Parker Farm CSA Update

[sparkymonster.livejournal.com]

If you're a member of the Parker Farm CSA and planning to pick up your veggies today, you need to read this message from Stephen Parker.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Parker-Farm/193138255315

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Due to the unprecedented poor growing conditions of the 2009 season,which has caused enormous crop losses and is putting the future of the farm in grave danger,I am forced to suspend CSA drop offs for the balance of the season.I will be issuing refunds in the form of vouchers that can be redeemed at the stand at the various farmers markets I attend during the 2010 season.

in addition to the above,you may also continue to use your 25% member discount at the union and Central sq farmers markets for the 2009 season.Please share this news with your fellow members as on top of everything else this year,my hard drive crashed taking my e-mail list with it.

To get on the new e-mail list,send an e-mail to parkerfarmma@gmail.com.Thank you for your understanding,Steve
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Comments

[whaler.livejournal.com]

This is the second CSA I've heard of having to cancel. I wonder what was so bad about the weather.

[sparkymonster.livejournal.com]

I'd suggest readign this article: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/09/cool_wet_summer.html

"Governor Deval Patrick today asked federal officials to declare most of Massachusetts a disaster zone for agricultural production losses, which are expected to amount to tens of millions of dollars."

[kimmercake.livejournal.com]

oh wow, bummer. hope my CSA doesn't have this problem!

[kimmercake.livejournal.com]

heavy rains early in the summer wiped out a lot of stuff. may/june-ish.

[obie119.livejournal.com]

Connected with that was the late blight (same thing that caused the Irish potato famine) hitting the tomato crops - tomatoes are often the biggest profit center for small farms, and are the thing that makes the budget balance for the year.

Wal-Mart and Home Depot and some other big box stores (who often don't have staff trained in plant diseases like a nursery might) were selling tomato plants with early signs of the blight. The seedlings were going into home gardens, where the cool and wet June made conditions ripe for the airborne spread of these killer late blight spores. It has been ugly.

Another big crop for New England, pumpkins, also had a rough time with the cold June, and now they may be too far behind to be ready for Halloween.

Kale and lettuce did just great in the cool and rain, but they don't pay the bills like a tomato will!!!

[ron_newman]

Just curious -- if things are so bad for tomatoes this year, why am I always finding them in the farmers' markets each week?

[anyee.livejournal.com]

You'll still find them, I suspect, but they may not be in as large quantities for the duration of the season. They also my not be as good. Also, if the blight kills late, you may see them earlier but not later.

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

I only went to the Kendall market, but the tomatoes there were certainly much less plentiful, and I didn't see any heirloom varieties at all, in contrast to last year.

[lizzielizzie.livejournal.com]

They could be greenhouse tomatoes.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I thought that the point of a CSA was that a farmer could diversify, knowing that the crops were already bought, as it were. So while tomatoes and pumpkins not doing well is sucky, I don't understand why that would cause a farmer to completely suspend deliveries.

[narya.livejournal.com]

Bad doesn't mean non-existent.

I went to the tomato/corn festival at Verril farm this year and they were using *all* their tomatoes for the festival itself and had none left to sell. You could walk a little way into the fields and easily see that a majority of the plants were not in good shape at all.

[masswich.livejournal.com]

It was a strange summer so even farms that had diversified might have run into trouble. I use Red Fire Farm and other than more of a monoculture of food (more cukes, anyone?) they did not seem to suffer as bad as some other farms.

I feel bad for the farmer, who is taking it on the chin here.

[jennyelfenmass.livejournal.com]

Because everything in the fields got hit. In this case, I believe his corn was flooded. The growing season sucked due to all the rain and lack of heat / sun to help ripen crops. Also fields were too muddy to work. So all the crops got hit by this, as a result, even if the crops were bought, if they weren't producing, there's nothing to deliver.

[magid.livejournal.com]

This makes more sense than the tomato blight comment above. Thank you.

[magid.livejournal.com]

*wave*
Another Red Fire person here, definitely challenged by all the cukes earlier this year.

And what you say makes sense. I wasn't understanding the comment that said tomato blight + bad pumpkin season = no farm share.

[sparkymonster.livejournal.com]

Also, tomato blight doesn't hit every farmer. For instance, I know two farmer's in Maine one of whom had his entire tomato crop decimated by the blight, while the other suffered a partial loss (but with a ton of extra work hours put into saving the crop).

[jennyelfenmass.livejournal.com]

My grandparents grew their own cucumbers this year (along with some other crops) and they were a bit overwhelmed by how many they got. I think they've been pickling them.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I've pickled other things, but I don't have fridge space for fridge pickles, and I'm wicked nervous that the canning process applied to cucumbers will net me a sad mess of mush (no matter what some recipes claim). So I made lots of cucumber salad instead :-).

[magid.livejournal.com]

True enough.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

It's possible farmer Steve pays his bills with the csa and then gets his profit from selling stuff like pumpkins and tomatoes. Except maybe the csa doesn't quite pay his bills and so he can't justify the time/gas to do the remaining deliveries.

Or maybe he just can't bring himself to deliver what he considers to be subpar shares.

Solve the economic crisis...

[turil.livejournal.com]

Eat More Kale!

salt brine pickles!

[turil.livejournal.com]

Do the easiest pickles ever...

Salt brine pickles: raw sliced cukes, water, sea salt (one or two teaspoons or so per canning jar) and that's it. No cooking, no freezing, no nothing but a clean jar and a little time. The yeast just shows up, eats the sugars in the cukes, pees vinegar, and makes you pickles while the jar sits on the shelf. Open the jar every day or so to let out the excess gasses, and in two weeks, yummy pickles! They last a long time in a cool, dark place, even without refrigeration. Mine taste even better than those yummy, expensive, "Real Pickles" from the local pickle company.

Re: salt brine pickles!

[mrpet.livejournal.com]

This is what I do but there is no need to add water. The salt will draw out the water and make the brine. I use a pickle press that I got from Japan to squeeze them during the curing process.

Re: salt brine pickles!

[turil.livejournal.com]

Huh. Interesting. I'd done that to make sauerkraut, but never heard of doing it with cukes. Maybe I'll try that... Thanks!

[obie119.livejournal.com]

There's actually a bumper sticker that says Eat More Kale :)

Sorry if my tomato blight comment wasn't relevant to your particular CSA - I mentioned it because it's hit lots of farms and might affect you directly pr indirectly. And also because the commenter above me mentioned "i wonder what was so bad about the weather"

Re: salt brine pickles!

[magid.livejournal.com]

Huh. I've done that for sauerkraut (well, minus the water); never thought to try it with cucumbers.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I guess in my understanding, it's a 2-way street between the farmer and the people who buy shares. Yes, it's the luck of the weather draw, but if there's any produce at all, then there should be shares, since that was what was paid for, subpar or not.

I don't have actual information on the particulars, though, so perhaps I shouldn't be commenting.

[bettyw.livejournal.com]

Also I think the sign he had out in the extra donation box the last few weeks said something about his primary truck becoming nonfunctional - if so, then another financial drain if fixed or problem for doing deliveries plus market.

[komos.livejournal.com]

Tomatoes are generally given the best land because they're high demand items, and when the crop fails, it's generally pretty devastating regardless of what other measures are taken to compensate. In this case, adjustments would have had to have happened in the middle of July when the blight first started showing, and July didn't exactly provide ideal growing conditions. Some places experienced more than double to average rainfall over the weeks of endless rain we had. Couple all this with the fact that the blight hit potatoes as well, and there were some farms that were discussing suspending CSA drops as early as the first week in August.

[komos.livejournal.com]

Most farms that did have tomatoes did their best to get them to market as soon as possible. Our CSA was able to give them out pretty regularly, but as of last week, the blight caught up with them and they had to plow the rest of the crop under.

[dariusk.livejournal.com]

The tomatoes this year taste very bland. Not enough heat.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Oh, I thought it was just me!

[narya.livejournal.com]

I do participate in this specific farmshare and I don't feel gypped. Part of the point is to support the farm and I don't want to continue getting shares if it would put the future of the farm in danger. I would be upset if the farm had been mismanaged or something, but this was a bad year all around. Vouchers for the farmers market next year seems more than fair and is a win for both customers and Steve in my opinion.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Or too much water?

[sparkymonster.livejournal.com]

I suggest slow roasting tomatoes: http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/08/slow-roasted-tomatoes/

I line my pans with parchment paper, slice tomatoes pole to pole (either in half or in thirds depending on size), sprinkle w/ olive oil and salt, then let roast until deliciously dessicated looking. They have an amazing intensely tomatoey sweetness. After they're roasted, and cooled, it's easy to slip the skins off and then either can or freeze them.

You can also make thinnish slices (maybe 1/2") of tomato, and slowly roast until they caramelize and look like commercial sun dried tomatoes. These are AMAZING on a bagel, sandwich, or just popped into your mouth.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I adore roasted vegetables of all sorts. Thanks for the pointer to this variation on what I usually do.

[zard.livejournal.com]

The squash in general also took a huge hit. My CSA, The Food Project, is able to replace with a lot of root veggies. However, they donate tons of produce, and I wonder if they are using some of what they may have donated to patch up the CSA shares.

According to one of their farmers, who went to the Northeast Organic Farming Conference this summer, this is the worst overall harvest in 40 years. Several people I know started their CSAs for the first time this year, and it's too bad it's been such a bad year for crops! I'm hoping folks will stick with their CSAs. It would be tough to have a worse year...

Re: salt brine pickles!

[mrpet.livejournal.com]

There is more water in cukes than cabbage :) I usually get full submersion over night with just salt and pressure.

[emt420.livejournal.com]

That is awful but not surprising. I did a lot of research on our farm before signing over half a grand for veggies. They didn't have it easy but they survived this year.