Twin Springs Fruit Farm
Growing better since 1979
 
For what's at market this week see the bottom section.
For times and locations please  

For a history of the farm and a write-up on our
Green Practices please Click Here.
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Chandler Strawberries are Ready

    I'm happy to say that all markets will be getting our own strawberries for the foreseeable future. There were some issues with dead foliage from the freeze during initial bloom, thankfully berries keep blooming for a few weeks, until the length of day gets such that they become sterile. This season looks to be an extra long one, depending, as always, on having some decent weather. It looks like, once again, the coming weekend will be a wet one. I'd like to thank those of you who choose to come out and support local growers in inclement weather - the stuff needs a home while it is fresh.
     Above you can see a picture of a melon planting, more on that later, which looks much like our strawberry beds, only not as far along. You can visualize how the plastic mulch, what you see being biodegradable, tightly laid over a raised bed, will shed rain and help maintain the quality of the berries. Before we had bed makers and the equipment required to place the plastic, cover the edges with soil to keep it in place, and even feed out irrigation tubing underneath, not to mention evenly punching the holes used for planting, we were much more vulnerable to excess water and its dire consequences. 
    Too much moisture will dilute the flavor and sugar of a berry, but the worst consequence is the rot which will race through a flat field of ripe berries and turn them into acres of rotting fruit. The mulch cuts down drastically on the need to spray fungicide or herbicide; and with biodegradable mulch we feel that this is quite a "green" way to raise a crop of strawberries.
    While we do indeed need more sun than we've been receiving the berries are coming along well enough to supply all of the markets for the foreseeable future. Enjoy!, but don't think that you need to rush to buy in bulk for jam and freezing; the season is just beginning and there more than likely will be deals at some point, which will be announced in a future newsletter, if things go well.

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Asparagus Season

    Being as we are in the midst of the season for asparagus I thought it was time to re-run my annual soup recipe, with some corrections made since last year, caught by my editor. Lyn has a patch of wild asparagus which she encourages by the occasional weeding; and we've been having it nightly with some of the below soup from last season as a sauce. 
    We just didn't get through all that we had made, and need to clear out the freezer for the season that is now underway. I recommend trying to use up any stuff you made last year so that you can begin freezing and canning with a clean slate. I've still got a couple containers of heirloom tomato sauce.
    And no, we don't yet grow our own asparagus for market, so get it from us at "Our Own" locations, where we carry super fresh stuff from an Amish grower, at this time. Or, barring that, I'm sure you'll find it from another grower at any multi-vendor market.


Cream of Asparagus Soup

Ingredients
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 1/2 cups of coarsely chopped onion (I wish we had some available at this time)
6 Tbs. butter
6 Tbs. flour
Fresh dill weed to taste, chopped fine
1 1/2 lbs. fresh asparagus - 2 bunches, if purchased at one of our markets
4 cups of *scalded milk
1 tsp. salt
White pepper - to taste
Tamari/soy sauce - to taste

*In other words heat the milk until tiny bubbles form around the edge of the pot, but not to the point of boiling.

Instructions
Break or cut off the tough asparagus bottoms and discard them. Reserve the tender tips for adding back at the end of the recipe.
Coarsely chop the stalks, and cook them in the butter over med-high heat with the onion, salting them lightly.
After about 8-10 minutes, when onions are clear but not browned, sprinkle in the flour, and continue to cook over very low heat, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes, until thickened. Add the chicken (or veggie) stock and cook for about 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently until thickened.
Pur�e the sauce with the warm scalded milk and the stock until smooth, in small batches, if using a processor or blender; or, alternatively, use an immersion blender - much less mess and fuss.

Return the pur�e to the stove, add dill, salt, white pepper and tamari/soy sauce to taste.
Heat the soup over low heat, but don't boil.
As it heats, steam the tips until tender, but still very green; add them to the soup and serve immediately or freeze.

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Melon Planting

    What you can see in the above picture is a number of 800' to 900' rows of five types of melons. In the far distance you can see the guys who are finishing up planting those little seedlings. Three of the kinds of melons are ones you have seen in the past, and are quite popular, the Canary with its bright yellow skin, and Lamkin, a small blotchy skinned, green fleshed and super sweet melon, as well as the small "Sugar Cube", for us a short lived phenomena last season. 
    As to those melon seedlings in the above picture, when those freezing days came along during full bloom in the stone fruit we felt the need to cover the potential losses, and chose to seed some extra melons to provide a crop that might mitigate the loss of peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots and the like. 
   Well, things look better for some of those "Prunus genus" crops, but not great or normal by any means. We'll see how well these, mostly small melons, grow and produce; and of course to what extent customers will enjoy having them. You are liable to see them side by side with what peaches we are able to pick as they are geared to ripen at about the same time as peaches, at least late peaches.
    The first variety is a small, very sweet and flavorful cantaloupe type melon, which Johnnies Seed characterizes as the most flavorful one they grow; it goes by the name "Sara".
    A second is "Lambkin" which is a blotchy green skinned melon with sweet flavorful green flesh, a strain of the Piel de Sapo. You may remember the similar "Christmas" melons of past years.
   Another selection is "Sugar Cube", actually we are raising two different strains as an experiment, and from a different seed house; we "Trialed" these last year and received a lot of good feedback, as well as some disappointment at how few we had to offer. Well, they'll be coming out of our ears if things go well in the field. I'm sure we've over planted. 
    Another melon you have seen from us is the yellow skinned, and honey sweet, green/yellow fleshed Canary Melon. 
    But the most exciting may be a small new strain of mini-cantaloupe, "Tasty Bites" which the catalogue characterizes as:

A personal-size melon with intense sweetness.
Tasty Bites is an innovative type of melon bred by crossing an ananas and a charantais. The result is a very sweet, rich, aromatic melon with an above-average shelf life. Fruits ripen over a long harvest period making this a good choice for market growers.

O.K. now that I've got your mouth watering, and mine as well, remember that these are all many weeks away. Just look at the size of the seedlings. That picture was taken just a couple of days ago, and boy could they use some sun!


Aztec Fuji
  
   We're happy to announce kind of an upgrade, to the Fuji we've been selling. The new batch of apples are very crisp, sweet, flavorful and juicy.
   We've been pretty disappointed in the Sun Fuji which we've been selling for the last few weeks. They haven't been quite "Up to snuff" from the texture and flavor perspective. While they've been selling well enough, we know some customers have moved on to the wonderful Stayman, Pink Lady and Goldrush. We're hoping that some Fuji fans will get a sample of the Aztec and see how good they are. Much darker skinned than the Sun Fuji, Aztec are a newer strain in that line. We were afraid of the "Red Drift" phenomena but planted them after having a few samples. To hedge our bets we are also having a lot of Sun Fuji budded over to appropriate root stock, to plant in a couple of years.
    Truth be told, the reason that the Sun Fuji were not up to our usual quality was due to a couple of factors. The first, labor problems prevented us from getting them harvested at the ideal time. The second ties in to the first in that in the fall it was unseasonably warm, which affected fruit all through the northeastern U.S. The warm weather compressed the time during which you had a window to get any particular late variety off the trees in good shape. 
    In a normal year November would have been much cooler, providing at least a couple of weeks during which you might harvest Fuji, Goldrush and Pink Lady, as they ripen. Last year all were getting ripe in the same short period, and there just weren't enough pickers to get the job done. The Sun Fuji had gotten a bit too ripe by the time we got to them. On the other hand the Aztec came off in a timely fashion, and stored quite well.
    There has been a chronic shortage of farm labor for a few years, and of course congress has been useless at getting the problems solved. C'est la vie! down on the farm.

    Michael has just picked up a few bins of our Aztec from Rice Fruit Company, who had them stored in their CA, nitrogen atmosphere, storage. The nitrogen, what remains after purging most of the Oxygen and CO2, is inert and doesn't allow for the production of ethylene gas, which would cause over-ripening. He took the above picture from the roof of our truck so that you can get a look at what the Fuji, and the Goldrush in the background, are stored in, 25 bushel stackable bins.
    He had just arrived back at the farm to unload, after which the same guys, for the most part, who picked them will be getting them out of the bins, very much by hand, as we think that automatic bin dumpers are too rough on the fruit. While I used to help with that job my back is no longer up to it. One leans over the bin and picks out the fruit, grading as you go, making 1/2 bushel crates of either #1 apples, or #2, which can be purchased at only .99 per pound as we dropped the price from $1.49 when we stopped pressing cider last week. Hey, they need a home, and I can't tell you how many we give to gleaners at the end of many of our markets.

    Here's what our nursery, Adams County Nursery says about the latest apple to come out of Controlled Atmosphere storage:

Aztec Fuji� originated in New Zealand and has gained considerable popularity in the US. Aztec� is a full-colored, blush-type that harvests late season with standard Fuji. The tree is healthy and vigorous, and the fruit exhibits the traditional, sweet flavor of Fuji. This variety is restricted to commercial sales only. Aztec Fuji� is a protected trademark of Waimea Variety Management Limited. 


Don't be a fair weather friend!
Come on out and support local growers
Michael, Jesse and Aubrey

WHAT'S AT MARKET THIS WEEK
Here is a list of what we expect to carry at 
ALL LOCATIONS this week

Spinach - You may have seen that we have started picking a new planting of spinach, guaranteed the freshest and most reasonably priced sweet spinach available.
Chandler Strawberies - Despite the distinct lack of sunshine the berries are ripening, at a stately pace, for sure, but ripening and needing to be picked and sold!
Trust Tomatoes -  We are heavily into these now and have lowered the price from the initial $4.99 per pound to $3.99.
Sungold & Dasher - The guys are picking a good number this week.
Sungold are the orange variety, and are about as sweet as you would care to have them.
Dasher are a small red pear shaped cherry tomato with a strong, but not overly sweet tomato flavor; I go back and forth as to which is my favorite.
Kahlua, these are the brownish, large, at least for a cherry tomato, ones you may see displayed along with the above two varieties.
Basil - I'm told there will be plenty for all markets; goes well with the increasing supply of slicing tomatoes.
Manar Cucumbers - Very few again this week; they just need a lot more sunlight.
Lettuce - Plenty of both Red ButterCrunch and Green ButterCrunch will be on offer.
Arugula - It looks like the amount of arugula is also about what we need for the coming week.
Baby Eggplant - A few of both the traditional black, as well as our lavender colored eggplant will be seen at markets.
Spring Mix - There will be a fair amount available.
Watercress - A few, but perhaps not enough.
Apple Varieties - Nittany, GoldRush, Aztec and a few remaining Sun Fuji, Pink Lady, Cameo and Stayman
For cooking purposes I prefer a base of GoldRush, but in a pie or cobbler I generally also will use a couple from among the following: Stayman, Pink Lady and Nittany. 
Sweet Potatoes Beauregard (A.K.A. Orleans), we still have a fair supply of these traditional orange fleshed sweet potatoes.
Vivaldi Potatoes - Small, tender and delicious, with a golden interior. The larger ones are to be found in 5 lb. bags at a bit of a discount over the "loose" price, where you can find a mix of small to medium sizes.
Remember that Vivaldi are a low glycemic "Weight Watcher's pick", with, we think, better flavor and texture than Yukon Gold.
Bagged Potatoes - These are medium to large Vivaldi potatoes, bagged at five pounds and selling for only $7.50, therefore $1.50 per pound as opposed to our loose potatoes, which are priced at $1.99 per pound.
Carrots - Both purple and orange carrots will be available in the 2 pound bags with the two colors in separate bags. You will find one pound bags, still with a mixture of the two.
Pink Lady Dried Apples - Very popular as a good-for-you delicious snack, our dried apples have no sugar or preservatives added, as well as no sulfur!; many commercial ones use sulfites as a preservative.
Patty's Apple Cider Caramels - Made from our current batch of cider. These are simply "to die for" if you are a caramel fan. We send these everywhere, with the exception of Takoma, because Patty herself sells them there at her and Robert's farm stand, Audia Farm.
Twin Spring's Own Products - Jarred Peaches, Hot Pepper Jelly, *Chipotle Ketchup, Marinara Sauce, Apple Butter and Apple Sauce. All may be purchased individually, or by the 12 jar case, for 10% off.
*We are running low on our ketchup so get what you need; it'll be a couple of months before we can make a new batch.
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In addition, we will offer the following products at 
OUR OWN Markets, where we are the sole vendor, all of which are open to the general public, with the exception of Goddard Space Flight Center.
 
Spinachspring onions, both red and green leaf lettuces from the field, bok choyrhubarb and radishes
Strawberries - A sea change from last week; we plan on sending our own superb Chandler to all locations.
Asparagus - Very fresh, local asparagus will be available.
Joe Brubaker's Kales - Joe should be bringing us some of his super-fresh, baby kales. 
Allen's fresh local eggs - Brought to Twin Springs weekly, both white and brown eggs from happy "free walking" hens, raised just outside of Gettysburg.
Elizabeth's Breakfast Loaves - Hand made and baked the evening before market.
Fresh Hard Pretzels - Locally produced, coming in both regular and Honey Whole Wheat. Hand made and freshly baked in the D.C. area.
Artisanal Cheeses - Twin Springs carries Ed's fresh local: Sharp Cheddar, Cheddar, Smoked Cheddar as well as Smoked Jalape�o; also available are his Goat Gouda and Goat Cheddar.
Local Wildflower Honey - Jim Small has kept us supplied with his pure, raw honey, much of it drawn from hives kept year-round on our farm.
Maple Syrup and Maple Sugar - tapped and bottled on the Patterson Farm in Pennsylvania.
McCutcheon's Products - We carry an extensive line of their jams, some fruit sweetened, ie. no cane sugar or corn syrup, and jellies, as well as many other great products created right in Frederick Maryland.
Baked Goods - From Stonehearth Bakery, also in Frederick; all items are baked "that" morning: Baguettes, innumerable kinds of fresh breads, both sliced and unsliced, as well as croissants, scones and cookies.


 Twin Springs Fruit Farm            717-334-4582 [email protected]  
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