summitspringsfarm.net

In the last post, I forgot to mention that we participated in a statewide series of CSA fairs back on Sunday, Feb. 9th.  These annual fairs are sponsored by MOFGA and happen in cities and towns all over the state.  We got ourselves organized and managed to be present at three of the fairs:  I went up to Norway, Kate went to Auburn, and Sonya and Lydia went down to Portland.  We all had a great time visiting with the other CSA farmers there and meeting and greeting folks who came out to learn about CSAs in general and pick up literature and info. about the farms in attendance.  We want to especially thank friends and CSA members Trisha Walker and Carnie Brewer for their help at the Portland fair.  Your efforts were much appreciated, ladies!

We are pleased to announce the launch of Summit Springs Farm bread shares for the 2010 season.  Each Monday, Farmer John will morph into Baker John and create a variety of breads and baked goods right here in our kitchen at the farm.  A bread share for the season costs $95, and members will receive a loaf every week for 20 weeks (the same 20 weeks that the CSA season runs for).  All of the breads are made with organic flour, local honey, and as many other local and organic ingredients as we can find.  The plan is to rotate amongst four or five bread varieties from week to week, including:

John’s Daily Bread - a light wheat bread;
Cornmeal Wheat - a dense whole wheat bread with a bit of cornmeal and maple syrup;
Honey Oatmeal - a sweet, chewy whole wheat bread packed with rolled oats and local honey;
Seeded Rye - a dense rye/wheat combination with caraway and flax seeds;
Ciabatta - a classic, airy Italian white bread;
and more as inspiration hits!

Bread shares are available only to those who can pick them up here on the farm during our regular Tuesday afternoon CSA pick-ups, from 3 - 7 PM.  I’ll also be making extra loaves to sell during CSA pick-ups at $5.50 per loaf.  Plus, there will be other baked goods for sale each week, including cookies, muffins, quick breads, pizza dough, and more (not necessarily all of these items each week…perhaps 2 or 3 “non-bread” baked goods each week, depending on the whims of the baker).

Please send us an e-mail at summitspringsfarm@fairpoint.net or give the farm a call at 998-2196 if you’re interested in a bread share or if you have any questions about how it all works.

Hello, all, and welcome to March!  Boy, does it feel like spring out there, especially this past weekend when the temps crept up into the 50s.  There’s hardly any snow at all here anymore.  The farm season is slowly getting started…it really won’t be long now until some veggies start coming in!

Last Monday, Sonya got the greenhouse up and running and sowed seeds in a dozen or so trays, including greenhouse and seedling tomatoes, onions, leeks, celeriac, sunflowers, and more.  Much of this has already begun to sprout, believe it or not.

John has been working on random outdoor projects including the usual chicken care and woodcutting.  Tonight is a big night for our chickens as we merge the flocks together to make room for the arrival of 50 pullets towards the end of the month.  A pullet is a young hen, usually about 3 or 4 months old and just on the cusp of laying.  When we discovered that our friend and fellow farmer, Dan Perron, of Sumner Valley Farm was offering pullets for sale this spring, we jumped at the chance.  The pullets are more expensive than newborn chicks, but the savings come from those 3 or 4 months of not having to care for or buy feed for the birds.  By this time next month, we should have a total hen population of around 110.

In the last blog post, I talked about gearing up for our very first foray into chicken butchering.  It went well, and we followed that up with two more mornings of, er, slaughter.  This certainly isn’t pleasant work…as the hatchet man, I have perhaps the toughest task of all…but it’s a part of life on the farm, at least on any farm where animals are involved.  As with anything, Sonya, Kate, and I got more comfortable and more efficient with the process the more we did it (the process being, more or less:  catch the bird, kill the bird, scald the bird, pluck the bird, dress the bird), and we greatly appreciated the help and company we got from a handful of CSA members during our 2nd and 3rd chicken processing days.  Many thanks to Brian McNulty, Kevin Murray, Tom and Emily Marczak, and David Horowitz for coming by to learn with us!

In other news, we have found and hired our two apprentices for this season!  Rachael Oyer is from upstate New York and will working with us from mid-April until October.  Corey Maddox is from Illinois and will be with us from May until late August.  I’ll post more info. about these ladies once they actually get here, but for now we’re just happy that our apprentice hunt is over.  Kate Jones is still here, too.  The start date for her preceptorship at a birth center near Nashua, New Hampshire was pushed back until the first of May, so she’ll be sticking around until then, helping us out with chicken care and a few spring projects.

Something that Sonya and I spent a lot of time working on in January and February was the farm’s organic certification application.  The detailed and lengthy paperwork required by MOFGA was exhausting to work through.  However, as a consumer, it’s good to see that such high standards are expected and that such meticulous record-keeping is required before a farm can call its wares “organic”.  It was a great relief and very exciting, too, to finish the app. and get it in the mail last week.  Now we have to wait for the application to be reviewed and for an inspector to come and talk with us and inspect the farm.  We’ll keep you posted…

We’ve settled on a date for this month’s potluck.  Come on over if you can on Friday, March 26th from 5 - 9 PM for food, conversation, and perhaps music?  Also, perhaps a bonfire if it’s not too chilly.  Please bring a dish to share and chairs or a blanket to sit on/eat on.

Finally, we want to give an enthusiastic shout-out to our friends, Zakk Maher and Emmy Andersson, for the opening of their new store, Square Root Natural Foods, right here in Poland!  The store is located next to the new Northeast Bank branch in the Dunkin Donuts/Subway/Family Dollar shopping plaza on Route 26.  The space is lovely and is filling up fast with fresh organic produce, bulk goods, herbs and spices, vitamins and supplements, and much more.  You’ll find Summit Springs Farm eggs there, too, and perhaps some of our produce once the season gets rolling.  Please go check out the store and support this exciting new local endeavor!  They opened about a week ago but have scheduled an official grand opening day of entertainment and celebration for Saturday, March 20th.  See you there!  For more info., visit the store’s page on Facebook or their fledgling website.

Hello, all, and apologies for the silence of the blog!  We are home in Maine and have been for some time.  We’ve been keeping busy with paperwork and prep for the upcoming season and trying to get and stay healthy.  It seems like either me, Sonya, or Lydia or some combination thereof has been under the weather since the middle of January…not fun.

Summit Springs Farm now has its very own Facebook page.  If you’re a Facebooker, click on over and become a fan!

As of a few weeks ago, we stopped going to the every-other-week winter market on Wednesdays in Portland, because we just don’t have enough eggs.  Both groups of birds have slowed way down this winter, and we’re not having any trouble selling all the eggs we have through friends and CSA members picking them up here on the farm or to some of Kate’s classmates in Bridgton.  If you’d like eggs, give us a call at 998-2196, and we’ll see what we’ve got on hand.

However, Portlanders can rejoice because an indoor winter market is starting up this coming Saturday (2/13) at 85 Free St. across from the Civic Center from 10am-1pm.  A number of familiar faces from the summer market will be there as well as some craft vendors and prepared foods sellers.  Check it out!

I have to return to the topic of chickens and report that we plan to, er, thin the herd a bit this week.  Some of our older brown chickens have clearly reached the end of their laying days this winter, so this Thursday morning, probably starting around 8am, we plan to process some of them.  If you’re interested in learning how to butcher a chicken or just want to help out, come on over.  Every helper will be sent home with a freshly butchered, organic stew chicken.

And finally, our first potluck of 2010 is gonna be next weekend:  Saturday 2/13 from 10am-1pm.  Bring along something brunch-y to share and be ready for lots of great food and conversation.  We look forward to catching up with you!

Hello all, and a very happy new year!  First off, I want to remind folks that the intrepid Kate Jones will be at the Portland Farmers’ Market in Monument Square this Wednesday, Jan. 6th, between 11 AM and 1 PM selling our delicious farm-fresh eggs.  Go see her!  Bring her a cup of hot chocolate!  And stick around to see what the other farmers braving the elements out there have to offer.

I’m writing from Cape Coral, Florida, at the home of Sonya’s folks.  Our big winter trip began a couple weeks ago, and we’re having a blast so far.  One of our first stops was in Washington DC to visit my cousin.  He lives on Capitol Hill, just a block or two away from the famous Eastern Market, DC’s oldest continually operated fresh food market, up and running since 1873.  A fire a few years ago gutted the place and gave rise to an enthusiastic community effort to rebuild and revamp the market, and the results are impressive.  The fine old brick structure houses dozens of permanent vendors selling seafood, fruits and veggies, baked goods, meats, and prepared foods.  Outside, an open air farmers’ market featured veggies, Christmas wreaths, and other crafts.  We bought some wonderful fresh pasta and marinara sauce plus a crusty baguette for a quick dinner one evening during our stay.  Outstanding!

Yesterday, we got back from a trip down to the Everglades in southern Florida.  Down there, it’s either swamp or farmland…many of your winter veggies from the grocery store probably originate here.  This is industrial agriculture in action…endless rows of tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, a sea of beans, an ocean of summer squash, groves of royal palm and fruit trees.  We saw massive irrigation systems, incredible amounts of black plastic mulch, and the vans and trucks dropping of migrant pickers and portable toilets in the fields where harvesting needed to happen.  The black plastic really was a shock.  Sonya tells me that when the crop is done, bulldozers rip up the plastic which then gets piled in the center of the field and burned.  Not good…  Most houseplants originate down here, too, and we passed by massive nurseries.

There are bright spots, however.  One is Robert Is Here, a fruit stand in Homestead, family owned and operated since 1960, when 6-year-old Robert was set up by the side of the road to try and sell an excess of cucumbers from his father’s farm.  He stayed there, the place grew and thrived, and today it’s a big and busy operation with a petting zoo, an old truck and tractor display, tropical fruits and veggies piled high, a line of Robert Is Here jams, flavored honeys, and hot sauces, etc.  The main attraction, however, are the tropical fruit milkshakes.  I had strawberry key lime…Sonya had mango pineapple…they are big and filling and worth every penny.

Just down the road is Paradise Farms, an organic operation specializing in micro greens, herbs, edible flowers, and salad mix which they wholesale to high-end restaurants in the Miami area.  They also grow some fruits and have just started growing oyster mushrooms.  Sonya lived and worked here during the winter of 2004 and enjoyed being back.  She caught up a bit with Gabriele Marewski, the founder of the farm, and got a kick out of wandering around, showing us what was what and soaking in all the changes that have occurred there since her last visit.  Farms–the creative ones at least–are constantly evolving, and it was encouraging for us to see the changes at Paradise, a successful and vibrant farm doing things the right way, a beautiful oasis in a sea of monocultures and chemical agriculture.

Today, we motor up to St. Petersburg to see my uncle then we head west to Texas.  I’ll try to keep posting!

Our winter travels officially began today.  This morning, I drove Sonya down to the train station in Portland for her journey to Kripalu in western Mass.  She’s taking a 2-day yoga workshop there and has been very excited about going!  Meanwhile, Lydia and I are here at the farm for another couple of days before we pick Son up and proceed south…stops in Connecticut and Washington D.C. are planned before the long haul down to Florida for Christmas.  I plan to blog here every now again to keep folks updated on our progress and note any interesting farm-y/food-y stuff we run across…stay tuned!

While we’re gone, Kate will be here keeping an eye on the place.  If you’d like eggs, call the farm at 998-2196.  Kate will be answering the phone if she’s here and checking for messages when she’s not.  Also, she’ll be driving down to Portland next week for the next installment of the Monument Square winter farmers’ market.  That’s on Weds. 12/23 from 11 AM until 1 PM.

For our CSA members, don’t forget that the deadline for signing up for next season is Jan. 1.  After that, we’ll be opening up to those on our waiting list and to the general public.  We’ve already heard from a number of folks, and we thank you for renewing your membership and supporting the farm!

From all of us:  May you and yours have a happy and healthy holiday season!

Sonya has recently sent an e-mail out concerning our new approach to CSA memberships at farmers’ markets next season, and I wanted to get that info. up here on the blog and elaborate about it some more.  Next season, we will not be offering “traditional”, boxed CSA shares for our market customers in Portland and Bridgton.  Instead, we are offering market shares.  A market share works like a credit line.  Customers pay $100 in advance and then have a credit line with us worth $110; that’s a 10% discount on anything we have for sale at market:  veggies, eggs, seedlings, and more. These shares can be used at the Portland Farmers‘ Market in Monument Square every Wednesday between 7 AM - 2 PM and at the Bridgton Farmers‘ Market every Saturday between 8 AM - 1 PM.

We decided to make this change for a number of reasons, chief among them the simple fact that it makes our market days less confusing for everyone involved.  For us, it can get stressful to have market customers waiting while we get our CSA members taken care of by walking them though the contents of that week’s share and helping them pack it all up.  Also, not having to bring several bins of CSA-bound produce with us each week frees up space for us to bring more veggies and other goods to sell at market.  Finally, it empowers our market customers in a number of ways.  Some folks find it challenging to make it to market each and every week to pick up their shares.  With a market share, they simply have a credit line that they can tap into whenever they make it to market.  Our market share members can also make their own choices.  They can buy a wide variety or use a chunk of their credit to buy 10 pounds of tomatoes; they can avoid veggies they don’t like and stock up on the ones they do.

If you’re interested in one or more market shares for next season, please click on over to our CSA sign-up form, print it out, fill it out, and return it to us!  The market share specifics are in the second half of the page about halfway down.  Traditional shares are available too, of course, and can be picked up here at the farm in Poland every Tuesday or in the parking lot of the Unitarian Universalist Church on Allen Avenue in Portland every Friday.

One final note:  I’ll be back in Portland’s Monument Square this Wednesday from 11 AM to 1 PM for the first installment of the every-other-week winter market.  I’ll have loads of eggs, and that’s it…I think the snow on Saturday has finally put an end to the remaining greens!  A few other farmers will be there, too, with pork, chicken, eggs, and root crops.  Check it out!

I’ll be heading down to Portland again this Weds. for the final installment of this season’s Monument Square market, armed with fresh eggs and lots of greens, including tot soi, kale, vitamin green, and possibly spinach.  Then, the market skips a week before resuming on Weds. 12/9 in winter market format:  still outside in the square but only from 11 am-1 pm.  Look for the handful of brave souls out there selling eggs, pork, beef, chicken, prepared foods, and some root crops.

Here on the farm, inside and outside work continues.  Sonya put her nose to the grindstone and worked on seeds…seeing what we have left, figuring out what we’ll need for next season, scouring catalogs and websites for the best prices, etc.  She called in a massive order to Johnny’s a few days ago, and we plan to take a little day trip up to Winslow next week to pick it all up.  It’s always a huge relief to get the seed order done for the upcoming season, and this year is no different!  Outside, I’m still working on getting the Field 2 deer fence down and put away, and each day, of course, I take care of the chickens.  They’ve continued to move around the fields, doing their thing.  Both groups are gradually moving closer to the greenhouse where they will spend the winter…not inside, but close by.  Egg production has been way down, but that’s not unusual for this time of year.

Thanks to everyone who came to last week’s potluck!  It was a small but lively group featuring lots of cute kids.  Best of all, my good friends, Terri and Ezra, and their new little fella, Rainer, made it up all the way from Somerville, MA, and then spent the night with us.  Good to catch up!  Thanks also to folks who have been dropping their leaves off here at the farm.  We still plan to get some of them on the fields before the snow flies and then save the rest for mulching some of next season’s crops.

Finally, here’s hoping everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Eat well and give thanks!

I will once again be going down to the Portland Farmers’ Market in Monument Square tomorrow with farm fresh eggs, many carrots, baby kale, chard, tot soi, and vitamin greens.  Hope to see you there!