Don’t forget, Order Deadline is Thursday, June 10th for the Tuesday, June 15th Delivery!
Farm Notes from Nancy
The finalized CSA schedule is finally done for all the groups! This always feels like a monumental task when we begin and once the routes are sketched out, it all falls into place. If you have not already received and email showing your schedule, be on the lookout for this today.
The Farmers markets we attend are in full spring/summer swing. On Wednesday afternoon and Saturday morning we load the van with coolers and head to Saratoga to see our local customers. This market runs all year round and has been great in getting the community involved; it is a busy market with lots of variety. On Sunday we head for Dorset VT; a lovely old architecture village just to our east over the first ridge of the Green Mountains. This market is held on a green and seems more like a festival and community meeting morning.
We are working hard on getting our own vegetable garden ready. The up and down of the temperatures this spring has caused a bit of havoc in the soil temperature and growing temperature of many of the early plants. We are replanting things like broccoli raab, kale, spinach, and lettuce since they did not grow well for us. We have made a few new pestos with unusual plants like mache and mint after seeing some new recipes in a gardening magazine. Green Goo - yum! The strawberries are beginning to ripen now that all those weeds have been pulled out to let in the sun and warmth.
We’ve been working on our long term fencing plans and have almost finished the new cow lane across the Lewis farm pasture that is one side of the new pig pasture six acre area. The pigs are due to have their first visit tomorrow after their lane is connected between the barn where they sleep at night and the pasture up on the hill. Their view will be awesome across the Hudson Valley to the west and they’ll see the outline of the peaks of the Adirondacks to the northwest. They’ll have lots of grass, lots of woods, and a year round spring for drinking and taking their mud baths. We’ll have the opening parade with treats in buckets to lure them up the hill. Hopefully this will cure the piggy who gets out every night and eats all the leftover dog food in the upstairs of the barn.
My 1955 John Deere 60 tractor is finally put back together after resting all winter with an engine oil leak. A bad $20 oil seal gasket caused a lot of trouble inside the engine. We use this tractor to pull hay wagons, rake and ted (fluff up for faster drying) the hay and York rake the gravel area we are smoothing as we fix the landscaping around our packing barn.
My last news for today is my new Mini Cooper!! I have wanted one for a long time since they started making them again years ago. This one is a 2002 cherry red with a big sunroof and a CD player! I now have a fancy car! I’m getting it registered this afternoon!!
Announcements
Eagle Bridge Custom Meats
We are proud to officially announce the our new USDA processor is Eagle Bridge Custom Meats in Cambridge, NY We have a full schedule with them this year and are able to offer new cuts and new recipes. They finished the design and building of their new facility last year and are now fully USDA certified for everything but Liverwurst making!! So you will see some new cuts, a new label, new cryovac wrapping, some cuts a slightly new technique (esp. pork cutlets). They are very willing to work with us to do as we and you request – so some of the items we have not been able to get in the past we may be able to ask for now.
All the sausage recipes will be a bit different and we will be able to offer beef sausage now. They have been very willing to work with us on replacing the sodium phosphate (a salt) ingredient in the first batch of pork hot dogs with organic cornstarch which was what we tried with the new beef hot dogs and next we are trying a carrot fiber with the next batch of pork hot dogs. Unfortunately, the cornstarch ingredient shown on the label does not say organic, but Debbie assures me that it is. Please let us know your feed back and we hope it all tastes great!
We are also announcing miniscule price increases for certain of our products. Many items are increasing .03 cents per pound, some are a bit more. This is the third year that we have been able to keep our prices fairly stable. Thanks for your support.
Issue of the month
Issues surrounding GMO seeds and foods are typically one of the passionate topics I rail against. As in India where farmers are straining against the forced use of these products, now Haiti is also attempting to fight back. Monsanto is now donating seeds to spread the use of their altered seeds. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/06/03-9
But these GMO topics are now being dwarfed by the enormity of the problem of the BP/Halliburton/Deepwater Horizon oil spill which is a disaster of still to come proportions. We are all crying for the Gulf. We are all outraged at the corporations, their administrations and their abysmal lack of a disaster recovery plan. We are hoping and praying for a miracle to stop the flow, as the Gulf is already irreparably damaged.
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
518-692-3120 or 518-692-9208