Star Hollow Farm

Farm News, week of Saturday, May 11, 2013

Tue, 07 May 2013 20:43:00 -0400

On the farm (and off)…
Anna and I had a wonderful time on our week’s getaway to Ireland! We left last Sunday morning (after delivering your CSA boxes in DC) and arrived on Aran Island in western Ireland around noon on Monday. We hiked to a 3000-year-old Iron Age cliff fort, rode bikes along rocky lanes overlooking Galway Bay and caught up on our jet lag. Then we returned to the mainland, rented a little car and spent 4 days driving about every paved road in Connemara, a wild, desolate, boggy, mountainous and beautiful region just north of the Bay, where many folks still speak Irish Gaelic. We visited Connemara National Park and climbed about a thousand-feet up a mountain, as far as we could get before we were into the clouds and it started raining. We visited little villages, crumbling castles, fishing harbors, stayed in B&Bs, ate picnic lunches, dined in pubs. One of our biggest surprises was that it was not yet green there, the grasses still winter brown. (Getting home, I was pleased to realize that our farm was considerably greener — and perhaps just as pretty — as Ireland!)

Photo: Anna and Randy along the Sky Road in southern Connemara.

Saturday we rode the bus back to Dublin just in time for Bank Holiday, a 3-day-weekend that nobody seems to know the purpose of. The city was hoppin’, nowhere more so than the Temple Bar district, thronged with Dubliners, Irish tourists, and other visitors from around the world. We heard some good music, saw some crazy people, walked a lot, ate and drank in a pub built in 1198. Had a great time, were ready to come home after a week, and I’m back at it, though now jet-lagged the other way.

Chris kept the home fires burning; Sam kept the farm going. He planted potatoes, tilled fields, and cleaned out a year’s worth of chicken manure from the larger henhouse. (Gee, too bad I missed that!) The new flock is supposedly on its way later this week.

I’m going to let the update stop there. Ask me at the truck if you want to know more. There are more Ireland pictures on our website at www.starhollowfarm.com, right below this post, if you’re interested. I still haven’t had time to glance but quickly through them, and may throw in a few more next time.

Photo: Another view from the same evening ride in Connemara.

Back to business…
We’re back just in time for the good stuff — asparagus and rhubarb and spinach and ramps and more.

This week’s planned produce list
Lots of new items this week, as well as a number on sale!

Greens: micro greens mix, pea shoots, arugula, beet greens, braising greens mix, mixed chard, young kale, lamb’s quarters, wildfire lettuce mix, salad mix, big bag-O-spinach, watercress, Romaine, Simpson & green oakleaf lettuce. Also bunched chard & kale.
Veggies: asparagus, beets, cabbage,carrots, hothouse cucumbers, bunched fresh garlic, onions, radishes (French breakfast, Black Spanish, green meat), ramps, rhubarb, rutabagas, scallions, sweet potatoes, hothouse tomatoes (red & green), turnips (baby white).
Herbs: basil, parsley (curly & flat), chives, leaf celery, dill, lovage, rosemary, sage, savory, French sorrel, spearmint, peppermint, sweet marjoram, orange thyme & Scarborough Fair mix.
Mushrooms: crimini, portabella, farm-grown shiitake, royal trumpet & white.
Chicken & eggs: frozen stewing chickens, brown eggs.
Butter: salted and unsalted.
Cow Cheese: cheddar (sharp, Italian), jack (Monterey, Wallaby, Dragons Breath), Vermeer (Gouda), havarti (Danish type).
Goat Cheese: regular and garlic/chive curd.
Glass jars: honey, apple butter. Jams & jellies: (apricot, blackberry, blueberry, grape, peach & strawberry). Pickles: (dilly beans, red beets, watermelon rinds). Relishes: hot pepper, zucchini. Salsa.

Farmer’s Pick
The Pick for this week is asparagus, English hothouse cucumber, Swiss chard, Simpson green leaf lettuce, onions, a parsnip/potato mix, small bunch of ramps (wild leeks that are sort of like scallions), a red tomato, a small bunch of spearmint and a jar of pickles.

Thanks much to all of you for your support,
Randy, Chris & Sam @ Star Hollow Farm

General farm info:   starhollowfarm.com.
CSA-specific info:    starhollowfarm.com/csa.
Online store:            store.starhollowfarm.com.
Randy’s cell phone (Saturday only): 814.386.5015

Above are some quick selections from the hundreds of pictures...

Tue, 07 May 2013 20:08:00 -0400

Some pictures from Anna and my recent trip to Ireland.

Above are some quick selections from the hundreds of pictures Anna and I took on our recent trip to Ireland. I’m still not very well versed in sharing pictures… there probably was a better way, but I don’t know it.

Farm News, week of Saturday, April 27, 2013

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:49:00 -0400

On the farm
What a beautiful few days we’ve had to start off the week. It’s been on the cool side, but so nice and sunny that Chris and I put out the lawn chairs and had a glass of wine in the yard before dinner last night.

Chicken butchering
But the wine in the sun in the yard came after Sam and I had an early start to the day. Tuesday was chicken butchering day, as our new flock of red hens is due to arrive in about a week, we need time to clean out the henhouse and have everything ready for them. We got outside about 5 AM, while it was still dark and the chickens were quiet, and used our headlamps to work, plucking them gently and quietly from their roosts and loading them carefully into the new traveling crates that Sam built last winter. Nevin Hosteter at Berry Blossom Farm — whose heirloom tomatoes we sometimes offer in summer — is also a butcher and has the hens all bagged up and ready for me to pick up Wednesday when I head back out on my route to get fresh cheese, lettuce, and some other produce that we do not currently have on hand ourselves.

Photo: This is the garlic patch Tuesday afternoon. The plants are about 6 inches tall, and will not be ready to harvest until about Fourth of July. In the meantime, we’re harvesting fresh garlic from the greenhouse and high tunnels.

High tunnels
It’s cleanout time, and we’ve cut back just about everything, which is why there’s a lot of chard and mixed greens and such available in the store. The new season crops are ready to go in!

What are the different kinds of shiitake mushrooms?
Some of you may wonder about the different labels we give to shiitake mushrooms. I’m not a mushroom expert (although I have been to a number of workshops and we did grow them for several years), but the way I see it, the best tasting are the log-grown version — available only in the summer when the temperature and moisture conditions are right. They have the best flavor. They are not done by big companies but small farmers or homeowners that love doing it, mainly because it is not easy and is quite variable, something most big companies don’t like. Most common are mushroom-house shiitakes, grown on a sawdust block, not unlike Presto Logs, if you know what they are. They’re tasty enough, but definitely not like log-grown. In between those are what we’ve called “farm-raised” shiitakes. They are grown on a soft, sawdust-like medium, but done locally by small farmers, usually in the bottom of their barns in an area where they can control moisture and temperature. That way they are available year ‘round. I’m sure there’s more that could be said about shiitakes, but that’s how we’ve divided them up.

Photo: This is our packing shed where we work on all of your produce, keep it cool, and pack your orders. We just put in the new door and light panel above it to add more natural light to our work area.

This week’s planned produce list
Lots of new items this week!

Greens: micro greens mix, pea shoots, arugula, beet greens, cress, salad mix, big bag-O-spinach, stir-fry greens mix, Romaine, Simpson & red oakleaf lettuce. Also bunched dandelion, chard & mixed cooking greens.
Veggies: new baby beets with tops & red beets, cabbage, hothouse cucumbers, bunched fresh garlic, onions, parsnips, potatoes (gold & red), radishes (red bunching, Black Spanish, green meat), rutabagas, scallions, sorrel soup pack, sweet potatoes, hothouse tomatoes (red & green), turnips (purple-top & soup).
Herbs: basil, parsley (curly & flat), chives, leaf celery, lovage, rosemary, sage, savory, French sorrel, spearmint, sweet marjoram, orange thyme & the Scarborogh Fair mix.
Mushrooms: crimini, blue oyster, portabella, farm-grown shiitake & white.
Apples (almost over): Cameo & Golden Delicious.
Chicken & eggs: frozen stewing chickens, brown eggs.
Butter: salted and unsalted.
Cow Cheese: cheddar (sharp, Italian), jack (Monterey, Wallaby, Dragons Breath), Vermeer (Gouda), havarti (Danish type), blue (Blue Suede Moo).
Goat Cheese: regular and garlic/chive curd, demi-sec & ash logs (buche).
Glass jars: honey, apple butter. Jams & jellies: (apricot, blackberry, blueberry, grape, peach & strawberry). Pickles: (dilly beans, red beets, dill & banana pickles, stuffed peppers, watermelon rinds). Relishes: hot pepper, zucchini. Salsa.

Farmer’s Pick
This week’s Pick is a big ‘ole bag of fresh spinach (1#), red oakleaf lettuce, a bunch of Siberian kale, a bunch of fresh green garlic, some onions, sweet potatoes, a green tomato, some purple sage and a small jar of home-canned raspberry jam.

Farmer gets a break
It’s been a long winter, and I’m ready for a vacation. Next Sunday — after handing out your orders in DC the day before — my daughter Anna and I are flying to Ireland for a week. We were there as a family about 10 years ago, following up on a trip I made there back in the ’70s, when I fell in love with the country and the people. Our kids have grown up listening to Irish music and watching Irish movies, so it’s going to be fun to go back once more. We’re planning on heading to the West Coast, primarily the area known as Connemara. I’ll be sure to have some pictures up on the site for next time. Sláinte (cheers! in Irish.)

Thanks much to all of you for your support,
Randy, Chris & Sam @ Star Hollow Farm

Farm News, week of April 13, 2013

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 21:34:00 -0400

On the farm
About four mornings ago we awoke to 15 degrees and a greenhouse heater on the fritz. Yesterday afternoon was in the high 80s and the greenhouse fan motor went out. Our greenhouse is nearly full; we haven’t lost anything yet. This is part of what makes farming fun! (We’re working on both heating and cooling systems.) Outdoors the ground has dried out and all the farmers in the area are spreading manure.

Monday afternoon Sam and I marked and plowed several expanded garden areas in front of the house. Part of our rationale was that the deer have become so destructive out in our fields that shifting some of the more desirable crops into the yard — with buildings and dogs nearby — would reduce damage. Yesterday morning at dawn there were seven deer standing and pawing around in the freshly tilled earth. One tore out and carried one of our marker flags away. Not a good omen.

Photo: We had a 30-inch-diameter, 50-foot-tall box elder tree beside our porch that has leaned over our house for many years. It was showing signs of decay and we decided it was time to bring it down. We had a professional tree cutter come and all went well. So sad, but we’ll sleep better!

High tunnels
It’s time to transplant our spring high tunnel crops out from the greenhouse, so all the greens that overwintered in there have to come out; lots of greens this week! Some of the Crucifers (mustard family crops including kale, collards, kohlrabi) are starting to bolt — make flowers — but we’ll include them also, as the flowers and stalks are edible. Ever get broccoli raab? That’s what that is, mostly.

Online CSA notes
I missed it last time, but just saw that we recently filled our 40,000th online CSA order. Also noted that our first CSA member has now renewed membership (re-upped) 24 times! We started doing business online in January of 2004, expecting it to just be a winter-time thing. Guess we were wrong! It is now what keeps our farm going. Thanks for your support! I hope sometime to write up a brief history of our CSA and market experience, just so you can see where we are now and how we got here.

Rules
I’m sure many of you wonder why we have to be so picky and make rules about how things work; what you can and can’t do; etc. When we started, all we had was order times and pickup times, not really any rules at all. Any and all that we have now have come about over time as things happen which at first we just deal with, and then realize we really can’t be doing this or that every time or the details are going to overcome us. That’s the only reason we have them, so that we can make this model of CSA work.

This week’s planned produce list
Besides all the greens, we also picked up more wonderful cheese from Mark & Melanie’s Jersey cows and award-winning Keswick Creamery, more pickles and salsa from Sarah Hostetler, and more fruit jams from Rachel Hege.

Greens: micro greens mix, pea & sunflower shoots, arugula, beet greens, chard mix, cress, lacinato kale, mache, red mustard, salad mix, baby spinach, stir-fry greens mix, Bibb & green oakleaf lettuce. Also bunched dandelion and chard.
Veggies: red beets, cabbage, purple carrots, hothouse cucumbers, garlic (bulbs & green), Jerusalem artichokes, onions, parsnips, potatoes (gold & red), radishes (Black Spanish, green meat & watermelon), rutabagas, scallions, sweet potatoes, turnips (purple-top & soup!).
Herbs: basil, parsley, leaf celery, rosemary, sage, sweet marjoram & thyme.
Mushrooms: crimini, blue oyster, royal trumpet, portabella, shiitake & white.
Apples (almost over): Cameo, Fuji, Gala, Golden Delicious, the “Apple-a-Day” bags and some seconds.
Chicken & eggs: frozen stewing chicken, brown eggs.
Butter: salted and unsalted.
Cow Cheese: cheddar (sharp, Italian), jack (Monterey, Wallaby, Dragons Breath), havarti (Danish type), blue (Blue Suede Moo).
Goat Cheese: regular and garlic/chive curd.
Glass jars: honey, apple butter. Jams & jellies: (apricot, blackberry, blueberry, grape, peach & strawberry). Pickles: (dilly beans, red beets, dill & banana pickles, stuffed peppers, watermelon rinds). Relishes: hot pepper, zucchini. Salsa.

Farmer’s Pick
This week’s Pick is green oakleaf lettuce, upland cress, bunched mixed cooking greens, English hothouse cucumber, Romanian garlic, onions, mixed potatoes, scallions, Scarborough Fair herb mix, Apple-a-Day mix, pickled dilly beans.

Thanks much to all of you for your support,
Randy, Chris & Sam @ Star Hollow Farm

Farm News, week of March 30, 2013

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 20:57:00 -0400

On the farm. Things are coming along toward the new season. Most of the first round of planting is done (in the greenhouse, for later transplanting), based on how long different plants take to reach maturity, where they’re going (inside or outside), how frost tolerant they are, etc. Figuring this all out is always challenging. This year it’s been more involved as I made up a new set of charts (my old ones were done in the early ’90s!) as I try to teach Sam more of how this business operates. This Spring I’ve made the new charts and Sam has done the actual greenhouse planting. Results shown below!

Photo. The germination table in the greenhouse, where much of the action for the coming season is happening. The pilot light in the propane furnace — which is controlling the temps for all the plants and the new chicks — went out last Sunday night in the middle of the snowstorm. All fixed now; fortunately it wasn’t that cold; no apparent damage.

Chickies. Our bigger red hens continue to lay eggs at an amazing rate: I got 99 eggs from 99 hens one day last week. That is pretty darn incredible. Normal laying rates are in the low 90%, these are about 95% on most days. Good girls!

Photo: Our new flock of funky chickens are growing like crazy and doing well. They’re just over 3 weeks old, and they’re at least 3 times as big as when they arrived, probably more. In a week or two they’ll get moved into they’re own henhouse.

This week’s planned produce list.

Greens: micro greens mix, pea & sunflower shoots, arugula, salad mix, cress, chard mix, mizuna, baby spinach, stir-fry greens mix, and Bibb lettuce. Also bunched dandelion and kale.
Veggies: red beets, cabbage, carrots (orange & purple ), celeriac, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, kohlrabi, onions, parsnips, potatoes (gold, red, Austrian Crescent fingerling), radishes (Daikon, Black Spanish, green meat, watermelon & mix), sweet potatoes, turnips (purple-top & soup!).
Herbs: leaf celery, chives, parsley, rosemary, sage, tarragon, thyme and our “Scarborough Fair” mix.
Mushrooms: crimini, royal trumpet, portabella, shiitake & white.
Apples: Cameo, 2 lb Fuji, 2 lb Gala, Golden Delicious, LG JonaGold, 2 lb Pink Lady. Also the “Apple-a-Day” bags and some seconds.
Chicken & eggs: frozen stewing chicken, brown eggs.
Butter: salted and unsalted.
Cow Cheese: cheddar (sharp, garlic/chive, Italian, smoked), jack (Monterey), havarti (Danish soft cheese).
Goat Cheese: regular and garlic/chive curd.
Glass jars: honey, apple butter. Jams & jellies: (apricot, cherry, grape, peach & strawberry). Pickles: (garlic scapes, stuffed peppers, green tomatoes, watermelon rinds, and pickles. Relishes: hot pepper, zucchini.
Firewood: logs.

Farmer’s Pick
This week’s Pick is stir-fry greens mix, lolla bionda lettuce, beets, carrots, onions, sweet potatoes, leaf celery, shiitake mushrooms, 3 gala apples, and a pint of pickles!

Thanks much to all of you for your support,
Randy, Chris & Sam @ Star Hollow Farm

Farm News, week of March 16, 2013

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 20:10:00 -0400

On the farm. It has started to feel like spring here; some days more than others. Tuesday was a step back the wrong direction, but we’ve sure enjoyed some nice sunny days over the last two weeks. And the plants notice it too… many of our greens in the high tunnels and greenhouse have really jumped with the higher temperatures and sunshine.

Chickies. Last Tuesday morning I got a call from our post office that there was a box full of peeping chicks there awaiting my arrival. Our new heritage birds have arrived and are now about a week old. We got 50 day-old peeps, about 2/3 Araucauna (they lay the blue/green eggs) and 1/3 Welsummer (dark brown eggs). All seem to be doing well.

Photo: Our chick brooder, with the heat lamp on to keep them warm. The brooder is one semi-controlled environment situated inside another one: our greenhouse. The greenhouse eliminates wind, maintains a minimum temperature and provides safety for the chicks.

This week’s planned produce list.

Greens: micro greens mix, pea & sunflower shoots, arugula, beet greens, Autumn mesclun & regular salad mix, cress, chard mix, mizuna, baby spinach, stir-fry greens mix, and Bibb lettuce. Also a small amount of bunched dandelion and kale.
Veggies: red beets, cabbage, carrots (orange & purple ), celeriac, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, kohlrabi, onions (red & yellow), parsnips, potatoes (gold, red, Austrian Crescent fingerling), radishes (black Spanish & watermelon), shallots, scorzonera, sweet potatoes, turnips (purple-top & soup!), and a seconds roots pack.
Herbs: leaf celery, parsley, rosemary, purple sage and our “Scarborough Fair” mix.
Mushrooms: crimini, blue oyster, shiitake & white.
Apples: Cameo, Fuji, 2 lb Gala, Golden Delicious, 2 lb Pink Lady. Also the “Apple-a-Day” bags and some seconds.
Chicken & eggs: frozen stewing chicken, brown eggs.
Butter: salted and unsalted.
Cow Cheese: cheddar (sharp, garlic/chive, Italian, smoked), jack (Monterey), havarti (Danish soft cheese).
Goat Cheese: curd.
Glass jars: honey, apple butter, apple sauce. Jams & jellies: (apricot, cherry, grape, peach & strawberry). Pickles: (garlic scapes, stuffed peppers, green tomatoes, watermelon rinds, and cucumber pickles (banana, sweet dill & seven-day). Relishes: hot pepper, zucchini. Tomatoes: ketchup.
Firewood: logs.

Farmer’s Pick
This week’s Pick is special stir-fry greens mix (including raab-style flower tips from several of our high tunnel greens), Buttercrunch lettuce, deep purple carrots, fresh garlic, onions, gold potatoes, a big ole’ rutabaga, 2 lbs of Pink Lady apples and a quart of preserved cherries from the orchard!

Off-the-farm

Photo: Sam and I on the Lower Trail.

Last Saturday (instead of coming to DC!) Sam and I loaded up our bikes and headed about an hour north to a rail trail we hadn’t been on before, the Lower Trail. It was originally the towpath on the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal, then the tracks for the Pennsy Railroad, and now it’s a bike trail! It’s 16 miles out and 16 back, and our bottoms were tired by the time we got back to the truck. That’s my longest bike ride in over 30 years. Landing on the padded truck seat felt mighty good after that.

Thanks much to all of you for your support,
Randy, Chris & Sam @ Star Hollow Farm

Farm News, week preceding March 2, 2013.

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:58:00 -0500

Chris and I celebrated our 28th anniversary last Saturday by taking off in the afternoon and heading over to Cacapon State Park near Berkeley Springs, WV, just a little over an hour from the farm. They have a beautiful 1950s lodge there in the park for very reasonable rates in the winter. We went out for dinner in Berkeley Springs, then walked to a coffeehouse around the corner to hear some live bluegrass. Sunday morning dawned cold but sunny and we took an easy hike around the cabin area and the lake in the park. It was fun, relaxing, and a great getaway.

Back on the farm. It feels like we’re right on the cusp between last year’s season ending and this one beginning. Storage crops are giving up left and right; greens won’t grow because it’s still too dark; but we’ve started planting for the coming season. Sam has seeded the 8 or 10 tomato varieties we grow, and all are up on the germination table, many showing their first true leaves already.

Photo: Greens are needing additional light these days in order to grow. Even with the light, growth is slowed, and of course costs more.

Packing shed. We spent Monday of last week putting up the rest of the metal ceiling (thanks for your help, Jack!) and then rented a blower and blew in about 6 inches of insulation above the ceiling, so that we can keep warm while packing orders in the winter, and hopefully stay cooler while working in there in the summer. We installed a new door last month, and have poured new concrete around the entrance. Next week I’ll proceed with some of the wiring projects I started in there last winter. Never a shortage of things to do!

This week’s planned produce list. The days are getting longer, but we’re still not getting enough sunlight. Thus greens offerings are still on the low side. Most this week are from Tuscarora Organic Growers Co-op, and they have raised their prices recently. Sorry!

Greens: micro greens mix, pea shoots, arugula, Asian greens mix, Autumn mesclun,baby spinach, stir-fry greens mix, lettuce (Bibb & Romaine).
Veggies: red beets, cabbage, carrots (orange & purple ), celeriac, garlic, onions (red & yellow), parsnips, potatoes (gold, red, Russian Banana fingerling), radishes (black Spanish & watermelon), rutabagas, shallots, sweet potatoes, turnips (purple-top & soup!), and a seconds roots pack.
Herbs: parsley, rosemary, purple sage and our “Scarborough Fair” mix.
Mushrooms: crimini, portabella, shiitake & white.
Apples: Cameo, Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, Pink Lady and Stayman. Also the “Apple-a-Day” bags and some seconds.
Chicken & eggs: frozen stewing chicken, brown eggs.
Butter: salted and unsalted.
Cow Cheese: cheddar (sharp, Dragon’s Breath, garlic/chive, Italian, smoked), jack (Monterey), havarti (Danish soft cheese).
Goat Cheese: cheddar, curd.
Glass jars: honey, apple butter, apple sauce, canned cherries & peaches. Jams & jellies: (apricot, cherry, grape, peach, raspberry & strawberry). Pickles: (garlic scapes, stuffed peppers, green tomatoes, watermelon rinds, and cucumber pickles (banana, sweet dill & seven-day). Relishes: hot pepper, zucchini. Tomatoes: ketchup.
Firewood: logs.

Farmer’s Pick
This week’s Pick is Bibb lettuce, carrots, pickled garlic scapes, red onions, 2# of mixed potatoes, Spanish radishes, 1/4 lb. white mushrooms, Italian parsley, and 3 Pink Lady apples.

Thanks much to all of you for your support,
Randy, Chris & Sam @ Star Hollow Farm

Farm News for the week of Saturday, February 16, 2013

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:35:00 -0500

On-the-farm…
What a difference a few weeks make. Those long, dark days of winter seem to be past us now, at least the worst of them. I find it so depressing when it gets dark at five o’clock! Now we’re light until a little after six, and that just seems so much better. I really don’t know how those folks up/down near the poles take winter. Don’t think it would work for me.

With the longer days and the approach of spring, it’s just about time for us to start our 2013 crop seeds in the greenhouse. Sam and I worked out this year’s rotation and varieties over the last few weeks, ordered our first seeds and received them today in the mail, and will start planting later this week. We’ll start with the high tunnel crops, as they can go in earliest since they’re protected from frost. We’ll be doing our usual 8 or so different kinds of heirloom tomatoes plus a mix of 5 or 6 kinds of cherry tomatoes. Seeds will get started this week in trays on a heat pad, then when they’re big enough — about 3 weeks — they’ll be “potted up” into larger containers. After about another three weeks — that is, around April 1 — those will get transplanted into one of the high tunnels. The other tunnel will be for greens. Those seeds will probably get started next week, and will include all the usuals that we grow, plus some new items. We really liked the Hon Tsai Tai mustard that we trialed last fall, and Sam saw a red/purple pac choi that he wanted to try.

Photo: Greens this afternoon in low tunnels under high tunnels under a very welcome sunny sky.

This week’s planned produce list. The days are getting noticeably longer and the greens are responding accordingly.

Greens: micro greens mix, pea shoots, arugula, beet greens, young chard, claytonia, baby collards, sweet/spicy mesclun, young mustard, salad mix, baby stir-fry greens mix, lettuce (red & green oakleaf).
Veggies: red beets, cabbage, carrots (orange & maroon), celeriac, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, onions (red & yellow), parsnips, potatoes (gold, red, blue, Russian Banana fingerling, mixed), radishes (black Spanish & watermelon), rutabagas, shallots, sweet potatoes, turnips (purple-top & soup!).
Herbs: leaf celery, parsley, sage, rosemary, and our new “Scarborough Fair” mix.
Mushrooms: crimini, portabella, shiitake & white.
Fruit: small Bosc pears and apples: Cameo, Fuji, Gala, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith & Pink Lady. Also the “Apple-a-Day” bags.
Chicken & eggs: frozen stewing chicken, brown eggs.
Butter: Salted and unsalted.
Cow Cheese: cheddar (sharp, Dragon’s Breath, garlic/chive, Italian, jalapeno, smoked), jack (habanero, Monterey), havarti (Danish soft cheese).
Goat Cheese: cheddar, curd.
Glass jars: honey, apple butter, apple sauce, canned cherries & peaches. Jams & jellies: (apricot, cherry, grape, peach, raspberry & strawberry). Pickles: (garlic scapes, stuffed peppers, green tomatoes, watermelon rinds, and cucumber pickles (banana, sweet dill, seven-day & zesty). Relishes: hot pepper, zucchini. Tomatoes: (chunky salsa & ketchup).
Firewood: logs.

Farm School
I mentioned last time that Sam & I had gone to the PA Vegetable Grower conference in Hershey. This past Friday and Saturday all three of us drove up to State College to attend our annual PA Sustainable Ag conference. That’s where we see many of the farmer friends we never see all summer long when we’re all too busy farming to socialize! In addition to socializing, we also each attended 5 different workshops and listened to 2 keynote speakers. One nice thing about the somewhat more “touchy-feely” Sustainable Ag conference is the inclusion of workshops and speakers that are more big-picture oriented (sometimes even spiritual) than the very production-oriented PA VEG Growers conference. I’m not sure any of us came away with a plan to make any big change this year — last year was when we decided to start the flock of heritage chickens — but it was informative and inspirational anyway!

Speaking of the heritage chickens…
One of the workshops gave a sort of lesson in enterprise analysis which I spent several hours this morning working over for our chicken business. As you may know, we had 125 red hens and 25 heritage hens. We did well with the red hens, but found that we actually lost money raising the flock of heritage birds. They eat the same amount of feed, but take longer to start laying, then lay fewer eggs, for a shorter season. We did charge more for them ($5 vs $4 per dozen) but it looks like the price should have been significantly higher to cover those differences. As it turns out — and I feel kinda dumb telling you this — we met about about month ago and decided to do the heritage birds again, this time doubling the flock to 50 and trying another new breed. They’re already ordered. So now we’re sure gonna have to do something to make more off of them or we’ll lose double! Sorry to say it, but one obvious thing will be a higher price. We knew we should have been charging more for them last year, but were hoping to get more people to try them by pricing them lower. The new flock of day-old chicks are scheduled to arrive here in less than 3 weeks, so I’m sure you’ll hear more about them as time goes on!

Farmer’s Pick
This week’s Pick is Romaine lettuce, small cabbage, carrots, onions, sweet potatoes, homemade ketchup, shiitake mushrooms, quart of pears, 3 cameo and 3 pink lady apples.

Thanks much to all of you for your support,
Randy, Chris & Sam @ Star Hollow Farm

Farm News for Saturday, February 2, 2013

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 19:59:00 -0500

On-the-farm…
What a dreary week or two we’ve had! The lone exception was this past Sunday, which was nice and sunny and nearly 32 degrees. And so I did something I’ve never done before… went for a bike ride on the snow. It was so nice and I was so frustrated from spending the whole week at my desk doing taxes. I took about a 4 mile ride from the house, out our lane, up the hill up the hollow to the ridge where I could look around at the beautiful place we live. And going back down the snowy road I went very slowly! There were no mishaps and when Monday dawned gray and icy, and I saw that the whole week was supposed to be that way, I was really glad I went for the ride!

Photo: Microgreens growing in the greenhouse.

Sam and I had planned to start a job completing the inside Packing Shed ceiling last week, but then the temps dropped into the teens and we decided the job could wait. We have a heater we could run in there, but when I started thinking about how much propane we’d be using just to be able to work, I shifted gears. Instead, Sam’s been working on our seed order and I’ve been tallying our Schedule F (farm taxes) numbers. And I also completed the 2012 USDA agriculture census form I mentioned last time.

The Census actually caused me to group crops differently than normal, and in so doing I learned something about our business that is significant: 5 years ago we had no high tunnels and no production of crops in our greenhouse. The greenhouse was just used to start seeds and as a nursery for plants to go out into the field when they were ready. Six or eight years ago I started hearing about high tunnels, and now we have two in production, plus we have converted part of our greenhouse into a production area. Well, for 2012, fully 47% of our crop production came from these three “under cover” areas. I realized that the under-cover areas were sources of significant production for us, but without the Census’ demand to know the percentage, I probably wouldn’t have split it all out.

Why are they so high a percentage, when they don’t represent much acreage overall? Several reasons: protection from the elements means fewer diseases, less animal damage, less wind damage, higher quality produce which means a greater percentage that makes it to market, and most of all, near-year-round production, whilst our fields are under several inches of frozen snow we are picking chard and beet greens and kale and mustards at the end of January after a week of single-digit nighttime temps. That would have been unheard of just a dozen years ago. (Well, global warming may have helped some, too!)

Tuesday Sam and I are headed to Hershey, PA for the annual PA Vegetable Growers Association conference. About 2000 folks will attend to learn what’s new, exciting, and coming down the pike for veggie production in PA. Then the following week is our PASA (PA Assoc. for Sustainable Ag) Conference in State College. And I forgot to mention last time that we had spent the day volunteering at the PA Farm Show in Harrisburg, each doing our bit for the various organizations we belong to. Winter is a busy time, too!

This week’s planned produce list. Sorry to say that you may notice a significant drop in the number of greens available this week. The past two weeks’ worth of gray, dreary skies and cold temperatures have meant little to no new plant growth in the greenhouses and high tunnels. Sorry… We’re trying!

Greens: micro greens mix, pea shoots, red-ribbed dandelion, Tuscarora salad mix, stir-fry greens mix, lettuce (oakleaf & Romaine).
Veggies: beets (red & Chioggia), cabbage, carrots (orange & maroon), celeriac, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes,kohlrabi, onions (red & yellow), parsnips, potatoes (gold, red, blue, Russian Banana fingerling, mixed), radishes (black Spanish & Daikon), rutabagas, shallots, sweet potatoes, turnips (purple-top & sweet white), and butternut squash.
Herbs: parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme, and our new “Scarborough Fair” herb mix.
Mushrooms: crimini, portabella, royal trumpet, shiitake & white.
Fruit: Bosc pears, and apples: Fuji, Gala, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, JonaGold & Pink Lady. Also the “Apple-a-Day” bags.
Chicken & eggs: frozen stewing chicken, brown eggs.
Butter: Salted and unsalted.
Cow Cheese: cheddar (sharp, Dragon’s Breath, English, garlic/chive, Italian, jalapeno, smoked), jack (habanero, Monterey), havarti (Danish soft cheese), blue (bloo-moo), and gouda (Vermeer).
Goat Cheese: cheddar, curd.
Glass jars: honey, apple butter, apple sauce, canned cherries & peaches. Jams & jellies: (apricot, cherry, grape, peach, plum, raspberry & strawberry). Pickles: (garlic scapes, stuffed peppers, green tomatoes, watermelon rinds, and cucumber pickles (banana, bread & butter, sweet dill, seven-day). Relishes: sweet, hot, zucchini. Tomatoes: (chunky salsa & ketchup).
Firewood: logs.

Produce quality
Greens quality should be same as ever, but with storage crops (mostly the roots and apples) you must realize that they were harvested back in September, October and November and have been in cold storage since. Each crop has a slightly different tolerance level for how long it will keep, and at what quality. Why am I telling you this? Well, by this time in the winter, some of the storage crops are beginning to show their age. They usually don’t go from usable to compost overnight… it’s a long, slow haul. So please understand that while we do look closely at produce items before we put them in your box, we are getting to that time where we hope you will be glad to be getting anything at all, rather than noting that such-and-such is less than perfect. That said, if you ever get something you feel is unusable, please let us know and we’ll credit your account.

Farmer’s Pick
This week’s Pick is green-leaf lettuce, beets & carrots, garlic & onions, parsnips, mixed blue & gold potatoes, 3 small pears, 3 Pink Lady apples, and a jar of homemade apple sauce.

Thanks much to all of you for your support,
Randy, Chris & Sam @ Star Hollow Farm

Farm News: Week of Saturday, January 19, 2013

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 20:27:00 -0500

On-the-farm…

This Saturday, January 19th, my mother will turn 93! Way to go Mom… a city girl that moved here to our farm over 15 years ago and loves it. She says she never expected to live this long, that it must be all the fresh produce she eats with us. There you go!

Things are going well on the farm. The snow that we’ve had since Christmas Eve finally melted a day or two ago. That’s fine. I was getting tired of stepping over the piles and slipping on the places where I didn’t spread sand.

Over a several-day span last week Sam and I installed a new door into our packing shed. For 20 years we’ve pulled a big, heavy, wooden sliding door open every time we wanted in; now we have a nice aluminum door with a large window and a handle so that we don’t have to sit things down to open it. Ah, the little things…

Photo: Collards, Kale and Chard under covers in the high tunnel. This is where the stir-fry mix is coming from this week.

This week’s planned produce list.

Greens: micro greens mix, pea shoots, arugula, Asian greens mix, chard mix, red-ribbed dandelion, red Russian kale, mustard greens, salad mix, stir-fry greens mix, lettuce (green leaf, oakleaf, lolla bionda).
Veggies: beets (red & Chioggia), cabbage, carrots (orange & maroon), garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, giant kohlrabi, onions (red & yellow), parsnips, potatoes (gold, red, blue, Russian Banana fingerling, mixed, seconds), radishes (black Spanish, Daikon & watermelon), rutabagas, shallots, sweet potatoes, hothouse tomatoes (red, yellow & green), turnips (purple-top, baby sweet white, mixed specialty & seconds).
Herbs: parsley, chives, cilantro, rosemary, thyme and a few bags of others.
Mushrooms: crimini, oyster, portabella, shiitake & white .
Pears: Bosc.
Apples: Cameo, Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, JonaGold & Pink Lady. Also the “Apple-a-Day” bags.
Chicken & eggs: frozen stewing chicken, brown eggs.
Butter: Salted and unsalted.
Cow Cheese: cheddar (sharp, Dragon’s Breath, English, garlic/chive, Italian, jalapeno, smoked), jack (habanero, Monterey), havarti (Danish soft cheese), blue (bloo-moo), and gouda (Vermeer).
Goat Cheese: cheddar, curd.
Glass jars: honey, apple butter, apple sauce, canned cherries & peaches. Jams & jellies: (apricot, cherry, grape, peach, plum, raspberry & strawberry). Pickles: (cauliflower, dilly beans, garlic scape, stuffed pepper, green tomato, watermelon, and cucumber pickles (banana, bread & butter, sweet dill, zesty dill, seven-day). Relishes: sweet, hot, zucchini. Tomatoes: (chunky salsa & ketchup).
Firewood: logs.

Government and agriculture
Most of the time I don’t think about how the government is involved in my chosen profession, since I don’t think they are, much. We get no payments of any kind for planting — or not planting — anything. Of course I’ve started doing my taxes, which for a small business — especially one like ours — is quite a job to gather all the numbers.

Then I recently received a big fat envelope from the USDA, telling me I was required by law to fill in and return the 5-year Census of Agriculture. I’m fine with that, but I got quite a surprise when I found it ran to 24 pages and required breaking down production records in ways that are more specific than the IRS requires (and is due before our taxes are), so we’ve been reviewing and re-calculating a lot of our production info.

Then there’s the new FDA rules on food and agriculture, meant to stem the problems we’ve been having with people getting sick around the country. I haven’t gotten to review them all yet, I’m just hoping that it doesn’t cause small farms like ours to jump through too many hoops and spend extra time and money to document the fact that we’re already trying hard to do the right thing! I’m sure you’ll hear more about this in the future from us.

Farmer’s Pick
This week’s Pick is green oakleaf lettuce, young Red Russian kale, carrots, onions, rutabaga, sweet potatoes, tomato mix, 2 large bosc pears, 2 granny smith, 2 pink lady & 2 fuji apples.

Thanks much to all of you for your support. Bon appetit!
Randy, Chris & Sam @ Star Hollow Farm

Farm News: Week of Saturday, January 5, 2013

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 15:26:00 -0500

On-the-farm
Hope you all enjoyed your holidays, got some needed rest, and still have jobs to go back to. Oh yes, and thank goodness the world did not end a week or two ago. What a bummer that would have been!

We got to see lots of family and friends and really enjoyed our break. Now, after a three-week absence, I find that I miss seeing you’all down in DC on Saturdays! So here I come again, and every-other-week on through the winter. Hope to see you soon!

Photo: Looking up towards the pond one day last week. Since then we’ve added several more inches of snow. That’s our newest henhouse on the right.

Our Winter sale continues. Prices are marked down on all butter, cheese and glass jars. We lowered the price of every item in those categories by an average of 10%.

This week’s planned produce list.

Pears: Bosc.
Apples: Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, JonaGold, Nittany, Pink Lady. Also the “Apple-a-Day” bags, and cheap bags of seconds for apple sauce.
Greens: Bibb lettuce, arugula, Asian greens mix, beet greens, cabbage, chard mixes, cress, mixed cooking greens, micro greens mix, mustard greens, salad mix (2 kinds), shoots (pea & sunflower), baby spinach, stir-fry greens mix.
Veggies: beets (red & Chioggia), carrots (orange, rainbow mix), celeriac, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, kohlrabi, onions, parsnips, potatoes (gold, red, blue, Austrian Crescent fingerling, mixed, seconds), radishes (black Spanish, Daikon, watermelon, special mixed), rutabagas, shallots, sweet potatoes, hothouse tomatoes (red, yellow & green), turnips (soup pack, sweet white, mixed specialty, seconds), butternut squash.
Herbs: leaf celery, parsley, rosemary, and a few bags of marjoram & thyme.
Mushrooms: shiitake. These are from a local grower, Dave Eberly. The Mother Earth mushrooms we normally get were not delivered this week due to the holiday. Sorry ‘bout ‘dat. Next time.
Chicken & eggs: frozen stewing chicken, brown & heritage eggs.
Butter: Salted and unsalted.
Cow Cheese:cheddar (sharp, Dragon’s Breath, English, garlic/chive, Italian, jalapeno, smoked), jack (habanero, Monterey), havarti (Danish soft cheese, mild and tangy).
Goat Cheese: cheddar, curd.
Glass jars: honey, apple butter, apple sauce, canned cherries & peaches. Jams & jellies: (apricot, cherry, grape, peach, plum, raspberry & strawberry). Pickles: (cauliflower, dilly beans, garlic scape, stuffed pepper, green tomato, watermelon, and cucumber pickles (banana, bread & butter, sweet dill, zesty dill, seven-day). Relishes: sweet, hot, zucchini. Tomatoes: (chunky salsa & ketchup).
Firewood: kindling & logs.

Produce sales at the truck (Randy’s mini-mart)
We bring along some extra produce (and apple cider!) to have there at the truck when you come to pick up your orders. There is a sign-out sheet and you can have any selections come out of your account.

Farmer’s Pick
This week’s Pick is Bibb lettuce, our stir-fry greens mix, a small cabbage head, garlic, an onion, mixed potatoes (2#), a red & yellow hothouse tomato, our turnip soup pack, shiitake mushrooms (~1/4#), a bosc pear and the apple-a-day mix.

Winter Schedule. Please mark your calendars.

JAN: 5 & 19
FEB: 2 & 16
MAR: 2, 16 & 30
APR: 13 & 27
MAY: (market open date and switch to weekly online order date undecided as yet.)

Thanks much to all of you, for your support!
Randy, Chris & Sam @ Star Hollow Farm

Farm News: Week of Saturday, December 15, 2012

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 21:40:00 -0500

On-the-farm
Hope you’re all well and ready for the holidays. We’ve been keepin’ on here, still harvesting, washing, sorting and packing vegetables much later than ever before. (Those darn high tunnels are actually working!)

Sam harvesting sweet white turnips inside one of the high tunnels. Below are the turnips after washing. From a distance they look good, but it seems some tiny worms found them desirable before we got them. We’ll sort out the best for now, and give you a shot at the rest next year!

Truck breakdown
As many of you realize, we had some problems last time we tried to come down. The fuel pump on our nearly 10-year-old truck decided to die barely an hour from home, at five AM, with our biggest number of orders in the back of the truck in 6 months. (And Chris was with me, coming down for our employee Christmas lunch out!) Well, it was quite stressful, but in the end we were just two hours late and it ended better than we could have ever expected. Just one missed order — our fault — sorry Paul! Thanks to all of you who came back a second time to get your boxes.

Winter Schedule. Please mark your calendars.

DEC: 15
JAN: 5 & 19
FEB: 2 & 16
MAR: 2, 16 & 30
APR: 13 & 27
MAY: (market open date and switch to weekly online order date undecided as yet.)

Prices marked down on all butter, cheese and glass jars
In case you missed it last time, we lowered the price of every item in those categories by an average of 10%.

This week’s planned online market produce list (and it’s quite a list for this time of year, even if I do say so myself! Things have sure changed over the last 10 years.)

Pears: Bosc! finally!
Apples: Cameo, Fuji, Gala, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, JonaGold, Nittany, Pink Lady. Also the “Apple-a-Day” bags, and now cheap bags of seconds also (for apple sauce.)
Greens: Bibb & Romaine lettuce, cabbage, chard, claytonia, cress, baby kale, Hon Tsai Tai Asian greens, mixed cooking greens, micro greens mix, salad mix, shoots (pea & sunflower), spinach, stir-fry greens mix.
Veggies: beets, broccoli (still!), carrots (orange, rainbow mix), celeriac, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, kohlrabi, onions, parsnips, potatoes (gold, red, blue, mixed, seconds), radishes (black Spanish, Daikon, watermelon, special mixed), rutabagas, salsify, shallots, sweet potatoes, hothouse tomatoes, turnips (soup pack, sweet white, mixed specialty, seconds), winter squash (mostly butternut) and yacon.
Herbs: leaf celery, parsley, rosemary, sage & thyme.
Mushrooms: crimini, portabella, shiitake & white.
Chicken & eggs: frozen stewing chicken, brown & heritage eggs
Butter: prices reduced! Salted and unsalted.
Cheese: prices reduced! Cow: blue, gouda (Vermeer), cheddar (sharp, Dragon’s Breath, English, garlic/chive, Italian, jalapeno, smoked). Goat: cheddar, curd.
Glass jars: prices reduced! honey, apple butter, apple sauce, canned cherries & peaches. Jams & jellies (apricot, cherry, grape, peach, plum, raspberry & strawberry). Pickles (cauliflower, dilly beans, garlic scape, stuffed pepper, green tomato, watermelon, and cucumber pickles (banana, bread & butter, sweet dill, zesty dill, seven-day). Relishes: sweet, hot, zucchini. Tomato goodness (chunky salsa & ketchup).
Firewood: kindling & logs.

Produce sales at the truck
We bring along some extra produce to have there at the truck when you come to pick up your orders. There is a sign-out sheet there and you can shop and have them come out of your account.

Farmer diary
I think I’m due to report for Wednesday now. But it is Wednesday — 6 AM — so obviously I don’t have it for you. I’ll write it down today for next time. :)

Christmas trees
No, we don’t have any, but the other farmer there at the market — Mike from Licking Creek Bend — does grow trees. He tries to raise them in the most environmentally sound manner possible. He would appreciate your support in that, if you still need a tree! He’ll be there this Saturday and the 22nd. He would like advance orders, if possible, so please email him at esiegel2@igc.org to ask questions and place an order.

Farmer’s Pick
This week’s Pick is Romaine lettuce, beets, broccoli, garlic, onions, parsnips, Black Spanish radishes, red tomato, butternut squash, leaf celery, 3 bosc pears, 3 pink lady apples, and a pint of spicy, cloved watermelon pickles.

Other goings on at the farm

Recognize what’s going on in the foreground? We’ve got beavers at work here. I love the idea of beavers along our creek. Not so nuts about them chewing down our trees!

Thanks much to all of you, for your support!
Randy, Chris & Sam @ Star Hollow Farm

Farm News: Week of Saturday, December 8, 2012

Sat, 08 Dec 2012 06:42:16 -0500

Current schedule.
We are off the week including Saturday, Dec. 8. Our next order day will be Wed., Dec. 12, for delivery Saturday, Dec. 15. After that we are off until early January.

Farm News: Week of Saturday, December 1, 2012

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 05:58:00 -0500

On-the-farm
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We were fortunate enough to have just about all of our families gathered together here on the farm for a bounteous Thanksgiving day and meal. It was a beautiful day, great to see everyone, and the food was delicious.

On Friday the boys and I went mountain biking up at the lake (a strenuous ride that worked off most of the holiday’s extra pounds). Saturday and Sunday we returned Anna to DC by way of a visit to Annapolis. It was a wonderful holiday, a real break for us, and it was good to be back home and return to normalcy on Monday morning. Except that it’s not really normal: Monday was the start of hunting season in PA, our schedule has changed to every-other-week (see dates below), and it snowed much of the day yesterday.

Where do the greens come from now?
Many are from our high tunnels, unheated greenhouse structures pictured below. Others come from heated greenhouses. Field greens are over.

With temps predicted in the low 20s several days ago, we added covers to our raised beds, giving more insulation.

Rainbow chard growing inside a low tunnel inside a high tunnel.

Winter Schedule. Please mark your calendars.

DEC: 1 & 15
JAN: 5 & 19
FEB: 2 & 16
MAR: 2, 16 & 30
APR: 13 & 27
MAY: (market open date and switch to weekly online order date undecided as yet.)

Prices marked down on all butter, cheese and glass jars
Sometimes I don’t know where I get these silly ideas. Early last week, when I went out to get our turkey from Nevin, I also swung by two farms I haven’t been to for awhile and picked up some goodies: Keswick Creamery’s wonderful artisan cheese and Sarah’s great pickles, salsa and ketchup.

On the way home I was thinking that we often don’t sell as much of these items (cheese in general and glass jars in general) as I think we should. They’re tasty, they’re local, and they’re real food from farmers we know. Why don’t we sell more? The only two things I came up with are that either I’m not calling enough attention to them and/or they’re too expensive.

So I’ve pushed the pencil a bit and come up with an experiment: We’re lowering the price of every item in both categories by an average of 10%. Halfway through the winter I’ll analyze the numbers and see if we’ve sold enough more to cover the reduced price.

This week’s planned online market produce list.

Apples: Fuji, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Nittany, Pink Lady. Also the “Apple-a-Day” bags.
Greens: Bibb lettuce, arugula, baby bok choi, cabbage, baby red kale, Hon Tsai Tai Asian greens, mixed kale, micro greens mix, salad mix, shoots (pea & sunflower), baby spinach, stir-fry greens mix.
Veggies: beets (red, mixed), broccoli, carrots (orange, maroon), cauliflower, celeriac (small, with tops), garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, kohlrabi, leeks, onions, parsnips, potatoes (gold, red, blue, white, mixed, Austrian Crescent), radishes (black Spanish, Daikon, watermelon, red bunched), rutabagas, salsify, scallions, shallots, sweet potatoes, hothouse tomatoes (red, yellow), turnips (soup pack, bunched sweet white, mixed specialty, seconds), winter squash (acorn, butternut, spaghetti) and yacon. (Yacon is a sweet, juicy jicama-like root that is often used as a natural sweetener.)
Herbs: basil, chives, leaf celery, parsley, rosemary, savory, spearmint & thyme.
Mushrooms: crimini, portabella, royal trumpet, shiitake & white.
Chicken & eggs: brown & heritage
Butter: prices reduced! Salted and unsalted.
Cheese: prices reduced! Cow: blue, gouda (Vermeer), cheddar (sharp, Dragon’s Breath, English, garlic/chive, Italian, jalapeno, smoked). Goat: cheddar, curd, demi-sec.
Glass jars: prices reduced! honey, apple butter, apple sauce, canned cherries & peaches. Jams & jellies (apricot, cherry, grape, peach, plum, raspberry & strawberry). Pickles (cauliflower, dilly beans, garlic scape, stuffed pepper, green tomato, watermelon, and cucumber pickles (banana, bread & butter, sweet dill, zesty dill, seven-day). Relishes: sweet, hot, zucchini. Tomato goodness (chunky salsa & ketchup).
Firewood: kindling & logs.

Produce sales at the truck
Those of you who’ve been with us since last winter will remember that during the winter — when our farmer’s market stand is closed — we bring along some extra produce to have there at the truck when you come to pick up your orders. It’s not a full line or anything; usually odds and ends, apple cider, eggs, perishable greens that we overpicked. We’ll have a sign-out sheet there and you can select them and have them come out of your account.

CSA volunteers
Thanks to our CSA volunteers at the truck 2 weeks ago, on the last Saturday of the volunteer season. Faith, Travis and Rachel, your help was much appreciated!

Farmer’s Pick
This week’s Pick is Bibb lettuce, stir-fry greens mix, broccoli, carrots, small celeriac, onions, Kennebec potatoes, red HH tomato, sweet white turnips, 2 sweet apples (Nittany), and 2 tart apples (Granny Smith).

Thanks much to all of you, for your support!
Randy, Chris & Sam @ Star Hollow Farm

Farm News: Week of Saturday, November 17, 2012

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 18:19:00 -0500

On-the-farm
We’ve got everything out of the fields now except for some black Spanish radishes and a few frost-tolerant herbs. However, the high tunnels and greenhouse are nearly full, so there’s not really much of a slowdown yet. (I keep waiting…)

We’re looking forward to Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday, and have plans to have lots of family from near and far here to enjoy it with us. Then, finally, a Saturday off. Hmm, I wonder how late I could sleep? Answer: I’ll probably be awake by 4 AM (habit), but will be glad to be off anyhow!

Farmer’s diary for Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012.
It’s at the bottom of this page. I don’t want to make you scroll through it to get to the produce list!

Front yard yesterday: leaves are all down; radish cover crop in front; small henhouse in center; greenhouse to right. Looks like winter!

Upcoming Schedule

November 17: Online market, Farmer’s market (end)
November 24: closed for holiday
December 1: Online market only
December 8: closed
December 15: Online market only
December 22/29: closed for holidays

Produce.
I’d have to say I think this is one of the fullest online market stores we’ve built this year. We have a lot, our friends have a lot, and I decided to go for it this week with Thanksgiving and all. I know many of you will be away, but if you’re staying, boy, have we got some produce for you! Check out the list below.

This week’s planned online market produce list.

Apples: Fuji, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Jonathan, JonaGold, Nittany, Pink Lady, Stayman & York. Also the “Apple-a-Day” bags.
Greens: lettuce (bibb, small Lolla Rosa), arugula, baby bok choi, cabbage (regular & Chinese), baby Lacinato kale, Hon Tsai Tai Asian greens, kale (Lacinato, Red Russian & green), micro greens mix, salad mix, shoots (pea & sunflower), young spinach, stir-fry greens mix, tat soi.
Veggies: beets (bunched, red, mixed), broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots (orange & maroon), cauliflower, celeriac (small, with tops), garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, sweet onions, parsnips, potatoes (gold, red, blue, Austrian Crescent & Russian Banana), radishes (black Spanish, Daikon, watermelon), rutabagas, salsify, scallions, shallots, sweet potatoes, hothouse tomatoes (red, yellow, grape cherry), turnips (soup pack, bunched sweet white, mixed specialty, seconds), winter squash (acorn, butternut, Kabocha & spaghetti) and Yacon!!!. (What the heck is yacon, you ask: It’s a sweet, juicy jicama-like root — related to Jerusalem artichoke — that is often used as a natural sweetener and also to cleanse the digestive tract.)
Herbs: chives, leaf celery, parsley, rosemary, sage, savory, young sorrel, spearmint, sweet marjoram & thyme.
Mushrooms: crimini, portabella & white.
Chicken & eggs: brown & heritage
Butter & Cheese: sharp cheddar, smokehouse cheddar, garlic-chive cheddar, Italian cheddar, goat cheddar, chevre, demi-sec & ash logs.
Preserves: honey, sorghum molasses, apple butter, apple sauce, canned cherries & peaches, apricot, cherry, grape, peach, plum, raspberry & strawberry jams and jellies.
Pickles: banana, seven-day, stuffed & pickled.
Relishes: sweet, hot, zucchini.
Firewood: kindling & logs.

CSA volunteers
Thanks to our CSA volunteers at the truck last Saturday. Dave, Kathy & Susan, your help was much appreciated!

Farmer’s Pick
This week’s Pick is Red Russian kale, Lolla Rosa lettuce, carrots, garlic, onion, gold potatoes, sweet potatoes (2#), butternut squash, rosemary, apple-a-day mix (5).

Thanks much to all of you, for your support!
Randy, Chris & Sam @ Star Hollow Farm

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Farmer’s diary for Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012.

6:30 Woke up: came downstairs, boiled water for coffee, started fire in woodstove.

7:00 Breakfast: coffee, fried eggs, corn bread, goat cheese, barbecue sauce. Orange juice.

7:30 Desk: checked weather, created list of jobs for the day.

8:00 Chores: let flocks of hens out, cleaned/filled waterers, filled feeders.

8:30 Orders. Looked over list of what we have, plus inventory, plus what growers told me yesterday they’d have this week. Assembled list for Farmer’s Pick box. Contacted growers and placed orders for Wednesday. Andrew has winter squash and broccoli; Ray Showalter has extra eggs – good as egg sales up and even with two flocks we don’t have enough to make everybody happy; Nevin at Berry Blossom (farmer who is also butcher – he’s who butchers our spent hens) says he has a few more boxes of sweet onions; Chad at Andrew’s Orchard took my last order of year – they close up at Thanksgiving. Getting one-month supply of Pink Lady apples on Wednesday. Ed will have some cheddar cheese for us at Whispering Brook; Sam Martin will have lettuce, arugula, spinach and tomatoes from greenhouses. Has four houses, cranks produce through them all year long.

9:30 Truck & Pack Shed. Emptied boxes and market paraphernalia from truck. Stacked boxes; organized all this-and-thats; set up Packing Shed for Thursday. Seems like too much time to do this, but don’t know alternative.

12:30 Project set-up: Reviewed planting arugula and mache in high tunnel with Sam – varieties, seed spacing, row spacing, which beds, planter settings, planting depth. Also reviewed finishing of high tunnel with him. Unfortunately one roll-up side has come undone and we’ll have to re-work it, but no time today. Maybe Thursday after I’ve picked herbs in the morning. Also reviewed random jobs that need done: blackberry canes cut back; Black Spanish radishes need covered with netting to slow the deer eating the tops which would limit root growth. Greenhouse door knob is loose and needs re-set and tightened. Yard needs leaves raked, but not likely to have time this week.

2:30 Store build: update master product spreadsheet to add anything new; remove anything done for the season. Change several prices and descriptions. Upload new pictures for several items. Print out Pink Sheet (our inventory list for week). Fill in starting inventory, what we expect to pick here, what we’re getting from others. Enter into computer spreadsheet. Convert to csv format; upload to online store. Check all is correct. Almost always have some correction to make, but not today – got lucky!

4:30 Chores: Gather few eggs from afternoon. Heritage chicks more likely to lay later in day than Rhode Islands. Refill waterers, make sure feeders are full (full enough).

4:45 Bike ride: too much time spent at desk today. Need some exercise, so went for 4-mile ride up hollow. Not a good idea. Too late and dark already, visibility not good if I had met a car. But I didn’t, so got off okay. Have to go earlier this time of year.

5:30 Shower: clean up for evening.

5:45 Desk: entered/removed email addresses and responded to folks interested in joining CSA.

6:30 Dinner!

7:30 More desk: prepared itinerary for tomorrow’s trip out – list of stops, times, errands, time to meet my sister in Chambersburg for ice cream and family info update.

8:00 Finish store: Write up store message; choose picture and format; post; review; edit. Review items in store to make sure all uploaded properly and pics and descriptions are okay.

9:00 Mail Chimp email: write up email, list items, what’s new; upload pic; schedule to go out at 7 AM Wed. morning.

9:30 Read: New book – “Devil in the White City” – about Chicago World’s Fair in 1892. Non-fiction but reads like fiction. After 30 pages thoroughly into it.

10:15 Bed. At this rate it will take 2 months to finish the book. Hopefully I’ll have more personal time after Thanksgiving!

Farm News: Week of Saturday, November 10, 2012

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:51:00 -0500

On-the-farm
You probably wouldn’t believe this, but sometimes I have a hard time thinking of what to say in this space. (Really). Usually about once a year I alight on the idea of telling you what my week is like, so you have some idea of what it’s like doing what we do. Some people purport to enjoy hearing about it. (Really.)

So my answer for this week was to actually start a sort of diary so that you can see what our week is like, in a bit more detail than I’ve provided in the past. I’ll just do one day at a time, over time. It’s down near the bottom of the page. Don’t look if you don’t want to know! (Really.)

Upcoming Schedule

November 10: Online market, Farmer’s market
November 17: Online market, Farmer’s market
November 24: closed for holiday
December 1: Online market only
December 8: closed
December 15: Online market only
December 22/29: closed for holidays

Hurricane Sandy (and thank you)
Our power came back on by last Wednesday evening — just a few hours after I bought a $900 electric generator. We kept it anyway; I don’t really want to go through what we did last week again if there’s a $900 solution. In the end we had no property damage, didn’t flood and didn’t lose any crops. We were merely inconvenienced. Most of all, thanks to those of you who ordered or came to market and helped to make it almost a regular week for us, in spite of the storm and changes in schedule. THANKS!

Sam harvesting our Daikon radish crop this afternoon after we discovered that the deer had found it and had a taste for Asian radishes. We got about 100 pounds from our planting, despite the damage they caused over the last few nights.

This week’s planned online market produce list.

Apples: Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, Jonathan, Nittany, Pink Lady, Stayman & York. Also a few of the “Apple-a-Day” bags.
Greens: lettuce (bibb, Romaine, baby), arugula, baby bok choi, cabbage, baby chard, cress, Hon Tsai Tai Asian greens, kale (Lacinato & Red Russian), micro greens mix, salad mix (several versions), shoots (pea & sunflower), young spinach, stir-fry greens mix.
Veggies: beets (bunched, red, mixed), broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots (orange & maroon), cauliflower, celeriac (small, with tops), garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, sweet onions, potatoes (gold, red, blue, Russian Banana), radishes (Daikon, watermelon), salsify, scallions, shallots, sorrel soup pack, sweet potatoes, turnips (purple-top, bunched sweet white, mixed specialty, seconds), winter squash (acorn, butternut & Kabocha).
Herbs: chives, leaf celery, lovage, parsley, rosemary, sage, savory, spearmint, sweet marjoram, orange thyme.
Mushrooms: crimini, shiitake, white.
Other food items: frozen chicken, eggs (brown & heritage), butter, cheese (cow & goat, including demi-sec & ash logs), preserves (honey, jam, pickles. New are apple butter, many jams and jellies, and sorghum molasses).
Firewood: kindling & logs.

CSA volunteers
Thanks to our CSA volunteers at the truck last Saturday. Bruce, Cynthia and Jennifer, your help was much appreciated!

Farmer’s Pick
This week’s Pick is Romaine lettuce, young spinach, broccoli, small onions, red potatoes, Daikon radishes, a red and a yellow hothouse tomato, 3 Pink Lady apples.

Thanks much to all of you, for your support last week and all season long!
Randy, Chris & Sam @ Star Hollow Farm

Diary below.

Farmer’s life at Star Hollow Farm in early November
Monday, November 5, 2012

6:30 Woke up: came downstairs, boiled water for coffee, rebuilt fire in woodstove, checked thermometer: 35 degrees.

7:00 Breakfast: made coffee, cooked up eggs, polenta, salsa. Orange juice and a banana.

7:30 Desk: checked weather (why does a 20% chance of rain require an icon of a dark sky with sheets of rain?), started list of must-do and maybe-do jobs for Sam and I today.

8:00 Chores: let both flocks of hens out, cleaned and filled waterers, filled feeders, made sure everything looked right.

8:30 Inventory: tallied market returns, entered on inventory sheet. Took inventory of all storage crops and canned goods in cooler.

9:00 Walkabout: Sam and I scoped out and prioritized the likely jobs for day. He started fixing henhouse door latch and installed glass windows on two sides of coop to reduce drafts.

9:30 Desk: came in, tallied and entered all market and inventory numbers. (to keep track of sales for our and IRS purposes.)

10:00 Calls: telephoned half dozen growers to find out what they have for me this week. Mack’s had winter squash, broccoli, cauliflower. Martins just started picking greenhouse tomatoes – perfect – our tomatoes just ended! Also lettuce. Said they’ll try harder to avoid any more brown edges on leaves. Tracey’s Orchard has 8 kinds of apples, but still no Pink Lady. Apples are picked, but they’re not taking time to sort them until they finish trying to straighten up their wind-blown trees from last week’s storm. Andrew’s Orchard is down to about three kinds of apples, but fortunately that includes Pink Lady. Ordered cheeses from Pipe Dreams (goat chevre, demi-sec and ash logs), and Wadel’s (more Smokehouse Cheddar). Called Lester at Country Acres Cider Mill and ordered extra apple cider for next two weeks. Also some of their apple butter, first of the season. Made preliminary plan for what to put in Farmer’s Pick box.

12:00 Chores: headed out to take care of the greenhouse and high tunnels. In summer all get watered. This time of year, on gray days, sometimes don’t water at all. Have to be careful not to over-water or plants can get diseased and die. Depends mostly on how sunny it is. Sam took care of chickens and gathered eggs. (Increasingly hard on my back to gather eggs.)

12:30 Project: second high tunnel still needed door handles and latches. I put one on last week in about an hour. For some reason the door on the other end had shifted and had to be planed and sanded, just to open and close, and then handle and latch installed. What was planned to be 45-minute job took two hours. Sam moved half a cord of firewood onto house porch, then moved piles of tomato cages recently removed from other high tunnel. No more Star Hollow tomatoes until next year.

2:30 Truck and packing shed: tempting to think last week’s market is done when we get home Saturday night, but truck is still completely full of empty boxes and market paraphernalia: canopies, tables, scales, etc., all of which have to come off so that it’s clean and empty when I head out on Wednesday to pick up produce from other farms. The most time-consuming aspect of unloading truck is re-filing all CSA boxes with peoples’ names on them. Stack them alphabetically, as that’s only efficient way I can find them on Friday when we’re filling orders. Set packing shed up to be ready to start portioning on Thursday.

5:30 Chores: made sure chickens had water for night and all seemed right. Dark enough now – due to recent time change – that they’re all inside and we close up coop. Done with them for the night. In summer – when it’s light later – we have to go out after dark and close them in.

5:45 Emails: checked emails. Added new members to address book; deleted ones that moved (several every week). Changed emails addresses for people with new ones. Offered several people on wait list option to place trial order this week.

6:30 Dinner!

7:30 More desk: cleaned up odds and ends, filed receipts from previous week.

8:00 Movie nite: Watched second episode of “Foyle’s War.”

10:00 Bed time

Farm News: Week of Saturday, November 3, 2012

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 06:15:00 -0400

On-the-farm (and off…)
First of all, last Saturday, before all this hurricane nonsense really happened, I brought my new bike down to DC. After the farmers market was closed up, friends Matt & Justin (the guys that work the market stand along with Anna) and I took a ride — my first in the big city — down to the White House, across the Mall, and out to Hain’s Point. Wow, riding in the city is kinda exciting! We ate at the Wharf down by the Tidal Basin, rode back uptown and caught the Series on TV. Hey, how ‘bout those Giants? (I am almost a San Franciscan.)

Hurricane Sandy
As you know, we did get the storm here starting Monday. It rained and rained, the wind blew, the power went out. Our week’s schedule got thrown into a tizzy. And without power, we had no computer, thus no internet, and we became completely helpless! We ate more ice cream than planned (as the freezer contents thawed). We strategized what we would do, sales-wise, depending on if/when the power came back on. Then yesterday I went down to Franklin County to the orchards to pick up fruit and some produce. Well, I’ll stop my complaining right now. Fruit trees were blown over; barn roofs torn off; huge evergreens toppled in people’s front yards; lots worse than having to rearrange our schedule and gorge on ice cream!

Doing my deskwork the old-fashioned way the other night. Except for the calculator. I guess the 1829 Yuengling Porter would count as period-correct.

The plan this week
So hopefully you got the emails telling you our schedule would be different, as well as a few other changes. In summary:

We are open Thursday from 7 AM until 7 PM. So 12 hours instead of the usual 24.
We will increase the number of Farmer’s Pick boxes. Please consider getting one of them even if you don’t usually, as it will help us.
We will also include in the store any items that are single units to start with — apples, bunches of greens, heads of lettuce, winter squashes — but omit most items that we need to “portion” into one-pound units.
We will bring significantly more than usual produce to the farmers market stand, so that if you can’t get what you want online, you can come to the farm stand, shop, and sign for it to come out of your account.

This week’s planned online market produce list. (There will be a wider variety at the market stand.)

Apples: Fuji, Granny Smith, JonaGold, Pink Lady, Stayman.
Greens: lettuce (bibb, red leaf), arugula, cabbage, chard, micro greens, salad mix, young spinach.
Veggies: carrots (mixed), cauliflower (sale!), garlic,a few chiles, scallions, bunched sweet white turnips, winter squash (acorn, butternut & Kabocha).
Herbs: basil, parsley. (if we have time, we’ll bring more to market.)
Mushrooms: (at the market stand only this week.)
Other food items: frozen chicken, eggs (brown only this week), butter, cheese (cow & goat), preserves (honey, jam, pickles. apple sauce is new).

CSA volunteers
Thanks to our CSA volunteers at the truck last Saturday. Alexandra, Josh and Minh, your help was much appreciated!

Farmer’s Pick
This week’s Pick is young spinach, baby bok choi, green beans, broccoli, sweet potatoes, onion, kale, bibb lettuce, and an “Apple-a-Day” bag.

Thanks much to all of you for your support, and for your understanding as we muddle through this mixed up week!
Randy, Chris & Sam @ Star Hollow Farm

Farm News: Week of Saturday, October 27, 2012

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 21:50:00 -0400

On-the-farm (and mostly off…)
With the garlic all planted and many crops put to rest, we were very ready for a little getaway. We’ve just had a run of 24 or 25 straight weeks of pretty much flat-out planting, picking, packing and weekly trips to DC, and it was time to see something and do something else, at least for a few hours.

This past Sunday morning we caught Amtrak in Huntingdon — our county seat — and rode over to Philadelphia. It was our first train trip in Pennsylvania since moving here over 20 years ago. The fun of the train ride — and the idea of a trip without a car — was the main attraction, and it was a lot of fun. The way the schedules worked out, it made more sense for us to head East to Philadelphia than West to Pittsburgh. We’ve already explored Philly from the historical side, so wanted to do something different there. Chris had read about the South St. section and particularly the work of the artist Isaiah Zagar, who has been making art on the street there since the ’60s. There are hundreds of examples of his work throughout the neighborhood, but the focal point now is a protected space called the Magic Garden. Pretty crazy stuff! But also fun and pretty. We enjoyed it. We’ve pasted some pictures on our website (http://www.starhollowfarm.com) if you want a glimpse of the trip.

The rest of our day there we just walked and walked. Being in the big city is not something we really do much of — Saturday mornings in Adams Morgan excepted. It was great. We caught the train home yesterday afternoon, did the chores, made sure everything had survived our absence, and now we’re back!

One of the works in the Magic Garden.

This week’s planned produce list.

Apples: Fuji, Golden Delicious, JonaGold, Stayman & York. Also, “Apple-a-Day” bags.
Greens: lettuce (red leaf), arugula, chard, kale (mixed, Lacinato), micro greens, pea shoots, salad mix, young spinach, stir-fry greens mix & turnip greens.
Veggies: beets (red roots & mixed bunches), broccoli, cabbage, carrots (orange, mixed), cauliflower, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, onions, parsnips, peppers (green bell & probably the last chiles), potatoes (gold, red, blue, Russian Banana), radishes (daikon & watermelon), shallots, sorrel soup pack, sweet potatoes, turnips (red & sweet white), winter squash (acorn, butternut, delicata & Kabocha).
Herbs: basil, chives, lovage, marjoram, parsley, peppermint, rosemary, sage, savory, sorrel, thyme.
Mushrooms: crimini, portabella, white.
Other food items: frozen chicken, eggs (brown, heritage), butter, cheese (cow, goat — demi sec & buche), preserves (honey, jam, pickles). (Cider’s at the stand on Saturday.)

CSA volunteers
Thanks to our CSA volunteers at the truck on Saturday. Jennifer, Kat & Hope, your help last week was much appreciated!

Farmer’s Pick
This week’s Pick is broccoli, green curly kale, Chioggia beets, carrots, garlic, butternut squash, leaf celery, ¾# white mushrooms, 3 Nittany apples.

Thanks much to all of you for your support,
Randy, Chris & Sam @ Star Hollow Farm

Some sights from our recent 2-1/2 day train trip to...

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 21:28:00 -0400

Catching the train in Huntingdon.

Entrance to South St. in Philly.

Mirror, mirror...

Mural and Triumph.

Farmer in the garden.

Broad St. mural.

Some sights from our recent 2-1/2 day train trip to Philadelphia’s South St. neighborhood. The highlight there was the Magic Garden Project, one man’s artwork over 40 years, all over the neighborhood! South St. is sort of the Haight-Ashbury of Philadelphia.

Farm News: Week of Saturday, October 20, 2012

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 20:41:00 -0400

On-the-farm
Last Saturday morning — after I had left for market — the temperature continued dropping and got down to 20 degrees! So that’s that for anything that was ‘iffy.’ You’ll see one or two summer items still on the list, things we or our friends ran out and picked Friday and stored in the cooler until now.

We have got the silly notion to go away for a few days next week, (really just Sunday afternoon through Tuesday afternoon), and so have a lot to get ready for here so that we feel okay about runnin’ oft. (We’re going to take the train from our county seat into Philadelphia, stay downtown, check things out, and ride the train back! Just goin’ for a ride, really.)

So Sam spent quite a few hours yesterday pulling out all the okra, tomatillos and chiles, prepping the patch, and today started planting the garlic for next year. He’ll plant 20 rows 100 feet long, a clove every 4 inches, meaning, ummmm, about 6000 cloves, all of our biggest and best from this past summer’s production.

I spent most of my last two days trying to finish getting the ends on the high tunnel that we built last year so that it can take the cold this Fall. Everything in there is cold-tolerant, but still… We are totally sold on this high tunnel idea. Just as everything outside is frozen, we’ve got loads of greens coming on. What’s not to like about that?

End walls and doors on the second tunnel, finished about 5 o’clock Tuesday.

And what’s growin’ inside.

This week’s planned produce list.

Apples: Cameo, Fuji, Gala, JonaGold, Stayman & York. Also, “Apple-a-Day” bags.
Greens: lettuce (Bibb, red leaf), arugula, bok choi, chard, dandelion, kale (curly, Lacinato), micro greens mix, pea shoots, rapini (broccoli raab), salad mix, young spinach, stir-fry greens mix, sunflower shoots & turnip greens.
Veggies: beets (Chioggia, red roots & mixed bunched beets), broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots (orange, mixed), cauliflower (cheddar, white), garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, leeks, onions, parsnips, peppers (red bell, green Italian Gourmet, & more chiles. If you don’t see them offered the way you want ‘em, let me know and I’ll do ‘em how you want. We want to move them!), potatoes (gold, red, blue, Russian Banana), radishes (daikon, red, watermelon), scallions, shallots, sorrel soup pack, sweet potatoes, tomatillos (end), turnips (red, sweet white), winter squash (acorn, butternut, delicata & Kabocha).
Herbs: basil, chives, leaf celery, lovage, marjoram, parsley, peppermint, rosemary, sage, savory, sorrel, thyme.
Mushrooms: crimini, portabella, white.
Other food items: frozen chicken, eggs (brown, heritage), butter, cheese (cow, goat — demi sec & buche), preserves (honey, jam, pickles). (Cider’s at the stand on Saturday.)

CSA volunteers
Thanks to our CSA volunteers at the truck on Saturday. Sarah, Kim & Claire, your help last week was much appreciated. The sign-up calendar is now full for the remainder of the year, meaning we’ve got all of our shifts covered.

Farmer’s Pick
This week’s Pick is spinach, Romaine lettuce, sweet bell peppers, onion, sweet potatoes, Scarlet Queen turnips, an acorn squash, a small bunch of sage, and a bag of mixed eating apples.

Thanks much to all of you for your support,
Randy, Chris & Sam @ Star Hollow Farm