This year's Harvest Festival was a huge success. The farm looked amazing and the weather cooperated giving us a beautiful afternoon. It was amazing to see all the families that came out to enjoy a fun-filled day on the farm. It would not have been possible without the help of our many volunteers. This was our biggest turnout of volunteers to date. A whopping seventy-two volunteers were involved in making this year's festival happen doing jobs ranging from baking to helping with the event to posting flyers.

Special thanks must go out to:

• Anne Tulloch, who organized a group of volunteers from Prudental to help with the festival.
• John Schafer for donating the proceeds of his Shiatsu sessions
• Our musical performers - River Eden, Chris Huff and Craig & Pam Axler
• Our vendors - Marie's Soaps, Everich Farms & Elcye's Jewelry
• Impact Thrift Stores for donating scarecrow clothes
• Students from Lincoln Academy PW for running the face painting table

There are still quite a few opportunities available for late fall/early winter chicken and turkey care.

If you are interested in taking care of the chickens and turkeys for one weekend day or weekend, please email Andy at pennypackfarm@gmail.com.

I would like to send out a huge THANK YOU to everyone who donated old cell phones, iPods and ink jet cartridges.  The fundraiser is a great success. There still is a bag for collections in the harvest house.

I am still collecting donations, so keep up the great work. All of the donated items go to a recycling plant, there the pieces either used again or disposed of properly as to not pollute the environment.  The funds gained from the recycling go directly to a service trip in Ecuador. A group of students from Upper Dublin High School will be going to Ecuador next summer where we will be doing a service project and exploring the unique ecosystems in the country.  If you have any questions or comments about the fundraiser or the trip, feel free to contact me at 215- 540-9001.

Thank you for all of your support,
Mieke Scherpbier

Last time I wrote about the equinox, which is a seasonal marker without much impact on the vegetable kingdom.  But another seasonal marker is approaching, one that we really notice here at Pennypack Farm.  The frost date is the first night of the year when frost forms in our region.  Typically, that's October 10 around here.
 
The scientific definition of frost is a little confusing, but essentially, the plant surfaces are below freezing and are cooler than the surrounding air.  Dew forms as ice instead of water on the surfaces of leaves.  For many plants that we grow at the farm, frost is the end, or the beginning of the end. 
 
Basil is the first to go. The leaves of basil will be blackened by temperatures that are significantly above freezing, as many of you have discovered in your refrigerator!  Beans will be killed, and tomato plants, and peppers.  We can spare these plants if we cover them with the white row cover, which will prevent the frost from forming underneath.   However, given the feeble condition of the most vulnerable crops this season, we may not bother.
 
Some of our fall crops can sail through one or more frosts with little damage, including the mustard family (broccoli and turnips), as well as lettuce and root crops like carrots and beets.  In fact, those crops will taste sweeter as a result of diminished water uptake and a higher proportion of sugar in the plant tissues.  
 
Another victim of frost will be one of our most difficult weeds, galinsoga, a native of South America.  It will save us a lot of weeding effort in the carrots when a frost hits.  On the other hand, some weeds come on strong in the colder soil of fall, such as chickweed, which is also very frost hardy and is capable of burying our lettuce.
 
Right now our top priority is digging up our sweet potatoes, which can sustain damage when the soil temperature drops below 50 degrees.  We dug up about half the crop yesterday, and it is a bumper crop, though there is some cosmetic damage to the tubers' surfaces as a result of the wet soils.  After digging them up, we spread them out in the greenhouses, and close the doors to raise the temperatures to 85 degrees for about two weeks.  This is called curing and helps to ensure storage life and sweetness.  Look forward to an abundant fall! 

Bring Your Group to the Farm

The Dirt on Education

Pre-registration and pre-payment is required
To register, send an email to education@pennypackfarm.org
or call 215-646-3943 x3
Please provide the following info when registering:

Farmer Andy Hour

Cooking with Root Vegetables

Fresh eggs from the hens you know!

Organic, Free-Range Eggs

Apple Tree chevre, garlic herb
Apple Tree chevre, plain
Hope Springs Sharp Cheddar
Misty Creek Hard goat cheddar: reg and smoked
Noble Cave aged cheddar
Herbal Jack
Havarti
Toy Cow Black Cherry Yogurt
Toy Cow Blueberry Yogurt
Toy Cow Smoothies

7 Stars: lowfat maple yogurt
7 Stars: plain yogurt
7 Stars: lowfat plain yogurt

Butter
Organic Milk 1% and whole

Goat Feta

Broilers

Liver/heart packs

Neck packs

Bison, ground
Bison, burgers

Chicken, basil and tomato sausage
Chicken, broccoli rabe sausage
Chicken, mozzarella and basil sausage
Chicken, white wine and garlic sausage
Ground Turkey

Various seasonal fruit IPM
Cremini Mushrooms
Portabello Mushrooms

Organic Spelt
Rosemary Olive Oil
Whole Wheat Baguette
Whole Wheat Sandwich
Granola 12 oz
Granola bars

Honey: raw

Maple  Syrup
Fermented: Beets
Ginger Carrots
Sauerkraut

Garlic Hummus
Jalapeno Hummus
Mild Garlic Hummus

Kauffman's Cider; 1/2 gallon

Vrapple