Hi all,

This week the fruit share includes three varieties:  Cameo apples,
Cortland apples and Bosc pears.
The vegetable share this week will be: Red potatoes, leeks, salad
turnips, choice of romaine or a red romaine –like variety, arugula,
kale, choice of ornamental pumpkin or kabocha squash and choice of an
herb (mostly parsley).

This week Ginger sent us a farm update from Treelicious.  In it, she
proposes that members who are due “make up deliveries” because of
skipped vacation weeks may stop by the Treelicious fruit stand at the
Montclair farmers market on Saturdays and select the type of apples
themselves.  If that is not convenient, she would be happy to put
together the  extra shares and deliver them on any Tuesday until
Thanksgiving.  See details below.

I also want to keep you posted on Havenwood Farm news.  Ken writes “We
did 400 more broilers this year than last but the orders increased
which chewed up much of the 400. I had several other groups contact me
this year about supplying them. They heard about us from members from
the Bloomfield/Montclair CSA or Montclair Co-op  and I said no to
these inquiries. Other than the Nutley Farmers Market, none of the
broilers went to any other group or establishment. I would bring about
6-8 broilers to the market in Nutley only after orders were filled,
and a few  times I didnt bring any broilers to Nutley. About half of
broiler purchases in Nutley were from current members of both groups
getting an extra broiler or two.

The reason for this long explanation is to reinforce the fact that I
am committed to the two groups( and the members)  that helped start
us. While I do expect growth in the upcoming years (as any business
does) those that were with us in the beginning will always be taken
care of first.   That’s just the way I am. I hope you can express to
the members that they are my priority as they built us and that the
lack of frozen broilers for the winter is due to the fact that the
orders for this year were more than we had anticipated compared to
last year. Ken ”

‘nough said.  It will be a long hard winter without Ken’s chickens in
the freezer.  More reason to look forward to spring. Hope you are
enjoying this warm October weather.

Best,
Enid

*********************************************
Treelicious Orchard Farm Update
Enid and Fruit Share Members,

This week the fruit shares include three varieties:  Cameo apples,
Cortland apples and Bosc pears.  All three are sweet and ready to
eat!  The Cameos are hard and very sweet like a Gala and the Cortlands
are known for their all around suitability for eating, apple sauce and
our favorite – apple crisp.  They are also known as they can sit on
the counter unsliced without turning brown.  Finally, the bosc pears
are hard, sweet and delicious. Please enjoy this yummy assortment.

We hope you will have time to prepare a quick apple crisp.  The
topping is so good when prepared with a cup of sugar, a cup of flour
and a stick of margarine.  Create a crumb mixture with a butter knife
and place over sliced apples in an 8X8 pan.  Bake at 350F for 40
minutes —and you are ready for a yummy treat!  (Even oven is a
little different – but you are seeking a nice brown top)  Enjoy!

If you were away over the summer months, please stop by the farm
market on Saturdays to pick up your extra share. At the market you may
select the apples in the makeup share that are best for you and your
family. If this is not convenient for you, please email Ginger and she
will create a makeup share for you for the week you desire between now
and Thanksgiving.  We hope this creates a little flexibility for our
members and will allow those who were on vacation and had alerted us
to select their own apples in the makeup share at our stand at the
Farmers’ Market.  We are open every Saturday through December from 8am
to 2pm.  As always, we will continue to experiment to make the CSA
experience a positive one for our customers.

Have a great week!
Ginger and the Kesler Family

*************************************************
Starbrite Farm Update #22

Hi Folks,

Things are beginning to wind down a bit here on the farm. We are done
seeding and transplanting crops for harvest this season. We have
finished digging the sweet potatoes and most of the white potatoes as
well.  Besides the daily harvesting of greens and root crops for the
shares and the markets, we are focused on clean up. My crew has been
dismantling the trellis for the tomatoes, removing hundreds of posts
and stakes, and pulling the plastic mulch. I have been busy
broadcasting cover crop seed- winter rye and hairy vetch, which will
protect the fields from wind erosion during the winter months. These
cover crops also improve the soil by adding organic matter and
nitrogen which is “fixed” by the vetch. Members of the Legume family
like vetch take nitrogen from the atmosphere and store it in nodules
which form on their roots. We are also preparing ground to plant the
garlic and shallots for next year’s crop. Garlic is grown from the
individual cloves, each of which will produce a new bulb next July.
Planted now, the cloves will begin to grow roots, so they will emerge
and begin to grow rapidly as soon as the ground thaws in early spring.
I plan to put in about 600 lbs. of seed garlic, 50% more than last
year, as we never seem to have enough of the popular stuff.

We are still waiting on the broccoli heads to size up, a process that
is painfully slow during the fall, with shorter days and cold nights.
The good news is that the quality is generally high when they are
ready, and many different varieties are beginning to mature. Once we
can begin harvesting we should have it consistently during the final
weeks of the season. In the meantime we have kale as the brassica of
the week.

The red potatoes we are sending with the shares this week are a bit
ugly, with a lot of russeting of the skin. You will probably want to
peel them. Fortunately they are fairly large so this won’t be a
terribly difficult task. We will be shipping some pumpkins this week
as a choice with a large gray kabocha type squash called Sweet Mama.
All pumpkins are edible, but some are better eating than the
ornamental types.  These are excellent for baking as well as for soups
and in any recipe which calls for pumpkin.

The root of the week will be salad turnips. Don’t forget that the
greens are edible and very nutritious.

The share for this week will be: Red potatoes, leeks, salad turnips,
choice of romaine or a red romaine –like variety, arugula, kale,
choice of ornamental pumpkin or kabocha squash and choice of an herb
(mostly parsley).

Enjoy!
Farmer John