Information for the 2010 CSA Season

A downloadable application for the 2010 CSA season is available on the upper right hand corner of this blog. Please print clearly your name, address, city and email address.The email address is how you will receive confirmation that we have received your application. Along with that you will be confirmed on your Pick Up Day choice. Please keep a copy of your application and this information sheet so you can refer back to it for payment dates and our contact information. Farm news, recipes and other information will be sent to you and your “other participant(s)” will also receive updates as they are sent to you.

Edward and I (Chris) are your contacts regarding the CSA. We have listed our cell phone numbers for your convenience. The email address for questions and/or your recipes and suggestions is: www.stitcher44@comcast.net.

Pick up days include Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Your vegetables will be picked that morning and Edward, Jean and “Tyson” will be packing your 10 gal. bin that morning. If there has been a thunderstorm that morning, please be aware that it would be dangerous for anyone to be in the open field and the picking will be done a little later. You may pick up your vegetables from noon to 8:00pm on clear days. Leave your empty bin to the right of the door of the Veggie Shack and take the filled bin. Next week you will bring the empty and again take the filled bin. If you do not already have your 2 (10 gal.) bins we can purchase them for you for the addition of $20.00 in your payment amount. You can usually find some of the bins at Lowe’s with lids included.

Half of you share is due on 5/15/2010 and the last half is due 6/15/2010. If you need to make other arrangements please call Chris and she will be happy to set up an arrangement that will work for both you and the CSA.

As shareholders in the 2010 crop we appreciate that you are willing to share the risk of 2010’s growing season. We are glad when the weather made its important change to warmer and drier weather so that we could begin to share the harvest with all of you. You will be notified of the first pickup date! Weather including frost, rain, hail, drought always makes farming a real challenge.

If you are unable to pick up on your day or you will be on vacation please let us know if you have someone to pick up your share that/those week(s). If we are not notified and you have not picked up your bin by the next day we will automatically give your share to someone else. If you want your vegetables to go to a shelter during vacations please contact Chris and let her know.

We added honey bees to the farm. We will let you know if there will be honey for sale later in the year. Edward and Chris are the beekeepers.

The shares have gone up for 2010: $325.00 for a full share and $175.00 for a half share. You will be emailed or called to let you know that the veggies will start on your pickup day.

We would like you to know that although we are not certified organic we grow the vegetables with the least amount of chemicals. Each year we must be recertified for chemical and pesticide use. Most homeowners use more chemicals on their lawn than we use on the whole farm. We have been eating our own vegetables and beef for many years and do not want any more usage than necessary of any chemical.

If you would like a tour of the farm please contact us so that we can set aside time to spend with you and show you the farm. Diesel and Tyson our Farm “pups” love company and so do we! Right now Diesel is on the prowl for the foxes and groundhogs that are showing themselves as the weather gets warmer.

The guys (Edward and Gene) are getting the hot houses ready for sowing seed for the vegetables. The Veggie Shack is just off the driveway to the right of the main farm house. This is where you will pick up your vegetables each week and drop off a fresh bin. Eggs will be in the small fridge and for a price of $2.00 a dozen you may help yourself and leave the money in the container. (We have aracauna hens so you will find one or more greenish shelled eggs…..also known as the famous Martha Stewart chickens!) Jane runs the farm stand in front of their house (right of main farm house) and will have much of what is in the bins for any friends that would like to “shop” for veggies but not be a shareholder.

Chris

Piggies Get a New House and Ed Jr. Gets a New Dog

Since we got the truck (that was in our shop for over a month) running, it was time to get the pigs out of there also. Ed Jr. came up with an idea of what we were going to build using up some of the old wood we had kicking around.....roof boards and siding from some old buildings we've torn down over the years and shipping crates that Ed Sr. has been bringing home.

The base with a side wall waiting to be put up.

The two side walls in place

Back wall is now up

Front wall with rafters up.....back one up against it's wall, an the others leaning up against the shop's sliding door

Two ends with plywood put up

One side with plywood and siding, and ends sided

Rafters up, and Ed starting the roof

Sided, roofed, shingled, and first coat of paint

Finished and brought outside

Final inspection

Diesel gives his approval

And Ed's new pup......Tyson

Moving pigs into their new home is tough work!!!!

Gene

It's Alive!!!!

We bought this poor girl last September.


She was a basket case (literally) with a blown engine. The block was broken where a connecting rod that snapped off went through. The intake and heads were already off, and the heads were cracked like nothing I've seen before. Supposedly, the previous owner ran her out of coolant and started to disassemble the engine in hopes of repairing her but had given up.
Ed Jr. put an engine together, we dropped it in, and spent hours trying to figure out where everything hooked up (since we weren't the ones who took it apart). Ed got the exhaust back together and it was time to fire her up ........ not so good.
It ran, but barely.
Ed and I spent the last two weeks pulling codes from the inboard computer, testing sensors (I was even swapping some of them with ones on my Blazer to see if they were bad), changing bad ones, re-timing the distributor, readjusting the valves, changing more electrial components, and FINALLY got her to run!! Ya can't imagine how happy I am that I don't have to stare at her in the shop, wondering what we were gonna try next when I get home from work tonight!!!

Tonight, it's get the hood back on so we don't have to see this anymore......



Just might have to weld the hood closed!!! LOLOL


Gene

Saturday's Rib Roast Smoke

Although it was only 13 degrees out last Saturday, this rib roast had a date with one of my smokers.

Rubbed with salt, pepper and a little garlic powder


I brought my small gas smoker in the shop for the job. To get the smoke from the stack to go outside instead of clouding up the shop, I bought a piece of aluminum dryer exhaust hose and slipped in over the smoker exhaust and through a window. One pane was replaced with an aluminum plate which had a hole the size of my exhaust hose.








It still needs some work, but it worked for the rib roast.

After being in the smoker @ 235 for three hours.


5 1/2 hours in the smoker, it's ready to be wrapped up to rest for another hour.


Final inspection.....looks good enough for me to eat!!


I need to tweak things a bit, but I think I'm going to do more winter smokes with this setup. :)

Gene

Gene's Culinary Skills.....LOL

We took out my little "kitchen" out of the shop to make room for the woodstove and firewood for the winter. I've been using the woodstove for cooking dinner for the two pigs that are temporarily living in the shop until the ground thaws enough to put up a fence for them.





A pot of turnips (greens n' all) on the stove


All cooked


Chopped up


Now the good part

add some doughnuts......


some grain.....


and mash it all together



I know, it doesn't sound or look very good at all......

but they love it!!


LOLOL!!!


Gene

I need some sleep!

Okay, I love animals just like the rest of you but this is getting serious! We have not had a full night of sleep for over 10 days now! Three in the morning and again at six the coyotes that are “vacationing” at our farm are driving us crazy! Even Diesel has had it with them! Each night I hope that they have moved on to wherever they go after vacationing at our farm but NO! Each night the barking and howling calls back and forth to one another are driving me insane. If I get up and peer out the back of our house to see if I can spot them I see nothing but the moon shining on the snow cover. No sign of them! Diesel can hear/smell them and wants at them badly. One he could handle but not four or five so we hold him off. I wonder if they can smell our piglets? Hmmm I hadn’t thought of that before. Someone asked me today “Oh, you have pigs?” Yes, I said! Pork Chops and Bacon! “Is that what you named them?” they ask. “No!” I say that is what they will become!


Chris

Piggy Vids...LOL

Hopefully this video comes out a little better than the last one!

Gene

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