November 25, 2019
Bounty of Thanks
by Farmer Derek

Late Fall Harvest #3 (Week A) should include cabbage, napa cabbage, radicchio, potatoes, kale, garlic, onions, carrots, arugula, lettuce mix, greens mix, beets, celeriac, hakurei turnips, purple daikons, watermelon radishes, and hopefully rosemary. Some items will be a choice.

November 25, 2019
Think Thanks
by Farmer Derek

It's the end of November. It's the week of Thanksgiving. It's time for me to turn 37. My knees ache as I transition from the busy outdoor season to a winter exercise routine to balance out my time spent indoors meticulously reviewing this growing season while preparing for the next one. Neglected house and infrastructure repairs beckon. Both tractors require major reconstructive surgery (not covered by insurance). But the sun shines. The farm rests. Harvests are bountiful. It has been a good growing season. I feel ambitious as I begin to chart a course for next year. Seven thousand strawberry plants are ordered. We focus and place hope in a variety to actually extend the harvest. An additional 500 raspberry plants are purchased. Perhaps a new home and location for brambles will be found that is less prone to saturation. Hundreds of thousands of vegetable seeds are being ordered which will turn into 100,000 pounds of produce in 2020. Orders are being placed for organic amendments to help facilitate those seeds turning into edibles. Soil samples are collected for analysis. The crop rotation map will receive its annual update. We feel auspicious as we move from one season to the next. We're thankful for everything. Happy Thanksgiving.

November 25, 2019
Important Pick Up Information for this Week
by Farmer Derek

A reminder that due to the holiday this week, Wednesday's pick up is moved to Tuesday, 11/26, 1-8pm. Saturday's pick up is still on as scheduled, 11am-1pm. If you can't make it Tuesday, please e-mail us to reschedule to Saturday or next Wednesday (if you're a Half Share).

November 25, 2019
Thanksgiving Bounty
By Linda Dansbury

If you want to change up or add to your typical Thanksgiving feast, try making a "mixed mash" and/or roasted mixed root veggies for your family and guests.

Mixed mash is simply what it sounds like: instead of just making your mash out of white potatoes, add into the pot peeled sweet potato and peeled and cut up celeriac. Even my family that wants everything from when they were growing up loves the mix! After boiling until veggies are soft, drain and proceed the way you do for your regular mashed potatoes.

Mixed roasted root veggies - I have described this before but as a reminder, cut up onions, sweet potatoes, celeriac, daikon radishes, and beets, making the beet pieces smaller than the rest because they take longer to get soft. If desired, you can also add turnips and/or kohlrabi. Mix with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. I like to put in a few sprigs of thyme or rosemary as well. Bake in a 380 degree oven for about 40 minutes, turning at least once during roasting. Temp can be adjusted for other things that may be in your oven at the same time, such as bread or rolls. Just adjust cooking time accordingly.

Enjoy, and Happy Thanksgiving!

November 18, 2019
Mid-Autumn Mix
by Farmer Derek

Late Fall Harvest #2 (Week B) should include Napa cabbage, green cabbage, radicchio, potatoes, garlic, onions, carrots, kale, arugula, lettuce mix, beets, purple daikon, celeriac, kohlrabi, and hakurei turnips. Some items will be a choice.

November 18, 2019
Cold Season Challenges
by Farmer Derek

It was an enjoyable challenge to begin this Late Fall adventure with some serious sub-freezing temperatures during the middle of last week. It seems we're now able to avoid much of the excitement and apprehension that we used to feel during these events when we first started pushing harvests into the colder season; we now know more of what to expect, how to plan, what to do, and how to properly ride out a freeze. Cold-hardy, cold-tolerant crops are amazingly resilient and if we give them just enough protection they can basically be grown all winter in unheated tunnels. Pretty remarkable I'd say. Not that they do so without meticulous care and plant-sitting, but even when it dips to zero outside, with a layer or two of fabric thrown over interior hoops, trapping earth's and the daytime sun's heat closer to the crops, that insulating layer is enough to pull crops through and keep temperatures above the damage threshold. During serious prolonged cold spells when temperatures might not rise out of the twenties during the day and drop to singles at night, crops may seriously freeze and take a few days to recover, but it's fairly amazing when they do recover. I've seen them frozen solid, wilting and bent to the ground, only to be perky and sun-thirsty a week later. There is a bit of initial infrastructure investment that goes into protecting them initially (the high tunnels) but once they're up, they can be used for many many years as well as during all the other growing seasons.

Besides managing the temperatures in the tunnels with layers and ventilation, we also have to monitor soil moisture and humidity levels. There's not much evaporation and transpiration this time of year so as of now I'm only irrigating about once every two weeks, down from every week just a month ago. With the off-and-on again cold I have to drain all the pipes when temperatures dip into the mid-twenties at night. At this time it looks like we're expecting warmer (average?) temperatures for the next 10 days, so now when I refill the pipes I at least won't have to drain the whole system right away.

While we know pretty well how to protect crops during cold, we're still working out how best to keep humans happy in an unheated barn. So far I'm a fan of (very) temporary relatively quick solutions using old tunnel covers and space heaters (function over form?). Though not exactly aesthetically pleasing it at least does the job of keeping the pick up room a balmy upper 30s or low 40s when outside temperatures sit below the freezing mark. In a perfect world we would install a wood stove and may do so eventually if we end up battling serious cold more frequently during the Late Fall season.

November 18, 2019
Late Fall Pick Up Information
by Farmer Derek

• Log in here to view your pick up day and balance.
  

• Pick up days are typically Wednesday 1-8pm and Saturday 11am-1pm. However...
• During the week of Thanksgiving, Late Fall Harvest Week #3, Wednesday's pick up will take place on Tuesday, November 26th to accommodate travelers and holiday schedules.

• During the week of Christmas, Late Fall Harvest Week #7, Wednesday's pick up will take place on Thursday, December 26th.
• You can temporarily switch your pick up day/week be notifying us by 5pm Sunday prior to your pick up day/week. If you miss your pick up we will contact you to reschedule.
• Bring your own bags to collect the produce.
• Check off your name on the sign in sheets just outside of the pick up room.

November 18, 2019
Farm-Foraged Wreaths For Your Holidays!
by Farmer Dana

All wreath materials are foraged from Anchor Run Farm grounds and assembled by your farmers.

To order email danahunting@gmail.com, include ‘wreath’ as the subject line and let us know which wreath(s) you would like. All wreaths come with or without a bow (red or white) depending on your preference at no extra cost. You can take your wreath home on your farm pick up day, or you may coordinate an alternative wreath pick up day with Dana. Payment in the form of a check to Anchor Run CSA, or cash, can be made when you retrieve your wreath.

At the end of the holiday season (whenever that may be for you) we gratefully accept back your spent wreath to compost wreath materials and to re-use the wreath form for later seasons. Of course, if you have wreath-making aspirations of your own, please keep the form to enjoy yourself!

November 11, 2019
Commence the Late Fall!
by Farmer Dana

Late Fall Harvest #1 (Week A) should include potatoes, garlic, onions, carrots, kale, arugula, radicchio, cabbage, napa/chinese cabbage, rosemary, and some roots like hakurei turnips, kohlrabi, celeriac, radishes, and beets. Herbs will be available for u-pick.

November 11, 2019
Late Fall Pick Up Information
by Farmer Dana

November 11, 2019
Late Fall is Underway!
by Farmer Derek

Welcome to the 8th annual Late Fall CSA! We're excited to embark on this new season and share the farm's produce with you. Overall Mother Nature treated us much better this year than last so we're looking forward to a good and varied bounty during the next couple of months. Outside grown crops yielded just about perfectly this late summer and fall. Inside our various tunnels where we'll be harvesting salad and tender greens through the New Year we're pleased to report the rather predictable success and health of those crops (thanks to variable control). Barring too many successive days/nights below freezing we should have some wonderful cooking greens throughout the Late Fall as well, including kale, collards, cabbage, and napa cabbage. A plethora of roots and tubers will round out shares giving you ample opportunity for some wonderful soups and roasts. Thank you for joining us!

November 3, 2019
Edible Finale
by Farmer Dana

Harvest #26 (Week B) should include sweet potatoes, garlic, onions, bok choy, head lettuce, lettuce mix, arugula, endive, radicchio, cabbage (napa/green/red), carrots, hakurei turnips, celeriac, kohlrabi, kale, and collards. Some items will be a choice. Due to frosty low early morning temperatures there's a good chance the greens available in the pick up room will vary slightly but overall there will be a good supply of salad and cooking greens for sure.

November 3, 2019
Season's Final Workshifts
by Farmer Derek

Workshifts scheduled for this week:

Workshift sign-up instructions may be found here. Calendar is here. Member Work Guidelines are here.

If you still need to complete your pledged farm labor hours for your share discount please join us this week if your schedule allows. Alternatively, if you'd rather pay the full amount for your farm share that is fine, just send us a check to cover the workshift hours. As a reminder, the pledged hours you work qualify for a $15/hour discount. If you're unable to work this week, can you remit payment for the balance of your share?

November 3, 2019
Registration Open for 2019 Late Fall and Main Season 2020
by Farmer Dana

Registration is now open for the 2020 Main Season CSA and the 2019 Late Fall CSA.

Log in here to join either or both seasons.

For additional Late Fall CSA information follow this link. This season begins in 1.5 weeks for Full, Medium, and Week A Half Shares!

Main Season 2020 will mimic 2019 except it will be even better! That's our goal anyway. Mother Nature promises to oblige. Prices, pick up days/times, share sizes, etc. all remain the same.

November 3, 2019
Main Season Completion
by Farmer Derek

The final week of the 2019 Main Season CSA is upon us! Thank you for joining us on this half-year-long adventure. Twenty-six weeks is a lengthy commitment and we appreciate you partaking in this long ride. Every growing season seems to contain its own unique trials and tribulations, successes and failures, highs and lows, etc. I'm not yet sure yet 2019 will be characterized by. Whereas 2018 is remembered as the wettest season on record, 2019 wasn't quite so extreme. We did endure some wet times and some dry times, but overall this season feels like a good one. Most crops performed well. There were some major disappointments (peas) but many successes. Through it all we hope you enjoyed the produce we provided to you. We hope that by being part of Community Supported Agriculture you find a deeper connection to the food you eat and therefore a deeper connection to a community, an ecology, and a kitchen. We might not be farmers if it wasn't for CSA; good community vibes were a big contributor to our desire to take this path 13 years ago. Pure healthy food and a clean environment pulled us fully in this direction and we are glad we embarked on this trajectory. We look forward to sharing this future with you.