EverGreen Farm

CSA Newsletter, Week #23, YOUR LAST DELIVERY OF THE SEASON

In your share this week:

• Carrots
• French Fillet Beans
• Beets
• Parsnips
• Tomatoes
• Italian Parsley
• Cauliflower
• Leeks
• Scallions
• Green Romaine Salad

We made it!  Another large harvest, and most of it put together before the storm hit us on Sunday.  Then there were those last few items we had to finish on Monday and Tuesday in the cold/wet/rain/snow/wind...brrrr!  Yep, it's definately the end of the season.

We shift into farm clean up mode now.  Pulling up drip tape, discing the fields, spreading compost, cleaning out greenhouses, etc.  Lots of work still to do here.  There are still some root crops that can be gleaned from the fields, and maybe a few other things depending on the weather and temperatures.  If you are interested in coming to the farm for more veggies (only you get to do the harvesting this time), please call me.

It's so great that we could provide you with another batch of tomatoes this week.  This is a first for us to give tomatoes harvested right from the vine with our last delivery of the season.  It's also a first for us to have Salad this late in the year.  What a treat!

As this farming season comes to an end, I am feeling very grateful.  Yes, we experienced some struggles and frustrations over these past 7 months, but the good has far outweighed the bad.  So once again I would like to thank you for your support and encouragement.  Thank you for your kind words.  Thank you for your understanding.  YOU are the reason we operate EverGreen Farm & CSA.

Both Shain and I will be posting a few more things on this blog over the next week or two to wrap up of the season.  I will be asking for your end-of-the-year feedback and comments.  I'll also give a little bit of information about sign-ups for next year's CSA.

Have a great week and ENJOY your veggies!

Tara

CSA Newsletter, Week #22 (Second to Last Week of the Season)

Right now we are in the mode of "Harvest as much food as we can, as fast as we can, so we can give you as much food as we can - before the food either freezes or gets covered in snow."  This week I think we did a good job of following this moto.  Next week it's supposed to get really cold, but no snow in the forecast so we are still in business.  Next week will be our last CSA delivery of the season. 

In your share this week:

• French Fillet Beans
• Carrots
• Beets
• Swiss Chard, last of the season
• Parsnips
• Leeks
• Potatoes, last of the season (most are getting Yukon Golds, some Red Norlands)
• Hungarian Peppers, last of the season
• Bell Peppers, last of the season
• Tomatoes (1 bag of small, mostly red, mostly ripe.  And 1 bag of large ones, mostly green.)
• Scallions, *dirty, sorry

*We simply ran out of time to clean up the scallions for you this week.  The vote among the workers today was to send them in the shares dirty rather than go without. 

Another BIG share this week!  The mild fall weather has been so good to us here.  As of today, most of the crops growing inside our greenhouses are still pulling through the freezing nights.  But in anticipation of the temperatures dropping even lower, we decided to harvest the very last of a few sensitive greenhouse crops.  We also decided to pick a lot of our large green tomatoes and send them to you to either eat green or allow to ripen at home. 

All the root crops will do fine regardless of the cold weather.  In fact, the carrots usually get even sweeter.  I remember years past when we had to dig up veggies from under the snow for these end of the season harvests.  Oh, I am loving this October weather.

Take Care and ENJOY your veggies.

Tara

CSA Newsletter, Week #21

In your share this week:

• French Fillet Beans
• Cauliflower
• Spinach
• Leeks
• Parsnips
• Beets
• Tomaotes
• Potatoes
• Cucumbers - last of the season
• Onions - last of the season

This past week has been much like any other week on the farm, full of ups & downs, good & bad, ease & frustration.  Still, too much good to make it worth worrying about the bad.

GOOD NEWS:

It was a real nice surprise to lift up a row cover this past weekend and see heads of cauliflower.  Our first planting of cauliflower (and broccoli for that matter) bolted shortly after planting in the spring.  Shain's "back-up" cauliflower was planted just to see what it would do and there we left it, unattended and nearly forgotten among rows of herbs in field #2.  I could see that the plants were growing bigger under their white coverings, but anticipated the crops to have been devoured by caterpillars.  Nope.  There were plenty of bugs all over the plants, but looks to me like they were mostly eating the leaves.  A very nice harvest of cauliflower indeed. (I apologize if you find a caterpillar in your cauliflower.  There are a lot of small places one can hide no matter how diligently we soaked and sprayed them.)

We got the garlic planted this past week on Wednesday and Thrusday!  The new variety we ordered is big and beautiful!  Looking forward to having great garlic again in the future.  (See bad news below.)

Shain got to see one of his all time favoirte authors speak in Jackson Hole this weekend.  Wendell Berry is a well known advocate of local farms and the agrarian way of life.  Shain said it was one of the best experiences of his life.  I'm so glad we could attend!

I got to take a break from the farm and spend 24 hours with family in Utah.  A nice distraction that left me appreciating the life we have in Star Valley.

BAD NEWS:

Our garlic order was cut back to only 40 lbs. of seed stock (60% less than we ordered).  According to the supplier we ordered from, there is a national shortage of certified garlic seed stock this year.  He searched extensively for more garlic sources to fill his orders but without luck.  The only garlic to be found was to buy from the big companies, but their prices ranged $16 to $26 per POUND.  Choke.  What this means for us is that we will be re-planting nearly all of our garlic next year to build back up to our former levels of production.  I'm going to put out the news right now, for next year our CSA members should not expect to get much if any garlic from us.  This is very disappointing for us and we are very sorry.  (For the record, we tried buying garlic from growers here in our local area.  Most did not have enough to sell us in large quantities.  Or they did not want to sell to us, apparently seeing us as "competition".)

This quick change in the weather, from warm and sunny to cold and wet, has brought us another challenge - mold in the greenhouses.  Mold in some of the young fall crops.  It's a lot of work and a bit of a trick to manage the greenhouses in a way that allows for enough ventillation yet also keeping in warm air to keep plants from freezing.  Mold is not new for us, it happens at the end of every season, but we did not anticipate it's negative affects on the young tender salad greens, kale or chard in greenhouse #5.  We'll have to see how they hold out for harvest time next week.

See, not much to complain about.  Life is good.

Have a great week and enjoy your veggies!

Tara

 

Food Safety Bill

The U.S. Senate is likely to vote on a Food Safety bill (S. 510) when it reconvenes after the election. Unfortunately, as the bill is currently written, small local farms and processing facilities will come under a sweeping new industrial regulatory standard that threatens to put many of them out of the food business. These small producers provide food for our local community through CSAs, farmers markets, local co-ops, and direct sales to consumers.

Sen. Jon Tester (MT), with Sen. Kay Hagan (NC), has an amendment to exempt small, direct-marketing farms and facilities. This amendment is critical to protecting local food systems and giving consumers a choice to buy fresh local products. It would be counter-productive and deeply disturbing if a bill designed to curb the abuses of Big Agribusiness snuffs out local food businesses as an "unintended consequence." Please call your Senators to urge them to vote for the Tester-Hagan amendment.

All of the well-publicized incidents of contamination in recent years – including the recent egg recall – occurred in industrialized food supply chains that span national and even international boundaries.  The food safety problems in this system can and should be addressed without harming the local food systems that provide an alternative for consumers. 

The growing trend toward fresh, local products improves food safety by providing the opportunity for consumers to know their farmers and processors, to choose products on the basis of that relationship, and to readily trace any problems should they occur. 

Farmers and processors who sell directly to consumers and end users have a direct relationship with their customers that ensures quality, safety, transparency and accountability.  For these farmers and processors, new federal requirements are unnecessary and would simply harm both the food producers and their consumers.

Although S. 510 includes some provisions for flexibility for small and diversified producers and processors, the bill still authorizes FDA to impose new hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls on facilities and to dictate growing and harvesting practices for produce.  These requirements will impose significant expenses and burdens on individuals and small businesses.  Please contact Senators Enzi (Toll free: 888-250-1879) and Barrasso (Toll free: 866-235-9553) and voice your support for the Tester/Hagan amendment for The Food Safety Bill (S.510). We need the Tester-Hagan amendment to protect our vulnerable local businesses!

 Shain Saberon

CSA Newsletter, Week #20

In your share this week:

• Fillet Beans
• Carrots
• Tomatoes
• Basil
• Cucumbers
• Bell Peppers
• Hungarian Wax Peppers
• Yukon Gold Potatoes
• Beets
• Spinach
• Onions
• Zucchini/Squash (the last few babies for Jackson folks.  I'm giving up on these plants now.)

 We decided it was best to chop down all the basil plants this week, just in case it freezes again anytime soon.  I love how the plants keep growing back to give us more heavenly basil leaves.  It's been a pretty good year for basil I think.  (Too bad the price of pine nuts is through the roof.  We spent a pretty penny building up our stash of pesto for the winter.  So worth it!  Yes, I know you can use other nuts in place of pine nuts, but Shain is a purest.)

I posted a recipe to our blog for Bruschetta with Tomatoes and Basil.  It is a new favorite.  Or you could make up some fresh salsa with your tomatoes, peppers, and onions.  (We actually had these recipes in mind while putting together our list of produce to harvest this week.  We were a little hungry at the time.)

GLEANING Available!  There are several crops on the farm we will no longer be harvesting.  They are either too old, too ugly, not enough for everyone, or too time consuming to harvest.  These include:  fillet beans, basil, parsley, cilantro, dill, carrots, and salad.  (Clarification:  it's just the earlier plantings of fillet beans and carrots we will no longer be harvesting from.  The later plantings are still doing well and you'll continue to get these items in your shares.)  Most items are still in good enough condition to sort through and eat, or prepare for food storage (freezing, canning, dehydrating, etc.)  More will be added to this list at the end of the month.  There are a few rules about gleaning from our farm.  You must schedule it with me prior to coming and I need to specifically show you where it's ok to glean.  This is only being offered to CSA members and workers, not your friends and neighbors.  You will need to bring your own containers and also clean up after yourself.  Please contact me if you have any questions or are interested.

Have a great week and ENJOY your veggies.

Tara