Dumbo / Vinegar Hill / CSA

We are holding a meeting to kick off the 2010 season.  New and returning members are welcome to join Fred Lee of Sang Lee Farms who provides our vegetables during the CSA season on Tuesday, March 2nd at the Phoenix House 50 Jay St. between Plymouth and Water St.  Please join us at 7:30 to hear Fred speak about the farm and sign up for the CSA in person.  If you are unable to make the meeting but would like to join.  Please check back on March 1st for details on membership if you are a new member.   Returning members, please fill out the forms that were sent to you.

We have two interesting varieties of Cauliflower in your share this week.  One is Red Cauliflower and the other is Romanesco Cauliflower.  Both were late season bloomers with regard to their maturity, hence their appearance so late in the season.  If you haven’t seen either one of these before, I know they’re going to make your eyebrows go a bit higher than they normally sit on your forehead.  For those of you that are science/math fans, you will recognize the Romanesco Cauliflower to have fractal, (self similarity patterns), in its florets.  You might think that I have a seed supplier connection other than those that sell here on the planet Earth, but I can assure you that even if it looks like it might come from another planet, it grew in our field right down the road. (FYI, nature gives us other examples of these same type patterns in snow flakes, crystals, blood vessels, tree and leaf designs, and others.)  What does this all mean?  Just cool stuff to help you continue eating healthy veggies.

This delivery comes as the last week in the 2009 summer season CSA for you.  Thank you all for making this CSA arrangement happen and be the success that it was this season.  We enjoyed meeting those of you that were at the Re-Bar Sunday and we look forward to doing additional seasons and other CSA arrangements with you.

Be well,

Fred & Karen

A new item this week is the stalk of Brussels Sprouts.  The cool wet weather that we’ve had along the way delayed its maturity until this week.  While it may not be on some people ‘to die for list’, I know some of you have waited all year for them.  The subsequent plantings look good, so even if you end up eating this one yourself on your way back home and there isn’t anything left to share with your ‘best buddies’ back there, rest assured.  I specifically planted more so that we could keep these types of domestic disputes to a minimum.  I’m referring to those disputes involving the availability of Brussels Sprouts in the home, heaven knows there so much going on in the world as it is.

Be well,

Fred & Karen

PS.  The Jalapeno Peppers are small medium-warm type.  I tried one and it was very mild, but that’s not to say they are all like that.  If we didn’t give you indigestion last week, here’s another opportunity to test the effectiveness of your antacid tablets in your medicine cabinet.

This past week we saw our first good frost, with air temperatures in some spots of the field falling into the upper 20’s.  While we don’t consider that particular evening’s frost an absolute ‘killing frost’ where none of the remaining un-harvested vegetables survive, it simply signals the coming of the end of the season for us.  Many of our fall cruciferous crops like Cabbage, Cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts do fine in the colder weather, and can tolerate several evenings below 32oF.  We typically make a few plantings of these crops late in the summer to take advantage of the generally mild temperatures that occur here on Long Island between the frosts to extend our supplies.  As long as we have most of the remaining fall days in the 50+ degree range, these immature crops will continue growing to maturity and hopefully be harvestable in the late fall and early winter.  There may be some cosmetic blemishes on the less cold tolerant lettuces and other vegetable greens, but in general the quality remains very good.

A new item in your box this week is sweet potato.  The foliage to these plants was completely burnt by this early frost.  Since no further ripening or growth would occur with the foliage gone, we began the harvest as soon as we could get into that field after the heavy rains.  Yield and flavor look great so far.  We have the first of this field harvest in your boxes, and hope you like them.

Be well,

Fred & Karen

PS.  The Habanero Peppers are the small HOT type.  If you like spicy Hot foods these will be right up your alley.  Please be careful when you handle these peppers.  It is not recommended for young children to help prepare or handle these peppers for meals.  The oils on the out side of the pepper can make you feel like Scarlet O’Hara in ‘Gone with the Wind’.  (The scene I was thinking about was the one where she was crying in front of the burning house.  If you like playing with your food before you eat it, that’s perfectly fine, just wash your hands well (if you’ve handled these peppers) before you bring them anywhere near your eyes to put on your mascara, lashes, contacts, etc. if you know what I’m getting at).

Greetings:

A new item in your share this week is the Cheddar Orange Cauliflower.  Although we have grown this variety now for a few seasons, it still brings a smile to my face when I recall an actual question a customer asked me at one of our markets.  That person asked me with all seriousness, “What’s that?” pointing to the Cheddar Orange Cauliflower.  I replied, “It is an Orange variety of Cauliflower called ‘Cheddar’ ”.  The person nodded their head thoughtfully and then asked me, “Does it taste like Cheese?”  I was somewhat taken back initially, but after a moment of collecting my thoughts, nodded my head and then replied, “No, actually it tastes a lot like Cauliflower”, pointing out that we had some of my neighbor’s Goat Cheese right on the nearby table that tasted a lot like Cheese.

I can only hope that our drinking water does not come from the same source as that person’s.

Be well,

Fred & Karen

Greetings:

One of the items we have planned for every member’s share this week is a mildly warm tasting pepper by the name of Joe E. Parker.   Rarely do vegetable varieties have a person’s name associated with it, but this one does.  We have had good success planting it in past years seeing it as being a reliable performer.  This year it has come thru again although later in the season.

It is described in the seed catalog as a ‘Southwest Favorite’ for grilling and roasting with mild heat and a rich satisfying Chile flavor.  If I didn’t have the good experience I’ve had planting it in the past, I would probably try planting it based almost on that description alone.  I don’t normally go out of my way for peppers with a ‘Chile Flavor’, as I personally prefer sweet bell type peppers.  However, if vegetable seed breeders were to develop a Watermelon tasting pepper sometime in the future, you know that would definitely get my attention.

Be well,

Fred & Karen

Greetings:

For those of you that have seen our fields in the fall, you probably know that now is the time we incorporate the crop residues and what ever plant materials were left after the harvests back into the ground.  Part of these crop residues become a nutrient source for subsequent crops in the following year as the plant materials break down in the soil and add to the organic mater in the sandy loam soils that we have here on Long Island.  In addition, I have been sowing winter Rye grass as a cover crop in some fields to protect the soil from wind and rain erosion in the coming months.  During the next few weeks those fields that have the rye grass sown in them will take on a uniform green lawn like appearance as the cover crop grows in before the first hard frost.

With the recent periodic rainfalls, soil moisture has been good and irrigation activities have not been necessary now for a couple of weeks.  As much as I like the thought of running under the sprinklers for fun, it just doesn’t seem to have the same thrill for me now when some of our morning temperatures have started out in the Forties.   I thought briefly of a comparison like eating a cold water melon on a ski mountain chairlift ride, but realized pretty quickly that was not a good comparison.  Nothing I can think of off hand detracts me from the pleasure of eating watermelon.   It is absolutely, one of the things I will miss the most of summer.

Be well,

Fred & Karen

Greetings:

While our tomatoes and peppers are winding down now, our fall crucifers are coming on with our first harvest of fall Broccoli in your CSA box.  Broccoli along with other members of the Cruciferous/Cabbage family, are considered especially healthy for your diet.   Even if our former President wasn’t crazy about this item, you can plan wonderful meals around this great vegetable.  Over the next couple of weeks we hope to have a sample of all the types of fall crucifer/cabbage we grow for every member.

Growing conditions have been very good and field harvests have been above average.  We hope to have an increase in the number of items we normally would pack in the CSA boxes in the weeks to come.  As long as the harvests remain good like this week, you’ll see more items than normal for your box. This week’s boxes are a reflection of that.  Our good harvests are your gain too.

Be well,

Fred & Karen

Greetings:

Fred returned from the watermelon field with enough to include them in the CSA Shares this week!  Because some of them are quite large, you’ll have to cut sections for every CSA member this week to divide up the shares properly. We hope you enjoy it as much as he did!  The fingerling potatoes are a popular item this year and we are happy to be able to include them again this week.  The string beans may be purple, yellow or green.  The purple beans will lose their color upon cooking.  As soon as they turn green, they are done.

Tomorrow, September 22^nd is the Autumnal equinox (from the Latin aequinoctium, meaning “equal night”) at 5:18 pm EDT.  The sun’s rotation crosses over the equator giving us equal daylight and darkness (12 hours each).  The full moon closest to the Autumnal equinox is called the Harvest Moon.  For us this year, that will occur on October 4^th.  It is called the Harvest Moon because the farmer’s would use the natural light to work into the night to bring in their crops.  These days we just have lights on tractors!

Be well,

Fred & Karen