Veggie Coop Coordinator: Mike Rabinowitz. Small Bag Pick-Up on Tuesdays; Large Bag Pick-Up on Wednesdays. Mike usually leads both pick-ups, but this year, he will not be there on Tuesday. The Tuesday helpers are: Oz Rabinowitz and Alice Nosseareau or Ryan Boyd.
THE ROUTINE. House Phone: 895-2884/ leave a message. If you are not able to make it to pick up, contact us by E-mail or phone as early as possible and no later than 5 p.m. on the day of pick-up.
This is when the bags come out of the chill room for their trip to town.
After 5 p.m. On Tuesdays, call Farm Cell at 689-7693; Wednesdays, call Mike’s Cell: 749-2884.
Time and Place.
Pick-up both days is 6 p.m. MUN Science Building, Parking Lot. Drive through underpass and look ahead. You will see people congregating around the back of a dark red Forester or a white truck, where we set the bags out around the edge of curb. If it is raining, we will be under the shelter by the entrance. New Member? Just follow the crowd. If the van or truck is not already there, Oz or Mike will zip around the corner in a matter of minutes.
WHAT HAPPENS TO BAGS NOT PICKED UP?
Bags not picked up by 6:30 will also go back to the chill room and can be picked up at your convenience. If you phone us at pick-up to say you are on your way, caught in traffic or just leaving the soccer game, we will wait a few minutes. Sometimes people scheduled for Tuesday pick-up may request that their bag go back to the farm and come in with Wednesday bags or some other plan.
PICKING UP AT THE FARM?
The Chill room is in the processing shed, a two story building on your left, as you come through the driveway to the farm. The processing shed has a garage door that will likely be open. We are renovating this shed. Walk down middle, between table and stairs on your left and all kinds of things on your right until you see a door with a green chalk board near the sinks. Go into chill room. Bags will be marked Monday or Wednesday, but will not have a specific, individual name. Take a Monday or Wednesday bag and find your name on the chalk board and check it off. Having difficulty finding the right place, phone the house phone, let us know you are there or coming. Someone will meet you at the shed.
WHAT’S IN THE BAG?
If we are lucky, meaning well enough organized, hopefully, you will be able to go to the farm website before pick-up and see a bag list for that day/week The lucky part happens if Mike or Ryan, who helps post things on Website, are not otherwise tangled in actual picking and packing and are able to get into the house around lunch time, to post the list. Chances are, Mike will be snagged by 10 phone calls and Ryan will be in the back forty or greenhouse putting in or saving some crop.
In case you don’t get your list before pick-up, this time of year you can expect early greens such as lettuce or salad mix, chives, Chinese cabbage and onions – maybe a few peas, just enough to tease your appetite for the 14 week season. Every week, the veggies will increase, hopefully, soon there will be spinach and kale, summer squash, beans and eventually cucumbers, tomatoes, turnips, garlic, carrots, maybe corn and finally winter squash.
As you know, the winter and spring were extreme and May and June have been iffy, some warm, nice days and some extremely cold and wet. When it is dry enough, Mike is out plowing after supper to get land ready for Diane to plant the next day, but some days the fields are too wet to get the tractor in. The greenhouse crops seem to be doing well as does the early lettuce and Chinese Cabbage. Mike went out to pick snow peas ans sugar snaps in GH#5 along with weighing them to make sure he had enough for both groups of Veggie Members.
SWAP BOX and TAIL GATE SALES!
This is the fun part! If there is something in your bag you don’t want, bring it to back of the van where we have extra vegetables, similar to what is in the bag. We or you will find something comparable in price. We have found that someone will be waiting in line for the garlic or cucumbers, which someone is returning and swapping for something else. There will also be people standing in line for extra salad mix or tomatoes; others are just waiting for anything and everything extra. When people share a bag, they buy extra of something specific to make sure their sharing partners have enough lettuce or peas, but peas are never extra for swapping.
PREFERRED CUSTOMERS AND SPECIAL ORDERS!
Often, we do not have enough of a particular product to make it an item for the Veggie Member bag. An example might be artichokes, snows peas or pea shoots or even rhubarb this time of year. However, if you let us know, we will hold the items requested for a tail gate sales exchange rather than send it into the Farmers Market on Saturdays.
The same is true for Special Orders, especially to meet requirements for special diets for people involved in various treatments for illness. We are glad to help. However, in order to be more time efficient and ensure that we are not scrambling to set aside items for special diets, we have set up a routine around the time frame/ procedures for managing special orders. Write to Organicfarm@nl.rogers.com. Re: special orders to begin this process.
VISITING THE HOME OF YOUR VEGGIES!
Bring your children or extended family to visit the farm. You can peek in the greenhouses, see the rows of gorgeous lettuces being grown for salad mix, taste the herbs and edible flowers. If you let us know you are coming, you might have a cuppa, with a tea bun.
Compost Brigade: New Service
Beginning July, 2015, we are accepting compost at the farm. Please see Website for details. We provide buckets and lids which you bring back full and get a clean bucket for your next compost drop off. This may work especially well for people who pick up at the farm or want to visit with their families on Saturdays.
DESPERATELY SEEKING RECIPES!!
This is the most interesting part of the Veggie Membership activities. People have shared wonderful recipes over the years and many have made it into the farm recipe file which is posted on the Website. Often, along with tid bits and comments. Let’s keep this alive and well. We also try to emphasize recipes for produce that is plentiful or even over-plentiful. Last year, when we saw the fennel crop, we knew we needed help with recipes. Proper thing! We received a dozen recipe from members who like fennel, which helped me, because I was still learning. And, what about rhubarb? No matter how many recipes for rhubarb you may already have, someone will send in a new one. For a start, we have Mike’s recipe for rhubarb sauce from Aunt Esther and Mrs. Walter’s recipe for rhubarb cake, along with her story.
What happened to The Little Red Hen?
The Little Red Hen, who has been writing Farm Notes for years, flew the coop early September, 2014 and was later spotted in the corner room, Fifth floor, Health Sciences, trapped in a bed and begging for coffee. After a couple of weeks, she transitioned to her nest in the rocking chair by the wood stove and didn’t return to her proper nest before going to Arizona in December. She is back now, spending time between her nest by the fire, her computer working space on the dining room table and hobbling around outdoors, guiding the shed renovation and working with the younger folks to replenishing the edible flowers beds. She sends greetings to returning members of the Vegetable Baggers, will be at the farm in the evenings and hopes to get into pick-ups occasionally. She is looking forward to meeting the new folks and lots of interesting recipes from our old and new members alike. Meanwhile, don’t forget to check website, face book and kitchen notes, where we will also have new recipes.
Melba Rabinowitz, Co-Owner
