Dear Friends of the Farm,
Produce: We are halfway through the summer with the completion of this week. We have 9 weeks left of wonderful, scrumptious produce! This week you will be getting red potatoes, white onions, carrots, beans, basil, squash, cucumbers, lemon cucumbers, green peppers, purple peppers, globe eggplant, Japanese eggplant, yellow sweet corn and muskmelon. Some of you will receive beets or turnips.
We are starting to see different kinds of summer squash appearing from a third field of squash. You might see either white or yellow patty pan. It is disk shaped, kind of like a flying saucer. It has a light sweet taste (for a squash). Cube it and sauté just as you would any other squash. Another squash you may see is 2/3 yellow and 1/3 lime green. It is known as a Zypher squash. Zypher squash has a light nutty taste and again, can be prepared just as any other summer squash. These two squashes are my favorites of the season!
First Fruit called and said you can expect peaches next week!
Payments: Your last and final payment is due on September 1st for your farm shares. Statements will go out by the end of this week or beginning of next week. Those of you who are making monthly payments, please continue sending those in every month! Thank you for your support. It has been one of the most interesting years to farm!
Cooking Demo: We are planning a free cooking class & demonstration using our healthy, seasonal produce. Mary Collette Rogers is a member of the farm that runs a non-profit called Everyday Good Eating. The goal is to teach people how to use the local produce when it is in season and at its’ peak of ripeness! This event will take place from 5 to 7pm at the farm on Sunday, September 4th. This will be a very light meal and will include Zucchini Bruschetta with Tomato Relish, a chicken cutting and deboning session, then preparing a Chicken and Vegetable Curry and for dessert Cardamom Coconut Tapioca Pudding. This event is free, but donations are welcome. Iced tea and water will be provided. However, you are welcome to bring a bottle of wine, if you like. Please RSVP your attendance to mcr@everydaygoodeating.com. There is a limit of 16 cooks so email Mary asap!
Festival: We are slowly getting closer to our date for the Harvest Festival. If you have not marked your calendars for this fun event, do so now! We are looking forward to our gathering on September 18th for a beautiful day of fun on the farm! Hours will be 11am to 4pm. We need to know who will be attending this event so that we know how much inventory we need to purchase. Please RSVP no later than Sept 10th. Contact Peg Lehr at wrdwrrior@comcast.net or by phone at 303-329-8506. We will need to know if you are vegetarian and how many people are in your family; adults/kids. We do not encourage people from outside the membership to join us for the festival. This is our Thank You to you for being members. If you do bring guests, it will be $10 a person, adult and children alike. We will also need to know how many adults/kids and whether or not they are vegetarian. A return replay will not be given for your RSVP.
Activities: There will be a pot-luck style lunch. We will provide utensils, drinks, hot dogs and hamburgers, plus all the extras that go with them. We will need you to bring a side dish or dessert. Please double the amount you would normally feed your family.
There will be a few carnival style booths for children & adults that still have a child within them!
There will be a Canning Booth to help you with your canning questions. We will also hold a jam/jelly contest and a pickle contest. Please bring down you best jar and let us see how it stands up to our judges views! There will be a small prize for the winner!
If you are interested in a T-shirt, Hat or Cookbook they will be available to purchase at the Festival.
We will have our annual Stick Horse Race for all horse lovers. We encourage you to make your horse and enter your steed into the race. Prizes will be awarded for best dressed horse and as well as the winners. We will start out with a parade and then the races begin!
There will be Self-Tours of the farm. Loaded with a map and directions, you can explore the buildings on the farm; see animals and the farmland itself.
If you are interested in picking a few crops, we normally have a list of U-pick crops for canning and freezing. We anticipate having tomatoes, chili peppers and (hopefully) a few other unexpected wonderful things to pick. Chili Peppers can be roasted before you leave and we can do this for you for $5 a tray (limit, one tray per family). We will be doing this differently this year. You will need to check in and get a ticket and tray for picking. When you return that tray of chilies; they will be roasted and set aside. You will then match that ticket to one attached to your bag of chilies. We are limited to 40 bushel of chilies. So it is important to check in right away and get your tray. We have to start roasting chilies just as soon as possible or you will be waiting for those chilies to be roasted at the end of the day! (In the past, we were still roasting chilies at 6pm!) You will need a decent pair of shoes for picking crops (flip flops are not recommended)!
I am still working on getting horses and mules to the festival for a field demonstration. Even though I have been talking to these folks for several weeks, I do not have a confirmation on the date! I really want you to see how farming was done with animals when Jerry’s Dad was a kid! So I hope it works out!
We will have an old fashioned apple press available. We ask every family to bring a bag of apples to press; the more varieties, the better the cider. Everyone will be able to get a small glass of cider to try!
Volunteers: I know several of you are anxiously waiting for a time in which you can volunteer on the farm. Now is your chance! The Festival will need several people to help keep it running smoothly! Hopefully you have taken the time to discuss the different activities & what you would be able to do individually or as a family to help during the Festival. Please contact Peg Lehr about volunteering! wrdwrrior@comcast.net or 303-329-8506.
Here is a list of all the jobs that needs volunteers:
Set Up and Produce Choppers: as many as we can get & we start at 8am!
Check-In Station: two people every hour – 11 to 3
“Master” Grillers: two people every shift – 10:30 to 12; 12 to 1:30 and 1:30 to 3
Clear Food Table and Man Drink Station: 1 or 2 people every hour 11 to 3
Empty Trash Cans/Restock Bathrooms: 1 person every hour 11 to 4
Canning “Experts”: 1 person every hour 11 to 3 or 4
T-shirt/Cookbook and Hat Booth: 1 person every hour 11 to 4
Tear Down & Clean Up: Everyone who is still around at the end of the day can help us with this chore! As Grandmother Edith would say, “Many hands make light work.” This takes no more than an hour to complete!
We are very excited about this year’s events. I think the Cooking Class and Demo will be a lot of fun. If there is high interest in this kind of thing; we will work on doing this more often! The Festival is always a good time. It is the easiest way to meet other people who think like you!
Have a good week!
Jacquie, Jerry, Alaina and Kyle Monroe