Beware of serving sizes on your favorite processed foods… Here’s a video from the New York Times.
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If you’d like to see a small working farm in the Lansing area, the organic farm invites you to come and take a stroll. Of course these events will be most helpful for those who have green thumbs or are wanting to grow a garden. So mark those calendars and register early! 2010 MSU Student Organic Farm Workshops and Tours Tour Dates and Times Workshop Dates and Times Location **There is no cost for these events, but registration is required. We didn’t like the way the old form was printing- so here’s the new form for the CSA: Please try to fill out the form electronically if possible (although many people have wonderful handwriting, occassionally there are scribbles that cause confusion). We have opened up the 2010 CSA for membership. If you were a 2009 member, we’ll save your spot until March 15, 2010. If you’re new, then you have until April 1, 2010. Here’s the form if you’re interested:CSA_Membership_Form 2010 Thanks! Here is a lovely op-ed piece in the NYT sent to me by Marilyn, a long-time CSA member. Return to the Land by Maira Kalman Meridian Township Farmers Market is having a special Thanksgiving market on Wednesday, November 25, from 10-2pm We’ll be there with lots of goodies including:
There will also be lots of other fabulous vendors there, including: Thanks to everyone who filled out the 2009 Survey, it will be closing in about 24 hours. If you haven’t had a chance yet, you should have at least one reminder in your inbox. You can still claim your prize if I see you at market too! So I haven’t had much opportunity to write very much this season We finally had a freeze though… I even heard the weatherman say that the station would no longer issue frost-freeze advisories since all the vegetation is dead! But today, our trusty and spectacular crew finished our new greenhouse! I’ll try to get some pics up. Thanks to all of our supportive customers and loyal CSAers we can finally complete the next stage of our greenhouse build. When all is said and done we will have 2 new greenhouses (unheated, so really they’re called hoophouses) in which to grow greens and other crops like tomatoes or more okra! I think this will really help with a more steady supply of lettuce mix and spinach which we really struggled to supply on a a consistant basis. This also means that we will now go into serious planning for a winter CSA (for NEXT YEAR). We’ve had a lot of inquiries as to the status of a winter CSA, but it seems like whenever we want to try to get ready, we either run out of production space or have a crop loss that would make it more difficult. Thanks to everyone who filled out our 2009 Survey too- if you haven’t received the correct link or are having problems please let Rebecca know. I was speaking to someone at the farmers market and she alerted me to an interesting article in the New York Times concerning the best way to store various types of berries. Berries never last long in our household, but if you find yourself throwing away those precious gems of summer, check this out: Harold McGee of the NYT bought various types of berries and tested a theory about a warm water bath before refrigeration. Basically, by dipping raspberries or blackberries in approximately 125 degree water for 30 seconds and then laying them out to dry on paper towel, he created a much lower chance of moldy berries. Here’s the full article if you’re interested: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/dining/26curi.html?_r=1&scp=5&sq=raspberries&st=cse While Paul is much better at detecting a ripe watermelon in the field, it is still something that occasionally confounds me. This happens to be our first year also growing Honeydew melons, something that none of us on the farm have eaten very much. Growing up with muskmelon, it was also the first choice above anything else, so I guess none of us were really exposed. Muskmelons are strikingly different from watermelons and honeydew for one big reason. When a muskmelon is ripe it is said to “slip” from the vine. Meaning when you give the fruit a gentle tug, or even disturb the union of the vine and fruit at all, the fruit will detach. Watermelon and honeydew, as we’re learning, musk be cut from their plant when the first tendril or leaf has died. Well, this is what they say… Another grower-friend of ours called us last night to report about his watermelon troubles. Mainly, that the cloudy and cold conditions have created a bit of a melon mystery. He has ripe watermelons which show no sign of being ripe, but when they’re smashed open, as is frequently done in the field, the fruit is truly ripe. And we thought we were going crazy! What this means for you is that we’re even more unsure of whether the melons are ripe this year. We’ll do our best… And a note about the honeydews- we’ve tasted ripe, unripe and overripe of this variety. It seems that the really overripe ones are sweeter but incredibly mealy and squishy- bordering on gelatin. The ripe ones (from what we’ve gathered) are sweet, but not sweeter than the muskmelon. They seem to not have the in-your-face flavor of muskmelons either. The unripe ones basically taste reminiscent of cucumbers. Thus, we’re not sure if it’s the weather or the variety- but don’t expect anything too fantastic from the honeydews. I thought they were good- but better when mixed with the watermelons in a salad. I think next year we’re going to try a different variety though. Let me know what you think of them though or if you have suggestions for a nice variety. |
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Sorry about that, crappy internet access and long days don’t mix very well…
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