New for 2012 !Great Local Cheeses: We have offered a number of cheeses over the last few
seasons from local sources. Some have
been better than others. In the same
process which we generally use in exploring new vegetable varieties we select
the best and explore for other good ones.
Mushrooms!!! Those same 'burghers have a 'shroom
business which started out as foraging for wild mushrooms for high end
restaurants, but which has "mushroomed" into garnering various
exotic locally cultivated mushrooms and distributing them around the
state. We'll offer their Mushroom
Medley CSA ASC "Food for
All". We'd like to show
how this CSA thing we do can be turned around when needed. As much as the community is supporting and
promoting it's farmers, that same agriculture in
turn supports it's community when times are tough. And why not? We know these are difficult economic
times, but regardless, people still need to eat healthy food. If you're a past subscriber who suddenly
has found that your finacial circumstances have
changed for the worse, please don’t hesitate to contact us. If you're new or know of someone who otherwise
would be unable to afford high quality local produce, be encouraged, we
really mean it--this agriculture
will support the community! Quest for the good apple! Organic apples are always a great
challenge. The trees tend to be
biennial--caused by too much fruit in the good years, as there is no good way
to thin apples without chemicals.
Before the turn of the 20th century and chemical thinners, nearly all
apples were biennial producers. Then
there are all the other life forms to battle, which just love great big balls
of sugar and water to get their young ‘uns off to a
great start—moth larvae, flies, and beetles.
And then there’s the
bees… As far as we can
tell, this should be the "on" year for us. I say, "should be" because last
year was definitely the on year until May 15 when the temps dropped into the
low 20's and a large proportion of our apples were frozen just after they had
begun to develop. If they completely
dropped, this would surely be the on year, but somehow many of them did
survive, scarred and misshapen. But
how many? And will it effect this
years flowering? Luckily, we have
some good friends, other organic apple growers Bill
and Mary Ann Oyler,
who are able to fill and get some really great apples to your table if ours
are short. This will ensure the fruit
quantity and quality through the last half of our season and into the winter. With
blueberries in mid-season, and strawberries in June, we should have a steady
supply of fruit. The second great tomato year in a row! Who would have
thought we’d be billing tomatoes like they were something new? Our first years farming
this crop was the most reliable and income sustaining of all
crops. Blight has effected
tomatoes all over the East for the last decade and especially two years
ago. We’ll be happy with another more
normal year in 2011. That would give
you plenty for all purposes. We’ll
have a great selection of tasty heirloom varieties, lots of paste tomatoes,
as well as our standard slicers.
These include San Marzano, Green Zebra,
Arkansas Traveler, Black Velvet, Juliet, The Pods. Don't know if
I was just thinking crazy, but last week, I gave up on an early variety of
English peas since they hardly produced the last two years, and instead
ordered some sugar snaps. We haven't
grown them for many years because they are so much labor to pick them. We won't make any promises, since we're
really just planting them to fix nitrogen for the fall broccoli, but if we
have the time and help we might be abot to get some
of these tasty treats to you. We are
also looking forward to our fifth year with our Pixall
bean picker and
we’ll try again using the magic machine on a reddish Italian shell bean which
did pretty well last year. Of course
we'll have a load of the regular green beans.
Neighborhood Family Farms Tour and Picnic: It's getting to be an annual event greatly enjoyed by
all. Last season’s multi-farm tour of
ours and our neighbor's farms and open house was a great success. This year, we plan to repeat and do an even
better job of connecting you with your food and the land from which it
comes. Saturday date to be
confirmed--likely in late July. We’ll
keep you posted. Get them Doggies Grazin’: In the last few years we have sought to encourage our
neighbors, especially the younger farmers to produce meats for the local
market. We do this by linking interested subscribers to these producers. This
will keep the farms viable, preserve the farmland, and add to food security
for all. Likewise, as we all learn more about the nutritional benefits of grass
fed beef, it's truly exciting to utilize the grass Kretschmann Farm Signup Form
For more information contact:
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