The Golden Earthworm Farm CSA NEWSLETTER
"To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves." - Mahatma Gandhi
this week's
HARVEST
A Special Note on Farmers' MARKET VALUE
The contents of this week's box is worth between $25 and $28 at our farmers' markets. We will be increasing the value of your shares for the remainder of the season to make up for the smaller quantities you received mid-July through mid-August. Thank you for your patience-- we're expecting an abundant harvest this fall!
Tomatoes
The cooler evenings have slowed the ripening of our tomato crop, but we still have lots of juicy tomatoes for you! This box has over 6 pounds of wonderful tomatoes to enjoy. Make sure you ripen your tomatoes on the counter until they're a deep red & fully ripe! This is our best tomato harvest for a few seasons
Qty: 6+ lbs!
Cherry Tomatoes
Again, make sure these are ripe- either full orange or red, depending on the variety you receive.
Qty: 1 pint
Eggplant
Our eggplants are finally reaching full size. You'll either receive a black or Rosa Bianca variety.
Qty: 1 pc
Swiss Chard -beautiful
We're just beginning to harvest our greens for fall. Many more on the way. Qty: 1 Bunch
Peppers Green Bell
We have very pretty bell peppers this year also. These have a great fresh pepper aroma which permeates the cooler after they are picked!
Qty: 3 medium to large peppers
Lettuce
Qty: 1 Head -red batavian.
FRUIT SHARE
Yellow Peaches, Apples (variety unknown at time of newsletter publication...)
Week of August 28, 2006 ~ Issue #15
HAPPENINGS news & musings from the fields
Hello all,
Maggie is away this week so this is Matthew writing today! Well the weather has certainly changed. Our major concern over the past few weeks has been keeping our 15 acres of remaining crops properly irrigated to ensure germination of new seeds as well as maintaining healthy growth in our existing crops.
Today we spent an exhausting day tromping through flooded fields, boots sinking 6 inches into the saturated soil at each step. Pulling stuck vehicles out from the mud as most of our roads become impassible without tractors are part of the day and washing the harvest extra carefully is also required to remove all the mud. Harvesting vegetables during serious downpours and constant rain becomes quite complicated. No matter how good all the raingear is everyone is soaked through and is looking forward to going home at the end of the day and drying out. We're looking forward to the sunshine again.
Nevertheless, most of the crops will benefit from the water even though it is a little excessive.
We are posting this letter again this week in case anyone missed it last week. We are very happy to finally see our workers again and James and I can finally slow down a little. Now I can tend to my immobile wrist which is very slowly healing and work on all my new very difficult therapy exercises.(Boo-hoo):-)
Recipe idea: Swiss Chard stewed with tomatoes and garlic.
Green peppers are great sauteed with onions and used in scrambled eggs or omelettes. Also great with most types of dry beans(black beans) or sausage.
**IMPORTANT LETTER from your FARMERS**
Dear CSA Members,
Greetings from the farm!
We would like to take a moment to address the lack of diversity and quantity in our CSA shares over the past few weeks. The middle to end of July has always been a difficult transition period for us on the farm. We are between our spring crops and our summer crops, many of which don't come in until August. (Think tomatoes, peppers, eggplants.....)
Although we have had some minor issues with production (large numbers of woodchucks, new insect problems, a couple crops not germinating), the outstanding reason we don't have more quantity and diversity right now is due to problems getting our H2A workers* to the farm. Back at the end of May when we start harvesting, we had a small group of part-time and college intern workers, almost all of whom were completely unskilled. We had no knowledge of when our workers, who have worked with us for a long long time (and who are very skilled at harvesting all the diverse crops we grow), were going to arrive. They were supposed to be here on May 15th, and they just arrived today- August 22! *Note: these are LEGAL workers, so we are trying to go through the proper government channels, as we've done for years now...
WHAT really HAPPENS WHEN WE DON'T HAVE WORKERS?
Back at the beginning of the season, farmers Matthew and James were required to harvest constantly along with the crew in order to train them and get everything harvested on time. Subsequently, we missed some plantings on our seeding schedule which would have matured from the middle of July on through August. Some other summer crops were planted about a week or two later than they could have been so they are just beginning to come in now. (The second rotation of zucchini and cukes are going to be about 3 weeks late...)
Some other losses due to labor shortage... Our kale and swiss chard crops were completely lost because they never got weeded and were not sprayed (with an organic spray) for worms. 1200 bed feet of carrots were turned back in because they couldn't be hand weeded. Carrots are super labor intensive- they involve crawling on the ground and pulling every weed next to every little carrot plant!
BETTER DAYS - MORE DIVERSITY - AHEAD!
Our playing "catch-up" is finally paying off, and almost everything for fall is right on schedule. We have a gorgeous crop of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, winter squash, watermelons, onions, and a variety of greens, root crops, and other vegetables for fall. We are only about 14 weeks into our season, so the bulk of the harvest is still ahead of us!
We THANK YOU for your patience and understanding during this unusually difficult season.
Please do not hesitate to contact us directly if you have any questions or concerns. info@goldenearthworm.com or 631-722-3302.
All the best,
Matthew, James & Maggie
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NEW SITES on LONG ISLAND for 2006
Just to clarify from our notice last week...*WE ARE NOT EXPANDING OUR MEMBERSHIP, BUT CONSOLIDATING OUR SMALLER SITES TO LOCATIONS WITH MORE OVERSIGHT. We're looking for a few new sites for our 2007 season. They may be in new towns, or within communities where we have an existing site. We are looking for sites at community centers (YMCA's, parent resource centers, etc.), or churches or temples. Due to our expanding offerings for 2007, (like Fruit Shares, Egg Shares, possibly Flower Shares...), we will require a site that can be monitored during pick-up. If you have any ideas or leads for us, please let us know! THANK YOU!
IMPORTANT FRUIT SHARE INFORMATION
Fruit should be removed from the plastic bags as soon as you get home. They can be transferred into paper bags for ripening, or you may leave them out in the open air. Fruit left in the plastic bags may rot.
Save the Date! CSA DAY: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15th
We've set the date for our annual CSA Day! Mark your calendars now...more details to come.
RECIPES from the farm & from our friends
SICILIAN EGGPLANT STUFFED w/GARLIC & CHEESE
This is one of our family's favorite recipes of all time. Make it for your family, make if for your friends. Just be sure to serve it with lots of warm, crusty bread and a nice bottle of Sicilian wine, like a Regaleali Rosso. Every time we taste it we look at each other and think....Can life get any better than this?
1 large eggplant or 2 medium to small eggplants
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1 lb. tomatoes
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
sugar
salt & pepper to taste
5 oz. aged provolone cheese
4 cloves garlic
bunches of fresh mint, basil and parsley
Cut off the stem of the eggplant and roll on the counter to soften. Let sit in a bowl w/ salt water for 1 hour. Make slits lengthwise, spaced 1" apart, 1/2" deep, staying away from the ends. Be sure not to cut the eggplant in pieces. It should remain whole- you're just creating spaces to fill with the cheese and garlic. Meanwhile, heat 2 tbsp. olive oil in a casserole dish. Add 1 onion finely chopped, 4 cloves of garlic sliced, and 3 tbsp. of water. Cover tightly and cook for 5 minutes, or until the onion is soft. Then, add 1 lb. tomatoes, chopped. 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper, a pinch of sugar and salt & pepper to taste. Cook an additional 5 minutes. Stuff the eggplants with 5 oz. aged provolone cheese (sliced) and 4 cloves of sliced garlic. Nestle back into the sauce in the casserole dish. Sprinkle fresh mint, basil and parsley over the eggplants and cover. Cook over low heat, turning every 30 minutes for about 1.5 hours. Add water if it begins to stick. Sprinkle with more herbs just before serving.