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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