Doe Run Farm CSA: We had a White Christmas!

Doe Run Farm CSA: We had a White Christmas!

We had a White Christmas!

Good morning friends!
We hope that everyone enjoyed a wonderful Christmas season this year!

Our Christmas was spent in Northern Virginia this year, and we had a bit of a slow start getting there due to the weather. We had planned to leave earlier than we did, but the heavy snow delayed us by two days. But, we had a really nice Christmas with our Son Mike and his family once we arrived. The roads were cleared by the time we left and the scenery along the way was just lovely! The Shenandoah Valley is pretty anyway, but snow covered it's so beautiful! Hopefully I can post a few photos taken on our trip. (if I can get them downloaded-still not great at this)

We didn't go into DC this trip, just mostly stayed in and enjoyed visiting. I did visit an extremely nice Market close to my Son's home named Wegmans, and they really had anything anyone could imagine wanting for meal preparation. Cases and cases of fresh seafood, meats, etc. plus-- Organic selections of anything you could want throughout the market. That really got my attention! They even had wine tastings going on in their wine shop, and of course I sampled them all and purchased a couple of bottles of red (for medicinal purposes of course:) To sum it up, this store is like Whole Foods on Steroids!

We returned to find that we did sustain some high winds while we were away, but had just a few things blown out into the fields. No big deal though. We leave the farm rarely, but when we do our neighbors all watch each others property and their dogs pretty much roam our place all the time. (where there is no deer fence) The dogs alert everyone to strangers and we like that! They are pretty large dogs too which is somewhat intimidating in and of itself. We are grateful for our small community of neighbors.

Now that we are home and getting ready for another new year, we are focusing on our farm's upcoming CSA season. We will need to get all seeds ordered very soon, plus any soil amendments necessary, repair and service our farm equipment and implements, make necessary repairs to our packing shed and soon to be farm pavilion, determine logistics for our CSA deliveries, and, well you get the idea..there's a lot to be done here over the next few months. We will get done what we can you can be sure of that. John and Barry have already repaired the two high tunnels, and enclosed the Haygrove tunnel, so that's good. I would like to have a few raised bed constructed near the Greenhouse, but I know that is way down on the list of John's priorities.

On this 6th day of Christmas, I will say "bye" for now. As the new year rolls around keep us in your prayers, you surely will be in ours as always. We wish for you in 2010 good friends, good health and many blessings!

Happy New Year from Doe Run Farm!

Musings from our Farm

Pictured today are some of our autumn-early winter CSA boxes being unloaded from the trailer. Lots of great greens this week!


The wind is blowing, the clouds are gray, and it's getting colder here on the farm today! Thankfully yesterday was a beautiful day since we had visitors. Our farming acquaintences that visited yesterday from Virginia are a Menonite couple. What a nice visit we had with them. Christine brought me home made Raspberry Jam, Salsa, and fresh garlic! After a good visit they were off to continue their trip to see relatives for the holidays.It was a nice day to walk around, visit and exchange ideas with one another.

While walking over the farm yesterday, our visitors pointed out something new to us that we had not really known about until then. Several areas are covered in small leaf bitter Cress! This cress when it's young, developes into a small rosette that's very delicate looking and really delicious! We all sampled it yesterday! It would be a great addition to a green salad, or used as a garnish. It's really funny how many "wild" things grow on the farm that are edible, delicious and good for you. Another example of this are the Elderberries that grow here! Something entirely knew to me that I recently learned is that "cattails" you see growing
around ponds and lakes, have a portion inside of them that are very edible and supposedly delicious. We have a bank of them here at the farm around our pond, and I am going to cut one open and give it a try! I suppose these things are the food stuffs of the "hunters and gatherers" of old!

Today is a different story weatherwise, but I can't let it stop me as the porches have to be swept and hosed down. I can't figure out why, but after we have a day or two of rain, the front porch is littered with earthworms, and once they dry, the skeletons are not easily removed. I intended to sweep porches yesterday but after our visitors had left, I had to take "Baby", one of our cats to the Vet's office. She was limping and favoring her left foot. I was worried that she had broken a bone, but the Vet gave her an anti-inflammatory medication, (that we will continue till gone), and she seems better today. The vet seemed to think there was a cut on one of her paw pads that was painful for her. Hopefully she will mend soon!

Happy Holidays!
Judy

The Latest News from Doe Run Farm!

Christmas will soon be here, a time for celebrating our Savior's birth-a special time indeed. We too will celebrate this joyous season, all the while working here to catch up on many things before Christmas day rolls around.

John just came in and reported that he and Barry (our Son-in-Law) have finished the major repairs on one of our high tunnels, though there are some minor repairs left to do. All in good time. Barry has been a big help to us since Ty left this summer. We are grateful for his help. With it being as cold as it has been the past two days, I'm sure the work on the tunnels has not been pleasant. Though I have not heard any complaints!

This week I am going to scrounge around on the farm for some pretty holly with lots of bright red berries, Jackson vine and other greenery for decorating. I am doing very little this year, just a bit of greenery here and there. Decorations definitely add to the festivity of the holidays! If I could just find some mistletoe.....

This week a fellow Farmer from Virginia, will be stopping in for a visit. He emailed saying he is traveling to Texas, via Nashville and would like to visit. He and his wife have a pretty Organic farm, but they have been through some hard times recently, namely a fire that devastated their farm. They have had to start over to rebuild what was lost to the fire. We have never met, but have exchanged emails and vegetable seeds with one another. It will be nice to meet "in person". Farmers always like to talk to one another about their farm experiences!

We have been putting a lot of thought into our upcoming Spring-Summer CSA and other things we have been considering for the farm for the summer season. We will be attending an Agritourism workshop in Nashville in 2010, in hopes of doing a few new things here at the farm. So much hinges on whether we will be able to hire additional help here for the summer. We will keep you posted on these plans as time moves forward.

We will talk again soon,

A Call to Action

The Food Safety Enhancement Act is now before Congress! HR2749 This act treats every food producer from the smallest Artisan baker that sells his/her product to the Farmer's Market or CSA, to the food industry giant Kraft foods, as if they are the same! This is as if the food produced by small farm producers present the same risks of adulteration as the Mega food producers, and as if the same preventive measures are necessary for both. Think about the number of people in contact with food, and ways that contamination can occur in the giant food industry. This is so different for small farms and other small product producers. We should be encouraging these producers into the market, not erecting more barriers for them. This new bill will erect barriers, possibly insurmountable ones, to local Artisan food producers and small Farmers.

For example: the bill requires every food producer to pay a $500 fee and undertake a "hazard analysis" to prevent their food from presenting a safety hazard to the public. So Heartland Bakery, New Moon Candies and other local Artisan food producers will pay the same fee as Nestle or Kellogg's and be saddled with the same paperwork burden. I'm thinking Nestle and Kellogg's won't miss the $500 and can probably absorb the costs of developing their "hazard analysis." They probably have on staff a myriad of people to do record keeping for every product line they produce, I know that this is impractical and unaffordable for most small producers.

Here's another example: Food producers engaging in "interstate shipping" must develop a "Food Safety Plan." Again, it doesn't matter how small or new a producer is or how they produce their food product. Small farmstead cheese makers in Alabama who might want to sell at Tennessee farmers' markets, are treated the same as Tyson, which ships tons of factory-farmed chicken to all fifty states. Under HR 2749, both will be . Under HR 2749, both will be required to develop a food safety plan including these elements:
preventive controls being implemented;
procedure for monitoring preventive controls;
procedures for taking corrective action;
verification activities for the preventive controls, including validation, review of monitoring and corrective action records, and procedures for determining whether the preventive controls are effectively preventing, eliminating, or reducing to an acceptable level the occurrence of identified hazards or conditions;
recordkeeping procedures;
procedures for the recall of articles of food, whether voluntarily or when required;
procedures for the trace back of articles of food, whether voluntarily or when required;
procedures to ensure a safe and secure supply chain for the ingredients or components used in making the food manufactured, processed, packed, transported or held by such facility; and
procedures to implement the science-based performance standards issued.

I'm thinking this may put some of our Artisan producers out of business.

It's always difficult to parse out the various reasons people are against any new law to figure out whether it's hysteria from those who simply distrust the government (though I have a lot of sympathy for these folks, too) or whether the provisions in a certain law are really as alarming as some would have us believe. It's easy to dismiss alarmists; let's dial down the hysteria. However, this bill, if passed in its current form, will make it significantly more difficult for small and Artisan food producers to start and maintain a viable business. This will make it harder to find such foods from local sources. This bill, if passed as written, will actually make the food safety problem worse by eliminating sources of good, healthy, locally-produced Artisan food products that are easily traceable, and one that insures a safe food supply chain.

At the very least, we believe that the compliance requirements should be as reasonable for small farmers as it is for Hormel -- which means that small farmers probably ought to pay $25 to register and be required simply to maintain records of purchases so that if a food safety issue arises, those records can be used to figure out what happened. But to require small farmers and Artisans to adhere to the same rules as Pepsico and Heinz is not only silly but doesn't address the fact that food safety problems we've seen over the past ten years have not occured at small farms or Artisanal bakeries.Industrial food giants are at the root of this problem. Artisan food producers and small farmers are the solution, not the problem. Let's ask our lawmakers to recognize that.

I'm not sure the answer is to ask our lawmakers to simply vote against this bill. We do need to address food safety issues in our industrial food supply. But we don't need to behave as if those same problems are inherent in all food production. They aren't. Here on our farm, we are very much in favor of having systems in place to protect the consumer from food borne illnesses, and maintaining records to show compliance. But to ask a small farm to be governed by the same rules as big Agribusiness (where crops are difficult to trace back to a source of contamination)is not only unreasonable, but unafordable as well. If small farmers and producers of local food are to stay in business, let's do the right thing here. Make the regulations such that local producers can continue to bring consumers safe, nutritious and fresh products as they have in the past, by regulating them in a realistic manner.

Ask your congress person to change this bill to provide for a realistic system with which small producers can comply. Those regulations that govern the food giants make this impractical and unaffordable to the small producer. With the regulations that are being put before Congress, the small producer would be looking at having to hire an additional person just to monitor the entire process. Not many small farms or Artisinal producers we know could do this without passing costs along to consumers. No one I know wants to do that.

To email your congress person, visit the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund's petition page, which takes you to a handy form where you can enter your address. Enter your message in the blank box, and it will be sent to your congressional representative. The message I'm recommending you send is this:(Just use your Word Processor feature on your computer, cut and paste this message).

I believe small,artisan food producers and farmers should be exempted from this bill as it reads today. They are not the problem. They are the SOLUTION to our food safety problems. We should not be creating new barriers to entry and new compliance burdens for these small producers of healthy food.Traceability is not the same issue with small farms as it is with mega food producers, and the regulations on Small farms and Artisinal producers should reflect this. Thank you.

In closing, we would like to say that we are very much in favor of providing our farm patrons with a safe food supply chain. We operate our farm with this in mind on a daily basis. We already maintain daily records here on our farm as are required by our Certified Organic certification, but adding more record keeping at this point would definitely be burdensome and add to our expenses, with no added food safety advantage to our customers.

Even if you are not an "activist" this is a bill where consumer involvement is a "must" if you want to support your area farmers, and farm producers. Call your Congressional representative and give him your opinion.

Small Farmers and Farm Producers thank you for your effort on our behalf!

Early New Years Resolution

I am usually not one for making New Year resolutions, mostly because I break them early on, but I am making one right now for 2010. That resolution is to blog more frequently. I just hope this resolution isn't going to follow the path of all the other resolutions I have made in the past!

Another holiday has come and gone, and my how fast they do come and go. Thanksgiving Day has always been special to me and as I get older it becomes more special. I am sorry that Thanksgiving isn't given more attention, it just seems to be skimmed over in some ways-at least commercially. I feel that Halloween is given more attention than Thanksgiving and that makes me sad. I am thankful for so many things, my family, my friends, my health and the health of those I love, our farm,and for our Military, past and present, that protect us each and every day. I am thankful for the life that God has given me. What are you most thankful for?

Now I look to the Christmas season, with all it's wonder. Come Christmas Eve, I will as I have in years past, take a break from whatever I am into at the moment, and just quietly think about what Christmas means to me. In the quiet of the night,my thoughts will turn to an evening spent in Nazareth by the holiest of families. I hope everyone will take the time to meditate quietly on the miracle at Nazareth.

Now a bit of farm news: We are in our last week of CSA until the New Year! It seems like we just started! The crops have done well, but our Lettuce has been disappointing. What we have is pretty, but immature. Unfortunately the three weeks of rain that we had a few weeks ago, delayed our planting and that set us back for that crop. Everything else has done pretty good considering the weather was so wet for so long. As a matter of fact, it's raining here again, right now!

If you haven't done so, become a Fan of the farm on Facebook! It's easy, really, and you may find many of your friends on Facebook, even some you have lost contact with! Until next time..Blessings,

ODE TO MY IRON SKILLETS

If you have Iron skillets, and have not used them much this summer, it's time to bring them out front and center! I honestly don't think that I could cook without mine, they make everything taste so much better! I cook everything in mine from mouth watering corn bread, to upside cakes, to creamed corn, fried okra, hash browns, well, you get the idea. There is no comparison between using an Iron skillet and a stainless steel skillet. The heating is much more even with Iron, plus the flavor of the food is unequaled in my opinion. If you have ever tasted fried chicken cooked in an Iron skillet, you won't want to use anything else for your chicken.

I love to go to country Auctions, that's where you find the best Iron skillets, unless like me, you have inherited a few along the way. I like the Wagner skillet, and you will see that stamped on the bottom. I have a few hints I would like to pass along when you use your skillet. Never cook tomato products in the skillet, there's something about the reaction of the iron and acid that doesn't work for me. Also, purchase a stiff brush on a long handle and reserve it only for scrubbing out your skillets. Scrub out with hot water only - NO SOAP! If something sticks to your skillet and you can't clean it using your brush and water, put some water in your skillet, set the skillet on medium heat, once heated turn off the stove and let the skillet cool. It should come right off now. Wipe your skillet very dry before putting it away. The third thing is make sure your skillet is "seasoned" before using it (this should be my very first hint). You can "google" these intructions on the Web. I use Olive oil or Canola oil for cooking but ALWAYS lard for seasoning my Iron skillets.If you take care of your skillets, you can pass them down to your children, and they can pass to their children. I don't think they ever "wear out" like other kitchen pots and pans.

Well, I guess I have told you everything and more than you wanted to know about Iron skillets, but, don't take my word for it, give them a try for yourself if you haven't already. And if you use them regularly, good for you-- and I bet the meals at your home are great!

The Fall-Winter CSA Season is approaching!

It won't be long now! Soon we will be delivering CSA boxes once more, heavily laden with comfort food to fortify our bodies for cooler weather! All the good "stick to your ribs" kind of food, you know what I mean. Greens, Sweet Potatoes, Beets, Cabbage, Turnips,those kind of foods!

Today we have been blessed with a glorius day, and I will take the time right now to thank our Creator for giving us this day. Cool crisp weather makes me think of the following things: mums, football & pumpkins, along with good things to eat such as, Roasted root veggies, Apples, Cider, Honey, Sorghum Molasses (one of my favorite things loaded with minerals), hot Biscuits, Homemade Vegetable soup,Candied Sweet potatoes, Butternut squash soup. I think I got carried away:)

Soon we will be knee deep in seed catalogs since it's time to be planning our Summer planting schedule. We have to think in advance a season around here, but that's not a bad thing I guess.Keeps us on our toes! The catalogs are always fun, because when you finally do get around to ordering your seeds, its generally cold weather, and it makes you think about springtime, one of the prettiest times of the year.

We lost our one full time helper at the farm (our only farm worker) a few weeks ago. Ty has been with us this summer, and he worked very hard and was extremely dependable. He helped us put up our largest hoop house, plant, weed, harvest, pack and load our delivery van. He planned on being here through December, but he accepted another job working for his Father, due to his Dad losing a valued employee at his business. So it goes, now it's back to just me and John again. It was hard to have Ty leave us, but we understand how things do change. We wish him well and thank him for his hard work.

Next summer we hope that our oldest Grandson John Lawrence will come help us on the farm. He has mentioned it to us a few times that he would like to do that as a way for him to earn money. He will be saving for college and other needs too I am sure. But we are proud that he wants to be here to work with us. We would enjoy his company and appreciate his help too. We will see how this goes. Farming is hard work anytime, but summer with the heat, humidity and pests, its much harder. But, what wonderful things the fields provide in the summer for us all-wow! Very worth it I think.

We ask your prayers for anyone that may be ill within our CSA community, and we ask yours for us as well, as we go forth into another farming season. We also ask you to pray for a friend of ours and fellow farmer, Mr. Hank Delvin, who we recently found out was badly injured in an car-truck crash. We wish for him a full recovery!

We have been working on a perennial garden up near our house this summer as time allows. It is coming along slowly. If you are thinning bulbs,such as Iris, daffodils, etc. and would be willing to share with me, I will share some seeds with you. I would like to include some bulbs in my garden and I want to add a few climbing roses too which I think would be a nice addition to the garden. So if you are cutting back roses, I would happily pot up those cuttings.

We are always looking for neighborhoods that would like to get enough folks together to have CSA boxes brought to them for an entire season, right in their own neighborhood, or delivered to their place of business or place of worship. If you or someone you know would be interested in helping us with this, just let us know.

Enough of my ramblings for today, thank you for following our farm's blog, and sign up to become a fan of Doe Run Farm on Facebook! Blessings, Judy

Summer's End

With Labor Day fast approaching, another summer will have come and gone! My but this summer passed by me so quickly-I find that more true with each year now. But, I treasure each and every day, and I thank our Creator often for the life he has given me. I am blessed with a wonderful family, rich with friends and very thankful to still have my 88 year old Mom! Though she has had more problems than usual recently, having been hospitalized twice in the last 4 months, she has kept a good attitude, and really tries to participate in her health care. I ask that you keep her in your prayers please.

I would like to thank everyone that helped us out with last Thursday's CSA delivery so that we could travel to Indiana to be with my Mom for a procedure that she had to have done asap. She was very weak, but she was so glad to see us. I spoke with her today and she is feeling stronger, and adjusting to her new medicines. Thank you Friends!

Another Summer CSA has just come to a close at our farm. It's always sad to say goodbye to the wonderful harvest that summer brings us, but we have the cool season vegetables that comfort us so much in the winter months, to look forward to enjoying. We are staying busy filling trays with seeds, that before you know it will be transplanted into the hoophouses. Some things have already been direct seeded into the soil, and they will feed us during the winter and early spring as they "overwinter".

We are getting registrations daily for our Autumn-Winter CSA, and soon we will be filled up. Everyone seems to be very interested in eating healthier this winter with all the H1N1 Virus information that is being publicized. I would ask all of our followers on the blog to please, do stay home if you are sick, and get to the doctor right away if you or anyone in your family, feels ill with flu symptoms. You can get help if you go early enough. ( I guess the RN in me is showing a bit)

You can now find our farm on FACEBOOK! Become a FAN of the farm!

Until next time,

Peace,
Judy

Water n' weed, Weed n' water!

Seems like that cycle is never ending here on our farm. I was set back in my tracks early this morning when I went to take a look at the few herbs that I had planted just a couple weeks ago, over near our greenhouse. Lo and behold, the pigweed is waist high! Way too tall to pull out (it has the sharpest bristles on it-they can hurt big time) so the weed whacker will come in real handy! Pigweed and Johnson grass are our nemesis. But the good news is that the herbs are thriving even under those conditions. Will be planting more that are perennials as soon as we get a rain that blows in ....from somewhere soon I hope. Too hot right now to plant anything that is not absolutely essential. When conditions are this extreme, even with irrigation, the plants get stressed and that will set them back, so you really don't gain much by planting in this kind of heat. If we do plant, it will be very early, irrigating things really well before and after planting, or late in the afternoon so they can have overnight to adjust somewhat.

Everyone we know is at the lake or enjoying a nice cool dip in a pool somewhere, this week end and boy does that sound good to me right about now. But someone has to stick around to water the veggies don't they?

As our harvesting, cultivation and planting continues throughout the summer, we are in the planning stages for our Autumn/Early winter CSA from the farm. Many of the delicious root crops that are enjoyed in the autumn and winter, must be planted in the heat of the summer to take advantage of the long hours of daylight to get them off to a good start. Once we have the summer solstice in June (on the 21st I believe), the days grow shorter and the daylight hours decline. In the winter time with it's short days, less sunlight and daylight, everything grows more slowly.

We had to move our poultry fence today, into a shady nook in the pasture. It was dreadfully hot for our hens, just as it was for us. But they are happy and content with their new shade! Egg laying declines when they get too hot, just as it does when they get cold in the winter. Gotta'keep those hens happy!

Guess that's about all of our news for now, until the next visit..

Blessings,

Judy

Field Notes from our Farm!

We try as best we can to keep you "in the loop" about our work done seasonally here on our farm. Sometimes things move along at such a pace that it's hard to cram everything in a paragraph or two to pass along but we try anyway! We always hope that we are shedding some light on the production of food here on the farm, so that you may stay somewhat connected to the land, which of course is the focus of our CSA here at the farm.

It's raining again here today, quite gloomy in fact, with a dense fog that rolled in overnight here in the foothills. But we need not complain too much about the rain as it is needed and is vitally important to our plants and the soil surrounding the plants.

Every day we must take into account the weather, plus the weather in previous days as well. Is the soil too wet to drive our equipment over which would risk soil compaction, though we need to plant more today? Are the fields too wet to work in, and by doing so would risk spreading any disease by hand that's present on one plant, to many others? These are just a couple of things where risk vs. benefit is taken into consideration.

Along with daily harvesting from the fields, weeding continues. And, we have more transplants to plant and seeds to sow. We are in the process also of finalizing our plans for our late Autumn-early Winter CSA season. Registration for that will begin in July.

John has been making some adjustments on our irrigation system. Seems like this is always needing some "fine tuning". But, it has been such a lifesaver!

We are praying that there will be no droughts this summer!

It won't be long now until our wonderful, much requested Tomatoes will be being harvested. The Heirlooms, Slicers and Cherry tomatoes are all looking really good! I could eat tomatoes 3 times a day, they are so good! There's something about our soil that just turns out the most delicious tomatoes!

Judy's Kitchen tip: Always keep the following on hand: Olive Oil (the finest you can find for using on your salads), balsamic vinegar, honey, and lemons for creating your best salad dressings. Fresh herbs also. Nothing takes the place of fresh herbs for your salads! They are wonderful used in drinks, baked goods, salads, and soups!

Everything in your CSA box from Doe Run Farm can be enjoyed by Vegans! Most everything in the box can also be eaten raw either as a snack, in a salad, or used in stir fry!

Don't forget to visit our website often: http://www.doerunfarmtn.com/ Until next time, "Don't wear perfume in the garden, unless you want to be pollinated by bees" (Anne Raver)

Farm Day 2009 Has Come and Gone

Farm Day was last Sunday, June 7 and we had a wonderful turnout of families here to visit! We were blessed with lovely weather, although a bit warm, beautiful music from our shareholders, and lots of lively conversation! Everyone seemed to enjoy touring the farm and asking questions about how their food is grown. We especially enjoyed the children and we hope they had fun with the activity planned just for them. Bridget and Elisabeth kept them busy while Mom and Dad toured the farm.

We are busy here as usual, getting ready to do more planting, and pulling out spent plants. I'ts a constant cyle of planting, tearing out the old and putting in new plants here at the farm. Some of our different varieties of yellow summer squash are now ready, as well as beets for which we have many requests. Beets are so nutritious and delicious when roasted. To keep the color in beets when boiling, add a bit of lemon juice to your water.

Our cabbage is really looking beautiful this summer-the row covers have helped so much!
To keep the cabbage odor minimized when cooking, place a small pan of vinegar near the cooking cabbage. Helps a bit.

We lost one of our Delaware heritage breed hens this week to a predator. Not a trace left behind. Not sure what took her away, but she is gone. She was a pretty one too! Just have to accept the fact that we will lose a few, but we do what we can to keep it to a minimum.

Barry our son-in-law is driving for us two days a week now, delivering our CSA boxes. This is a big help to us, allowing us to spend more time on the farm and not loose two days per week here. Things get way behind here in a hurry if we are not here to take care of things. We harvest every day and we still have a hard time keeping up.

That's about all the news here for now, it's time to get back to work!

Have a wonderful week, and we thank you for visiting our Doe Run Farm - Farm Blog!

During the early part of July we will be opening our on farm Country Farm Stand. Watch for the opening date, days of the week and hours which will be posted in late June, under the EVENTS link on our website, www.doerunfarmtn.com.

Visit our website and the Farm Blog often to keep up to date with the happenings around here!

First CSA Week is now history...

We trust that everyone is enjoying their first CSA box of the summer season! We have been busy around here. We have added four new CSA delivery locations this summer which is keeping us hoppin'--to say the least. We are so happy to meet the many new additions to our CSA community! The first couple of deliveries of the season are always hectic, learning how to get around in new businesses or neighborhoods when dropping off the boxes, starting new routines, taking new routes to get to where we need to be and arriving when we need to be there, and making sure the box counts are correct with no one being left out. Whew--did I say hectic? Luckily the weather cooperated last week and we were so grateful for that. John and I were talking about how just about every delivery made in to Nashville last year on Tuesdays, it rained, or it was really cold and also raining. A beautiful day is a true gift to us!

We have been working diligently trying to mow down all the tall grass that has grown so much during this rainy time of year. It is really hard to mow, very thick and almost too wet. But if we don't get it cut a bit shorter, it will never dry out enough to mow really close like we prefer to keep it. As you know, a farm always has nuisances ---such as ticks (which I hate!), so we try to keep the lawn and pastures really cut short, which seems to help somewhat. Though we still have to check ourselves well at the end of each day for the little buggers. I have been thinking about getting some guinea hens, as ticks are a mainstay of their diet. They are funny too, they like to roost in the trees at night, and I'm told are as good as a watchdog at alerting you to visitors. Evidently you have to get guinea keets, which are young guineas, to keep them from wandering away. The adult ones do wander.

This week when I have been mowing between rain showers, my newest hens (the Delaware breed), followed me around on the riding mower, eating the insects in the grass. I couldn't believe that the noise didn't scare them off. I guess the feast I stirred up with the mower compensated for the noise.

Just down the road, a pair of geese are rearing a small family of six babies near a small pond that is right beside the road that leads to our farm. They look like big fur balls, and are ever so cute! In addition to the pair with the babies, there are about 8 other fully grown geese there also. A year or so ago, another couple of geese reared 6 babies there, and we have always heard that they will come back to their "home place". I can't help but wonder if these adult geese are the babies that were born there last year. Life is never dull here, and that is wonderful!

Today is a very special day! A day to remember all of our Veterans that paid the ultimate price for our many freedoms! When I visited Arlington National Cemetery a few years ago, I was so touched and extremely grateful to those brave soldiers that gave their lives so that I could be free. There were so many. For those that are serving today, let's keep them in our thoughts and prayers also.

Until next time, Peace....

CSA begins this coming week!

The bluebirds are building their nests, the swallows are in the barn, and we begin our CSA next Tuesday with deliveries to the Nashville area. It's definitely Springtime!

Sowing and planting are still going on as they will be all summer, and the farm is alive with activity. We are trying to stay ahead (somewhat) of the weeds which are our nemesis around here!

We are having a dickens of a time getting our carrots to germinate. We have planted twice, with plans for one more try in the works. We don't give up easily.

The hens are enjoying all the freshly cut grass in the pasture and everything has greened up wonderfully here this spring.

We are looking forward to an Afternoon at the Farm on Sunday May 24 to be held from 3 to 7 pm, and we hope that many of our CSA families will be able to come visit! For all the requests we get to come see the farm, here is your opportunity! This event is set aside just for our CSA Shareholders and their families.

'Till next time, have a wonderful weekend!

This Is A Good Day For...

Attending your Church with family in tow.
Curling up with your favorite book, and listening to the soft rain as it falls.
Making cookies with the children.
Fixing something "really" special and soothing for tonight's dinner.
Renting a family movie and watching it with your family.
Getting out the home movies of vacations past and enjoying it with family.
Taking a nap.
Sitting on your front porch and visiting with friends in the neighborhood.
Enjoying every moment!

Farm News:
It's really wet and the ground is truly soaked here. Right now we could use a bit of dry weather, but we are very thankful that our plants in the field are in raised beds right not, or covered by hoophouses. This has been our wettest spring in recent years! A bit of this kind of weather would be appreciated along about late July or August! But you take what nature deals you.

We have another field ready for planting, the mulch is layed down, but it's too wet to get in there to plant, so we wait. One thing about it, you dare not try to work in a wet field, it would take a lot of work to undo the damage you do to the soil if you work the field while it's wet. We learned that early on!

In about two weeks our Summer harvest CSA begins and we are excited about seeing past CSA shareholders and meeting our new shareholders! Our CSA has doubled for this summer, and we are seeing a real interest in folks wanting to know more about the food they put on their tables. We are happy that there is more interest in eating foods grown in the region, rather than buying food that has traveled many miles before reaching our kitchens. I don't know about you, but this makes a lot of sense to me. The longer the food has been off the vine, plant, bush etc,. the more nutrition is lost. You can have flavor, variety, and nutrition if you eat from a farm in your area. Plus, you help support a small farm that grows food for us all to enjoy!

We are looking forward to another CSA season at Doe Run Farm! See you soon!

Happy Earth Day!

Today is the day when we can all take a moment and think about what it is that we can do, to make our environment better for ourselves and for everyone on the planet Earth. It can be as simple as recycling, limiting our use of plastics, carpooling when we can, eat organically as much as possible, but most importantly, we can teach our children, nieces, nephews etc., how they can start now to do their part in making the Earth a safer place for all of creation for the years to come. Now is the time, let's seize this moment with our younger generation.



It's too bad that in my generation and the generations before mine, that our consciousness was not raised to the level that it is today about protecting our planet. But, it's never to late to begin to do better! Let's all try.



News from our farm: Evidently a predator had it's way with the bantham hen. It just up and disappeared, leaving a mound of feathers behind to alert me of it's demise. The little bantham rooster has been totally "lost" since his hen was carried away. So, we now have another hen house and three new Heritage breed (Delawares) hens to keep him company. He is totally happy!



Today we pulled the plastic (another way of saying that we covered the hoophouse) today on the new Haygrove high tunnel (hoophouse). All 200 feet of it. Quite a job for John and Ty. But they did it and soon it will be full of plants for our CSA shareholders.



Our CSA has grown by leaps and bounds this year, and we feel extremely blessed to have such wonderful farm supporters. Without them, I think we could not continue to farm. On a farm so much of the time it's feast or famine--never knowing how much to plant, how much will not be sold, or have you planted enough to satisfy the needs of your customers. It's just a guessing game really. As far as our CSA goes, I think more folks are wanting to cook and eat at home with their families, and I know for a fact that they want to eat local and eat fresh and that's where we come in! Fresh to us here at Doe Run Farm (Farm to Table CSA) means, just harvested.

Our goal is to deliver your vegetables, produce, and berries within hours of their harvest!



We still have a few shares left for the summer season CSA if you or friends of yours would like to join us for the summer. At last count there were about a dozen shares left for purchase. We begin our season the third week in May and it runs through the first week of September. Check out our website:www.doerunfarmtn.com, for full information and prices. We have 3 share sizes to offer you this year-there's a size box for everyone!

Farm News

Planting season is in full force around here these days. Plus, we sow seeds almost daily to go into the beds in a few short weeks. Wednesday found us planting about 2,000 transplants, mostly broccoli, red choi, cabbage and Swiss chard. The fields are muddy today, so we will stay out of them until they are dry enough for us to work in them again.

For those following the antics of our bantam rooster and hen, the hen is still setting on her nest of 10 eggs. Nothing's happened there yet, but it should any day now. As a general rule all the eggs don't hatch, but we should have some tiny banthams before long. The mother hen is very pretty, light brown and gray with a little tuft of black on her head that resembles a crown..so cute!

We have some beautiful lettuces and other salad greens coming on that look wonderful! I can hardly wait for some crunchy, fresh delicious lettuce! In the winter we don't purchase lettuce or tomatoes out of season (frankly we don't purchase much that's not in season anyway), as they don't have any flavor, and flavor is what it's all about! We actually had a customer say to us when we were at the Franklin Farmer's Market in Franklin Tennesse, "wow, I never knew that lettuce had a taste to it". That was a real compliment for our lettuces!

I spoke too quickly about our soon to be new bantham hens. John just came in and had checked their nest--something had eaten all the eggs, most likely a possum or skunk! Sad, but the little hen is lucky she escaped the nest raiders grip. She is fine, but no baby banthams this time around. Had it been a racoon that had gotten the eggs, most likely it would have gotten our hen too!

The weekend is here and we wish you a good one, hopefully with some nice weather for you to get out and enjoy!

Week of Firsts

First thing I want to do today is chant "rain rain go away, come again another day"...say maybe in the sweltering heat of August! We need to get into the fields! The worst thing you can do is try to work the soil wet, or harvest when things are soaked. Rain is forecast for us again tomorrow!

First thing I did yesterday was find out where my Bantam hen goes as soon as she eats and preens a bit. I found her (with the help of binoculars) up under an old tree that had fallen on the property, way back inside an area on the ground, where the dirt had eroded to the point of fitting her body perfectly. Either that or she scratched out a place for herself, which is most likely. She is setting on eggs, so before you know it we will have bantam babies, unless a critter gets them. She is a pretty hen and I've heard that the Bantam breed are good mothers.

On the way to feed the chickens yesterday, I spotted my first snake of the season. Spring is truly here! I actually reached down to pick up something from the ground and where the grass was a bit high, I saw something about 3 inches long, that looked like a narrow piece of tire rubber. Then the light went on---it was a black snake. It was ushered back into the trees and left to roam.

We heard yesterday that our two grandsons that live near Huntsville Alabama both made AAU basketball teams for the first time. This was their first try and they are excited-they won't be the least bit bored this summer. They will have two worn out parents though.

We ran out of seedling trays for the first time ever, and hopefully our trays that we ordered will be in today, so we can sow more seeds. Our CSA has grown by leaps and bounds for the summer season, and we are staying quite busy around here.

Every now and then the sun peeks through the clouds, and makes me yearn for sunny days. I will leave you with a favorite quote of mine...
"For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, For love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends." ~~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ready for Spring?

The pace at the farm is quickening with the arrival of spring! The greenhouse is bulging with plants soon to be transplanted into the fields and high tunnels. More seeds have been planted and will soon be germinating in the greenhouse. It's fun to see what seedlings are peeking up through the cells in the newly sown trays. Their growth stages are really amazing to me.

John has been lightly tilling the fields in preparation for laying the drip tape and plastic mulch that we use on every raised bed. Yes, we do grow in raised beds and yes that does wonders for your plants. Raised beds warm the soil earlier in the spring, minimize erosion, keep the plants cleaner, and help to keep down weeds. But on our farm and most other Organic farms, weeds are a real issue. We try to stay after them, but what can I say--they always get ahead of us as we don't use anything but vinegar to try to keep them in tow along with a few good hoes, and a good weed eater. No chemicals allowed.

Once we start planting in the fields, we take turns riding the transplanter, for the plants that can be planted this way, the other drives the tractor that pulls the transplanter along. I have a time trying to keep the tractor straight on the plastic beds, but I get through it. Lots of things have to be hand planted here, especially in the tunnels as the tractor and plastic mulch layer cannot get inside. We go in there, shape the beds, fertilize, lay the drip tape, and transplant our plants. Most of the flowers this year will be planted on mulch instead of by hand. All of our herbs will be on plastic mulch so they will be clean when picked. Once things are planted everything has to be tended to until harvest time comes. (fertilized, monitored for pests, hand picking pests, etc) So goes life on the farm!

Thought for today "we can do no great things, only small things with love" Mother Teresa

Smiles of Summer

It's hard to believe-- due to the last few days of dreary, damp and rainy weather that we have had, that summer will be here before you know it! And with summer, comes our CSA deliveries and the smiles that greet us at our pick up locations along the way. These are the same smiles that we remember while we harvest, pack and load the van for deliveries. They get us through the heat, the rain, the physical "tiredness" that farm work brings, and they boost us emotionally when we need it the most. It's easy to take a smile for granted, but you never know how your smile, can give someone just the "lift" they need to get through their day. It has happened to us many, many times by way of our CSA community.

Our CSA is set to begin mid May this year-hopefully the weather will cooperate. Having the high tunnels helps in that respect. We are adding new pick up locations this year as our CSA is growing. We will be delivering to the Old Hickory/Mt. Juliet area and the MTSU area near campus in Murfreesboro. We encourage those interested to get registered, our shares for those pick up locations this summer are limited.

To all of our farm supporters, we thank you for your confidence in us, your loyalty and your friendship. We look forward to seeing you during our summer growing season!

Tiny Seedlings...

We're beginning to sow seed into trays getting ready to have lots and lots of transplants! While sowing the seeds, some so tiny the naked eye can hardly see them, it never ceases to amaze me what develops into something so wonderful in such a short time. That is one of the things I think I like most about growing food. After all your hard work of looking after them from the seedling stage to the transplant stage and on to their harvest, they challenge you, and you have high expectations for them! Kind of like child rearing in a way.

We will be putting up the new Haygrove tunnel very soon, and before you know it the high tunnels will be brimming with plants again.

Tonight we are enjoying the last of the Butternut squash that I have "hoarded" for winter use, along with a few carrots, and some of those great sweet potatoes and turnips. I will just simply roast them all together in a 425 degree oven, (after cutting them into small chunks). With a quick toss in a bowl to which you have added about 2-3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil, Cracked Pepper and Kosher salt, in they go on a foil lined baking sheet until they are fork tender! So sweet, so delicious and so good for you. If you have any left from CSA..give them a try!

Hope you have enjoyed this wonderful Sunday that God has blessed us with today!

Your Farmers,
John & Judy
Posted by Judy McGary at 11:45 AM 0 comments 

Winter CSA Ends this Week

Good Morning!

Our winter CSA will come to an end this week, and we will be turning our thoughts to planting late Spring, early Summer crops. We want to say how much we appreciate our CSA shareholders extending their friendship to us, as well as their support of our farm operation. We thank you. We look forward to growing good things for your families again this Summer!

Our mailbox is bulging with seed catalogs every day now, though we use only a few of the same ones every year. It is fun though to look through all of them and dream of summer harvests!

Since opening registration for the Summer CSA season, registrations are coming in regularly.I have no doubt that we will sell out of the shares we are offering for this summer. I think more families are realizing that it's smart to eat more meals at home these days. In view of the state of the economy, we have decided that our CSA share price per delivery will remain the same as last year, but we have also decided to extended our CSA season for an additional two weeks. We hope this will encourage more families to eat from a local farm and join us at the "Farm to Table CSA", at Doe Run Farm.

This week we will have lots of greens for our CSA families, many which can be used in stir fry which is so easy to do. Getting things prepared before you are ready to stir fry is the secret to this technique. Elisabeth, one of our wonderful Volunteers, passed this recipe along for you to try! She is a creative, wonderful cook! Here it is:

This seems to be pretty good on most veggies that can be stir-fried. Lovely on Bok-Choy. Just stir-fry and toss with this sauce

1 tsp. low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp. fish sauce
1 tsp. chili-garlic sauce (Sriracha)
1 tsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. minced garlic
1/4 tsp. lime juice

Stir together, toss with veggies, serve.

Have a wonderful week!

Ahh...Fresh Escarole for your Table!

Good Morning!

The snow flurries yesterday were beautiful, weren't they? Makes you want to settle in and read a book by the fire!

We were in Nashville yesterday taking our Son to the airport after a wonderful visit for a few, short days. When he left his residence in Chicago to come visit us on Friday, it was a chilly 30 degrees below zero--that's not wind chill--that's actual temperature! We won't be traveling to visit him in Chicago until it warms up-that's for sure !

Here are a couple of recipes that you might want to try using the Escarole that's in your Nashville and Franklin CSA share boxes today. I also like to use the Escarole just julianned and added to my Green salads. Its a wonderful green! Have a wonderful day!


Kim Williams.....Madison Alabama Shareholder contributed this recipe:

Beans with Escarole (Kim's Version)

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 head escarole
salt to taste
black pepper to taste
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 1/2 tsp. olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can cannellini beans, undrained
3 sprigs fresh parsley chopped

Heat 1 Tbsp. olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Toss in escarole, turning to coat with oil. Season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring occasionally 10 minutes or 'til tender. In another skillet, heat 1 1/2 tsp. olive oil over medium heat and add garlic. Pour in beans with the liquid. Simmer 'til creamy, about 10 minutes. Add escarole and parsley to beans and simmer 10 more minutes. Serve with corn muffins.


Another variation of the recipe above, contributed by Elisabeth Green-
Streeter, Madison Alabama Shareholder and Site Coordinator in Madison.

Beans with Escarole (Elisabeth's Version)

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 head escarole
salt to taste
black pepper to taste
1/4 tsp. ground chipotle pepper
1 1/2 tsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can cannellini beans, undrained
2 Tbsp. basil leaves, finely sliced (Mine were frozen, I'm sure fresh would be lovely.

Heat 1 Tbsp. olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Toss in escarole, turning to coat with oil. Season with salt, pepper and red pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally 10 minutes or 'til tender. In another skillet, heat 1 1/2 tsp. olive oil over medium heat and add garlic. Pour in beans with the liquid. Simmer 'til creamy, about 10 minutes. Add escarole and basil to beans and simmer about 10 more minutes. Serve with crusty Italian bread.