Yesterday we got the first remotely substantial rainfall since early June, all 1/10th of an inch of it.  While the rain cooled things off it  and washed the dust away, it did little to water crops. We connected to municipal water last week and now have drip irrigation lines run in sections all over the farm.  Many of our direct seeded fall crops have been reseeded with water on them and we watched the thirsty soil drink it up.  We have been amazed at how well things were growing with so little water, so now that we have it, we expect some many more months of beautiful yields. So many of our neighbors are hauling water to fill wells, and many other farmers we know are running dry without access to alternatives. While we have a sound, reliable supply of water, we still hope for a good rain for all our fellow farmers in this drought. 

   The summer season is full swing with so many crops coming in we had a hard time deciding which to pick for shares this week, and decided not to buy in blueberries from Grindstone. (Grindstone's blueberry u-pick is open for the season, mon-fri. Please call 315-298-4139 for details)  We are taking a break on some of the greens and started picking peppers and sweet onions this week. The cherry tomatoes are starting to come on, so the heirloom slicers and paste tomatoes are about 1-2 weeks away. We are swimming in pickling cucumbers and will start offering them by the 1/2 bushel on our online store, so look for them later this week to add to your CSA delivery next week if you'd like some for your own home preserving. 


This week's shares are as follows:

Small: 0.5 Beans (lb)
1 Dandelion Greens (bunch)
1 Garlic (each)
1 Lettuce (head)
1 Onions (Sweet)
1 Pickles (lb)
1 broccoli (bunch)
1 Parsley (bunch)
1 radishes (lb)
1 lb summer squash

Regular: 1 Beets (bunch)
1 (herb) Oregano (bunch)
0.5 Beans (lb)
1 Dandelion Greens (bunch)
1 Cucumbers (lb)
1 Fennel (each)
1 Garlic (each)
1 Lettuce (head)
1 Onions (Sweet)
2 Pickles (lb)
0.25 Peppers (sweet) (lb)
1 radishes (lb)
1 lb summer squash

   Many people have asked if you have to make pickles with the pickling cucumbers, and the answer is no, you can just eat them like any other cucumber. But if you want to make pickles, but don't have the time or know how to can them, you can always make quick refrigerator pickles. Here's a link to a good article for all sorts of quick pickles, from cucumbers to daikon radishes to onions. 

  Other have said they just don't know what to do with that fennel. Here's a recipe for one of our family's favorite ways of preparing it with beets, and the leaves can be used to season sauces, fish  and poultry.
   
   Dandelions greens are usually feared or praised for their bitterness. Did you know the more bitter a  green is generally the healthier it is for you? Convince your taste buds with a sauteed dandelion dish using a bit of fresh oregano and garlic.

We hope everyone enjoys their share this week, and don't forget to share your favorite recipes!

 

 
Another week of "massive storms" all of which missed us altogether, but still put on a good show of lightening, thunder, high winds, and dark broody clouds. We spent a bulk of time in last weeks' sweltering heat lifting our garlic. Luckily with our clayey soils dried they came up without much fuss or even the use of the pitchfork. They aren't as big as last year's fist size garlic, but still beautiful full sized heads, now drying in the greenhouses. 

So many people repeatedly ask me how we're dealing with the drought. In part it's been the wonder of nature- our soils with high clay content and high organic matter  are holding moisture, whether from the last pathetic drizzle, or the morning dew. We haven't be able to irrigate a bulk of our plantings, yet they are thriving and producing. We did invest quite a bit of money into irrigation supplies last week, and will be getting drip tape run and digging lines to hook up to municipal water. Watch, we do that and it rains. After digging the trenches to shed water this spring, I figured Karma would throw at us a dry season, and it did. But all is well, we will be able to shed water in times of rain and heavy snow melt, and now irrigate in time of dryness.  Every season since we started in 2014, I've said of the weather "if we can make it work in this we can make it work in anything" and we have. And we will.  We are officially in a declared state of moderate drought along with much of the wine country in the finger lakes region. 

Don't forget that we have added several items to our online store to be added to your weekly CSA shares. A wise farmer once said that instead of trying to add new customers, one should offer their existing customers more options. That is something we have taken to heart, and what better way of doing so than working with our neighbors and friends of the farm to offer more locally produced incredible edibles to their tables? Working smarter not harder sometimes means working with others, and helping each other grow. 

This week's CSA shares:

Small:  Lettuce, swiss chard, fennel, pickling cucumbers, summer squash and 1/2 pint of Grindstone blueberries

Regular: Lettuce, kale (dino or red russian) pickling cucumbers, mustard greens, peas, green beans, 1 pint of Grindstone blueberries and summer squash.

Summer Squash is term that all summer squash falls under- zucchini, patty pan (or scallop squash) yellow squash etc. When we pick, we try to rotate a variety of squashes into your shares. All of these squashes are interchangeable in recipes, and generally have the same flavor and texture (just not color or shape.)  We grilled some tossed in pesto on the grill the other night until just tender, added a bit of Parmesan cheese and served over some pasta. Simple and didn't heat the house up using the oven.

A friend of mine who teaches cooking classes in Connecticut shared this recipe idea shared this recipe which i'd like to try using the greens, which I would like to try. Crustless Greek Pie. The recipe calls for swiss chard, but kale can be used instead. 

CSA members (or market customers too) as encouraged to share recipes here in the comments section or on our facebook page, Also share pictures of your shares. If you love your CSA, let everyone know!  We will be running a promotion from July until September. Share a recipe or a picture celebrating you CSA on our facebook page and we will pick one member each month to receive a $5 credit towards products on our online store, or farmer's market booths. 

(By the way, the newest fad- Pokemon Go -there is a Poke-stop across the street from the farm at McClelland Cemetery, (named after the man who built our farm) and also Middle age Brewery is Poke Gym.  We will be getting a small farm stand set up here now that we are getting into more crops that can sit out, so stop and support your local farms as you adventure in the virtual world.)

    For all the rain forecasted and the massive storms that hit the NE this past weekend we saw less than a 1/4 inch of rain here at the farm. We actually had to haul water in to top off the wells so we could irrigate and wash veggies, and ourselves; cook dinner wash dishes, laundry  etc.  An unexpected but necessary cost of production. We do count our blessings that we have neighbors willing to share and help out with 1000 gallon cisterns and that we live in such a water rich area that we can do this when the need arises. While the rain may not fall where we want it, we are surrounded by a goldmine of water resources here in CNY. We invested in a backhoe this spring to terraform and dig trenches after the last two years here on our property, knowing that the heavy clay soils hold water, making it difficult to till in the spring, and plant. Now we may be using it to dig an irrigation pond! As frustrating as it may seem, that is one of the best parts about what we do; HAVING to be so in tune with the land we work to be prepared for anything mother nature throws at us. And we thank all our CSA members on joining us for that adventure!

   While it may not have seemed much to us, the little rain was the world to many of our crops who really started coming on this week. So, moving on from greens to more summer produce.

Small shares: 2 lettuce, 1 head fresh garlic, summer squash (yellow crookneck, koosa, or zucchini) kale, snow peas and genovese basil

Regular shares: 2 lettcue, 1 head fresh garlic, summer squash (yellow crookneck, koosa, or zucchini) kale, snow peas, genovese basil, pickling cucumbers ( & broccoli for all regular shares who did not get it last week) and fennel 


Fennel may be a new veggie to many of you. It has a distinct licorice/ anise  flavor that sweetens when it's cooked. It is in the same family as carrots and parsley, and has been a staple of Mediterranean cuisine for centuries. It compliments fish and other seafood well, but we prefer it roasted with copiuos amounts of garlic in our house (as roasting brings out it's sweetness.) A good source of vit C, potassium and folate, we hope you find a great way to enjoy this seasonal veggie. Here is a link to a recipe for the fennel and peas, but we hope you have fun and find some more recipe ideas, as this is the first but not the last of the fennel bulbs for the season.

We know some of you may be "kaled out" as it has been in shares every week. Some of you may be thinking "keep it coming, I love it!". Kale is a great crop as it just keeps growing- where other crops need to be reseeded or seeded once hoping for the best weather conditions so long as we can keep the deer and the bugs out, it thrives no matter what. Last year however, the deer and the woodchucks kept our kale minimal and sparse. We are excited at how well the kale is doing this season with bunches the size of the totes. If you are kaled out, why not try some kale bail pesto, and freeze it for later use? It might  seem like a lot now, but come the dead of a CNY winter, you might be thanking your lucky stars for that jar in the fridge and that fresh taste of summer as the snow flies! Pestos are great served over pasta, or lightly grilled summer squash, or even raw and cold over some "zoodles" on a hot day. 

Speaking of the freshness of summer preserved, we are happy to announce that we have finally added some products to our website for CSA members to add on to their CSA shares.  So far we've added some of BackDrop Organics coffees, The little Tea Cart's teas, and Lake Bluff Bee Farm's 1lb jars of spring honey. Next up will be Flying Oppossume Farm's free ranged non gmo fed whole chickens, and Summertime Natural Food's frozen pestos. You can get to the online store by signing into your account and on the left will be a shop option, where you will find the products and prices. As we get picking there will be more options in the produce section, in the way of beans, tomatoes, garlic and pickling cucumbers for you own preserving. We will update in the newsletter as these items become available, and offer to our CSA members first.

We hope everyone enjoys this week's shares with some new items and can beat the heat over the next few days. A rain dance is still requested for our neck of the woods too, so dance your crazy hearts out to the rain gods!

  

      We hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend. Our 4th included harvesting, weeding, and emptying both of our wells irrigating. (We did get some family fun and fireworks mixed in, so it wasn't all work.) This season has brought most of the state of NY to a rating of abnormally dry to moderate drought according to the weather man, but we don't need the weather man to know how dry it has been. I don't recall such a dry hot  summer since 2012.  But looking at all the flooding that's been going on all over the country so far this summer, we count our blessings. And we've been lucky to have gotten some of the little rain that's passed over some of our other fellow farmers. We also have some really good soils with lots of organic matter and high clay content that has held that little bit of moisture. The good part about all this dryness is good for really killing the weeds, compared to last year when it seemed like it rained almost every day of June, making weeding a futile endeavor. And the heat is favoring the sweet potatoes, tomatoes and peppers. There is rain in the forecast for Thursday, so we ask that everyone do a little rain dance for us this week!

   Last week we welcomed a new farm hand to the farm. His name is Rich is and he is a farmer from Florida, who owns Earthperks Farm, a small organic  farm in Southern Florida. We are excited to exchange knowledge and share the workload with him while he's here over the next few weeks in his down season. He even brought us some eggplant, while our's here is just beginning to blossom. 


   Many crops are loving this heat,  such as the melons, cucumbers, and tomatoes; they are wanting for more water, but otherwise putting their roots nice and deep sucking up nutrients and moisture. Other crops such as lettuce wants to bolt (flower) in this heat, so everyone will be getting two heads in this week's shares.  We started harvesting summer squash and broccoli this week, and while there won't enough for everyone this week, it looks like there will for next week.  

  We will be adding extras to the website this week for folks to place orders by Thursday, for the coffee from Backdrop Organics, organic teas from the Little Tea Cart, and pastured whole chickens from Flying Opossumme Farm. It doesn't take much more than finding the time in the office over the fields to get to, and I will be making time so that you all have the chance to try some of these great products from local producers. 

This week's shares are as follows:

Small Shares: 2 lettuces, Kale, garlic scapes, radishes
Regular Shares: 2 lettuce, garlic scapes, radishes, dandelion greens, swiss chard, and broccoli or summer squash