Wood Duck Farm

August 27^th, 2010

This was kind of a non-eventful week at the farm as our days entailed fixing a broken hydraulic return line on our largest tractor, sowing more plug trays with fall crop seeds, installing irrigation lines in on of our fields along with our normal planting/harvesting of salad greens/micro greens. While still hot, Thursday morning was a welcome change as we touched 70F in the morning and the forecast is for temps touching the mid 60sF this weekend. While we are about 90% irrigated, some needed rain is in the forecast that would help in the making of laying plastic mulch next week.  All of our plants are looking good at the moment and, while the days are beginning to get shorter, the fall is typically a great time for growing.  Oh, almost forgot, we received 60 cross rock broiler chicks this week. They are resting in their brooder until they get a little older; they then go into our "chicken coup with a hoop."  We're sure our little piggies will welcome more moderate temperatures when they occur as well.

Farm Dinners:  This past week we sent out a survey to patrons of our past farm dinners and received great feedback.  When asked about their overall "farm dinner" experience, respondents gave us rating of 64% excellent and 36% good. When surveyed "did our "farm dinners meet their expectations," we received 57% excellent, 39% good, 7% okay and 7% disappointing (oh well guess we can't please everyone.) One of the more interesting findings was that most respondents were not interested in having an option to attend our dinners in a chartered bus.  Perhaps the most humbling result was to find that 100% of those surveyed said that they would consider attending and/or referring a friend to one of our future farm dinners. (Guess those that were dissatisfied would give us a "do-over?")

As mentioned last week, our Saturday October 2^nd dinner will have Justin Yu, Seth Siegel-Gardner and possibly Terrence Gallivan from the Just8August project as our guest chefs.  You can see some of their dishes on You Tube at the following link    Just8August Project You Tube   You can purchase tickets at our Farmer's Market Booth at the Urban Harvest on Saturday morning or via PayPal on our website at Farm Dinner PayPal Purchase . Prices are $75 per person and the event will be BYOB. We will begin with a reception around 3:00 or so and will start our farm tour around 4 or 4:30.  The dinner menu will focus on locally grown/raised food and will likely include five courses and wrap up around 9 pm or so.   If you missed last week's update, you can read more about these talented chefs at these two links  JustAugust Project Chronicle  andJust August Project Houston Press   For more info/photos about our earlier farm dinners visit  WDF Spring Dinners  

Please remember that our Sunday afternoon, November 7^th dinner (not on our website just yet) will feature Guest Chef LJ Wiley of Yelapa Playa Mexicana.  Chef Wiley was recently nominated in My Table Magazine for "Best Up-and-Coming Chef!".  Chef Wiley is an avid supporter of "buying local" as he visits us, and other area growers, every Saturday morning at the Urban Harvest Farmer's Market. His resume includes attending the French Culinary Institute (FCI): working at Smith & Wollensky, Brennan's, and Jean Georges Vongerichten Spice Market in NYC.  This link may provide you some insight Houston Chronicle Yelapa Review  about Chef Wiley.

Interested in hearing about our Fall CSA program information?  Visit our website by linking to CSA Details   For a review of our current locations go to CSA Pickup Locations 

Hoping to see you at the Urban Harvest Farmer's Market this coming Saturday morning.

All the Best,

Van Weldon

Cell 713 876 8645

www.woodduckfarm.com

email csa@woodduckfarm.com

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