Farm Message for Saturday, April 10, 2010

Star Hollow Farm News

For the week preceding Saturday, April 10, 2010

Hi folks,

What beautiful weather we've been having! It makes working outside a pleasure. We're working hard to get up to speed here after a pretty tough winter. I spent about 4 hours this afternoon grading our ¾ mile dirt road in from the mailbox, which had become seriously pot-holed and washed out in a few places from the last flood. Having a smoother road also means your orders won't bounce around so much in the back of the truck Saturday morning!

Schedule: We're in our main season now. You can pick up your orders between 9 AM and 1 PM.

Missed orders: We had had a run of lots of missed orders at the end of March. Please note that if you don't come for your box, you can still get it the following week, but it is not automatic! It would be nice if you contacted us and indicated what you want us to do with your order. Else we have to contact you. In the latter case, we need to hear back from you; we don't just bring it back the next week.

Produce in general: As we noted last week, we are right at the end of the winter storage crop season. We have sorted as well as we can, but still ask you to be a little more lenient than usual, as the produce is just not that perfect anymore!

Apples are just about done, but we did sort one last time and came up with a pretty good selection. Several points of interest regarding apples at this time of year. First, the Traceys were telling me several weeks ago that apple trees tend to have a bi-annual (every other year) fluctuation between heavier fruit set and lighter. Last year (2009) was the smaller year, thus apples are winding up earlier than the year before. Another thing about apples at this time of the year had to do with Granny Smiths, in particular. Somebody pointed out that they had apparently been waxed. I asked the Traceys about that, as they have always told me they don't wax their apples. They said that this late in the season, Granny Smiths do seem to “exude” whatever natural waxiness they have, and get practically sticky. It's nothing that the growers have done. Just the apples themselves!

The list: (New or Back on the list items in red.)

*

Greens: arugula, Asian greens mix, beet greens, stir fry mix, cabbage, chard, dandelion, salad mix, microgreens, lettuce (bibb, red leaf, Romaine), pea shoots, spinach.
*

Veggies: beets (red and specialty), mixed carrots, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, onions, parsnips, dried cayenne peppers, potatoes, oyster root, scallions, Yellow shallots, turnips, butternut squash.
*

Herbs: basil, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, sorrel, spearmint, tarragon, thyme.
*

Mushrooms: crimini, oyster, portabella, shiitake, white.
*

Apples: Fuji, Golden, Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Red Delicious.
*

Other items: eggs, butter, cheeses and preserves. Ash and demi-sec goat cheeses are back!
*

On Sale: Canned cherries-$5.00



CSA-Specific Information

CSA volunteer sign-ups beginning: We will have a calendar at the truck from now on for folks to sign up for a two hour shift handing out CSA boxes at the truck. Please consider it if you haven't signed up already.

Planned CSA produce for this week:

This week: two heads of lettuce, mixed carrots and potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, onions, parsley, fuji apples.


Thanks for your support!

Randy, Chris and all at Star Hollow Farm

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬