Happy Thanksgiving! I sure hope each of you were able to enjoy the holiday with friends and family. Thanksgiving is definitely my favorite holiday - without the pressure of gifts, it's all about being mindful of what we are thankful for over a feast of freshly made food with people we love. And when it includes pie (apple, blueberry, cherry, pumpkin, AND pecan for us this year) that's my kinda party!
While the fresh snowfall certainly makes everything outside look beautiful, all this white stuff makes travelling to see loved ones a little tricky. With more on the way this weekend, many farmers in our Cooperative will be staying home and staying busy plowing out hoophouses, livestock feeders/barns/drinkers, and getting ready for next week's CSA delivery. Winter is usually a slower time on our farm, however when we get snow - especially big snow! - it's really important to make sure it doesn't pile up too much along the sides of the hoophouses. Otherwise the weight of all that snow can push houses over, or if it doesn't slide off the roof, could even collapse a hoophouse. Even with out the weight problems of piled snow, when it builds up on the sides it can block out the precious winter daylight. We need all the light we can get to help spinach grow and to warm the soil on those rare sunny days!
Even though the outside world is frozen and covered in 13 inches of snow, we've still got crops growing. Here's a peek inside the snowy hoophouse at the spinach you will be getting in your boxes this week! Cold weather actually makes spinach taste even better - sweetens it up a bit. If you haven't had winter spinach before, you are in for a treat! And in case you were wondering, those are collard green stalks on the left - as we pick the leaves, the plant keeps sending a stalk upwards with new leaves. Once we have picked all the leaves off during the growing season, the stalk is all that remains.
You will see heirloom apples as one option for your boxes this month - fresh from our root cellar here at Great Oak Farm! Years ago when we bought the land for our farm, the original vision was to establish a fruit farm. We planted hundreds of apple, cherry, plum, and pear trees, most of which were old heritage varieties of fruit. These varieties had good disease resistance, needed less attention than many current commercially available cultivars, and best of all stored well to allow for fruit availability through the winter. We wrapped the trunks with mouse guards, protected them from deer with tall fencing, and sat back to watch them grow. Unfortunately, many of the trees got girdled by mice after the first few years - when the snow was taller than the mouse guards, the mice could simply crawl down right next to that tender tree trunk and girdle them! Most of the trees have died over the years from mice, but a few hardy survivors still remain. We harvested the apples this fall from those few survivor trees and put them in the root cellar for storage. Unfortunately, our planting records were lost, so I am not sure which varieties these are - but they are all great all-purpose apples for fresh eating or for cooking/baking. If you get apples in your box this month, take a step back in time with each bite, and taste what our great-grandparents might have eaten this time of year, fresh from THEIR root cellars!
Speaking of CSA boxes, remember that you can customize what you would like in your boxes! On the last delivery we had many veggie boxes get customized (50% of small veggie boxes and 34% of family veggie boxes) but fewer meat boxes (19% of small meat boxes and 25% of family meat boxes). For the veggie boxes next week there are lots of great things to choose from, including frozen ready-to-bake apple pies from the Bayfield Apple Company (!!) - YUM! Meat box options will include bacon (!!) as well as Bayfield Apple Company orchard-raised hams, so if you'd like to get some ham for a December holiday meal now's a great time to do that.
We've also got a few one-time holiday boxes available for this delivery. In addition to the gorgeous Wild Hollow Farm dried flower wreaths, we've got a gift box with Bodin's fishery smoked fish spread with Starlit Kitchen crostini and Happy Hollow settlement stash cheese, as well as a Bayfield Apple Company jam gift box.
Additionally, there are some one-time meat options listed now in case you would like to stock up on 5# of grass-fed ground beef, 5# of pasture-raised pork brats, or 5# of grass-fed beef steaks. Again, these are one-time orders that would come in addition to your regular meat, veggie, or bakery boxes.
Finally, I have one piece of logistics to go over for the January delivery - please mark your calendars to show that the Jan delivery will take place on the SECOND week of the month instead of the first week in order to avoid any conflicts with the New Year holiday.
Take care, and enjoy this snowy holiday season, everyone!
Yours in community,
Chris Duke
CSA Manager, Bayfield Foods
Farmer, Great Oak Farm
