Farm Update – Brooklyn Bridge CSA

October 3, 2012 brooklynbridgecsa Farm Update, Newsletter

CSA Delivery #18 – B Week

Greetings!

-For Full, B WEEK, Fruit, Milk Not Jails Full/Half Shares & Egg Shares: Distribution will be this Wed (10/3), from 5pm-8pm at Congregation Mt Sinai.

–Volunteer at Georgia’s Place Rooftop Garden this Saturday! Details below.

-Some members of Crown Heights Farm Share are helping to organize a Health & Harvest Fair on Saturday October 27. They are looking for more programming: they’ll be having workshops/interactive activities on urban agriculture, cooking demos, yoga, zumba, kids activities, compost demonstration — if you can lead an interactive workshop on any of these things, or wellness topics, they would love to have your participation! Please email Fran from Crown Heights.

–Milk Not Jails is accepting orders for their next monthly order. Click here to get more details and to order. Deadline to order is Monday, Oct 8 at 5pm.

-Please remember to bring your own bags and be mindful to take what is alotted for each share.

-If you haven’t joined us on Facebook yet – please do! This is where you can share your favorite recipes or look for someone to swap weeks with.

Have a great week!

And this week’s projected share for Wednesday, October 3, 2012:

Veggies:

1 bunch Cilantro
1 bunch Scallions
1 bunch Mixed Beets
1 head Bok Choy
1 head Green Romaine
1 head Red Boston
1 bunch French Radishes
2 pieces Thai Peppers
1/2 pt. Green Snap Beans
1 piece Acorn Squash

Fruit:

bag of Empire apples
bag of Golden Delicious apples

Volunteer Day at Georgia’s Place!
Sat, Oct 6, 11am-3pm
Georgia’s Place, 691 Prospect Place (at corner of Beford)

Our sister CSA, Crown Heights Farm Share, has distribution at Georgia’s Place. Georgia’s Place is hosting a volunteer day this Saturday — please come up on the roof and help us clean out beds and do our fall planting to end the 2012 season! Zack and David have been very diligent up there all summer, and now need some help. Please email Fran and let her know if you can make it for any time during those hours.

August 29, 2012August 30, 2012 brooklynbridgecsa Farm Update, Newsletter

CSA Delivery #13 – A Week

Greetings!

-For Full, A WEEK, Fruit, Milk Not Jails Full/Half Shares & Egg Shares: Distribution will be this Wed, from 5pm-8pm at Congregation Mt Sinai.

– GREAT OPPORTUNITY! Help underprivilged students by DONATING SCHOOL SUPPLIES during CSA pick up at THIS WEDNESDAY ONLY from 5pm-8pm. Our sister CSA, Crown Heights Farm Share, has teamed up with CCM (Community Counseling and Mediation) in order to give back to the Crown Heights community. And now we’re teaming up with them, too. CCM hopes to provide supplies for the 200 neediest children who they serve, who encompass a wide range of ages, from kindergarten all the way up to high school. CCM would also accept store gift cards, so that the children can pick out their own supplies. Donation Ideas: Pencils, Pens, Crayons, Backpacks, Binders, Notebooks, Flash Drives

–Volunteer Days At Sang Lee Farm! Come one, come all! Sang Lee is inviting and asking you all to help them in our biggest push for the tomato harvest. You can come any day (mon-fri) from 3-6pm to help pick tomatoes – you will in turn recieve a nice goody bag to take home and as many tomatoes as you can eat in the field! Bring a buddy and harvest the bounty together! Meet under the big tree by the barn to coordinate and get set up. Hope to see you out there this month! (Note: This is from Sang Lee Farm – the CSA is not organizing a trip, but you are welcome to go to the farm on your own to volunteer as requested – and let us know if you do!)

-Please remember to bring your own bags and be mindful to take what is alotted for each share.

-If you haven’t joined us on Facebook yet – please do! This is where you can share your favorite recipes or look for someone to swap weeks with.

Have a great week!

And this week’s projected share for Wednesday, August 29, 2012:

Veggies:

1 bunch Orange Carrots
1 bunch Leeks
1 bunch Green Scallions
1 Green Romaine
1 head Green Boston
2 lbs. Nicola Gold Potatoes
1 Watermelon/cantaloupe
1 Bell Pepper
2 lbs. large Tomatoes
1 pint Cherry Tomatoes

Fruit:

bag of peaches
mixed bag of apples. (red apples are Akane and the green apples are Gravenstein, both a little tart)

July 4, 2012July 4, 2012 brooklynbridgecsa Farm Update, Newsletter

CSA Delivery #5 – A Week

Happy 4th of July!

-Two IMPORTANT NOTES: FRUIT shares are starting this week! Also, due to the holiday, distribution this week is on Thur, July 5, from 5-8pm.

-For Full, A WEEK, FRUIT, Milk Not Jails Full/Half Shares & Egg Shares: Distribution will be this THURS, from 5pm-8pm at Congregation Mt Sinai.

-Please remember to bring your own bags and be mindful to take what is alotted for each share.

-If you haven’t joined us on Facebook yet – please do! This is where you can share your favorite recipes or look for someone to swap weeks with.

Have a great week!

An Update From Fred:

Happy Summer!

Well folks, it is officially summer and today was the longest day of the year! I’ll tell you, after planting sweet potatoes & ginger all day, it certainly feels like the longest day. While we are at our peak in terms of daylight hours & warm weather, we have not yet reached our peak in vegetable harvest. While the seasoned CSA members out there know the deal, some of the new members may not be aware of just how heavy your bags will be once the end of July comes. Here is a taste – Watermelons, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, fall squash, potatoes, cabbage….

Right now, the things that grow the best and the fastest (that we started planting in April), happen to be quite light – herbs, lettuce, bok choy, snap peas, strawberries (sadly the weather shortened this berry’s season). However, just be patient and you will receive the heavy bounty that we are working SO very hard right now to plant, water, weed, & keep free of disease and insects! Let’s all put our good energy into the weather forces out there and hope for the best possible outcome for your future bountiful CSA boxes.

And this week’s projected share for Thursday, July 5, 2012:

1 bunch Scallions
4oz. Sugar Snap Peas
1 head Bok Choy
1 bunch Green Oak Lettuce
1 bunch Green Boston Lettuce
2lbs. Norland Red Potatoes
3 pieces mixed Beets
2lbs. Zucchini Squash
2lbs. Field Cucumbers

Fruit:

1 pt blueberries
1 pt gooseberries

May 1, 2012June 5, 2012 brooklynbridgecsa Farm Update

Notes from the Farm: May 2012

Note from Fred Lee
May 2012

Spring isn’t officially over until the arrival of the summer soltice on June 20, of this year. Many of us simply think of that day as the longest of the year with regard to hours of daylight. Although it is a month away, I feel as if summer has already arrived with the amount of field preparations and planting to be done.

We are in the midst of what I know is the period of time when I forget what ‘day of the week’ it is. It is a small consolation that there are more hours of day light now, when it is that time of year that we never seem to catch up with the tasks that need to be done each day.

I know too, that it is terribly important to keep a proper perspective with the work scene. I try to get enough beauty sleep every day in addition to eating properly and having time for a brief mid day nap around lunch. I am grateful too, that we have such a good, hard working staff that are just as passionate in making sure the veggies are grown and prepared products are being made to the best of their abilities.

Enjoy the sunny days !

March 5, 2012March 5, 2012 brooklynbridgecsa Farm Update

Last winter CSA delivery # 6

Greetings,

Tomorrow Tuesday March 6th, 2012 is your last winter CSA delivery, # 6. Attached is the list of veggies we have planned.

Your shares tomorrow reflect in part, what we have all experienced again weather wise in mild temperatures over the last (3) weeks. Both storage veggies and greens from our greenhouses are planned for your share tomorrow. While I would have liked to have harvested some of these greens later in the spring, their maturity and stage of growth necessitated their harvest now, all to your benefit.

We want to thank you for your participation in our 2011-2012 winter CSA. Clearly this was an unusual winter with such mild weather, it has allowed us to harvest late winter veggies from the field much later than we expected and to our surprise as well, early spring vegetables from the greenhouses much earlier than expected. As you can see from the bounty of your winter shares over the course of the winter, it was greater than what we have ever packed out in a winter CSA distribution over the last (3) years. We hope that you have enjoyed the vegetables and look forward to seeing you all soon at the farm, perhaps with our summer 2012 Vegetable CSA.

Be well,

Fred & Karen

February 13, 2012February 16, 2012 brooklynbridgecsa Farm Update

Winter CSA: Update from the Farm #5

Greetings,

Tomorrow, Tuesday, February 14th 2012, is your winter CSA # 5 distribution.

I know this is probably going to sound like old news, but we have continued to have unusually warm temperatures for this time of year. Not only do we have another greater than expected share for your distribution, but we have a couple of surprise harvests. Some greenhouse items, like the mixed baby beet bunches, baby Carrot bunches, green scallions, and greenhouse Spinach, that we were hoping to harvest later in the spring, (later as in the end of March and April), are being harvested now simply because they have to be. Plant maturity, quality, and size are among the primary reasons for harvesting them now. At the rates that they have matured, for being overwintered crops in the greenhouse, we can not hold them for later, hence tomorrow’s treats for you. I can’t begin to guess how some other veggies are going to grow later on with the dramatic temperature differences we’ve experienced over the winter so far.

You will find the greenhouse spinach to probably be the best…. ever…really, certainly for a local Fresh February harvest. That’s not to say the Napa Cabbage, being almost four months in storage, isn’t the best thing either. It is perhaps one of the most favorite winter storage vegetable for us, as we enjoy it fresh in salads, stir fried, or used like lettuce on sandwiches. (Is there even such a thing as one of the ‘most favorite’? I wouldn’t think it’d be more than a ‘slight exaggeration’, if you found your self ‘silently screaming’ that it was ‘wickedly good’. Even with the oxymora intended, we hope you’re tickled like us to be Napa cabbage fans.

And…..we hope that you really LOVE all your other veggies tomorrow too, Happy Valentines Day,

Fred & Karen