September 23 CSA Email

CSA day tomorrow.  Farm Festival on Saturday.  Broilers and ducks still available.  I swallowed a fly.  Lettuce was planted in the ground today.  The turkeys have been informed that they will be guests of honor or Thanksgiving dinners.  They are pleased.  There is a kitten on the farm that could use a home.  A katydid did and another didn't.  What if a katydid catered?

What?   CSA Farm Share Distribution
When?  Tues Sep 23, 3:30-6:00 pm
Where? Waverly Farmers Market
Who?   Rob (319 610 9201) and Jeff Cornforth
Why?  If a katydid did cater, you'd probably have aphids as a main course.

What will be in your share this week:
     Melons/watermelons - again, it depends on what is ready to go.  Probably Pride of Wisconsin this time (orange flesh).  Oh, and there may be some Minnesota Midget (orange flesh) in the high tunnel as well!  We have taste tested each of these... Well, ok, we haven't taste tested the melons we will give you.  Honestly... what were you all thinking?!
    Tomatoes - there are still some hanging in there.  Mostly yellows at this time.
    Peppers - Ace bell peppers and others if we need to supplement.
    Sweet Peppers - we got you hot peppers last week, so you get sweet peppers this week.  Probably Jimmy Nardello's, Tolli Sweet and maybe a few Marconi Red, Chrevena Chushka and Golden Treasure.
   Lettuce - we expect that Australian Yellow Leaf will carry the load this time.  It is a yellow to pale green leaf.  It has slight singeing on the top leaves from the frost, but otherwise is in fine shape with good taste.
   Onions - there are more White Wing onions out there.  So, we'll trot them out to your share one more week. 
   Carrots - Jeff Sage has a crop of carrots for you!  It's been a long wait, but here they are!
   Broccoli, Romanesco, etc - we'll pick enough for everyone to have a choice. 
   Kohlrabi - here comes the fall kohlrabi!  yay!

This is where I usually say - and whatever else I find.  So, I 'll stick with that for now.

-----------FARM NEWS-----------------
1. GFF Poultry
Chickens are now available for purchase.  plenty available.  Cost is $3.30 per pound.  Respond to this note or our prior note if you have interest.  If you know someone else who is, feel free to send our contact information.

Ducks are also available at this time.  $6.50 per pound.  We have about 12 remaining.

If you want to reserve a turkey, now is the time to let us know.  Respond to this note and we will take the reservation.  There will be about 45 birds this year.

2. Most Recent Blog activity The most recent blog posts include:

• A September Picture This post.  For those not familiar with these.  Rob takes recent farm photos, uploads them to a post, then writes about them.  Among the things mentioned is the "Tomato for Five."  Hmmm. What could Rob possibly mean by that?  I guess you'll need to read.
• Also, part II of Lessons in Farming.  This one is "I don't have a solution, but I admire the problem"
  

3. GF7 Festival
Sad that you missed some of our prior festivities?  Well, never fear, GF7 is near.  The annual Genuine Faux Farm Fall Festival and Fetid Fruit Fling will be on Saturday, September 27 this year.  Take the link and read all about it.  This will be our last on farm festival of the year.  If you have been thinking about coming to the farm for a festival this season, I guess you'd better try and find a way to get to this one!  We've ordered some good weather for this one!

4. Here Kitty Kitty
It seems that someone dumped a kitten at our farm.  Sadly, this is not an uncommon occurrence in the country.  This little critter is as thin as a rail and needed to see the vet.  We took her in and she is now on antibiotics and has the first round of distemper shots.  She is about four months old and is a friendly little thing.  We do not currently have a vacancy for a new cat on the farm.  so, if you are looking for a kitten, we've got one that is available.

5. Remember, there are recipes available
We have many on our website on our recipe pages.
There are more on our blog with this topic tag line.
Also, we will consider ordering more of the MACSAC A to Z Cookbooks if there is interest.  Let us know.

6. A Throwback Blog Post
This week, by way of entertainment, I will copy part of a 2010 blog post.  It seems that every September lands Rob with a day or two where he is late to a CSA distribution for any number of reasons.  Here are some examples of what can happen:

• If you reach Stage 3 or higher of our "rainy day stages" and you have a distribution or market to go to, you will be required to change your attire. Have you tried recently to change clothing QUICKLY when you are soaked? I think you all know what I mean. Shirts, underwear, etc all like to roll up into a ball as you try to take them off. There is no way to do this quickly. But, wait, there's more. Try putting dry clothing on quickly! It doesn't work. If you've gotten rain soaked you just can't dry off with a towel as effectively as you can when you take a shower. You either have to be patient and air dry a bit or go through the whole "rolling up" thing with the dry clothing too. UGH! *and no, I did NOT hear your suggestion about au naturale* And, the side effect is seen in the laundry as well. Those tightly rolled balls of cloth are SOCKS. I think.
  
• And in reference to the Law of Expanding Lists. Imagine being in a hurry. But, you have to record something before it gets forgotten. And, it WILL be forgotten if you don't write it down. You get the paper, you get the writing utensil, you write it down. You pause. Something else just came to mind. No, you have to hurry. But, you MUST write it down or you will forget. So, you write it down. Then two more things pop into your brain...... Try explaining this to people when you aren't on time.
• Playing weather predictor is always a good way to stop the train that is our departure for distribution or market. "Hm... those clouds look semi-serious. Should we?" "Do we HAVE to?" "Ya." Put down the cold frame covers, close the house windows, roll down the high tunnel sides, put anything that might blow away into a building, move the tools into the building (you know, the ones you should have put away anyway but wisely thought could wait until you came back). etc etc.
• You packed the truck. It is well-packed. In fact, you are all the way to the back of the truck now. And someone points out that there are three white trays sitting over there (who cares where exactly) that need to go too. The only way to get them into the truck? Unpack the truck and stack the trays in the front with one more tier.
  
• Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Where are my keys. I just had them. Are they on the key hook? No. In one of the pairs of jeans I had to change out of because of a pair of stage 4 events? No. In the car? No. Garage? No. Kitchen table? No. Desk? No. um.... How about ignition of the truck. oh.

 See you tomorrow!
Rob & Tammy