I will miss you all. Things are just quieting down enough that I can think a little and converse with you during distribution.
I am getting better at using early morning and evening dark time. Kale was still frozen at 10 am this morning. I went into the hoophouse and harvested more salad greens for you, and dill which reseeded itself in amongst the greens. I harvested salad greens from outside yesterday, picked through them at the kitchen counter in the evening, then hooked up a hose to the indoor utility sink. The rinse tub goes on top of the washing machine, the spinner in the utility sink. Sure does facilitate washing the floor. I brought in the bright light that we’ve had out to help with distribution, the one that puts off so much heat, and shine it on the kitchen counter for sorting.I keep the house cool, partly for energy conservation and partly because we are in and out and don’t need the huge temperature swings. I usually have wool socks and hat and several fleece layers on even inside – it’s winter after all. That light makes for quickly shedding hat and layers.
During the summer I would have harvested and then picked through them and prepped them before moving on to the next thing. This week, with the gorgeous weather, I harvested from 10 or 11 until 3ish. By 2:30 the plants are in the shade and by 3 it is cooling off rapidly. So I bring stuff in, do chicken chores, have supper, and then start cleaning. Tonight’s projects are rinsing and spinning the Asian greens from the hoophouse, and mixing them with the other salad greens, trimming brussels sprouts, and picking through holy arugula – unfortunately not spiritual holy, but flea beetle eaten holy.
Of course the short days do impact it, but with 4 really nice days this week, I was busy the whole time harvesting. Production is one full time job. Harvesting and prepping is another full time job. Fortunately right now there is nothing to plant. If it wasn’t so wet and muddy I’d love to be doing field work to prep for next spring. I wanted to get cover crops in last month or early in November, but it is too wet to work the field to kill weeds and then plant. Oh, and I made another discovery today – those lightweight food handling gloves fit nicely inside my work gloves. Dry fingers are notably less cold than wet fingers, and most of the crops have water droplets or are just plain wet even in midday. The gloves still do some evaporative cooling, but it is much more comfortable than both gloves and skin wet.
I found another way to reschedule to make more usable time – I needed to go in to Pburgh, but just couldn’t get away. I finally realized the co-op is open until 7; the bank at Price Chopper is open until 7; and many stores are open even later. So Tuesday, I put the chickens to bed, grabbed a bite, and headed into Pburgh at 6 pm. Couldn’t do everything I needed to, but got the things that were most urgent done. Don’t know why I didn’t think of that sooner, but it really has only been three weeks since the time change so I guess I’m not really all that slow to catch on. Checking prices in the vegetable display at Price Chopper was both troubling and very encouraging. First, many of the veggies looked absolutely horrible. Many were wilted. The bunches of beets for $2.50 were 5 puny small beets (but not fancy gourmet small, just looked like the dregs). I thought our prices at the farmers market were high (carrots $2.25/lb, potatoes $2/lb), but they were in line with Price Chopper, and if a little higher were also of much higher quality. We sell salad mix for $13/lb, and it ranges from $5.99 to $11.67 at Price Chopper. Loose nonorganic spinach was $5.99/lb, and we sell it for $9/lb. Spinach had the most divergent price that I found. Yes, there is a range of packaging and prices at Price Chopper, and I generally look at the highest price for comparison since I think the flavor, nutrients, and lack of “things on it” make mine “highest quality”, not to be obnoxious or braggy. I had received an email from one of our summer members saying that she had serious sticker shock when she went to the grocery, and they would not be eating as well this winter as they had in the summer, and now I understand why. It does increase my confidence level. Last Saturday was a great day at the farmers market, and I got there early enough to get relaxedly setup before customers came. That, and that customers came steadily rather than in spurts, gave me the opportunity to pay attention to sales. The first few people each bought 4 things, and paid around $18. I visually compared their bags to what you are walking away with for $25/week. That also gave me confidence that I am giving you good value in exchange for you coming here to pick it up, sometimes doing your own bunching or final cleaning, etc, and paying ahead so I don’t have to deal with handling money during pickup.
Friday: Remember it is two weeks’ worth. The rain is supposed to stop by 3 – that would be nice. I don’t know if it will actually happen or not, since I still need to harvest and clean spinach, but I hope to prebag salad mix and a few other things to be sure you take enough. Many of you are wonderfully careful to not take too much, but actually take less than I intended. If we prebag I’ll know you got your share.
The only thing we are short doubles on is winter squash. You’ll get one. I had hoped to buy more for you but they are scarce. Even Nestle which controls 85% of canning pumpkin production, says pumpkin will be scarce on shelves after Thanksgiving. Not only was production down but rains caused rotting problems even for their growers. About a third of the squash I bought for you decayed. A grower in Crown Point who always has loads and loads of extra squash says she is out. Her squash also just did not do well this year, especially the butternut which I was searching for. Winter squash really did not like the northeast’s weather this year.
There are plenty of sweet potatoes, but I may not get them rinsed. We’ll see how time pans out.
Salad mix – there is a variety of sizes in it, from rather tiny dark red frilly lettuce through almost braising mix size greens. Red is actually the genetically dominant color in lettuce. They worked many years to breed green lettuce, and apparently it is an ongoing challenge to keep it green. I love the looks of red lettuce. But, folks expect salad to be green (I am finding customers just think beets should be red also). Reds are much more intense in cool weather than in the heat of summer, so for starters my reds are redder than they were in the summer. Insects don’t bother reds as much as greens, so my reds tend to look better now. And the red varieties I have seem more fungus and cold resistant, so I harvested very little green lettuce, and lots of red lettuce. To give you a “greener” salad mix, and to be sure I had enough, I had to scrounge all the green salad greens I could find, and that included ones I had left to grow out to braising mix size in another week. So, enjoy them, but know that some are bite sized and some will need to be cut/torn, or folded and stuffed in depending on manners.
We do have fresh duckling and fresh goose available. The duckling is $19, the goose $60. We will be having more available over the next few weeks, so please let me know if you are interested in any.
I have been writing this in spirts this evening, but need to get it up so you know what’s up. As of 8 pm that salad mix is all rinsed, but not really mixed. I am working on the arugula wondering if it is worth it, throwing out more than I am keeping. I would consider just putting it out for you take holy if you want, but there is a definite correlation between holes and age, and some of these leaves are just old and tough, so need to go. The birds and rabbit will love them. I may not get to the brussels sprouts though.
See you, hopefully not raining.
