Dumbo / Vinegar Hill / CSA

News Archive

Message from our farmers

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

Greetings,

This past week at one of our Farmer’s Markets I was asked for two items that we grow (during the course of the season), but did not have on display for sale. The requests were made by different people perhaps about a half hour apart. I mention this to assure you that they seemed to be unrelated individuals who were asking honestly in a very straight forward manner.

The first request was for asparagus, and the second was for watermelon. While I simply love both those crops and wish I had them for sale, they are well past their harvest windows for us on Long Island now and I do not have ‘enough magical powers’ to make them appear at this time of year. With both individuals, they seemed perplexed when I told them that both those items were out of season for us.

Even though they didn’t say it, I felt from their reaction, that they thought me less of a farmer. I suspect they were thinking that since the grocery store had those items, some other farmer grew it for the ‘local market’ here. What I would surmise is that most people, like those individuals that asked me for those items, do not realize that the average food item, including most of the produce at their local grocery store, travels more than 1,300 miles on the average to get to their local store. You can read more by checking out the link below.

http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/farm_energy/food_miles.html

We really do try our best to grow as many different crops as we can and to put them into the CSA shares as they come into harvest maturity. Accordingly, you will receive greater amounts of fall cruciferous crops like our different varieties of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower etc. in the coming weeks. If you share similar palate preferences to our former President, George W., then I’m thinking these next few weeks may not be your best part of the CSA season.

Be well,

Fred & Karen

Posted in News |

Message from our farmers

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

Greetings,

This past week, we completed our last field transplanting of Lettuces and some other vegetables. We are now at a seasonal peak with regards to the amount of vegetable crops we have under cultivation at one time. I’m not trying to say that every square inch of field space is taken up with a crop for later harvest, but rather that our inventory of ‘plantings’ in the field is at a seasonal peak.

From this point going into the late fall/winter, our acreage of vegetables actively being cultivated will decrease each week, with every harvest. There is only one other peak that we experience, and that is the one in the early Summer/late Spring just before the first vegetable crop is harvested from the fields. From the first day in early spring when we are able to begin planting in the fields, our inventory of crops under cultivation builds in size. Since we do successive plantings every few days, (so that we can have continual harvests through out the season), our acreage increases with every planting up to that date. At that first day of harvest in the late Spring, our acreage then levels off and declines slightly as we work through each crop. Needless to say, we have many crops that do well, and some that I don’t like to think about. Those are the crops that literally ‘bite the dust’. If not on their own from disease or insect infestation, then from my disc harrow. We always plant a little more than what we expect we will need to harvest because we usually experience some ’shrinkage’ from critters of all types and sizes.

If you were to look at a graph of our crop acreage over the season, it would look something like the outline of the back of a camel. That would be of course a Bactrian type with two humps on its back. Come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind having crops that had the water requirements of a camel. I’d give them a good drink of water once in the beginning of the season then forget about them.

Those of you with inquiring minds can follow this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camel

Be Well,

Fred & Karen

Posted in News |

Message from our farmers

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

Greetings,

This week’s harvest is a biggie for both the partial and full CSA members.

If you haven’t watched the weather channel on the web or TV lately, it’s okay, I’ll give you the short version of Hurricane Earl. Good news is, it’s not here yet, and may not affect us here on the eastern seaboard of the US other than a bit of wind and rain. And that’s about it, in a nut shell. If……the storm comes inland or closer to the eastern shore than what is currently projected, then the news is not quite as good.

I personally have a HUGE problem with tropical storms. They give me ‘Hissy Fits’ among other things. One of the reasons why this week’s harvest is more than you would normally expect to see in your shares is that the weather has been great, and everything has been coming into maturity rapidly. Another reason is that we would like you to have what ever we can harvest out of the field in light of what might come toward the weekend. Our greens and leafy items can not tolerate the wind and rain associated with a major storm. We’ll keep our fingers crossed as we can do little else if the good weather fairies are not with us this weekend.

Outside of the weather, this really is the best time of the year for me because……….. the watermelons are ready! Our crop of watermelons is perhaps the most favorite thing on the whole farm for me, (possibly the whole world). It pretty much makes the whole season’s work worthwhile just to munch those guys every chance that I can. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Be well,

Fred & Karen

Posted in News |

Message from our farmers

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Greetings,

It is in a way surprising to me that we are now at the half way point in the CSA crop season. As I walk through the fields doing my numerous periodic checks, there are times I feel like we’ve just only begun our field work, seeing and thinking how much remains to be done out there. Then…. on the other hand, I can’t believe we’ve only come ‘half way’ giving the same thought to how much work we’ve put into the crops and only come this far to date.

Yes, there are days that I wonder, what day of the week it is, (yet alone if I’m still on the planet earth). It sort of reminds me of my high school days when I ran track as an inter mural sport. Those of us on the team that were not blessed with long legs, or could not sprint fast enough to run the short distance events like the 100 yard dash or the 220, were put onto the longer distance events. My event was the (2) mile. There were no other longer distances to run at that time. Little did I know then, how that would help prepare me for having the right perspective on things now. I can’t help smiling when I think that the best part is yet to come as its all ‘down hill’ from this point. One mile down……., and counting……….

Be well,

Fred & Karen

Posted in News |

Message from our farmers

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

Greetings:

Listed below is the expected harvest items for the delivery tomorrow, Wednesday, August 18th, your CSA week # 11.

As we anticipated, we were able to continue the harvest on the sweet cantaloupes this week so that all the partial share members will be able to have a portion.

Thankfully, our tomatoes are doing fine so far with the dry warm weather we’ve been experiencing this season. (This time period last year, I think I was looking up names in a book, similar to an expectant parent, to designate one of the lakes that had formed in one of our fields from all the rainfall we had received up to that date.) This week we anticipate good harvests of both cherry and slicing types tomatoes. Our wonderful bounty in the field simply means more going to both groups of CSA members. There will be a mix of different varieties and colors for both groups.

A point worth knowing is that many of our Heirloom tomatoes may look a bit ‘funky’ or ‘irregular’. Some of these Heirloom tomatoes may have prominent bulges, odd shapes, and some cracks on the surface. As Yoda might say, ” Let not these superficial imperfections lead you to believe these tomatoes are from the dark side”. On the contrary, some of the best tasting tomatoes may be the ones that were truly the least appealing in appearances. When these Heirloom tomatoes are fully ripe, they are so sensitive, you will be able to bruise them just with a disparaging glance, (well, almost). They will be quite soft, such that they will ‘dent’ and give slightly in their surface shape as you pick them up to decide if you’re going to eat them right then or later when you get them home.

As you might guess, there is a fine line between a fully ripe Heirloom tomato and one ‘that has crossed over to the dark side’. Unlike wine, not many of our veggies get better with age, so enjoy them as soon as you can.

Be Well,

Fred & Karen

Posted in News |

Message from our farmers

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Greetings,

We have just started our summer sweet melon harvest, (along with the deer that come into the field every night during the early morning hours). I am hoping that we will have enough for everyone, that is for both partial and full shares, to have a sample portion during the next few weeks. While I can’t be certain that the deer will leave us any, I figured we would start with what we have. This week we have some juicy cantaloupes that will be shared among the full CSA members. I am hoping next week to be able to harvest enough for the partial CSA members to split some too. Since we do not have enough for every member to have one melon each at this time, they must be sliced into quarters. We will try to send in some poly bags to help you with the distribution.

The dry warm weather has been good for disease control and general plant growth, but has presented some challenges for us with the crop requirements for irrigation. We are running our irrigation pumps long hours everyday, seven days a week now. I know we are in the heat of the summer, and it doesn’t seem to matter how many times I get cooled off with a water spray from the field sprinklers, because right around now, I start thinking how I’d just prefer to just have some cooler fall temperatures with a nice evening rain.

Who could ever get tired of summer weather like this, (except me)?

Be well,

Fred & Karen

Posted in News |

Message from our farmers

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

The shares this week include an Asian water spinach called ong choy. It grows under tropical conditions in the greenhouse during July and August. With the extra high temperatures we’ve had this year, this crop is doing very well. Use it as you would a spinach, either raw or sauteed, and be sure to include the stems. They are hollow and as a result are lightly crunchy, adding a delicious finish to your salad.

You will also find some tomatoes in your box this week. They are another crop enjoying the warmer temperatures. We are about two weeks ahead of schedule in their harvest, so hopefully you can enjoy them longer this year.

Be well,

Fred and Karen

Posted in News |

Message from our farmers

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

Greetings,

This week brings a couple of new items for both the full and partial vegetable share members. We have some bunched Baby Kale, fresh snap Beans of different varieties/colors, Red Scallions and U-Choy greens, a popular Chinese Stir-fry item.

This week’s share contents for both groups, Full and Partial members, are ‘fuller than normal’ in part because the warm weather has pushed some of our field crops forward into maturity. I can see that our normal harvest window on some items like our cucumbers is narrowing, and our supply may end sooner than planned. This simply means the availability of these items may be limited later on, but while we have it, it will be given out in your shares.

We have also been experiencing high insect populations in our fields. With the warmer temperatures and having plenty to eat, ’fun in the sun’ was at the top of the list of activities for alot of our field residents. I’m not talking about sitting around pool side watching the World Cup soccer matches on TV. We’re talking about ‘a serious lack of family planning’ on these critter’s part. There were so many ‘newbies’ hanging out on the veggies and field corner’s we might have to start a neighborhood watch program to keep these guys in check and out of trouble. Consequently, you may notice a greater amount of ‘air space’ on the leaves of your Veggies. Rest assured that this ‘Quality Taste Testing’ on their part is just a reminder that they are keeping an eye on your veggies. The best part of this great service is that there is no extra charge for this quality control.

Be Well,

Fred & Karen

———————————————————————————

Hi,

I’m Clark McCombe, one of the family here at Briermere Farm. We are supplying the fruit share for the Sang Lee CSA.

This week we have a bag of peaches, a container of raspberries and a container of blueberries for each CSA member. Remember, in the warm weather we’ve been having, the raspberries are especially delicate. Some of the peaches may need to ripen a bit. Leave them at room temperature, or put them in a paper bag. This does help - the ethylene gas given off by the ripening fruit is trapped in the bag and speeds up the process.

-Clark

Posted in News |

Message from the farmers

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

Greetings,

This week’s challenge wasn’t so much as getting the scheduled plantings into the ground, or to perform any of the other numerous field chores, but to simply keep most of the vegetables alive with irrigation water. On all of our fields, we have a soil texture that is a sandy loam. While it drains well with moderate rainfall, it tends to dry out quickly with 85 to 90+oF temperatures. As you have experienced over the past week, we’ve had both very warm temperatures and no rainfall. Just as we folks loose moisture through respiration and sweating, plants loose moisture through their leaves in a process called evapo-transpiration. I can tell you that quite frankly that our staff or anyone working in the fields were not the only ones wilting over the past few days.

While I’m not terribly proud of the fact that there were some parts of our field that looked like the vegetable plants were ’sleeping’ due to the moisture stress, it was a fact. What I try to avoid in all cases, is the point of no return, which for plants is called the ‘permanent wilt point’. It is something we don’t mind seeing in any of the weeds that have been pulled from the vegetable rows, but not something we like not to happen to any of the vegetable crops.

On another note, I found out that my pickup truck temperature gauge that shows the ambient temperature registers above 100oF quite easily. I happened to glance down at my dash board just as I was turning into one of our fields this afternoon. (I was thinking that I didn’t really need to know that, just plain hot would have been enough for me to think about.)

I haven’t quite gotten into the swing of running under the sprinklers in the middle of the day, but it is definitely an option I am looking into for tomorrow’s sunny forecast of more warm temperatures.

Hope you’re staying hydrated. Below is the expected harvest list for your CSA delivery # 5, Wednesday July 7th.

Be Well,

Fred & Karen

Oh and a BIG PS: Clark, of Briermere Farms, is planning on bringing us the first week’s Fruit share for delivery to you Tomorrow. Yes, it is a week earlier than planned, but the Peaches and mixed berries, are ready and they ain’t waiting for next week to roll around. I just found out, so now, you all just found out. If you have a fruit share, please look for your fruit tomorrow with your vegetable share. Our records have you for (83) fruit shares. Each share is a bag of Peaches, 1/2 pint of raspberries, 1/2 pint of Blackberries, and 1 pint of Blueberries.

This is more than what would normally be given out in a week’s share, but the warm temperatures have moved the berries forward into optimum harvest ripeness. This will mean that subsequent weeks will have less, and since it is starting one week earlier, it may end one week sooner at the end of the season. Hopefully everyone will understand this too.

Posted in News |

Message from the farmers

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

This week we continue to have some supplies of Garlic scapes and Squash blossoms in sufficient amounts to give to some of the CSA members. I will try to give both groups different items during the season so that everyone can get to try all the vegetable varieties we have.

The warm weather has merged several plantings of our Bok Choys together so that they are maturing almost all at the same time, (even though they were planted in different fields 7 days apart for each seeding). While I had planned to alternate weeks between the Full and Partial shares, giving each group different types of Bok Choy every other week, it looks like things haven’t turned out exactly the way I had planned.

I know some of you folks probably are thinking, “Gosh, what are we going to do with all this Bok Choy?” For those of you that are new to our CSA, you might not know that I had Bok Choy almost every day of my life growing up on the farm. So, I’m thinking, “Gosh, they’re only going to have one stirfry in the week, because they have only enough Bok Choy for one meal ??” So, who can figure?

Bok Choy being a member of the cabbage family has basically all the vitamins and nutrients that Broccoli and other members of the cruciferous vegetable group have. I know it’s a good thing to have in your diet, even if it can give you more than your average share of gaseous bodily sounds, like burps and ’stuff ‘.

Our former president, George W. had a diet deficient in Broccoli, and look where our country is now. Now, I’m not suggesting that having ample quantities of Bok Choy in your diet are going to improve the Nation’s economic condition, but I think it’s a good start.

Be well,

Fred & Karen

PS. Monday the 21st, was the longest day of the year in length of daylight, the Summer Solstice.

Posted in News |

Dumbo / Vinegar Hill / CSA