Dumbo / Vinegar Hill / CSA

Greetings,

Tomorrow marks the last CSA delivery for the season at the Dumbo site.  While this was our 3^rd season having a CSA program, we found the logistics of delivering vegetables into the Brooklyn neighborhood an engaging task at times.  I am grateful that my son Will, had the patience to endure being behind the wheel of the delivery van for up to (6) hours at times, for the round trip for those heavier traffic days.  Our season was thankfully, not punctuated with anything out of the ordinary, as far as the regular challenges that we have faced in other summers.  Some crops did better than others during the summer.  The crops that came in heavier yields were represented better in the CSA shares than those items that did not make it to harvest size or quality.

I can honestly say that we, and our farm crew, worked very hard to make this first season go as well as possible, and to provide as many different varieties of vegetables as we could during the course of the season.   In addition, when our yields permitted, we provided significantly more in quantity than what either the partial or full share might have been.

It has been a good learning experience for us and we look forward to making next season even better.  I am pleased with how everything went with the Dumbo CSA program.  We appreciate your support as members and thank you for making the choice to be a part of our Farm CSA.  Your participation quite simply, helps us to farm.  While we rely on our retail sales at the farm and at the farmer’s markets that we participate in, the support we receive from our CSA members is not only significant but important in rounding out our balance of production.

We look forward to seeing those CSA members that plan to visit the Farm this coming weekend, November 16^th, Sunday from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM rain or shine.

Be well,

Fred & Karen

A note from Fred about the Sang Lee product list:
*As you may note, while we grow all of these items on the list, you may or may not have seen all of these items in your CSA box.  This is because, while I plan certain sized plantings, our yields and harvest amounts at times, (for any reason of disease, insect infestation, poor plant germination, etc.) don’t give us enough of a particular item to allow us to have every member of the CSA group to have ‘one’ of that item.  
 
 Sang Lee Farms, Inc.
Vegetable Production list
 

Asparagus Green , Purple Passion
Beans      Green Snap, Waxed & Burgundy
Beets     Red Ace, Golden, White, Striped
Broccoli Chinese Guy Lon, Traditional Head type
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage Green Savoy, Tendersweet, Red, Arrowhead
Napa, Baby Bok Choy, Traditional Bok Choy, Nyu Choy, U-Choy
Carrots Red Dragon, White, Yellow, & Orange
Cauliflower White, Violet Red, Orange, & Romanesque
Cucumbers Asian Seedless, Kirby pickling, Traditional slicers
Eggplant Asian purple, Italian, White, Varigated, &  Specialty
Garlic  German Stiff neck, White New York, Rose,
Greens Baby Arugula, Spinach, Tatsoi, Mizuna, Red Russian Kale, Red Mustard
Leeks
Kohlrabi
Lettuce Red Leaf, Green/Red Boston, Green/Red Iceberg, Red Oak
Melons Sweet Summer, Asian types
Onions Red, White, Yellow Bulb type
Parsnips
Peppers Sweet Bell Types, Purple, Red, Orange, White, Yellow, Green, Hot Chile, Thai
Potatoes Kueka Gold, Norland Reds, French Fingerlings, Yellow Banana
Radish French, Easter Egg, Japanese Daikon, Korean
Rhubarb
Shallots French
Squash Acorn, Delicata, Butternut, Spaghetti, Summer yellow and Green Zuchinni
Sweet Potatoes
Tomatoes Cherry, Plum, Beef, all colors and varieties
Watermelon Red, Yellow, Orange   Seeded and Seedless types

Greetings,

For those that follow the weather closely, you may know that this past Thursday evening, we had a sustained time period (more than a couple of hours) of temperatures in the mid to upper 20 degree range (Fahrenheit), for a good hard ‘White Frost’.  Some folks refer to a Frost of this magnitude as a ‘Killing Frost’.  Any vegetable not cool weather hardy, like our Broccoli, and Cabbage, was killed by this freeze.  The affected crops included all of our Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplants, Squash plants, beans and some others.

Even though the temperatures have moderated and returned to mild temperatures in the upper 50’s, damage to the cells of the frost sensitive plants from that evening, was too great for those plants to survive.  If you’re familiar to what can happen to a water pipe that has frozen, then you can imagine what happens to the cells of these plants that rupture when they are exposed to freezing temperatures.  Knowing that we might have freezing temps, we did our best to harvest as much of these items to put into our barn for storage on Thursday afternoon.  So as not to surprise you if you happen to stop in at the farm stand, we will have a little of some of these items left to sell on the farm stand over the next few days.

With the beginning of the end (of the season) in sight, I always seem to have mixed feelings.  As much as I want the harvests of the season to continue, I also welcome the shorter work days and slower rhythm of the fall and winter on the farm.  It has been a good season to date, and I look forward to begin recharging our batteries soon.

Be well,

Fred & Karen

Greetings,

As we begin to wind down our crop production, there is one important planting that we’ve been doing over the last few weeks that prepare our fields for the winter, our cover crop.  We’ve been doing spot seeding of some sections of the fields with plantings of perennial Rye grass, one of the cover crops we use to protect the soil from wind and water erosion during the winter months. When planted properly, this type of cover crop develops a thick cover of grass to keep the winter winds from carrying the top soil away during those dry windy days that are coming.  The roots also help in holding the soil from washing away during periods of heavy rain fall.  We try to cover crop all areas not having a late fall vegetable growing.

During the early to mid 1930’s there were a combination of circumstances that lead to what was called the “Dust Bowl Days” in the mid west United States.  At that time, drought, coupled with millions of newly plowed acres in the plain States, left bear soil to windy conditions to create huge dirt storms that went on for days, weeks and longer in some cases.  The amount of damage to the soils in those areas was unprecedented in geological history.

Experience has changed farming practices since then to plan for seasonal changes in the weather and to protect the most precious asset on the farm, the topsoil.  With proper cover cropping, there is minimal topsoil loss occurs during the winter months.  As a certified organic farmer, I am obligated to manage our field’s topsoil with cover crops not only during the winter months but also when ever possible during the growing season to help build organic matter and additional nutrients.

Be well,

Fred & Karen

Greetings,

I would guess that most people who have paid attention to the ups and downs of the financial markets lately are surprised to have seen or experience personally, such dramatic decreases in the estimated value of the financial assets they may hold or simply be watching.  Even as just an observer, I have found myself saying, “WOW”, and “OMG!” more than once over the last week.

Truth be told, it is not unlike the dramatic change in estimated yield or harvest a farmer may experience with his or her crop when there is a sudden weather, disease or insect problem.  I have unfortunately experienced all of the above at some point in the history of our farm.  In addition to events that happened with regard to ‘Mother Nature’, I unwillingly had to accept learning the other side of difficult realities associated with vegetable farming from distributors, transportation companies, brokers and wholesalers.  When those ‘dramatic events’ happened with the farm, I found my self saying things just a bit different from the expressions above.

I learned the hard way not to ‘bank on’ the vegetables boxes we were scheduled to ship, until they were harvested, transported, accepted at the dock of the receiver and proper payment credited to our bank account.  Accordingly, things will have to settle out with the financial markets in the many weeks ahead until anyone can tell what have been good or bad investment decisions.

I have to say that providing vegetables directly to members in the CSA has been a welcomed change in our farm production.  It has removed a lot of the intermediate steps involved with distribution of our vegetables, worry, and volatility out of the financial picture of our farm.  From our perspective, it has been a good investment of our efforts.  I hope that knowing your investment in our farm CSA has continued to ‘grow’, with all the moderate weather we’ve been blessed with, and has proved to be a good investment decision for you as well.

The only time I find my self saying, “Wow, OMG!” now on the farm, is when I see how great some of the vegetables look and taste.  I hope you have the same reactions when you receive your CSA vegetables every week.

You’ll hear me saying this more in the future too, Thank You, for helping make our farm CSA happen.

Be well,

Fred & Karen

The fall veggies continue to come in with good quantities across the board so we have a head of Broccoli and Cauliflower for both shares again this week.  Only the warmer type veggies like tomatoes are not as happy with the cooler nights and frequent sprinkles of rainfall.  Supplies of this have dropped dramatically so we have only a few cherry tomato varieties for the full shares for this week.

We have completed the last of our outdoor plantings of transplants and have begun to seed some vegetable items inside our greenhouses.  This morning we started to re-cover one of our larger greenhouses with new sheets of Plastic.  This is required after a number of years, (usually 4-5 years) to replace worn and cracked sheets of polyethylene.  The plastic we use on greenhouse coverings is a special agricultural grade plastic that is heavier (6 thousandths of an inch in thickness) and (UV) sunlight resistant, as compared to ordinary plastic sheeting.

It’s a labor intensive task and will take us several days of work to complete all four sections on this particular house.  It has been (9) years since we last replaced the plastic covering on this greenhouse, and we were very fortunate to have gone that long with the old sheets.  While it isn’t recommended to go that long between changes, I’m happy to have stretched the ‘mileage’ I get from some of our greenhouse plastic.  It’s almost like shutting your car motor off and coasting to a stop sign that’s (10) miles away when you’re only traveling at 30 mph on flat ground to begin with.

Sometimes it works and sometimes you just plain give yourself a HEART ATTACK when you realize, the power steering and brakes aren’t working quite so well with the engine off, or your baby plants just got visited by Mr. Frosty after one of the plastic sheets blew off.

Be well,

Fred & Karen

Greetings,

We’ve had a bit of rain fall out this way over the last few days.  Our total accumulation is approximately (8) inches for the month of September.  This is more than twice the normal amount for this time of year in this area.   While it helps some crops mature, it has been a challenge for some vegetable like tomatoes.  With the excessive moisture on the foliage, disease progression and development is a major concern.  The tomatoes tend to crack at their stem from the extra water content as well.  Noticeably absent from our harvest list tomorrow, we hope to have some tomatoes in the weeks to come, but will have to see how they grow from now on.

Broccoli continues to come in well and our first planting of Cauliflower is ready for harvest.  We plan on having some for both the partial and full share members on Tuesday.  Leeks have just started coming into harvest size too, so we hope to have some for both groups in coming weeks too.

Be well,

Fred and Karen

Greetings,

This week starts our Cabbage harvests with Arrowhead cabbage and Tendersweet Round Cabbage.  We split these (2) varieties between the CSA groups, because this week we only had enough of each cabbage for one group or the other.  Both varieties are equally good for Cole Slaw, stuffing, or casseroles.  Hopefully in the next week or so we can do a reversal and give the other CSA group the other cabbage variety so you can do a taste comparison, (side by side but only if you still have it hiding in your refrigerator, or closet).

Tomorrow’s pack for the partial CSA box will have one head of Arrowhead Cabbage.  You might think it came from Zeldar, (Saturday Night Live with Dan Akroyd’s skits of the “Coneheads’), but it actually came from our farm field. (No guarantee where the seed originally came from.)  With its cone shape, you’ll have the advantage over the Full CSA members because you won’t get it confused with your bowling ball if you happen to be looking for it in the dark.  Then again, if you’ve had a few, you’ll know because you’ll be able to cut this one in half a whole lot easier than your bowling ball.

As far as the Full CSA members are concerned with their Tendersweet variety of round cabbage, well…… they’re on their own for this week.

Be well,

Fred & Karen

THE SANG LEE FALL HARVEST DINNER

Sunday October 12th at 4:30 pm

We will feature the best of the season’s organic veggies fresh from the field to your table, prepared with the most delicious and unique recipes and served under the stars in lovely outdoor elegance.

We will begin with fabulous appetizers and tastings of Castello di Borghese wines, and serve dinner with a selection of our new certified natural meats. After dinner we will gather around a crackling bonfire where you can enjoy warm coffee and a tantalizing dessert.

Please feel free to bring your own wine to compliment your dinner, or if you prefer to order wines from Castello di Borghese Vineyard, we will happy to coordinate that for you.

Please reserve by October 1st. Contact Karen directly by e-mail: karen@sangleefarms.com or by phone: 631.734.7001. Seats are $150 per person paid in advance at the farm or for your convenience by credit card via phone or email. A 72 hour cancelation policy is required in order for those on the wait list to be accommodated.

Bring family and friends and enjoy the incredibly beautiful array of fall foods and farm ambiance. We will assist you with any seating arrangements that you require. We look forward to hearing from you.