What a beautiful day today was! And the farm finally got some rain! Your food will be so thankful for today's sunshine between yesterday's and tomorrow's rain.
Ben is now harvesting from our fall crops - new kale, chard, collards, spinach, radishes, and lettuce. This fall kale is much more tender and sweet than the summer kale you have had for the past couple weeks. It likes colder weather and will get very sweet after our first frost in October.
Some of the summer crops will not be around much longer. These include PEACHES, canteloupes, nectarines, blackberries, tomatoes, corn, and others. Get them while you can and preserve them to enjoy out of season. Our personal pantry and freezers are getting stocked up right now for us to enjoy all this local goodness when it is out of season. We encourage you to so the same. It takes time and effort, but is totally worth it! Eating food that we know where it came from and its quality is so enjoyable during a January snowstorm.
This week, we have organic alfalfa and radish sprouts from Potomac Sprout Company as the farm extra item and also available for add-on purchase. Potomac Sprout Company is locally run in Thurmont by our friend Chris Yu. We first met him at the Frederick City Market years ago and have enjoyed their sprouts ever since. They now only wholesale to grocery stores - locally you can find them at Giant, Common Market, and MOM's.
Ben had a busy weekend. He spent Saturday in the rain (and lots of mud) with our helper Hannah harvesting a big order of beet greens for South Mountain Creamery. Today was market day at The Frederick City Market. He loves seeing all of his customers, including all of our CSA members that also shop with us on Sundays! Tonight he is spraying the crops with an organic treatment (bacillus thurigensis) to take care of too many caterpillars before the rain comes tomorrow. His day was from 5:30 am to 8:30 pm today-on a Sunday. That's the life of a farmer in late summer, and although tough on him and family, it is worth every minute to bring healthy food to your family.
Last week we welcomed some new laying hens chickens to our flock. They are 18 weeks old and should start laying in about 3 weeks. It is always exciting and a little nerve racking when we bring in new members to the flock. There is a lot of squawking (chicken talk) and some fighting as they figure each other out and establish the new pecking order. This will simmer down over the next week and they will become one big happy family.
Thank you so much for supporting what we do. We work very hard to bring you the best food to keep you nourished and could not do it without your support.
Be Healthy, Be Happy,
Ben, Heather, and the crew at PHP
