Thursday, September 2, 2010

Notes from Your Farm

Hello from the farm!

Well here it is September already. Hot and dry pretty much sum it up. This is probably the hottest summer of our eleven seasons here at the farm, with forty days over 90 degrees. It also hasn't rained significantly for several weeks and the crops are suffering from the combination, making a leaner time of the season more lean than expected. To counter the dryness, we had the trial run of a mobile sprinkling tank that we rigged up this week and were very pleased with the results. Hopefully we'll receive some of the hurricane remnant rains this weekend.

We have a good neighbor in Amy Yocum just down the road at Promised Land farm, and are able to offer some of her produce this week. It sure is nice to have another organic farmer nearby. Thank you Amy! We're also pleased kick of the winter squash season with acorn squash this week.


September Surprises and the Rumor Mill

If you've heard any rumors about the farm progam having any connection to Funk's Farm Market, it closing, or using or losing access to Funk's land, none of that is true.

Some things that are true:

  • Homefields owns the 8.7 acres that you see when you are here at the barn
  • We lease the five acres of Baker land to the west behind the trees.(the Washington Boro side)
  • The Hampilos property to the east of us (the Millersville side) has been slated for development multiple times, but it has not yet happened.
  • We would like to continue to farm the Baker land and would like to see the Hampilos land remain as farm land!
  • The surprise--the Hampilos farm has just come up for auction as of today, auction date is Oct 9th.

The Pick Your Own Field and Pick Your Own Items:

Most of the pick your own items have slowed down considerably. Please keep in mind for this week and the future to respect other shareholders who come to the Pick Your Field:
  • 174 other shareholders may come later to pick whatever it is you are picking
  • Other CSA farms typically charge for these extras--we offer it as a little something extra.
  • The limit for flowers is 9 stems total and all other items, one pint unless indicated otherwise.
  • If an item is scarce, please take only a little to sample
  • Next year we plan to grow greater numbers of fewer things in the PYO field--concentrating on cherry tomatoes, basil, zinnias, and hot peppers in particular.

Whew, It's hot...Scott C. cooling down at the misting fan

Whew, is this really September? Scott C. cooling off at the misting fan.


Easy Baked Acorn Squash Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 medium acorn squash, halved and seeded
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  2. Turn acorn squash upside down onto a cookie sheet. Bake in a 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven until it begins to soften, approximately 30 to 45 minutes.
  3. Remove squash from the oven and turn onto a plate so that the flesh is facing upwards. Place butter and brown sugar into the squash, and place remaining squash over the other piece. Place squash in a baking dish (so the squash wont slide around too much) while baking.
  4. Place squash in the 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven and bake another 30 minutes.

Nutritional Information open nutritional information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 189 | Total Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 15mg
--from http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/acorn-squash/Detail.aspx

Hope you are enjoying the harvest and staying cool,

Scott

Scott Breneman

Farm Manager

Goodwilll at Homefields Farm

PO Box 38

150 Letort Rd

Millersville, PA 17551

http://www.yourgoodwill.org/farm

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