Clagett Farm Notes

On the radio

Your tomatoes, sweet potato greens, and your farmer were featured on WETA 90.9 this morning.  WETA's new show, The Intersection, hosted by Rebecca Roberts, had very nice program about eating and growing local food.      

I was hoping that by hearing Ms. Roberts ooh and ah over your sweet potato greens, you, my dear customers, might be more willing to try them.  (Not many Tuesday shareholders seemed as thrilled as I am that they're in your share.)  So if you haven't been inspired to eat the leaves of a sweet potato plant before now, then you should listen to the show!  Click over to the The Intersection website, from which you can listen to any show from their archives (you want the one from July 28, 2006).

 Before the show, it was fun to chat a bit with the Chef of Restaurant Eve, Cathal Armstrong, who is a surprisingly passionate supporter of his farmers.  Now I'm looking for an excuse to invite my husband to dinner there.  Mid-summer celebration, perhaps?  I also have to admit that it was just fun to sit around in an air-conditioned building for a while.  When it's this hot out, I'm easy to please.

2006 Order Form

Time to order!  Previous members have priority over shares until April 1, 2006.  We fill orders according to the date they were sent (that way you can mail your order and you won't lose your share to a person that faxed it on the same day).  Most years we sell out of shares in May, so you still have a couple months to send it in.  You can send your order form and payment by mail or fax, or call in your credit card number.  We are suspicious of e-mail security, so e-mail your credit card number at your own risk. 

Click here to download the order form: 2006_CSA_order_form.pdf . 

We will update our homepage (www.clagettfarm.org) with the 2006 information this week.  In the meantime, the only major change is that we are raising the price by $20. 

This year's prices are as follows:
Dupont Circle, Tuesdays 5-7pm, $445
Clagett Farm, Tuesdays 3-7pm and Saturdays 1-4pm, $405
Anacostia Farmers' Market, Wednesdays 3-7pm, $405

Just as last year, you may pick up at any site you wish from week to week, as long as you have told us which is the site where you pick up most often.  That way, if you forget to pick up one week or have a schedule conflict, you can get that week's share another day.

Within a week of receiving your order, we will send you an e-mail confirmation. 
Thanks!

Becoming a 2006 member or worksharer

Thanks to everyone who has expressed interest in joining our farm for the 2006 season as a member, volunteer or worksharer.
  We will probably begin signing up members in March.  We will post a message here as soon as we do, so if you would like to be one of the first to hear that we've begun taking orders, then click on the <RSSFWD:> link at the upper left of this page.  Then submit your email address, and you will be notified any time we post news on this site.  At any time if you wish to stop getting this notification, it is easy to be removed from the list.  Our deliveries and other details about the share for 2006 should be the same as 2005, although we might raise the price by $20.  You can read about those details at www.clagettfarm.org.  We will include any new information and a new order form on this page as soon as we begin taking orders. 
   Volunteer opportunities include office work (starting now, although we prefer a commitment of more than one day), greenhouse work (starting in February), and field work (starting in March).  Before May, our schedule is irregular, so it is best to call us to let us know you're coming (301-627-4662).
  After May, we are happy to offer a share of vegetables to any adult who works 4 hours or more. This "workshare" begins in May as soon as we start distributing vegetables (we are aiming for May 9).  There is no commitment, and you do not need to sign up in advance.  Simply show up to work any weekday between 8am and 4pm, or Saturday between 8:30am and 1pm.  There are more details on our website (clagettfarm.org) and of course, we will post any changes on this weblog, should they arise.

Gleaning--what's available

It's that time of year when our members, worksharers, and friends can glean whatever remains from our fields.  Beginning tomorrow (Friday, 11/18) through Sunday afternoon, you can come to the farm anytime and harvest.  At the washing station we will have a map telling you where to find everything, and around the farm we will post signs to help guide you to the fields.   If you would like to come when we are there to help you, we will be around 9am-5pm Friday, 10am-2pm Saturday, and noon-3pm Sunday.  A small volunteer group will come Sunday afternoon to help us glean what's left for a soup kitchen. 

Here is a list of what is available to pick right now:

lettuce
spinach (very small; requires patience and good knees to harvest)
arugula (plenty)
spicy mix (plenty)
mizuna
red mustard
green mustard
turnip greens
collards
kale
small heads broccoli
tiny heads cauliflower
many immature heads cabbage
about 10 pounds small, slightly-soft sweet potatoes
about 20 pounds garlic bulbs
hakurei turnips
purple-top turnips
watermelon radishes
regular radishes ("cherry belle" and "easter egg")
jimmy nardello peppers (sweet, frying)
padron chiles (hot when larger than a golf ball)
lots of assorted, dried chiles scattering the ground where they were growing
dill
cilantro
garlic chives
oregano
mint
nasturtiums (peppery, edible flowers and leaves--some frost damage)
basil (doesn't win any prizes for appearance--frost damage)
anise hyssop (licorice flavored herb--great for hot tea! Some frost damage  )

Please be warned that many of the above items are scattered in distant fields.  These are items that were not harvested before because there was not enough to serve our hundreds of members, or it was so small or scattered it was not worth the time.  By it's nature gleaning requires some patience and a keen eye for what might be hidden in a field that looks cleaned out.  Please bring bags, and a knife will be helpful to harvest the small greens.  If you're hoping for a couple pounds of salad greens, expect to squat or crouch for 15 minutes or more.  Also, it's been cold and windy at times, so please dress appropriately for the weather, and wear comfortable shoes that you can get dirty.  The frost on the grass will get your feet cold and wet until mid-morning.

If you would like to surprise someone with a Thanksgiving or Christmas wreath, we will have some for sale.  Many include garlic, popcorn and chiles, so they are useful even after the holidays have passed. 

If we don't see you this weekend, have a terrific winter!

Last CSA harvest of 2005

This past Tuesday, November 8, we had our last harvest day of the 2005 season. A bittersweet day. Everyone was cheerful and our team's customary wry and irreverent humor was in good form. And yet there was a tinge of sadness, too. After all, we will not be doing this again in a while and when we resume some of us will not be around. But that's what happens every year. There is continuity even in this end of season dispersion.

 

Here we are harvesting mixed baby lettuce for our CSA shareholders. In the foreground, on the left we see Carrie being productive as always and to the right a smiling Andrea Humm is being her usual gracious self, but Dave Vernon, in the middle, is showing obvious signs of work-induced derangement (the size of the image may not show that clearly, so readers will have to trust me on that).

A view from the other side: Gail Taylor and Megan Caine with the baby lettuce. It took a comically long time to harvest this tiny lettuce. Why? Because when we seeded them we didn't expect that we would be cutting them that small--otherwise we would have them closer together for a quicker and more efficient harvest. Incidentally, cutting baby lettuce is not the only exciting experience lived by Gail and Megan. Gail recently returned from a visit to Europe. Right before Europe she had some interesting adventures in Guatemala. Megan, after studying Spanish in Ecuador, hitchhiked through several South American countries. Every once in a while during her travels the farm would receive Megan's fascinating emails. Her traveling companion was Farah Fosse, another friend of the farm who frequently volunteers here. Before we knew her, Megan also traveled to China and South East Asia.

Back to the baby lettuce. Here is a batch of it being rinsed to get it ready for the shareholders.

Dave, Andrea and Megan working on the lettuce at the wash station. Dave is new to the DC area. Shortly after his arrival this summer he found out about Clagett Farm and has been a consistent volunteer ever since. He has worked on farms in his native Wales, and lived in South Africa and Canada. As to Andrea, all season she was a Tuesday volunteer whose dedication went above and beyond the call of duty. Neither cold rain nor oppressive heat ever managed to dent her gracious and gentle humor.

During Tuesday's lunch break Kathleen Davis came by to say hello and goodbye to us--her former farm teammates. We were happy to see her! Next week she is flying to her home in Hawaii. We wish Kathleen the very best, but for selfish reasons hope to see her back. Many of you know Kathleen, especially if you were a Saturday shareholder or worksharer in 04 and 05. Few people know, however, how much the CSA benefited from Kathleen's friendly and unassuming but very capable presence.

So here we are in mid-November. There are still plenty of things to do at the farm. But the dynamics of the work are quite different and fewer hands are needed.

You-pick

During most weeks of the growing season, in addition to their weekly share (and at no extra cost) shareholders are welcome to the farm to you-pick (u-pick) veggies/berries to take home. To find out what's allowed to be u-picked in any given week, check the list on the board at the wash station or ask a farm staff person (next season shareholders will also be notified by email.)

Judging from last year's survey results, over 2/3 of shareholders you-picked at least once during the season. Many of them did it almost every week. Some shareholders u-picked more than twice the amount of tomatoes they got in this season's shares. I also know of shareholders who u-picked more than eight quarts of strawberries in one outing. Needless to say, even though it is not included in our share totals the you-pick option (if exercised) adds significant value to a shareholder's benefits.

A record of the 25 weeks of CSA shares in 2005

A few weeks before the season's end, we put together a chart of the shares you have received.  Perhaps it will help jog your memory so you can more easily fill out your end-of-the-year survey.  Or perhaps future members can look at this document to see what they missed.  Unfortunately, it's pretty big, so you'll need to zoom a few times to see it well.  Perhaps next year we'll come up with a better format.  In the meantime, I'm going to give myself a pat on the back, because I've resolved to become a better record-keeper, and this represents a real accomplishment. 

Thanks to help from CSA member, Fred Delventhal, you can see the chart in either of two formats.  Click on one below to check it out:

Download Adobe Acrobat version: sharelog2005.pdf
Download Excel version: sharelog2005.xls

NOTE: The sharelog does not take into account the veggies that members you-picked. For a quick explanation of you-pick, read the you-pick post, immediately above this one.

What to expect in the rest of your shares

Many people have wondered what remains of their share this fall, especially given these dry conditions.  Let me give you my best guess. 
    We should expect a small to moderate harvest of sweet potatoes, which we're planning to begin next week.  You will probably also get a few more butternut squash, and lots more garlic.  Your broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower survived being transplanted, but they have been very slow to grow, and the deer and groundhogs have been using them and the sweet potato greens as an emergency fuel now that the dry weather is stunting their usual clover diet.  Perhaps they will produce small heads in October, or perhaps they will wait and produce bigger ones in November--it's hard to say.  The kale and collards are doing surprisingly well under the circumstances.  Everyone should continue getting a half pound or so each week, and much more if it ever begins raining again.  They also get a bit sweeter once the first frost hits.
      Your baby mustard greens, lettuce, spinach, arugula, carrots, beets, cilantro, dill, radishes and turnips were planted in August in two fields--a small one that can be irrigated and a large one that cannot.  We have not had a soaking rain since then, so nothing has germinated in the large field.  Only a bit of arugula, baby mustards, turnips and radishes have matured in the small field, and we will be doling them out carefully to everyone in October.  In September, when our grim circumstances were becoming apparent, we tore out some poorly-producing squash and cucumbers and dug some more beds near the washing station so we could seed more greens and roots that could be irrigated.  They have all since germinated in happy abundance, but I don't think they will be ready to harvest until November.  Carrots and beets need so long to mature that it didn't make sense to replant them, so I'm sorry to say that this is going to be a carrot and beet-free fall. 
     We still have some beans, cucumbers, summer squash, peppers, eggplants and okra.  You might have noticed that these summer crops slow down their production as the weather cools (the dry weather is contributing to their slow-down, as well).  All of the summer crops die abruptly with the first frost, which usually comes in early or mid-October.  It's been unusually warm, though, so perhaps we'll keep them a little longer. 
     We have planned for your last shares to be November 8 and 12.  November 18 and 19 (the Friday and Saturday before Thanksgiving) will be the gleaning weekend when you can pick all you want of what remains.  I don't think we'll need to make any changes to that schedule, but we'll certainly keep you informed if we do. 
    Autumn is usually my favorite season, and the farm's most abundant one.  It saddens me to have to eek out such a small share to everyone this October.  I deeply appreciate how understanding everyone has been.  Our customers seem to be taking this dry spell in stride, and that helps me relax and keep a better perspective on the viscicitudes of farming. 

USA TODAY article on CSAs

A couple of thoughtful shareholders informed us about an article on CSA farms in today's USA TODAY. Click below if you have not yet read it.

Link: USATODAY.com - Support from city folk takes root on the farm.

CSA shares closed

As of April 26, 2005 our full-price shares for this season at all pick-up sites have filled up.  It took us a bit of time to be sure, since we had to finish plugging everyone's orders into the database.  We're terribly sorry we have to turn anyone down, so here are your other options:
1) Come to our farmstand at the Anacostia Farmers Market any Wednesday after June 1, 3-7pm. It's on 14th St, SE, between U and V Streets. This is a small, inexpensive market that could use your support.
2) Come for a work share!  You are welcome any Monday through Saturday.  We begin at 7:30-8am weekdays and 8:30-9am Satudays.  Four adult hours gives you a week of vegetables. 
3) Let us know that you are interested and we'll make sure you are alerted about shares for 2006 as soon as they are available.