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Hi Folks,
Happy Groundhog Day! Groundhog Day is that exhilarating moment---at least for me---when we turn the corner from gaining one or two minutes of daylight each day and enter the time of year when we gain three or four minutes of daylight each day. Very exciting! The celebration of Groundhogs Day, on February 2nd, has it's roots in Pagan Times. As with many Pagan celebrations, Groundhogs Day was overlain with a Christian Holiday, by the Church, during the Middle Ages. In this case the attempt was made to change the Pagan Celebration to Candlemas Day. So be it. The fact remains that the day marks the point half way between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox---half way to Spring. So....the darkest days are behind us!
In Celebration of this fact, tomorrow we will mark Groundhogs Day, here at Arrowhead, with a Potluck Lunch. The Farm will provide Sausages and Beef Burgers and, of course, a wonderful Green Salad picked fresh from our Greenhouses. We would appreciate CSA Members supplying salad dressings and desserts.
The Potluck is open to all those folks who are interested in The CSA at Arrowhead, including Current, Past and prospective Members. Bring the Family and the young folks, bring your Friends and Neighbors, all are welcome---and you need bring nothing but yourself, if you don't have time to make something.
The Share pick up this week will be in #3 Greenhouse, along with the Potluck. This week the Share will include Carrots, English Winter Cabbage, Kohlrabi, Honeycrisp Apples, White Winter Radish, Daikons, Turnips, Leeks and Green Onions.
And if you are not a CSA Member but are interested, or know someone who might be interested, you may pick up a complimentary Share this Week
CSA hours are 11 until 3 and the Lunch will start at noontime. Hope to see you there.
NOW ABOUT SWEET CORN
There are numerous options for producing Sweet Corn these days. I have a pretty darned good idea of how Arrowhead will provide this Summer treat for our CSA Members this season. But, I thought I would like to provide you with the options and get some of your thoughts.
We COULD have my cousin, Rob Bartlett, continue to grow our Corn on his Farm in Salisbury and have about the same amount of ears in the Share as we have enjoyed these past couple of years.
We COULD grow GMO, Roundup Ready Sweet Corn cultivars without the use of chemical Herbicides. Using this option we would have many more ears of Corn in the Shares. Some ears with worms and some without.
We COULD grow GMO Roundup Ready and BT cultivars, without the use of Herbicides or Insecticides, and have plentiful Sweet Corn---all anyone could possibly want--- with no worms what-so-ever.
We COULD grow non-GMO cultivars using BT sprays on an every other day spray schedule. This is a FDA, EPA and USDA approved Certified Organic method of Sweet Corn production. We would have plentiful, worm free ears using this method.
We COULD grow non-GMO cultivars under Reemay (a spun-bonded insect screen---very costly). We would use no Pesticides of any kind and have a few ears, for a short season, with no worms at all.
We COULD grow non-GMO cultivars and grow them as my Grandfather Charlie Moulton did for the first half of the previous Century. This would require mechanical cultivation and hand weeding and hoeing, and use a bit more diesel fuel. We would have reasonably plentiful Corn, but with a fair number of worms that you, the CSA Member, would have to cut out with a knife before cooking.
As I said above, I have a pretty good idea of which options I might like to use. But I'd like to hear your thoughts. Let's start an email discussion. Or, better yet, stop by the Farm tomorrow, have a bite of Lunch, and we can discuss our options.
SUMMER SHARE SIGNUP
Tomorrow would be a good day to sign up for this season's CSA Shares as well. Consider bringing your checkbook. Three dozen free eggs if you sign up tomorrow.
And PLEASE help consume some eggs. $6 a dozen or three dozen for $10. Make some custard or omelets, or share some with Friends---but please help us use some up. The hens are just going nuts laying during this mild, sunny Winter. Thank you.
AND MORE ON CONGRESS
You will remember my historic perspective on Congress from the December 24th Newsletter, regarding the total incompetence of the First Continental Congress. Well it is apparent that the 113th Congress is no less incompetent having voted no-aid for Fisherman after the Obama Administration has dealt the final Death blow to New England's Fishery.
The previous NOAA Director announced, with the President's blessing, that she would eliminate eighty percent of the New England Fishing Fleet within four years. The current NOAA Director, again with the President's approval, has pushed up the timetable to one year. Please click here for a bone-chilling news article. No more local Fishermen and no more local fish, I don't understand, Mr. President. And this coming immediately after you have removed the Fishermen's most ardent supporter, John Kerry, from the Senate. President Obama, I ask you, what in Hell are you trying to accomplish? You are eliminating all but the largest Corporate Fishing Vessels from our Waters. Will all small Farmers be next on your list? I am outraged!
This time of year I like to set my target using an old Yankee Farm adage. I believe it came out of Vermont's Hill Country, in the upper Connecticut River Valley, in the 19th Century:
"We'll be fine, if we can just make Spring.".
Unfortunately our local fishing families can no longer take stock in this adage.
Hope to see you tomorrow and.......
Happy Groundhog Day,
Dick Chase
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