Farm Message for Saturday, January 2, 2010

Star Hollow Farm News
For the week preceding Saturday, January 2, 2010
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
NOTE: If you are a person that doesn't usually read the message below, beware that there have been some changes for this winter.
(It would be a good week to take a glance!)
Hi folks,
The next time we see you it will be 2010. That makes me think of all the hoopla that went with the arrival of 2000 – now ancient history. And it led to a discussion at the dinner table if this January 1st marks the start of a new decade or not, and if not – which seems like one of the possibilities – how confusing that is. Do you know the answer?
We hope you all had good holidays – or will have – I guess they're not over yet. This is the first year we've done the online market during this week between Christmas and New Years, so we're a bit out of sorts ourselves with trying to get back on a work schedule after Christmas. We scheduled our winer markets this way as we're going to the “every other week” plan this winter, and didn't want to miss two weeks in a row over the holidays.
We had a very nice Christmas break, much needed after the stress of the last December market during your “Blizzard of '09.” That was a market to remember for me. And I see our weather forecast is for 60% chance of snow and below freezing temperatures on Friday, New Years' Day, which makes me wonder how I'll fare getting out of the farm lane and up the hill early Saturday morning. And DC is not supposed to get above freezing on Saturday. Oh boy!!!!!!!!! (subtext to previous paragraph: “Why most farmers don't market during the winter in the North.”)
Winter changes:
Winter 2010 schedule: every other week. Delivery dates will be: Jan. 2, 16, 30. Feb. 13, 27. Mar. 13, 27. Your orders are placed on the Wednesdays prior to delivery. Mark your calendars, and remember to order for two weeks instead of just one! And note that during those winter months, the Adams Morgan order pick-up hours are changed to 10 AM until 1 PM. Early-birds take note!
Adams Morgan Winter “walk-up” shopper changes: Our primary winter business is delivering online orders. There will be a much more limited array of “off-the-table” items this winter.
Our organic status: There is a more full discussion of this in its own section, but in a nutshell – we're not renewing our own certification for 2010. However, our certifier says that we can still sell our storage crops from 2009 as certified organic until Feb. 15.
Our organic status: It's taking me far longer than usual to get the store open this morning (out of practice and many changes) and now I realize there's not time for a full discussion of this important topic, which I will work up for next time. In the meantime, here's a summary:
We are dropping our organic certification in 2010 after 18 years as a certified organic farm. Reasons are several, including cost and paperwork hassles of doing so, widespread misconceptions of what organic really is, misuse of the label by farms that really aren't, and the confidence that we can talk with you, tell you how we farm and why, and answer any questions you may have. Our commitments to sustainable farming and responsible land use and the environment and food safety have not changed. Our certifier has said we can still sell our stored 2009 produce as organic until Feb. 15.
New shoppers in the online store: Welcome to those of you who are here for the first time, or back for the first time since last winter! Remember that the maroon dialogue boxes are there in response to many folks' questions about something in that part of the store. And feel free to email if something still doesn't make sense. One less obvious thing that happens is people inadvertently place multiple orders by clicking “submit” more than once, or they forget to order something the first time around, so they come back later and add more in a separate order. Please don't do that... it makes it very confusing on this end to have multiple orders for the same person. Thanks.
Where and how should I store my produce? This is the title of a project that we plan to work on soon, but have not got around to yet. Look for it soon.
This week's planned produce: As a result of allowing many of you to cancel orders two weeks ago, due to the storm, we still have some produce items that we appeared to have been sold out of for the winter, principally winter squash. New or back-on-the-list items are underlined. Remember that just because you received an order confirmation it isn't a 100% guarantee that we'll have every item you order. Some of our greenhouse lettuce hasn't been picked yet, and it's 12 degrees outside right now. If the pilot light on the heater goes out – which could happen with the monstrous winds we've had here – it would be “bye-bye” lettuce. My point? Sometimes shortages happen!
Greens: arugula, cabbage, chard, lettuce (bibb, green leaf and baby red bibb), lettuce mix, spinach. (Large bunched greens are done for the year.)
Veggies: beets, broccoli, carrots (orange, mixed and juice), celeriac, daikon, garlic, small leeks, onions, parsnips, cayenne peppers (dried),potatoes (five or six kinds), watermelon radishes, rutabagas, salsify (oyster root), shallots, sweet potatoes, tomatoes (red & yellow), turnips (purple top, sweet white, gold), winter squash (buttercup, butternut, delicata, Gray and Green kabocha)
Herbs: cilantro, parsley, thyme
Mushrooms: crimini, Oyster, portabella, shiitake
Apples: Fuji, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Jonagold, Nittany, Pink Lady, Stayman.
Other items: the usual eggs, butter, cheeses and preserves. Back this week are plum, strawberry and grape jams/jellies. Also we are also offering our frozen stewing hens, for your stews, stock or pets.
On sale or reduced:
beets, cabbage, juice carrots, sweet potatoes, turnips
hothouse tomatoes
most of our potatoes
winter squash seconds
Portabella mushrooms
Potato situation: Those of you who read this message regularly will remember what a challenging year we had with our potato production during the summer, particularly with the late blight that decimated tomatoes and potatoes throughout the Eastern US. We had planted the most potatoes ever, and in the end did pretty well with production. The harvest was a record for us. And since then, sales for potatoes have been down significantly, both at market, online, and wholesale. So we're sitting on top of a pile of potatoes and we've reduced our number of winter sales opportunities by half by switching to every other week. We are limited in offerings from time to time due to the weather – we store our potatoes unwashed and unsorted as they last longer that way – but then we can't always wash up potatoes when we need a particular kind. It's been below freezing for all but one or two days of the last two weeks, and I can't wash potatoes outside in below freezing weather. But we have decided to reduce our potato price for the rest of the winter, with the hopes that you will buy more that way. If you still just buy the same amount, we'll have hurt ourselves even more by lowering the price and still not moving more potatoes.
Winter squash website: http://whatscookingamerica.net/squash.htm

CSA-Specific Information
Planned CSA produce for this week:
This week: bibb lettuce, broccoli florets, mixed carrots, onions (2#), parsnips, purple potatoes, baby potatoes, Confection kabocha (2 #), mixed apples (3-5).
CSA Harvest box size: You will notice that we have increased the contents level and value of the box, due to the fact that this is now a “two week box” instead of just one. And you know you can still add to that “a la carte” or skip it and shop entirely a la carte if you wish. Your choice.
Thanks for your support!
Randy, Chris and all at Star Hollow Farm
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