Bluebird Meadows 2009 CSA

we are signing up members for 2010!!

2009-11-02T06:20:00.000-08:00

The time has come to sign up members for our 2010 CSA! We are very excited about next year. We are adding another small hoophouse to our line-up with which we can get a head start on the season. Some items we're hoping to have in the line-up next year that are new---beets, more varieties of potatoes and more of them, a box or two with some asian greens for everyone to try, long noodle beans, more melons, sweet corn, a few new varieties of tomatoes, and some herbs. We will be decreasing the amount of times the padron peppers and the edamame are in the box as it seemed the majority of you did not really love these items. Our prices are going to change slightly; this will be the first price increase we've had since our inception. We are going to go up ten dollars per share to help us cover some of the increased costs we've had to deal with on the farm such as an increase in our fuel use for our greenhouse which we added last year, our two hoophouses, and the cost of our boxes and bags. We hope everyone understands this slight price increase.

So our prices will be as follows for a twenty week subscription:

HALF SHARES $360

FULL SHARES $510

FLOWER SHARES $170

Our drop off spots will most likely stay the same. If they change they will still be located in the same general area. These locations are:

Wednesdays:

Foster's Market of Chapel Hill around 2-3pm

Falconbridge neighborhood near I-40 and 54 around 2:30-3:30pm

Saturdays:

Durham farmers market from 8-12 Sat. mornings

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SIGN UP FOR THE 2010 SEASON---

We will need the following information---

1.Your names and everyone's email address in your party who would like to receive the newsletter

2. Which shares you would like to receive

3. Your drop off location

To reserve your space for the season, please let us know first by email bluebirdmeadowsnc@yahoo.com so we can get you on our list, and then you can send in full payment with the pertinent info listed above to:
Bluebird Meadows
8650 Burlington Rd
Hurdle Mills, NC 27541

If you'd like to split up payments, we'll need you to deposit a third of the cost of your share/shares to reserve your space and we'll need full payment by mid-February this season. If you have a situation where you need to do more payments than this or you don't have enough to do a third of your share/shares for a deposit, please let us know and we will gladly work with you.

OUR AUGUST VACATION:
This year we have decided we would like to take a week vacation in early August. We're not sure which week it'll be, either the first or the second week, but we will let everyone know as soon as we decide. So there will be no CSA for one week in early August. The CSA will still run for 20 weeks. In turn, we would like to offer everyone their own week vacation, so that if you miss a box/bouquet one week, you can double up and receive two boxes or bouquets the week of your choice (provided you give us notice when you'll be gone and that we have enough produce the week you want your extra). If you miss more than one week, it is much easier for us if you give your box to a family member or friend to share the bounty as it makes it harder for us to keep up with who has missed when, etc. So if you plan to miss more than one week, please share your box with someone you love.

Thanks so much everyone and we hope to have you with us for our 4th and hopefully best yet CSA season!

---Alice and Stuart

Week 20

2009-09-15T04:52:00.000-07:00

Wow! This week marks the end of our 2009 CSA season and what a season it has been. We would like to thank every one of you for being with us for these past twenty weeks. You have played an enormous role in the success of our farm as well as our community's health and the progress of local foods. According to Debbie Roos, a Chatham county extension agent, in 2002 there were only around 30-35 CSAs in the state. Now there are around 100!

We are now going to shift gears and try to focus on getting our house built this fall and winter. Just yesterday our first shipment of lumber arrived so we hope to get started in a big way this weekend. It is a very exciting project and one we hope to see to fruition by this spring. Wish us luck!

A few final notes for everyone:

1. Please consider voting for the Durham Farmers Market in the national love your farmers' market contest. We are in sixth place and if we bump up to fifth place our market will receive a much needed $1,000. There are only two days left, so put in your vote soon and spread the word! Here is the link--

http://www.care2.com/farmersmarket/

2. Please remember to bring back your boxes this week. We are going to put everyone's box this week in a plastic or paper bag so that you do not need to come back to Foster's market or to the Anthonys' place at Falconbridge the following week with an empty box. This years CSA has been the best so far with returning boxes, so we thank you for being so considerate and remembering to bring them back. It makes things easier for us.

3. We will begin signing up returning members in mid-October. We will send out an email to all of you around a month from now so you have first dibs on joining our CSA for the 2010 season. We have seen an increased interest in the CSA and we will not be opening up too many new spaces, so it will probably be best for you to let us know sooner than later if you'd like to reserve a space.

4. We will send out a member survey by email. Please, if you have a moment, fill this out and return it. Customer feedback is one of our most important methods of improvement. This information will help us to make our CSA that much better and customer satisfaction.

In your boxes this week:

Half-shares

Falconbridge

okra

arugula

salad mix

french breakfast radishes

red peppers

cherry tomatoes

romas

Foster's Market

instead of okra you will get more red peppers and roma tomatoes

Full-shares

extra arugula

green peppers

were not sure about the next item

Recipes

We are delighted to have arugula in your boxes this week. This is a really delicious green that most people eat as a salad, but it can also be lightly sauteed to add zest and a green to pasta or a stir-fry. We usually eat it as a salad with some coarse salt, lemon juice, pepper, and a little balsamic vinaigrette. Some goat cheese chevre or any kind of feta pair really well with the greens, as does fruit as it contrasts with the mild spice of the arugula.

Delicious!

Here are eight great looking arugula recipes from Seasonal Chef's website.

Tomato and Sweet Pepper Salad adapted from The Vegetable Market Cookbook by Robert Budwig

3 sweet peppers
4 ripe tomatoes
1/4 preserved lemon (or 2 teaspoons grated zest with some of the lemon's juice)
2 cloves garlic peeled and crushed pinch sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 t black pepper

Grill or roast peppers, remove skins, cut into small cubes and set aside. Blanch tomatoes for 15-20 seconds in boiling water. Drain and remove skins and stems. Cut in half and remove seeds. Cut into small cubes. Rinse the preserved lemon under running water and remove the pulp. Cut the rind into fine dice. Arrange peppers, tomatoes and lemon in a dish. Mix remaining ingredients to make a dressing and pour over the salad. Mix well.

Flower Shares This week there will be a couple stems of our newly blooming tithonia, also known as Mexican sunflower. Be sure to feel how soft the stems are on this one! And what a great and vibrant orange to have right now.

Thanks so much everyone, you have been great!!!!!

Week 19

2009-09-07T16:06:00.000-07:00

Did any of you happen to catch the full moon this past week? We couldn't believe how bright and beautiful and seemingly huge it was. September's full moon is known as the 'Harvest Moon'. We are keeping our harvesting steady here on the farm, but when we hit the equinox on the 22nd and the light begins to wane more and more (along with the temperature dropping), things will slow down quickly.

This is what our farm should look like in a little over a months time. Cleared fields, winter cover crop sown, and overwintered items planted. It's always such an amazing process to get the farm to this point. The fields are an overgrown mess right now, so you can imagine how good it feels to mow it all down, till it a couple times, and plant a nice, thick, lush cover crop. Put the soil to rest so to speak.

We will also be ending our CSA soon as next week is week 20 and our final week. We'll go ahead and put out the reminder to bring back any boxes you may have lurking around your house or garage or porch so we can reuse them. It has been a wonderful season with you all; next week we'll include a quick questionnaire for you all to fill out if you have a moment. This really helps us to plan our future CSAs and to improve each season, so be thinking about what you thought about our CSA and how it could be better.

In your boxes this week:

half shares

lettuce mix

green beans

green peppers

carrots

romas

cherry tomatoes

Foster's CSA members will receive okra

Falconbridge members will receive padron peppers and a couple mole peppers (Falconbridge members, next week you will receive okra)

Large Shares

We're not completely sure what we'll have extra of yet, but this is what we think we'll have for you all, just know this is subject to change!

same as half shares with

sweet red peppers

extra green beans

if we have it extra salad mix

eggplant

RECIPES

We had a couple people email us that the padron peppers were a little hot for them, but since then we have tried to pick them smaller so they are less hot. This is the only way we cook them, sauteing them with a couple tablespoons of olive oil on high heat for 7-10 minutes or until they've deflated, then putting course salt on them. Delicious. There is even a festival held for them every August in Spain.

If anyone else has tried them differently, please let us know your recipe!

Fairy Tale Eggplant in Ginger and Garlic Sauce Recipe from Coconut and Lime Blog

Sauteed Chicken with Cherry Tomatoes from Epicurious

Flower Shares

This week we'll have some lovely bouquets with gomphrena, zinnias, and cat's claw. Hope you enjoy them!

thanks everyone and have a fabulous week!

Week 18

2009-09-01T16:26:00.000-07:00

Congratulations everyone! You have made it to week 18 in the third year of our CSA program. We are now down to only two more weeks and the produce is slowly beginning to shift. This week we picked some delicious carrots for everyone and we hope to have them next week as well. We also sowed some arugula last week that germinated well and looks like it will be ready (we hope!) for your last box, along with some lovely radishes. We are feeling very chipper here at the farm with these incredibly comfortable and cool days. 80 degrees and a nice breeze, upper fifties at night?! We are so lucky! Even if it only is for a few days, it lets us know that September has arrived. We are starting to wrap things up for the season at the farm; pulling up tomato stakes, bushhogging old crops down, cleaning up and getting organized for the fall and winter. Next season's strawberries will arrive in the next two weeks! I can taste them already. We hate to tease all you half-shares with the okra picture, but we think next week we should have enough for one drop off point and then rotate to the other drop off point for the final week.

In your box this week:

half shares

carrots

edamame (last week!)

green beans

cherry tomatoes

roma tomatoes

elephant garlic

Full shares

same as half with additional

okra

slicing tomatoes

sweet peppers

RECIPES

Carrot Salad This is from Alice Waters The Art of Simple Food. She says her daughter loves it and she would have it for lunch.

Peel and grate (or chop since yours are on the smaller side) 1 lb of carrots

Make the vinaigrette by stirring together in a small bowl:

1 tsp red wine vinegar

2 tsps fresh lemon juice

salt

fresh ground pepper

Whisk in:

2 tbsp olive oil

taste and adjust as necessary

Toss the carrots with the dressing and add:

2 tbsp chopped parsley

Let stand for 10 minutes, taste again and add salt, pepper, lemon juice or oil as needed.

Roasted Romas We had a fellow vendor at market give us this recipe which sounds familiar; he went on and on about it so it must be really good.

Slice romas in half, sprinkle with salt, and roast on 300 for an hour to hour and a half. De skin and top pasta with them.

I think putting some chopped elephant garlic on them about thirty minutes in would do wonders as well. We're going to try this recipe this week.

OKRA- We hope everyone gives this a whirl. We LOVE it. Fried or sauteed is how we typically cook it, but I do love a gumbo with okra in it. If you ever go to a southern food restaurant, try the fried okra. Q-shack in Durham does a particularly fine job with it.

Fried Okra from Epicurious

Okra Cornmeal Fritters also from Epicurious

Flower Shares

This week there will be a mixed arrangement with zinnias, ornamental grasses, and gladiolas.

Thanks everyone and have a great week!

Week 17; Fall is near!

2009-08-25T15:14:00.000-07:00

We're seeing the signs everywhere; next Tuesday is forecast to be only 80 degrees; the mimosa trees have set their pods and the dogwood berries are waiting to start turning red; weeds on the farm have officially taken over; grasshoppers are out in droves, mating and eating all kinds of leaves on our plants (I occasionally wield my scissors and chop in half a mating couple, feeling a twang of guilt as their decapitated heads twitch and fall to the ground); the few dahlia plants we have are sending up blooms; we are only seeding things for late fall plantings; and next Tuesday is September 1st! We now have three more weeks of the CSA after this Wednesday. How time flies. The average fall frost date for this area is October 15 so we plan our crops around this date. That is also why we stop our CSA in early-mid September. The closer you get to the frost date, the harder it is to have large quantities of produce. Speaking of fall, it looks like we'll have carrots for you all in a couple weeks. They were sown in early July and they look great as of now. We should also have some okra soon!

IN YOUR BOXES THIS WEEK:

half shares

2 pints cherry tomatoes (with new recipes!)

eggplant

edamame

colored sweet peppers

roma tomatoes

full shares

slicing tomatoes

extra peppers

extra eggplant

RECIPES

Cherry Tomato Crostini with Ricotta (recipe from A Platter of Figs by David Tanis, head chef at Chez Panisse---This is an awesome cookbook if anyone is needing a good one!)

1 large shallot

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

salt and peppa

1/2 cup olive oil

2 garlic cloves, smashed to a paste with a little salt, plus another peeled garlic clove or two

2 lbs cherry tomatoes, halved (you could also use your romas from the CSA box)

1 loaf italian ciabatta

1/2 lb fresh ricotta

1 tsp red pepper flakes

a handful of basil leaves

In a medium bowl, macerate the shallot is the red wine vinegar with a little salt. After a few minutes, whisk in the olive oil. Add the pounded garlic and the cherry tomatoes, season well with salt and pepper, and toss gently. Leave to marinate for a few minutes.

Cut the ciabatta into 1/2 inch slices. Spread the slices on a baking sheet and toast on both sides until golden brown. Swipe the toasts very lightly with a peeled garlic clove. Don't push too hard on the garlic, you want the toast to have just a hint of garlic flavor.

Spread a tablespoon of fresh ricotta on each toast, then put them on a platter. Sprinkle with a little salt and a little red pepper. Spoon the marinated cherry tomatoes over the toast. Sliver or tear the basil leaves and strew over the crostini.

Roasted Cherry Tomatoes (from Martha Stewart's Living)

1 pint of cherry tomatoes

1/2 tsp dried oregano

fine sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Spread tomatoes on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with oil. Sprinkle with oregano, and season with salt and pepper. Roast until tomatoes are wrinkled and just starting to burst, about 10 minutes.

Ratatouille (from Southern Food recipe website) you have many of the ingredients for this in your box this week. You could easily omit the zucchini, use red peppers instead of green, and use romas and cherry tomatoes instead of large slicers.

Flower Shares

this week you will get some sunflowers with some other assorted cuts. this might be the last of the sunflowers so enjoy their good cheer!

Thanks everyone and have an excellent week! As always, please let us know if you have any questions or comments. Thanks :)

Week 16

2009-08-18T15:42:00.000-07:00

Greetings CSA members! We've had a great week of wildlife spottings here at Bluebird Meadows. Harry the Heron is a regular at our pond and every now and then he lets me take a picture of him from a distance; never a good picture, but maybe in the future when we get more comfortable he'll pose for us. There has also been a couple sightings of a white egret hanging out at the pond which is very irregular. It is a big egret and it's odd to see one so far from the marshes of the east. We've loved seeing him though and we hope he found some morsels to eat while at our farm. I also spotted a little pack of wild turkeys Friday evening as we were leaving the farm. What a fascinating bird! Quite as mice and so strange looking. Oh so close to being our national bird due to its intelligence (Benjamin Franklin was their big advocate), but I guess we went with a much more fierce national bird, the eagle. Stuart wants me to mention that the wild turkey is also his alma mater's mascot, the fighting gobblers of Virginia Tech, and he thinks they're quite fierce. We'll leave it at that :)

The farm is doing great. It's getting desperate for a good mowing and some weed-eating, but on the plus side our vegetables are looking fantastic. We have picked some of the nicest red and yellow peppers we've ever grown. We hope everyone is enjoying the sweet peppers; they are loaded with vitamins and can easily be eaten by themselves as a healthy snack. As for the tomatoes, this is sadly the last week for our big slicing tomatoes. Next season we plan to have some big slicers in our last planting, so hopefully we'll have them for a few weeks longer next year.
In your boxes this week:

Half shares

green beans

lettuce mix

slicing tomatoes

sweet peppers

mole peppers

cherry tomatoes

Full shares (this may vary, we're not 100% sure yet of these items)

extra green beans

extra peppers

RECIPES (please let us know if you'd like some recipes for certain items so we can provide these for you!)

Martha Stewart's Roasted Peppers with Garlic and Basil

Martha's Baked Stuffed Peppers with Cherry Tomatoes, Feta, and Thyme

FLOWER SHARES

This will be the last week of oriental lilies for everyone. Enjoy!

thanks everyone and have a great week.

Week 15

2009-08-10T16:00:00.000-07:00

Whew it is HOT outside. We started work at 6:30 and we were outta there by 1:30. It was 99 in the shade. We're glad to see this is only going to last two days. Hearing about the earthquakes in the east, the 6 feet of rain in China.....we can easily deal with two days of soaring heat when we put this in perspective. This has actually been an extremely mild season. Last year we had a week of the temp being around 100 in early June, and this is our first day in Hurdle Mills of the temperature being above 95. We feel lucky right now. And we had a great excuse to cut out early!

This first picture is of our beautiful crop of sudan grass, a sorghum that will get 5-6 ft tall and will add lots of precious organic matter to our soil. This is where our spring section was, our strawberries, overwintered flowers like batchelor buttons, tulips, dianthus, and larkspur, our peas and other goodies that we all had earlier this year. And now we're only a month away from planting once again many of these same crops....strawberries, overwintered flowers, etc. We are adjusting ourselves to this melody of cyclical growth that is becoming more familiar with each season, that is always fresh and unique as it is accompanied by a different rhythm each year---the differences in weather, in our planning, in new things we try to grow, in things we let fall away. In other words, we are thoroughly enjoying getting to know how to farm, and in many ways, we have you our community, our family and friends to thank for this incredible opportunity.
In your boxes this week:

HALF SHARES

roma tomatoes

red peppers (finally!)

pint of cherry tomatoes

red big beef tomatoes, pink girl tomatoes

edamame (looks really good this week)

green beans

FULL SHARES

extra red peppers

extra romas

either extra green beans or extra edamame

RECIPES

Green Beans Provencale- (from Best of Cooking Light, pg 291, edited)

1 lb green beans

24 small cherry tomatoes, halved

1/4 cup chopped red onion

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

1/8 cup water

1/8 cup white wine vinegar

1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 garlic clove, minced

1) Steam beans, covered, 8 minutes or until crisp tender. Drain beans; plunge into cold water, and drain. Combine beans, tomatoes, and onion in a medium bowl.

2)Combine the parsley and remaining ingredients in a bowl and stir well. Pour parsley mixture over the vegetables, tossing gently to coat. Serve at room temperature.

Broiled Roma Tomatoes (from Epicurious's website---quick and easy!)

Roasted Tomato Soup Recipe (from 101 Cookbooks blog by Heidi Swanson )

Pickled Garlicky Red Peppers (from Smitten Kitchen blog---you aren't getting the quantity for this recipe, but maybe if you want to be brave and try to mess with the recipe, they look DELICIOUS!)

FLOWER SHARES

This week we will have zinnias again as the main delight, with some additional flowers for accent. Hope you enjoy them.

Thanks everyone and have a great week!

Week 14; it's gettin' hot around here!

2009-08-03T14:46:00.000-07:00

The forecast this week is looking pretty sweaty. We have places in our minds where we go when it gets this hot; we rewind the clock back to March, when we got four inches of snow and our farm was a winter wonderland; or we take ourselves back to one of our trips to the beach, where at any given moment there was an ocean to dip into to cool off; or we can always imagine a pool so cold it takes your breath away when you first get in, and you have to swim for awhile to take the chill off. So when we're weeding this week (lots of weeding to do when it gets this hot!) and it is 95 degrees, we'll actually be elsewhere, whiling the time away. Actually, it isn't so bad when it gets this hot. It's more the thought of the heat that is unbearable. We'll probably go through a gallon of
water each every day this week so we stay hydrated. With all this heat and rain, the garden is growing at a rapid rate with some weeds vying hard for an equal position with our vegetables. Despite the weeds, our late plantings of green beans, okra, and edamame look great, and the last plantings of peppers and tomatoes are by far the best looking late planting we've had to date. We picked a box of red peppers today, so that means they will hopefully make an appearance in your boxes next week as there aren't quite enough yet for all of you. But soon! Next week we should have green beans again as well.
In your boxes this week:

half shares

tomatoes, big beef and pink girls

pint of cherry tomatoes

salad mix

a few mole peppers

garlic (elephant or regular)

edamame (fresh soybeans)

Full-shares

same as half with:

2 green peppers

extra slicing tomatoes

extra edamame

Recipes

For the edamame---we both love fresh edamame and it is so easy to prepare. Take the bean pods off the stalk and rinse them off in a colander. Boil a pot of water with 2-3 tsp of salt. Put in rinsed edamame and lower heat so the water is simmering and cook for 10-15 minutes; you want the beans to slip right out of the pod and to be soft. Drain water, sprinkle some more salt on top, and enjoy hot! We like to put the whole pod in our mouth and use our teeth to get the beans out so we can get some of the salt that way. This is a delicious and nutritious snack that has a lot of protein and fiber. We hope you all like it.

Tomato Recipes--You all have probably figured out your favorite way of preparing these by now, but just in case you're looking for alternatives, here are a couple for you.

Baked Stuffed Tomatoes--from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food, pg 321

Make a stuffing of fresh breadcrumbs (using country style bread), chopped garlic, and lots of fresh basil. Core the tomatoes, cut them in half horizontally, and remove the seeds. Season the inside with salt and pepper, and fill the cavity with the breadcrumb mixture, pressing it in well and mounding it on top. Fit the tomatoes snugly in a shallow earthenware dish and drizzle each one with olive oil. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or so, until nicely browned.
Tomates A La Creme--in Gourmet magazine, taken from 365 menus, 365 Recettes by Edouard de Pomiane (my mouth waters every time I look at this recipe; we're going to try it tonight)

Take six tomatoes (or however many in your box!). Cut them in halves. In your frying pan melt a lump of butter. Put in the tomatoes, cut side downward, with a sharply pointed knife puncturing here and there the rounded sides of the tomatoes. Let them heat for five minutes. Turn them over. Sprinkle them with salt. Cook them again for another 10 minutes. Turn them again. The juices run out and spread in the pan. Once more turn the tomatoes cut side upward. Around them put 80 grams (3 ounces near enough) of creme fraiche or heavy cream. Mix it with the juices. As soon as it bubbles, slip the tomatoes and all their sauces onto a hot dish. Serve instantly, very hot.

Flower shares

This week we will have an arrangement of zinnias for everyone. Originating mainly from Mexico, this flower loves the heat. hope you enjoy it!

thanks everyone and talk to you soon. Let us know if you have any questions or comments.

Week 13; beach it up and Food, Inc.

2009-07-28T11:55:00.001-07:00

Yes! This is a picture of the beach where we will be this Thursday! We are very excited to be able to go away for the day, to take a dip in the ocean, to read a book on the sand (under shade of course) for a few hours, and to take a nice walk while getting our feet wet. It has been fairly hot this past week; some days we leave the farm around lunchtime and take an inside break for a few hours until it cools off and then return to working in the field til' dusk. We are probably more efficient that way as we slow down a little when it gets above 90.

Another very exciting thing for us this week is that we are going to see FOOD, INC. tonight at the Carolina Theatre in Durham. Not only a mid-week outing, but an informative documetary covering the nature of our profession as well. Awesome. We encourage you all to see it as well and we have put a link to it in a blog post under this one if you're interested. The more informed we all are, the better.
We'd love to hear how you all are feeling about the CSA at this point....we'll do a survey at the end, but are you feeling satisfied? Too much of anything? Not enough of some items? Let us know if you get a chance, we're always up for improvement and making our members' bellies happy and flowers enjoyed. In your boxes this week:

half shares

Slicing tomatoes (heirlooms, big beef reds, pink girls)

pint of cherry tomatoes

lettuce mix

eggplant

2 green carmen peppers (these taste just like green bell peppers)

2 mole green peppers

pint of padron peppers

Full Shares

same as half with additional

slicing tomatoes

extra lettuce mix

extra mole peppers

RECIPES

So we were wondering what we be the best use for these beautiful mole peppers we're growing; they have a great taste....very thin and a great textured skin with just the faintest faintest hint of heat to them. We had some cooked last night and we really like them. We came up with the idea that they would be perfect for juevos rancheros. Here is a great link to a recipe by Smitten Kitchen for juevos rancheros that of course looks delicious and has a couple items you can use from the CSA box. Just substitute the mole peppers for the jalapeno.

Roasted Eggplant We had some roasted eggplant last week and we really enjoyed it. We just sliced up the eggplant into slivers or rounds, coated them with olive oil and salt, and baked them flat on a baking tray for 30 minutes on 400 degrees F.

Another great recipe that a customer at market told me about was Sauteed Eggplant with Chives To cook, slice eggplant into thin rounds or slivers, heat a couple tablespoons of peanut oil over medium heat, and saute for 10-12 minutes. Remove from heat and add a couple tablespoons of chopped up chives, some sea salt, and if you have it, some fish sauce for a more authentic asian flavor.

Here is a nice and easy recipe from Martha Stewart for Tomato Salad with Olives and Lemon Zest. I'm sure you could just as easily halve the cherry tomatoes and use them for this recipe with less of the other ingredients.

Flower Shares

There are so many flowers blooming at Bluebird Meadows right now, I'm having trouble deciding what to make for you all. There will most likely be some form of ornamental grass as we have some really beautiful jester grass (a cocoa/copper/green color) and some purple majesty millet (black with a millet plume) coming in right now. I'll probably mix these grasses with either gladiolas or zinnias. We hope you enjoy them, these grasses are one of my favorite.

thanks everyone and have a great week!

Official Food, Inc. Movie Site - Hungry For Change? - Trailer and Photos

2009-07-28T11:54:00.001-07:00

Official Food, Inc. Movie Site - Hungry For Change? - Trailer and Photos

Shared via AddThis

Week 12

2009-07-21T03:55:00.000-07:00

Hello CSA members! It seems every day of late we look at each other once a day and say, "Can you believe this weather?!" Unseasonable cool and mild. We'll take it. We got a half inch of rain Monday. This is perfect for us seeing as how we sowed a cover crop of sudan grass last week. It was a much needed rain (and we got to take a much needed nap!), and now we can get in and till to get everything ready for this fall. We have started kale, collards, cauliflower, lettuce mix, and carrots so far. Sometime in early August (if there is a cool spell) we will sow radishes and turnips in hopes to have them sometime in Sept. We hope to have some cool season items in your last boxes so that everyone gets a sense of the cycles we go through with crops.
Another crop we have that is almost ready for you all is edamame (the Japanese word for soybeans). They are a delicious and nutritious snack or appetizer and are very easy to cook. We are hoping to have them next week, but they may come in for box 14 seeing how cool it looks to be this week.
IMPORTANT REMINDER: We would like to again apologize to our Falconbridge members who did not receive their flowers due to an oversight on our part. This week their will be a bucket of oriental lily bouquets that will be labeled EXTRA FLOWER BOUQUETS for the members who didn't get them last week. Please take one of these in addition to the other bouquets made up for you all. Thanks for your understanding and patience!

In your boxes this week
half shares
2 lbs heirloom tomatoes
eggplant
2 green peppers (all taste like green bell)
cherry tomatoes
salad mix

full shares
extra heirloom tomatoes
extra eggplant
basil
Recipes
Seeing as this is peak tomato season right now, we think a couple tomato recipes are appropriate here. We just got the new Gourmet in the mail, and there are some great recipes in it; we hope they look enticing to you all as well. This soup looks really good; we plan on making it this weekend.
Roasted Tomato Soup with Parmesan Wafers (from Gourmet, August 2009)
Garlic Tomato Sauce (also from Gourmet, August 2009) If you have any garlic around from the former boxes, this recipe calls for two whole heads! I think putting the green peppers in (maybe just one of them) would make it even more delicious.

For the more adventurous, also from the new Gourmet......Vodka Spiked Cherry Tomatoes with Pepper and Salt
remember that you have two pints of cherries, so you won't need as much vodka.
Simple Sauteed Eggplant We hope you all have tried and enjoyed the eggplant by now. These small eggplant you're getting in the boxes are very easy to cook. We don't bother with peeling or salting them as they are small and non-bitter. That is why we grow these small varieties--to make things easier on the cooks in the kitchen.
Cut eggplant into rounds or thin slices going from stem to end (remove stems of course)
Heat 2 tbsp olive oil over medium high heat in a saute pan
(you could add optional garlic, 2-3 cloves, and we usually add 1 tbsp of butter to add some depth of flavor as well)
Add eggplant, sprinkle with around 1 tsp salt
Saute until eggplant has softened (around 10 minutes)
Eat and enjoy!

FLOWER SHARES
This week you will receive celosia bouquets. This is a heat loving flower whose word origin comes from the Greek word 'kelos' which means something along the lines of 'burning' or 'to burn'. A lot of people call it the brain flower as it looks like a brain when it gets big; it also can look like coral. We may mix it with some other flowers in an arranged bouquet. We hope you enjoy it!

Thanks everyone, and if you have any questions or comments, please let us know. Have a great week!!!

Week 11

2009-07-13T15:06:00.000-07:00

I think we may have to call this week eggplant week! Yes, the eggplant have started to come in strong enough to cover all of our CSA members, so this week everyone will receive one of the five varieties we are growing. We have fairy tale, the beautiful purple and white striated variety; hansel and gretel, the small black and white eggplant that look very similar to asian eggplant but are smaller; kermit eggplant, the small green globes that are about 2 inches in diameter; and last but not least nadia, your typical large black globe eggplant that most people are accustomed to cooking. Have no fear of these beautiful vegetables. When cooked properly, eggplant quickly rise to the top of the best tasting vegetables around. We'll have more on them in the recipe section.
Another exciting vegetable to show up recently in the garden---red peppers! It'll still be a few weeks before there are enough for you all, but they are most definitely worth getting excited about. We had two chopped up in our omelets for Sunday brunch and we were in food heaven. Most likely next week you will get a couple green peppers to tide you over until they ripen red/orange/yellow.
This past week has been a week of budgeting for us. We're trying to figure out what all we can plant this fall in terms of perennial fruits and vegetables. We'd really like to put in some blueberry bushes for our future CSA, asparagus, and also some woody cut flowers like pussywillow, hydrangea, viburnum, and more peonies. But all of these things are expensive, so we're trying to prioritize. At the same time we're trying to get our house up, so it has been very hard trying to figure out what is most important. Bathroom tiles, or a small hoophouse for flowers? Decisions, Decisions. Whenever I'm faced with a decision that I'm completely stalling on, I remember a part in one of my favorite movies, Touching the Void, a true story about a mountain climber who fell on a climb with a broken leg into a glacial crevasse and managed to work his way back to his base camp that was probably five miles away. He says at some point during the film that no matter what had happened to him, if he wanted to stay alive, he had to keep making decisions, even if they were the wrong ones, if he wanted to get anywhere and stay alive. I think we'll stay alive if we can't decide on blueberries or asparagus, but hopefully you get the gist here.....
In your boxes this week:
Half share
2 lbs of heirloom tomatoes
2 pints cherry tomatoes
1 pint of eggplant
1 pint padron peppers
1/2 lb lemon cucumbers
Full-Share
same as half with extra
melons, cantaloupe and watermelon
extra pint of padrons or eggplant, whichever we have more of on Wed.

RECIPES
Marinated Eggplant with Mint from Epicurious.

Eggplant Caviar from Alice Waters' Art of Simple Food
Preheat oven to 400F.
Slice eggplant into 1/4 inch thick rounds.
Sprinkle the cut surfaces with: salt, fresh ground black pepper, olive oil.
Place cut side down on a baking sheet and roast until soft. Test for doneness near the stem end: the eggplant should be very soft. Remove from the oven and let cool. Scrape the flesh out of the skins into a bowl and stir vigorously to loosen into a puree.
Add: 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
salt
fresh ground pepper
1 garlic clove, peeled and pounded to a puree
2-4 tbsp chopped parsley or cilantro, or mint
Mix well and taste, adding more salt and lemon as needed.

Martha Stewart's Spicy Sesame Eggplant
Sara Foster's Heirloom Tomato Salsa as follows
makes 3-4 cups
2 lbs heirloom tomatoes, cored and diced
1 small red onion, minced
2 jalapeno peppers, cored, seeded and minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
grated zest and juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro leaves
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place tomatoes, onion, jalepeno peppers, garlic, red pepper, lime zest and juice in a large bowl as you prepare them. Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar, sprinkle with the sugar, cilantro, salt and pepper, and toss gently to combine. Taste for seasoning and add more salt and pepper as desired. Cover and refridgerate for atleast 2 hrs to marry the flavor. Will keep for up to 1 wk.

Flower Shares this week I'm not 100% sure as of now what will be in the arrangements, but I'm thinking globe amaranth, celosia, and possibly a couple stems of lovely lisianthus. We also have a bunch of lilies coming on, so it may be another week of orientals, this time with a pink stem to go with the white.

Thanks everyone and enjoy your veggies and flowers!

Week Ten, our Mid-Way Point

2009-07-07T15:42:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is already week ten. I had typed in week nine and then had to think to myself, no Alice, this is the half-way point. It's just gone by so fast it's hard to fathom being here already! We hope everyone is enjoying being with us and trying out all of the variety of produce and flowers we grow. Every year we learn so many things and see more clearly how we can improve our production, so we trust you all to have patience with our farming skills and we of course thank you for that patience. You all have so far been a delightful CSA, so we'd like to thank you for that as well.
This past weekend for the 4th of July we were able to go on a little mini-vacation up to Oxford and Annapolis, Maryland where Stuart spent his childhood. We had an awesome time and stayed on his parent's boat, sightseeing and enjoying being on the water, being away from the farm. We were blessed with a whole inch of rain while we were away, a perfect amount to water everything and keep it healthy. We are now able to get into the soil and till this week, a crucial step as we try to get in summer cover crops to keep the soil healthy. We are excited to say that while we were gone a summer crop of salad mix has germinated and, if everything goes well, you should all be seeing that in your boxes in a few weeks.
We have had quite a few inquiries as to what the pale yellow/white orbs have been in the boxes.....these are called lemon cucumbers and we hope you like them. We have some customers at the market who are crazy about them and we can never seem to have enough for everyone. They don't really taste like a lemon, but they do kind of look like lemons. You eat them as you would a regular cucumber....with a little salt, or a splash of vinegar, or cut up in rounds on a sandwich, in a salad, etc.
We are very sad to say that our melon crop has not been so great this year. We weeded them right before a 97 degree day and we think that made a lot of the vines on the plants wither up and die. We do have some melons, but are not of our usual size or quantity. Due to this fact we're going to have to give Falconbridge members melons this week and give Foster's members melons next week. Sorry about that! We also don't have enough of any one melon variety to give everyone the same type, so you will either get sunjewels (as pictured~kind of tastes like a honeydew), cantaloupe, or watermelon. They are all on the small side, so they'll be comparable prices. Again, we apologize for this but there is usually some crop that fails each year....atleast we have some small fries to give you all!!
In your boxes this week
Foster's
2 lb green beans (green and possibly yellow wax beans, eaten just like regular beans)
1 pint of cherry tomatoes
close to 2 lbs of heirloom tomatoes (possible varieties in you boxes are cherokee purple, pineapple, german johnson, valencia, green zebra, brandywine and big beef)
1 pint of padron peppers

Falconbridge
same as Foster's but instead of padrons you will get a small melon and some basil

Large Shares
we're not 100% sure yet what we'll have extra, but we're thinking:
a lb of cucumbers
extra pint of padrons
extra pint of cherry tomatoes

RECIPES
Smitten Kitchen does an incredible food blog, and here is a simple recipe for green bean cherry tomato salad.
Epicurious's Heirloom tomato salad with blue cheese
If you feel like getting fancy....epicurious's heirloom tomato tart recipe
Martha Stewart's Heirloom tomato salad with Garlic oil
Martha's Spicy Pickled Green and Wax Beans

These all look so good.....I think it's time to go make some dinner! Have fun with all your veggies everyone.

FLOWER SHARES
This week we have some AWESOME gladiolas for everyone, we think we'll put them with some love grass and a sunflower as a mixed bouquet.

Thanks everyone~ have a great week and we'll talk to you soon!!

Week 9

2009-06-30T15:07:00.000-07:00

Hello to all of our members! We have had a great past week on the farm. We're starting our days earlier with work beginning at 7am. It feels good to have a nice long morning of work before the heat comes on around 1-2. We feel like were almost caught up after all of that rain we had late May and early June. The fields are all bush-hogged (that's farmer talk for 'mowed'), all of our spring plantings have been cleared out and now we're waiting on some rain so we can till and then plant cover crops. Our plants are weeded, the peppers, eggplant and tomatoes are all staked and tied, most of our late summer crops have been planted and we've begun seeding crops for the fall. Isn't it amazing that it is now time to start fall brassicas----cauliflower, broccoli, kale, collards for harvest in Sept, Oct. and Nov? It's also time to start some of the flowers that are overwintered like delphinium and foxglove. It's so fascinating to have to stay ahead of yourself by so many months at a time. So much of what we do revolves around planning....never let anyone tell you that farming doesn't require much mental work. Obviously that person has never had to create a planting schedule!
This picture to the left is of a parasitized hornworm. We LOVE seeing these on the farm as it means that natural biological controls are working against pests. One of these hornworms can destroy a tomato plant in a matter of a few hours. They are about three to four inches long and probably two pencils thick in diameter. Telltale signs they've been on your tomato plant are that most of the foliage is missing and stems have been eaten down to a nub on the plant. This worm here has had a wasp lay its eggs inside of it, and the larvae works its way from inside out by creating the little cacoons for themselves. They feed on the worm throughout the process, so eventually the worm looks shriveled up and brown. It's really gross if you think about it---the worm is definitely still alive in this picture, but how cool??? The parasitized hornworm means that our tomatoes are safe and that you will get them in your boxes soon!
In your box this week

half share

2 pints of cherry tomatoes

onions (last week for this staple!)

cucumbers

green beans

2 lbs freshly dug taters

full share
extra potatoes

extra onions

pint of padrons

extra cucumbers

It's looking like heirloom tomatoes the next week or two. We've been eating the few we've picked and WOW. It's so heavenly to have a tomato sandwich. So definitely get yourself excited for these. Also, padrons will be back for the half shares soon. Our second planting is starting to produce, so maybe next week they make a reappearance. We're glad to have some people requesting them again; we love to find a new item we can grow that our CSA likes!

RECIPES

Serbian Salad

1 or two pints of cherry tomatoes, tomatoes quartered

3-4 regular sized cucumbers, finely diced/chopped

2-3 small onions, very finely diced/chopped

1-2 teaspoons salt

1 tsp sugar

Mix ingredients together and let sit overnight. This is a surprisingly simple recipe and yet the results are so flavorful. We made this on Sunday afternoon and have been eating it all week. It might need more salt, just season to taste.

Roasted Green Beans (and cherry tomatoes?)

We have really taken a liking to roasted green beans. roasting them brings out their flavor and gives them a great chewy texture that just isn't there when you steam them or saute them. We don't even de-stem them, but use that little bit of stem to hold onto when eating, and then we discard that little bit at the end.

1 lb green beans (what's in your box this week)

1-2 tbsp olive oil

coarse salt

Preheat oven to 415.

Wash beans in colander, then put in mixing bowl and coat with oil and sprinkle coarse salt over them, then mix.

Lay flat on a baking pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until beans shrivel and brown a little. Halfway through, mix beans on tray so that they bake evenly

Serve hot or cold, both ways are delicious.

FLOWER SHARES--This week as promised we will have oriental lilies. We have some in a vase here at home and they are stunning.

DISCLAIMER!----Lilies are poisonous to cats. Please keep them in a separate room or give them away as a gift if you have cats that like to eat flowers.

Thanks everyone and HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY! Eat some great food on the 4th!

Week Eight is already here!

2009-06-23T04:14:00.000-07:00

Hello CSA members! Be sure to check out the pictures in the previous blog that Vera sent us, one of our CSA members. Looks like she is finding some delicious ways to cook up the CSA veggies. Thanks for sharing Vera. We hope everyone has had a nice week and survived the heat this past weekend. Our fields have finally dried out for us to get in them with the tractor and hoes, so things are really going to shape up this week and next. Planting (most important), weeding, and tilling will be the top items on our priority list. We also need to mow down all of our spring crops and till them in so we can get some cover crops sown for our soil's health. We spent several hours getting up our crop of potatoes yesterday; not so great a yield but light-years better than last year. This year we were able to figure out how best to grow them, so we think next year's crop will be really good. We had dill roasted potatoes for our side item last night and WOW they were fantastic.
This beautiful caterpillar is a black swallowtail butterfly to be. We find loads of them around the farm, usually munching on dill and carrot tops. Notes on drying garlic: We've been doling out garlic to you for a couple weeks now and yet another round this week with another big bulb of elephant garlic. The best way to store these (we think!) is to hang them up somewhere out of the sunlight where there is some air circulation. We have all of our garlic hanging up in our barn. We prepare yours so that it looks cleaned up and is, for the most part, clean of dirt. We've read it is probably best not to keep garlic in the fridge, but if you have done this it should be fine. It doesn't take us too long to go through garlic, and this week we'll have a roasted garlic spread recipe to help you move it along.

We hate to tease all of you half-shares with the picture of the sungolds, but next week they'll be here! We thought we would have enough this week for everyone, but it looks like one more week. And then there will be a'plenty. Our field tomatoes are also just starting to turn; we had our first sandwich tomato yesterday.....a heirloom cherokee purple. Perhaps in two weeks for you all?
In your box this week:

half shares

fresh dug potatoes (taters!)

bulb of elephant garlic

pint of padron peppers

cucumbers

onions

basil and dill

Large Shares

two pints of cherry tomatoes

extra potatoes
RECIPES

Roasted Elephant Garlic you can click on the red title or follow directions below, both recipes work for regular and elephant garlic

Roast Elephant Garlic: Remove the paper skins, cut off the tips so the cloves are exposed. Drizzle with olive oil and cover with tin foil; bake at 400° for 30-45 mins or until soft and spreadable.

Dill Roasted Potatoes Preheat oven to 415-425 degrees.

Wash then chop up your potatoes into bite size pieces; we like to do around 1/3 inch pieces because they cook faster.

Coat generously with olive oil and coarse salt in a mixing bowl (if you don't have coarse salt you can use regular salt)

Layer flat on a baking pan (the oil you used to coat the potatoes should be enough to not need to oil the pan) and cook for 20-25 minutes or until tender. (sometimes it takes our oven 30 minutes)

While the taters are cooking, you can wash and chop a couple tablespoons of dill leaves, finely.

When the potatoes are done, remove from oven, sprinkle with dill, and mix. Add more salt if desired. Serve hot!

Cucumber and Onion Salad (click on link)

Hungarian Cucumber Salad (click on link)

FLOWER SHARES

This week we will have a mixed bouquet with zinnias, dill flowers (edible dill on them as well!), cosmos, and rudbekia. Next week oriental lilies as pictured above, a heavenly white called Siberia.

Thanks everyone and enjoy your veggies and flowers! We're thinking of you all.....

Vera's awesome photos

2009-06-22T17:07:00.000-07:00

Our CSA member Vera Reina recently sent us a link to view her flickr album full of mouthwatering photos of her food creations made with things from the CSA box. Here are just a few of the delectable items she has been making....I am particularly drawn to that slaw; looks so good! Thanks for sharing Vera, you make it all look so easy :)

Week Seven

2009-06-16T04:40:00.001-07:00

Hello to all of our CSA members! We hope you're enjoying this last week of spring as the summer solstice occurs this weekend (and Father's Day)---the longest day of the year. In a way, the waning daylight will be nice even though it probably won't be noticed until August. Here comes the heat! Our fields are like swamplands right now, so we're looking forward to some hot days to dry things out. Not the sweat and humidity, just the dry beds. All of our beds that should be planted right now are covered with a thick layer of weeds that have germinated with all this rain. So not only are we backlogged with planting, we have to do all the tractor work once again on these beds that were ready to go a couple weeks ago (hilling the beds and then tilling for a fine tilth). We're going to give you all fair warning that we might not have enough produce in August to properly fill your boxes since we haven't been able to direct seed anything or plant any of our transplants in the field for a few weeks. You just can't plant into mud. We will of course compensate everyone if we are short one week; we just might have to extend things a week later into September....but this is hypothetically speaking.....let's hope we have a bountiful amount of produce despite these wet conditions.

Last week after market we had a chance to visit a very close neighboring farm, Infinity Farm, located in Cedar Grove, NC. We'll be doing a post soon on our other blog, bluebirdmeadows.blogspot.com if you'd like to see more pictures. They have goats, turkeys, horses, chickens, cows, a donkey, and more. It was a rare breed of cow, can't remember the name, but they had these beautiful horns on them. With around 150 acres and all these animals, this place felt on the magical side to us, feeling like a true farm. Sometimes our farm feels like something is missing with no animals as of yet. We LOVED the goats at Infinity Farm, so perhaps down the road we'll have a few of these lovely animals to keep us company. It was really nice to step onto another farm; it seems like we rarely get off of ours, so it helps to keep things in perspective when we get to visit another place trying to make a livelihood similar to ours.
In your boxes this week

half-shares

cucumbers

squash

basil

garlic

onion

green beans

padron peppers

fennel

Large-shares

same as half with (we're not completely sure yet what we'll have extra for you all, but this is what we're thinking)

pint of cherry tomatoes

extra pint of padron peppers

extra squash

RECIPES

Sauteed Padron Peppers with garlic

These peppers are our favorite new item this year. They are the best snack around; a Spanish heirloom pepper, they serve them as a tapas (appetizer) over there, usually just sauteed with olive oil and salt. So this is the recipe we'll give you all.

1 tbsp to 1 1/2 tbsp oil

2-3 cloves regular garlic or 1/2 clove elephant garlic

pint of padron peppers, rinse and leave whole

coarse sea salt (any salt will do but this is what we prefer)

Cover a shallow frying/saute pan with olive oil---probably 1 tbsp will be enough for the pint you have. Heat over medium-high heat til' warm, then throw in whole rinsed padrons.

Saute for 5 minutes, then throw in garlic. Add salt (we use more than we typically do for these peppers, maybe 1 teaspoon or more?), cook for around 5-7 more minutes until peppers look deflated and soft. They will probably brown some or have white blisters on them from the heat. This is normal!

Remove from heat and eat peppers whole, seeds and all (leaving the stem). Wonderful!!! We hope you all like them; they are classified as a hot pepper, but we think they are very mild, a 1-2 on a hot scale of 1-10. Every now and then there will be a pepper that is more like a 3-4, but still mild.

Cucumbers with Basil and Vinegar

We love cucumbers because they are so easy to make. We typically slice them into thin rounds, pour some balsamic vinegar over them, add a pinch of salt and sugar, and slice some leaves of basil on them, stir and let soak for a few hours, then have them as a snack. Easy and delicious.

We also put them on our sandwiches, put cream cheese in the middle and eat whole, add on top of salads, or put into raita, the Indian cooling side dish. We'll have cucumbers for several weeks, so there will be more recipes for these guys.

Couscous with Fennel and Pine Nuts

(this recipe calls for a bigger fennel than you have, but even with the size of yours should still work out)

Roasted Fennel with Olives and Garlic

once again this recipe calls for more fennel than you have, but it's just to give you a cooking method

Flower Shares

This week you will be getting rudbekia (black-eyed susans, state flower of Maryland) and/or dianthus.

Hope everyone enjoys their produce and flowers!

Week Six

2009-06-08T18:35:00.000-07:00

Rain rain go away! That has been our mantra this week after this past Friday---we got 3 1/2 inches on Friday, totaling 5 1/2 for the week. There was a lot of erosion on our freshly tilled beds; beds that had been raised up three to four inches above the aisles are now 1-2 inches above the aisles. The good news is that all of our plants are growing like wild beasts with all that rain and the heat we've had. The tomato plants grew about a half foot in a day. The transition to early summer goods has begun. Cucumbers are coming in from the field, you may see those as soon as next week in the half-share boxes. Summer squash is going strong, although we've already had a few plants taken out by the dreaded squash vine borer, an insect that lays its larvae right in the neck of the plant, killing the whole plant. Little buggers. And soon we'll be harvesting tomatoes, eggplant, and green beans.....but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves!
IMPORTANT NOTICE: We had yet another instance at Fosters market of a full share being taken instead of a half-share. We've figured out what happened the first time, but now we're stumped. Please, if you have a friend, husband, wife, family member, etc. pick up the box who isn't the one who typically does, let them know about the two sizes. They are in different locations in the cooler, and the full-share is in a box with 3/4 bushel written on it.

In your boxes this week:

half share

kale

elephant garlic

onions

fava beans

cabbage

kohlrabi

summer squash

italian parsley

Full-shares

same as half with

diva cucumbers

extra squash

extra onions

New produce item descriptions: So, about this alien looking purple ball with leaves coming out of it---this is kohlrabi, and we really like it. It is great for making slaw or kohlrabi fries, or telling your friends and neighbors about. It is in the brassica family (along with broccoli, cauliflower, collards, etc.) You take the leaves off and peel the purple skin off (a regular vegetable peeler works probably better than with a knife) and your left with the edible inside section. Recipes below.

elephant garlic--We love this stuff. Much, much more mild and sometimes sweeter than regular garlic, we'll use a whole clove to a stir-fry or saute. It is actually more closely related to a leek than it is to regular garlic. Take care not to cook it too long as it can become bitter with overcooking. It is often added raw to dishes, although we'll usually throw it in towards the end of a saute, unless we want to simmer it with butter which we'll do at the beginning.

Fava beans--another delicious item. Sorry we didn't have enough to give everyone a pound as a half pound doesn't give you too many beans. You'll want to shell the fava beans (discarding the large shell for compost), and then put them in boiling water with salt added for around 3 minutes. You then pinch them out of the skin they're in and you have yourself a delicious small snack reminiscent of edamame.

Recipes

Kohlrabi Fries

Cut peeled kohlrabi into half-inch by half-inch pieces. Toss with olive oil and salt to coat. Spread on baking sheet and bake on 4o0 degrees for 15 minutes. Turn and bake for another 10-12 minutes, until tender. then eat them up!

Kohlrabi Slaw with Carrots and Italian Parsley

Grate your peeled kohlrabi.

Add a couple grated carrots and two tbsp of chopped italian parsley.

Add one tbsp white wine vinegar or red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar.

Add a teaspoon of sugar, a few shakes of salt (1/4 to a 1/2 teaspoon), and a half to a full tbsp of olive oil. Done!

Favas

cook as mentioned above. You could top a fried egg with these, a salad, a stir-fry, or just put them on a piece of toast. Or just eat them like edamame, freshly cooked and out of their skin.

Summer Squash with Onions, Elephant Garlic, and Italian Parsley

We love to caramelize onions, but these onions are so sweet already that this may be unnecessary.

4-6 summer squash, sliced to even sized pieces

1 medium onion or 2 small ones, chopped

1/2 clove elephant garlic, chopped fine

1 tbsp butter, 1/2 tbsp olive oil

1-2 tbsp chopped parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat butter and olive oil over medium heat until butter is melted. Add chopped onions, saute for around 4 minutes until they've begun to soften and shrink.

Add squash and cook for a couple minutes, then add the elephant garlic.

Cook for maybe 5 more minutes, until squash is tender and add a little water as needed so the saute isn't sticking to the pan.

Add parsley at the end.

Add salt and pepper to taste and you're done!

FLOWER SHARES

Hello my fellow color lovers. This week we'll have another round of mixed bouquets for you with cosmos, yarrow, beebalm, statice, and maybe some dianthus. They should be really lovely--hope you enjoy them. Remember to trim your flowers after a few days and change the water. This help prolongs the vase life.

Take care everyone and enjoy your flowers and vegetables! Let us know if you have any questions.

Farm to Fork Picnic on June 14th

2009-06-04T04:48:00.001-07:00

So if you would like to participate in one of the best food offerings of the year (proceeds benefit future farmer apprentices at the Breeze incubator farm program), be sure and get your ticket for this event. If you check out the restaurant and farm list, you immediately know the food is going to be incredibly delicious as well as farm fresh. We both definitely plan on leaving this event with a full-belly. So come on out and enjoy some great food and great company.

On Sunday June 14, we are joining many of North Carolina's most acclaimed chefs and a group of incredible Piedmont farmers to cook a picnic-style dinner at W.C. Breeze Family Farm, a 270 acre educational farm devoted to sustainable agriculture just a few miles north of Hillsborough. All proceeds from the evening will help grow new farmers across North Carolina by supporting farmer apprentice programs hosted by the Center for Environmental Framing Systems and PLANT at Breeze Farm Enterprise Incubator program. Over 70 restaurants, artisans and farmers are working together to prepare the all-you-can eat feast celebrating the bounty and diversity of our region, including the season’s first field-ripened tomatoes; heritage pasture-raised pork including whole hog BBQ, Tuscan-style porchetta and carnitas; a North Carolina shrimp boil; a tasting tent filled with handmade craft food, including farmstead cheese, pickles, preserves, breads and cured meat; Monterrey-style cabrito with homemade tortillas from old-variety corn last grown in the Carolinas in the 1940's; all-local sno cones, spit-roasted lamb, herb sorbets hand-churned by the teen gardeners from SEEDS; grilled pizzas and flatbreads made with vegetables grown in the field next door; and the last strawberries of the year. This family friendly evening will also feature activities for the kids including sack races, a honey-bee demonstration, goats, rabbits and chickens; and of course a tour of the Breeze Farm. We hope that you can join us! Sunday, June 14th 4-7pm WC Breeze Family Farm 4909 Walnut Grove Church Road Hurdle Mills, NC (5 miles north of Hillsborough) Tickets: $50 per person; kids 12 and under are free. Wine and beer will be available to taste and also to purchase. Tickets are available online at www.farmtoforknc.com A $2 processing fee will be added to all tickets. Organized by: Center for Environmental Farming Systems, Orange County Cooperative Extension and Economic and Development, and Slow Food Triangle Contact 2009farmtofork@gmail.com or 919-755-3804 for more information and volunteer opportunities.

Participants as of May 25th include:

18 Seaboard

3CUPS

Acme Food & Beverage

David Auerbach

The Abundance Foundation

Ayrshire Farm

Bluebird Meadows

Brinkley Farms

Cane Creek Farm

Carolina Crossroads

Castlemaine Farm

Celebrity Goat Dairy

Chapel Hill Creamery

Contrarian Farm

Coon Rock Farm

Counter Culture Coffee

Durham Inner-city Gardeners at SEEDS

Dutch Buffalo Farm

Eco Farm

Elaine’s on Franklin

Farmer’s Daughter

Fickle Creek Farm

Foster’s Market

Four Leaf Farm

Four Square

Fowl Attitude Farm

Fullsteam Brewery

Glasshalfull

Harland’s Creek Farm

Haw River Wine Man

Herons

Irregardless Café

Jujube

Lantern

Lil’ Farm

Lucky 32

Maple Spring Gardens

Neal’s Deli

Panciuto

Panzanella

Peregrine Farm

Perry-winkle Farm

Piedmont Biofarm

Piedmont

Plant @ Breeze Farmers

Poole’s Diner

Sage & Swift

Scratch Baking

Southport Seafood

The Barbecue Joint

The Weathervane

Fred Thompson

Timberwood Organics

Tiny Farm

Toast

Triple B Farms

Watts Grocery

Wild Hare Farm

Zely & Ritz

Week Five

2009-06-01T16:31:00.000-07:00

Greetings to all our members! We hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their produce and flowers. It's been fairly quite on the feedback front, so we're going to optimistically assume everyone is enjoying the CSA so far. We are shocked we're already at week 5, a quarter of the way through the subscription. It's so strange how time shifts during the season. May is such a physically demanding time and it goes by so fast, but, by August, time has slowed and things become more mentally challenging for us than physically. We are in disbelief that May is over and June is before us. June, the month of the summer solstice, the month where heat and humidity tend to slip in, the month of potatoes, squash, cucumbers, weeds, the end of things spring, and the joy of no longer having to pick strawberries. And much more I'm sure.
We'll be harvesting our onions and potatoes soon, so I thought we'd have a sneak preview with these pictures for everyone to keep you excited about things to come in the near future. We'll also start harvesting our garlic this week; we have two kinds, elephant garlic which is very mild, and a California softneck variety.

In your boxes this week: (a reminder to everyone that we have not yet harvested the produce, so there is always the chance things in the box may change at the last minute)

HALF-SHARES--

two pints peas 5

broccoli 2

squash 4

lettuce 2

kale 2.5

collards 2

FULL-SHARE

same as half with additional:

diva cucumbers from the hoophouse 3.5

extra pint of peas 2.5

extra squash 1.5

RECIPES

We're going to assume everyone knows at this point what to do with peas, kale, and probably the broccoli as well. There are recipes for kale and peas in our previous newsletters if you need some help with these.

So, we'll give tips on collards. Collards are an old-fashioned green that you will find at most traditional southern fare restuarants (in season hopefully). Bill Smith at Crook's Corner makes some incredible collards if you're ever there for dinner and need a side item.

For us, we usually wash then de-stem them with a knife as the stems take longer to cook, then roll up the collards like a cigar and cut on the diagonal in about half inch strips. You're now ready to cook!

Here is a recipe from Piedmont restaurant in Durham (from the September issue of Bon Appetit which Bluebird Meadows was in!)

Braised Collard Greens

(you won't have this many collards, so pare down the other ingredients given here)

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 lbs collard greens, thick stems trimmed, leaves coarsely chopped

2 cups low salt chicken broth

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

Melt butter with olive oil in heavy large pot over medium high heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until tender, about 6 minutes. Add greens and saute until beginning to wilt. Stir in broth; bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until greens are very tender, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes. Stir in vinegar. Season with salt and pepper.

If you want to do something more simple (as we always like simple around here), collards do not need to cook for so long as the previous recipe calls for. We usually do a tbsp of olive oil, a tbsp of butter (we love butter, it really does add so much flavor) heated in a saute pan on medium until warm. We then add the collards and saute for about 10-15 minutes, adding salt and a little water, and sometimes a splash of ume plum vinegar at the end to season. You could also use apple cidar vinegar if you have it, or just leave out the vinegar. We'll also sometimes use store-bought teriyaki sauce on the collards instead of salt and vinegar. Usually a tbsp to 1 1/2 tbsp does the trick. We love collard greens and we hope you try them!

Summer Squash--These guys are super easy to cook. They only take a few minutes to cook. You can steam them or saute them; we usually throw ours in with our pea sautes. We chop them up into inch by half inch pieces (but any size works really) and throw them in the same time as the peas as they both take around the same time to cook. Here are a couple links to recipes we like from epicurious.

Orzo with Summer Squash and Toasted Hazelnuts

Summer Squash Saute

Also, if you have any recipes to share, please let us know and we'll post it for everyone.

FLOWER SHARES:

This week we will have a beautiful and bright mixed bouquet with cosmos, electron purple dianthus, and sunflowers. Hope you all enjoy the spring pinks.

Thanks everyone! Have a great week, and, as always, we welcome any comments, suggestions, and feedback.

Week Four Newsletter

2009-05-26T16:30:00.000-07:00

Greetings to all of our members! We are very glad to see that May will soon be coming to an end; it is our busiest month of the year as we're harvesting all our spring and overwintered vegetables and flowers as well as planting late spring items and many of our summer ones. We have logged some 60-70 hour work weeks and we'll be glad to have things ease up a little. Berries are almost over, so savor them these next two weeks. On the farm we've been dealing with all kinds of mishaps and pests. This first picture is of a stink bug feasting on a Colorado Potato beetle larvae. The potato beetle is one of our biggest pests as it likes to devour our potato plants. Next year we plan to buy an organic spray called Entrust to kill these nuisances. Speaking of potatoes, besides some of the plants being hit hard by the beetles, it does look like our best crop yet, so expect some delicious potatoes in your boxes in three to four weeks. As our members who have been with us for more than this season know, we are not the best potato growers, but looks like this year they will make more than one appearance in your boxes (hopefully!)

We have also had another nuisance come onto our farm; we had a thief come and steal our very nice comet sprinkler worth about $300. They must have come in the middle of the night, crawled through our electric fence, and used a screwdriver to get it off of our irrigation hose. Punk losers, right? We were very disappointed and are still recovering from the shock and violation. So watch your things and watch your back, people must be desperate to be stealing from farmers. Good news to announce to you all is the progress we've seen on our composting toilet, as pictured. Gerard is a good friend of ours and a great builder and he is doing an excellent job on this future throne. We're really looking forward to being able to use it on farm as we currently have no bathroom. We'll have some facts for you all about composting toilets as I'm now reading some bits from The Humanure Handbook. Also pictured here are some goodies that will be making appearances in your box in the not too distant future. Stuart and I have been enjoying the first of these summer veggies that are coming from our hoophouse, and before long you will be as well.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS: This past week we had a mishap occur where a CSA member accidently took a full share instead of a half-share so that one of our full share members did not get what they paid for. Please note the size of your boxes when you pick them up so this doesn't happen again. Also, at Fosters this week, one of the full shares will be clearly labeled with a name on it, so please do not pick up this full share unless it is your name written on the box. We'll try and set it aside from the others so it is a bit more clear. Also, if you're having a friend pick up your share for you, please let your friend know which size share you have and be clear about the two sizes of boxes.

IN YOUR BOXES THIS WEEK:

half shares

two pints of strawberries

two pints of peas (snow peas/sugar snaps)

turnips

carrots

lettuce

full-shares

half-share plus

extra pint of peas

extra turnips

collards

Recipes

Stir-Fry snow peas and sugar snaps with carrots and garlic

snow peas and sugar snaps, washed and with strings pulled

2-3 small cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

carrots rinsed and cut into two inch long 1/4 inch thick slivers

oil (1tbsp) and butter (optional, 1/2 tbsp)

salt and pepper to flavor

warm olive oil and butter in saute pan over medium heat. add garlic and saute garlic for about a minute, stirring and making sure it doesn't brown. add carrots and peas. stir and saute for around 8-10 minutes, adding a little water if the veggies start to stick to the pan. add salt and pepper to flavor and you're done!

Sauteed Collard Greens from Epicurious; this recipe calls for more collards than in your box so just pare down the other ingredients.

FLOWER SHARES:

This week the flowers will be larkspur bouquets, not the blue-cloud larkspur you got last week, but the sword shaped larkspur. Hope you enjoy them. Also as a reminder, strip the flowers of any foliage below your water line as any foliage floating in the water is a bacteria's heaven.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments! thanks everyone!

Week Three

2009-05-19T16:48:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone! Hope you all are doing well, feeling healthy with all these fresh veggies, and enjoying the anticipation of summer. Life on the farm is good, although we are feeling a little bit of pressure as we are behind in getting some plants in the ground for various reasons. But this week, in goes corn, edamame, eggplant, green beans, okra, peppers, tomatoes, and loads of flowers for all of our summer pleasure. So this first photo is to get everyone excited about PEAS! They are not in your box this week, but next week get ready for one of the most delicious items of the whole season. We have had the first few that have been big enough to pick in our dinners this week and WOW they are so good. A true culinary delight. So look for those next week in the box. This first picture is also to introduce everyone to our farm dog, Clover Honey. She is the best and quite the motivator. If you ever need to borrow her to get some serious work done, we'll consider it.
REMINDERS: We would love to have everyone who has purchased a flat of berries from us to please return the white tray and pint cartons (unless you have disposed of it or given them away!) We can definitely reuse these, so if you could just return them with your box that would be fantastic. Also, we would like to thank all of you who have bought the extra flats. It saves us so much time and effort to be able to turn to you all when we have these extra berries, and this is just one more reason for us to love having a CSA. So thanks and we hope they have been worth it!
IN YOUR BOX THIS WEEK:

half-shares

3 pints berries

d'avignon radishes (french breakfast)

kale (red russian or dinosaur)

lettuce

frisee

Full-shares

same as half with additional-

pint of berries

extra head of lettuce

pint of peas

RECIPES

We have found that as frisee is a bitter green, it pairs very well with something sweet. We urge you all to try this green with some cut up strawberries and a balsamic vinaigrette. You could also try any dried fruit as a topping on the frisee salad. Here is a recipe from epicurious demonstrating the use of dried fruit. We love goat cheese with it as well.

Frisee and Apple Salad with Dried Cherries and Walnuts

A new item in your box this week, kale. Kale is one of the superfoods with a very high vitamin and mineral content for a small amount of calories. If you're looking to eat healthy, look no further than the kale in your box. We are big fans, and there are lots of ways to cook it. It has a slightly briny flavor and a chewy texture---we typically saute it, but you can cook it any which way. Here are a couple recipes; please, give it a try, we think you'll like it.

Sauteed Kale

Kale with Garlic and Bacon

Tuscan Kale Chips

FLOWERS:

This week everyone will be receiving a very large and poofy bouquet of blue cloud and white cloud larkspur, mixed with a couple stems of bupleurum, also known as green gold. Hope you enjoy them!

Thanks everyone and please let us know if you have any questions, concerns, or comments. Enjoy your produce and flowers!

-Alice and Stuart

Week Two

2009-05-11T18:47:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Happy belated Mother's Day to all the moms! We hope everyone enjoyed the first week of veggies and strawberries and that getting your box and flowers was smooth and easy. This past week all the rain we've been getting has made things a little difficult for us. Loads of our berries are rotting; we really hope no one got any bad ones, we went over them again and again, but you can probably never get them all. We have to spend lots of extra time with them when they're wet, looking over each one as we pick them to make sure there are no bad spots. This detail work seems to hinder our progress in other areas, like weeding and planting, but so it goes with life on the farm. The good news is that the sun will be out tomorrow and Wednesday to bring some cheer and dryness.
PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR BOXES BACK THIS WEEK. It's best if everyone could break them down (which means have them be flat instead of in box form) when you return them. At Foster's market, there will be a spot in the cooler where you can place the flat boxes--there will be a sign. Thanks everyone! I think we may in future years issue out reusable Bluebird Meadows canvas grocery bags that you can use to put all your goods in instead of having to bring home the waxed box. An exciting feature of our 2010 CSA. :)

IN YOUR BOXES THIS WEEK:

half-shares

3 pints of berries

bunch of our sweet, overwintered carrots

two heads of small lettuce (lovely speckled mottistone and a red lollo)

a bunch of stir-fry asian greens (komatsuna and bok choy)

full-shares

half share +

extra pint of berries

extra bunch of carrots

bunch of red russian kale

NOTE: We have not picked this produce yet, so when we list these items there could always be the possibility of something changing at the last minute. Hopefully not, but just in case, we thought we'd go ahead and tell you this.

RECIPES: For the asian greens, both of these items cook fairly fast and we hope you give them a chance as they are quite delicious and flavorful. We like to saute the greens with a store-bought teriyaki sauce. They pair very well with rice or rice noodles like pad thai. We usually use tofu or chicken as our protein source with them.

We use a little bit of olive oil to coat the bottom of the saute pan and a pad of butter, place over medium heat till the oil warms and the butter melts, add a chopped up clove of garlic, saute for a couple minutes being sure to stir the garlic, then add the chopped up asian greens and saute over medium heat for about 7-10 minutes, adding a tablespoon of teriyaki sauce about halfway through the saute. Voila, easy asian stir-fry greens are done!

A more professional recipe can be found over at epicurious, our favorite online recipe source. Just click on the word epicurious above and it'll take you to a tofu and asian greens recipe.

FLOWER SHARES

This week for Wednesday CSA members, you will be receiving Dutch iris as pictured above. They are a lovely cut with a great vase life and we hope they brighten your week!

Thanks everyone and let us know if you have any questions or comments. We'll be seeing you soon! We'll let everyone know again if we have extra flats of berries this week. Take care.

Week One of our 2009 CSA starts this Wed. and Sat.

2009-05-04T17:53:00.000-07:00

Can we say strawberries??!! Yes we can. Our farm is officially going full speed ahead at this point now that the berries have come in; we are now reaping the rewards of lots of work and planning back in the fall and winter and we're trying to keep up with everything. It is time to sow the last planting of peppers and tomatoes that we'll have in August and early Sept. We're direct seeding corn, okra, and edamame this week as well as planting out transplants of melons, cucumbers, and winter squash. We just direct seeded a late crop of lettuce mix so you all can enjoy a salad in June. Everything looks so amazingly good in the field. With exceptions of course. We are at war with the devastating flea beetle, the colorado potato beetle, and soon we'll be waging battles against the Japanese beetle just to name a few pests. The greens on your turnips in your box this week are the result of flea beetle damage; the turnip root itself is fine and delicious, sweet and tender. The tops are still edible, just perhaps not so visually appealing. We hope this is okay with everyone.

We'd like to thank all of our CSA members who came out to see our farm for the Piedmont farm tour. We loved seeing everyone and meeting members, showing off our beloved farm where we spend almost all of our time and devote almost all of our energy. We hope it was worth the trip out for you all! We would also like to thank all of you for helping make this whole farming adventure possible by joining our CSA. We really do love what we do and we hope the vegetables and flowers you'll be receiving are able to somewhat convey this love in a material form. Cheesy I know, but true.

IMPORTANT NOTES FOR EVERYONE: We will be delivering our boxes in two size boxes, one for the half-share and one for the full-share. The half share is going to be in a 1/2 bushel box, and the full share will be in a 3/4 bushel box. They will be in separate stacks so PLEASE take note of the appropriate size share that you signed up for. We reuse these boxes so please try to and keep them in good condition and RETURN them each week. There will be a place for you to put your box from the previous week so please remember to return you boxes so we don't have to scramble for extra boxes.

IMPORTANT NOTES FOR FALCONBRIDGE MEMBERS: The official pick up time for this location is going to be from 3:00 to 6:30. Please be respectful of the time alloted!

IMPORTANT NOTES FOR DFM CSA MEMBERS: As we harvest your produce on Fridays, items in the boxes are possible to be slightly different than what we list in our newsletters. for the most part things will be the same, but we just want to let everyone know there might be one or two items that could be different than what we list mid-week.

IN YOUR BOXES THIS WEEK:

half-shares

3 pints of strawberries 9.00

bunch of turnips 2.50

two heads of mini-lettuce 3.00

small head of endive 1.00

bunch of radishes 2.50

full shares

same as half with additional-

pint of berries 3.00

carrots 3.00

extra 1.50 worth of turnips

All members will be receiving carrots eventually, so half-share members do not fret. They will make several appearances this season (and they are SOOOO good.)

RECIPES:

For those sweet and tender turnips, we love to do mashed turnips. de-top and rinse turnips and cut into half inch pieces. Place in a saucepan with just about a 1/4 inch to a 1/3 inch water in the bottom. Cover and bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to low and let cook for about 12 minutes or until tender. Mash up with a fork, add butter and salt and pepper, and you have yourself a deliciously healthy side dish.

Another great and easy way to do turnips is to roast them. As you'll see with our recipes we like to share, we love to roast vegetables as this cooking method really emphasizes the flavor of the vegetable. De-top and rinse turnips and cut into half-inch thick pieces. Coat generously with olive oil and salt. (I'd say two tablespoons of olive oil and a half teaspoon of salt). Place in oven on 415-425 degree and cook for 15-20 minutes or until tender. Another great way to enjoy this traditional vegetable.

FLOWER SHARES: Batchelor button blue is in!!! Wikipedia says the following about this vibrant flower.....In folklore, cornflowers were worn by young men in love; if the flower faded too quickly, it was taken as a sign that the man's love was unrequited.

Interesting. Hopefully all of the batchelor buttons you receive will stay vibrant for you all week long. This is one of my favorite flowers. It is simple, stunning, and brings loads of beneficial insects to the farm as well as gold finches and indigo buntings. I'm not sure why a lot of farmers around here have it in and around there crops of wheat---I think they think the flower is a nuisance. We have a lot of customers at market mention that it reminds them of their childhood. We hope you enjoy this blue. It is one of a very small handful of flowers to bloom a true blue. There are people who have devoted their entire careers to try and get the rose to bloom blue to no avail. Why they try I'm not so sure. Just grow some batchelor buttons.

Flower share members remember to bring a vase or a wet paper towel and baggie to put your flowers into---they will survive not having water for only so long. Remember to retrim your stems when you get home as well as this prolongs vaselife. Also please take one bunch unless you have signed up for two flower shares. Thanks so much!

THANKS EVERYONE AND WE HOPE YOU ENJOY YOUR FIRST BOX OF GOODIES! Let us know if you have any questions or comments.

Start Date and Directions

2009-04-28T16:08:00.000-07:00

We are excited to announce that our CSA is going to begin next week. That means for members picking up on Wednesday afternoons at Foster's Market of Chapel Hill and for members picking up their shares and flowers at Falconbridge, the date is going to be May the 6th. For Saturday Durham Farmers' Market pick-up members, the date will be May 9th.

FOSTER'S MARKET MEMBERS: Pick-up time is going to be from 2:15-2:30 until 7:30 pm. Foster's begins clean-up around 7:30pm so it would be courteous for everyone to get their shares by then. We're assuming everyone knows where this is. The veggie boxes and flower shares are going to be inside the beverage walk-in cooler in the back in the store. for the first week we'll post a sign where you enter the beverage cooler--please be mindful of not letting out the cold air of the beverage cooler by leaving it wide open.

FALCONBRIDGE MEMBERS: Pick up will be from 2:30 until 6:15 if that works for the Anthony's (let us know if these hours are a problem for you). Boxes are going to be stacked on shelves on the lefthand side of the Anthony's garage, and you will see the flowers in buckets. Their address is 4 Wellesley Place, Chapel Hill, 27517. They are right near the 54 and I-40 intersection, and we're assuming everyone picking up here lives in this neighborhood? Here

are directions from Lisa Anthony---the address also comes up on google map.

Directions from Durham

1. From I-85 South: Take 15-501 South to Chapel Hill.

Go past Duke exit (Hwy 751), past South Square exit, past Martin Luther King exit, past next light big intersection (Garrett Rd. and gas station on left), up hill and a couple more lights, then you will come to signs for I-40.

2. First I-40 light is to the right to the West.

Second I-40 light will be yours—exit to the LEFT—I-40 EAST (says to the airport).

3. Go to the next exit (you’ll pass a sign that says you’re entering Durham).

Take Exit 273A—Hwy 54 (toward Chapel Hill, NOT Durham).

4. At exit, go right—then get in the middle of the 3 lanes. You’ll go through 2 lights immediately. (You’ll be in the left lane now.)

5. Then go past first street on left where BP gas station is.

6. Take second left: Huntingridge Rd. (there is a light there): big stone pillars (entrance to Falconbridge).

7. Take next right on Brookhollow.

8. Take immediate left on Wellesley Place. Our house is #4 (on right).

DURHAM FARMERS' MARKET MEMBERS: We'll be there all morning and you can pick up boxes and flowers from 8-12. For anyone who doesn't know where the market is as of yet, just go to the DFM website and it has directions on it.

FOR ALL FLOWER SHARE MEMBERS: We will have flowers arranged in bunches that will be in buckets with other bunches. Please only take one bunch. We recommend that you either bring a small container of water or a wet paper towel in a plastic bag for your flowers. When you get them home trim the stems on the diagonal (unless they are icelandic poppies--more on those later) and put them in a CLEAN vase. Clean enough that you would feel comfortable drinking the water out of it.

We'll blog again Sunday or Monday to let everyone know what it in the box for the week and also the flowers we'll have for everyone. We are so glad you all are with us for this season. Our farm has never looked so good---it's going to be a great season barring natural disaster. Thanks for joining and we hope you enjoy this food and flower escapade over the course of the next twenty weeks. You are welcome to leave any comments or suggestions at any time on the blog or through email.