Get your produce from Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

We have received your farmer/shareholder check for our 2011 season. You selected a Standard Labor membership that requires 12 hours of assistance to the farm. If you paid 50%, your second payment is due in May. You are scheduled to pick up vegetables on Thursday, starting the week of June 27, for seventeen consecutive weeks. Pick up times are 4 -6 PM. Pickup locations will be emailed once confirmed.

Total cost per season is $530 (see January 2011 Newsletter link above), which including CSA participation translates into shared produce cost of $31/week.

Labor commitment: 6 hrs before June 31, 6 hrs between Aug 1 - Nov 1

Call ahead for work assignments and hours:

2011 Farmer
Beverly A. Tift Farmer/CSA Manager Mill River Valley Gardens CSA Turtle Ridge Cooperative, Inc. 203-285-9157 http://www.turtleridgecooperative.org/ “Beverly a Tift” <batift@gmail.com> Right: Beverly holding a single head of red leaf lettuce, harvested on June 30, 2011.
2011 Work assignment:
Look in schedule for open slots, then confirm by writing to: Katherine Mill River Valley Gardens CSA mrvg.csa@gmail.com To see the schedule: http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=mrvg.csa%40gmail.com&ctz=America/New_York

Hours worked:

1.	2.	3.	4.	5.	6.
June 27			June 30
7.	8.	9.	10.	11.	12.
July 25		Aug 11

Email worked hours: Katherine is the person who keeps track of work hours at Mill River Valley Gardens CSA <mrvg.csa@gmail.com>. Katherine's cell phone: 617-650-5253

Farm Activities

May 01, 2011

Tour of the Farm: Herbs and Shiitake Mushroom share ready for pickup.

(Click on picture for link)

June27/30, 2011

Work Commitment 6 hrs: Harvest of Garlic Scapes. Washing and bagging of greens.

First work on the Farm on humid summery days.

July 25, 2011

Work Commitment 2 hrs: Help with Distribution

Boring standing around at the farm house.

Aug 11, 2011

Work Commitment 4 hrs:

Harvest of Sun Golden Cherry Tomatoes and Tomatillos. Bagging of greens.

Last work on Farm on a beautiful cool sunny morning.

Sep 11, 2011

Season’s End Celebration at

Gouvela Vineyards

Wallingford, CT 064

Pickup

If Monday is your pick-up day your pick-up location will be the share-out shed at the farm: 3600 Ridge Road, North Haven. 3600 Ridge Rd is about 1/2 mile south on Ridge Road from Mt Carmel Ave. (Near Quinnipiac University and Sleeping Giant State Park).

If Thursday is your pick-up day the pick-up location will be the Spring Glen Congregational Church parking lot at 1825 Whitney Ave in Hamden (across from Best Video). Do not call the church for information.

The pick-up hours for both locations are from 4:00 PM until 6:30 PM.

If you find that you cannot make your pick-up, please notify Beverly Tift by 8:00 AM the morning of the pick-up. It is the responsibility of each shareholder to make alternative arrangements to pick up their shares. We recently provided the emails of shareholders for that purpose.

If you call Beverly we may be able to arrange to leave your share in a cooler at the farm for a later pick-up, 10am the next morning at the latest. We have a very limited storage capability. If you do not call your share may be given away to someone else or to the food pantry after 6:30PM.

Please do not call the farm to make these arrangements.

Share Week

Thursday Pickup

Share Content, ()=not included

Picture of Share (Click on picture for link)

June 30, 2011

Lettuce

Endive

Chard

Garlic Scapes

(Mizuna)

Shuko Choy

Radishes (or Scallions)

Choice: Escarole (or Italian Dandelion)

July 07, 2011

Lettuce

Blueberries

Summer Squash (or) Chives

Beets

Sorrel

Escarole

Herb Bouquet

(Choice: Sugar Snap Peas, Mizuna, Daikon)

July 14, 2011

Escarole

(Lettuce)

Green Beans

New Zealand Spinach

Blueberries

Summer Squash

Scallions

Basil Tips

Mint

July 21, 2011

Lettuce

Green Beans

Summer Squash

Purslane

Potatoes

Chard

Possible choice items: Cucumber, (Mache, kohlrabi)

July 28, 2011

New Zealand Spinach

Potatoes

Basil

Beets

Cucumber

Squash

Lettuce

Peaches

Tomatoes

Sun-gold Cherry Tomatoes

Aug 04, 2011

Leeks

Carrots

Sun-gold Cherry Tomatoes

Tomatoes

Eggplant

Blueberries

Farmer’s Surprise Items: (Summer Squash,) Tomatillos, (Potatoes), green Tomatoes, and damaged red Tomatoes.

Aug 11, 2011

Spaghetti Squash

New Zealand Spinach

Red Tomatoes

Sun-gold Cherry Tomatoes

Green Pepper

Cantaloupe

Garlic

Farmer’s Surprise Items: (Summer Squash, Tomatillos, Green Zebra Tomatoes), Kohlrabi, Jimmy Nardello Sweet Italian Frying Peppers www.iowasource.com/food/cooks_0807.html

Aug 18, 2011

Red Tomatoes

Sun-gold Cherry Tomatoes

Swiss Chard

Eggplant

Basil

White (or Red) Potatoes

Cantaloupe

Choice Table/Farmer's Choice possibilities: Summer Squash, Cucumbers (Okra, Tomatilloes,) Green Zebra Tomatoes

Aug 25, 2011

Red Ripe Tomatoes
Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes
New Zealand Spinach
(Spaghetti or) Butternut Squash
Cantaloupe
Onions

Possible Farmer's Choice items: (Lettuce, Tomatilloes,) Green Zebra Tomatoes

10.

Sept 01, 2011

Tomatoes

Peppers

Eggplant

Choice Table to be a surprise

Because of the weekend weather (hurricane Irene) the fruit will also be a surprise

11.

Sep 08. 2011

Tomatoes

Leeks

Chives or Basil

Malabar Spinach http://tinyurl.com/3hbdld5

Winter Squash

(Apples or) Pears

Choice Table Surprise? (The farmer doesn't know yet)

12.

Sep 15. 2011

Cherry tomatoes

Peppers – Bell and Nardello

New Zealand spinach

Arugula thinnings

Winter squash

Fruit

Choice Table – surprise

13.

Sep 22. 2011

Tomatoes

Peppers – Bell and Nardello

Arugula

Swiss Chard

Leeks

Apples

Choice Table – as always, a work in progress

Radishes (if not this week, then next week)

14.

Sep 29. 2011

Peppers – Bell and Nardello

Eggplant

New Zealand spinach

Kiwi

Arugula

Herb bouquet

Cortland Apples

Choice Table – as always, a work in progress

(People who didn’t get radishes last week will get them this week)

15.

Oct 6. 2011

Peppers –Nardello

Arugula

Yams

Yam Greens

Chives

Fruit

Possible for Choice Table – as always, a work in progress

Eggplant

Bell pepper

Basil

16.

Oct 13. 2011

Peppers –Nardello or Bell

Lettuce

Beets or Turnips

Parsnips

Mustard Greens

Fruit

Choice Table is a work in progress

17.

Oct 20. 2011

Garlic

Lettuce

Leeks

Kale or Chard

Pears

Cider

Choice Table: Greens

You will be able to ‘pick you own’ from the last week in October until frost and will get info shortly.

To make gleaning (pick your own) easier you can now either make an appt or just come on by between 10am - 5pm any day.

Produce that is available:

A large amount of NZ Spinach (which needs to be harvest soon or it might be lost to the first light-heavy frost.

A medium amount of Swiss Chard

Small amounts of Herbs ( oregano, mint sage, thyme, chives, dill leaves, salad brunet, nasturtiums), cilantro, leeks, corn stalks, yokka-na, small tomatilloes,

Very small amounts of Lettuce, mustard, kale, tiny eggplants?, rutagbagoes, chickery, maruba-santo,

Beverly A. Tift

Farmer/CSA Manager

Oct. 27: Chard

Beverly (the farmer) on the last day of share 17 distribution in Spring Glen.

2011 CROP INFORMATION

1. I (Beverly the farmer) recently realized that I have been remiss about letting the shareholders know about the status of our crops. Farming has been physically challenging for me and for most of the season the only thing I could literally do after a day at the farm was shower and fall into bed. So the planned farm journal at the Turtle Ridge website didn’t happen, which was going to be my vehicle for communication with shareholders about crop status, etc.

2. First, we have had great share outs this season, ranging from the expected normal amount to amazing abundance for some produce. Secondly, while there was planned, a wide variety of crops, the reality of the growing season was different. My planning and/or seed order spreadsheet had 80+ different items on it, which included fruit, herbs and different varieties of the same vegetable, i.e., three types of green beans were planted, four types of red tomatoes, etc,

3. The farm’s major challenges were weed/animal pressure and weather. Examples:

a. Weather: Sugar snap peas, totally failed because of the cold, wet spring. Excessive late summer, early fall rains impeded the growth of late summer/fall crops. Hurricane Irene, damaged the tomatoes (early fall red tomatoes and a planned share out of green tomatoes.) Irene also damaged the leeks.

b. Animal pressure: Woodchucks wiped out the entire broccoli bed. The voles and other smaller mammals were kept at bay with continuous pepper spraying.

c. Weed pressure: Impacted most crops in varying amounts.

d. We also had some insect and viral/bacterial issues. The insect damage was minimal, and was controlled by hand-picking. The viral/bacterial issues were in the tomatoes and eggplants, but we pulled through and had exceptional yields for both items in spite of the damage.

4. HOW OUR CROPS IN PERFORMED 2011

a. Crops that produced as expected. High yield items are marked with an *. NOTE: a few of the items listed in this area were planned choice table items and you might have not seen them.

*Swiss Chard, Provider Beans,

*Summer Squash, Cucumber,

*Parsnips,

*Red Potatoes, each share rec’d approximately 9 pounds.

White potatoes,

Beets I & II,

*Peppers,

*Eggplants,

*NZ Spinach,

Malabar Spinach,

Spaghetti and Butternut Squash,

Endive,

Escarole,

Basil,

Leeks,

Sorrel, *

Sungold Cherry Tomatoes,

*Red tomatoes,

*Green Zebra tomatoes,

Spring/Fall radishes,

Scallions,

Yams/yam greens.

*Shiitake,

*Lettuce 10,

Tomatillos,

Lettuce 3 & 4,

Garlic,

Nasturtiums,

Mustard Greens,

Okra,

Chives,

Sage,

Oregano,

Thyme,

Mint

b. Reduced Yields, Most of these items were scheduled to be a full share out for everyone but ended up on the choice table.

1. Carrots. Poor germination due to cold/wet spring and a planting error will result in a smaller amount of carrots available for the first/second carrot share out. (There was only one carrot shareout), the second share out was choice table.

2. Lettuce for shares #1 & #2 bolted, a lesser amount was available for share out.

3. Daikon I, poor germination, choice table

4. Lettuce, 5, 6, poor germination, choice table

5. Rutabagas, poor germination, a few available for post-harvest.

6. Onion, weed pressure and not mulched. Smaller than normal shareout.

7. Cilantro, part of crop was accidentally weeded out, choice table.

8. Tat-soi, extremely poor germination, choice table

9. Baby corn, not enough planted, choice table

10. Beets III, over-thinned, choice table

11. Turnips, not enough planted, choice table

12. Red Russian Kale, poor germination, insect/animal pressure, choice table.

c. Crop Failures: Again, most of these items were planned to be a shared out for everyone.

1. Scallions: Failure to thrive (soil PH?), animal/weed pressure .(We got scallions from boulder knolls)

2. Sugar Snap Peas: Poor germination due to weather cold and wet. Replanted, still poor germination, failure to thrive There was only 8 small shares ( 3-4 oz each) for the choice table over two weeks

3. Mache, weed pressure.

4. Parsley, weed pressure.

5. Lettuce 8 & 7, poor germination, weed pressure

6. Lettuce 9, didn’t germinate.

7. Blue Lake Beans in First Garden, animal/weed pressure

8. Blue Lake Beans in Locust Garden, animal/weed pressure

9. Kohirabi, poor germination, weed/animal pressure. About 10 kohirabi were harvested.

10. Haricot Vert Beans, all three beds failed—weed/animal pressure

11. Carrots 3, poor germination, weed/animal pressure

12. Jalapeno peppers, failure to thrive, reason unknown (field too wet?)

13. Dakion II. Animal pressure

14. Broccoli, animal pressure

15. Chicory, animal pressure, failure to thrive

16. Jerusalem artichokes, animal/weed pressure (We got a small amount from Boulder Knolls

17. Amaranth, cause of failure unknown

18. Dill, failure to thrive, reason unknown

19. Lavender, people pressure

20. Rosemary, no germination

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