VEGGIE COOP FARM NOTES: WEEK 13: September 14, Small Bag
______________________________________________________________________________
Packing Slip: Smaller Bag

Basil - 25g regular 2.00
Cucumber - large English 2.50
Leeks (2) 3.00
Lettuce - large red bibb 2.50
Onions - three (small ,medium and large) 2.50
Peas - either snow peas or sugar snaps 100g. 2.00
Rutabaga 2.00
Tomatoes- pint of Latahs 3.00

Total: 19.50
______________________________________________________________________________
For information, questions or comments, we are only an e-mail or phone call away. Contact; Mike Rabinowitz, Co-Owner and Coordinator, Veggie Coop. House Phone: 895-2884. If you are running late for the pick up, call Mike on the Farm Cell at 689-7693.

SPECIAL ORDERS:
Most things are beginning to be limited due to cold weather. For example, the summer squash has vanished in the past few days; also, the peas and some of the beans are looking very shy. But we do have onions, chard, lots of basil and a few other things. If you are wondering, e-mail Mike and ask. I heard him say he still has a few artichokes. We also have limited quantities of pesto as well as raspberry vinegar and basil-garlic vinegar.

NO VINCE AND NO DIANE TODAY!!
We are lucky to have anything in the bag, with the torrents of rain and wind that was pounding outside our door this morning. I usually pick up Diane, the woman from Bell Island, who keeps our Veggie Coop operation afloat. Sorry about the pun! I usually meet her and Vince at the ferry around 8:10, but felt the ferry schedule might be different today, due to the high winds. Around quarter to nine, I called. I wasn’t surprised when Diane answered the phone. “Is the ferry running, “ I said. She explained, “Did Vince E-mail you? I talked to him around 6 o’clock this morning. I don’t know if the ferry is running or not, but, you know I hate coming on the boat, when it is stormy. When I saw the waves this morning, I called Vince and told him I wasn’t going. I don’t know if he went in or not. “ Later in the morning, the E-mail from Vince, disclosing a 6 a.m. time arrived in my E-Mail box, explaining that neither he or Diane would be in. This was just in time to let Mike know when he came down around 9:15. My very practical advice was to cancel the whole gig and offer to add a week at the end, but Mike really is the Skipper of the Veggie Coop. He began to sort out who was here to help and decided to make the best of it. This is why you have lettuce and no salad mix. It was simply impossible to pick lettuce in the rain, and probably impossible to get it processed and dried without Diane to supervise.

“YOU PAYS YOUR MONEY AND YOU TAKE YOUR CHANCES!”
This really is the nature of a CSA (Consumer Support Agriculture) endeavor like the Veggie Coop. This season started out as one of our best, but now, we are suffering frm the cold, rain and frost that has been on again, off again in the past few weeks.

The frost on Saturday night scared the squash, beans and outdoor tomatoes. We do have some of each, but not as much as we hoped. “That’s it, boy’s. You pays your money and take your chances.” When I talked to Louis around nine last Sunday morning, we knew there had been frost, but didn’t know how bad, until later in the day. . On mornings like this we go about business as usual, opening the greenhouses, watering and getting things ready for the farm store, but keeping our eyes on the plants, until the sun has warmed the plants and the wilting begins.. Based on the morning news on the way to the golf course, Mike also thought it was going to be a wipe out! When he got home mid-afternoon, he was also relieved. However, this reminded us of one Labour Day week-end, probably twenty years ago. Alberta, a woman we knew from Mike’s Graduate program at the Institute of Child Development and Behaviour in Iowa City was visiting us. She was in the early stages of Alzheimer’ and having difficultly following the high energy discussion around the impending frost. We were out scurrying around, picking some things and covering others. When we came indoors, the floor was filled with pumpkins she had plucked from the vines in the front yard, while we were covering the pumpkins in the field. Mike just shook his head, for as Toby would say, “ She didn’t do it on purpose.” Often, with a light frost, the winter squash will go on to mature well into mid-October . This week, we are at a wait and see point in our fall farming endeavors!!

THE BAD NEWS AND THE GOOD NEWS!
The bad news is that Oz was in a car accident on Sunday evening, when he was taking farm workers home. The Good News is that no one was hurt; it was not his fault; there were witnesses to that effect. The Bad News is that we are without a car. As of 4:30 today, Monday, Mike has gone to get a rental and, it appears that my wonderful, faithful, Toyota Matrix may be a write off.

LOTS OF VISITORS!
The farm participated in a project called: OPEN DOORS which invited people to some of the heritage sites around the Portugal Cove - St. Philips community. As explained in last farm notes, we are a heritage site because our farm is part of an Agriculture Land Grant given to to the late Peter Churchill around 1890. There were lots of children, all ages, having lots of fun tromping around the gardens, staying on the paths, of course and tasting the blueberry muffins and the pumpkin tarts. Today, Monday, we hosted a half dozen young people, enrolled in a Skills Program at MacMorran Community Centre. After an extensive tour and discussion of how we do our thing, tasting different kinds of tomatoes in Greenhouse 2 and learning about sprouting in Greenhouse 3, a jaunt into the fields to see the Brussel Sprouts, Artichokes, etc. we wound up in the kitchen, with lots of tasting/ eating and discussion. On Wednesday, Mike has agreed to host the cooking class from the College of North Atlantic. This has become an annual event as well.

THE LETTUCE SHED! !
Louis and Diane over see the picking and packing; helpers and WOOFER volunteers are taught the procedures and methods, developed by them. Washing, rinsing and drying takes place in the lettuce shed, a large open air construction with food safety tables which have open wire gauge tables for air flow. This was designed by Mike and Louis and so far seems to work well. The tables were purchased from Paul Bowers in Ontario, the same company that makes the greenhouses. Mike found the food safety gauge tops on line; that material came in by truck in large, heavy rolls, 4 ft. by 8 ft. The tables were put together on the farm by Kenny Ash in the summer of 2007. Even though we sometimes suffer set backs from cold and wet weather, we feel the natural air-flow, it much healthier than a closed in, wash the walls down, milk barn type construction, which was suggested by the government food safety consultants. I am reminded of this when the weather is pleasant, like most of the season. When the weather is perfect, a little cool but not cold, a little wind but not windy it works very well. Even in worse times, like today, Monday, the area is protected somewhat with slated sides and a high roof. Even though we didn’t do salad mix today, Denziel was washing the onions and leeks in a relatively protected environment. On one end, not over the tables, the garlic being harvested and dried for seeds, hangs in long, large bunches. This, too, is a sight of abundance.

BORROWING NATURE’S WATER!
There are three deep rinsing tubs in each of the two back corners, situated in a way that when they are emptied at the end of the day, the water flows downward over the hill, into a wide, wet bog then on into a ditch, which eventually meets the creek below the farm and moves at its own pace toward the ocean. In this way, we are only borrowing the rinse water and returning it almost as pristine as we found it, with a little dirt and perhaps a few insects, more or less. Last Wednesday, the salad mix was already picked, rinsed and drying on one table when I wrote the Farm Notes. Micro-greens were resting comfortably on the end of another table, while three WOOFERS, led by Denziel, one of our new, experienced and capable workers washed and bunched onions and radishes.

Hopefully, things will settle down and I will get Andrews wonderful soup recipe posted.
Melba Rabinowitz,
September 14, 2009
!.

,