Mulberry Creek Farm CSA

Hello Friends!

Can you believe this is the last pick-up week in July? I can't! It's hard to believe school will start in just a few weeks.

I have just finished going through all the order forms, deposits, and other farm records to see where we stand. If I show a balance due, you should have received an e-mail from me. Additionally, if I discovered that there's a discrepancy somewhere I also sent an e-mail. So if you're not sure whether you're paid up and *didn't* get a note from me, go ahead and e-mail me. Also, if you think you should be getting something that you're not (notably chicken) and didn't get a note, let me know that, too.

Remember, the final installment due date is August 15th. You can add chicken, eggs, jelly/jam, or honey to your order any time, just let us know. Please try to let me know by noon the day of your pick-up. If you can't or forget, call before 4 and we'll try to have it there for you.

August chickens: Around Fair time it's always hard to get into the processor and the only time Glenn could get our birds scheduled was Friday the 13th. That means that if you want your chicken fresh, you'll need to let us know. We'll place all the birds in the freezer as soon as they come from the processor unless you arrange ahead of time to pick up on Saturday or Sunday.

We're in the mid-summer "slump" meaning that some crops, like corn and beans, are winding down until the next planting comes on, while others, like tomatoes and peppers, are winding up.

This week's garden share contents (subject to change, of course):

* green beans - they're winding down so they won't be as plentiful this week. They should set on again but, from the farmer's mouth, "it's hard to say".

* sweet corn - at some point in the next month, there will be a week or two without corn but then it will return, hopefully until the end of the season.

* summer squash / zucchini - it's starting to wind down for now (do I hear cheers from some of you?) but expect more later in the season

* cabbage

* tomatoes

* peppers

* herbs  - basil and parsley. By the way, those of you with herb beds of your own who have herbs to spare, let us know! I'm sure your partner shareholders would enjoy a sampling. So you know, we have 27 half shares each week.

* garlic - as before, if you don't use your garlic right away, be sure to let it dry in a fairly dark and coolish place where it can get plenty of air.

* Swiss chard (maybe)

* broccoli (maybe)

* blackberries for those who have not yet received them - then we'll start the cycle over again and go until they're done. And don't try giving me that old "we haven't got ours yet" because I'm keeping track. By the way, we're giving you about 2 cups which is enough to make a Crazy Crust Cobbler on the recipe page! It goes great with ice cream. And we've also heard from several of you that you've enjoyed them on cereal, with milk, in a salad, or just plain.

As the weather cools, we expect to be able to return to some of those cooler weather crops along with the late summer crops that are coming on now. If only we had a little rain ...

Thanks for supporting your local sustainable farms!

Gail

Mulberry Creek Farm NewsBlog

published occasionally at the whim of the editor

Volume 2: Issue 5 – 7/20/10

In this issue:

Introduction

Garden News: This week’s shares

Poultry Products

Hog Hearsay

Jams, Jellies and Honey

Miscellany: Our move

Recipe of the Month: Zucchini

Question of the Month: Do I need to refrigerate my eggs?

It really is hard to believe July is over half done and we’re shopping for school supplies! But here we are in mid-summer, battling insects that bite, sting, chew, or pester and weeds that seem to flourish more and more. We’re once again over-run with chickens and are well into the swing of the weekly garden share cycle: harvest, weigh, count, bag, distribute, repeat.

Garden News

Thus far, you who receive garden shares seem to be enjoying your weekly share of our produce, although I think many of us are having to dig deep to find new and exciting ways to prepare zucchini! (Down below is a great looking recipe sent in by one of our members last week. If you have one, send it along!) Of course, one of the steepest learning curves for many of us when choosing to eat locally is learning to eat seasonally which means accepting what’s growing right now rather than hitting the supermarket for something that’s out of season here but shipped in from far, far away.

Tomatoes and peppers are coming on but, unfortunately, the lettuce is done for the time being. We’re getting fall crops in the ground between rains so we can anticipate more cool weather greens, like lettuce, later in the season.

Here’s what we’re planning for this week’s shares (always, of course, subject to the weather and other uncontrollable circumstances!):

Sweet Corn

Green Beans

Tomatoes (our tomatoes are heirloom varieties so will look quite different than those in the store. If you’re curious and we forget to tell you about them, just ask!)

Bell Peppers

Onions

Zucchini

Summer Squash

Cauliflower / Broccoli

Herbs (probably limited to basil and oregano)

And a few more of you will receive berries this week.

By the way, now that tomatoes, peppers and onions are here, there’s a pretty good recipe for Pico de Gallo on the recipe page, (which is basically fresh salsa if you’re not familiar with it).

Don’t forget to help out now and then on Wednesdays (or any other time – just let us know when would be a good time and we’ll work something out). It’s been hot, but the garden keeps on producing your nummies and would love to meet you! We’ll set you to weeding, harvesting, or even preparing items for shares. (If you come out and help, you get to take yours home early and probably even get something extra, too!) While we prefer that you give us a buzz first, if you want to just show up, that’s fine, too.

Poultry Products

We’ll be processing chickens again within the next 2 or 3 weeks so if you want to pre-order a chicken or add to what you already get, let me know. Generally, we try to take enough birds at a time to cover the monthly poultry shares and have a few on hand for single sales. Again, chickens are $8 each.

Some news on our live birds: our Royal Palm turkey breeding trio and a fair number of their poults moved to Wisconsin several weeks ago. We do still have a variety of live turkey poults available. We lost our Narragansett tom turkey to wounds sustained in that dog attack in early June and will be looking for a replacement tom. We still have the year+ old Blue Slate and Bourbon Red toms available for $35 each.

We’ll be incubating both Dominique and Rhode Island Red chickens within the next few weeks. We have available now a variety of chicks nearing laying age. Day old chicks are $2, adult chickens are $6 each.

Eggs: No news is good news! Egg production is pretty steady and the chickens are being quite cooperative. Again, if you need a dozen, let me know or ask when you get here. We’re trying to have an extra dozen or two on hand at pick-up.

Hog Hearsay

Over the next week, we’ll be saying goodbye to several of our spring piglets. Three are moving to a farm just north of Milwaukee, Wisconsin this weekend and three will relocate to South Carolina early next week.

The remaining 7 will be fed out and sold as pork. Some have been spoken for but we still have a few available. They’ll be slaughtered sometime before Christmas. Although we’ll have moved by then, if you’re interested in a hog or a half-hog, let me know. You’ll pay the processing fee plus $3.50 per pound hanging weight. What that means is that once the pig has been killed and dressed, the butcher will hang it on a special scale to weigh it, hence ‘hanging’ weight.

If you’ve never tasted heritage pastured pork before, well, let me just say that this is what pork should be, not that “other white meat” cardboard stuff you get in the store. Pork isn’t supposed to be white! Think about the difference between a store chicken and one you get from us (or another similar farm) and you get the idea.

A whole hog requires a $75 deposit and the remaining balance due at the time of pick-up. A half hog requires a $40 deposit with the same payment due at time of pick-up.

Expect an average Mulberry Creek hog to have a hanging weight of 100-120 pounds.

Jams, Jellies and Honey

We have made a honey extractor and extracted our first 25 (or so) pounds of honey this year! It’s so much easier than doing it the old fashioned way in front of the open oven. Our honey is raw which means that we’ve done nothing to it other than remove it from the comb. No heat, no preservatives or additives, etc. Just plain, raw honey. It’s $5 for a ½ pint, $15 for a quart.

Don’t forget, we have lots (and lots) of jellies and jams! I guess it’s high time I re-posted the list of flavors. And we can promise you that there’s no “who knows what” in it. Just juice, sugar, and pectin (which is naturally occurring and helps it jell). We don’t make what we don’t eat, so at the moment we don’t have any sugar free jellies except Yellow Plum. Everything is $4 a jar except the Seedless Blackberry and Seedless Red Raspberry which are $5 each.

Here are the flavors. Hope I didn’t miss anything!

Apple Butter

Apple Jelly

Apricot Jam

Cherry Pie Jelly

Currant Jam

Elderberry Jelly

Gooseberry Jam

Grape Jelly

Red or White Mulberry Jelly

Mulberry Syrup

Peach Jam

Plum Jams: Purple Plum, Red Plum, Yellow Plum, Yellow Plum Wine, Sugar-Free Yellow Plum (and this has NO sweetener whatsoever)

Raspberry Jam

Raspberry-Currant Jam

Rhubarb-Peach Jam

White Mulberry Jam

Seedless Blackberry Jam

Seedless Red Raspberry Jam

Please let me know by noon the day of your pick-up if you’d like honey, jam or jelly and which flavor(s). If you don’t specify size for honey, I’ll assume you want a ½ pint. By the way, as you begin thinking toward the holidays yet 5 months away, these items make great gifts!

Miscellany

I’d hoped to have most of our stuff packed up for the move by now, but we’ve been so busy picking beans and corn and doing other farm related tasks that by the time I have time to pack a box, I don’t have the energy! I think we can put a hold on boxes for the moment, but we still need packing material. I know I’m going to go through what we’ve got pretty quickly. Thanks, everyone, for boxes and packing material!

Many of you already know that none of us will be moving until October. We’d planned that Maggie and I would move in time for school to start, but it’s just not going to happen – there are a couple reasons for that. So we will all be here through the remainder of the season! We’ll move in mid-October as soon as the garden share season is over but we’ll be back around Thanksgiving with turkeys (and perhaps pork).

Recipe Corner:

Wondering what to do with all that zucchini and summer squash? Here are some tips:

• Make zucchini bread! (You can also use summer squash in addition to or instead of zucchini.)

• Freeze it for use this winter. We love to sauté a bit of frozen summer squash or zucchini with some onion and herbs for a wonderful side-dish when the snow is thick on the ground. Just wash off the outside of the fruit, cut off the ends, cut the fruit into bite sized pieces, blanch for three minutes, put them in plastic freezer boxes, label and freeze. Alternatively, you can grate it for use in zucchini bread later but you’ll only want to blanch this for about a minute and a half. If you need more information about how to blanch veggies for freezing, check out the preservation tips on the recipe page.

• Here’s a recipe sent in by MCF member Connie Gilhooly: Almond and Zucchini Soup

1 cup whole almonds

2 medium zucchini

4 cloves garlic

2 T butter (I used olive oil)

4 cups basic chicken or vegetable broth

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup cream (I used plain Greek yogurt.)

salt

pepper

3-4 slices bacon (optional --- I did not use.)

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Place the almonds in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake them for about 20 minutes, until you can smell the roasted aroma. Set them aside to cool.

2. Meanwhile, cook the bacon and set it aside to drain on paper towels. Grate the zucchini (I just cut up, didn't grate since it all goes in the blender later.)and mince the garlic. Rub the almonds in a dry dishtowel to remove the skins; then grind the almonds in a food processor. (The almonds I had were already sliced. I put them in the oven for 15. Did not do the dishtowel thing. Used a blender to grind them. All was well! )

3. In a soup pot, melt the butter on medium. Stir in the zucchini and garlic and cook for 5 minutes, stirring almost constantly. Pour in the broth and the wine and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Stir in the almonds and remove from heat.

4. Allow the soup to cool slightly. In a blender or food process, puree the mixture and then put it back into the soup pot. Stir in the cream and add salt to taste. Reheat gently but thoroughly; do not allow it to boil. Crumble the bacon. Garnish each serving with a sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper and the crumbled bacon.

Random Question of the Month: Do I need to refrigerate my eggs?

First, I’ll say that we have a bunch of egg info on the Food Safety page of the web site (brown vs. white eggs, how fresh is fresh, etc.) There is work to do (of course!) but there’s some basic good information there as well as links to some other relevant sites. So – on to the question at hand: is refrigeration necessary?

There are two answers to this. The USDA and FDA say eggs must be kept refrigerated “at a temperature of 45°F or below. Keep the eggs in their carton and place them in the coldest part of the refrigerator, not in the door.”

The second answer we’ll let you decide – this is a repeat from a small part of the food safety page: Here are a few thoughts based on our personal practice and observation.

1. A hen sits on an egg for 21 days without it going bad.

2. People survived (thrived) for centuries eating eggs that came out of a bowl sitting on the kitchen counter or table. We eat eggs all the time that have never been refrigerated. The trick is to actually cook the eggs before you consume them.

3. If you cook the egg thoroughly, you're not likely to get sick from it. (Egg related illness seems to come almost entirely from eating eggs that have not been cooked through or at all, including stuff that raw eggs are in, like cookie dough.) COOK YOUR EGGS THOROUGHLY!

4. If it floats, don't eat it! If it smells funky, don't eat it! (If you want to check an egg, put it in a bowl then fill the bowl with enough water to cover the egg(s). If the egg just sits there, it’s fine. My practice is that if it bobs a bit but remains touching the bottom of the bowl, I’ll use it for hard boiling or baking.)

TIPS:

* Once eggs are refrigerated, they need to remain refrigerated.

* Fresh eggs keep longer than hard boiled eggs, but hard boiling an egg will extend it's life. Another way to say this is that if you take two eggs that were laid today and hard boil one then stuck them both in the fridge, the hard boiled one would go bad first. But if you take that non-boiled egg and a week or two down the road boil it, it will last a bit longer.

* Successful hard boiled eggs need to be at least a week old. Very fresh eggs won't peel well, no matter what tricks you use.

(By the way, our website says we put the eggs in the fridge as soon as they’re cleaned up which isn’t strictly true – generally, as soon as they’re cleaned up you come to get them. 99% of the time the eggs you pick up have never seen the inside of a fridge but they’re no more than a couple days old and our semi-underground stone kitchen is pretty cool even on the hottest days.)

Thanks for eating local!

Peace -

Gail

I know we're down to the wire ... in fact, I should be out finishing up shares for this evening but thought it's too early in the season for me to stop getting weekly share lists out ... although I'm sure that will eventually come to pass!

Before I forget, for those of you with monthly chicken shares, we're taking chickens to be processed tonight after pick-ups. Unfortunately, we can't choose when we take them to be processed and have to take them when there's an available spot at the processor. So Thursday's shareholders will get your chickens fresh at pick-up tomorrow. Wednesday people: you can either stop by the farm tomorrow before 4:30 to get yours fresh or if you don't mind them going into the freezer, you can just get them next week. If you have a question, just call. Anyone else who wants a fresh chicken Thursday evening, let me know. We'll have a dozen or so extras processed.

The heat continues to play havoc with the crops and has been heaven for the weeds and bugs! We have had to dust a few things and will try to remember to let you know what's been dusted. I'll put it here, but don't hesitate to ask at pick-up!

So here's the dope.

* lettuce - we're down to just a bit of the Ruby Red and even it may be getting a bit on the bitter side. The lettuce has not like the heat *at all*. We are planning on having more in the fall, though, once it cools off.

* carrots - just a few this week but hopefully we'll have more in the weeks to come.

* garlic - it's just bee harvested so hasn't dried completely. It can be used any time, but you might want to set it in a dry, dark place to let it dry completely.

* beets - again, just a few and more to come.

* zucchini

* summer squash

* green beans

* cabbage - the cabbage has been dusted, but it was just at the end of last week so only the outer leaves may have any dust on them. We also rinsed the cabbage off so most of the dust will be gone. (We thought you'd opt for a little dust over a lot of cabbage worms!)

* broccoli / cauliflower

* basil

* oregano

* Sweet Corn!

Thanks for eating local!

Mulberry Creek Farm NewsBlog

published occasionally at the whim of the editor

Volume 2: Issue 4 – 6/15/10

In this issue:

Introduction

2010 Summer Share Details: Please double check again!

Garden News: This week’s shares

Poultry Products

Hog Hearsay

Jams, Jellies and Honey

Recipe Corner

Question of the Month: Do I need to wash my produce?

Miscellany: Move Update

The summer season is here! Shares begin this week for most. If you are an alternating week shareholder, please double check to see if you start this week or next. Also, jot down that we can always use plastic grocery bags (in fact, we really need plastic grocery bags!) and gallon ziplock bags. Please don’t forget to return those egg cartons – and as canning season starts, we’re happy to take jars of any size (jelly, pint, quart, etc).

In the last NewsBlog I included share confirmations. I have a new version based on orders and clarifications received. Be sure to double check before you head off to your pick-up!

Please don’t forget the second third of installment payments is due at or before your first share pick-up! I’ll try to get individual e-mails out today.

Also, if you’re continuing eggs from the spring, please remember that the new egg season starts this week. We need your order to confirm your share.

I have garden share pick-ups scheduled as follows. If you’d like to switch, we need to know by Wednesday morning. If you cannot pick-up in a given week, please let us know by Wednesday morning. If possible, we’re happy to make other arrangements for you to pick-up at the farm.

Summer 2010 Garden Shares Details

Pick-up every Wednesday at the Farm, 4-7pm:

Aker, Brown, English, Gilhooley, Glidden, Moore, Novicki, Shapiro, Sterling, Stubbs, Vance, Welch, Whitehead

Pick up at the farm alternating weeks starting June 16: Becker, Duffy, Kovacs

Pick up at the farm alternating weeks starting June 23: Spriggs-Trobridge, Sterling

If this will be problematic, please contact me ASAP! We need to split our alternating shareholders between weeks. If you’d rather switch to weekly pick-up, let me know that right away.

Pick up every Thursday at Grace UMC, Salem Ave, Dayton, 5:30-6:30pm:

Campbell-Blake, Fairchild, Ramey, Sinnokrak, Temkin

(If you notified me via e-mail and the change is not reflected here, it's because I posted this before I read your e-mail. But you might want to double check

Egg, poultry, honey, jelly etc orders will be included with garden shares.

Confirmed Summer egg customers:

Half: Brown, Cowley, Duffy, Dakin, Glidden, Hitchcock, Manson, Sinnokrak, Spriggs-Trobridge, Temkin, Welch, Wilson, Vance

Full: Becker, Campbell-Blake, Dodds, English, Thomas

(If you have not yet paid, please do so when you pick up this week. Thanks! If you're not on this list and should be or are and shouldn't, e-mail me ASAP! Separate e-mail going out.)

We need to know immediately if anyone still prefers the UTS/Trotwood location for garden share pick-up. UTS egg only drop-off will be at 5pm, Thursdays.

If your scheduled pick-up/drop-off time and location don’t work for you and you need to switch, please let me know ASAP. Farm pick-ups can be pretty flexible. Also, please remember that shares not picked-up will be distributed at our discretion. If you simply forgot or got side-tracked, just call. We’re usually open to you swinging by the farm within a day or two of a missed pick-up.

Any questions/comments/concerns, let me know.

Garden News

Here’s what we’re planning for this week’s shares (always subject to the weather and other uncontrollable circumstances!):

Lettuce – 3 varieties

Spinach

Garden peas

Snow peas

Green onions

Radishes

Zucchini or Yellow Summer Squash

Turnips

Cilantro and/or basil

The early shares are very heavy in salad greens but within the next couple weeks we’ll also have green beans, kohlrabi, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, carrots and other greens. Expect sweet corn and tomatoes around mid-July.

In between rain storms, we’re trying to stay slightly ahead of the weeds. We’ve resorted to mowing between rows and just trying to keep the big stuff down! We still have more to plant as soon as it dries out enough.

Don’t forget to come on out any Wednesday to lend a hand – we’ll set you to weeding, harvesting, or even preparing items for shares. (If you come out and help, you get to take yours home early and probably even get something extra, too!) While we prefer that you give us a buzz first, if you want to just show up, that’s fine, too.

Poultry Products

Life on the farm can be tough, especially when dealing with livestock and the cycle of life. Occasionally we lose a chicken or two to predators (who also have to eat) and we have lost several of our turkey hens the same way. Last week a dog or dogs got into the pen where we were keeping our goslings and ducklings and killed all but two of the ducklings. The goslings had been doing so well! Some of our larger birds were roughed up but seem to be doing OK. So, it will be some time before we can offer goose or duckling. We still have plenty of chickens, though, including several in the freezer, and the turkey poults have not been harmed.

Live birds are available: Day old chicks are $2, adult chickens are $6 each. We have Rhode Island Red, Dominique, and White Rock chicks, and various adult birds. Royal Palm turkey poults are $10 and up. We are also offering our Royal Palm breeding trio (a tom and 2 hens) for $150, and one each Blue Slate and Bourbon Red toms for $35 each. Our adult turkeys are all over a year old and have proven reproductively. Live birds are local pick-up only.

Eggs: New season starts this week – if we haven’t received your order, please be sure we know that you want to continue!

Some of you have stated that even a half-share of eggs is too many. Let me remind you that you are welcome to purchase eggs whenever you need them. If you’re a farm pick-up, just ask when you get here. If you come to a drop-off location, let us know by Thursday afternoon and we’ll be happy to bring eggs along. Eggs are $3 per dozen.

Hog Hearsay

Our babies arrived Memorial Day weekend! Nova gave birth to 7 healthy piglets that are all growing well. Luna gave birth to 12 and 7 are growing well. Significant interest has been shown in all the girls and several of the boys although as of this writing we have yet to receive any deposits. Weanlings will be available for transport the end of July and are $250 each for registered gilts and boars or $50 for unregistered barrows. A breeding trio (1 boar and 2 gilts, from different mothers) goes for $600. We operate on a “first deposit received” basis. Our reservation form is on the website or I’m happy to e-mail one to you. Even when ordering barrows, we do need a reservation and payment up front. All boars unreserved as breeding stock by July 10 will be castrated.

If you are interested in pastured heritage pork, let us know. You can purchase a barrow (a hog going for meat) and raise it yourself, or you can purchase one or part of one and we can raise it for you. Barrows go for $50 if you raise it. If we raise your hog (or half hog) and have it processed, you’ll pay the processing fee plus $3.50 per pound (carcass weight). A whole hog requires a $75 deposit and the remaining balance due at the time of pick-up. A half hog requires a $40 deposit with the same payment due at time of pick-up.

Pork will be ready sometime this fall. Expect an average barrow at time of processing to have a carcass weight of 100-120 pounds. I’ll try to get a flyer out on pork soon.

Jams, Jellies and Honey

Every time I turn around, we’re capturing or building up another hive. Also, berries are beginning to ripen so jelly and jam season is upon us. This year, if we have plenty of a particular kind of jelly, I’ll be making saft with much of the berry juice. Saft is a Swedish berry juice concentrate that’s pretty much just juice and sugar – no corn syrup or other additives. Whether we offer any for sale is still up in the air since this will be a new venture for us.

If you need honey, jam or jelly, let us know prior to your pick-up and we’ll have it ready for you. And don’t forget, we will ship these items.

Recipe Corner

There's so much you can do with any and all of this produce! With this week’s share, try tossing some snow peas and summer squash chunks in with your salad. Or add snow peas, summer squash, and turnip chunks to your favorite stir fry.

The following was published in the Farm2Fork Fresh newsletter at Dorothy Lane Market, summer 2009:

* Toss the salad greens with the lightest drizzle of olive oil, minced garlic, lemon juice, and a dash of sherry vinegar. You won't need a powerful dressing with greens as fresh and flavor-packed as these!

* If you've never had turnip or mustard greens, they can be used any way you use spinach - cooked or fresh in a salad. They are a marvelous source of vitamins and quite yummy!

* Ever tried a radish sandwich? Simplest early-summer sandwich ever: just mince some radishes, sprinkle with salt and pepper, add a few chopped sprigs of parsley, and place on bread smeared with your favorite butter. (European butters are nice and light for this, but Amish butter, which luckily is widely available throughout Ohio, is especially great!)

Rinsing Vegetables to be Critter Free

Fill a bowl, the sink, some container with cool/lukewarm (not cold, not hot) water, add a couple teaspoonsful – a quarter cup of salt. Use your discretion – the more buggy something may be, the more salt you may want to use. I generally just dump a bunch in, myself. Soak your vegetables for 5-10 minutes then rinse well under running water. With veggies with lots of nooks and crannies, such as broccoli, swish them well after they soak and before you rinse them to help evict those critters.

Vegetable Preservation: see the section on preserving veggies on the Recipe page of the website.

Cooking with Snow Peas

We include two varieties of peas with this week’s shares. Garden peas, peas in the pod, may be eaten whole or shelled then prepared as you prefer. Snow peas, the flat ones, are eaten whole. They are delicious fresh, in a salad, steamed, stir-fried and are a great sugar pea for freezing for later use.

For a recipe for Lemon Butter Snow Peas: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Lemon-Butter-Snow-Peas/Detail.aspx

Cooking with Turnips

First, the greens are delicious. Clean them and use them like spinach.

The fruit of the turnip is little known these days but is worth giving a try. Turnips are a lot like potatoes in substance and many people just eat them mashed – there are a plethora of mashed turnip recipes online – but Glenn loves them peeled and fresh – try slicing them into your salad or stir fry. Go ahead and try turnip salad (instead of potato salad – get it?) or turnip slaw. Just use your favorite potato salad or coleslaw recipe and substitute turnips for potatoes or cabbage. Or chunk them, dip them in your favorite seasoning and roast them or fry them like potatoes.

Have a recipe to share? Send it along to the website forum. When I get a chance, I’ll post it on the website recipe page and I may include it here! By the way, I’m working on getting cooking tips that have been included in blogs onto the recipe page. If you remember seeing something last year that you just can’t find, let me know and I’ll track it down.

Random Question of the Month: Do I need to wash produce?

Absolutely! Although we don’t use chemicals (any more than absolutely necessary, and it hasn’t been necessary yet this year), our neighbors upwind do. In addition, our produce grows out there in the midst of nature where lots of critters and their body functions have access to it. While we will rinse off the bulk of dirt and so forth, there will be some amount of dirt and even some creepy crawlies from time to time. So please do at least rinse your produce unless you like grit and free protein!

Miscellany

We’re still in the sorting out stage and have started packing some items. We’re in need of boxes and, especially, packing material (newspaper, etc). If you have any to spare, let us know. Also, if you’re so inclined, I wouldn’t mind help now and then with some of the packing.

We’re still waiting for the ground to dry up enough at the new place to get the septic system in and the trailer on site. In the meantime, we camp in the old chicken house when we make a trip down – it’s great fun!

I hope you’re as excited as we are to have fresh sustainably raised vegetables on the table again. Eat local!

Peace -

Gail

Mulberry Creek Farm NewsBlog - published occasionally at the whim of the editor

Volume 2: Issue 3 – 5/20/10

In this issue:

Introduction

2010 Summer Share Confirmation: Please double check yours

2010 Summer Share Drop-Off Locations: Please check your slot

Garden News: Winners of sign-up bonuses

Poultry Products: Need to hear from spring egg shareholders 

Hog Hearsay: New piglets coming soon!

Jams, Jellies and Honey: More honey expected

Miscellany: Our move

Question of the Month: Is Mulberry Creek Farm organic?

Introduction:  

It has been a very busy spring here on the farm! It’s hard to believe May is nearly over and our Garden Share season is just around the corner.

In the last Newsblog I mentioned that I was working on website updates and, like most indoor activities, it’s been mostly on hold while we get your crops planted and do our best to keep the weeds at bay. That has been quite an undertaking with the rain coming as it has – the weeds are growing like crazy and it’s often too wet to do much about it. Of course, the crops are also growing like crazy. As a reminder, we do love having extra help from our members – remember, it’s your farm, too! Our regular workday is Wednesday. We do ask that you give us a holler to let us know when you plan to come. Just remember that farming continues on rain or shine. If Wednesdays don’t work for you, let us know. We’d be happy to work out a different arrangement. (And, don’t forget, generally when you come to lend a hand, that hand doesn’t leave empty!)

2010 Summer Share Confirmation

Recently I sent out an e-mail about summer shares and I’m reposting it here just in case you missed it. If you already got it, skip on to the next section! Following is the list of everyone from whom we've received orders and checks for the 2010 season. Check the list to be sure I have you down correctly. If you're on the list, we have received a check from you however if you're on the installment plan, I'll send a reminder e-mail with your remaining amount due. Also, if you’ve sent an order for garden share, eggs, poultry, or anything else and have not received an e-mail from me saying your order arrived, please contact me ASAP.

BTW - the summer share season will begin Wednesday, June 16. If your egg share is for the spring and you want one for the summer, don't forget to send in your order! Also, Glenn has processed our spring chickens and everyone should have received spring orders by now. I have not included duck or turkey on this list or winter garden shares.

Summer 2010 Garden Shares:

Family: Aker, Brown, English

Couple weekly: Campbell-Blake, Fairchild, Gilhooly, Glidden, Manson, Novicki, Ramey, Shapiro, Sinnokrak, Stubbs, Temkin, Vance, Welch, Wilson

Couple alternating: Becker, Duffy, Kovacs, Spriggs-Trobridge, Sterling

Summer 2010 Egg Shares:

Half: Brown, Duffy, Glidden, Manson, Sinnokrak, Spriggs-Trobridge, Wilson

Summer 2010 Poultry Shares:

per week (coinciding with summer share season): Wilson

biweekly/2 per month: Campbell-Blake

per month: Becker, Gilhooly, Welch

Any questions, let me know.

Summer Share Drop-Off / Pick-Up Locations

Last year we had four locations: the farm, United Theological Seminary in Trotwood, Five Rivers Vineyard in Englewood, and Hoffman UMC in West Milton. Because of the different demographics with this year's participants in the CSA, we need to make some changes. We need at least three weekly customers for any given location but, unfortunately, not enough of you requested the West Milton location and we ask you to select a different pick-up location. It is entirely possible that we will not have enough for the Englewood location, either. That makes the farm the only location north of Trotwood, but we will consider adding a pick-up day at the farm if Wednesday afternoon/evening is problematic. The Trotwood location is safe as there are several people in that area. We have mentioned the possibility of adding drop-off locations in the Dayton View Triangle and Huber Heights / Beavercreek and I’ll address that further down.

Here are the drop-off locations with current arrangements. If you did not select a location, the default is the farm:

West Milton (please select a different location): Manson

Englewood (Sunday, 12-1): Cowley, Thomas, Powers

Trotwood (United Theological Seminary parking lot, Thursday, 4-5): Campbell-Blake, Dodds, Fairchild, Forbess, Kuker, Park, Ramey, Temkin

Farm (Wednesday, 4-7): Aker, Becker, Brown, Dakin, Duffy, English, Gilhooley, Glidden, Hitchcock, Kovacs, Moore, Novicki, Shapiro, Sinnokrak, Spriggs-Trobridge, Sterling, Stubbs, Vance, Welch, Whitehead, Wilson

We do remind you that CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. We are together a part of a community. As much as we'd like to find a drop-off location in the Dayton View Triangle and/or near the base, Glenn and I are very busy planting, weeding and so forth and depend on your help. We'll be happy to follow up with any contact information you provide for potential pick-up locations, but we ask that you do the initial contacting. I do have one contact for a possibility in the Dayton View Triangle, and will send an e-mail to interested share-holders when I know more. Possibly interested shareholders are as follows: Dayton View Triangle: Becker, Fairchild, Ramey ; Huber Heights/Beavercreek: Brown, Duffy, Powers, Sinnokrak, Stubbs, Temkin

You might like to know what we need in a drop-off location. First, of course, the owner of the property needs to be open to the idea. Glenn will only be able to be on hand at the farm and Trotwood points so for any others we need to be able to drop off your baskets each week and leave them at the drop-off location for you to pick up. Of course, if you happen to get there right when baskets are dropped off, Glenn will be happy to talk with you. With that in mind, drop-off locations need to be relatively secure and out of the sun and it would be best if there were someone on hand to give assistance as needed (carrying, loading etc).

Garden News

Several of last years’ members will get something free for bringing in new members. Your option is to have a week free (per your new member) or eggs / chickens. So far our members who have received or will receive a bonus are: Dakin, Dodds, English, Ramey, Temkin, Vance, and last year’s members, Berman’s (if I can track them down!). If you have not yet received your bonus, let me know what you’d like. If you already told me, please tell me again so I’m clear! We’ll get it all worked out as the summer rolls along, but don’t let me forget!

This year we are planting an additional 6 acres. I am still overwhelmed at the idea of 10 or 11 acres of vegetables to tend. The rain pattern this spring has made it weed heaven out there. Additionally, as I write, we’re still working on getting everything planted.

Last newsblog I told you about Glenn’s larger and sturdier greenhouse. Well, some of you have already heard about the greenhouse disaster (especially if you follow us on Facebook). Only a week after it was completed, we had very strong winds – remember the first weekend in April? The greenhouse collapsed. Fortunately, we didn’t loose many plants and got the greenhouse back up pretty easily. Then we had more wind, on and off, with the greenhouse collapsing every time. Now we know why we don’t see PVC and plastic greenhouses in this part of the world. Too much high wind! Thankfully, we got the use out of it we needed and plants are thriving.

So far we have a lot of crops planted – mostly early greens and root crops, but also peas, beans, corn, herbs, tomatoes and some peppers. We have to wait for it to dry out enough to get the rest of the tomatoes, peppers, and vining crops in. If you have some spare time, we could sure use the help, especially if you have some experience in transplanting sets. A couple blogs ago I listed everything we intend to plant and I don’t think it’s changed significantly.

Poultry Products

It’s been exciting to have our first 6 Pomeranian goslings and watching them grow up! Last newsblog I mentioned that we had gathered 11 eggs prior to Pinky’s disappearance. Only 6 hatched successfully, which is about average from what we’ve been able to tell. Pinky was eaten by coyotes. We were able to obtain another goose from a farm that had lost all its ganders, though, and Maggie named her Pinky, too. Unfortunately, not long ago coyotes got one of our two ganders, Goofy. So now we’re down to the adult pair and the six goslings. We keep careful watch on them, but they’re impossible to contain. For those of you who have asked about goose for Christmas, we won’t be processing any until our flock is built up. These are a critically rare breed and their preservation comes first.

We also have a small flock of turkey poults – can’t beat it if you’ve never had pastured heritage turkey for your holiday meal! Send in a deposit now to reserve yours. I have no idea how quickly they’ll sell out and we have several potential customers interested in purchasing live birds. Just as an aside for those who are interested in these things, we’re going to downsize to only one breed of turkey, the Narragansett. It’s difficult keeping the breeds separated during their laying season forcing us to confine them. Additionally, the tom turkeys all fight constantly with each other. If you’ve been out at the farm and noticed our bare-breasted turkeys, that’s why. If we stick to one breed, life will be a lot simpler for everyone. Narragansett turkeys are one of the best tasting out there and were one of the most popular breeds for the old fashioned farm. They are critically rare, too, which puts them higher on our interest list than other breeds.

We will have a few ducklings available, so if you’re interested, they’ll be ready before the holidays.

We have processed a batch of 20 chickens and have more broiler birds growing to meet the orders for a chicken a week or month. Glenn is continuing to incubate broilers to keep up with the meat demand so if you haven’t tried one yet, give it a thought. Rarely do we have negative feedback. We will always send out a flash when we have fresh poultry, but remember, our poultry will be fresh for only a couple days after processing then everything as yet unspoken for will go into the freezer.

Egg Update: Egg production has been steady this spring with only occasional dips or bumps in laying. We have enough egg share customers that if everyone who is getting eggs now re-orders for the summer, we won’t have room for new customers. This is a great problem to have! However, whether you do or don’t intend to continue eggs once the spring season ends on June 15, please let me know ASAP. Here are the shareholders I need to hear back from:

Half: Becker, Cowley, Forbess, Gilhooley, Kuker, Powers, Temkin

Full: Campbell-Blake, Dodds, English, Moore, Park

I am assuming that you all want to continue with your eggs but they do need to be reordered. If we do not hear from you by June 10, we will assume that you intend to discontinue your eggs. The shares are paid for by season, Feb-Jun, Jun-Oct, Oct-Feb. We do egg shares by season because some people want to alter the amount they get from one season to another. If you thought you paid for the full summer when you ordered, let me know right away and I’ll double check.

Once again, as the spring season nears it’s end, while I believe we’re on track with everyone now, we may still owe eggs to some of you from those blizzard weeks back in February. Please don’t let us forget. Drop me a line ASAP.

Hog Hearsay

Our December piglets are growing! Shrek, Donkey, Fiona, and Luana are all strong and healthy and will be reaching pig puberty soon. We won’t intentionally breed them for a while yet, though. In fact, we’d like to trade one or both of our boars for boars from more distant lines to strengthen the gene pool.

Both Luna and Nova are due any minute! We’re getting very excited about having another bunch of piglets to care for. By the time summer season begins, you’ll be able to see the new babies (however, we recommend bringing footwear suitable for the farm, especially if it has rained.) We will again be offering the litters for sale to others interested in Mulefoot preservation and they’ll be weaned at the end of July and able to be transported.

Jams, Jellies and Honey

We’ve been having bee adventures this spring! Our one hive from last year made enough honey during last summer that they had plenty for the winter and actually a lot left over by spring. They are a strong and thriving hive.

I don’t know whether I’ve mentioned our other hives. We have a hive in the big catalpa tree at the end of our little walk and we have two hives who took up residence in the walls of the house some time ago that we have been working on extracting a bit at a time. In case you may wonder why we don’t just call an exterminator, honey bees were almost wiped out a few years ago and are only just making a comeback. Honeybees are crucial to agriculture, regardless of whether it’s sustainable, organic, conventional, or whatever. The bees pollinate fruit trees, tomatoes, squash, and pretty much anything that flowers. So we’re trying our best to get them out of the house and into hive supers, those white bee boxes. Thus far we have four additional hives contained.

That being said, if you have an allergy to bees and are coming to the farm, please let us know. The bees are more active than usual with all the disturbance. We are planning to set up our pick-up spot well away from the house this year because of this.

On jams and jellies, see the previous newsblog!

Miscellany

This month’s “miscellany” is actually pretty big news. Glenn, Maggie and I will be selling our farm and moving back to Glenn’s family farm. We are in great hopes that someone likeminded will purchase Mulberry Creek Farm including the CSA and continue the relationship with you.

This was a very difficult decision to make. It has some to do with the fact that Glenn’s back simply cannot handle the work that he is required to do to maintain the farm and build the outbuildings, never mind that the house needs major work. He is simply not up to it. It also has to do with God. We responded to God’s call on us to plant a church and laid out fleece to help us determine the specifics. God has made it abundantly clear to us that we are to do our ministry work in Spencer County, Indiana, not Montgomery County, Ohio.

Maggie and I will be moving in time for her to begin the school year in her new school in mid-August, but Glenn will remain here through the end of the summer garden season - unless, of course, someone wants to buy the farm and take over the CSA. We’re still trying to decide exactly how to handle the winter shares that have already been purchased. Holiday turkey orders will still be honored – we may need to travel this far to get our turkeys processed, anyway.

We thank you for the prayers and encouragement many of you have already given and we ask that they continue. We also ask for boxes!

Random Question of the Month: Is Mulberry Creek Farm organic?

We are frequently asked whether we are organic and often see communication from shareholders referring to our organic produce. We practice sustainable farming and use as many organic practices as possible. We use pesticide and herbicide only as a last resort/rescue and our fertilizer is organic. However, we are not an organic farm – although we use many organic practices, we cannot legally call our vegetables organic unless we’re Certified Organic. We are sustainable. As always, if you have questions, just ask.

One of the big pieces of sustainable farming is that it’s high maintenance. Because we don’t use pesticides or herbicides, we have lots of weeds and bugs. (A lot of organic produce is grown in greenhouses where weeds and bugs can be controlled. Even “vine-ripened” produce is usually grown in a greenhouse!) Weeding is something that we can always use help with, and some of the creepy crawlies we get can actually be physically removed and we need help with that as well. While most CSAs require shareholders to spend a few hours working on the farm, we do not. We chose to leave working on the farm voluntary because we recognize that not everyone is physically able to work. However we do encourage you to join us occasionally for an hour or two. Those of you who have done so have made positive comments about the interaction with your garden. We have one family who come every Wednesday for about an hour and seem to look forward to the time. As I stated in the introduction, our regular work day is Wednesday, but if that doesn’t fit with your schedule, just let us know and we’ll be happy to work something else out. There’s always something to do, rain or shine.

As always, please e-mail us or call us with any questions, concerns, comments, etc that you have. Those of you who are new to us are encouraged to browse back through recent newsblogs. Those of you who’ve been around for any amount of time know that we’re more than happy to discuss all things farming pretty much any time. We have recently been described as “chatty” – we won’t deny it! We love discussing and sharing the things about which we are passionate!

Eat local!

Peace - Gail

Mulberry Creek Farm NewsBlog

Volume 2: Issue 2 – published occasionally at the whim of the editor

4/1/10

In this issue:

Introduction

Garden News

How the CSA Works

Poultry Products

Hog Hearsay

Jams, Jellies and Honey

Miscellany

Question of the Month

Goodness! Can it really be over 2 months since I posted a newsblog? Wow! That just goes to show how hectic it’s been here. No “slow living” for us! I guess it’s about time I let you all know what’s been going on and what’s coming up.

A word on the website – I know it is woefully in need of updating and it’s something that I’ve worked on between crises. Thank you for your patience! I do have a few recipes to add and will accept others that you’d like to share before the season starts.

Also, if you’ve sent an order for garden share, eggs, poultry, or anything else and have not received an e-mail from me saying your order arrived, please contact me ASAP.

Garden News

We have 16 Garden Shareholders as of this writing, but expect at least a couple more orders any day. Last year we ended the season with 16 so we’re well ahead of the game. (For those of you interested in numbers, we have 9 full-share equivalents.) There is still room for more garden shareholders so tell your friends! Our official membership deadline is April 1st. However, as many of you know, we will accept new members throughout the season as long as we have room. An added bonus for those of you who live at a bit of a distance, we are in the process of making arrangements for additional drop-off locations in the Dayton View Triangle and in the Beavercreek area. And, by the way, if you did not note your drop-off/pick-up location on your order form, the default is here at the farm. And those who pick up at the farm often get extra goodies, an added benefit of a farm pick-up!

Several of last years’ members will get something free for bringing in new members. Your option is to have a week free (per your new member) or eggs / chickens. We’ll get it all worked out as the summer rolls along, but don’t let me forget!

This year we will be planting an additional 6 acres. I am still overwhelmed at the idea of 10 or 11 acres of vegetables to tend. The added acreage, to the west of us, will give us a lot less likelihood of crop failure since we’ll be able to plant things in multiple places. It will also create more of a buffer between us and the conventionally farmed fields upwind.

Glenn has thousands (literally) of seeds started already and has a new much larger (and sturdier) greenhouse up. We’re already anticipating the tomatoes that will come off some of those plants! Yum! We haven’t yet got the first seed into the ground outside – it’s been too wet this year. Last year’s members may recall that we had peas in the ground on March 19th in ’09. It’s drying and warming, though, and we’re planning on getting peas and early greens planted over the next week or so. And, of course, we always welcome extra hands! I posted a blog just before this one with the full list of what we’re planting this year.

As always, I need to remind you that we practice sustainable farming and use as many organic practices as possible. We use pesticide and herbicide only as a last resort/rescue and our fertilizer is organic.

Please e-mail us or call us with any questions, concerns, comments, etc that you have. Those of you who are new to us are encouraged to browse back through recent newsblogs. Those of you who’ve been around for any amount of time know that we’re more than happy to discuss all things farming pretty much any time. We have recently been described as “chatty” – we won’t deny it! We love discussing and sharing the things about which we are passionate!

Poultry Products

We’re very eggcited to have turkey and goose eggs in the incubator! We have no idea how many of any given breed we will have available, but it won’t be many. If you’re at all interested in a Thanksgiving turkey, better get that deposit in now so we know if we’ll have to order poults. If we need to order some, it will need to be within the next few weeks for them to be ready for Thanksgiving.

I doubt we’ll be offering any goose this year – the breed we raise is extremely threatened and we’ll work on strengthening our flock before we offer any to eat. If we do have geese for the holiday table, we will advertise that closer to time. At the moment, our hen goose, Pinky, has disappeared. While we fear that she may have been dined on by local coyotes (who also have to eat), we’re hoping that she’s merely hiding somewhere on a nest and will reappear sometime in mid-April with goslings in tow. We were able to collect 11 eggs (yay!) for the incubator and are hopeful.

Ducks, on the other hand, have not been cooperative at all. We’ll keep you apprised of the situation as to duckling. We will have duckling, but thus far it won’t be pure-bred Cayuga.

Chickens will be ready for processing soon! That should come as good news for those of you who have ordered chicken by the week or month. Glenn has a rotation all worked out and is incubating our meat birds so we should have a regular supply throughout the year. Remember, our poultry will be fresh for only a couple days after processing then everything unspoken for will go into the freezer. We will let you know when processing is scheduled and when fresh birds are ready for pick-up.

Egg Update: Chickens are interesting birds. Just as soon as we think we have a good, steady egg production, they stop laying for no apparent reason or start laying in hidden locations. Add to that the fact that Glenn has been incubating eggs from all our chicken breeds and, well, you get the picture. Of course we could cage them up and feed them all kinds of whoknowswhat to get them to lay more productively, but we much prefer our chickens to have access to fresh air, sunshine, bugs (when there isn’t snow on the ground, that is), and limited/no chemicals. So, we have to put up with their fickle laying behavior. It just keeps us on our toes, always wondering from week to week either whether we’ll have enough eggs to meet that week’s shares or, alternatively, what we’re going to do with all the extra eggs. Thus far this year we’ve been able to keep things worked out by occasional shifting (your vacations often help a lot!) and haven’t had to supplement from another farm. Please, if we owe you eggs, don’t let us forget. It’s easy to lose track of who is where in eggs, especially since our egg seasons run together.

By the way, the queen of unorganized (that’s me) has come up with a way to keep track of who gets how many eggs when. I have created an egg calendar and will send an e-mail out to all our egg customers (later today?) with that calendar attached. Please, please let us know when you plan to be out of town, when you might anticipate needing extra eggs, etc – anything that will help us plan ahead. Of course, if you don’t know until the last minute we understand. You’ll see from the calendar that some weeks are fairly light while others are pretty heavy in egg share pick-ups.

Hog Hearsay

In February, we sent our first piglets to their new homes. Both Luna and Nova are (we believe) expecting again and we anticipate more piglets in mid-June. We’ll keep you up to date on when we’ll have piglets as well as pastured, heritage pork available.

Jams, Jellies and Honey

The bees have already been busy! Glenn has already added the honey super to the top of the beehive and we anticipate being able to add at least one more beehive this summer. This means that we’ll have more honey! I’ve heard all kinds of things about honey (what I’ve learned about much of the honey in the grocery stores would curl your hair) so I’m thrilled that we are producing our own. We do still have a bit available from last year’s crops. Did you know that honey is one food product that never goes bad? When it crystallizes, just warm it in a pan of water and it will be back to honey in no time.

As we move closer to the growing season, we know we will be making more jams and jellies. Don’t forget – we have many varieties of old fashioned jelly and jam right here on the farm – no junk added, no chemicals, just fruit, sugar and pectin (which is natural). You are welcome to add a jelly or jam share to your basket orders – a jelly a week or a month or whatever. You pick, or let us surprise you! Of course, you will probably find a jar of jelly or jam in your share baskets from time to time. And by the way, if you get a flavor you know you won’t eat, ask for a trade.

Miscellany

Boy has it been muddy this spring! If you want a good laugh, just come out any day at feeding time and watch me slog through the mud to feed the hogs. It’s a hoot! Especially when they manage to knock me down (which, I’ll add, isn’t often).

The lane is in much better shape – we dumped about 6 tons of gravel into the worst holes last month and once it dries out some we’ll see about grading it and hopefully getting some more gravel down. We’ll also be working on getting those pesky shrubs along the lane trimmed back before they get thick. Glenn would like me to remind everyone that this is a farm and not a subdivision.

Once it dries out and everything is planted, we’ll continue work on the barn. Both wings are up, and this summer’s project will to be to build the main middle section. As always, we love helpers! In the meantime, we’re working on cleaning up trash blown in and around over the winter, restacking stuff that got knocked down by wind, snow, or livestock, and generally getting the place looking good. Any time you have free days, feel free to come on out. Glenn can always use help with planting, transplanting in the greenhouse, general clean-up, and so forth. Life has been such that we haven’t been able to actually schedule specific work days. We just dig in whenever the day looks good and we aren’t otherwise occupied. Last night we had a marvelous fire going of deadwood. And there’s lots more!

Random Question of the Month

We occasionally get asked where the money goes from your shares. The answer is: straight back to the farm. Your early bird payments allowed us to pay the rent on the 10 acres we rent, order seeds, pay for feed for the animals, and help with supplies for the structures. Ongoing installment payments and orders yet to come in will go to fertilizer (organic), feed (they still need grain even in the summer), fuel and maintenance on the equipment, and various supplies for the building projects. We scavenge as much material as we can and you’ll notice various bits of rolled fence and equipment scattered here and there that we’ve acquired from one farm or another. In order to live off the farm, we’d have to have at least 50 full-time shareholders. So I hope that answers this question! Have something you’re burning to know? Just ask!

Eat local!

Peace -

Gail

Following is a complete list of crops we will plant this year at Mulberry Creek Farm CSA (and the number of varieties if multiple). If you want more information about which varieties of any crop we will have, or when you might expect something to appear in your share, please contact us.

Vegetables: Green Beans (2); Yellow/Wax Beans; Shell Beans (2); Beets; Broccoli; Brussels Sprouts; Cabbage (2); Cantaloupes (3); Carrots (2); Cauliflower (2); Celery; Collard Greens; Indian Corn; Popcorn; Sweet Corn; Slicing Cucumbers; Pickling Cucumbers; Eggplant; Green Onions; Gourds (multiple); Herbs (see separate list below); Kale; Kohlrabi;  Leeks; Lettuce(4); Mustard Greens; Okra; Onions (3); Parsnips; Garden Peas; Snow Peas; Hot Banana Peppers; Sweet Peppers (7); Potatoes (3); Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkins; Pie Pumpkins; Mini Pumpkins; Radishes (3); Rutabagas; Salsify; Shallots; Summer Squash (2); Zucchini; Winter Squash (7); Cherry Tomatoes (2); Slicing Tomatoes (9); Paste Tomatoes (2); Spinach; Swiss Chard; Turnips; Watermelons

Perennial Crops & Fruits (subject to weather and other uncontrollable factors):

Asparagus, Rhubarb, Garlic, Raspberries, Blackberries, Elderberries

Mulberries, Grapes, Peaches, Pears, Strawberries

Herbs (some have multiple varieties; variously available throughout the season):

Anise, Arugula, Basil, Chamomile, Chives, Cilantro/Coriander, Dill, Garlic,

Garlic Chives, Marjoram, Oregano, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, Thyme, Savory,

Stevia, Tarragon, Lemon mint, Peppermint, Spearmint

Mulberry Creek Farm NewsBlog

Volume 2: Issue 1 – published occasionally at the whim of the editor - 1/25/10

In this issue:

Introduction

Garden News

How the CSA Works

Poultry Products

Hog Hearsay

Jams, Jellies and Honey

Miscellany

It’s mid-January, we’ve had a couple weeks of real winter, and then got a bit of a thaw. Glenn has been scouring the seed order catalogs and dreaming of this summer’s crops. The critters are plugging away up there on the hill and we have some recent arrivals. 2010 will be an exciting and busy year at Mulberry Creek Farm!

Garden News

We’ve only heard from one or two people with input about what you might like to see in your share baskets this summer – don’t forget to let us know. We will certainly consider any requests, especially if several of our customers request the same thing. While we use many heirloom varieties and harvest our own seeds, we also rely on seed order houses for many things. We will be placing seed orders within the next few weeks so if you have suggestions, speak now!

We had 16 members in our Garden Share CSA last summer. For 2010, we are going to expand. How much will depend on how many memberships we get early enough. March 1st is the deadline for early bird ordering this year because we have to pay the rent on the fields by March 1st. It’s beneficial to all of us if the farm can avoid borrowing money! Early bird orders must be paid in full by March 1st. $450 for a full-share, $225 for a half-share. I’ll get the order form updated and posted as soon as I can. Last year’s members have first dibs – we won’t accept any new members until after February 15th. After that, it’s first-come, first-served!

2009 Members only: For every new member you help get signed up, we will give you a week free at your membership type and level!

Regular membership due date is April 1st. Share prices are the same as last year: $500 for a full-share, $250 for a half-share. Half-shares may be either half as much every week or a full-share amount every other week. Again, I will be getting the updated order form posted as soon as I can.

We will again offer installment payment plans for non-Early Bird membership orders. You may order your membership at any time, but installment plans are not eligible for the early bird discount. Please contact us for more information or clarification.

Please remember that we practice sustainable farming and use as many organic practices as possible. We use pesticide and herbicide only as a last resort/rescue and our fertilizer is organic. Glenn has recently found an organic way to grow pest-limited sweet corn, which should come as great news to some of you.

This year, we are planning to rent an additional six acres, which will give us more flexibility in planting as well as provide more of a buffer between us and the conventionally farmed fields upwind. Your early share memberships will help us accomplish this goal.

Glenn is working on planning a larger and sturdier greenhouse and hopes to have one up within the next couple of months. This will allow us to start summer crops earlier as well as have early spring crops more readily available.

2010 Share Drop-Off Locations - We are planning to offer the same drop-off locations as last year: here at the farm, Hoffman UMC in West Milton, Five Rivers Vineyard Church in Englewood, and United Theological Seminary in Trotwood. We have had a number of requests to add drop-off locations. If you desire a drop-off location in Vandalia, Dayton, or any other place, we will consider adding a drop-off location if there are at least 3 members picking up there, and we would prefer at least five members per location.

How the CSA Works

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and embraces the philosophy of communities supporting farms and farms their communities. In exchange for committing your dollars to us early in the season, we guarantee you a share of the harvest all season long. Become a Mulberry Creek Farm CSA Garden Share member and receive a weekly share of naturally grown fresh vegetables and fruit (when available) from early June to October, and/or a monthly share of crisp, sweet storage vegetables in November, December and beyond as available. An egg share will get you a dozen eggs each week; a half-share is a dozen every other week, following the same seasonal dates as the garden share. For poultry and other products, it’s a more open arrangement. Some people prefer to purchase several chickens at once and put them in the freezer (which is great for us); others pick up a chicken every week or two with their other shares. Turkeys and ducklings are on demand or in season. There is more about what we think Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is all about on our “About Us” page.

Member Terms and Conditions haven’t changed. By becoming a member, you (the member) agree to be a shareholder in the Mulberry Creek Farm CSA Program and we (the farmers) agree to do our best to provide a bounty of seasonal, local, healthy produce to you as a shareholder. You are also agreeing to share the risks of natural farming with us and that those risks may occasionally affect the items that are included in your share basket. You are also agreeing that the CSA works within the honor system, that it is your responsibility to pick up your share within the appropriate time on your designated delivery day, and that you will contact Mulberry Creek Farm when occasional scheduling conflicts prevent picking up your share on time and that if your box is not picked up on the designated day, it will be donated at our discretion. We (the farmers) agree to be at the designated drop-off location, day and time with your share.

We all understand that there are occasional hiccups in the system, unforeseen circumstances come up, or we just plain forget! Those of you who have been members know that we’re flexible. If you can’t make it or forgot, just give us a call. At the same time, we appreciate your understanding when we have things come up or just plain forget!

So, each week you pick up your share on your designated day and place. We do appreciate that you return the previous week’s basket or transfer your produce to your own bags (we do often use bags and baggies for shares, especially later in the season when there’s more than the basket can hold). Spread the news about our CSA—show off your shares, share your produce and point people to the website! Enjoy the delight of eating seasonally, healthfully, and naturally! And of course don’t forget to share your favorite recipes and cooking tips that we can post on the website for everyone to enjoy.

Work Shares and Volunteering: We often get inquiries from people about working on the farm. While we are always interested in extra help, we are not in a position to hire workers. We pay in eggs, chicken, or produce, sometimes jelly or honey. We understand that some folks are unable to “get down and dig in the dirt” so, unlike many CSAs, we do not require our members to work.

However, we do believe that you, the member, will appreciate your produce much more if you’ve actually helped in planting, weeding, and/or harvesting and we encourage our members to spend a couple hours on the farm helping – we always make it worth your while! Or simply bring a lawn chair and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine and keep us company while we do the work!

As always, we’re open to responding to questions, concerns, rebuttals, and so forth. Feel free to contact us at any time.

Poultry Products

Chicken Broilers: Our supply of frozen broiler chickens is dwindling quicker than we had anticipated! Once the frozen chickens on hand are gone, we will not have chicken broilers available again until the end of March or first part of April. We hope to be able to maintain a steady supply after that. Please let us know your interests – several of the broilers on hand are already spoken for. Broiler chickens are $8 apiece and may be ordered individually or in units. We will consider a discount for bulk purchases.

We do have a number of soup chickens available – they’d be good for soup, chicken salad, the crock-pot, etc, but we wouldn’t recommend them as baking chickens. Soup chickens are $6 each. Call ahead.

Turkey: We selected the very best of our turkeys just before Christmas to keep as breeding stock. We hope to be able to breed our own birds for the entire demand this year, but that means that we need holiday orders as early as possible. We cannot guarantee having birds available if you wait until fall to order.

You will not find a better tasting or healthier turkey than a heritage bird grown on pasture. They do take much longer to raise than conventional birds you find in the store, so they’re more expensive. Our customers who have tried them have assured us that the benefit is well worth the cost. We thought we would need to raise the price this year; however, we have decided to leave it at the 2009 price, well below the price for the typical heritage pasture-raised turkey. As always, if you have questions, please let us know. To reserve your bird, we require a deposit of $25 with the balance of $5 per pound due at time of pick-up. If you’d like to make payments toward your turkey, the smallest birds will be about 10 lbs. and size will go up from there to approximately 20 lbs for the largest.

Duck: After a taste test here on the farm, we have decided to limit our ducks to the heritage Cayuga. Their flavor was phenomenal! Our duckling is sold out until mid-late summer but if you’re interested in duck meat, please let us know. We will accept reservations at $10 per bird.

Egg Update: Egg production was down for a bit during the darkest and coldest days, but is now again on the upswing and we anticipate having an abundance of eggs again by the start of the next share season in mid-February. Eggs are $3 per dozen: a full share of a dozen per week is $50 and a half share of a dozen every other week is $25. We do offer a discount for “Re-Use My Cartons” that puts the full-share at $45 and the half-share at $23. As with other share types, Egg Shares may be purchased in multiples.

Hog Hearsay

If you’ve been following our “blog-lets”, you’ll know that Luna and Nova both had healthy farrowings in mid-December producing strong litters. All available piglets from the December farrowing are spoken for – one breeding trio will be going to a farm in West Virginia and another six of our piglets will move to a farm near Cleveland. We are keeping one breeding trio and a boar for meat and we look forward to being able to testify ourselves on the delectability of Mulefoot meat next fall.

The next farrowing should be in early summer with availability in late summer. We hope to be able to offer pork by the whole or half-hog in early 2011. If you are interested in purchasing a whole or half hog for meat, we can raise it and have it processed for you. Contact us to get your name on a list for reservation information - first come, first served – or for more information.

Jams, Jellies and Honey

Just as a reminder, our old-fashioned, all natural jams and jellies are plentiful. Most are made from fruit grown right here on Mulberry Creek Farm. We have flavors you won’t find in the store, too! Many of you enjoyed the jellies and/or jams you received from time to time in your share baskets last summer – don’t forget to restock! Again, everything is $4 per jar except the seedless varieties, which are $5 per jar. We do ship – contact us for shipping and handling pricing.

The bees are still hibernating, but we occasionally see a few brave and daring ones active on the warmest days. We are looking forward to a great honey season for 2010! We do still have a bit of 2009 honey available. It is raw-honey without water or any other additives. There is even a bit of beeswax floating on the top so you know it’s straight from the hive!

Miscellany

Those of you who have stopped by have seen the progress made on the barn – the laying hens are mostly under roof, now, which is helping with egg production. Once they get used to their new home, Glenn will let them roam again. For now, though, there’s not much in the way of grass or bugs for them outside! There is quite a way to go on the barn, but we hope to have it completed before snow flies next fall.

We are also working on a new and much larger greenhouse. We hope to be able to have many early spring greens available, as well as start many seeds for transplanting. It’s always Glenn’s goal to have excellent tomatoes before the 4th of July!

We have the ability to rent an additional 6 acres of cropland, to our immediate west and south. We intend to plant some of it in alfalfa hay for the critters, but the rest will give us a lot more flexibility in planting so we should be able to avoid some of the crop failures we had last year. We’re still new at this whole CSA thing and are learning as we go. Hopefully the lessons of 2009 were good ones.

Those of you who have been to the farm since Thanksgiving have noticed how muddy and pitted the lane has become. We do apologize about that and are going to try to get something done about it as soon as we have the finances. We were all set to have a load of gravel brought in when we had the property-line fence issue turn up. All our gravel money went to that fence, which is great to have, but has slowed down the gravel project. We thank you for your patience in this!

As soon as we have some good days in the spring, we’ll be starting on spring clean up. We’d love to have helpers come out to collect trash and deadfall, get stuff picked up that has blown around over the winter, do some painting projects, work on early garden preparation projects, or just keep us company. Pop me an e-mail if you’d be interested so we can let you know when our workdays will be.

That’s the news as it is from MCF! Don’t forget to get those Share Membership orders in as soon as you can – and, as a reminder, 2009 members will get a week free for each new member you get signed up!

Eat local!

Peace -

Gail

Just a quickie with the basics - I'm working on a NewsBlog but for the moment and will get the full details out soon.

Hogs: All available piglets from the December farrowing are spoken for. Next farrowing should be in early summer with availability in late summer. Contact us to get your name on a list for reservation information - first come, first served. See the Hog page for more information.

Poultry: We anticipate having fresh chickens available in mid-late Spring. We will accept orders for chicken by the unit, by the month, or in bulk. Contact us for more information. We will accept deposits for holiday turkeys any time. We will not breed more than we have demand for so be thinking now about that flavorful and succulent heritage turkey for your holiday table next Fall or Winter. Duckling is avilable and we will be developing the flock. Contact us for more information. Egg production is down due to the cold and dark, but we anticiapate having an abundance of eggs again by the start of the next share season in mid-February.

Garden/Produce: We are currently accepting 2010 Garden Share memberships from 2009 members only. New members may sign up after February 15th. Early Bird discounts offered to shares paid in full by March 1st. More information to come.

Honey, Jellies, Jams: We have a continued supply of raw honey, old fashioned jellies and jams, and a few syrups. We hope to make more honey and bee products available this year. We will ship within Ohio. Contact us for more information.

Mulberry Creek Farm NewsBlog

Volume 1: Issue 13 – published occasionally at the whim of the editor

12/01/09

In this issue:

Introduction

Garden News

Turkeys, Chickens and Ducks

Egg Update

Hog & Hive Hearsay

Jams & Jellies

Miscellany

It's hard to believe we're in the first week of December and it's been as mild an Autumn as this. As I write, however, the weather forecast calls for much colder temperatures within the next few days - I think winter may be upon us!

The big news on the farm is that in the next couple days we expect to have babies! Luna and Nova are both due to farrow this week, one on Thursday and one on Sunday. We'll welcome visitors to see the piglets.

Garden News

Amazingly, there are still several of the hardier fall greens in the garden - we're hoping they'll still be thriving when it comes time to pack our Christmas Winter Share baskets in a couple weeks! We did have a huge disappointment with our potatoes - the reds are holding out fine, but the whites haven't kept at all. We're not sure why, but that's the way farming goes sometimes.

Speaking of the garden, we're in the beginning stages of planning for next year's planting so if you have any input you'd like to share, please let us know. I posted a few survey questions in last month's NewsBlog and I'll try to get them sent in a separate e-mail as well. 

Glenn already has his grow lights set up indoors and is getting ready to start planting seeds shortly after the new year. He is also making arrangements for about 5 or 6 additional acres for next season which will give us more flexibility in planting, and should help aleviate the flood issues of this year. Additionally, that acreage will act as a buffer between our livestock and the conventional farmer upwind.

Turkeys, Chickens and Ducks

We had rave reviews over the heritage turkeys for Thanksgiving! Donna and John Moore told us it was the best turkey they'd ever had. I'll have to say that we won't be going back to those dry, mushy store turkeys! This was our first pastured, heritage turkey and with my first taste I thought: "This is how turkey is supposed to taste!"

We do have 6 more turkeys that will be ready for processing sometime around Christmas. If you're interested in giving one a try, let us know. Again, we need a $25 deposit to hold your bird and the remaining $5 per pound is due at the time of pick-up. Next year we'll probably need to raise the price, but hopefully not to the $12-$15 per pound for the same birds from farms listing on Local Harvest!

We still have chickens in the freezer and Glenn is growing more. The first batch is due to hatch within days and he's considering hatching on a schedule to keep fresh birds available as much as we can. Again, chickens are $8 each.

Ducks are available on order. If anyone hears of a local poultry processer who does waterfowl, please let us know. Ducks are $10 each.

Egg Update

Our hens are producing around 3-4 dozen eggs a day now and we can cerrainly support more customers. We're offering a discount to any current shareholder who gets another signed up - that goes for eggs, poultry or garden shares. More to come on that later on, but be sure to have your friends mention your name when they contact us.

Glenn is in contact with Bushel and Peck, just a mile or so from us, about carrying eggs from us. We'll keep you updated as we know some of you shop there.

Hog and Hive Hearsay

I already shared the news that Nova and Luna are nearing delivery. We are very excited about having our first piglets on the farm! Glenn has already sold one breeding trio and we anticipate being able to sell others for breeding or feeding out for pork. Mulefoot is supposed to be one of the best tasting porks around. We will likely feed out at least one or two ourselves and hopefully have freezer pork available next fall. Let us know if you might be interested in all or part of a hog - we'll work on coming up with some kind of share plan over the winter.

The bees have hunkered down for the winter but on warmer days we can see some out and about. Glenn's uncle used to keep bees and has given us all his old hives so over the winter Glenn will be cleaning them up. Hopefully next spring we'll be able to begin to expand our honey business.

We do have some honey available. Let us know if you'd be interested - it won't last long!

Jams and Jellies

Our first shipments of jam and jelly have gone out! There's still plenty back there and they make wonderful Christmas gifts. Contact us with your order and we'll make arrangements with you for pick-up. Again, everything is $4 per jar except the seedless varieties which are $5 per jar.

Miscellany

Our fall building projects have come a long way! Glenn has the chicken house nearly complete enough to hold them for the winter, the hog farrowing houses are done, except for light and heat which Glenn is doing today. The spot for the farm stand has been leveled so construction can start as soon as it's warm enough in the spring and Glenn is in contact with two or three people about renting or purchasing an unused greenhouse. It's always busy around here!

We had a bit of an interruption in barn buidling a couple weeks ago when a neighbor created a stir because a turkey pooped on his patio (turkey poop is big!), so we put a fence along the north and west property lines. The down side is that the lane will have to remain muddy for a while as we spent the gravel money on the fence. The good news is the fence will help keep our critters a lot safer. Once we have the fence extended all the way around (west of the creek) we'll be able to do more with livestock. Excellent lawn care!

I guess that's the news from Mulberry Creek Farm! Thanks as always for your support! Please continue it by purchasing a share for next summer and selling us to your neighbors! Don't forget ... eat local!

Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All!

Gail

Apple Butter

Apple Jelly

Apricot Jam

Cherry Pie Jelly

Currant Jam

Elderberry Jelly

Gooseberry Jam

Grape Jelly

Red or White Mulberry Jelly

Mulberry Syrup

Peach Jam

Plum Jams:

Purple Plum

Red Plum

Yellow Plum

Yellow Plum Wine

Sugar-Free Yellow Plum (and this has NO sweetener whatsoever)

Raspberry Jam

Raspberry-Currant Jam

Rhubarb-Peach Jam

White Mulberry Jam

Seedless Blackberry Jam

Seedless Red Raspberry Jam