Newsletter For Friends

  February 2009

Greeting from DanaRay Farm,

Well I was looking back at what I’ve written in the past and I saw I was complaining about $2.00 propane in 2006. If only propane was $2.00 now! We started the new heated greenhouse hoping to start everything out there this year but in 4 days we used 25 pounds of propane…and at $3.50 a pound that’s $87.50…so needless to say we started the first flats of seedlings under lights in the basement again. These 16 flats are all up and putting on their first true leaves. We’ll start the greenhouse this week like we’ve done in the past. I’ll be starting a lot of seedlings then including artichokes, the first ultra-early tomatoes for the high tunnel, more Asian greens, celery, celeriac, some flowers, the first cabbage and broccoli, basil, parsley and some other herbs. I’ll be starting a lot more rhubarb from seed as I’m quite amazed how popular it is with our CSA.

We’ve added ten shares to the CSA for this year and after going through our very lengthy waiting list I still haven’t filled them all. I’m quite puzzled by this. When these people signed up on our waiting list they were excited about joining. I think (I hope) it’s just this horrid economy…everyone’s a little scared and everyone is backing off of any large commitment of money. Ray says I need to just calm down…it’s early…people aren’t thinking of local vegetables when there’s snow on the ground. But it’s not like I’m selling flat screen TVs…I’m selling food…good, fresh, produce and herbs and fruit from our farm. Our current shareholders are happy with our program; only a very few don’t renew their share. People still need to eat…don’t they? Ray is right about me though…at any market or craft fair we go to if we haven’t nearly sold out by an hour into the event I will usually look at him and say nervously “it’s kinda slow…” and his response is always “it’s early Dana…it’s early,” and at the end of the day we will have done well. That being said…we do have a few shares still available for the 2009 CSA. And just a reminder; if you are signed up for the CSA don’t forget that your first payment is due by February 15^th.

We’re going to grow some corn this year…just a little bit to give it try. We’ve picked out some interesting open pollinated varieties. All of them are heirloom varieties with staggered harvest dates so chances are they won’t cross pollinate. This means we’ll be able to save the seeds and have them true to type. The varieties we chose are Triple Play, an early tri colored corn with white, yellow and blue kernels. The second to be ready will be Luther Hill, developed in 1902 it’s a white sweet corn adapted for the foothills of the Appalachians and is one of the parents of the Silver Queen hybrid. The third will be Country Gentleman introduced in1891; it’s a shoe peg (meaning it’s kernels and rows are irregular) white corn. And we’ll finished up the season with Texas Honey June; a white corn with “a true corn flavor with a sweetness reminiscent of honey.” I can almost taste it now. The seeds on all these varieties are quite expensive so we just bought a little of each…so we may not have much (any) to give to shareholders the first year. But we plan on saving the seed so we’ll have plenty for 2010 if all goes well.

Here’s just a highlight of some of the unusual vegetables we’ll raise this year. The first is Viroflay Spinach. If you’ve ever picked spinach it’s an instant backache but this variety has leaves that grow to ten inches long and are still tender…so you can have spinach and I can be minus the backache. We’ll try Oxheart Carrots, a blunt but very round and large carrot that can be a pound each. They are an excellent heirloom storage carrot. Of course we’ll raise mangel beets again…another large storage vegetable that has a mild beet flavor. And we’ll add Lutz beets…another heirloom red storage beet. Celeriac will return so everyone who tried and loved Dana’s Cream of Celeriac soup recipe we’ll have more this year. We’ll add Zapotec Pleated Tomato, Japanese Black Trifele Tomato and German Striped Tomato to the Beefsteak, Italian Piriform and Oaxacan Pink Tomatoes we raised last year. For little tomatoes we’re raising Yellow and Red Pear Tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes. We’ll be adding a round sweet pepper to the two varieties we had last year and four varieties of hot peppers (hopefully the goats don’t eat them this year). And a long oriental variety of cucumber called Suyo. We’ll try okra and artichokes also. It’s always fun trying these unusual vegetables…one of the best things is the amazed or skeptical looks we get when we present the shareholders round sweet peppers or one pound carrots or some new (to us) Asian or Mediterranean green (etc.). “Ok Dana what is it? And how do I cook it?” “Just try it! Try it!” All these heirlooms were developed with a purpose and it’s nice to know they translate into these times. It keeps it fresh and fun and we don’t want to get boring.

We’re working on the farm store a bit; sprucing it for the coming season. Cleaning up and painting, Ray has hung some sheet rock and spackled. We’re making an area for the CSA distribution, giving us a bit more space to spread out. And we’ll keep the CSA separate; so it won’t interfere with other customers coming to purchase eggs and soap, canned goods and honey. It’ll also give us more display space for these items.

Around the middle of the month we will plant the first transplants into the high tunnel along with direct sowing the first loose leaf lettuce, turnips, carrots and radish. The difference with the high tunnel is quite amazing…that a few layers of plastic can turn February into April conditions and April into June conditions. It’s now the forth winter of planting inside and kale, collards, Swiss chard and spinach can be almost guaranteed to winter through…which means our zone 5 outside is zone 7+ inside.

The new Leghorn layers have settled in well and we’re getting quite a few white eggs. Some of these eggs are already coming up to full size. The leghorns are a bit flightier than our brown egg layers. You’ve got to move a bit slower around them. Actually it’s a bit amusing, toss the feed into the feeders and all the brown and black hens dive into the feed and all the white hens kinda bounce into the air a foot with a cluck and then decide it’s safe and start eating. It’s like the difference between a beagle and a small terrier…the brown egg layer is like the beagle; quite calm and the leghorn are like the terrier; high strung and bouncy.

Talk to you soon,

Dana and Ray

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