Hello Farm Box members! This is such an exciting time of the season, the early summer heat brings strawberries in from the fields and into boxes this week and the Flower Share deliveries start this week! PLUS, we have peony bouquets available as Extras. Some of the veggies making appearances - peas, beet greens, collards, green garlic, frisee - as well as all the salad greens and mushrooms! Customize your box to your liking and grab some staples to complete your meals for the week - cheese, eggs, bagels, tofu, meats, ferments, coffee and more - all from Maine farms! If you have questions or would like assistance customizing your box email farmers@daybreakgrowersalliance.com.
Peony Bouquets
Beautiful, bold early summer blooms to brighten up your table. Peony Bouquets from Sheepscot Bend Farm in Alna are available to add to your boxes for $14, look in the Extras section.
Check out these cool beverages for the summer!
We have Cascara Tea and Cold Brew Coffee from 44 North Coffee.
What is Cáscara tea you might wonder? Cáscara is a lesser known consumable bi-product of coffee production. Cáscara, meaning ‘skin’ or ‘husk’ in Spanish, is the outer peel of the coffee cherry. The outer fruit of the coffee bean is removed, sun-dried and brewed as a loose leaf coffee cherry tea. With a little bit of caffeine imparted from the removed coffee bean, cáscara tea has intense tasting notes of earthy rose hips, tamarind, and sweet hibiscus. It is also loaded with vitamins, natural sugars, and antioxidants. Delicious as a hot tea or an iced tea (or even as a concentrate for cocktails) Cáscara is a great addition to your tea assortment offerings.
44 North's cold brew blend is a medium-dark roast blend, offering chocolate notes of a medium roast mixed with a robust dark roast, which stands up well to cream and sugar. For those of you who don't know what cold brew is:
- Cold brew is not the same as iced coffee or hot brewed coffee that is cooled
- Cold brewing is the process of soaking coarsely ground beans in cold water for 12-24 hours then dripping into a decanter.
- Cold water doesn’t extract from the coffee grounds as quickly as hot water, so the process requires more time. The coffee grounds are immersed in cold water overnight.
- Cold brewing doesn’t pull out the acids as much as hot brewing, sometimes resulting in as much as 66% less acidity.
- Cold brew does have more caffeine per ounce than hot brewed coffee because of it's higher coffee to water ratio.
- Cold brew coffee is smooth, refreshing, and often has a rounded, unique flavor because of the slow cold brew method.
- Since cold brew is a concentrate there are quite a few ways you can use it. At 44N we cut it with cold water and ice, but you can also add hot water, milk, soda water, or any other liquid you’d like. Thanks to its smooth flavor, it’s quite adaptable!
Update from Common Wealth Farm
Scheduling is a big part of farming. We get new broiler chicks every two weeks which means keeping ahead of moving birds to the next brooder or to pasture when they're old enough, about four weeks. That also means constantly cleaning out brooders. Quail are a bit easier; no changes except from incubator to brooder to their outdoor cage.
Scheduling also means having the movable pens ("tractors") ready for the turkey poultry coming this week. They'll be ready to buy starting in late August, wholes and parts.
New layer chickens arrived just on schedule and are kept indoors until they're acclimated to their new surroundings. When the coop-on-a-trailer is completed, they'll go on pasture and move around to fresh grass and clover every few days.
Such attention to detail ensures a high quality product for our customers!
