Riverbend Farm Newsletter

Please let me know if you are interested in taking part in next year's CSA or if you are planning to opt out. This lets me know how many shares I have available for next year. If I don't hear from you, I'll assume that you are opting out. I would like to know by December 15th.

There is a CSA survey at the end of this newsletter.

It is hard to switch into winter mode after such a nice fall. Reading in front of the fire helps. I have roused myself from dozing in front of the fire to get a few things done.

With winter closing in, last week was a good time to get things wrapped up. The black turtle beans were dry enough to harvest, but I want them to be bone dry for long term storage. The beans were unloaded into the corn crib where they'll finish drying and be ready to bag up in a couple months.

Once the combine was empty it had to be cleaned out. Cleaning serves two purposes. It keeps the mice from finding the stray beans and hiding them everywhere, and it keeps moisture from collecting in the dust and organic matter. Moisture leads to rust which leads to holes.

The concave on the combine is starting to show some rust holes this year. I doubt that the machine was used very much in the past few years and the thin spots became holes when I started to use it. Yaz All Crop in Ohio has replacement concaves for a few hundred bucks. Most of the machine will have to be torn apart to replace the concave. While I have it apart, it would probably be a good time to replace the grain drag chain. I'm sure that the link that wore out was not the only one getting ready to let go.

My shed is barely big enough to fit all the equipment that needs to be in for the winter. Once the Allis Chalmers combine was clean and tucked into the corner I could fit the Massey Harris combine on along side with about 6" to spare. Then the corn picker, the sprayer and finally the Super C.

The Farmall H tractor gets fitted with tire chains and a snow bucket to keep the yard clear during the winter. The tractor still uses a 6 volt battery and it turns very slowly when the temperature is down around 0°. I made a bracket to hold the battery from the Super C (also 6V) and connect it in parallel to the H's battery. That gives me twice as much cranking power ( at the same voltage) and keeps the Super C battery charged up over the winter.

Friday was relatively nice so I moved the 7 cubic yards of potting soil from Cathy's and put it in the second greenhouse. The compost in the potting mix was keeping the pile thawed. The good part was that it wasn't frozen into one big lump. The bad part was that it was full of melted snow water.

Cathy's dump truck can be a reluctant starter in the summer, and it is not likely to go anywhere in the snow. Uriah Heap, my '75 Ford, one ton, field truck got called to do the hauling since it would start. It also has duals on the rear and is completely helpless in the snow. Installing tire chains helped it get back and forth across the field road. Oddly, it was fine going forward, but bucked like mad in reverse. I think the tires were spinning inside the chains.

The potting mix was very heavy to unload. It has to be moved by hand even if I use Cathy's dump truck. Cathy's truck won't fit in the greenhouse door so the mix gets dumped in the doorway and shoveled to the side. Uriah fits in the door, but can't dump in any direction, much less to the side.

The recent cold wet weather has been the perfect time for getting some kimchee and sauerkraut made. Both of them are fermented foods that are simple to make. Fermented food (if done right) is really good for you once your digestive system gets used to it.

Kimchee is chopped cabbage and daikon with garlic, ginger, and hot pepper fermented in salt water. It only takes a few days to make a batch. Sauerkraut is simply sliced cabbage mixed with salt and packed into a crock, bucket or jar. It takes a couple weeks to make a batch of sauerkraut. If you are interested, recipes can be found at http://www.ivu.org/recipes/eastasia/cabbage.html and http://www.wildfermentation.com/resources.php?page=sauerkraut.

The only caution I have is not to make too much kimchee. It is kept in the refrigerator and if you make a big batch it takes up a lot of space. If you let kinchee go too long it can get to be overpowering. Four days was about perfect. It slows down a lot in the fridge. Sauerkraut is kind of the same way, but traditionally it was kept in a crock in a cool cellar. If you don't want it to take the enamel off your teeth, it can be canned, or frozen.

CSA surveys are hard because everyone's tastes are different. Typically half of our members love arugula and the other half hates it. One of our members ate all the beets and her husband didn't even know they were in the shares. Other people think beets taste like dirt. Nobody ever gets enough sweet corn. Some people are excited about new things, some aren't. That's the way it is.

Since I'm not talking to every one of you every week it is hard to get a feeling for how things are going. I can talk to the people who pick up at the farm, but not everyone is up for The Inquisition when they just want to get their veggies and go home. Besides, it might not be a good idea to base planting decisions on what a small group likes.

This was one of those years where you got to share the risks of farming. As you probably noticed, this year started out great and kind of fizzled out as it went on. Part of that was the season and part of it is the inherent risk in farming. If we were growing corn and soybeans we would have done alright, but nobody sits down to a plate of corn and soybeans for supper.

Early on we had a booming year with greens and radishes. In the middle of the season we had trouble with bacterial spot and the broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, greens, and radishes never recovered. Winter squash are pollinated by bees, but bees won't fly when it is raining. So there was not much winter squash. The onion tops all blew over in that big storm in July and that was the end for them. Beans. Peas. Etcetera.

What is your overall impression of this past CSA season ?

How are the pick up locations working out ?

How were the recipes ? Do you like to try out new recipes ?

What do you think of trying new vegetables ?

In a difficult year would you rather have a wide selection of produce, but smaller quantities, or would you prefer more of fewer items ?

What are your top 5 favorite vegetables ?

What are your bottom 5 least favorite veggies ?

What is the one thing that we could do that would make the CSA much better ?

Thanks for your support and I hope to see you again next year.

Greg

ps Ginger was out here painting all summer. She will have her paintings in our building (Dancing River, 224 River St.) in downtown Delano as part of the Delano Olde Fashioned Christmas and Art Crawl on Saturday December 4th. It starts at 9am.