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Goldfinch Farm CSA
Goldfinch Farm Newsletters
| For Beth's Ramblings and Rants click here. |
Issue No. 2: 14 June 2010
GOLDFINCH FARM CSA NEWS
Farmers: Jon & Beth Weaver-Kreider * 252-3894
www.goldfinchfarm.com * weaverkreider@comcast.net
CSA Pick-up Hours: Goldfinch Farm Tues & Fri 2-7, Sat 9-12
Lancaster Friends Meeting Tues 3:00-6:00
East Chestnut St. Menno Fri 3:00-6:00
What's in the Shares?
The big question every spring is when to schedule the first week of pick-up. Some crops are ready earlier in May, but we usually wait a few
weeks so that it's worth your while to make the trip for more than just a handful of this and a half pint of that. Here in the early weeks of
June, we can offer more items than we could in May, though what you take home today will be rather less than you'll find in your shares in
as we move into July. These are the salad days. Enjoy the sweet tang of the garlic scapes, the crunch of the peas, and the cool crispness
of the salad greens and lettuces.
We've tried to get the latest-bearing strawberries we can, and again this year the weather conspired to ripen them early. Now, a week into
the season, the patch has finished up. We wish we could keep offering them; they were so sweet. For berry aficionados who come to the
farm, we can currently offer pick-your-own mulberries. The trees should be producing for this week at least. Last week, our nephew found
three black raspberries at the edge of the woods, so intrepid berry explorers can look for those as well, though it may be a few weeks until
the wild raspberries and wineberries and blackberries begin to come into their own. In the late summer and fall we will have some
raspberries to offer you.
Garlic Scapes
What in the world ARE those curly things in the bag your spouse/friend/neighbor brought home? They're garlic scapes, the springtime
flower stalk of the garlic plant. When the garlic sends these up in the spring, we clip them off, and the plants work harder to store their
energy in their bulbs, which increases the size of the bulbs you'll get later in the season.
These “by-products” are perfectly edible and quite tasty. Some people even prefer their gentler and sweeter flavor to the mature heads.
Chop them finely—tenderest part of the stem including the flower head—into salads, stir-fries, pesto—anywhere that you normally eat
garlic. When I stir-fry them, I usually put them in later in the cooking to preserve their flavor.
Exploring Sustainable Eating
This spring we were contacted by Sara Hummer, a local woman who has been getting her Masters Degree at the University of
Edinborough in Scotland, about participating in the research she is doing for her dissertation on local food and environmental awareness.
She plans to visit the farm on Tuesday the 15th to chat with farm crew members, and she would like to hand surveys to several
shareholders to get your take on the experience of eating from a CSA and what motivates you to make the eating choices that you do.
If you are particularly interested in giving Sara your feedback and opinions, she'll be here around 2 and for a while afterward.
Plastic Bags
We're always trying to cut back on waste generated by the farm. You can bring your own baskets and boxes and bags for the produce, or
use the plastic grocery bags that we have available. Also, if you have a stash of clean used grocery bags that you were planning to take
back to the store for recycling, we'd be glad to take them off your hands for you.
Cilantro Pesto
Jon made cilantro pesto last fall, and we really enjoyed it. Boil up some whole grain rotini and mix it up with this cool and tasty topping.
The recipe comes from Simply in Season, with our own variation using garlic scapes.
Grind in food processor 3 Tablespoons sesame seeds (optional). Add and process together your fresh cilantro, 1 chopped garlic scape,
¼ teaspoon ground cumin (optional), 2 Tablespoons fresh lime juice or red wine vinegar, 2 Tablespoons olive oil, and salt and pepper to
taste.
Mange Tout
My friend Lynda, who lives in London, has a garden allotment in the city, and emailed me last week about the wonderful array of vegetables
and flowers she had planted, among them mange tout. When I asked about them, she said mange tout means “eat all,” and refers to
peas that you eat in the pods. Looking them up online, I discovered that the name can refer to sugar snap peas, like the ones you have in
your share today.
Pull off the strings along the sides and lightly steam or saute them. Cook them too long and they turn mushy and lose that delightful
crunch. They're also delicious and satisfying when eaten raw.
Getting the Newsletter
I'll be emailing a link to the Goldfinch Farm Newsletter page every time we do another newsletter, which should be every two weeks. We'll
print out some copies of the newsletter on paper for those of you who prefer it hard copy. If you would like to be removed from the email list
or if you have a friend who would like to be added to the list, please email me: weaverkreider@comcast.net.
The Farm Store
We're really excited about this year's coming addition to the farm store. One of our crew members has hooked us up with a York County
organic shiitake mushroom grower. Within a few weeks, we should have some available for purchase in the store. We sampled a bunch
of them, and they're absolutely wonderful.
As usual, we'll have the fridge and freezer stocked with raw milk organic cheeses from John Esh's Green Hills Farm in Quarryville and
meats from the family at Meadow Run Farm near Ephrata. We're also selling John's creamy yogurt this year.
The eggs have been coming through Meadow Run this year so far as well, from the flock of a nephew who pastures his poultry. As long as
their flocks produce enough for us to here, we'll keep buying from them.
The honey in the store is from David Papke, our very own honey-man, who tends the bees on Goldfinch Farm and several farms in the
area. Some of the honey in those bottles comes from the bees who make their home here. We have a limited supply until the end of June,
when Dave will start to harvest honey, and then we'll be able to get more.
Our friend Dave Dietz of Dietz Produce continues to help us get the fair trade coffee and chocolate. Visit him at York Central Market when
you get the chance.
You may buy from the store with a check made payable to Goldfinch Farm, if you choose. If you have particular cuts of meats that you want
to try or varieties of the Peace Coffee that you want us to keep in stock, make a note on the sign-in sheets, and we'll do what we can.
For those of you in Lancaster, we will bring a selection of the coffees, as well as honey and eggs when they are available. We may be able
to take special requests for cheeses and meats as well.
Help?
The book company Herald Press publishes several great cookbooks, like Simply in Season, and a new one called Saving the Seasons,
which I would like to try to sell through the store. I believe I have to have a tax number to do so. If any of you have expertise in the area of
really small retail sales and want to offer me a little advice, please email me (Beth) at weaverkreider@comcast.net. Thanks!
The Poetry of Farming
Here's a poem that my friend Sharon, who collects poems the way a child full of wonder collects lovely stones, sent with her final payment
of the season.
The Arrival
Like a tide it comes in,
wave after wave of foliage and fruit,
the nurtured and the wild,
out of the light to this shore.
In its extravagance we shape
the strenuous outline of enough.
~~Wendell Berry (Collected Poems: 1957-1982)
Moths!
Check out the Gallery page at www.goldfinchfarm.com/gallery.html for photos of the two amazing moths we've seen this spring. This was
my (Beth's) first Cecropia moth. In my hands, it was like holding a tiny winged mammal, with its orange-striped furry body.
Also check out the sign on the back of Andrew's bike: Dandelions are edible.
I'll try to get a picture of today's milk snake sighting up there soon.