WILD HARE WEEKLY SPRING 4/12
There’s no time for fooling around here—the egg count is looking fantastic thanks to our two hardworking flocks of hens. This means that in addition to CSA add-ons, we’ll have eggs for sale by the dozen at our farmstand going forward through the season. If you’ve driven past our farm along River Road, chances are you’ve seen at least one of our two flocks of girls out there doing what they do best—pecking around for bugs and bits of sprouting things, taking their twitchy dust baths in the sunshine and laying truly exceptional eggs. Just one look at those taut orange yolks and you’ll see what a difference living in the open air, scratching around on pasture and having access to quality organic feed from Scratch & Peck, mean for our birds. You might not realize it, but there are more than 600 hens living at our farm. You’re welcome to visit them when you come out, but please be advised that their movable fencing is electrified in order to keep them safe from our local band of coyotes. (They’re more of a brazen acapella group that likes to serenade us every time a siren or train whistle blows, lest we forget their menacing presence).

At any rate, I’m always excited when eggs are abundant again, because they are such a versatile source of protein and go so well with so many of our spring vegetables—particularly those sprouting and flowering broccoli and kale types. Mark has put this incredibly simple and delicious Breakfast Broccoli Bake recipe into the rotation as of late, and that my friends, is the sign of an easy Spring meal. When the farmer can hop off the tractor and whip up a meal from scratch in between hitching implements, he and his recipe are both keepers.

Best,
Katie

Greetings from the farm! There’s a sense of urgency now that the temps have come up. The Sugar Snap peas are “up” in more ways than one—we suspend the trays above our greens in the greenhouses every Spring so that hungry critters don’t devour them before we do. And beyond the peas, there are all kinds of greens and beets and things that are going to want to be out of trays and into the soil before we know it. Since it was time to make a little more room in the field, Mark and Luis dug the remaining bed of Parsnips today, making way for an afternoon of plowing and forward momentum. Like us, our friends Amy and Agustin of Four Elements Farm were looking to move some of their overwintered baby Collards this week. Ours are looking pretty tasty as of this morning too, so with our powers combined, we’ll have some overwintered leafy greens on the table this week. I love quick sauteed Collard Greens—they’re like Cabbage’s robust cousin that can hold up to all kinds of flavors—pepper, vinegar, ginger and peanut. Yum! Meanwhile, Parsnips are one of our more covetous root vegetables this year. They look like creamy white carrots, but their flavor is sweeter and more intense than carrots. And like so many things that have overwintered, they taste extra yummy this time of year. My rule of thumb still holds true in late March—a little of frost and a bit of heat make hardy vegetables nice and sweet. So whether you turn them into oven fries, or grate them up into a breakfast hash over the weekend, I hope you’ll find them a delicious treat.

Best,
Katie

A farmer could get used to days like these, but there's no room for complacency in this line of work. Overnight lows and buckets of rain are still lurking out there for Spring.  We started things off with  frost on the ground Monday morning, but quickly found ourselves opening up greenhouse doors, uncovering seedlings in the greenhouse and getting to work outside for the day.  Kim has planted another round of Spring Green Garlic that we'll get to enjoy later on this season.  We're still waiting to see how the February snowstorms will ultimately impact some of our treasured overwintering crops, but we should have answers very soon.  The beginning weeks of our Spring Share are geared toward the enjoyment of things that have overwintered , not just as in “Winter, we’re sooooooo OVER it,” but more that we count on crops that we set in motion anywhere from 6 months to even a year ago to carry us through until we can really get into the field and get rolling.  Sunny spring days like these are so deceiving--it feels like Summer, but the plants just aren't there yet.  (But have I mentioned how delicious Grilled Leeks are?) So we gamble with overwintering crops to try and close the hunger gap of March.  I call it a gamble,  because honestly, we never know exactly what our Fall and Winter will do to something that we plant in Summer.  When we win, it feels like hitting the jackpot.  But, there are losses in the game.    The primary crop that springs to mind is the perennially fickle Purple Sprouting Broccoli, aka the Notorious PSB.