CSA Newsletter- March 12, 2012

March 12, 2012

We accidentally printed the wrong newsletter today. Here is the one that goes with today’s box.

Double Oak Farm

CSA Newsletter- June 23, 2010

Today in your full share boxes you will find:

Sweet Corn - 8 ears Onions - 2

Zucchini - 2 Cucumbers - 2

Apples - .5 pounds Peaches - 1.5 pounds

Green Beans - 1.5 pounds Tomatoes - 2 pounds

Half shares will have half of the above.

Week four is here and our first month has flown by. This hot, wet weather continues to affect the crops. Some items are flourishing and others are failing. Farming is always an adventure.

One item you have been enjoying for the past couple of weeks is green beans. Many of our green beans are grown by our Amish partner Maddie Marner. She was also responsible for our early spring lettuce and spinach. Maddie has a young family and really appreciates the income from her garden. Last year it paid for all the grocery items she needed, but could not produce herself. We really appreciate her great produce. She always does a wonderful job!

The first sweet corn has arrived. It is always a treat. You also have some of the first apples. The variety is names "Lodi" and is especially good for baking and making sauce. By next week we will also have the first few cantaloupe.

Hope You Enjoy!

Lori Moses

Double Oak Farm

Cucumber and Tomato Salad

Add the tofu to make this a main dish, or leave it out for a great side dish.

1 tomato, chopped

1 cucumber, seeded and chopped

1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion

1/4 cup canned kidney beans, drained

1/4 cup diced firm tofu

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

1/4 cup balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing

salt and pepper to taste

In a large bowl, combine the tomato, cucumber, red onion, kidney beans, tofu, and basil. Just before serving, toss with balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing, and season with salt and pepper.

Grilled Peaches

6 peaches(on the firm side)

2Tbs salted butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

pinch of brown sugar

Cut peaches in half and remove pit.

Heat above ingredients in a small saucepan and mix.

Brush flesh side of peaches with the mixture.

Fire should be fairly mellow(these are after dinner) Place peaches on the grill, flesh side down. After about 5 minutes turn, cook on skin side for 2-3 minutes. You don’t want skins to char or blister. They are ready when the flesh is easily penetrated by a fork-soft but not mushy. They should be golden in color.

Serve immediately. Top with a pat of butter or scoop of vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

Green Bean Salad With Feta

1/2 pound fresh green beans, trimmed,

cooked al dente and cut in half

4 cups mixed baby salad greens 2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon orange juice 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds

Salt and pepper, to taste

In a medium-size bowl, combine greens, beans and cheese. Add oil, vinegar, juice, fennel seeds, salt and pepper; toss.

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CSA Newsletter June 1, 2010

June 5th, 2010

Here is a copy of our CSA Newsletter that comes with our vegetable box subscriptions. I’ll try to add pictures with next week’s box.

Please feel free to add you own recipes in the comment section.

Double Oak Farm

CSA Newsletter- June 1, 2010

Today in your full share boxes you will find:

New Potatoes - 2 quarts Shell Peas - 1 pound

Cabbage - 1 large head Tart Cherries - 1 quart

Tomatoes - 1 pound Zucchini - 2 small

Strawberries - 2 quarts

Lettuce - 1 large head

Half shares will have half of the above.

Welcome to our 2010 Vegetable Box program. We are so excited to begin a new year of great local produce boxes. In your box today you will find an assortment of fresh items from the early garden. Each week you will find new things as they become ready. Because of the hot weather this year some items will arrive early, such as sweet cherries and peaches. Other things will end sooner than usual. We may only have strawberries for one more week!

Each week I will include some recipes for your produce. If you have a great recipe please email it to us or submit it to our blog to share it with others. If you need more of anything please stop by our store at 1120 Washington, or visit us at the Farmer's Market beginning this Saturday.

We are trying a new format for box pickup this year. We hope you enjoy it and we welcome your feedback. Any items not picked up will be donated to Love Chapel on Thursday morning.

Hope You Enjoy!

Lori Moses

Double Oak Farm

Grilled Cabbage

Our favorite way to fix cabbage is on the grill right next to our meat. Just remove the outer leaves and wash the cabbage. Cut it into quarters and remove the stem section. Wrap each quarter in foil and add a small amount of olive or canola oil(or butter), salt, pepper or your favorite seasonings. The cabbage will steam in the foil and slightly caramelize. Just be careful when opening the foil. It will be hot!

Vegetable Frittata

Another favorite recipe for any selection of vegetables is to make a quick frittata. You can use any combination of vegetables you like. The following is for your current veggies:

Ingredients: 1 cup small potatoes cut into pieces, 1/2 cup onions chopped, 2 cups zucchini cut into pieces, 1 tomato, 6 eggs, canola oil, optional cheese or cooked meat.

Using an oven proof pan, stir fry the potatoes, zucchini and green onions until just barely cooked, but still somewhat firm. Make sure the potatoes are starting to get soft. Beat eggs. If you choose add the meat to the veggies. Pour the eggs over the top. Season with salt, pepper, garlic or any favorite herbs. Top with sliced tomatoes and the cheese and bake in a 400 degree oven until the eggs are done. About 20 minutes.

Shell Peas

Shell peas only last a few short weeks in the spring. Ours rarely make it into a recipe. We eat them fresh from the pods right in the garden. After you remove them from the pod they are great in salad, pasta, soup, or just by themselves.

Tart Cherries

Can be eaten fresh, but are most often cooked. If you don't have a cherry pitter, you can remove the pits with the blunt end of a bamboo skewer. Just hold the cherry and push the pit out. Besides pies and cobblers these cherries can be made into a great and easy ice cream topping. See the recipe below.

Ingredients: Pitted cherries - about 2 cups, sugar - about 3/4 cup, 2 tablespoons corn starch, water

Place the cherries in a sauce pan and add about 1/4 cup of water or enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Mix the sugar and cornstarch and add the mixture to the cherries. Heat until thick and bubbly, stirring often. You can adjust the sugar to your own taste.

Half shares can cut this recipe in half.

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Winter Squash and Sweet Potatoes

February 26th, 2010

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So how do you get through the winter eating local foods? I suppose it depends on where you live. For some winter means cool weather gardens and citrus harvests. Here in my snow covered world it is a different story. I mentioned before that the deer finished off all my kale before Christmas. I was hoping it would last a little longer. Fencing is at the top of my to do list this spring.

For years families got through the winter by depending on storage vegetables. Potatoes, root vegetables, and winter squash were dependable staples. I loved the Little House series and remember vividly the descriptions of the attic full of squash, pumpkins, onions and more. I’ve never made a true effort to store fresh food for the winter so this year was a grand experiment. I brought home several varieties of squash, potatoes, apples, onions and more. I was partially spurred on by questions from our customers. Exactly how long would a butternut squash keep? I really didn’t know beyond what I had read.

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I’m happy to say that nearly 6 months after harvest I still have plenty of food. Some has fared better than others. The apples stored in refrigerator are still good, but a little soft. The apples in the garage are only good for sauce at this point. We ran out of onions last week, but they were just beginning to sprout anyway. The potatoes were beginning to taste a little off, but I think that they were getting too much light where they were stored. What is left I will keep for seed. I still have sweet potatoes that are holding up well. The butternut and other small squash are just beginning to show signs of wrinkling, but are still tasty. One or two that were blemished succumbed to mold months ago. The large Hubbard squash, Queensland Blue pumpkins, striped cushaws and pumpkins are holding out well. Now that we have cleared out some of the food from the freezer I will cook them up and store them so that we can have pumpkin pie and squash muffins all summer long. The extras go to the chickens. The devour about a pumpkin a week and it keeps them happy and healthy when they can’t find any grass or greens to eat. You should see the size of the eggs.

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We had the pleasure of eating supper with some dear friends who are also part of our family of growers. Norma Jean served a wonderful Amish meal as always. We had noodles, salads, BBQ turkey sandwiches, the most delicious sweet potatoes, and of course 6 different desserts. I’ve included the sweet potatoe recipe below along with a couple of variations I’ve tried.

Peel sweet potatoes and cut into thin slices. Heat a large skillet and coat with a small amount of oil. Fry the potatoes over medium high heat until slightly soft. Add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with a handful of sugar and continue to cook until brown and crisp on the edges.

Variations I’ve tried include adding onions and frying this together with the potatoes. Add the salt and pepper and the 1-2 teaspoons of curry powder. Throw in a handful of fresh or defrosted frozen peas and a handful of spinach and cook until just wilted. It makes a great lunch by itself or with a bowl of soup.

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Fresh Apple Cider

January 10th, 2010

This blog has been quite for several months now. Life was incredibly busy. But now that the busy holidays are past I can fill you in on all the great food and farm happenings that you missed.

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One of my favorite food adventures this fall was making apple cider. I’ve looked at cider presses before, but could never justify buying one. It’s one thing to buy a butter churn that you use once a year. It’s small and relatively inexpensive and looks really nice displayed on a shelf in the kitchen. But an apple press is a completely different animal so to speak. It is large and expensive and unless you have room for a giant coat rack it isn’t easy to store the other 51 weeks of the year. So even though I love to make things myself, especially my food, I really can’t justify this purchase.

This year at the store we carried fresh pressed cider from Musgrave Orchard outside of Bloomington. It was wonderful. Nothing beats the taste of fresh cider that has not been heat pasteurized. It is complex and sweet and tart and so incredibly full of flavor. We will certainly carry their cider again next year, however it made me wish once again for my own cider press.

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Now at the store we carried over 20 varieties of apples and we had plenty in stock. At the end of the season we had about 20 various bushels left over. I shared my wish for a cider press and DJ came to the rescue. His neighbors had a press and he arranged for us to use it. You will not find them in the pictures because they are Amish, but they were more than generous. They not only lent us the press, but they also helped with the work and made snacks for us to eat. We made sure to leave them with plenty of cider, but we definitely got the better deal.

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So one glorious day this fall we washed and mashed and pressed apples. We strained the juice and drank our fill and bottled the rest. What we couldn’t use right away we froze. When you take it out and thaw it, it tastes like the day it was bottled. Our cider making was very energy efficient. The only energy used was our muscles. Our cider is unpasteurized and un-inspected and unsanitary according to modern beliefs. It would never be approved for sale. But, it is delicious and wonderful and we’ve enjoyed every drop.

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Below are more pictures. I also have links to Musgrave Orchard and to a great do it yourself cider press that I may just have to try someday. And who knows, maybe someday we will have our own official and inspected cider to sell.

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Baby It’s Cold Outside

January 9th, 2010

snow110-018It is cold and snowy outside today. The pond is frozen over. The ice is over 6 inches thick and with low’s below zero predicted that won’t be changing soon. The deer just ate the last of the kale I was saving in the garden. So where in the middle of winter do you find fresh local food to eat? We’ll that answer is actually easy…. if you planned ahead.

Tonight for dinner we had local pasture raised chicken, local sweet potatoes, local acorn squash, and local pears. Over 90% of our meal was raised with in 100 miles of our home.

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We have two small chest freezers. One contains meats and poultry and the other fruit and veggies. Freezing is an easy way to save the bounty of summer for winter enjoyment. This fall our garage became an impromptu root cellar. It holds apples, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes and several varieties of winter squash that are keeping much better than I expected. The basement holds jars of home canned jams, jellies, pickles, fruits and sauces.

Yes, at the time it was a lot of work. But because we care about our food it was a joy. We want to know where our food comes from. We want to know how our food was prepared. We want food that is local and minimally processed. And so the whole family helped to cut fruit and peel veggies and fill jars and freezer bags. Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad, children, they all helped. We are better for the work and better for the good food to eat. It was and is good for us.

And now we reap the benefits. It’s cold outside and I don’t have to go to the grocery store. When I do go there is certainly less I will buy. We are eating great tasting local food in the middle of winter and it is wonderful!

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CSA Newsletter

July 9th, 2009

Well, the printer was having a bad day. It is eating every paper that feeds into it. So this week our CSA newsletter will be brought to you in a greener manner. Let me know what you think. I may just keep this format.

No eggs this week. Some of the chickens are molting and we did not have enough. We will have them next week.

Double Oak Farm
CSA Newsletter- July 8, 2009

Today in your full share boxes you will find:

Sweet Corn - 1 dozen
Roma Green Beans - 1 pound
Yellow squash - 2
Peaches - 1 pound
Cucumbers-2
Tomatoes - 2
Banana Pepper - 2
Cantaloupe - 1
Sweet Onion - 1
Bonus - parsley

Half shares will have half of the above.

It's Fair week and our family is super busy. I have a great group of helpers who will be at the store the next few days. I will be at 4H judging events, and getting ready for the poultry show on Friday. Hope you will get a chance to check out the fair and the 4H projects that our county's youth have worked so hard to complete.

One of my favorite summer treats is tabouli. Our box items this week would work well in this salad. Look for a recipe below. Also don't forget the pie baking contest at the fair next Tuesday. There is nothing like fresh ingredients to make a great pie!

A few of you took the time to submit recipes and we greatly appreciate it! You will find an extra bonus in your box today. We always welcome your great recipe ideas.

Hope you enjoy!

The Tabouli recipe is a healthful and delicious Mediterranean food recipe prepared with cracked wheat, mint, garlic, tomatoes, green onions, olive oil and lemon. An excellent picnic food idea, it tastes great chilled or at room temperature.

Spell it Tabouli, Tabouleh, or Tabule, there’s no confusion about one thing– it’s a really nice departure from ordinary salad recipes, a vegetarian meal in itself.

Tabouli

2 cups cracked wheat (bulghur) AKA couscous
2 cups very hot water
1 cucumber, chopped
2 small tomatoes, chopped
1 bunch green onions, (8) sliced
1/2 cup fresh chopped mint
2 cups fresh chopped parsley
1 clove garlic, minced (optional)

Dressing:
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon pepper
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste

# Soak the cracked wheat in the hot water until the water is absorbed, about 30 minutes.

# Drain any excess water, if necessary, and squeeze dry.

# Combine the salad ingredients, including wheat, in a medium bowl.

# Mix the dressing ingredients together and stir into the salad mixture.

# Serve chilled or at room temperature.

# Makes about 8 cups, 12 to 16 servings.

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Great Recipes!

June 11th, 2009

Because you all are much more creative than I, we have started this new feature on our blog. Send us your recipes for great seasonal produce and we will include them here. Just send them as a comment and I’ll add them for everyone to enjoy. I’ll add my own as I get the chance.

Recipes for this week’s CSA items:

Summerly Squash from All Recipes

  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 small onion, sliced
  • 2 medium tomatoes, coarsely chopped
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 2 small zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch slices
  • 2 small yellow summer squash, cut into 1/2-inch slices
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried basil (or fresh basil from our store!)
  1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook and stir the onion about 5 minutes, until tender. Mix in the tomatoes, and season with salt and pepper. Continue to cook and stir about 5 minutes. Mix in the zucchini, yellow squash, bay leaf, and basil. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove bay leaf before serving.

Roasted Beets from Teri’s Kitchen

  • 1-1/2 pounds medium beets, peeled and quartered
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic
  • Salt and pepper to taste


Preheat oven to 375° F. Place the beets in a small roasting or baking dish in one layer. Drizzle with the oil. Add the garlic, salt and pepper. Toss to combine. Roast until fork-tender, about 30 minutes. Serve hot or room temperature.

Ginger-Garlic Green Beans

1 lb. fresh green beans
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and minced
8 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup low sodium chicken stock

Wash the beans, trim the ends, and cut into 2″ pieces. Arrange beans over vegetable steamer and place over boiling water. Cover and steam 5 minutes, until the green beans are tender crisp. Drain beans and set aside.

Heat vegetable oil over low heat. Add ginger and garlic and saute 3 minutes ,or until tender. Add chicken stock, stir. Add beans, cook 4 minutes stirring occasionally.

Serves 4

Creamy Apple Beet Cabbage Salad

2 c. packed shredded green cabbage
1 c. coarsely chopped roasted beets
2 med. apples, peeled and coarsely chopped
1/3 c. mayonnaise
1 tbsp. prepared mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
Cabbage leaves (optional)
Minced parsley
In large bowl toss to mix well cabbage, beets, apples, mayonnaise, and mustard. Season with salt and pepper and toss again. Turn out into serving dish lined with cabbage leaves. Sprinkle with parsley; chill 1/2 hour. Serves 4.

Apples and Cabbage

1 med. onion, chopped
4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, chopped
1/2 c. white wine or apple juice
1 small head cabbage, chopped

Brown onion in oil. Add apples. Stir to coat, then add wine/juice and cabbage. Simmer, covered until cabbage is translucent. Serves 4 to 6.

This is the only way my children will eat cabbage!

Roasted Beet Salad

12 med.-sized beets (about 3 lbs.)
DRESSING:
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
1 tbsp. granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp. honey-style mustard
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 c. light olive oil
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp. poppy seed
1 c. celery or fennel, cut into 1/2-inch dice
3 tbsp. chopped fresh or dried chives
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash beets well. Trim stems to 1 inch and trim roots. Wrap each beet in aluminum foil and bake until tender about 1 1/2 hours. Remove from oven and slip off skin. Cut into 1/2-inch cubes. Place in bowl.While beets are roasting, make dressing in the bowl of food processor. Combine vinegar, sugar, mustard, paprika and salt. Pulse on and off three times. With motor running, slowly drizzle in the olive and vegetable oils through the feed tube. Remove to a bowl and fold in poppy seeds.

Toss beets with 1/3 cup of the poppy seed dressing. With a rubber spatula, lightly fold in the celery or fennel and 2 tablespoons of chopped chives. Add more dressing or save for another use. Sprinkle remaining chopped chives on top of salad.

Asian Summer Squash from cooks.com

2 yellow summer squash
2 tbsp. sesame oil
1/2 c. soy sauce
Cut summer squash in long thin strips after peeling.Slowly heat oil in shallow fry pan and place squash no more than 1 layer high in pan. Brown slightly on both sides. Pour soy sauce over when all are browned and cover pan. Cook for 3-5 minutes on low heat and serve hot.

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Fresh Berries and Vanilla Ice Cream

May 21st, 2009

I just feasted on strawberries and vanilla ice cream! It is one of my favorite spring treats. My favorite is angel food cake with strawberries and real whipped cream. I did not however have time to make an angel food cake tonight. My grandma used to make them for me and taught me how many years ago. The secret is in the farm fresh eggs (shameless plug). If you’ve grown up on homemade angel food, the store bought kind will never do. It just doesn’t taste right. But tonight the berries and ice cream were just perfect.

Today I brought home several quarts of strawberries that were super ripe. I didn’t think they would still be good enough to sell by morning. Mom and I made quick work of them. We had them cleaned and ready for the freezer in no time. Now we can enjoy spring strawberries all winter long.

I just spent an hour putting recipes on our dysfunctional “recipe” web page. When I tried to save my work it lost everything. It was more than a bit frustrating. So I decided to share a few of my favorites here. I’ve included my favorite asparagus and strawberry recipes.

PICKLED ASPARAGUS

10 lb. asparagus
3 1/2 c. boiling water
1 1/4 c. sugar
3 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
3 1/2 c. vinegar
Garlic
Dill

Combine boiling water, sugar, salt, pepper and vinegar. Wash asparagus, cut into jar length pieces. Blanch in boiling water 2 minutes, cool quickly. Pack into pint jars, putting 1 clove garlic and 1/4 teaspoon dill in each jar. Cover with pickling solution. Process in boiling water bath 10 minutes.

PICKLED ASPARAGUS - with a kick! Add more cayenne if you like it HOT!

1/4 tsp. cayenne
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp. dill seed or 1 head

2 1/2 c. vinegar
1/4 c. pickling salt
2 1/2 c. water

Pack clean asparagus into clean jars, add spices from above, pour vinegar mixture to 1/2 inch of top. Process boiling water bath in 10 minutes.

FOR BIG BATCHES:

10 c. water
1 c. salt
10 c. vinegar

Will do 7 quarts.

NOTE: 1 (20 pound) box of fresh asparagus makes about 10 quarts.

ASPARAGUS SOUP

3 bunches of asparagus
1 quart of cream or milk
1 tablespoon of butter
1/2 tablespoon flour

Boil the asparagus in 1 quart salt water till tender. Drain water off, then add cream. Rub butter and flour together and add before taking from the stove. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with toasted bread or crackers.

Lori's Favorite Asparagus Recipe

One pound asparagus

One pound bacon or proscuitto

One lemon

Wash asparagus and remove ends. Wrap each piece of asparagus with a strip of bacon or piece of proscuitto. Wrap at an angle to cover the entire spear. Secure both ends with a toothpick. Grill over low heat until bacon is done and asparagus is tender. Squeeze fresh lemon juice over the top and enjoy. (You may also cook under the broiler.)

Stir Fried Asparagus

In a wok or large frying pan heat a small amount of canola oil. Cut asparagus into 2 inch lengths and place in pan. Add fresh garlic and salt and pepper to taste. When it turns bright green and is tender, but not soft, it is done.

Frozen Strawberries

Wash and drain and amount of berries. Remove stems and and bad spots. Place on a baking sheet in a single layer so none of the berries are touching. Freeze until solid. Place berries in a freezer safe container or bag. Use as desired.

Fresh Strawberry Pie

1 cooked 9-inch pie shell
1 c. crushed strawberries (I use a food processor)
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1 tbsp. arrowroot (if unavailable, use cornstarch)
1 pt. fresh strawberries, tops removed
1/2 c. heavy cream, whipped
Fill pie shell with fresh whole strawberries. (I usually pick the best looking ones for this part.) Boil crushed strawberries, sugar and arrowroot together, stirring often, until transparent. Pour this syrup over all the berries in pie shell. Chill. Top with whipped cream when serving. (For a real treat double the amount of glaze that you make and pour some between each layer of berries you put in the crust.)
Happy Eating!
Lori

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Good Food and Good Friends

May 16th, 2009

It has been a great week and an exhausting week. The store is open and most things are complete. We still have a few details to attend to, but they should be done soon. We have jumped through the official hoops and now we can sell our eggs. My feet are screaming at me and I’m behind in my book keeping, but I’ve had a wonderful time meeting and getting to know our customers.

We are discovering more local growers and we are happy to have additional products. Rod discovered local oyster mushrooms and local tomatoes that were grown in a high tunnel. They plant the tomatoes in the ground under a tunnel of plastic. We had them for dinner tonight and we all agreed that they had a great tomatoe taste. Not a peak of summer taste, but really quite good and much better than the watery ones we’ve had all winter.

For dinner tonight we had fresh asparagus, broccoli, tomatoes, lettuce and mushrooms all from the store. I could have eaten an entire meal from the mushrooms alone. I sauteed them in butter and canola oil with garlic, salt and pepper. They were incredible.

Tomorrow we will get more strawberries and if we get some nice weather we will have hundreds of quarts by next week.

My dear friend Mary drove out from Cincinnati on Wednesday for our opening day and she was bearing gifts. She and her friends helped me get all the signs finished and out on display. They were a God send and a blessing. I know how lucky I am to have her in my life.

I’m sure the blog will be neglected this summer. I’m busy and exhausted and I still have to finish planting my garden. I’ll try to keep you updated when ever I get a chance. Or you can stop by the shop and see things for your self.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Lori

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Growing, Cleaning and Waiting

May 11th, 2009

Just a few days now until we open the market. Things are progressing SLOWLY! If only I could get things accomplished by sheer force of will we would be ready to go tomorrow. The list is long, but we continue to chip away at it. Eventually it will all be done, I just don’t know if that will be before or after we open.

I had the pleasure of visiting some of our growers last Friday(I didn’t get pictures because it was raining and lightening). It has been so hard to plant this year because of all the rain. If you aren’t able to plant on the day or two that the ground is dry enough it might be a week before you get another chance. Norma Jean’s brothers, sisters and parents all came over last week and planted her large front garden in one evening. I was able to see it when I picked up my tomatoe, eggplant and pepper plants from her green house. I also picked up flower and herb plants to plant and sell at the shop.

Maddie’s garden is gorgeous. She has lettuce, spinach, onions and rhubarb all ready to go. Her peas are looking great and her beans are off to a good start.The day it was finally dry enough and warm enough to plant beans was the day before Maddie’s family hosted their church service. Instead of cleaning and preparing for the 25 plus families that would be there the next day, she was out planting beans. She said the basement was not clean, but she was glad to have the beans in the ground.

Pete has plenty of asparagus for us. I’ll pick it up on Tuesday. The strawberries were barely pink on Friday. A few sunny days would be welcome.

Last Wednesday Miriam and Magdalena had a grand adventure of their own. They voluteered to help clean the shop. One Healy family brought them up in the morning and the other took them home at night. The painted, washed windows and produce tables and in general were incredibly helpful. I have learned how much the Amish like sweets so I took them to Dags for lunch. They loved the orange pineapple ice cream and have told everyone back home about how wonderful it is. In their words it is the best ice cream they have ever had.

The rest of my time has been spent waiting. I’m waiting to have my front bay door fixed. I waiting to know if I will have refrigerators by opening day. I’m waiting for sunny weather so the strawberries will ripen. I’m waiting for the next “official” person to walk through the door with some new requirement ( meaning I write a check, they hand me a piece of paper saying I can sell produce and since they can revoke that piece of paper and keep my money I’ll try not to make to many references to the mafia or socialism). I’m waiting to make some money and not just spend, spend, spend. I’m waiting for the fun of meeting and greeting customers and eating wonderful food and all the fun of being at the shop.

I think I may need to take up Norma Jean’s idea and have a planting party. I have many plants to get into to garden and very little time. Watch for your invitation! Pray for good weather and I’ll see you at the shop!!!

Lori

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