Dear Friends of the Farm;
It is the last week of summer distribution and the time has flown by! Jerry & I would like to thank you for your generous support of this farm. We ended up with a great variety of produce under the circumstances! I understand there were other CSA farms in the area that did not fare as well.
We tried something different with the working members by having Team Leaders. These Leaders came from our Core Group & took ownership in our distribution day by getting everyone assigned job duties, overseeing Distribution, supervising the loading of trucks and even going on deliveries now and then. This was a huge help to Jerry and I and each Team Leader did an outstanding job!
Dear Shareholders,
Wow! It was cold this weekend! Our temperatures dropped to 15 degrees overnight. Just to return to a balmy 25 degrees during the day! I am really looking forward to our warmer days by the end of the week! Somebody tell me; is it supposed to be fall or winter?
The crew is working hard to get all the winter crops harvested for the Winter Share. This week they will be working on harvesting the winter carrots and the green and red cabbage. The carrots will be stored in a pit, six feet underground. The cabbage has a colder room waiting for them in a strawbale building. Hard to imagine, but the pit stays at a warm 55 degrees where the strawbale building will be colder because of being exposed to the weather. Which is just what the cabbage, popcorn, garlic and onions prefer!
We hope to plant next years garlic by the end of the week. Working Members started separating garlic last week. This isn’t a hard job, just a monotonous one! Hopefully the job will be completed this week and Jerry can get it planted by Friday. Continue reading
Well, since I posted that newsletter this week, I’ve seen increased traffic not only here on the Farm’s blog, but on my own blog: Schell Urban Homestead as well. And, I received a great tip from another member and blogger, Annie @ http://www.jeremyandannie.com/, in the comment section of one of my posts. Annie has some amazing pictures of the farm (and all kinds of other fun things) on her blog. Did you know that she received her working membership as an anniversary gift!? How cool is that!
This gave me an idea… to post a members’ blogroll as a way for us to get to know each other a bit and to see pictures and exchange recipes and ideas. We all have at least one thing in common already: loving the amazing, fresh organic produce from Jerry & Jacquie.
So if you blog and are interested in connecting this way, leave your blog address in the comments section on this post. I will add you to the blogroll at the right! In the mean time, check out some of Annie’s recipes on her site or some Thrifty Thursday tips at my own. 😉
Yum! Get a load of those sweet Sugarloaf squash in our shares this week! My favorite way to eat them: cut in half, scoop out seeds, butter the edges and bake for 40-60 minutes. The flesh is great just like that, or with a little brown sugar and cinnamon added for dessert! Delish! You can use this squash the same way you would use pie pumpkins or any other winter squash! It’s delicious!
*image from google search
Dear Shareholders,
This was one of the most interesting years to farm in. We had such a cold and rainy summer! To tell you the truth, we really didn’t know what to expect from the crops that were planted. We have started to use more plastic mulch and drip irrigation every year. This year, it was a god send. The plastic mulch allowed plants to survive the rain as well as thrive. We feel we couldn’t have harvested as much variety without this important part of our irrigation system.
We have now had our first hard freeze. Normally, we can get a frost (sometimes not killing) anytime after the 20th of September. This year it occurred Friday, October 2nd with the low getting down to 25 degrees. Because of the help coming from Working Members and the Volunteers, we were able to get most of the tomatoes and peppers picked for the next few of weeks. We were also able to get most of the sweet potatoes harvested for the Winter Share. Thank you all for your time given to the farm!
I’m sorry I couldn’t get everyone out to pick pickles & tomatoes this year. We got as many people out as the field could handle and still give out the numbers we needed for distribution every week. Unfortunately, that’s what Mother Nature gave us to work with! We can only hope next year will be more plentiful!
This week you are getting Sugarloaf winter squash, red potatoes, yellow onions, carrots, diakon radish leeks, garlic, bell peppers and tomatoes.
Potato Bread
1 pkg active dry yeast 1 cup mashed potatoes, warm not hot
1 1/2 cups warm water 6 to 6 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 Tbsp sugar 1 cup whole wheat flour
3 Tbsp softened butter or vegetable oil 1 tsp salt
2 eggs at room temp. milk to brush over top of loaves
Mix yeast with water in large bowl; let stand 5 min. Add in sugar, butter, eggs and potatoes. Add 5 ½ cups flour, the wheat flour and salt to make a soft dough. Now add another cup of flour to make a smooth dough. Knead dough on floured surface until smooth & elastic – about 5 minutes. Place dough in a greased bowl; let rise, covered, in a warm place until double the size. This will take 1 to 1 ½ hours. Punch down and divide dough into 2 pieces. Shape and place into greased 9X5 loaf pans. Let stand, loosely covered, until double in size – another 45 min. Brush loaves with milk and bake at 375 degrees until golden brown; approximately 45 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on a wire rack.
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Monroe Organic Farms 