Last Basket

Good Evening Friends,

We look forward to seeing you at the Farmer's Market from 8-10 AM and  at the Farm Tour Tommorow. We know that several of you all will not be able to make the farm tour. We hope that you can make it next year!

Thank you again for your support this season! We truly appreciate your support and friendship and feedback.

Sincere thanks,

Ford Waterstrat

In your basket you will find the following USDA Certified Organic Produce

October 8
2 # Sweet Potatoes	Amanda made a wonderful dish that used sweet potatoes, butternut squash, tatsoi, and regular potatoes. It was a creation that she developed the other day. We will get a variety to you before Sunday.
Bunch Of Beets	There are several varieties of beets in your basket. There is a Yellow Variety called Touchstone Gold, a Red and White variety called Chiogga, and a standard red beet. Please let me know which variety that you like and we will try and plant more of that variety next year.  Eat them raw, slice them into a salad, or bake them with your potatoes.
Tatsoi, Swiss Chard, Mustard Greens or Bok Choi	Tatsoi can be eaten raw as a salad or added into any soup, stew or other hot recipe for a nice taste.
2#Tomatoes	We had our first 2 frosts this past week. Frost kills tomato plants, so we went ahead and harvested as many of the tomatoes that we could before the frost. The tomatoes will do well to ripen a little more in the window sill. We have received feedback that our tomatoes were not the most flavorful this season. I will investigate this matter. I’m not sure if it was because all of the moisture this year, the specific tomato variety, and it could have even been a micronutrient that was not at the right proportion in the soil. I have soft skin, but feel that feedback from you all is key to providing you all with the produce that you’d like. So please, please, give us feedback .
4 Peppers	Yellow, Green, Orange, and Red
Small Bunch Broccoli
1# Potatoes	Chieftain Red.
2 Butternut squash	We hope that you try this squash into the recipe that Amanda created.

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http://sustainableharvestfarm.blogspot.com/

Good Morning CSA Friends,

  

I hope that all of you have been getting to enjoy this nice sunny weather! The cool weather is interesting!

  

Please remember to pick your basket up between 8-10 am Saturday at the farmer's market.

Farm tour is next weekend from 3-5.

  

In your basket you will find the following USDA Certified Organic Produce.

  

Attached you'll find Amanda's favorite sweet potato pie recipe.  She says it's very "potato-ish" and not overly buttery like many sweet potato casseroles (although there is plenty of butter in the recipie).  It's also good if you cut the butter in half. 

  

We also frequently make roasted sweet potatoe chips and fries by lightly coating thinly sliced strips or rounds of sweet potatoe in olive oil and roasting at 375-400 degrees for about 20-30 minutes, turning once in the middle.  Adding a little salt and rosemary OR red pepper powder make them extra tasty.

  

SIncere thanks,!

Ford Waterstrat

  

• 1 # Potatoes. A mixture of Kennebec, Chieftain Reds and Yukon Gold.
• 2 # Sweet Potatoes-my right hand man Mackey Williams helped me dig these this week. I apologize that there is still some dirt on them. They were still too moist to get all of the dirt off.
• Bunch of Beets. Three Varieties. These are beautiful. You can cook the greens down. Our favorite way to use the root part is to roast them in the oven with potatoes.\\\
• 4 Peppers
• Small head of Lettuce. A couple people that get extremely small heads of lettuce will also get a head of bok choi
• 1# Tomatoes
• 2 Butternut squash
• A bunch of Broccoli. I’ve debated on whether mentioning this to you or not, but there is a possibility that some of your heads will have some small worms in them. A mixed blessing of USDA Certified Organic Crops. Spring time has less chance of worms, but less likely chance of having a good crop.  To get rid of the worms, submerse the broccoli in salt water for 15 minutes. Worms will float to the top.

Please remember that two things have changed for this weekend's basket pick up.

1. We will be at the Laurel County Extension Office instead of the Farmer's Market
2. We will only be there from 8-10 A.M.
3. Please call me @ 859 227 5101 if you have a hard time finding the extension office.

In your basket you will find the following USDA Certified Organic Produce. (Attached is a recipe for butternut squash. I also had my students try some butternut squash muffins that were great!)

September 24

1. 1 WatermelonThese are the last of the season. :(
2. 1 Head of Bok Choitry sauting or mix it in with a salad for a unique taste
3. 1# Tomatoes
4. 4 Peppers
5.  2 heads of LettuceOak leaf Variety, Red Romaine,or Buttercrunch
6. 1 bunch of Basil
7. 1 Butternut squash

Good morning!

 

I've got a cool vegetable joke for you..

 

Why was the tomato red?......It saw the salad dressin'! one of my students told me that one. Pretty cool.

 

Get ready for new items this Saturday. Again we will only be there from 8-10 am on Saturday. If this time will not work for you, please let me know and I can set something else up for you.

 

2# Potatoes	4
2 Heads Lettuce	6
Bunchof Red, Yellow, or Red/White Beets	3
1.5# Tomatoes	3
4 Peppers	2
1 Watermelon	5

 

We're looking forward to seeing everyone at the farm tour on October 8th. I just got the last part of the deck done last night!

 

Sincere thanks,

Ford Waterstrat
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http://sustainableharvestfarm.blogspot.com/

Dear Friends,

KY's weather is the most beautiful and interesting of all the places that I've lived. It is also amazing to see how much slower things grow when we have less day light in the day. Crops are slowing way down, but that means that you will be getting ready for some wonderful produce to warm up with.

This week will probably be the last for yellow squash, zuchinni, and cucumbers. Peppers, tomatoes, and basil should continue normally until October. We will start adding new items each week probably from here on out. I hope you enjoy them.

In your Basket you will find the following USDA Certified Organic Produce

· 2# Potatoes

· 2 Acorn or Spaghetti Squash

· Pears

· 0.5 # Squash/Zuchinni

· 3 cucumbers

· 4 Bell Peppers

· 1# Tomatoes

· 1 Cantaloupe

· Basil

Other news:

1. The farm Tour is @ 3pm on October 8th- If you have not told me or emailed that you plan or don't plan to come, please let me know either way. It will be potluck style and we will line up who brings what before too long.

2. Chef Terry from St. Joseph London is going to be at the library September 12 from 5-? showing some ways to cook asian greens from our farm. I will be there too.

3. My twin brother's wedding in VT was beautiful. We're all very happy for he and his wife. Amanda and I got to visit with my family and my older brother's son. Finley won the wrestling match.

4. If any of you know of any jobs in the London area please let me know. Preferably full time jobs.

Thank you for your support!

Ford, Amanda, Finley

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http://sustainableharvestfarm.blogspot.com/

Dear friends,

I think you will really enjoy 2 new items this week. Acorn Squash and Fresh pears. The pears are from Amanda's dad (just down the road) they are not certified organic, but are still wonderful! I will attach a recipe for a wonderful creation that Amanda and my mom dreamed up.

You will have the following items in your basket.

· 2 acorn squash

· 4 pears

· 1 # of potatoes

· 4 Cucumbers

· 1.5# yellow squash, zucchinni, or yellow Zuchinni

· 6 Bell Peppers (yellow or green)

· A little okra or green beans.

· Basil

· Cherry Tomatoes

· Regular Tomatoes. This is a new variety. The tops (where the stem would attach) have some cracking. I figure most people would rather deal with the cracking than go without tomatoes!

See you in the Morning!

Ford

--

http://sustainableharvestfarm.blogspot.com/

Great Basket

Dear Friends,

I think you will enjoy 3 new items this week. Spaghetti Squash, Cantaloupe, and a head of lettuce.

Your basket will also contain the following items
1# of tomatoes
Cherry tomatoes
4 peppers
Yellow Squash
Zuchinni
Cucumbers,
1# of Red Chieftan Potatoes
Basil
TWO VERY IMPORTANT ITEMS
Please RSVP (via email) if you plan to attend the farm tour.
Basket Pick up will be next Saturday from 7-9am.
We do have some updates that I'd like to share with you.

Our 2nd and 3rd plantings of tomatoes have been effected by the high number of cloudy days that we had this season and as a result they are not ready like they should be. We plant tomatoes 3 different times to have a continous supply from June-October and we've had good luck in the past with our planting days. I plan to add a few more varities for next year that will help fill in gaps next year. Farming is such a fun yet challenging endeavor.
Get ready for some great Acorn Squash with Rice and pair filling. Amanda came up with a fantastic recipe that we tried out this week. It was wonderful. Amanda's dad had some extra pears this year, so next week in your basket you will be getting enough to try this wonderful recipe
Sweet potatoes are shaping up nicely. Deer have been enjoying the vines(sweet potatoes vine out like ivy), but fortunately it is late enough in the season that we're hoping it will not have too bad of an impact on the size of these wonderful gems.
Bok Choi, Beets, Cabbage, Broccoli and a few other fall crops are looking great. Spinach, swiss chard, and a few other leafy items are coming up too, but we're having a hard time getting all of them irrigated. I rigged up some sprinkler systems and am finding that next year I'm going to have to bite the bullet and purchase a real system for irrigating crops that are direct seeded.
Again, Thank you for your continue support!
Ford Waterstrat

In your basket you will find the following Fresh USDA Organic Produce

3 lbs of tomatoes
6 cucumbers
1.5 Lbs of Squash
1 bag of basil
1 Lb of Kennebeck Potatoes
2-3 Bell Peppers
Chili Peppers
Watermelon or Cantaloupe.
Thank for your support.

Dear friends,

Just a couple of updates...

I have a couple of bad pieces of news.

My 1st watermelon harvest was pathetic. out of 200 melons that were ready to harvest, I only got 24 that were worth picking. The others got a rot on their belly side that rotten the melons from the inside out. That's farming.

Other bummer is that my zuchinni plants have been destroyed by cucumber beetles. My yellow squash are still putting out a little. I saw this problem coming a few weeks ago so I planted another planting that would be coming on good in a couple more weeks and for some reason had poor germination (only 10% have developed).

On a good note though, cucumbers are still doing awesome, tomatoes are amazing, sweet potatoes are looking good, and our 2nd and 3rd planting of watermelons are looking ok, but still probably 4 weeks off before harvesting.

Sorry for the long email, I just wanted to keep you in the loop.

Sincere thanks,
Ford Waterstrat

In your basket you will find....
Green, Yellow, and Red Bell Peppers
"Warm Chili Peppers"
Cucumbers
Yellow Squash
Basil
6-8 Monster Tomatoes. This variety does not turn bright red. I did try to put a couple that needed to ripen for a few days so you could spread out your eating.
You also have a choice of 1 watermelon or 2 acorn Squash

Week 9

I look forward to seeing you all at the Farmer's Market today. I Hope that you will be able to enjoy the live music. They start up around 9 AM ish...

In your basket you will find. the following USDA Certified Organic Produce.

Eggplant
Basil
Chieftan Red, Yukon God, and Kennebeck New Potatoes
Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Flavor Burst Peppers
Small head of Purple Cabbage
Cucubmers
Yellow Squash
Thank you for your support!

Ford Waterstrat

Pictures

Dear Friends,

Please check out some of the pictures on our facebook. Our facebook is called Sustainable Harvest Farm. Just google sustainable harvest farm London ky

Thanks!
Ford

Week 8

New Potatoes

Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Green to Red Bell Peppers
Peaches and Cream Sweet Corn -Non Organic
Pickling Cucumbers
Flavor Burst Peppers
Basil
Yellow Squash
Zucchini
Yellow Zucchini
Cucumbers

What's in the Name?

Friends,

I took this information word for word from elmwoodstockfarm.com Elmwood is where I received a lot of training as a farmer. They are located in Georgetown KY. If you have any friends that live in that area, Elmwood is by far the best CSA farm around. Check out their website.
What's In a Name?
Often we are asked questions at the farmers market about organic, or what does sustainably grown mean, or what is all-natural? Does grass fed mean no grain was fed, but aren’t weed seeds considered grain? There are many terms in food marketing to describe production principles, sometimes even willful intention to confuse the public and throw the scent off your understanding. So let’s try to clear some of this up.

Organic is owned by the USDA and denotes a strict set of guidelines, that are overseen by a 15 member Board, administered by a certification agency, with third party inspections for verification. This is a thorough and tedious process that involves verification of every input and an audit process. Only producers, stores or products that are certified organic can legally use the word as a descriptor.

Sustainably Grown- This means the farm or processor decides what they consider sustainable and make you think it is almost organic. Who knows?

Natural- USDA allows food products to use this term for meats when nothing was added to the product after it was harvested. There is no oversight about how the animal was raised with regard to antibiotics, genetically modified grains, hormones, or animal welfare issues.

Cage Free, Free Range, Free Roaming are terms for laying hens that are loose in a ‘house’ that often contains thousands if not tens of thousands of birds that share an egg laying box with other hens but never go outside nor have space to exhibit their “chickenness” as Joel Salatin would say.

Pastured Poultry- Layers, broilers or turkeys that have access to pasture and consume plants, insects, and can scratch in the dirt for dusting or can exhibit their chickenness.

Grass Fed- There is an American Grassfed Association that is wrestling with growers and consumers about any grain in the diet. The issue for cattle and sheep is when feeding grain, it changes the pH of the digestive system, therefore altering the fatty acids in the meat in a way that tends to be less healthy for us to consume.

Locally Grown- For large grocery stores this generally means an eight-hour truck drive from the distribution center, not sure about the farm location.

Certified Angus Beef means the animal was all or mostly black and meets a certain meat quality standard. This gives a consistency in the marketplace, but says nothing about how the animals were raised.

“USDA Organic” is the gold standard of truth in labeling for food merchandising. And we are proud to bring it to you weekly.

Week 7

This week's CSA basket if purchased without your CSA agreement averages out at around 28 dollars. You're Price 22 Dollars!! A CSA member mentioned that this amount of vegetables at Good Foods/Whole Foods/Etc would easily cost 50 dollars. How fresh do you think the items at those stores are? At Good Foods Co-op I remember seeing Cherries from the remote mtns of WA state where my dad grew up.

Thank you for your support!

New Items for this week

• Several Varities of Red Tomatoes




• Cherry Tomatoes




• Green to Red Bell Peppers




• Peaches and Cream Sweet Corn -Non Organic




• Marketmore Cucumbers




• Egg Plant




• Mini Purple and Mini Regular Cabbage




• Green Beans

Other Items

• Flavor Burst Peppers




• Basil




• Yellow Squash




• Zucchini




• Yellow Zucchini




• Cucumbers

LIKE Tomatoes?

Dear Friends,

• It looks like the CSA baskets should all get a couple of ripe tomatoes.


• If it dries out enough, I should also be able to dig some red and white new potatoes.


• For the next several weeks we should have extra cucumbers, peppers, and squash. If anyone would like to purchase extra of any of these for canning/freezing/etc. please let me know and I'll give you a deal to die for.


• if you "Facebook" please "LIKE US/MAKE US" YOUR FRIEND or however that works, I'm still trying to get the swing of that.

Sincere thanks!

Ford Waterstrat

God is Good

I wanted to thank all of you for your support in our farming endeavor. Our day at the farmer's market was a real blessing! I got to meet some more people that are so supportive of our Organic Farming Practices. Many of you shared that with me that you follow Christ. It is wonderful to be surronded and supported by you all.

Sincere thanks
Ford Waterstrat

Notes from Email

A few things about sweet corn

• It's tough to grow USDA Organic Sweet Corn. It's even tougher to keep the coons out of it. That's right 90% of my sweet corn got gobbled up by coons. I harvested enough for everyone to get one ear of Organic Sweet Corn. Mind you, the coons took the best ones, so these are a little puny.



• You will be receiving non organic sweetcorn in your basket that my father in law grew. He's a great guy and didn't spray it at all. The only non organic substance is the seed itself and bagged fertilizer



• We harvest at peak ripeness and then "hydro cool it" Hydro cooling is like giving it an ice bath for 30 mins. This prevents the sugary sweet taste from going to starchy starch tasting. Once it is cooled down, I put it into the walk in cooler @ 42 degrees.



• Since we didn't spray any of it here might be one out of your several ears that have an earworm at the end of it.



• A couple of other things to note. As we're getting into the big harvest season, there will be items that aren't harvested the morning that you get your basket. Crops that need to be cooled down in order to preserve freshness are harvested Friday morning. I'd really like to harvest everything the day you pick it up, but since I'm not a full time farmer I can't swing that. Ideally CSA pickup would be an afternoon/evening.



• We might have cantaloupe and eggplant next weekend. For some reason, I can never get okra seeded right in the greenhouse so we don't have the several hundred plants liked I'd hoped...so what I'm going to start doing is putting okra in half the baskets and rotating weeks.



• Tomatoes should be in your basket next week. If they aren't ripe yet, I'll spray paint them red and they'll taste like a regular store bought tomato anyway! Just kidding.
  
  Ok, that's enough info for now.

CSA week 6

In your basket you will find the following USDA Organic Produce

• Savoy Cabbage



• Yellow Squash



• Zucchini



• Yellow Zucchini



• Fennel



• Green and "Flavor Burst Peppers"



• Cucumbers



• Sweet Corn



• Parsley

If you'd rather have lettuce or kale instead of parsley, please let me know at the market.

Storing Basil

Drying basil is very simple, and there are several tried and true methods for doing it. The first is to merely hang it in bundles. This does tend to discolor the basil so you should place a thin layer of stripped leaves in between two folded sheets of newspaper. You can then hang it on a wire rack and turn it twice a day until completely dry. The paper will reduce the discoloration and oxidation that it would go through without the paper. Some basil lovers like to dry their herb on a special basil-drying screen and then finish the process by baking it in the oven.
When you are drying basil in the oven you should first remove all the stems from the plant leaves. Then, after tearing the basil leaves into tiny pieces, you can lay the pieces on a baking sheet. The oven should be no higher than 350 degrees to reduce the risk of browning. It should take approximately 7 - 10 for the leaves the thoroughly dry, but it may take less time in electric ovens. You should bake them until they are crumbly, but take them out before they turn brown. If this happens you won't be able to use the basil because of the burnt taste it may have. Once your basil has cooled you want to crumble it up more in order to refine it to how you like it. Another way is to use a sieve to help to thin out the basil leaves.
Oven drying is a source of argument among herb enthusiasts. Some say that it removes essential oils, and nutrients that basil has in it, and yet others don't think anything is ruined in the basil. It is really your personal preference in how you dry the basil.

Week 5

In your basket you will find the following USDA Certified Produce

• Kale-some more kale chips, cook them down, or try using the savory kale recipe we sent you.



• Cabbage-If you haven't tried the cabbage casserole recipe, you're missing out!



• Bell Peppers



• Mild Chili Peppers



• Yellow Squash



• Yellow Zucchini



• Zucchini-The Zuchinni Cheese squares recipe I sent you can substitue any of the squashes.



• Fennel-please see email about how to prepare/use it



• Basil-I will send you all home with extra basil. I will also post a way to dry it so you can store it for later use.



• Broccoli



• Cucumbers

CSA Week 5

I hope all is going well for you all!

The week on the farm has been nice. Many of you are probably familiar with vegetable production, but let me shed a few ideas of what happens in providing you with vegetables for 22 weeks.

Many vegetables are planted more than once. We have 3-4 different plantings of tomatoes, 8-9 cucumber/melons plantings, 4-5 squash plantings, many plantings of lettuce. Those are the "summer vegetables" With this many plantings we can almost guarantee that you should have these throughout the summer/fall season.

Your spring and fall vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, bok choi, lettuces, radishes, turnips, swiss chard, onions, etc) are started in the greenhouse about 6-8 weeks before they go into the ground and once they are in the ground they take 30-90 days to be ready to be eaten. Some things are quick like radishes, others take a long time like some varieties of cabbage.

We also try to plant several varieties of the same crop that mature within a week or two of each other. Most vegetables have a short window of peak ripeness and then quickly decline in quality. Cabbage and broccoli have about a 1-2 week window of when they are harvest able. So we plant 2-5 varieties that mature at different times. I think our earliest variety of cabbage matures on average in 50 days and the longest one takes 85 days. Now...if you get some cloudy cool weather thrown in there it throws the schedule all too pieces. When that happens you hopefully have enough of something else going well to provide you all with a full basket.

Ok, Enough for now. Sometimes some of you are probably surprised that I'm inside emailing you back and forth in the middle of the day. Since we're not pro's at this 22 week CSA yet, I spend a lot of time planning, researching, and praying!

Thank you all so much!

Sincerely,
Ford Waterstrat

You know its organic when......

"Even Finley has acquired a taste for fresh, raw organic vegetables! Here he is on July 4th teething on some freshly harvested squash. (Don't worry, we didn't sell this particular squash!)"

CSA Week 4

I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful weather that we've had.
A couple of things I'd like to share with you. Most importany, Amanda and I really appreciate your support with our CSA. It really is a wonderful way for us and you to enjoy our produce.

1. Amanda and I would love to have the CSA members out for a farm tour this fall


2. The fall crops are in the green house and doing well. Fall brings a lot of the same things that we've had up to this point. Broccoli, Cabbage, spinach, lettuce, etc


3. My first posting on this blog was about helping a neighbor pull a calf. That same neighbor has a big manly tractor (mine is like a toy compared to his). Anyway, he came and helped me spread compost and lime for next years crops. Using his big tractor and a piece of equipment saved tons of time. It is really neat to work with a successful farmer that offers lots of great advice. He's actually Amanda's cousin/uncle/something like that. Neat guy though. He and his wife raise cows and tobacco.


4. Corn, tomatoes, and cucumbers are on their way.

In your basket you will find......

• o Broccoli
  o Mustard Greens
  o Regular and Savoy (Crinkled Cabbage)
  o Yellow Squash
  o Yellow Zucchini
  o Regular Zucchini
  o Parsley
  o Green Onions
  o Mustard Greens
  o A few green peppers
  o A few hot peppers


• turnips


• beets

How is Organic Different

Dear friends,

I'd like to share just a piece of information on how USDA Certified Organic crops are grown differently than Non Organic.

To provide nutrients for plants to grow conventional farmers spread chemical fertilizers that are made from petroleum products. Imagine a large bag of Miracle Gro. These chemicals (Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphorus) NPK will make the plants grow fast and beautifully, but they actually destroy the millions of bacteria and fungus that are found natuarally in the soil. Overtime a conventional farmer grows dependent on chemical fertilizers as the soil become more and more depleted of good soil and soil organisms.

Sustainable Harvest Farm does no such thing. We try to take care of the soil and organisms by feeding the soil a complex mixture of dead plant material and compost. The organic matter that we add to the soil (compost) feeds the organisms which in turn create wonderful soil that has all of the nutrients that the plants need and ultimately that end up in our body. There is actually research that promotes the fact that Organic crops have more beneficial nutrients that promote our health than convential crops.

But let me share a struggle with you. We have been leasing a piece of property from a gentelman 1.5 miles down the road. In order to get the soil filled with more good stuff for next year I've been spreading this compost that we make on our farm with an old piece of equipment called a manure spreader. Don't worry, we don't put raw manure on our fields that you're crops are coming off of this year. We won't actually use this field that we're spreading compost on until 2012, but anyway. This old piece of equipment has a long history behind it that I'll have to share some other time, but it keeps breaking, and breaking, and breaking, and...........breaking. It will hold probably 1.5-2 tons of compost at a time. Its job is to throw the compost off in a 8 foot swath about 1/2 in thick and completley covers the soil with this compost. The only problem is that if one of the chains gets a tiny bit out of alignment the machine no longer does its job and you have to unload that 3-4000 lbs of compost off by hand so you can fix the part that broke. Well that's happened 4 times in the past week.

So, if you ever wonder if I always love farming....no I don't. What's the alternative?

1-buy a different manure spreader-3000 dollars

2-borrow a neighbors- maybe break his and spend 500 dollars fixing it
3-rent one-they are always rented when you need it
4-quit organic and go conventional
5-keep trying to fix it
6-start buying lottery tickets

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

CSA Week 3

We are starting to transition from leafy green vegetables that may not be as familiar to you to more standard crops.

This week in your basket you will find:

Brocolli
Cabbage
Green onions
Mini Yellow Squash
Zuchinni
Basil
Parsley
Mustard Greens
Kale
Turnips
Radishes

One of my favorite things that Amanda cooks that with the turnips and radishes is this recipe. Super Easy and Yummy http://www.marthastewart.com/318907/glazed-radishes~

Don't forget about the link in the upper right hand corner called http://www.farmfreshtoyou.com/index2.php?cmd=storageusetips

WHAT TO DO WITH extra greens

If you're wondering, as I have, what you'll ever do with another bag full of greens here are some ideas that are getting us through "greens" season:

1) When in doubt, Option #1 - make a quiche
Make or buy your favorite pie crust and fill it with....
-5-6 eggs lightly beaten
-half a cup of milk
-1 cup of your favorite cheese (I like sharp cheddar or parmesan)
-1-2 cups of steamed or sauteed greens (you MUST MUST MUST drain the water off very well or you'll end up with soggy quiche - yuck)
-Bake it for 45-55 minutes at 350 (until the center is set), and you have a tasty treat full of whatever veggies you couldn't fit in anywhere else in your weekly menu.

When in doubt Option #2 - lasagna
-Steam, saute or boil your greens and use the cooked greens to replace the spinach in a spinach lasagna or calzone. YUM!

We hope you're having a great week, enjoying the cooler weather, and looking forward to some more fresh veggies in your basket this week!

--
http://sustainableharvestfarm.blogspot.com/

What is this veggie?

Friends,

I've added a link on the top right of the website that shows pictures and basic storage information of every vegetable.

Thank you,
Ford Waterstrat

WHAT TO DO WITH............?

Please let me know if you are ever unsure of how to cook, store, or use the vegetables that you get.

Red Beets - organic
The first beets of the season! Remove the roots from the stems and use the greens either raw in a fresh green salad, or cook with your kale. Beets are known to be good for anemia, your heart and circulation. They also contain notable amounts of calcium, iron, magnesium & phosphorus.

Refrigerate for storage; the root will keep for several weeks, the greens should be used within a few days. Recipes can be found on our online web blog, and included here.

CSA Week 2

Welcome to week # 2!

All is well on the farm. The cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, peppers, onions, watermelons, cantaloupes, okra, eggplant, cabbage, fenell, and other vegetables are coming along very nicely! It's really neat to see all of the plants growing so well.
On the farm there are always new challenges and blessings.

This week the rabbits and ground hogs found the lettuce and have eaten well over 100 heads, so there will not be as much lettuce as I’d like. We should have some more in a couple of weeks. The cooler weather made the broccoli head out nicely. If it gets too hot and can go to seed to quickly and ruin the heads.

In your basket you will find the following USDA Certified Organic Vegetables.

• Several Large Bunches of Broccoli
• Red Beets
• Bunch of Mustard Greens.
• Small bag of lettuce
• 1 head of Bok Choy
• 1 big bag of Purple or Green Kale
• A bunch of Radishes
• Some Small White Turnips-The greens can be cooked as well as the white root part. This variety of turnips is better small than large.
• A bunch of Basil. It has not been washed. You do not want to wet basil until right before you use it. Wetting it will make it get black spots.
• Bunch of Parsley

Looking to the future

-In 2 weeks we should have plenty of yellow and green squash, possibly cucumbers and cabbage.

-Early July the tomatoes, corn, and peppers should be ready

CSA Week 1

I hope you're excited as I am about this first CSA! Thank you for your support!

In your basket you will find the following USDA Certified Organc Vegetables.

• 2 heads of Bok Choy



• 1 big bag of Purple or Green Kale



• A bunch of Radishes



• Some Small White Turnips-The greens can be cooked as well as the white root part. There are several that are a bit small, but I didnt know how many of you liked turnips.



• A bunch of Rainbow Swiss Chard



• 2 Heads of Lettuce and/or Some Oakleaf Lettuce



• A bunch of Basil. It has not been washed. You do not want to wet basil until right before you use it. Wetting it will make it get black spots. So please excuse the dirt that splattered up from the torrential, but much needed rain fall Friday.



• Bunch of Mustard Greens.
  

I will email you all some recipes.

Thank you so much for your support!

Ford, Amanda, and Finley.

Amanda feels that a picture of our son is a lot neater than hearing about calf pulling

Calf Pulling

An old school cattle and tobacco farmer that I know came by. To make it short, the calf got it's foot backwards and hung and I had to shove the calf back inside the cow then reach in and get the foot going the right way and then pull the whole calf back out. Unfortunately the calf did not survive, but we saved the cow. What a day!

Sustainable Harvest Farm: We are taking orders for pasture raised poultry. P...

Sustainable Harvest Farm: We are taking orders for pasture raised poultry. P...: "We are taking orders for pasture raised poultry. Please send me an email if you're interested in reserving your birds. ford.waterstrat@gmail..."

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