This Week's Share -- Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Vegetable

Several small lettuces, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, parsnips, carrots, tatsoi, salad turnips, Bok choi, acorn squash, celery root, potatoes and garlic. 

Fruit *

Two types of Apples (5 of each type)
1.5 lbs of cranberries

Pasta *

Eggs *

*Fruit, Pasta and Eggs will be take your own again this week.  

Hope everyone enjoyed this year's CSA. 

Happy Thanksgiving.

Letter from John Krueger

Hi Folks, 

We have arrived at the end of another CSA season. I know it’s sad when the season ends. I know it’s hard to say good bye (to your fresh veggies), but I must confess I’m ready for a rest! Of course those of you who have chosen to purchase the stock up share will continue to enjoy the fruits of our labors for several more weeks. The final share of the season is not as bountiful as I would have liked, but we have done our best under difficult conditions. 

The big disappointment this fall has been the brassica crops. We planted thousands of cauliflower plants and more than 10,000 broccoli plants. The cool and frequently overcast conditions that we have had since September caused them to grow too slowly and then, during the past few weeks, night after night of temperatures in the low 20’s has ruined the heads which were finally beginning to form. We are cutting all of the Brussels sprouts that we have and will divide them equally among the members, but it will likely be a small quantity. 

Fortunately we have an abundant supply of root vegetables to take up the slack.  The lettuces that remain in the field are very small, so we are sending 2- 3 small heads of lettuce.  We may include a few extras or surprises as we are able. We have quite a few small sweet potatoes left over which are worthwhile cooking only if you eat the skin, and also some sage which some of you may like for your stuffing.

I’d like to thank all of you for your participation in the CSA program and for your patience and understanding. The members have been and continue to be a critical source of not only financial, but moral support for my farming endeavors. Your appreciation and kind words go a long way in mitigating the frustrations and disappointments inherent in farming. I am so grateful  to the core group members and the site coordinators that work so hard to make it all happen and allow me to do what I love, and what I do best- grow food. I wish all of you Happy Holidays and a safe and healthy winter.

The share for this week will be: Several small lettuces, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, parsnips, carrots, tatsoi, salad turnips, Bok choi, acorn squash, celery root, potatoes and garlic. 

Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!    

Farmer John

REMINDERS FOR LAST PICK-UP ETC.

(1)  Reminder:  Our last pick up is this Wednesday, November 21st from 11 AM - 2 PM.  Fruit, Pasta and Eggs will again be take your own.

(2) Stock-Up Share:  If you want to purchase a Stock-Up share from Starbrite Farm, email us by Monday.  We currently have enough shares to meet the minimum requirement for John Krueger to deliver. 

(3)  Tapadero Ranch Olive Oil:  For those who ordered Olive Oil, Chai Gray will have it there for you at Wednesday's pick-up.  If you did not order and are interested in purchasing, please email Chai Gray at tapaderoranch at gmail.com.  

This Week's shares -- November 16, 2012

Veggie

Potatoes, parsnips, carrots, delicata or sweet dumpling squash, tatsoi or other mustard green, sweet potatoes, daikon or radishes, and Swiss chard.   

Fruit
2 Kinds of Apples
Cranberries

Pasta

Eggs

Enjoy!

Starbrite Farm End of Season "Stock Up" Share - $60

Starbrite Farm will be offering one additional share to be delivered during the week of November 25^th.  This will be a “stock up” share and will include various vegetables that store well, so that you will be able to enjoy produce from the farm well into the winter months. 

The total weight of this share will be between 35 and 40 lbs. Approximately a third of the share will be an assortment of butternut, acorn, buttercup (kabocha), delicata, and sweet dumpling squash. The share will also include an assortment of root vegetables such as carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips, and radishes. The farmer expects that the root crops will comprise about 10 lbs. of the share. The farm had a great potato harvest this season but the onion crop has not kept well.  John Krueger has made arrangements to buy some organic onions from a farm in NY State. There will be about 15 lbs. of potatoes and onions in the share. Also included will be cabbage, and whatever greens he still has in the field at this time, such as arugula or other mustards, and spinach. It is possible that there will be broccoli, cauliflower, or Brussels sprouts, but he cannot guarantee their availability at this time. The cost of this final share will be $60, which is an excellent value, equivalent to a wholesale price for the produce included.

The potatoes, onions and squash can be stored in a cool dry place such as an attached garage or enclosed porch, where they will not freeze. The root vegetables and cabbage will best be stored in your refrigerator. This final share will not work for everyone, but John hopes that many of you will be able to participate. Doing so will help him to make use of the produce that he has in storage, as well as utilize what remains in the fields, and to finish the season with a small amount of profit. 

Farmer John thanks you for your support and patronage.

Delivery Date:  Wednesday, November 28th 

(or possibly Thursday, November 29th)

Time: 11 AM - 2 PM

Cost: $60

Location:  TBD

We need a minimum of 15 people to order the "Stock Up" share for John to deliver.

This is available for all CSA members.

Once we gauge participation, ordering and pick-up details will be sent to those who would like to purchase the share.

If you would like to participate, please email millburnshorthillscsa at gmail.com.

Letter from John Krueger

Hello Everyone, 

I hope that by now those of you who have lost power have had your service restored. It has been a difficult couple of weeks, but hopefully soon things will be back to normal. As of this writing we are still waiting to be reconnected. Most of our road had their electricity restored on Saturday, but a tree took down the line from the pole to the house at our place and the power company did not run the new line when they were in the neighborhood yesterday. They have promised that we will have power back by midnight on Sunday. I hope that this is the truth!  We have been getting by with a generator, which has kept the heat and water running, enabled us to use the lights and the computer and even take an occasional hot shower. We have been cooking on a camp stove with gas canisters that I have been saving for more than 10 years in case of an emergency. The generator does not have enough capacity (wattage) to run the walk-in cooler where we store our crops and because of this we have had some losses. You may have noticed that the lettuces were somewhat small last week; this was due to our inability to keep them cold and having to remove many of the outer leaf which had gone bad.          

We were also prevented from harvesting certain crops ahead of several extremely cold nights we experienced this past week. Two consecutive nights temperatures dipped into the low 20’s causing extensive damage to the crops that are still in the field. It is unusual to have such extreme lows so early in November and I take it as more evidence of the “weirding” of our climate. While nothing was actually killed by the cold, much of the leaf was burned and this slows down the growth and development of the plants. We still have large numbers of broccoli and cauliflower that we are waiting on to head up. It is uncertain whether they still will mature but if they do it is likely that they will produce very small heads.  Even lettuce which is normally quite resistant to the cold was badly burnt. We will have to rely largely on root vegetables and the crops we have in storage for the final shares of the year. It is not the way I wanted to end the season, but this is the situation we are in.

The share for this week will be: Potatoes, parsnips, carrots, delicata or sweet dumpling squash, tatsoi or other mustard green, sweet potatoes, daikon or radishes, and Swiss chard.   

Enjoy!       

Farmer John

Today's Shares -- November 9, 2012

Veggies

Lettuce (probably romaine or green leaf), arugula, potatoes, carrots, radishes,  purple bok choi, choice of an herb, and either broccoli or cabbage.

Fruit

Two kinds of apples
Pears
1/2 Gallon of Apple Cider
Cranberries

Eggs

Pasta

Hope everyone is doing well.

Enjoy!

No delivery tomorrow, Nov. 2nd

All:

Due to hurricane Sandy there will be no CSA delivery tomorrow.

If you have any questions please call or text Melissa at 973-943-6711.

Stay safe and warm everyone.

Today's Shares -- October 26, 2012

Vegetable

Red or green leaf lettuce, radishes, celery root, choice of arugula or broccoli raab, beets, choice of spinach or tatsoi, white potatoes, garlic, choice of an herb (parsley, dill, or cilantro) buttercup squash and either broccoli or red cabbage.

Fruit

TBD (Most likely apples and pears)

Eggs

Pasta

Enjoy!

Letter from John Krueger

Hi Folks, 

It took a few days for the effects of last week’s freeze to manifest themselves and in the end we had substantial damage. Despite our efforts at covering certain crops the cold snap was just too extreme (24 degrees!) and we were unsuccessful in saving them. My hopes of one last harvest of beans have been dashed and the peppers while still alive are unlikely to produce much more fruit. More surprising was damage to crops which are generally quite cold tolerant such as Swiss chard, mustard greens, broccoli, and even kale. While all of these crops are still alive, larger leaf was burned by the cold and they will need some time to recover. On some of the broccoli that was beginning to head up the heads were damaged. I had expected to have loads of broccoli at this time, but it will be a bit longer until this crop is abundant as the loss of leaf slows the growth of the plant. As we move into the final weeks of the season we still have lots of nice stuff for your shares, just not quite as much as I would have liked. The weather is predicted to be mild for the rest of the month, so crops will begin to recover and put on new growth. We will be sending some cardoon as an extra this week. This is a member of the thistle family closely related to artichokes that is grown for it’s stalks. It is an Italian favorite, so if you are Italian or just want to experiment with something new- watch for it over the next few weeks.

The share for this week will be: Red or green leaf lettuce, radishes, celery root, choice of arugula or broccoli raab, beets, choice of spinach or tatsoi, white potatoes, garlic, choice of an herb (parsley, dill, or cilantro) buttercup squash and either broccoli or red cabbage.

Enjoy!        

Farmer John

This Week's Shares -- October 19, 2012

Veggies

Cherokee lettuce, salad turnips, leeks, peppers, choice of hon tsai tai(a flowering Asian mustard) or other mustard green, sweet potatoes, choice of arugula or broccoli raab, white potatoes, choice of spinach or Swiss chard, sweet dumpling squash, and choice of an herb (dill or cilantro).   

Fruit

3 Kinds of Apples

Pears

1 Gallon of Apple Cider

Eggs

Pasta

Enjoy!

Letter from John Krueger

Hello Everyone, 

We had our first frost this past Thursday night, followed by a hard freeze on Friday night. We were scrambling on Friday to harvest anything that remained in the fields that would be ruined by the cold. We covered the late planting of beans which have been flowering heavily in an attempt to salvage the harvest. The beans still sustained some damage in spite of our efforts but are still alive and will hopefully recover sufficiently to produce at least a small crop. The weather is expected to be mild for the duration of October. Up until Friday we still had some tomato plants in the high tunnel greenhouses which were producing small quantities of fruit. These are now dead but were loaded with unripe fruit which was mostly undamaged. We will be sending green tomatoes as an extra this week. These are good for fried green tomatoes of course, but can also be pickled or made into a jam if you are feeling enterprising. We also picked all the green peppers of reasonable size and so will have one last round of small fruit to distribute (yes, peppers are technically a fruit).  Most of what remained in the fields were cold hardy crops and were not greatly affected.  The sweet potato vines were killed but we had already begun digging the tubers any way.  The crop is good although they are not as large as they were last year.

The share for this week will be: Cherokee lettuce, salad turnips, leeks, peppers, choice of hon tsai tai(a flowering Asian mustard) or other mustard green, sweet potatoes, choice of arugula or broccoli raab, white potatoes, choice of spinach or Swiss chard, sweet dumpling squash, and choice of an herb (dill or cilantro).   

Enjoy!     

Farmer John

This Week's Share -- October 12, 2012

Vegetables

Red Boston lettuce, white potatoes, butternut squash, choice of spinach or Swiss chard, arugula or broccoli raab, red onions, choice of escarole or endive (frissee),  parsnips, broccoli or cauliflower or kale, baby bok choi, and choice of an herb-cilantro or parsley and possibly radishes.         

Fruit

TBD

Eggs

Pasta

Letter from John Krueger

Hello Everyone, 

It was quite a rainy one this past week and we are dealing with very muddy conditions here on the farm.  Wet conditions are the norm in the fall and other than making our harvesting a bit more difficult abundant moisture is beneficial to the brassica crops, the carrots and other root vegetables. Nights have been getting progressively colder and we narrowly missed getting frost on Sunday night. We have one more cold night forecast for the end of the week and I expect that we will be covering as many of the delicate crops as we can to squeeze a few more weeks of production from them. 

We have a late planting of beans that has begun to flower abundantly and I am still hoping we can get a couple of weeks of picking from them. We are still working on rotating broccoli and cauliflower through all the groups. If you have not had one of these it is likely you will receive it this week; if you have had both it will be kale. There’s lots more broccoli on the way in the coming weeks.  The broccoli raab is beginning to form it’s small flower buds, so we will offer small quantities as a choice with the arugula this week.

The share for this week will be: Red Boston lettuce, white potatoes, butternut squash, choice of spinach or Swiss chard, arugula or broccoli raab, red onions, choice of escarole or endive (frissee),  parsnips, broccoli or cauliflower or kale, baby bok choi, and choice of an herb-cilantro or parsley and possibly radishes.         

Enjoy!      

Farmer John

Today's Shares -- October 5, 2012

Vegetables

Romaine lettuce, choice of escarole or endive, garlic, acorn squash, yellow potatoes, arugula, broccoli or cauliflower or kale, baby bok choy and choice of an herb.

Fruit

Two types of Apples

Pears

Eggs

Pasta

Enjoy!

PS.  If you purchased Kiwis, please remember to pay Dave at pick up.

Letter from John Krueger

Hi Folks, 

It’s beginning to feel more and more like autumn. We’ve had some very cool nights this past week. We are hoping for at least 3 more weeks of frost free weather so that we can harvest from the final planting of beans and continue to pick summer squash. The eggplant and peppers have already slowed way down in their production. The sweet potatoes are still a bit small and could benefit from another couple of weeks of growth.  We are little by little bringing in enough broccoli and cauliflower to gradually rotate through all groups with these crops. Very soon we will come into heavy production on the broccoli. The cilantro needs one more week to size up and the dill should be ready in 2 weeks. For this week we will be sending chives, thyme, and some of the flavored basils (lemon, Thai). We have beautiful escarole and endive and soon will have a nice crop of radicchio. We have gorgeous salad turnips for this week’s root vegetable. We will soon be digging parsnips and celery root and the fall carrot crop should be ready in about 3 weeks.

The share for this week will be: Romaine lettuce, choice of escarole or endive, garlic, acorn squash, yellow potatoes, arugula, broccoli or cauliflower or kale, baby bok choy and choice of an herb.

Enjoy!   

Farmer John

This Week's Shares -- September 28, 2012

Veggies

Red lettuce, carrots, arugula, choice of tatsoi or other mustard green, red potatoes, peppers, yellow onions, summer squash, spaghetti squash, possibly broccoli or cauliflower  ( if not we will send kale in their place).   

Fruit
Two types of Apples
Pears

Eggs

Pasta

Kiwis 
Remember to bring $4 per pint if you ordered this week.

Enjoy!

Letter from John Krueger

Hi Folks, 

Well, autumn has definitely arrived. We’ve had some quite chilly nights here at the farm and daytime temps are forecast to barely reach the 70’s this week. While it’s good to be done with the extreme heat of the summer, we are hoping for another 3 or 4 weeks of frost free weather. The winter squash crop still needs some time to mature and we have a late planting of beans that is just beginning to flower. We received nearly 2 inches of rain from last Tuesday’s storm and while we had strong winds for several hours did not sustain much damage.

As previously mentioned high winds on the Saturday before last, stripped all the flowers off the pole bean plants, so we are experiencing a pause in our bean production. I had expected to have salad turnips for this week but they are still a bit small, so you will have to look forward to them for next week.  The broccoli is starting to head up more prolifically and we have begun to harvest some cauliflower. A few groups received broccoli last week and I expect we will have enough for a few more this week and the remainder of the groups for next week.  We do have abundant arugula, tatsoi and other mustard greens.  You can anticipate baby bok choy, broccoli raab as well as escarole and endive for next week’s share.  We also have a nice crop of radicchio which is just a few weeks away.  We will begin distributing winter squash this week, starting with spaghetti squash. I don’t expect a bumper crop of winter squash this season so there will probably be one or two weeks when it will not be in the shares between now and the end of the season. We have a beautiful crop of parsnips and will begin digging them in the coming weeks. Also just around the corner- sweet potatoes!

The share for this week will be: Red lettuce, carrots, arugula, choice of tatsoi or other mustard green, red potatoes, peppers, yellow onions, summer squash, spaghetti squash, possibly broccoli or cauliflower  ( if not we will send kale in their place).      

Enjoy!      

Farmer John

Hardy Kiwi -- $4 per pint

All CSA Members:

Starbrite Farm has a relationship with an organic farmer that grows Hardy Kiwi (actinidia arguta).  

Hardy Kiwi (actinidia arguta) also known as Siberian Kiwi is a native of Northern China, Korea and Russian Siberia. It is similar inside to the fuzzy tropical kiwi, but has smaller seeds and a smooth green skin with only a bit of vestigial fuzz on the blossom end. It is super nutritious being 5 times higher in vitamin C than oranges and with twice the vitamin E of avocados. It is also rich in potassium, B-6 and B-2. 

The fruit we have comes from Dave Jackson of Kiwi Korners, Aka, Kiwi Organics in North central PA. A retired Rock drummer, Dave has been working with Kiwi for nearly 20 years and developing his own varieties. 

The fruit is eaten like a grape with the skin. You may pull out the previously noted bit of fuzz before popping them into your mouth. You will receive them in a fairly hard unripe state and will need to keep them out on the counter to ripen for a day or two. They are best and sweetest when they are very soft and the skin begins to darken and get a little wrinkly. In the refrigerator they will continue to ripen but very slowly. You may want to leave some out and keep some in the fridge, and you should return ripe ones to cooler if you are not ready to eat them right away. They are quite delicious but avoid the temptation to eat too many at once as they are also quite acidic. The crop was very short this season, so we are lucky to have them.

Starbrite Farm will be selling Hardy Kiwis for the next 3-4 weeks.  Passion poppers for this week which are smaller but also sweeter than the Annas, which they will distribute next week.  

The cost is be $4 per pint by preorder.  (I expect Whole foods is charging at least that much for ½ pints) You can pay Dave at pick up.

Farmer John needs to know by late today or tomorrow if you are interested.  Please email me at millburnshorthillscsa at gmail dot com ASAP.

Thanks

Melissa

PS This is available to all CSA members.

Letter from John Krueger

Hi Folks, 

The weather at the farm this past week has been, well, seasonable. We’ve been starting our days with chilly temperatures and heavy dew which keep us from getting to work in the fields much before 10 AM. Summer officially ends this week, but it’s already felt like autumn here on the farm for the past week or two.  We received some much appreciated rain last Tuesday and are anticipating more for this Tuesday. The prediction is for heavy rain and strong storms, which is always worrisome. Strong winds on Saturday ripped the blossoms off of the Rattlesnake pole beans which will cause a gap in their production in the coming weeks. 

The cooler weather means the heat loving summer crops have slowed in their production. We will still have peppers for a few more weeks but tomatoes and eggplant are coming to an end. We came up short on tomatoes at the end of last week and several groups did not receive them. We expect to have sufficient quantities to make that up for this week.  

The final summer squash planting is beginning to come on heavy so there will be a few in this week’s share and hopefully a bit more for next week. We are also temporarily out of herbs for this week as we wait for a planting of dill, cilantro and chervil to size up. The good news is that we are coming into greens season; the arugula is gorgeous right now and we have beautiful kale and bok choy. We are anxiously awaiting the beginning of the fall broccoli harvest and we may have enough for distribution to a few groups by the end of the week.

The share for this week will be: Romaine lettuce, peppers, yellow potatoes, radishes, bok choy, arugula, red onions, beans, summer squash, and kale. We will have a few hot peppers and some beets as “extras” for this week.     

Enjoy!      

Farmer John