Open House, Saturday, September 10…Special

Come out to the farm for our open house on Saturday, Sept 10. The pumpkins and gourds will be ready for you and your kids (not sure they’ll make it to Halloween, but they’ll at least get you in the Halloween mood.) For this open house, we want to introduce you to the Kinnikinnick woods and stream kitty-corner from the farm. We’ll still meet at the farm, and have hayride tour of the fields, then have our lunch there, like usual, but this time, instead of our CSA meeting and farm tours in the afternoon, we’ll give you a tour of the very enchanting woods and stream nearby. I’ll show you some of the many arrowheads my dad found there when he was growing up.

-SCHEDULE OF EVENTS-

11:00 am – 12:30 Arrive + Hayride

Relax, mingle and explore the farm. Meet the goats, chickens and cows in the Learning Center’s barnyard. Go on a hayride. Pick gourds and a pumpkin.

12:30 – 1:30 The Potluck

Please bring a dish to serve 20 people–triple the amount that would feed your whole family. We all LOVE food & people tend to pile their plates high! You may also wish to bring the recipe that goes with your dish. Please bring your own place settings & beverages. We also encourage you to bring a picnic blanket and/or lawn chairs, as table space is limited.

1:30 – 3:30

 Tour of the 70 Acres, Kinnickinnick Woods and Stream
Folk Music by Clara Baker
RSVP’s are not necessary.

Read about the Learning Center’s Campaign to Save the 70:
http://www.learngrowconnect.org/node/3155

Map to the Farm, 1547 Rockton Rd, Caledonia, IL: https://angelicorganics.com/PDF/MaptoFarm.pdf

Pet Note: Although we do love the company of animals, we do not allow pets to be brought onto the farm for our open house.

Farmer John Writes…                                                                                                                       
Greetings from Angelic Organics!

Winter Squash
Read up on winter squash starting on page 307 of Farmer John’s Cookbook. We know it’s not winter yet, but hey, much of this Week 12 Newsletter is about preparing for the future. Lots of squash coming your way as the season cools down.

Vegetable of the Week: Acorn Squash

A Culinary Adventure: Baked Squash with Kale and Pear. Try this recipe on page 314 in Farmer John’s Cookbook. From the recipe intro: The Pear really makes this dish shine–its unique sweetness balances the kale’s earthy overtones. Let us know how you like it. (I’m guessing this recipe would also work well with your Delicata squash.)

Play While You Cook
Beach Boys: Vegetables, 1967
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO0aNOpOYF0

A Farmer’s Work
We are now entering our fall season (even though fall is officially weeks away), with squash, broccoli, leeks, and potatoes coming on. It’s a very busy time of the year. Not only are we harvesting for all of our shareholders; we are also preparing the ground for next year. This involves spreading Biodynamic compost, rotovating, sub soiling, tilling again for seedbed preparation, applying the Biodynamic Preparation BD 500, and then seeding the fields to peas and oats, to build up more fertility and reduce erosion. Our window for doing this work is Aug 15th through Aug 31, so the early fall rains and warmth will create a bountiful cover crop of peas and oats by early October. We do this now for 33 of the 38 fields we will grow on next year. By late September, when the 5 fields of tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers are finished, we’ll prepare those fields as well. We know exactly what crops will go into which fields next year, so we prepare the fields according to next year’s bed configuration, nutrient needs, tolerance for spring residue (in a few fields, because of our seeding equipment), and anticipated weed pressure.
I don’t consider our harvests this year complete until the fields are readied for next year. This might seem a bit fanatical, but farming is a continuum. One crop flows into another; one season flows into another. This last spring, we had very adverse weather. Because we did all of our preparatory tillage, compost spreading and cover cropping in the previous fall, we could just jump into the fields and plant during the tiny windows of dry weather we had up until early May. If we had waited last year to do the main tillage work this spring, we would have been very thrown off, (and your boxes would have been quite sparse.) I sometimes look out at the fields being prepared and imagine that it’s a picture of springtime fast forwarded (backwarded?) to now; sleeveless shirt weather, dry soil, and time to do the work…well, there’s never enough time to do the work, so better to do it early when there is little time, than later, when there might be no time.

Where to Shop?
Erin Barnett, Director of Local Harvest, wrote recently in a Local Harvest newsletter about her relationship as a consumer to capricious weather and local farms. She was candid: http://www.localharvest.org/newsletter/20110826/

Account of the Young Farmer Gathering at Angelic Organics
http://biodynamicsbda.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/young-farmer-gathering-a-great-success/

Upcoming Programs at the Angelic Organics Learning Center

September 3-4:  Family Farm Overnight
For the following week, a brand new class, just added!
September 11, 2011 1 PM-5 PM: Cheesemaking 2: Hard Cheeses
Only 5 seats are still available for the cheese making event.
Please register at least 1 week in advance at www.learngrowconnect.org or 815-389-8455

The following takes you to the Learning Center August calendar, which has links to all of their programs:  http://www.learngrowconnect.org/event

warmly,
Farmer John

 

Please Note: this summary is written before you receive your box—please be aware that some guesswork is involved. As always, be sure to thoroughly wash all of your vegetables.
 
Herbs –Cilantro
Fruiting Crops – Winter squash – Red Kuri & Acorn, Sweet Peppers,Tomatoes – including heirloom
Brassicas – Broccoli
Alliums – Onions,
Cooking Greens – Kale
Salad Greens – Lettuce
Root Crops – Red Potatoes