Order Deadline: Wed. October 6th, midnight
Delivery: Tues. October 12
Nancy’s Note
We are so glad it rained the day before yesterday! It was not a lot but gentle and consistent showers trickled over the landscape. It was pouring one hour and then the sun would come out and then the clouds and fog rolled in covering the mountaintop. The reds of the sugar maples are so beautiful popping out of the foggy mists. There was even a sunny shower but no sign of a rainbow from our view. Things looked quite perked up as almost everything, shrubs, flowers, and roadside weeds were looking quite droopy lately. As the shorter days bring cooler nights, at least the heavy dews have been some help to the grasses, but still they are not growing enough. Today’s rain should help!
We are feeding precious winter hay already. Feeding four or five big round bales a day consumes your stores pretty quickly. We are predicting a hay shortage by spring for many animal farmers this year which will drive up the prices. The second cutting of hay, which is typically richer, thicker and less full of grass and weed blooms, was also affected by the drought and was not as heavy as expected. We have about 300 bales of baleage, 300 bales of dry hay and about 50 purchased bales, but with fall and winter feeding being close to 200 or more days ahead, that may not be enough. Alan is still buying hay to offset what we have.
Colin is busy working on the repairs for the tractors that are used for feeding. For a few days we had to use the backhoe to bring the bales out in the field. Two tractors are generally geared up with a big spear on loader arms in the front and two big forks in the back ground level like a giant forklift. They carry two bales at a time to the field and one sits in reserve in the case the main tractor has any problem working.
Sean has been busy weed whacking under all the fence lines to keep the electricity level up so the herd will not “bust out” for greener pastures on our neighbor Mary Bell’s lawn. Forty-three paddocks with permanent fence all around each one is a few miles of weed whacking. A few hours at a time helps keep your back from giving out but you sure have to keep at it.
Caroline, Doris, and I have been busy keeping the farmers market coolers full for the next market day. The outdoor markets here transition to the indoors in October and November and then there are only two markets per week instead of three. We are logging in and packing away our new inventory in the freezers, and other inventory from the far away farms and flour mills and other providers, keeping up with our inventory spreadsheets, and managing the website information for your orders, available inventory, payments received and CSA site information. Soon we will be preparing for the turkey orders and making sure that all of your sites have chosen the thanksgiving delivery day that we were reluctant to set up in June. Soon you will likely know when the last vegetable delivery will be and we’ll schedule our end of November trips as soon as we can. We hope you know we are here to answer your questions and concerns. Please let us know when blips happen in your order deliveries so we can address any problems.
One of these days we will be testing enough to be satisfied it works on the new platform and will move our website to a new host server. There will be a few hours some weekend when the website will not be available. We will let you all know when that is anticipated.
We hope you are all enjoying the colors of fall – they are pretty beautiful here lately and still plenty of color to come. Thanks to our gorgeous views from many spots on the tops of our hills, we can see lots of wonderful fall displays. Wish you were here!! Take care, Nancy and Alan (who is at the county today fighting for lowering the county budget and the tax increase they want!)
Product updates
We took a wonderful tour of the Sweet Spring Farm with Hilary and Richard from Riverdale last weekend when they were here visiting. Jeffrey took us through his milking parlor for 8 goats, his pasteurizing area required for making fresh cheese in NYS and his stone underground cheese cave for the aged cheeses he makes each winter. We had to peek through the windows into his “clean” cheese room in order to keep it spotless. His 30 Nubian goats are very sweet with their long ears and friendly nature. He does all of the work himself and makes his fresh cheese from April after kidding the newborn goats until October when the milk changes composition somewhat and he collects milk for the aged cheeses and dries off the milking does. Right now his cheese selection is limited to the 8 oz container style of fresh chevre and garlic & herb chevre until the end of the month. He’ll be back in full swing next April. So stick with us!
We at Lewis Waite Farm have new pork products on the website and 2 new items – pork soup bones with most of the meat removed and smoked pork picnic shoulder. Our new beef sausages are really good too – Breakfast links in lamb casings 8 per pack about 1 lb, chorizo, hot, sweet, and Andouille in hog casings 4 per pack about 1 lb. We will have bulk beef sausage next month for those of you who do not eat pork products. Yeah!
West River Creamery cheese offerings are a bit slimmer this month as Jane and Charles wait for the final aging days of their next batch. Raw milk cheeses can only be made if they are aged for 60 days minimum. The classic reserves are aged for over 1 year. These are coming again just be patient!
Hot Topics
The last of the public comment periods are coming soon to an end before the FDA determines if the GE (Genetically Engineered) Salmon will be allowed into the public food system. What was wrong with the salmon we already have? I thought it was delicious!
See more about it on Food and Water Watch at http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/ and take action with an email to your government representatives!
Also see The Center for Food Safety at http://ge-fish.org/2010/09/21/misguided-fda-opposition-to-labeling-could-leave-public-permanently-in-the-dark-about-ge-animals/
And there are plenty of other sites and organizations working to prevent this – let’s finally get going about all genetic modification.
Thought for the day
"If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse gift will find a fitting place."
—Margaret Mead
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." —Margaret Mead
best wishes,
Alan & Nancy Brown
135 Lewis Hill Lane
Town of Jackson
Greenwich, NY 12834
Lewis Waite Farm
Grass-Fed Grass-Finished Beef
Natural Pork
www.csalewiswaitefarm.com
www.lewiswaitefarm.com
518-692-3120 or 518-692-9208