Welcome to our 13th week of the 2014 Season and A Special Welcome to Back-to-School Shareholders Starting this Week!

In Farm News this week, Farmer John Shares an image that makes him Image Conscious

(Note: These two alerts below appear both in your weekly email and in Farm News. When a message is particularly important, it appears in both communications, to make sure it gets seen at least once.)

Ethylene Notice
We harvest our broccoli early morning when it is still cool. We frequently shuttle the bins to the packing area, where we ice the broccoli before storing it in a cooler with high humidity and a temperature just a few degrees above freezing. We pack it into your box and then it immediately goes into a refrigerated truck. Our goal is to take the utmost care of your broccoli, which includes timely harvesting and ideal storage conditions.

However, this season has created an unprecedented convergence of early fall broccoli with late summer tomatoes. Tomatoes produce ethylene; broccoli ripens and then yellows ultra-fast in an ethylene environment. While we are still in tomato season (1 or 2 more weeks), we will bag our broccoli and cauliflower that goes into your box. We don’t like using the extra plastic, but we prioritize the quality of your vegetables.

Potato Notice
As I’ve mentioned earlier in the season, we have a huge crop of potatoes. Some of our Yukon Golds have been afflicted by hollowheart, a discoloring of the potato flesh, probably due to the abnormally wet season.  From http://www.tourismpei.com/index.php3?number=12345  “Hollowheart is a discoloured cavity in the centre of an otherwise healthy potato. It can be caused by rapid growth or possibly by sudden temperature changes early in the growing season. This condition doesn’t affect taste or nutritional value of potatoes. These potatoes can be eaten but the hollow heart should be cut out. If you find a hollow centre in your baked potato, just remove the brown area before serving.”

The majority of the Yukon Golds are fine, but we are giving you a heads-up to inspect your Yukon Gold potatoes once you slice them open, and cut around any hollowheart you find. If you receive red potatoes, you probably will encounter no hollowheart conditions.

We don’t wash your potatoes. They store better when they are not washed.

Farm Open House Saturday, September 20
Keep your calendar open for our fall open house. Everyone can go on a hayride and pick a pumpkin and some gourds that day. There will also be a Tai Chi performance in memory of longterm friend, shareholder and farm advocate Elizabeth Wenscott. We’re still lining up other activities, so stay tuned.

Image Conscious
Someone took my image

 

 

 

 

 

 

and distorted it below in a Monsanto poster mock-up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not very nice (or legal) to do this, but it’s almost impossible to do anything about it without a lot of expensive legal clout, plus I am too busy farming. I did, however, send an email asking the host of the page to get back to me. We’ll see if that goes anywhere. (Interesting when people use underhanded tactics to attempt to promote positive change.)

The Crops

The Weather

The Work
The farm work has been breathtaking, because unusual late August fall rains have interfered with our usual transplanting and seeding of fall crops and our cover cropping program. We had a dry weather window this past week, and we flew into action. Almost all of the fall crops are now in, and well over half the cover crops are seeded. Phew!

U-Pick Garden
Our U-Pick Garden has flowers, and still a few green beans.

More from Shareholders
Visit us often at www.facebook.com/angelicorganics, where we post exciting farm developments regularly, and shareholders post recipes, tips, and photos

Box Contents
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.

Arugula
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Chard
Onions
Peppers
Potatoes
Heirloom Tomatoes
Tomatoes
Winter Squash

Upcoming Program at the Angelic Organics Learning Center
Homebrewing 101 on Sunday, September 21 from 1 PM – 4:30 PM: Beginners will learn the basic steps of homebrewing with Nate Peterson of Wishful Acres Farm.  We’ll demonstrate primary and secondary fermentation, and everyone will try their hand at bottling their own. You’ll learn what equipment you’ll need to do this at home, plus where to find the best ingredients, including how to grow, harvest and prepare your own hops.

For more classes and workshops at the Learning Center,  visit http://www.learngrowconnect.org/events

Warmly,
Farmer John and the Angelic Organics Farm Team