Pennypack Pickings 10/03/2009

Pennypack Pickings
Volume 7, Issue 26
October 3, 2009

P
Pennypack Farm & Education Center
685 Mann Road, Horsham, PA 19044
Hosted by the College Settlement of Philadelphia

Last Pick Up Dates for Regular Season
Friday, November 6
Monday, November 9
Wednesday, November 11

First Winter Pick Up Dates
Friday, November 20
Tuesday, November 24 (this is the only Tuesday pickup, all others will be on Fridays)

"Thanks to all the families who participated in Little Sprouts this year! Stay tuned for future programs."

Preparing for the 2010 CSA Season

We have been receiving inquiries from families who are on the waitlist for 2010 shares and current CSA members asking about registration process for 2010.

In early November, we will send out an invitation to our 2009 CSA members to sign up for a 2010 share. They will have 2 weeks to send in a registration form with a deposit check.

Just after Thanksgiving, we will send out an invitation to the first part of our waitlist. These families added themselves to the waitlist before May, 2009. These families will have 2 weeks to respond. Then, in mid December, we will invite the rest of the waitlist (if any shares remain).

The deposit for shares will remain at $200. The balance will be due by March 15. Note: the total price of 2010 shares is not yet determined. It is set during our budgeting process which will be completed by Nov 1.

We hope that receiving this information now will help all of you with your family budgets (i.e having $200 available for a deposit) for the fall and avoid any ambiguity about the process.

SAITA presents Pennypack Farm,
Community Started Agriculture

Pennypack Farm hosted a recent Sustainable Agriculture Internship Training Alliance (SAITA)
of Southeastern Pennsylvania event on Community Started Agriculture.

Fred Beddall, Farm Manager of Pennypack Farm in Horsham, PA, led a series of questions for the 7 interns and 3 speakers who attended this workshop on Saturday, September 26th. Speakers included Margot Bradley, Pennypack's Program Coordinator, Amy Johnson representing Red Hill Farm and John Fowler from Anchor Run Farm in Wrightstown Township.

Read the full article and listen to part of the panel discussion here: http://maysiesfarm.blogspot.com/

Reminder - Fulfill Your Share Duty

Each Pennypack Farm share comes with the expectation that the shareholders will participate in some form of farm activity for a total of 4 hours per season per share. We call this share duty and it is fun to get to know the farm more intimately! Now, just a few months remain of the season (until mid November) and we are reminding you of this responsibility.

If you have not yet fulfilled your share duty requirement for this season, here are some options:

Help with the harvest - come to the farm between 7 and 11 am on Monday, Wednesday or Friday and help harvest, wash, and pack the daily harvest. If you have physical limitations, ask to work at the wash station.
Farm work - come any weekday between 8 am and 5 pm to join in with whatever we are doing that day.
Special needs: for lighter duty or special considerations contact Margot at coordinator.pennypackfarm@gmail.com
Chicken care - we will be looking for volunteers to help do weekend care for the chickens in November and December. You'll be feeding and watering the chickens, collecting eggs and closing them up for the night. Contact Andy at pennypackfarm@gmail.com.
Become an active member of the Community Education Committee (contact janice.blades@gmail.com)
Pay $60 (make a check out to the farm and put Share Duty Buy-Out in the memo) if you are not able to complete share duty for the 2009 season.

Thank you , in advance, for your much needed help!

In This Issue

2010 Season

SAITA at Pennypack Farm

Bring your Group to the Farm

Local Foods Market

Weekly Harvest

lettuce
mixed greens
turnips or radishes
broccoli
swiss chard
bok choi
kale
collards
basil
scallions

limited
peppers
eggplant
tomatoes

this week or next
winter squash

Past Pennypack Pickings

You can now view all 2009 issues of Pennypack Pickings on-line.
Click Here!

Locavore Club

Do you make an attempt to eat local? Are you wishing you could figure out how to incorporate more local foods into your diet? Are you an ardent locavore but feel like you need a little support sometimes?

Farm members are organizing an informal 'Locavore Club' at Pennypack. Join us! Email your interest to janice.blades@gmail.com. Once we get a list of interested folks (you don't have to be a farm member to join the club) we will set a time and date for our meeting.

New! Pennypack Farm
Book Club

Our first book will be Mark Bittman's Food Matters. If you are interested please contact Kate Steinmetz at krsteinmetz@hotmail.com and include your preference for a meeting time, morning or evening.

The first meeting will be in late October. Happy Reading!

Click here to visit the website for the book.

Medicinal Herbs Gathering

Next Medicine Herbs gathering is on October 7 at 6:30 pm.
Making Salves, Lotions, and Balms.
$5.00 for newcomers
Contact Susan Curry for more details:
215-591-1551 or suscurry@comcast.net

Keep in Touch with the Farm

With the cooler air of fall brings the reminder that our regular farm share pick-ups will come to an end. You can stay connected to the farm and fellow farm members during these cooler months - and throughout the entire year. Keep up on farm events, share photos & recipes with facebook or Yahoo!

Become a fan of Pennypack Farm and Education Center on facebook. - Click Here!

Join the Pennypack Farm CSA group at Yahoo! - Click Here!

Milanese-Style Chard