CSA, Weekly Farm News

Weekly news from the farm!!!

Posted on by mhoadmin
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Greetings Everyone,

What a sense of relief for our body and soul to have Fall finally appear and while it continues to be extremely dry, we are definitely enjoying working outdoors in this wonderful weather.  Many of you have been curious as to how long we’ll be offering CSA shares, and we’ve also been curious about that, mostly because with farming there are so many unknowns and we have been concerned about the groundhog wiping out all our Fall crops.  Fortunately, we have a good bit of storage crops as well as fresh leafy greens, so we’re hoping to offer shares for the Thanksgiving holiday season.  PLEASE PROVIDE US FEEDBACK via email as to whether this proposed schedule works with your holiday season and which weeks you won’t be able to order.  That’ll help with our planning, because if not many of you will be ordering, we might just have an extended vacation.

– We’re harvesting and delivering this week for October 16th
– We’re also delivering for the week of October 23rd
– Our next delivery is planned for November 13th, after a 2 week vacation from harvesting shares. Last year we took a vacation at this time and it was super nice because we were able to explore these beautiful mountains and admire the fall foliage.
–  We’d like to deliver November 20th, which is the week prior to Thanksgiving
–  We’d like to <deliver November 26th, which is the TUESDAY prior to Thanksgiving because we thought it would be too hectic for folks to pickup the day before Thanksgiving.  

Your Farmers (and cleaning staff), Carl and Julie

NOTE: Your’re receiving this eNewsletter because you’ve either been a subscriber to MHO in the past OR if you’ve registered for our newsletters from our website.  Feel free to unsubscribe if you no longer wish to receive this eNewsletter!

CSA Shareholders: You can access our online store using this link, if using a desktop you will log in by clicking the icon of the person in the top right hand side of the web page, if you are using a phone click on the menu icon and choose the login option. All orders need to be placed by Tuesday at 8 AM so that we will know what to harvest for your share! Please return your boxes because we re-use them.  Orders will be ready each Wednesday after 8 AM. 
What is new and abundant this week!
Red Cabbage is back in the online store!!! We love this cabbage because not only is it beautiful, we love its peppery flavor and tend to finely chop it for taco toppings, to toss in our salads, but love it in a cabbage slaw for added color and flavor. It has 10 times more vitamin A and twice as much iron as green cabbage. Where does the purple color come from in this cabbage? It comes from a class of pigment molecules called anthocyanin, which are also found in flower petals, autumn leaves and some fruits such as blueberries. Anthocyanins are plant pigments known as flavenoids and produce red, pink, violet and magenta colors in the various plant parts. Traditionally, red cabbage is often used raw for salads and coleslaw. This vegetable is extremely versatile and can be eaten raw or cooked. It is the traditional accompanying side dish paired with many German meals, notably Sauerbraten. One of our favorite recipes is this Pennsylvania Red Cabbage! Either by itself, or combined with the green cabbage, it is delicious fermented for sauerkraut. Red cabbage pairs well with turnips and/or daikon radishes in this recipe. For us, we periodically enjoy this veggie in a stir-fry. We tend to make a lot of slaw salads on the farm, while we mostly use a vinaigrette slaw salad, this ginger peanut slaw is nice every once in a while.
Cauliflower is available this week!!!  It always surprises us what we’re able to harvest with all the critters sharing the bounty with us, and it certainly shocked us that the groundhog didn’t eat this crop. While there might be some bad spots from the imported cabbage worms munching on the crop, we’ll be sure to provide extra weight should you have to cut any spots out.  We’ll try to provide a mixture of the colors, but we mostly have white cauliflower because we plant more of that crop.
A new succession of Hakurei Turnips and Arugula are maturing!!!  The summer heat that lingered on into fall seemed to take a toll on the last crop of turnips, arugula and braising greens, but thankfully we seeded another succession and so far this succession is beautiful and flavorful.  If our region continues to be blessed with Falls appearance, then we just might be able to harvest off this crop for the next few weeks.
This Weeks Farmer’s Choice Shares

Do any of you eat breakfast bowls first thing in the morning?  If so, tells us what you like to put in your breakfast bowl!!! Above we are enjoying roasted butternut squash and onions topped with an egg from the McVeys hens!!!

This week’s Farmer’s Choice Share includes: (share contents are subject to change based on our actual harvest.) We’re offering both a Farmer’s Choice Veggie and Farmers’ Choice Veggie & Meat Share.  Items common in both shares are listed first, followed by items specific to the veggie share the finally the veggie/meat share. The Farmer’s Choice Veggie & Meat share normally has smaller portions of vegetables. ) The following are included only in the veggie share: The following are included only in the meat share
What’s Happening on the Farm
Thankfully Argus hasn’t been wandering away from the farm, but he also hasn’t been visiting guests like he used to do, that is until we had Amanda and Rachael stay with us.  He instantly bonded with them upon their arrival, then he followed them up to the Thistile and spent each evening with them during their stay.  We thought they cured him of his PTSD, but since their visit, he hasn’t followed another guest up to the site.
As you can see, Argus is very content sleeping on the deck at the Thistle during Amanda and Rachael’s visit.  We certainly hope he will venture up with other guests.
We’ve poured a small concrete slab that will contain the propane tank, so next on the project plan is to have Marsh Propane move the tank pictured behind the slab, after which we’ll be able to pour a large slab for the Pizza Farm bathroom and laundry area.
We feel fortunate to have had an old friend visit us who we worked with while we were computer engineers.  He is one of those people who when one hasn’t seen them in along time, but he is instantly easy to talk to and feel at ease with.  Ya’ll know what kind of friend I’m talking about.  We must say, we are envious that he didn’t quit his day job and isn’t struggling financially like us, so he is able to take time off and explore the beautiful mountains throughout the US with his backpack.  In fact, since he works from home, he is in the process of converting a van into a “tiny tiny house”, so he can travel around while working.  Had we worked at a real job, rather than choose to become farmers, we can imagine having the luxury of doing this.  Anyway, we had a great visit with Dale and we dearly love this man!!! 
mhoadmin

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