News from CSA Pasture
Dear Members, CSA order reminder for March 8th,
We are writing this reminder for our delivery coming up on Saturday March 8th. The order deadline is on Monday, March 3rd at midnight. We thank you for indulging us these days for preparation of the orders as the number of farms we coordinate with has increased and the number of orders has increased. Thank you for your support, we love our farm life, as busy as it can be at times!
I am so sorry for sending this reminder out so late before the order deadline. We have just received a large batch of new inventory and wanted it to be available for you on the website when we sent this. It will hopefully be all entered by the end of the day today and then all kinds of things should show up again for you on our lists of beef and pork.
(news from each farm after the jump)
The snow is lightly falling and the grass is just being covered over once again. December weather was all snow, snow, and more snow. January had warm spells and melting, then snow and melting, then snow again. February has had enough snow, ice, rain, and melting until our partly underground greenhouse was filled with 3 feet of water. The pots under the benches were floating all around and landed all over the place when we discovered the mess. My sister Beverly and niece Laura visited last week during the school vacation and we had a wonderful time. I even avoided work for at least 4 days!! We went to the greenhouse with seeds and a new calendar to start some flats of spinach, collards, cabbage, broccoli, arugula and herbs to start in the garden once it begins to be warm. Our first task was to put all the items back under the benches and to wash off the dirt from the raised bed that had spread itself over everything that was 3 feet or less in height. This phenomenon happens almost every year but each late winter you forget that it might happen. With the few days of bright sunny warm temperatures, we were lured into thinking new seedlings were just bursting to grow.
With today’s snow it looks much more like winter again. During the week we had fun sledding in the pasture where the steep drop on one side was compensated for by the steep incline on the other. No fence lines, no trees and self stopping! Our night skiing adventure at our nearby Willard Mountain was Laura’s first time under the lights. It feels a little intimidating to go from the brightly lit area to the dark in the middle of the run but you just bend your knees and wait for the light further down the trail to see. We took great walks around the pastures each day and the dogs loved that too. We looked for all kinds of tracks in the snow in the woods. One day we even saw the tiny tracks of a mouse or vole scurrying around and the broad brush of wingtips, a fairly large one, at the end of the tracks. Poor vole! The deer are all over the area these days, coming out of the trees to graze on the pastures while the snow was scarce. In two days we counted 32 of them. But the vacation was over when the Tuesday delivery order deadline came up.
By Wednesday night it was still snowing and by morning we had about 15 inches of the lightest fluffiest snow you could want – OH to be SKIING!! Every branch was covered and the whole world outside was bright white. The dogs were up to their chests bounding through it and I was up to my knees dragging the sled and hay bale to jack and Pedro, the horse and donkey. The pigs had already totally rifled the area where they eat down to the ground and we finding a few of yesterday’s leftover corn and soybeans. Their little noses must get cold! With beautiful cool temperatures the snow is still light and you just feel like running through it to see it fly all around your legs as you go. The little paths quickly become packed and even the pigs have paths all through the pasture already. This was a really great storm to wrap up the winter and hope that you are all staying warm.
Remember, there are only 21 days left of the winter season! Take care and enjoy the last weeks before we are complaining about humidity.
New this month!
We are now offering many more Stonewood Farm turkey products!! Both Dark meat Ground Turkey and ½ White meat/ ½ Dark meat ground turkey, Boneless Turkey breast in 2 sizes with only 1.7 grams of fat per 4 oz serving and Smoked Turkey Breast with no preservatives or nitrates/nitrites. Also, a marvelous variety of turkey sausages – Cajun, Hot Italian, Mild Breakfast and Sweet Italian. All with only 3.5 grams of fat per 4 oz serving. Stonewood Farm can be found under the Turkey All Natural Stonewood category.
Our other farms are still offering their products:
Delicious Bread baked at Rock Hill Bakehouse shown under Bread, European style. New flavors this month are Pumpernickel, Marble Rye, and Jewish Rye.
Hand made artisan cheeses from 3 Corner Field Farm - Cheese, Sheep’s Milk and Yogurt and from Consider Bardwell Farm – Cheese, Goat and Cow’s Milk and West River Creamery – Cheese, Cow’s Milk and Goat’s Milk. Gillis Acres Farm raises Alpine goats and offers their farm made dairy items under the Cheese, Goat’s Milk category. They make chevre in 4 flavors, tomme, feta, blue cheese, aged cheese, cottage cheese, kefir, yogurt in 3 flavors and bottle pasteurized goat milk.
All Natural Chicken, Duck and Turkey - whole or parts of chicken, whole duck, and small whole or ground turkey from KNK Poultry under the categories, Chicken All Natural KNK, Duck All Natural, Turkey All Natural KNK. This farm and processor is NY State certified.
Large whole turkeys are also offered by Stonewood Farm, certified by the State of Vermont and are found under the Turkey All Natural Stonewood category.
Our natural Eggs collected by Cornell Farms. The chickens and their feed are raised at the farm are shown under the Eggs, fresh and free-range category.
All Natural Goat and Kid is offered by 2 farms Manx Station Farm and Consider Bardwell Farm. These items are offered under the category for Kid, Goat and Goat, Kid respectively.
USDA processed Lamb is offered by two farms. 3 Corner Field Farm lamb eats a small amount of grain as a supplement to the grasses and hay and can be found under the Lamb, Grass-Fed category. Argyllshire Farm lamb eats only grasses and hay and is found under the Lamb, Grass fed & finished category. We are sorry the selection of lamb is dwindling this time of year, but it seems that everyone is beginning to “buy local”.
Our home made Jams and Sauces are home grown or hand picked by Rudi’s Lakeside Garden and can be found under the Jams ands Sauces category.
USDA processed Beef and Pork are raised by Lewis Waite Farm. The beef is 100% grass and hay fed with trace minerals from kelp and salt. The pigs have a pasture too but are fed with corn, soybeans, hay and kelp (especially in winter). These items can be found under the Beef, Grass Fed Grass Finished and the Pork, All Natural, Pastured.
We are proud of the 12 farm network we have created to provide you some of our regions fresh and family grown products. We hope you enjoy then all and we also hope to expand our offering as time goes by and we get better at our coordination with everyone.
Don’t forget, the next order deadline is next Monday, March 3rd at midnight, and delivery is on Saturday, March 9th.
Please remember to place your orders on time as late orders can be a disruption to all of the farms involved
We wish you well, Nancy and Alan Brown
Alan & Nancy Brown
135 Lewis Hill Lane
Town of Jackson
Greenwich, NY 12834
Lewis Waite Farm
Grass-Fed Grass-Finished Beef
Natural Pork
www.csapasturedmeatandpoultry.com
www.lewiswaitefarm.com
518-692-3120 or 518-692-9208