Dumbo / Vinegar Hill / CSA

Greetings,

Tomorrow Wednesday, August 24th, 2011 is your CSA delivery for week number 12.  Below is the expected harvest for your shares.

We are just rounding the corner of the halfway mark in our 2011 summer CSA season.  Not to count the chickens before they hatch, or the veggies before they are harvested, I am please to say that the season has, so far been a good one.   While we have had a few, very wet periods, a couple of hot stretches, and dry spells, the crops have come through one way or another.   The absence and shortages of some items, have been made up by others that have done alright.

One of the things that can keep me up at night, (and there are a good number of them), is the formation of a Hurricane in the south Atlantic.  The one of concern is Irene, currently a catagory 1 Hurricane just south and east of Cuba.  One storm tracking website I frequently visit around this time of year is listed below.   You can click on the link and follow the progress over the next few days.   A lot of things can happen during the week, so I will paying particular attention to Irene’s progress.  I hope we can continue to have favorable winds as this storm makes it approach toward the continental US during the week.

In the mean time, I hope you’re enjoying the sweet summer melons as much as we are.

Be well,

Greetings,

Tomorrow Wednesday,  August 17th,  is your CSA Week # 11 delivery.  Listed below are the expected harvest items for your vegetable shares.

As many of you know, we have been participating in (3) Farmer’s markets in Suffolk County on Fridays and Saturdays for the past few years.  Every season, each market brings a different group of customers to our farm products.

This past Saturday morning, just before the deluge of rain,  (5 ” on our rain gauge as of this afternoon),  I was at the Northport Farmer’s Market as I usually am,  where I had an interesting brief encounter with two customers.  They were in conversation with each other as they purchased a beautiful head of Green Romaine for $3.00.   “Yes, it looks quite fresh and tasty”, one remarked as she handed me a $20.00 bill.

As you may know, Farmer’s market transactions are mostly cash with a few checks.  In order to service customer’s purchases, I wear a short change apron around my waist where I hold my cash.  There are three pockets where I have Dollar bills in one pocket, Five dollar bills in another and Tens and Twenty dollar bills in the third.  As I went from pocket to pocket, retrieving the appropriate $17.00 in denominations of (2) ones, a ten and a five dollar bill,  both followed my hands and movements with great interest as I suspect they were new to this market and cash type transaction.  I said “Thank You”,  as I handed them their bag and change.  They both seemed to be amused as they turned away with one commenting to the other that,  ” I guess that’s what they do for change at these  Flea Markets“.

It took me an moment to realize what they said before I called out, “Hang on there, this is a Farmer’s market,  and I’m a Farmer !”

To my surprise, they kept walking, apparently, because they did not hear me, or they were still in conversation with each other.   I continued speaking out to them to make sure they understood me and to inform them that,  “This isn’t a  Flea market because I’m a Farmer not  F.Lee.”

This was one of those times where I just wanted to turn over and ‘hit the snooze button’ on the alarm clock.   I can hardly believe the stuff that comes out of my own mouth sometimes.  Needless to say, I did not pursue it further as they continued walking away from our market stall.

Be Well,

F. Lee &  Karen

Greetings,

Tomorrow Wednesday, August 10th, 2011, is your CSA week # 10 delivery.  Listed below is the expected harvest for your CSA Shares.

One of the objectives that we have each week is to make sure that every CSA member receives a good value of vegetables each week.  By this I mean, that if you take the retail value for all the vegetables we deliver each week for your respective CSA share, you’ll see that the dollar amount of what you receive is considerably greater than what you have paid for on a weekly basis.

Your preseason CSA payment was an investment in many of the production costs that go into making the vegetables happen here on the farm.   For those of you that have visited the farm during the open house in May or on other occasions, you saw some of what was involved with getting the fields prepared and seedlings started in our greenhouses.  We are happy that general weather conditions have been good for the season’s progress and much has gone well with our respective yields of each crop.

As long as the yields are good with our vegetables, we will continue to distribute as best we can each week a good value and variety of vegetables for your CSA shares.

Be well,

Fred & Karen

Greetings,

Tomorrow  Wednesday,  August 3, 2011 is your CSA week # 9 delivery.

Life is never dull here at the farm.  As the men and women on the field crews were washing up some of the vegetables harvested on Monday  afternoon, we received notice of severe thunderstorms headed our way.  I instructed the crew to pack up what ever they had out, and we would make provisions to finish the packing and washing the following morning.  It was just a short time later that the lightening started and winds picked up with gusts close to 40 mph.  What ever was not tied down, was blown off the tables at the farm stand.  Large clay pots of staked tomatoes weighing over 100 lbs. were toppled over by the wind among other things.  We lost electric and Internet/cable service as the winds came through.

We were without electric power until around 4 AM this morning.  Without electricity, the compressor on the refrigeration unit cooling our CSA veggies was inoperative.  Fortunately,  the electric transfer box and cable I had installed a few years ago worked well with the generator I purchased back then to run the refrigeration unit.  As much as I’d like to say that everything was ‘pre-tested’ before really having to use it,  the truth of the matter was that it was ‘tested’ when I set it up to run late last night into this early morning.

Just another challenge in getting the best of our vegetables to you in your weekly CSA shares.

Be well,

Fred & Karen

Greetings,

Thinking back on the prior weeks’ wet weather makes me feel like I spoke too soon.  A big clue to knowing that Summer is really here is when we shift into regular irrigation schedules on our plantings as in this morning’s activities.   Today’s irrigation work certainly leads me to appreciate those times when there is just the right amount of rainfall covering every field.  (Is it my imagination, or is the grass really greener on the other side of the fence? )

I know conditions are seldom ever perfect, but if the weather pattern really wanted to make some one’s day go peachy,  then  .75 of an inch per week would put a really  ’Gi-normously Big’ smile on that person’s face, (of course that rainfall would come late Friday evening and be over by early Saturday’s Farmer’s market set up.)

Be well,

Fred & Karen

Greetings,

Well, we certainly are running into the summer ‘thick of things’.  The day or so after we shipped out last week’s CSA veggies we experienced a rapid temperature rise with at least several days during the week hovering around 90oF.   You’ve heard the saying, ‘Stuff happens’, (perhaps in a more colorful way).   As one consequence of the heat, most of the remainder of our Strawberry crop melted in the field and much of the Asparagus spear tips opened prematurely.   I had hoped to have both of these items for one more distribution, but we will have to pass up the majority for both these crops.

As with most things however,  there is always another side to the change of temperatures.   With the warmer days, some of our other crops moved rapidly into maturity.   Lettuce which was in limited supplies before, is now coming on strong and plentiful, along with the development of our squash plants.  Two new items for the full shares this week are Baby squash with the blossoms attached and Garlic Scapes.  For the partial share members, we have the first harvest of Kohlrabi bulbs for the summer.

For those of you that were out early this morning, you’re probably wondering what the heck I’m talking about with warm temperatures when this morning was in the upper 50’s.  While a fluctuation of temperature in the range of 30 degrees feels more comfortable for us, it sometimes brings other issues for the veggies.   More on this later.

In spite of the temperatures, this week’s boxes have greater amounts for both shares than what you might normally expect at this time of year.  As we have done in all past CSA seasons with bountiful harvests from the fields, we pass them along to our CSA members.   Clearly,  there may be other times that the fields will not give us as much, and so there may be less in those week’s boxes.  We hope you can follow the rhythm of the farm season as it comes to us all.

Be Well,

Fred & Karen

Greetings,

Tomorrow is the second to last CSA delivery for the regular 2010 summer season.   Part of the reason why we have had very full boxes for both the partial and full CSA shares over the last few weeks was that we have tried to plant extra amounts of each crop, every week going into the end of the summer.  We did this not just to insure adequate quantities of vegetables, (in case of a storm, insect infestation or disease), for your regular CSA season, but also to begin building the inventory in the field for our planned 2010-2011 second winter CSA.

While it might seem like a simple thing to do, I can assure you that it took extra efforts on everyone’s part here on the farm, (in addition to favorable growing weather),  to get to this point.  I was concerned on a number of occasions when a tropical depression was given a storm name in the south Atlantic.  Fortunately, the storms that formed hurricanes did not make it to Long Island.  While I am not one to ‘ count the chickens before they hatch ‘,  it seems safe to say that both you, the CSA members and us, here on the farm, are fortunate to have dodged the bullet for this summer season.  As long as the weather holds mild, our remaining late fall crops appear to be on track for their expected harvests later in December.

I’d like to say thank you once again for being a part of this CSA and helping to make our season the success it was.   We know that consumers today have many options in their choice of foods and where they get them from.  We at Sang Lee appreciate the choice you make in being a part of our farm through our CSA.  I hope that you can give thought to providing feedback to us via your core group’s year end survey so that we can continue to improve your CSA in the coming year.

Be well,

Fred & Karen

Greetings,

In spite of having 45 + mph winds over the course of several days last week, we still have a bountiful harvest planned for your CSA boxes tomorrow.  On some vegetables, like eggplants or others with leaves, like the beets or radishes, you may notice some cosmetic blemishes on the surfaces or edges of the leaves and vegetables.  This happens under windy conditions such as what we experienced here  last week.  When adjacent leaves rub up against other leaves and the vegetables over the course of many hours, it causes this scarring or blemish to appear.  It is cosmetic in nature and does not affect the eating quality or taste of the vegetables.

On more than one occasion when I was working outside without my hat, I felt compelled to place my hand on the top of my head to check to see if my hair was still there.  Seriously, it was so windy I thought surely  my hair was going to blow right off my head.  Having older relatives with less hair on their heads than myself has made me somewhat conscious of whether I am washing more of my face with each year that passes by.   Thankfully, the wind subsided and I still look pretty much the same, (i.e. with the rug still attached on top),

Be well,

Fred & Karen