potatoes (five or six kinds), red radishes, shallots, sweet potatoes, tomatoes (red & yellow), turnips (purple top, sweet white, scarlet), winter squash (acorn, butternut, delicata, Confection kabocha)
Herbs: cilantro, dill, parsley, rosemary, sweet marjoram, thyme
Mushrooms: crimini, portabella, shiitake, white
Tree fruit: bosc pears, apples (Fuji, Granny Smith, honey crisp, Pink Lady, Stayman).
Other items: the usual eggs, butter, cheeses and preserves. Back this week is maple syrup from Maryland, 1 lb. honey from PA.
On sale or reduced:
5 pound bags of rainbow mixed potatoes
10 pound boxes of winter squash seconds
Winter squash website: http://whatscookingamerica.net/squash.htm
Winter schedule: Here is our schedule for the next couple of months.
Dec. 5, 12, and 19: normal online orders and farm stand
Dec. 26: CLOSED
Winter 2010: online orders only, every other week.
(Winter delivery dates: Jan. 2, 16, 30. Feb. 13, 27. Mar. 13, 27)
CSA-Specific Information
Planned CSA produce for this week:
This week the plan is for broccoli, maroon carrots, red beets, German Butterball potatoes, sweet white turnips, an onion, a bibb lettuce, a red tomato, and 2 large jonagold apples. Enjoy!
Adams Morgan CSA volunteers: Thanks to Samir and Megan for their help handing out orders the last time. We appreciate the help.

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