STAR HOLLOW FARM NEWS
For the week preceding Saturday, June 27th, 2009
General news & info
Happy official summer!
Produce: new or back in the store this week are...
ON SALE: microgreens (probably the last for the summer), red tomatoes, garlic scapes, Jerusalem artichokes (end), golden delicious apples (end), all relishes, and our Star Hollow Farm eggs.
Greens: Asian greens mix, green curly kale, hydroponic arugula (this week in smaller portions for less $).
Other vegetables: Romano Italian flat-pod beans, already-shelled peas (one of the Mennonite farms we get produce from has a sheller), quarts of new red potatoes, cousa Lebanese zucchini.
Cheese: We have Pipe Dream's ash logs and demi-sec again, probably just for this one week.
Preserves: Mrs. Brechbill (the retired mother of our cheese makers at Whispering Brook) has been at it already this year, and has a fresh supply of strawberry / rhubarb jam.
On the farm: After all that rain, we are pretty doggone wet up here. There was about 2 inches in the gauge Saturday night. The kids and I spent Sunday — Fathers Day and the first day of summer — cleaning up around our pond, and we all spent a beautiful evening at the campfire ring up there, watching the stars come out and listening to the bullfrogs. A perfect Summer Solstice and day with the family.
Our fields are still quite wet, but the boys and I got another thousand winter squash planted last night after dinner — this time the Confection kabocha that we experimented with and liked so much last year. Today will be the Sunshine red kabocha and dark green kabocha. Aside from the ease, multipurposeness and goodness of butternut squash, I guess kabochas are our favorites. Hope you like them too! They are dry and flaky in texture, and about the sweetest of all winter squashes.
Last week's rainy market: That was really something — one of our rainiest markets ever. The thunder and lightning added a nice touch to the outdoor market. We all got pretty well soaked, but amazingly our outdoor sales were pretty good... people kept coming in spite of the rain. That doesn't usually happen, and it made up for my missing store link in the email reminder last week.
Open-farm invitation:
We are pleased to invite you to our "open farm" (as opposed to open house!). Please see some of the details below.
WHAT: Star Hollow Farm Fourth of July get-together. We invite you to join us to see the farm, our crops, our chickens, meet and get to know us and the others who come. We have 2 other get-togethers scheduled for the first weekends in August and September.
WHERE: Our farm, in Huntingdon Co., PA, approximately a 3-hour drive north of DC.
WHEN: Over a 24 hour period from Saturday afternoon, July 4, until Sunday afternoon, July 5. (The times correspond to about when Randy will get home from market on Saturday and run 24 hours. By Sunday afternoon we'll need to be cleaning up and getting ready for Monday!)
TRANSPORTATION: There is no public transportation option for getting anywhere near us, unfortunately, so I think we're limited to your private vehicles. It's about 125 miles on the road from DC (100 miles as the crow flies, but that doesn't help most of us) and a three hour trip, at legal speeds. For those of you with seats to spare, and who are willing to provide a ride to those without wheels, please email us ASAP and give us your name, tel. number, and number of seats available. We'll then make up a list and have it at the CSA table/truck in Adams Morgan the next two Saturdays for those needing rides to peruse and make calls.
DIRECTIONS: Email us for directions. Print them out and bring them with you. Beware that they need to be followed closely or you'll end up somewhere else. Finding specific locations in the country, where road signs are often missing, is not nearly as easy as deducing an address in neatly-planned DC. GPS directions will try to take you across a creek at a fording that can be dangerous in high water. And the directions from MapQuest are clearly wrong in several ways and would not likely get you to us. If you just want to look at a map and get an idea where we are, look for either Maddensville or Selea, in Huntingdon Co., PA. Each are within 2 miles of us.
CARAVAN SUGGESTION: If you want to do it on your own, that's fine. If you like the idea of just following our white truck up the highway, here's what to do: either drive up and meet us at 18th and Columbia in Adams Morgan at 1:30, when we're loaded up from market, and we can caravan up from there. If you want to avoid that scene, meet us at the "always closed on Saturdays" truck weigh station on I-270 north of Gaithersburg, on the way to Frederick, at something like 2:00-2:15.
FOOD & BEVERAGES: We are planning on providing beer, iced tea, apple cider, coffee, hot tea, and well-water for all. If you need something else, please bring it. We have a large walk-in produce cooler where you could keep your own food and drink.
Saturday supper: This is a potluck affair, but based on the distance involved, we're thinking "cold dish" or at least easily heated up. We'll provide marshmallows and sticks for an after-dark campfire. We'll also have Firehook bread, and if we can get our old charcoal grill cleaned up, some grilled veggies.
Sunday breakfast: We'll make coffee and tea, and fry up scrambled eggs and potatoes, as well as provide homemade muffins. If you need something else, please bring it.
Sunday lunch: Light fare of fruit, salads, drinks and leftovers.
CLOTHING: Our farm is out in the wilderness; not much like what you'd picture if you're thinking Montgomery Co., MD, or Lancaster, PA. We have mown paths along the creek and around fields, but they are not golf course or state park quality. If you plan on leaving the front lawn, you should be prepared with long pants, socks and shoes. We are not short on poison ivy wherever we don't mow regularly. We've also got several varieties of snakes that call our farm home, as well as plenty of mosquitoes and ticks. We have a nice creek below the fields, with a good spot to sit and cool off, so if you want to bring trunks or cut-offs, feel free. And evenings can be cool.
What if you forget to come for your order? The standard protocol is that we'll bring it home, put it in our cooler, email you and ask if you'd like us to bring it the following Saturday. In the winter everything is still usually fine. At this time of the year, that will not be the case, but you'll surely still find something useful in there. If we bring it a second time and you don't come that time either (which happens more than I would have guessed) we're done. FYI, it is deducted from your account the week you place the order.
Star Hollow CSA blog: http://starhollowfarmcsa.blogspot.com/ will connect you with our farm blog, where you can share recipes or other ideas related to food and the farm. Email Michele (smcasto@gmail.com) if you want to become a “contributor.” You don't have to email her if you just want to look at what others are saying and respond.
CSA-Specific News
Planned CSA produce for this week:
This week the plan is for a pint of cherries, a Euro cucumber (greenhouse, seedless, non-bitter), baby red beets with tops, snap peas, garlic scapes, a red tomato, and a bunch of herbs from our garden (most likely to be French sorrel or summer savory, but may include something else if we don't have enough of either of those for all the CSA boxes). Enjoy!
Adams Morgan CSA volunteers. Thanks to Jen and her mom and Kirsten and Susanne and the children for their help handing out orders last weekend.
Thanks for your support!
Randy, Chris and all at Star Hollow Farm
This 5 ingredient dinner (6 if you count the garnish) was made entirely with CSA ingredients (except for salt and olive oil). This recipe is from my host mother when I lived in Madrid years ago.
