winter share – Bloomfield-Montclair CSA

Hi all,

Some members were confused by John’s mention in yesterday’s farm
update of the “2 week extension”. This year, Bloomfield-Montclair CSA
changed it’s regular season from 22 weeks to 24 weeks, so our final
delivery is Tuesday, Nov 23rd. The cost of your CSA membership
includes the deliveries for the two extra weeks. John’s other CSA’s
run only 22-week seasons so yesterday was their final regular
delivery. John is offering them an optional two week extension.

In addition, John is offering an “end of season stock up share” to all
his CSA’s, including the Bloomfield-Montclair CSA. This “stock up
share” is a single delivery which that will arrive on the Tuesday
following Thanksgiving (November 30th.) Our regular CSA membership
does not include the cost of this stock up delivery and it is
completely optional.

We will have sign up sheets at both sites and a jar for you to leave
your check ($60 made out to Starbrite Farm) if you would like to
receive the stock up share. The delivery will be on Tuesday, November
30th and pick up will be during regular hours. John pre-assembles
these stock up shares and brings them down in boxes, so while we do
not need a set up or clean up crew, we doneed to give him a head count
in about two weeks. It winds up being quite a large share so, if you
are interested, is it quite a good deal.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the end-of-season potluck on the
23rd!

Best,
Enid

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STARBRITE FARM END OF SEASON “STOCK UP”

For those groups who have enrolled for a 24 week season we will be
offering one additional share to be delivered during the week of
November 28th. This will be a “stock up” share and will include
various vegetables that store well, so that you will be able to enjoy
produce from the farm well into the winter months. The total weight of
this share will be between 50 and 60 lbs.

We have had an excellent crop of winter squash and approximately half
of the share will be an assortment of butternut, acorn, buttercup
(kabocha), delicata, and sweet dumpling squash. The share will also
include an assortment of root vegetables such as carrots, beets,
parsnips, turnips, and radishes. I expect that the root crops will
comprise about 10-15 lbs. of the share. We did not have a great potato
harvest this season and the onion crop has not kept well, however I
have made arrangements to buy some organic potatoes and onions from a
farm in NY State. I generally do not buy produce to put into any
share, but I feel it is necessary to make the stock up work, and I
don’t want to hold back these items from the regular season shares to
save them for the stock up. There will be 10-12 lbs. of potatoes and
onions in the share.

Also included will be cabbage, and whatever greens we still have in
the field at this time, such as arugula or other mustards, lettuce and
spinach. It is possible that there will be broccoli, cauliflower, or
Brussels sprouts, but I cannot guarantee their availability at this
time.

The potatoes, onions and squash can be stored in a cool dry place such
as an attached garage or enclosed porch, where they will not freeze.
The root vegetables and cabbage will best be stored in your
refrigerator.

The cost of this final share will be $60, which is an excellent value,
equivalent to a wholesale price for the produce included. I know that
this final share will not work for everyone, but I hope that many of
you will be able to participate. Doing so will help me to disperse the
produce that we have in storage, as well as utilize what remains in
the fields, and to finish the season with a small amount of profit. As
always, I thank you for your support and patronage.

Farmer John

We’re coming up on the end of our weekly vegetable deliveries for the regular season.

John has loads of great vegetables still in the fields and is, once
again, offering a three-week WINTER SHARE. The cost will be $80 and
the sign up form is posted in the files section of the Google group website. The first 2
deliveries will be fairly typical to the regular season deliveries,
with lettuce, greens, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels
sprouts, root veggies such as parsnips, carrots, turnips, radishes,
and celery root, potatoes, onions, and winter squash. The second pre-
Thanksgiving delivery will include larger quantities of potatoes and
onions. The final week’s “stock-up” delivery will include onions (~
5#’s), several types of potatoes (15-20#’s), winter squash (5-10 #’s),
an assortment of root vegetables (~ 5 #’s) and cabbage. The total
weight of the “stock-up” will be at least 35 #’s.

There will be less winter squash than last year, in part because it
did not keep well for some members last year and also because there
was not a great crop this season. John hopes to have some greens such
as kale or spinach, broccoli, and/ or Brussels sprouts in the final
week delivery. He is growing lots of interesting Asian greens, such
as baby bok choy, tatsoi, hon tsai tai, as well as arugula, broccoli
raab, spinach and escarole, that will also be ready for the winter
extension.

T he new egg-poultry order form on the Google group website. Over the winter,
Havenwood Farm switches to an every other Friday delivery schedule.
November will continue to be every other Tuesday (November 3rd and
17th) but will switch to Fridays beginning December 5th. In addition,
now that it is getting cold, Ken has to get the chickens out of the
fields. They can’t live through the winter outside. He will process
the rest of the flock,cryovack shrink wrap and deep freeze them. Next
week’s delivery will be fresh broilers. After that, they will be
frozen broilers. Egg deliveries go year round.

Ken is also taking orders for Thanksgiving turkeys. They are a broad
breasted white turkey. Like the broilers, the turkeys are pastured
and fed non-certified organic feed. They are delicious. Turkey
delivery will be on Tuesday, November 24th. The order
form is posted on the google group website.