The First Week

Hi-

So the first week of the CSA is quickly approaching. I've been working a bunch on the farm with Sue and Claude trying to get everything planted, keep the weeds at bay and watering to try and combat the hot, dry weather. A good rain will do a world of good for a lot of the plants; some of them are just waiting for some water to really get going. But regardless, we've got lots of great greens for you all to sink your teeth into next week!

Andrew (my husband) and I had our first big salad from the garden last night for dinner. Salad might sound like a light supper, but we packed it full with spinach, mixed lettuce and scallions from my garden, along with some lovely kale that Sue gave me, added some walnuts, some seeds (sunflower and pumpkin) we had in the pantry, sharp cheddar, some dried raisins and other fruit and some crutons and drizzeled my oil/vinegar/maple syrup dressing over the whole thing and dug in. It was heavenly! All those fresh, crisp greens tasted so good after working out in the sun the whole day- it was a perfect dinner for a summer evening when I couldn't bear to turn the stove on and make our kitchen any hotter than it already was (it becomes somewhat of a furnace in the summer). Salads don't have to be boring, and they don't have to be a side dish or something you eat before the meal: they really can be the meal. Honestly, I was very hungry after working outside all day and it was a very satisfying meal. Andrew and I together ate the whole bowl of salad...

Also, I wanted to mention that I'd love it if people would either post a comment or send me an email with any ideas you might have for preparing the vegetables that you'll be getting in the CSA. I didn't grow up eating lots of fresh vegetables, so I've been trying hard to find lots of great ways to cook up all this wonderful food. I thought it would be a nice use for this blog if people would make meal suggestions that I could then post to share with everyone. Last year I didn't know what to do with beets, or kale or swiss chard, but since I've discovered some methods, I can't get enough of them. I hope some of you have a similar experience with a vegetable that's new to you this year. If you'd like to share a recipe or an idea, email me at luckymoonfm@gmail.com or just post it as a comment. Looking forward to trying them out!

To get us started, here's my salad dressing idea. It's not revolutionary, but it's very tasty: Mix olive oil (or whatever oil you care to try), vinegar (I like cider vinegar, but white or wine will work too) and maple syrup. You could probably also try honey. I start by mixing a small amount of each and tasting it frequently to get it to the sweetness/pungency that I like. Drizzle a little of that over a big bed of greens, and dig in!

All the best,

Sarah

Off to a Good Start

Hello everyone,

Sorry for not posting in a while- there's a lot going on at the farm, and I haven't been spending much time inside on the computer, which all in all I'm pretty happy about. :>)

But I wanted to update you all on what's happening at Lucky Moon.

Yesterday we got the trellising in the greenhouse set up so we can try planting a bunch of the tomatoes in there. I think we'll be able to fit about 120 tomato plants with room for a bunch of romaine and basil around the edges. The greenhouse is probably what I'm most excited about for this season. After last year's disastrous conditions for tomatoes, the greenhouse will ensure a practically perfect environment for them to grow in. They'll be safe from cold temperatures, high winds, too much rain, bugs, disease, hail storms, snow... all the conditions that can (and often do) make farming in upstate NY a somewhat tricky business. We should be planting the tomatoes anytime now, and then let them do their thing!

Outside in the elements the carrots, beets, swiss chard, arugula, asian greens and lettuce are coming up pretty well, and the onions, scallions and garlic seemed to have survived the rough patch of weather, which involved a really heavy hail storm, a snow storm and then a hard frost. Hopefully we'll start getting some warmer weather soon that will help everything take off.

About a week ago we planted the potatoes in the new ground that Claude tilled up on the hillside. The drainage should be a lot better up there. We planted ten 100 foot rows with seed potatoes about 12'' apart, so there are at least 1000 plants expected. Based on the pounds of seed potatoes we planted, there should be something like a 1/2 ton harvest. Now that's something to get you through the winter!

So things are going well and are looking good for the first week of the CSA. I hope you're all looking forward to your fresh veggies! I love the first greens of the seaon- the flavors are so crisp and clean. Especially after a winter of eating root vegetables and stuff frozen from last summer. It's good, but nothing like when it's picked fresh from the field!

Happy Spring, everyone-

Spring has totally sprung

Hi everyone,

Not too much to report, but the unusually warm weather (this is the first week of April, right?) has sent everything into a growing frenzy. I think I can actually watch the leaves of my rhubarb plants unfurl. I was over at the farm today helping Sue prune and clean out the raspberry beds before the plants leaf out completely (they're still supposed to be somewhat dormant). She has a lot of plants; enough to usually give out quarts of raspberries in the CSA, so it took a while and my arms look like war zones, but the plants look great this year. With the weather last summer (wet, cold and crummy) and marauding bands of hungry rabbits during the previous winter, there wasn't much of a crop last year. But we managed to keep the bunnies out this winter and with some decent weather, there should be lots of lovely raspberries to give out (and plenty to eat while picking :>)

Sue showed me what she's been able to do with the greenhouses so far; there's plenty of great-looking lettuce, some spinach (but it's actually gotten too warm and a lot of it has bolted), kale, turnips, and carrots. This is really exciting, because even though this spring has been awfully warm so far, we often can't start planting anything outside in Central New York until late April, and even then it's a gamble. But with all these hoop-houses, next year we might even be able to start the CSA in April or May!

At home, I've been getting all my flower beds ready and Andrew helped me get some super deer fencing put up around the vegetable garden. It's actually more of a fortress: I have 8' T-poles, heavy duty 7 1/2' netting, and a (mild) electric fence around the whole thing. Andrew thinks if this doesn't work, our last resort will have to be either a dog or a moat with crocodiles. His vote is for the crocodiles. My garlic is up, the rhubarb is rapidly expanding, and now I'm anxiously waiting to see the first asparagus shoots to emerge.

Well, that's the news. Hope all of you are doing well, eating good food, and are planning on growing something in your yard this year. You don't have to be able to eat it, but I think it makes it more fun. I won't say that gardening is always easy, but it is incredibly rewarding.

All the best,
Sarah VanNorstrand

CSA Time!

Hi Everyone-

I just wanted to remind you all that it's time to sign up for Lucky Moon's CSA if you were thinking about subscribing to the farm this year. We're really hoping to have some new people join us as well as people from previous seasons. So let your friends and neighbors know about some of the great benefits to supporting a local CSA: the excellent quality and freshness of the produce, the chance to support a small, local farm that doesn't use any chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides, and the assurance of knowing exactly where your food came from and how it was grown. Who actually knows how they grow food in Brazil? Are the farmers and workers treated well? What about E-coli? And how much gasoline and refrigeration does it take to get food from California to Central New York? Good things to think about when there is such great produce to be had right in your own backyard (relative to Brazil and California, anyways), where you can see first hand how the food was grown.

The list of produce Sue and Claude are planning on growing this season include: tomatoes (cherry, sauce, salad and sandwich), potatoes, onions, peppers, beans (yellow and green), peas (sugar and snow), lettuce of all kinds, spinach, kale, swiss chard, beets (red and golden) cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, herbs, carrots, shallots, garlic, rhubarb, cucumbers, summer and winter squash, asian greens, bok choy, and more.

The options are either a full or a half share, and you can have it delivered or pick it up yourself. We will be having a pickup location at my house (right in the middle of Manlius) this year, in addition to at the farm in Cazenovia, and the pickup option offers a discount.
The price breakdown is as follows:
Full Share, delivered: $525
Full Share, pickup: $445
Half Share, delivered: $390
Half Share, pickup: $315

These can all be paid in two separate installments, but an initial payment is due pretty soon, by March 31st, if possible.

If you or someone you know is interested, please contact Sue and Claude by calling them at 655-2283, or by emailing me (Sarah VanNorstrand) at luckymoonfm@gmail.com.

We really hope you decide to give subscription farming and Lucky Moon a try- I'm pretty sure you'll find it's a really wonderful way, for multiple reasons, to get food on your table.

Sugar Time

Hello-
February is almost over, but in order to keep us from getting too complacent, a substantial winter storm hit Central New York and dumped at least two feet of snow on us. It's quite pretty until you have to shovel any of it, and then you realize it's been snowing soggy mashed-potatoes that weigh a ton. Ah well, it's good exercise.

It's almost time to start some of the early seeds for Lucky Moon, and tomorrow, I'm headed over there to see how to tap sugar maple trees. One of Lucky Moon's special products is Maple Syrup, and they offer it for sale almost all year (except perhaps in late winter when the year's supply has run out). I've never had a chance to tap trees before, so I'm very excited to see how it's done, as well as the lengthy boiling process. Depending on the type of tree and the age, I think it takes about 32 gallons of sap to produce 1 gallon of syrup! With that in mind, the price for maple syrup is a little easier to understand. And it tastes so incredible.

Every year, I've decided to try and grow more and more of our own food and learn how to preserve it. This year I've had great onions, potatoes, garlic, peppers and jams that I "put away" and have happily used all winter. However, now that it's the end of February, my planning is falling a bit short and I've only got a few cloves of garlic left, potatoes that have some truly impressive eyes (sprouts) growing on them, and the onions are sending up healthy green shoots. They're all still usable, but not really in their prime anymore. So when I heard about the farmer's market in Cazenovia this morning, I hurriedly shoveled the fresh three inches of snow that fell last night and drove out to the market. I picked up some fresh garlic and eggs and found some new sources of locally grown mushrooms, herb mixes, sheep yoghurt and cheeses and meat (beef, pork, lamb, chicken and turkey). I've been eating as little meat as possible (i.e. unless someone serves it to me in their home) not because I necessarily have a problem with eating meat, but I do disagree with how meat is produced industrially. So having sources for local, 100% grass-fed, humanely-treated animals raised for meat is a great thing. I'm not planning on ever eating as much meat as I used too; I've decided that I really do like tofu, and honestly, there are so many vegetables I love to eat, I hardly ever miss meat, but for those few occasions, I want to support the kind of meat-production I can stomach (sorry for the weak pun).

I don't know if anyone who reads this lives here in Central New York, but if you do, you should really hear about the restaurant in Caz where the market was held today. Circa restaurant offers truly wonderful food that comes in a large part from local growers and producers. Alicyn and her husband Eric run the place, and they are always trying to find local sources for the great dishes they serve at Circa. I really recommend it- they're doing what most restaurants write off as too expensive or time consuming, and the result is excellent food that you can really feel good about.

Eat Local! By supporting your friends and neighbors, you get to see exactly where your food comes from and exactly what happens to it before it ends up in your shopping cart or on your plate. It's the rare and elusive win-win situation. As one of the pamphlets from the market said today, "Know your farmer. Know your food. Know your food's food." I thought that was pretty succinct.

Be happy, be healthy.

Mid-winter Garden Blues

Hello everyone

I feel like an addict. It's the middle of January and I've been pouring over the same seed catalogs for four weeks now. I keep re-reading the lavish descriptions of the tomatoes and eating up words like "luscious", "bursting" and "full-bodied" that seem so alien to the frozen landscape outside the window. After the terrible Late Blight (yes, this was the same nasty epidemic that caused the Great Potato Famine in Ireland in the late 1800s- this disease has a seriously nasty record) wiped out most of the solanacea (mainly tomatoes and potatoes) crops last summer, it seems almost reckless to be planning which incredible heirloom varieties to grow this year. But despite the tomato troubles of last season, Sue and I met the other day to talk about what to grow this summer, with the typical January confidence that this year will be different. Maybe the weather will stick to its New Year's resolution to behave itself for once.

If any of you have gardens of your own, or are thinking about starting one, I wanted to let you know about a seed and gardening company from Waterville, Maine, called Fedco Co-op Seeds. It's a fair, above-the-board small company, where the people really know their varieties and give you straight-forward, informative descriptions and guarantee (to the best of their knowledge) that they don't carry any Genetically Engineered seeds or plants. So you won't be supporting Monsanto/Seminis (look them up, or read about them in "Omnivore's Dilemna"- Michael Pollan) with your business. In fact, you'll often be supporting organically and sustainably-grown seeds, with heirloom varieties that you won't find anywhere else. Its a company that I would highly recommend. I only found out about Fedco last year, because that's where Sue gets the majority of her seeds for the farm. It's definitely worth checking out if tomato varieties such as "Cosmonaut Volkov," "Rose de Berne," and "Cherokee Purple" get your mouth watering.

It's a bit early to start any seeds yet, but it won't be long before we get some germinating to start seedlings for Lucky Moon. I can't wait to taste that first tomato! (or pepper, or peas, or carrot, or lettuce, or beet... you get the idea)

To get me through the dark days of winter, I picked up a book I've been meaning to read for a long time: "Animal, Vegatable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. Now, I know she's a great author, but I had no idea she was so cool in real life! The book is a loose journal of her family's decision to try and eat for a year from food that they could obtain locally, from sustainable producers, or that they grew themselves. They move from Tucson, AZ (one of the more difficult places to live sustainably in our country, as much as I love it there) to a small farm in Virginia and begin a true adventure, daring to examine their eating and living practices and how they help or hurt their local economies, the environment and their own bodies. It's not an impassioned rant, but it is witty, hilarious and very compelling. I can't put it down. In addition to Barbara's wonderful writing, her husband and her eldest daughter both include short essays on various topics that coincide with particular chapters. These also include simple recipes featuring seasonal and locally-available produce as well as lots of internet links for finding out more on a particular subject. It's a wonderful read.

Gardening can be a slippery slope- once you start cultivating your own fruits and vegetables from the garden, or start getting them from a local CSA like Lucky Moon, or the farmer's market, or a co-op, your standards for what you eat start changing. Once you see how good real food can be, it makes you think about other things you might make yourself (or get from someone who has) instead of getting the industrial version that is produced simply to be a certain shape and have a certain color (why would we care what it tastes like?). I learned last summer that Sue makes her own bread, and I couldn't believe that she could possibly have time to do such a labor-intensive thing while running the farm. Without a bread machine. She told me that it really isn't that hard, or labor-intensive, when you do it a lot. And she's right. I decided to give baking bread a try, and even my first unpracticed attempts produced such tasty loaves that I kept at it. This is home-made bread, we're talking about. It's delicious! There's no way frozen dough that's baked in a supermarket oven can ever taste that good. I've been baking our own bread now since July and it really isn't a horrible chore. It's actually quite enjoyable, and is a skill that many of us in my generation, and even my parents' generation have not taken the time to learn. The next thing I want to try is making cheese. I know, I know, it sounds really drastic, like I've jumped off the deep end. But apparently Mozzarella takes 30 minutes to make, and as long as the milk isn't ultra-pasteurized, any milk will do. I'll keep you informed.

Keep dreaming of that summer garden- I keep looking out the window at my garden beds quietly blanketed with snow- the promise of another year.