Spoutwood Farm

CSA Harvest Guide : Week 12

Spoutwood Spotlight : Surplus

One of our members, Becky, brought a shopping basket to pick up her share today. Not only does the fresh, organic produce take an awesome picture, it is also a great visual representation of the bountiful harvest we had this week.

Along with squash, cucumbers, potatoes, onions, eggplant, peppers, green beans, tomatoes, swiss chard, lettuce, and parsley, each member who has a medium share, took home 10 tomatoes; the large shares received 19. It was an awesome harvest.

We hope that you are finding your shares to be loaded with great veggies, without being overwhelmed by the quantity. Giving you enough, without over doing it, is a fine line to walk. But the plants are happy and producing rapidly; there is more than enough to go around.

Over the last couple of weeks we determined what a good share size is, added some to that, then realized just how much surplus we have. Brett spent, and continues to spend, time looking for food pantrys that will accept fresh produce. Last week we were able to donate 350 tomatoes, and some summer squash, to a church in York. It was given out to people in need. This week we have nearly 400 tomatoes that we will donate tomorrow.

It is something that the Spoutwood staff feels good about; we hope that you do to.

Below is a shot of Brett's trunk just before we unloaded it at the church.

Today's Harvest

I mentioned above what you should expect to see in your bag this week, but it can't hurt to say it again. Each member received patty pan squash, yellow squash, potatoes, onions, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, swiss chard, lettuce, and parsley. Some locations should expect to find cucumbers, while the others took home green beans.

The only new comers to your share are two different tomato varieties; San Marzano and Roman Candle. They are both paste tomatoes.

Spoutwood Needs Bags

If you happen to have any plastic shopping bags laying around, feel free to drop them off at the farm. We need them to bag up the tomatoes each week, and we are running out!

Spoutwood Farm

CSA Harvest Guide : Week 11

Spoutwood Spotlight : Tomato Breakdown

It is hard to believe that we were once worried about the size of our tomato plants; they now tower over our heads! The plants are happy and producing rapidly. We planted multiple varieties, most of which you will find in your share this week. Below are pictures of our tomatoes, and brief descriptions, to help you know exactly what you're enjoying.

Tomato	Description
	Sun Gold: Our members are familiar with these tomatoes; they've been receiving them for weeks! They are golden-orange with a sweet taste. They are a perfect addition to salads (of course, only if you can resist eating them while you're preparing your greens). They are a vigorous variety so count on them to keep producing and appearing in your bag.
	Green Zebra: This variety produces fruit with dark green and yellow stripes. The flesh is lime-emerald in color. They are an excellent slicing tomato with a slightly tart taste. They are just starting to ripen here at Spoutwood; this week is the fist batch to be divvied up.
	Valencia: This variety is a wonderful orange color when ripe. It's taste is perfect for my buds; a fine balance between acidic and sweet. It's meaty flavor is said to be rich and buttery, with few seeds. If you haven't had a tomato and cheese sandwich yet this summer, please try it with a Valencia tomato! Add a little hummus, salt, pepper, and enjoy (thank me later).
	Brandywine: Please don't be alarmed by the appearance of your brandywine tomato - I promise, it tastes much better than it looks. Cut around the unappealing parts and enjoy this flavorful tomato. It has a pinkish tint and can weigh up to 1.5 lbs. Again, it is another slicing tomato, great on sandwiches. But also try it sliced, sans bread, with salt and pepper. Delicious.
	New Girl: Your standard, heavy-producing tomato, small and red with the expected tomato taste. It would be great quartered and added to salads, or sliced for -- you guessed it -- sandwiches. It is a little 'tougher' than our other varieties; it may be your best bet for making sauce at this point (paste tomatoes are on their way).
	Big Beef: This is an extra meaty variety that produces a large, 'beefy' fruit. They have a sweet, slightly acidic taste.
	Big Beef vs. New Girl: Even the Spoutwood staff has trouble telling these varieties apart. Your best bet is size. Big Beef is usually larger than the New Girl variety. It also seems that New Girl has a deeper all around red color.

Spoutwood Spotlight : 10,289.02 POUNDS

If you remember, our first harvest guide promised you "22 weeks of hoppin' fresh vegetables". Well, we are halfway there! It is bitter-sweet to reflect on the season and realize how quickly time is flying by.

Each week we harvest the vegetables and divide the take evenly among the membership. Before it is bagged and distributed, the produce is washed and weighed. In 11 weeks, the farm has produced 10,289.02 pounds of vegetables! That is roughly 108.3 pounds per share (not accounting for medium vs. large size share).

Below is a chart of the produce and total pounds harvested. Is anyone surprised that squash has been our most productive plant?

Today's Harvest

Today's harvest included: patty pan, yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, beans, garlic, green peppers, and parsley. The only new comers this week are peppers and parsley. Normally, I would describe the new produce, and offer ideas on how to wash and store it, but I think I might skip that this week and give proper attention to how we were able to include peppers this week.

As you might recall we had problem with our starting soil. The peppers seemed to suffer the most. They never reached optimum size before they were planted. Although we are optimistic that they will start producing, they haven't been very productive yet. We had to call for back up. The peppers in your share this week came from Singing Meadow Farm owned by Ben Stoltzfus. We are lucky to have a friend of the farm, Thomas Anonymous, who connected us with Ben. Thomas has been supplying the farm staff with eggs, cheese, and milk for quite some time. The produce he helps Ben sell is organic.

AND DON'T FORGET:   This Saturday, August 21 will be a workday here at the farm.  If you need to get some work done toward fulfilling your hours commitment, come out anytime from 8-5. 

Finally, Spoutwood is pleased to host a screening of Vanishing of the Bees Saturday eve at 7pm.  Filmed across the US, Europe, Australia and Asia, this beautiful documentary examines the alarming disappearance of honeybees and the greater meaning it holds about the relationship between mankind and Mother Earth.  The film is being shown in conjunction with The York County Beekeepers Association.