Dear Sylvester Manor CSA,

This will be our last official weekly note from the farmer of the 2012 season. Thank you for being with us through thick and thin. We’re looking forward to sharing many more meals with you in the coming years. Over the coming weeks please visit www.sylvestermanor.org and look for weekly produce lists and farm updates on the blog.

Sandy
Hurricane Sandy was a doozy out here on the island, I hope all of you are safe and immersed in the clean-up process like we are. We sustained a few damages- one set of barn doors blew out on our main barn (even though we’d screwed them shut!), we lost some shingles off that barn’s roof, and the end walls of the beloved high tunnel ripped open during the fury. Luckily we wanted to rebuild those end walls anyway. We also lost some large pine trees along the driveway, but they will be perfect to mill up for future farm structures, so we have made peace with the losses. And oh- the most surprising thing? The wind actually blew several beets out of the ground! Steve cooked them up promptly… no word yet on if he can taste the air-oire of Sandy…

All punning aside, the Farmstand is stocked again after the storm, and will be open Saturday from 9am to 1pm. FYI it will be open EVERY Saturday 9am to 1pm from now until Christmas!

Here is what’s available:
Beets (not wind-harvested)
Carrots
Sweet Potatoes
Winter Squash
Pumpkins
Fennel
Napa
Cabbage
Head Lettuce
Salad Mix
Kale
Chard
Dried Cayenne Peppers
Herbs

Also…
Fresh Eggs (Come see the chickens in their new setup behind the farm stand!)

Our Pork products will sell out soon. so come get them while you can. We have already sold out of bacon, but we still have Ham, Sausage, Chops, and Ribs.
Also, we’ve got whole frozen organic Chickens
 from our friends Jon and Karin at Sunset Beach farm in North Haven We’ve also still got our own frozen Tomato Sauce and Pesto- yum!

And don’t forget to reserve your Thanksgiving basket at the farm stand to ensure our veggies are a part of your Thanksgiving feast!

A Note on the Season Review / 2013 Planning

It has been a great season. Thank you all for your patience with us as we continue to grow this farm. We overcame some major challenges this year and in the end most people were happy with how things turned out, all things considered. Still much to improve upon though, and we appreciate your constructive feedback- it will definitely help us to improve the entire experience for all.

Here are some general themes that have begun emerging from the review process:

People love:
The community aspect- great meeting, talking, sharing on saturday mornings
Preserving/Cultivating Land and supporting Sylvester Manor Educational Farm’s programs.
Products from off-farm like bread, cheese, etc and have asked for more.
The beauty of the Windmill Field, the farmstead and the site in general
The educational aspects- cooking, farm ed, new veggies

People want:
To have more greens & onions & several other crops more consistently
To re-explore the Swap Table
To reach out more aggressively to year-rounders
To find a way to accommodate people who struggle to pay for a full share all at once

There is much more feedback than this, but these are some initial themes. Steve and I will work to include them in our overall farm planning for 2013, which has begun in earnest this week.

As I said, This will be our last official weekly note from the farmer of the 2012 season. Thank you again for being with us through thick and thin. We’re looking forward to sharing many more meals with you in the coming years.

Sincerely,
Bennett & Steve, and Emily, Cassie, Cara, Gunnar, Edith, Melissa Mundy (new!), Kathleen Minder and all of the volunteers and staff who helped out over the year.

This week:

Greens are back!
Beet greens, Kale, Chard
String beans
Lima Beans
Hot peppers
Sweet Peppers
Tomatillos OR Eggplant
Winter Squash
Plus one or two surprises

The biggest news is Plant & Sing, our annual festival celebrating the art of food and the turning of the season generally.  This year master musician BELA FLECK and his wife ABIGAIL WASHBURN are donating a headline set on saturday evening.  We’ve got over 100 volunteers already and this is shaping up to be a wonderful event.  In addition to 10 bands there will be a full literature lineup, old tools and tractor demos, a contra dance, a film…  check out www.plantandsing.com for full details.  Tonight will be an amazing film put together by Joe Lauro of roots music films- at the Library at 5:30p.  We hope you’ll join us all weekend.

Challenges:
-It’s really hard to put on a festival and run a farm at the same time.  Whew!  Lucky we’ve got so many great volunteers (Did I mention we’ve got over 100 for this weekend alone?!)

- Less daylight and more rain makes it hard to get the stuff you want to get done done.

- Losing crew to autumn.  This is the time when our young crew of woofers and interns start heading off into the wide world.  They work so hard that the hole they leave, logistically and in our crew dynamics, is hard to fill.

Successes:
- The rain has made the fall greens so happy.  And this is the best stand of beets I’ve ever seen.   Next week you’ll get the beet roots. Yum!

- The pumpkin and squash patch is awesome.  Hope you’re loving the taste of these guys.  Net week we’ll start distributing jack-o-lantern pumpkins.

- Morale is high and the crew has carried a strong work ethic and good attitude from summer into October.  Please thank them and shake their hands when you see them this weekend and next.  That attitude has been matched by you, our CSA subscribers.  Thank you for setting the tone with our young people.  I feel so lucky to be able to work with both groups.  Let’s end this season with a bang!  See you at Plant & Sing!

Bennett

This week:
Big Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes – PYO
Green, Yellow, Purple Beans – PYO
Basil – PYO
Sweet Peppers
Hot Peppers
Tomatillos
Husk Cherries – PYO
Watermelon
Sweet Potato Greens (cook like spinach leaves)
Spaghetti Squash
-maybe a surprise?

Don’t forget to pick up some special pork, chicken, or sweet pepper relish this week at the farmstand…

Challenges:
- Ploughing, prepping and seeding the big back field while also taking care of Windmill Field veggies.
- Not enough heat to make the sweetest muskmelons. They are still tasty, in my opinion, just not mind-blowing. More of a flavorful feast than a sugar-bomb. Some of you might like that.
- Rogue bees and wasps! They are getting feisty as fall approaches…

Successes:
- Ploughing, prepping and seeding the big back field while also taking care of Windmill Field veggies.  (we’re doing it thanks to our hard-working farm crew)
- Top notch Oats & Peas cover crop germination. Means lower weed pressure next year, more organic matter, healthier soil ecosystem and fewer pests.
- The Watermelons are as sweet as when you were a kid…

General Notes:
- Lots of PYO at this time of year, come ready to explore the field!
- Now is the time to make Basil Pesto. Pick extra and freeze it for the winter.
- Some things will sell out this week, if you’re interested in one thing or another, come between 9a and 10a… a little tip for those who read this far!

See you Saturday…
Bennett, Steve, Emily, Cassie, Souha, Noah, Paula, Roz and Edith!

This week:

Big tomatoes
Small tomatoes
Basil
Tomatillos
Eggplant
Green, yellow and purple string beans – Pick Your Own!
Sweet peppers
Hot peppers
1 or 2 surprises?

Summer continues, somehow, with our heat-loving crops… but honestly, bring on the fall weather!

Challenges:
+ Melons are sooo close! But they’re not quite getting the heat they need to sweeten up! Give a small prayer for sun this weekend… very frustrating that we’ve not got more.

+ Fall seedlings struggled to gain traction- we tried a new (cheaper) soil mix, but it just didn’t work so well. Back to good old VT Compost Company mix next time…

+ Too humid. Lots of split tomatoes and surly, sweaty farmers.

Small Victories:
+ Seeded down cover crop of oats & field peas on our old lettuce/chard/squash beds and rolled them in with our ancient cultipacker. They germinated with Tuesday’s rain! Check them out…

+ Return of Emily, Roz, Brian, Kira, and Souha (!) to the fields, and the arrival of a new wwoofer, Noah from Great Neck, who will be staying the end of the season. He’s a great mandolinist, and a cheerful worker. Lucky us!

+ Transplanted lettuce, Kale, Napa Cabbage and weeded the heck out of the beets, which look incredible. You won’t be disappointed by our beets this fall.

Cook up a storm this weekend!
Bennett

This week:
Onions
Big Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Hot Peppers
Sweet Peppers
PYO Green, Yellow & Purple Beans
PYO Basil

Challenges:
- August rain gave us weedy carrot beds! Where’s that basket-weeder we’re looking for?!
- College kids are back at college- fall crew arrives next week… short of hands this week.
- Timing is crucial for fall plantings, more so than spring. Interested to see how the timing of our fall harvest will work out.
- Mike Loriz and Gene Shephard began ploughing the big back field- but it is full of roots and small Russian Olive stumps… tough on our gear. Also exciting! First time it’s seen a mouldboard plough since 1992.

Victories:
- Volunteers in the field! A beautiful thing to see… THANK YOU to the golden dozen folks who showed up to help us out. Great work.
- It will be fun to have onions again- this time they’re barn-cured and juicy… enjoy!
- This weather is incredible. Whoever arranged it, we owe you…
- Planted fall lettuce and swiss chard in the field yesterday and today!

Fun:
Now that your knives are all sharpened, bring them again and learn some simple chopping/cutting techniques from Chef David.

Labor Day snacks provided by Edie Landeck, Kate Dinkel, and… you?

Thanks everyone…
Bennett, Steve, Cassie, Leah & the rest of the crew…

THIS WEEK:
Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Tomatillos
Husk Cherries
Chard
Sweet Peppers
Hot Peppers
Eggplant
PYO Basil
PYO Beans

FIELD NOTES:
Tomatoes continue to roll out of the field. We hope you are enjoying them as we slip into deep summer. This is what everyone (it seems) has been waiting for!

Of course, in farming you have to be thinking constantly one month, one season, one year, one decade ahead, so in that spirit, this week we started cultivating our fall root crops- specifically, we hoed between rows and aisles of beets and carrots. Look for them in late September/October.

The winter squash and pumpkins are looking great, feel free to take a walk up the hill to check out the patch of big-leafed plants on the ridge. Incredible good-health in this area right now. The plants look good, the soils look good. It’s nice to see.

In the challenge department we’ve been re-supporting and pruning tomatoes, which gotten quite out of control. Next year we are going to have to find a trellising system that is more robust than the “california weave” which most farmers around here use. Our plants are just too big and too strong for it!

We’ve been peeking in at the melons, there are a few that have reached a nice full size but we’ve got no ripeness yet. Send your best ripe-melon vibes our direction, please.

All the best!
Bennett, Steve, & the Sylvester Manor Farm Crew

This week:
Fresh Field Tomatoes – Big
Cherry Tomatoes
Hot Peppers
Sweet Peppers
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Pick-Your-Own String Beans, Green & Purple
Rainbow Chard
Pick-Your-Own Basil

Challenges:
- The weed seed bank is so full, and with these mid-summer rains we haven’t gotten the break from weeding we expected! The fall carrot bed, planted 2 weeks ago, is very weedy, and we’re working hard to keep those little guys strong and healthy and not choked by purslane and chickweed.

- Cukes continue to struggle! The wet weather hasn’t helped. Thank you for savoring what we’ve got.

- Summer Squash have turned the corner into old age, and squash bugs are starting to run rampant. We’ll be harvesting the last this week, then mowing & tilling in those plants.

Success:
- The high-tunnel (hoophouse!) Tomato plants are a sight to behold, I recommend everyone take a walk up to check out how we’re doing it. We’ve been restricting water to those plants to encourage sweet fruits, and results are encouraging. I really think growing these guys under cover is the way to go given our weather here. Under there it’s a little slice of Tuscany- exactly what these plants want.

- The survey process was a success- it gave instant feedback on how you all feel about the produce, (all over the map, but mostly positive) and the distribution (decidedly positive.) We’ll do a follow-up survey on Labor-Day weekend to drill down more into what’s worked/what needs improvement.

- Chard. All of this chard is coming out of two beds, about 150′ long. The rain has been perfect for them, and so has Shepsi’s management of the plants for large, extended harvests. Hope you’ve figured out a dozen ways to cook it- enjoy all that Potassium and Vitamin A…

Looking Forward:
- Beans will fill out and get perfect for sautéing. Yum!
- Our late-summer Buckwheat cover crop should be emerging any day now.
- Spent 2 hours revising our fall field map with Steve today. Can’t wait to share fall greens, winter squash and sweet potatoes with you!

All the beans,
Bennett Konesni, Steve “Shepsi” Eaton and the Sylvester Manor Farm Crew

PS. I’ll be away at a funeral this weekend and at a family gathering the following Saturday, so Steve is your farm leader for the next two distributions. He is more than capable- enjoy working with him, an exceptionally perceptive, dedicated young farmer!

This week:
Basil
Big Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Eggplant (Only for last names beginning A-K)
Green Peppers
Hot Peppers
Rainbow Chard
Summer Squash

Weather
This time of year I find myself circling back to other summers to compare. We’ve been lucky to have a warm relatively dry summer with periodic rains up until about two weeks ago. Int he last two weeks, rains have started coming more frequently and more from the south, bringing high humidity and a different character- hot, driving, almost tropical rains.

We’re hoping this change won’t bring on the tomato late blights that have hit this area in 2 of the last 4 years. Some neighboring suffolk county farms have it, some don’t. It can be devastating, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed that our strategy of heavy pruning, extra spacing, and high tunnel protection will keep the blight at bay.

Rainy Saturday?
Looks like it might be a bit rainy this Saturday. Expect the delicate items to be under the farmstand, and less delicate things to be under a tent as we did 2 weeks ago. This makes the distribution a bit more cramped for everyone, so thanks in advance for your patience. On the plus side, we’ve hardly had to irrigate this summer- a genuine relief, since our tubing and sprinklers are 4 years old and in need of an update (this winter!)

Feedback Systems
You could think about farming as a system of clear feedback loops- that farmers either do or don’t listen to. Every action we take is reflected back at us through the diseases and pests that appear in the field, the puddles that form in the roads, and the complaints we hear from you, our co-producers. Part of my job here is to set up these systems so that the messages we receive are heard and our practices are updated.

This is always a challenge but this year we’ve got the CSA core group and a new Farm Advisory Committee to help collect and make good on the feedback we’re getting. More on these committees in future notes- just know that they exist and are a crucial part in the management of this farm. Over the long term we will have a very strong farm thanks to their help. In particular, we are working on a digital and paper feedback system that we can use to record comments and thoughts from you, each week.

Eggs
Based on your feedback, the imperfect solution to our egg shortage has been to bring in eggs from other backyard island flocks, which we did last week. The last 8 people to show up got eggs from the Clarks on South Ferry rd. and Matt’s Organic Eggs on Stearns Point Road. It will probably be the same this week. So, not our own eggs for the latecomers, but at least we’ll save you some driving around the island. I think by supporting backyard flocks around the island we’re making the best out of a difficult year.

Carrots
We’re happy to announce that we got solid germination on our fall carrot crop! Looking forward to sharing those with you in September and October.

Winter Squash & Pumpkins
Are looking very healthy. We’ve been able to stay on top of the weeds and thin them appropriately. They’ve turned the corner from seedlings into adolescent plants, sending out runners and creating a genuine “patch.” Feel free to take a walk up the hill to admire them this weekend.

Chef David
David Lapham will be making some summer classics:
-Sautéed squash and goat cheese
-Tomato with basil and mozzarella
-Hot & sweet pepper

Music
Music will be at the Shelter Island Farmer’s Market at the Shelter Island Historical Society’s Havens House- be sure to go check it out, sing a song or two, and to pick up whatever else you need for dinner.

See you Saturday!
Bennett & The Sylvester Manor Crew

This week:
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Hot Peppers
Sweet Peppers
Summer Squash galore
plus one or two bonuses!

Farmer’s Note
August is here and with it the best of the summer crops: Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Peppers, and beyond. But farming is subject to so many variables, with the good stuff we have run into some classic challenges and successes…

Challenges:
- Eggplants are coming, but not in large numbers. Remember back to the flea-beetle attacks of early June… this is where we pay the price and pray that we’ll be able to give people at least one or two out of our single 200′ bed. The other two beds were completely ravaged one night in June and never recovered.

- Cucumbers. One 200′ bed is going gangbusters, the other 2 200′ beds are experiencing a certain… malaise. Not sure why these two identical beds, very close to each other, would be reacting so differently, but I suspect it has something to do with crop rotation and/or timing of rains in June.

- Eggs- the saga goes on- we’re not losing hens like we were earlier in the season, but they are in their mid-summer lull… Sorry to all of you who are deferring. We’re keeping the list and going to stretch the distribution out into the fall as long as we have to to make it right. And we’re looking into getting eggs from other island stands for you, which was a suggestion last saturday from one of you, but I don’t have a guarantee yet for this week.

- Value. We want to give everyone a great value for their investment, and I feel that by and large, we have. But I have struggled to communicate several facts, one is that some weeks you will get more than your $30/$15, other weeks it *might* be less. We try valiantly to avoid this in a normal year, this year has been exceptionally challenging because I have been trying to float a ship that was in danger of going down when I took over in May.

Given the frustrations and variable nature of this type of farming, we are doing the best we can. Each and every one of our plants is babied to get the most out of it. But you can’t just wave the wand presto overnight to make more food, and we’re sorry if that isn’t satisfactory to you… part of CSA is sharing the risks of farming (which includes pests, weather, labor issues, and so much more.) If this is unappealing then perhaps CSA isn’t a good fit for you. Though it is increasingly popular all across the country, it definitely isn’t right for everyone.

The quality and quantity of the food is really number one, but I sometimes wonder how to put a value on the other things we’re doing with your hard-earned dough, like re-knitting a fractured food community, supporting a stressed-out local infrastructure of seed breeders, tool makers and tractor-repairers, giving people a joyful experience right in their own neighborhood, and educating a new generation on the basics of how to grow and prepare food. If you have any ideas on how to share that with people, and how to think about its value, I’d love to hear them.

Victories:
- As a farm, we exist. I didn’t tell you this in the spring, but there was a time when I wasn’t sure we would make it through this season. Cropping, weeding, and tillage systems were out of whack and we didn’t have the right tools or approaches in the mix. We were in danger of getting overstretched and swallowed by weeds. Instead, we pulled it back from the brink and I finally feel we are making progress toward being a truly great farm. Thanks for your patience and support in this!

- We have tomatoes. 2 out of the last 4 seasons many of the East End’s tomato plants (including ours) have been wiped out by Late Blight, the same disease that caused the Irish potato famine. This year seems to be different. The plants are healthy and as the month rolls along we’ll have them in increasing quantities!

- We planted Carrots and Beets for the fall harvest, plus lettuce and salad greens! These foods never taste very good in the mid-summer, but when planted now they should be outstanding in late September/October.

- Flowers and tiny fruit on our melons and winter squash!

So as we enter August a big thanks to you and best wishes as you plan your menus this weekend.

Sincerely,
Bennett & The Sylvester Manor Farm Crew

PS. Come kick up your heels at our contradance this weekend!  It’s on our lawn by the windmill this time, $10 to dance into the night to old-time Georgia fiddle tunes?  What a deal!  What fun!  7pm Saturday Night @ Windmill Field…

This week’s distribution will be smaller than most weeks… it’s a seasonal transition time, so see the note below for more info. Thanks for your understanding!

We’ve got:
Basil
Cabbage
Cucumbers
Purslane
Summer Squash
Swiss Chard
Green Jalapenos – 2 full – 1 partial

FOOD
Last night’s rain was a blessing for the crops- they drank deep and this morning we harvested the last of the spring cabbage for you. We wanted to get them before it heated up again and made them taste funky. So they are a little small but should be very delicious for July Cabbage. Lucky us!

Tomatoes are so close- we’ve been able to take a few handfuls of cherry tomatoes, but we’re not quite there yet for a full distribution. So save your tomato recipes for next week, thanks!

This week’s distribution will be smaller than in past weeks, one of the smallest of the year. Cucumbers/Peppers/Tomatoes/Eggplant are just around the corner, but not *quite* ready! Spring crops are more or less done, so I hope you’ll understand why the distribution is small this week. We’re just in that time before summer crops are bountiful and after spring crops are much good.

LOGISTICS
Entrance- We have our new entrance gate but we’re not sure if the crushed gravel will be in place by Saturday… so please be alert as you approach the CSA this week and look out for the flagger, who will faithfully guide you in.

Plastic Bags- thank you to everyone who brought their own plastic bags last week. Due to popular CSA-subscriber request, we will stop providing them for you- so if it is important to you that your veggies are in their own plastic bags, please bring the bags that suit you best!

Saturday Sing- Brian Dolphin, who leads lots of the music around the farm, wants to try starting our community sing session at 10:30am. With the core group’s blessing we are going to give it a shot this week, so if you’re up for it, sit in and try a song or two.

This week:
Basil
Cabbage
Chard
Collards
Lettuce, cut
Purslane (great for that salad!)
Summer Squash
Scallions (baby)

…might be one or two other surprises as well, but we’ll see how the week progresses.

In the field this week, we’re diligently tending to the tomato plants, weeding and trellising 12 varieties of heirlooms and hybrids, which should bring you a mix of classic beefsteak tomatoes for sandwiches and colorful, juicy, flavorful salad tomatoes.

There has been particular joy around the quick emergence of pumpkin and winter squash seeds, the first of our fall plantings. They are in the large open patch at the crest of the ridge.

In the tough noogies department, we are seeing a huge bloom of cabbage moths and their accompanying worms in our brassicas. This is a tough noogie because there is not much we really can do about them. We could spray the heck out of them every day, still not kill them all, and breed a super-worm in the process.

Instead we are going to pull them as soon as the brassica (cabbage, kale, collards, broccoli) harvest is over. Cabbage this week! Then next week or the week after we’ll pull them all from the field. They are more or less done anyway. This will create a buffer period before we plant fall brassicas, starving most of the worms, we hope, and keeping the pest population small for the fall. Of this decision to eliminate Kale for the rest of the summer: I expect half of you will say a quiet prayer, and the other half will let out a hearty cheer.

In truth these brassicas are best as fall crops, and I think one of the reasons we have so many pests is because the plants are under stress in this heat, and weak as a result. When it is humid and in the 90s I feel the same way.

This is what the patch looks like- those white specks are the cabbage moths.

To help keep us stress-free, longtime CSA subscriber Cynthia Flynt led a restorative Yoga session for our farm crew yesterday afternoon. The crew followed this up with a an educational visit to Hamlet Organic Garden in Brookhaven, NY.

I am reminded how different this approach to agriculture is from industrial factory food production. Our approach integrates such practices as music, yoga, and farm field trips into classic organic farming techniques like careful attention to soil health, heritage breeds and seeds, hot and physically demanding manual weed and pest control, and an eye toward innovative intercropping practices. This is supported by a very engaged CSA group who keeps us fed with snacks and opportunities to cool down (thanks Nancy Jaicks!) but also keeps us accountable for our work and our commitments. I like it this way and I hope you do too.

As this farm grows I feel more confident that this is an appropriate way to farm on an old slave plantation, and also a more appropriate way to farm in an age where exploitation of land and people in our industrial food system is as ingrained as ever.

ISSUE OF THE WEEK

Plastic bags. Like Kale, these things bring out strong feelings in people. Some hate them. Other people see them as a requirement. I feel they are a necessary evil at a farmstand, but in a CSA, could we eliminate them? Honestly, I think so.

I don’t know what to say, other than please, please bring your own bags for miscellaneous items like your handful of basil, or cut greens. It should be as automatic as bringing your tote bag. In so doing you will save the town tax dollars by diverting bags from the dumps, and you will save me a lot of stress from getting in between the passionate pro-recylcling/anti-recycling CSA factions. Don’t force me to schedule a mudpit tug-of-war to settle the issue. Thanks!

-Bennett

This week:
Basil
Broccoli
Collards
Dill
Kale
Lettuce Heads
Nasturtium Flowers (Edible, peppery, and great in a salad!)
Summer Squash & Zucchini
Swiss Chard

It really feels like summer now, with the days starting out hot and muggy and just getting hotter.  We are enjoying our work routine, which has us in the fields roundabout 6am and keeps us there till mid-day.  Then we come back for 2-3 hours of work at 5pm.  This beats the heck out of pushing through the mid-day heat, which is when tempers fray and the pace suffers.

All of a sudden it’s July!  Kids programs have started and it’s been fun to have youngsters join us each morning.  This week they helped by mulching half of our blackberry patch.  Hopefully this will give those plants the weed protection and moisture retention they need in order to thrive into 2013, when we expect our first real harvest.

I’m amazed at the growth of our peppers and tomatoes, who must feel like they’re back in the old country.  It has been hot and sunny in our fields for most of the last two weeks, and we already have a great collection of blossoms setting fruit on these plants.  Look forward to some excellent summer treats, just a few weeks away.

As the heat has come on, we say goodbye to spring favorites- peas in particular didn’t quite make it to this week as I had hoped.  Though there are some good ones on the newest growth, the rest are all edible but tough and should be thought of as shelling peas.  We’ll open up the entire pea patch to you, but don’t expect the bounty we’ve had in past weeks.

If you’re feeling adventurous, think of cooking something with fresh coriander seeds, which Shepsi will show you how to harvest this week.

See you Saturday!  Don’t forget the Contra Dance that we’re putting on this Saturday at 7:30pm at the Havens House (a collaboration w/ the Historical Society!)  It’s the age-old way that farming communities came together, with simple dances and toe-tapping fiddle tunes.  We’re happy to share this music and dance with you, our neighbors and most important customers.