Please bring a dish or beverage to share and let us know what you plan on bringing on this form. Family, friends and dogs welcome!
When: Sunday, October 14th, 2018, 3 to 6 PM
Where: Brower Park (Meet at the SE corner, near the intersection of Park Place and Kingston Ave)
This week’s share:
No news from the farm this week, but will likely be very similar to last week’s share!
Please don’t forget to RSVP for the farm trip this weekend if you’re planning to go! RSVP to tedblomgren@gmail.com. Camping on the farm is encouraged – all kinds of sites are available within an easy walk of the barns, running water, toilets and electricity. Kids and leashed pets are welcome. Please bring a dish to pass for the Saturday evening potluck.
Saturday, August 5th:
CSA members are welcome to arrive any time after noon.
2:00 pm: First Windflower Farm tour with Ted (tractor and wagon ride)
3:30 pm: Snacks
4:00 pm: Second Windflower Farm tour with Ted (tractor and wagon ride)
5:00 pm: Cocktail hour (byo)
6:00 pm: Potluck. Please bring a dish to share!
Afterwards, bonfire and live music
Sunday, August 6th:
8-10:00 am: Breakfast provided by the farm staff
11:00 am: Davis Family Farm tour: learn about raising pastured chickens for eggs
Noon: depart for other local sites.
Visit other local attractions, such as the:
Southern Vermont Art and Craft Festival: http://craftproducers.com
Washington County Antique Fair and Flea Market: http://www.fairgroundshows.com/
Local wineries: http://upperhudsonvalleywinetrail.com/
Local breweries: http://hudsonvalleybounty.com/Brewery
Local cideries: http://www.saratogaapple.com/
Swimming holes, farmers’ markets, hikes (directions will be provided)
Saratoga Race Track: http://www.saratogaracetrack.com/
Please RSVP to tedblomgren@gmail.com with the number in your party. I hope you can make it.
Have a great week, Ted
Our own CBCSA member, Owen, is going to be giving a make-your-own kombucha tutorial this Thursday from 5-7 PM. Come by to learn how to make this delicious brew right in your own kitchen, as well as to try some yummy samples!
This week’s share: Tomatoes, basil, onions, lettuce, your choice of radishes or turnips, plus cucumbers or zucchinis, depending on your site, and your choice of two greens from kale, choy, collards or arugula. Sweet corn is coming in fits and starts; I hope to be able to include it in your shares with regularity in the coming weeks. We’ve increased the share of heirloom tomatoes in our mix, but are finding getting them to you to be a challenge. The fruit of a vine ripened heirloom is very, very soft, and roads in NYC are very bad. We will try to harvest and ship a slightly greener fruit with the hope that a better product makes it to your kitchen counter. Please keep us posted. Your fruit share will be blueberries. Peaches are just starting.
CSA News from Windflower Farm
Delivery #8, July 25/27, 2017
If you were to fly over our farm you’d not only see a mix of woods, fields and farmland, as Jan and the boys did not too many years ago, you’d also see the hundreds of ponds that dot the landscape. Every farm has a pond, many put in with the help of the depression era CCC program. One of our farm ponds had been stocked with bass. This summer, just as they have been doing for years, herons have been flying from pond to pond in much the same way a trapper tends his trap line. They swoop in, pause to hunt for ten or fifteen minutes, and then move along to the next pond and the next meal. In particularly wet years, they will cruise the wet ditches along our fields in search of frogs.A wildlife biologist from the DEC was here last week. He helped me to assess our deer fence and to identify points of vulnerability. He made the observation that deer, once inside, have a virtual paradise here because of the excellent food supply and absence of predators. To right the imbalance, the logical next step would be to bring in a small family of coyotes. He has given us deer tags to use in the event we cannot drive the deer out of the enclosure. I am loath to use them, but I’d rather do that than explain to you why we have no sweet potatoes or lettuce or delicate squash.
So, our proximity to wildlife can be exasperating. Cedar Waxwings will devour every kind of berry crop, including grapes, blueberries and strawberries, the three we are working hardest to develop here. We now realize we’ll have to install netting over each planting in order to get a crop. Jan has installed bird netting everywhere around our barn complex. Barn swallows are everywhere – they nest in the engine compartments of our tractors, on our tub washing machine and the fans in our packing shed, and on every horizontal (or diagonal) beam on our barn. Safe produce handling requires that we prevent them from invading the places where we wash and pack your vegetables.
That the Upper Hudson landscape is such a rich blending of wildness and domesticity is one of the things that attracted us to this region and, ultimately, to this farm. The wild north of our place offers the best animal habitat and over the years has been the temporary home of black bears, turkeys, martens, beavers, rabbits, foxes, eagles, herons, possums, bobcats, snapping turtles and deer. There are two ponds, two creeks, a cattail swamp and a good-sized woodlot. And it is bordered by hundreds of acres of forest and fields. We do our best not to grow deer food on the few acres of land suited to vegetable production in the northern parts of the farm. Potatoes and onions are our best options. The domesticated southern reaches of our farm are where we grow most of your crops. It’s also where our greenhouses, barns, employee housing and home are. We can hear the coyotes at night, but only rarely do our wild neighbors venture close to home.
If you join us for our open house, I’ll take you on a walk through both the wild and the tame parts of our little farm.
I hope you can make it, Ted
CSA News from Windflower Farm
Delivery #7, July 18/20, 2017
This week’s share: sweet corn, arugula, green onions, squashes and/or cucumbers, lettuces, a choice of two from Swiss chard, kale, choy and collards, and perhaps the first tomatoes and basil of the season. The vegetables of summer are beginning to come! Your fruit share will be the last of Pete’s cherries. I expect to send blueberries next week.Please save the date for our open house on the farm. We invite you to join us and see where your vegetables come from! RSVP to tedblomgren@gmail.com. Camping on the farm is encouraged – all kinds of sites are available within an easy walk of the barns, running water, toilets and electricity. Kids and leashed pets are welcome. Please bring a dish to pass for the Saturday evening potluck.
Saturday, August 5th:
CSA members are welcome to arrive any time after noon.
2:00 pm: First Windflower Farm tour with Ted (tractor and wagon ride)
3:30 pm: Snacks
4:00 pm: Second Windflower Farm tour with Ted (tractor and wagon ride)
5:00 pm: Cocktail hour (byo)
6:00 pm: Potluck. Please bring a dish to share!
Afterwards, bonfire and live musicSunday, August 6th:
8-10:00 am: Breakfast provided by the farm staff
11:00 am: Davis Family Farm tour: learn about raising pastured chickens for eggs
Noon: depart for other local sites.Visit other local attractions, such as the:
Southern Vermont Art and Craft Festival: http://craftproducers.com
Washington County Antique Fair and Flea Market: http://www.fairgroundshows.com/
Local wineries: http://upperhudsonvalleywinetrail.com/
Local breweries: http://hudsonvalleybounty.com/Brewery
Local cideries: http://www.saratogaapple.com/
Swimming holes, farmers’ markets, hikes (directions will be provided)
Saratoga Race Track: http://www.saratogaracetrack.com/Please RSVP to tedblomgren@gmail.com with the number in your party. I hope you can make it.
Have a great week, Ted
Quick Notes:
The next Lewis Waite Delivery is August 3rd. Did you know that you can place an order and edit it up to a few days before delivery? Helpful advice for those who sometimes forget to order until it’s too late (I know I have).
Please bring your own bags, or bring your excess plastic bags to donate to other share members. We’re almost out of the ones at the pick up site. Please also return all egg and fruit cartons so that we can give them back to the farm.
Central Brooklyn CSA 