May 28, 2017
"Now What!?" Workshops

Bok Ch-huh? Mizun-a-what?

Is your experience with kale limited to “the thing you put in your smoothies” or “the chips you buy at the market”? Are you excited, but overwhelmed, by your share of greens?

Being a CSA member means you receive some produce you would, most likely, not purchase at the market (if it was even available!). What a stupendous adventure! But opening your refrigerator door and being greeted by a wall of greens can be intimidating! No worries. We have got you covered!

Please try to attend at least one of our two “Now What!?" workshops scheduled on Saturday, June 10th, and Saturday, June 24th, from 1 PM until 3 PM. We will talk about storage techniques, recipe resources and how to incorporate your share into your family’s diet. Bring your questions and share your ideas! Because the topics discussed are driven from the questions and comments of those attending, different topics will be discussed at each workshop. How exciting - right!? This is for new and returning members. Returning members always bring wonderful insight and a different perspective.

Please join us and experience a small part of the community aspect of your CSA membership!

May 28, 2017
Incoming Produce
By Derek McGeehan

Harvest #3 (Week A) should include strawberries, kale, radishes, kohlrabi, broccoli raab, mizuna, arugula, mustard greens mix, baby kale, lettuces, herbs, bok choy, spinach, Italian dandelion, and chard. Some items will be a choice. U-pick should include perennial herbs and may include strawberries.

May 28, 2017
Workshifts Scheduled for Week of 5/28/17

Workshifts this week:

Wednesday 5/31 10am-12noon

Wednesday 5/31 6-8pm

Friday 6/2 10am-12noon

Sunday 6/4 10am-12noon

Workshift sign-up instructions may be found here.

Thank you!

May 28, 2017
Potluck Celebration Saturday 6/3

Join us for the first potluck meal of the season on Saturday June 3rd 6-8pm (rain date TBD). Bring a dish to share that can feed approximately 4-6 adults, your own place settings, and a beverage. We will eat and have a happy time!

May 28, 2017
At the end of May
By Derek McGeehan

Seen above, the u-pick flower garden is up in Field 1 this year, the original CSA field first cultivated in 2004, and should begin flowering in late June or early July. Most u-pick crops will be in Field 1 this season including strawberries, peas, beans, edamame, tomatillos, husk cherries, cherry tomatoes, basil, dill, cilantro, and parsley. Raspberries and perennial herbs are closer to the parking lot. Last year we began rotating the flowers along with the other u-pick crops in order to keep everything closer together, as well as to be able to increase the amount of flowers grown and provide greater space between rows and raised beds. This year, we even went a step further and sowed oats on the off beds to feed and protect the soil and have more control over what is growing there. After mowing, it will hopefully provide more comfortable conditions in the field for you the members. We also took the same steps for the vining and sprawling tomatillos and husk cherries.

We're still firmly in spring but summer crops aren't far away. Summer squash is starting to flower and will probably arrive in shares in a week or two. Perpetual favorite hakurei turnips will begin arriving in shares later this week and beets will grace us either next week or the week after. Lettuces are also going to arrive in earnest this week, along with all of the other tasty spring greens. Baby kale will be here and probably the last of the spinach, which doesn't enjoy wet feet and all of last week's rain. Speaking of rain, we've had over 6 inches in May, which is a lot. That is the most in May here since 2009. Either way, the crops and farmers are thriving.

May 28, 2017
Easy CSA Information

May 21, 2017
Beautiful First Harvest
By Linda Dansbury

I was as excited as all of you with the announcement of the first harvest week, and even more excited when I walked into the updated pick up room! I love looking at all the veggies and then figuring out how to prepare them each week.

My pick up day is Thursday, so at this writing I have had only a couple of days to enjoy my harvest at this point, but below is a couple of dishes I made:

Bok choy, green garlic, mizuna - I made a stir fry: heated a bit of oil and when hot added a hot pepper from last year that I had frozen, but you can use red pepper flakes; added sliced scallions and a sliced green garlic and kept them moving in the pan for a few minutes then added a nice amount of minced ginger. After about 30 seconds I added rough chopped bok choy (added the chopped stems and leaves at same time because these were baby bok choy and putting them both in pan at same time created different textures). I kept stirring them until they looked almost finished, I added some of the mizua and then added a little sesame oil and soy sauce to the pan. Served it over brown jasmine rice alongside a salmon fillet from Wild for Salmon.

Spinach, mizuna, arugula - added some of each of them to a salad where I used lettuce from my garden. I virtually always make my own vinaigrette so that I can adjust the flavorings to how mild or strong the greens I am using in the salad are.

I will be making a spinach salad in the next couple days - check out the Spinach Salad with Hot Bacon Dresssing.

If you would like to share how you enjoy your harvest with other farm members, please send your ideas, recipes and/or questions to me at lindadansbury@comcast.net

May 21, 2017
First of the Season - Greens!
By Linda Dansbury

Welcome to new members and welcome back returning members! I am the Recipe Coordinator - which means that I am here to help you enjoy the beautiful and plentiful veggies from Anchor Run Farm. There are tons of recipes on the internet for each veggie we receive. What I do is find and create recipes that often incorporate more than one of the crops in a single recipe and that for the most part are seasonal at the same time so that we can eat as close to a "local diet" as possible. I also welcome all of you out there to share with membership what you do with your harvest by sending it to me at lindadansbury@comcast.net. I will share with fellow members in the newsletters.

Green garlic is a new offering for Anchor Run Farm and for me it is a very welcomed item. Green garlic is an immature garlic plant. Garlic bulbs are planted in the fall before the first frost where it begins growing roots. In the spring it starts to grow vigorously, putting up green stalks that look similar to scallions and leeks. Green garlic is much milder and sweeter than mature garlic and so should not be cooked for long periods because the subtle flavors will be lost. Pestos, stir fries, dips, salad dressings or added near the end of long cooking recipes all work well.

You may or may not be familiar with mizuna. In the stores it is often mixed with other greens and labeled as something like "spring mix". The mizuna we just received is very tender and mild. Although it can be sauteed or added to soups and stews, I like to mix it in with other greens in salads. It adds a nice taste, texture and visual complement to other greens in a salad.

May 21, 2017
Welcoming Radishes and First of Strawberries
By Derek McGeehan

May 21, 2017
Workshifts Scheduled for Week of 5/21/17
By Derek McGeehan

Workshifts this week:

Friday 5/26 10am-12noon

Sunday 5/28 10am-12noon

Due to the wet forecast midweek workshifts are not being scheduled at this time.

Workshift sign-up instructions may be found here.

Thank you!

May 21, 2017
Ticks: Awareness and How to Deal

A bumper year for ticks following a bumper year for mice (per NPR) means education and awareness when in nature to understand the problem and deal with it in a reasonable way.

I'm going to assume that everyone has seen and felt a tick crawling on them and is familiar enough with their appearance to identify them as well as the difference between a dog and deer tick, the two types found in our area. On the farm, 95% of the time I see a tick it is a dog tick, the bigger one, the one you can feel crawling on your skin and see in the mirror quite easily. Since we're in tick habitat daily on the farm we have a routine where we check ourselves nightly before bed, very thoroughly. We do find ticks occasionally, most of the time before they've fed or when they've just attached. At this point it is not a big deal. However, very rarely Dana will find a deer tick feeding on herself (they don't like me for some reason) and we'll very carefully remove it, head and all, with tweezers and ship it to a lab to be analyzed to see if it is carrying lyme. Five times out of five now the results have come back negative for lyme so she doesn't have to go on antibiotics. Each time we've found them they've also only been feeding a short period of time. How long do ticks need to feed to transmit lyme? Not sure if there is a consensus on this since lyme seems to remain a mystery for some reason, but I've heard 24 hours, which doesn't sound accurate. I've also heard from veterinarians and doctors that if you've been bitten by a deer tick and it is carrying lyme to automatically go on the minimal antibiotic dosage (which is 2 weeks of doxycyline, tough on the body but better than untreated lyme).

So, the moral of the story is this: after being on the farm, either before you get in the car or when you get home, or before bed at night, check yourselves and your kids for ticks. It is a good habit to get into and really enhances the nighttime routine.

If you find a tick feeding on you, pull it out, head too, and send it hear to be analyzed: UMass Amherst

May 14, 2017
Harvest Season Commences!
By Derek McGeehan

Harvest #1 (Week A) should include kale, spinach, chard, bok choy, arugula, mizuna, broccoli raab, green garlic, oregano, mint, and winter savory. Some items will be a choice.

What is green garlic? Good question! It is the young/immature garlic plant, edible in its entirety. Simply use like a leek or a scallion.

Most of the greens this week can be used interchangeably in a salad, stir fried, sautéed, smoothied, or gently cooked on the stove top.

There may not be any u-pick this week as we attempt to round out the portion of the share that we harvest with herbs from the perennial herb garden. With the expected heat wave this week, crops should grow by leaps and bounds and u-pick should begin shortly. Strawberries, peas, and herbs picked by you aren't far away! Thank you for understanding.

May 14, 2017
A Day in the Farm Life
By Derek McGeehan

As you can see we were quite excited and relieved to have successfully pushed the 30'x96' high tunnel 200' uphill into an easterly wind with 6 strong farmers (Dana took the photo). Under protection are the heirloom tomatoes. This moveable beast allows us to properly rotate crops using the three positions; lets the soil interact with the weather and climate when not covered; and gives us 2 or 3 protected moves a season. After the heirloom tomatoes wrap up in late summer we'll slide it to another position to protect greens for the winter and then sow a nourishing cover crop of rye and vetch where the tomatoes were.

It was with heavy heart that we had to say goodbye to our flowering crimson clover last Friday before the big rain event. This cover crop was sown along with oats and buckwheat last fall. The oats and buckwheat winter kill from the cold while the crimson clover hibernates and begins growing again in the spring, flowering in late April or early May. The bumblebee enjoyed the blossoms. Fortunately for the nectar loving pollinators there are patches of the clover left around the farm, as well as volunteering buckwheat, and soon our 2.5 acre pollinator habitat should be blooming with a variety of flowers.

May 14, 2017
Some Pick Up Info

Full Shares, Medium Shares, and Week A Half Shares pick up this week; Week B Half Shares will begin picking up next week, the week of Sunday May 21st.

When you signed up for your share you selected a pick up day to retrieve your share, either Monday 1-8pm, Thursday 1-8pm, or Saturday 10am-12noon.

The u-pick portion of your share can be collected 8am-8pm Monday-Sunday of your pick up week. Allotments for the farmer harvested share and u-pick portion will be specified in the pick up room. Staff will be available in the pick up room to assist new members. **There may not be any u-pick during the first couple weeks of pick up.**

**To find your balance and/or your pick up day and week Log In to the website. It is very important that you come on your correct and assigned pick up day since we harvest specific amounts for the number of members coming on that day. Sign in sheets are provided by the pick up room when you arrive to collect your share.**

If you need to temporarily switch your pick up day please let us know by 5pm Sunday prior to your pick up week. If you need to make a permanent day switch please let us know as soon as possible.