Off to a running start!

Welcome to the 2010 season!

We are so excited about the farm this year. We have a wonderful crew. Daughter Anna Smith is back helping out and has also launched a small herbal CSA of her own. Michael Perisho from the Chicago area and Caitlin Frame of New York state arrived in April and plan on being here for the whole season. They’ll be sharing their stories with you in upcoming issues. We also have a wonderful volunteer, Kerri Stouch, who comes out a day or two every week to help. We couldn’t do what we do without these wonderful young folks!

The weather has been very cooperative so far - we were able to plant cool weather crops early, and were not bothered by any late frosts so everything seemed too easy! Timing things to be ready for the first share week is tricky under normal circumstances, but this year was fascinating because things just took off and matured sooner than expected. Good for the peas, not so good for the napa cabbage in your shares this week. They are as mature as they can be and still be usable. I taste-tested one last night and it was still sweet and tender. I put the recipe on the last page of the newsletter, along with a few others. Enjoy!

I hope you will all take time to explore the gardens right away. It’s fun to see how it changes from week to week. I especially encourage you to take advantage of the pick-your-own (PYO) areas a little later in the season—we’ll let you know when herbs and flowers are ready for harvest. (Delivery people take note—please come and visit any time you are able!) You can come any time you want to help yourself, not just on share days. We encourage friends and family to visit with you. Be sure to check out the frog pond, see our new ducks and the two Angus heifers (Fiona is the big one, Mathilda is the smaller one), visit with Ollie the angora goat and Barbara and Sylvie the Icelandic sheep, and say hello to all the chickens.

Please let us know if you have concerns or questions, or if you can’t access this newsletter.

See you all this week!

Planning the future is good; being prepared is better ~Denis Thoet

Our experience of the last seven years of farming is that it takes more than just planning to be successful. It takes preparedness.

And what we have to be prepared for are extremes in weather — too dry or too wet.

Last year was a classic example of too wet at the wrong time, June and July. But that long stretch of wet weather was preceded and followed by long periods of drought.

This year, we have had a very dry May (1.2” of rain). Now June is off with a splash — more than 2” of rain in the first week. Here we go again!

Just like last June, we had just begun to irrigate the outside garden when the rain began to fall.

Hoop houses protect against extremely wet weather; irrigation protects against drought. We need more of both.

At the end of last year, we applied for and received a planning grant of $6,600 from the Farms for the Future program of the Maine Ag Department. The award can only be used to plan improvements in our farm operation — hiring consultants, visiting other successful farms, and attending conferences and workshops.

Our goal is to identify additional water sources for irrigation and water to our pastures (ponds, dug well, possibly a second drilled well), and to determine how to improve our two greenhouses and expand our capacity to grow crops under cover.

Added to this, we are planning to establish a commercial kitchen off the Share Room in the Apprentice House. Right now, our house kitchen is licensed for baking and canning things like pickles and jam, but we are not able to use it for other items like pesto and salsa and other value-added goods.

We have met with a hoop house builder, Mark Davis of South China, and with Charles and Julia Yelton of Whitefield, who are going to prepare a draft water plan for the farm. We are in contact with the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Augusta, which also gives advice and sometimes grants for farm water projects. One of our next steps is to visit commercial kitchens and produce a design for our own.

With all of these plans hammered out and with numbers attached to their proposed cost, we will then apply to the Farms for the Future program for a grant to implement the changes. Their grants are 3:1, which is a pretty tough match to make, but all kinds of in-kind and volunteer labor can be used in the match. The $11,000 grant we received in 2005 pretty much paid for the 26x96’ hoop house now at the center of our garden, while we were out of pocket for pasture fencing, improvements to the Apprentice House and the addition to the sheep shed. That grant, and the planning that surrounded it, pretty much launched us as a credible farm at the time.

Much of the growth of the farm comes from the contributions of our CSA members which allows us to be realistic about our yearly income and to put aside chunks of money for capital improvements.

Thanks!

Long Meadow Farm CSA begins!

Recipe Ideas for Week One

Quick Stir-Fried Napa Cabbage

(adapted from a recipe at http://eatmovethrive.blogspot.com)

1 head of Napa cabbage
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/2 Small onion, roughly chopped
3 Garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 Cup chicken stock
1 Tablespoon tamari (optional)

Cut off the root end of the cabbage, about 1 inch from the bottom. Cut the cabbage into 1 inch ribbons. Heat oil over very high heat. When it's very hot, add the onion and cook stirring frequently for a minute or so. Add the cabbage and stir well. Add the garlic and cook for a minute or two, stirring all the while. Add the stock (it should boil immediately) and cook, stirring often, until the stock is reduced to almost nothing. Remove from heat and stir in the tamari (if using).

A nice variation of this recipe would be to add chili paste or pepper flakes with the stock to suit your taste for fire.

A teaspoon of finely minced or grated ginger root would be brilliant here too, added at the same time as the garlic.

Spinach-Cheese Squares

1 tablespoons butter

1 -2 eggs

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup milk

1/2teaspoon baking powder

1/2 pound shredded Cheddar cheese

½ - 1 lb. spinach, washed and steamed until just wilted, then squeezed dry and chopped

1 tablespoon minced onion

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Place butter in a small baking dish and melt butter in oven. Remove when melted, approximately 3 minutes.

In large mixing bowl, beat eggs well. Mix in flour, milk and baking powder. When the dough is well combined, mix in cheese, spinach, and onion. Spoon mixture into the baking dish with melted butter. Bake for 35 minutes. Let cool 45 minutes then cut into bite-size squares. This recipe freezes well, can be easily doubled.

Simplest Sautéed Beet Greens

The quickest, easiest way to make beet greens. Your side dish will be ready in 5 minutes, tops.

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 bunch beet greens
Salt
Sugar

Preparation:

Heat oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. When oil is hot, add greens straight from the bag. Sauté, uncovered, stirring and turning greens several times, so they cook evenly, for about 3 minutes. During cooking, sprinkle with a tiny pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar. Greens will wilt down in the pan and become even brighter green as they cook.
Serves 3.

Spring Radish Salad

6 radishes, sliced thinly, chop the greens if they are in good shape

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
toasted sesame seed
salt

Toss radishes in vinegar and oil and chill for ½ hour. Add the greens and toss again with a pinch of salt and garnish with sesame seed.

CSA Potluck next week!

What a gorgeous spring we are having. We've got a great head start on our gardens, just in time for our member potluck on Saturday, May 15, from 5 to 7 p.m. We're looking forward to meeting new members and catching up with old ones. We'll have lots of great food and drink, tour the gardens and buildings, visit with the animals (new ducks!), and of course answer any questions you may have about our farm.

We'll send out e-mail reminders this weekend. Please RSVP yes or no - the e-mail is actually a good pre-season test to see if we have your address right! Our weekly newsletters start the first week of June, and theyare sent out electronically, so we'd hate to have you miss out on those.

Looking forward to seeing you all!

~Michele and Denis

Our Saturday Workday was the best ever!. Over 20 CSA members and friends came to gather and cut brush into burn piles and "feeder" piles. We couldn't get a burn permit because of the dry weather, but we are now ready to kindle a big bonfire once things get greener or wetter. Stay tuned!

The best parts were the chatter while we worked, and the food, drink, and music afterwards. And they call this work!

Thank you all, y'all.

Denis and Michele

Local Food - CSA Fair

Yesterday we attended the CSA Fair at St. Matthew's Church in Hallowell. 10 farms were represented, and there were many lively exchanges between the farmers and potential customers.

We also had a table for the Gardiner Farmers' Market, staffed by Sarah Miller, one of the members of the GMS steering committee. She did a great job talking up the market and having folks fill out a survey form which will help us to improve the market. To learn more about the market, check out our website: http://www.gardinerfarmersmarket.org

Last Day of January

Zero degrees this morning, 3rd day in a row. We've had brilliant sunshine so the house is warm during the day. We heat the whole house with one lovely Vigilant woodstove, and the wood is holding up well this year, thanks to Denis and Anna and Emily.

Our CSA signups are going well, considering that it is only January. We expect to get a flurry of members at the CSA Fair, which will be on Sunday, February 26 at St. Matthew's Church in Hallowell, 1-4. It's a good time to check out the farms in this area who will be offering CSA shares this year. The Gardiner Farmers' Market will also have a table, selling tokens and offering information on local food. More on all of that in a later post.

Our push this weekend is getting our grow-room (Anna's old bedroom)ready for seedlings. We have two 8-foot racks and two 4-foot racks with grow lights. I have heat mats to start the germination process. All of the alliums will get planted in the next week or two : onions (5 varieties: Red Marble, White Wing, Clear Dawn, Ailsa Craig, Dakota Tears); leeks (2 varieties: King Richard and King Sieg); shallots (Prisma); scallions (Evergreen Hardy White). We'll also plant garlic chives and a few perennials that we start from seed. And a few lettuce seeds. Okay, and a few early-early tomatoes too.

Winter is not long enough for me, with all of the planning and preparation I need to do to be ready for the new growing season. Probably you don't want to hear that, so how's this for a parting thought: the last day of February has 76 more minutes than the first.

Stay warm!
~Michele

Happy New Year!

You'll be hearing more from us soon. Stay warm!