Week 18 9-14-2011

*A note for on farm pick up: some of your produce will be in your box in the fridge, other portions will be on the table in front of the fridge with signs indicating how much of an item you receive that day. Please always remember to check both your box and the table.*

*Remember you can always see old newsletter and their recipes as well as photos of the farm at our csa blog http://bluebirdfarmcsa.blogspot.com For general farm news you can see our regular blog BluebirdFarmNC.blogspot.com*

Week 18 box

Green Beans-probably a last taste for the season

Edamame-another week of delicious snacks

Radishes

Swiss Chard

Sweet Peppers

Arugula-we had an interesting twist on the regular goat cheese and roasted nut arugula salad this week. We added roasted vegetables to the mix. We roasted small chunks of potatoes, onions, and beets coated in olive oil and spices at 350 for about 45 minutes or until tender. We then warm (not hot) roasted veggies over a bed of arugula and topped with goat cheese, nuts, and balsamic vinegar-a meal in a salad!

Basil- eat all you can of this delicious taste of summer-it won’t last much longer!

In the last two weeks look forward to:

Sweet Potatoes

Baby head lettuce

Red Russian Kale

CSA Farm Day and Farm Open House!

We would like to invite you all out to a CSA farm day this Friday September 16^th 4-7 pm at Bluebird Farm. It is a chance for you to come out and see where all the delicious food comes from. We will be leading several tours of the garden and animals through the afternoon. There will also be a great kid’s area for digging!

If you can’t make it this Friday, come out next Friday September 23^rd 4-7 pm for a farm open house.

It is also time to start thinking about ordering a family pork pack or half hog. We have several sizes available. The pork packs are a great way to buy in bulk for the winter season when we won’t be at farms markets. For complete information on our family pork packs and half hog pricing see the pork page on our website www.bluebirdfarmnc.com (You will be able to find us at Catawba Valley Brewery at least until Thanksgiving, you can also always call and arrange to come to the farm in the winter to pick up food).

Special on farm pricing on all of our pork will be available both days.

Cleaning Edamame

One of the defining activities of the last week was preparing the Edamame for bundling and distribution. Edemame is very easy to grow. It sprouts right up and turns into a bean filled jungle in no time at all. It is also easy to harvest, we simply snip the base of the plants’ stalks and carry them into the barn. Preparing the stalks is another story- hours of snipping leaves, cutting to rough lengths and taming unruly stalks into bundles. Of course, the rest of the farm doesn’t slow down, so we end up enjoying late night and early morning radio programs we prefer not to listen to on a regular basis while we work on the edamame. At least with this farm job we could enjoy a beer and work at the same time!

The insect assassins clean up summer garden beds

One of the reasons our summer squash and cucumber harvest met an early demise this fall was an over abundance of squash bugs and cucumber beetles. After killing off the late summer crops both of these insects will over winter in brush and debris around a garden ready to emerge again in the spring with their voracious appetites. Before they got a chance to go hide (at least we hope we caught them early enough) we went through the demolished squash patch turning over brush and shaking dead plants until they fell off. Then we ruthlessly hunted them down as the scurried for cover. We hope we got most of them! After taking care of the insect problem we put down our weapons of destruction and prepared the beds for late fall greens, hoeing out weeds and raking them smooth. The former jungle of summer now lays neatly tamed ready for sowing and transplants.

Your Farmers William and Marie