CSA pick up Week #6 (even weeks)
Click here to shop our web-store – New! Sale on Pork Loin. Italian Basil and garlic is on the list too!
If you want eggs – especially if you’d like us to bring them to the markets – please order them online! This is also a great way to guarantee that you’ll get chicken, pork roasts, or other specific cuts from our freezers – as we bring a limited variety of meats for retail to the markets.
The next round of pigs have been shipped off to the butcher and we expect our freezers to be restocked in a couple weeks. We’ll shout out and celebrate when they are full again!
Where to find us?!
The Farm – WEDNESDAY (11 – 7).
Northside – Friday 3 – 7 farmers market in Allegheny Commons.
Mt Lebanon Uptown Market – Saturday 9-12
Squirrel Hill Market – Sunday 9 – 1 at the Beacon/Bartlett Parking Lot
East Liberty Market – Monday 3:30 – 6:30 – at the new Liberty Green Park)
Field Update – by jen
We aren’t out of the weeds yet – but I can see that the fields are improving from this last rain we had. The beet greens are perkier, chard is greening up, and the next round of lettuce looks happy. I can see we’re coming ’round the bend and the summer veggies are almost in.
We were out Saturday evening; hoeing beans, weeding basil and saving the parsley, when Olivia walks up with a few cherry tomatoes! She was so proud and excited to eat the first tomatoes of the year. She said “there’s nothing as good as the first summer tomato” and she’s right. I doubt that we’ll have enough cherry tomatoes for everyone this week – but next week, we should start seeing them come in. They are better than candy – that’s for sure!
We’re trying out a new “green” called Tokyo Bekana – it’s kind of like the leafy cabbage we’ve given out in year’s past (Fun Jen, Chinese Cabbage), except it’s even leafier. Rumor has it, that it does well in heat and the bugs leave it alone. We’re also trying amaranth. Another green that isn’t so green. In fact, it’s deep red – full healthy phyto-nutrients! In this photo, we planted the leafy cabbage (the bright green plants) and the amaranth (smaller and really hard to see) down both sides of a row of winter squash. By the time the squash is so big that it takes over – the greens will be harvested and gone. That’s called Inter-cropping.
Our plan is to add on a week or two at the end of the season for the CSA. I keep track of each week’s CSA value and know how much we need to make up for as the season goes on. Letting you know now – so you can adjust plans for the fall, if need be.
Barnyard Update
Pigs are in “the now”. Eat, wallow, sleep. Currently: eat.
Check out their pool that they dug. It’s probably 2 – 3 feet deep! The pigs go in there to swim and cool off. Warning: if you stand too close they will shake their mud on you with their floppy ears! This is one of two pastures that these pigs can roam around in. There’s another pasture, behind the camera, that’s has more wallows and shade trees. Our goal, eventually, would be to move them quickly through the woods in the background. Those are all oak trees and pigs love to eat acorns!
