LINK TO MEAL PLANS. 

 Today’s box contains arugula, braising mix (spinach, chard, kale), carrots, escarole, green onions, herb bunch of lemon balm and mint, red leaf lettuce, and tatsoi.  The carrots and onions are from Roberson Creek Farms, and all other vegetables are from Harland’s Creek Farm.  Cheese subscribers have Carolina Moon from Chapel Hill Creamery.  Fickle Creek is providing eggs, pork loin or Italian Sausage and bulk pork sausage for those who subscribed for such.

 Escarole Information.  This is the first year that HCF has grown escarole, and it will not be the last.  Escarole is in the chicory/endive family, but it turns out to be a much more substantial vegetable.  It is very popular in Sicilian/Italian cooking.  When I took a few heads to market on Saturday a couple of customers were thrilled and recounted fond memories of their Italian grandmothers cooking it.  The key they reported is to braise it at a very low temperature.  I have sent a recipe for one of the classic dishes that use escarole--Italian Wedding Soup.  There are many versions of this recipe on the web and this is a simpler distillation of some of then.

 Your box is somewhat larger than normal because the spring vegetables are very mature due to the hot weather in March.  Summer vegetables may be slow in coming, with the result that the box could be smaller than normal for a few weeks.  However, we  have many weeks to make up any differences.  

Best regards,

Judy for all the farmers in the Durham Collaborative CSA

 LINK TO MEAL PLANS.  For those of you who are new members, this is how you will get the meal plans for the remaining weeks.  This way you do not lose them and can access them prior to picking up your box. If anyone needs a hard copy, let me know, and I will put it in.

 Today’s box contains chard, green garlic, mixed leaf lettuce, pak choy, radishes, spinach, and Hakurei turnips.  I added some mint at the last minute because I thought it would be good in the turnip salads, especially the one that is recommended to go with the curry.  The radishes are from Roberson Creek Farms, and all other vegetables are from Harland’s Creek Farm.  The cheese this week is Farmer’s Cheese from Chapel Hill Creamery.  Meat shares are: Whole Broiler, gourmet and Bratwurst and Finger Link Sausage for the family shares.

 Cooking notes: The meal plans recommend baking a whole chicken for one of the main meals.  If you put some water in the bottom of the roasting pan, you can use drippings for making a broth.  You are likely to have some chicken left after the first meal. I recommend removing the leftover chicken from the bones and using the skin, bones, and any drippings from the roasting pan to make a broth.  This broth can then be used for the suggested Radish Top Soup, which is a potato soup with the radish tops in it.  You can use other greens in the soup as well—for example some of the chard could be added. . 

 Most of you are probably used to just munching on radishes or slicing them into a green salad. We are recommending adding them to a chicken salad.  However, you might want to try making Radish Butter(58) to spread on toast or bagels for a quick meal.  It keeps in the refrigerator for quite awhile because of the fat in the butter.  

 I am going to skip the farmer’s usual rant about the weather this week and just mention that we were so grateful for the 0.6 inch rain we got on Saturday afternoon.  I was taking a nap on the front porch after being at the Durham Farmers’ Market and even had to move the chaise I was napping on away from the edge of the porch.  ‘Twas delightful.

Best regards,

Judy for all the farmers in the Durham Collaborative CSA

Spring is ...well maybe it is  summer-- is here, and we continue to have new crops ready to sell.   Spinach--the clasic Bloomsdale savoyed spinach, and Japanese Hakurei Turnips--sweet, mild and tender have been added. 

Order by 3 pm for pickup tomorrow at the Durham Farmers Market or this afternoon at the farm. Farm orders can be picked up at any time after 4 pm.  Online order store link.

Next week we will have freash chicken.

Mid-Chatham Farmers Alliance is a collaboration among Harland's Creek Farm [Judy Lessler], Wiseacre Farm [Laurie Heise], Clayton Orchard [Andy Clayton], Pine Knot Farm [Stanley Hughes], Cohen Farm [ Esta Cohen], Chapel Hill Creamery [Portia McKnight], and Roberson Creek Farm [Vicki and Bobby Roberson].  We have joined forces to bring you one of the best and most varied CSAs in the Triangle area.  Pick up locations include: :

• Chatham County at Harland’s Creek Farm (Tuesday - Friday)
• Chapel Hill at Southern Village  (Tuesday afternoon after 3 pm)
• CrossFit Gym in downtown Raleigh: 15 N. West Street  (Tuesday: 4:00 - 6:30 pm)
• Quadrangle/Rho (Tuesday 4:00 - 6:00 pm)

For the first time, we are offering all options at all locations  and possibly staffed pick-up sites at some locations off the farm. We have modified the food plans to provide a greater range of choices.  We include a CSA booklet that contains recipes and information on storage and cleaning of produce.  You will be able to find recipes for fruits, greens, herbs, summer vegetables, pork, beef, chicken, eggs, and cheese and a special section on cooking for children. 

You have all heard of CSA enrollees whose refrigerators are stuffed with food that they have not eaten and that they do not know how to prepare.  This rarely happens with our customers because we provide weekly meal plans based on the share contents. We even include a shopping list of additional ingredients that you need to prepare a suggested meal. This saves you lots of time because you do not need to flip through the recipes to identify, for example, how many ounces of pasta, corn grits, or whatever is needed to make a suggested recipe. 

 All participating farms are dedicated to sustainable local agriculture.  Most of the produce and herbs will come from Harland’s Creek Farm, Pine Knot Farm, Wiseacre Farm and Roberson Creek Farm. Harland’s Creek Farm and Pine Knot Farm are certified organic, and Wiseacre Farm and Roberson Creek Farm use sustainable, earth friendly methods.

Cohen Farm will provide beef, pork, and eggs.  At Cohen Farm, all animals and birds are raised on pasture and fed certified organic grain from Cohen Farm.  The chicken and some of the eggs will come from Harland's Creek Farm where all birds are pasture-raised and antibiotic and hormone-free. 

Chapel Hill Creamery makes cheeses from its own herd of Jersey cows and will be distributing award winning cheeses. 

Clayton Orchard was established by the late Dr. Carlyle Clayton, a nationally renowned plant pathologist at N.C. State University, who specialized in fruit diseases.  His family continues to maintain the orchard, which is located in the Sand Hills region of NC. Visit our web site for links to learn more about our collaborating farms.

Produce and Herbs will be provided for 30 weeks and will consist of a combination of certified organic items and sustainably grown items.  You will receive a weekly e-mail that lets you know which farms the items are from. The weekly box will contain from 5 to 10 vegetables and herbs.  You return your prior week’s box when you pick up the current box. $640

Meat Shares:  Pasture-raised beef, chicken, and pork will be provided on a rotating basis.  We are offering a gourmet share and a family share this year, with the former including smaller amounts of more expensive cuts such as steaks and chops and the latter having larger amounts of less expensive cuts such as ground beef, chicken leg quarters, stew beef, and so on. $560, $370.  The details of what we expect to provide each week are at the link: MEAT and CHICKEN CSA EXAMPLES

Eggs and Cheese will be provided on alternate weeks for 30 weeks. One week you will receive a dozen eggs from our free range chickens; the next week a piece of cheese selected from the seven kinds of cheese made by Chapel Hill Creamery.  These include their camembert like Carolina Moon and New Moon, mozzarella, farmers’ cheese, feta, an aged cheese called Hickory Grove, and the award winning Calvander cheese.  In 2011 Calvander won a gold medal in the hard cheese category at the North American Jersey Cheese Show and was second best in show overall. This cheese is similar to Asiago. $222.50

Fruit. We are no longer accepting fruit enrollments.  Click on the following links for more information:

• Examples of what we grow

•  Example Meal Plans and Shopping Lists

Payment is due at enrollment.  You may pay with a single check or with two checks one of which is post dated a month later than the first.  There is a $10 discount for enrolling in the Produce and Herbs and one other food program. You can also pay by PayPal for a small charge.  You can enroll online.

Soft drinks and unsweetened iced tea will also be available for sale. We will not sell bottled water due to the excess of plastic bottles it generates.  You will be welcome to fill your own water bottle with our healthy well water. 

Pre-order box lunches online at the HCF web site. You can also order a Piedmont Farm Tour ticket for $25 and pick it up at the farm.  You will need to make Harland's Creek Farm your first visit to get the button prior to visiting other farms.  The button is good for one carload of people, and can, of course, be ordered at the CFSA farm tour web site. 

If you are a member of a Harland’s Creek Farm CSA, you will receive a $20 discount on the farm tour.  Members will receive the coupon code via email. To read about our CSAs go to HCF CSAs on our web site.

Mid Chatham Farmers Alliance CSA:  Deliveries on Tuesday in Chatham County,  Raleigh, and Chapel Hill. Choice of produce, fruit, meat and chicken, and eggs and cheese. 

Durham Collaborative CSA: Deliveries on Wednesday at the Durham Farmers Market. Choicke of produce, meat and chicken, eggs, cheese, and flowers.

Harland's Creek Farm Chicken Only CSA: Delivery of pasture raised locally processed chicken to RTP on Thursdays and the Durham Farmers' Market on Saturday.  Described below and at this link:  Chicken Only CSA.  Chicken Only Enrollment Form

How Harland's Creek Farm Addresses the Callenge of Growing the Local Food Industry

Eating and growing local food can be a challenge. 

Consumers who are interested in eating locally grown, fresh, tasty, healthy food and are often daunted by the practical reality of doing so.  Supermarkets are full of food that was harvested days or weeks ago and shipped many miles. Cooking often seems complex,  too time consuming, and hard to fit in a busy life.  There is a wide gulf between the food and the producer.  

Farmers who want to serve local customers and provide them with adequate variety must grow many varieties of produce and provide adequate supplies.  Weather and environmental conditions, for example, that pesky downy mildew that blows in from Florida at different times of the year, can destroy careful planning. 

Harland’s Creek Farm CSAs address the challenges of providing a consistent supply of healthy food to consumers who want to eat well by:

• Collaborating with other famers who share our dedication to growing food in a way that protects the earth to provide produce, eggs, cheese, and meat weekly
• Providing a CSA booklet that contains recipes and instructions for preparing food
• Developing weekly meal plans and shopping lists that reduce the time our members must devoted to planning healthy meals
• Informing our members weekly of what is happening on the farms and opening the farms to our members

In short we have created a community of farmers who are dedicated to providing food or our local community and who believe that if we take care of the earth it will take care of us.

• Adult: Chicken Salad Sandwiches with sides
• Adult: Greens Bake Muffins with sides
• Child: Chicken Salad Sandwich, veggie dip, and cookie.
  

Soft drinks and unsweetened iced tea will also be available for sale. We will not sell bottled water due to the excess of plastic bottles it generates.  You will be welcome to fill your own water bottle with our healthy well water.  Jump to Order Form

• On Monday before market, we will post information on the items that can be pre-ordered on our web site: www.harlands-creek-farm.com 
• You can order by choosing Online Store from our Online Orders tab on our website. Items and their prices are listed. Just click on what you want, look at your shopping basket, revise if necessary, and check out.  You will receive a confirmation e-mail. Be sure to indicate where you will pick-up the order.
  
• Prices are slightly higher than those at the market.  You can pre-pay with PayPal or pay with cash or by check when you pick up at the market.

DISCOUNTS

• We offer DISCOUNTS for pre-paid accounts.  The discount is 8 percent less than that posted on the web and 3 percent less than the cash price at the market.
• CREATE an ACCOUNT: To create and account you can mail or give us a check at market. I addition you will need to fill out the registration form that askes for your name, e-mail, telephone number, and city and state.  Make sure your clearly indicate your e-mail address because that is what identifies you in the system. CLICK HERE for the FORM
  

• Braising mix
• Chard
• Salad mix, lettuces only
• Salad mix, gourmet
• Spinach

You can also order eggs from pasture raised hens.  We will add additional items as they come in on the farm.  So far our most abundant product is pollen, and several staff, as well as, the boss are all red eyed.  We are enjoying the balmy days we have had this week.

If you prepaid, when you place an order, you should receive a statement with your balance. Let me know if you do not.

In 2012, Harland's Creek Farm is offering a chicken only CSA.  Our chickens are pasture raised and antibiotic free.  They are fed grain from Southern States that has no animal by-products, eat grasses and bugs from our fields, and munch on left over vegetables from the farm.  They are antibiotic and hormone free.  We pick up the chicks when they are a day old at the post-office, and they live on our pasture until they are taken 12 miles down the road to the Chaudhry Halal Processing Plant in Siler City.  This is a USDA processing plant.  The processed chickens are air chilled rather than cooled in water vats.  This prevents the spread of any disease.

 We will provide both fresh chicken and frozen chicken.  At our farm, the chicken is frozen at -30⁰F in industrial grade freezers.  This stops all enzymatic activity.  Thus, when it is thawed its quality rivals that of fresh chicken.  We can keep it for many months at this temperature without any degradation in quality.  However, you will receive it after just a few weeks in our freezers. [1]

Chicken will be delivered every other week for 32 weeks.[2]  That comes out to 16 deliveries.  In addition, we are offering four options, a Standard Share (Regular and Large)  and a Gourmet Share (Regular and large) with the contents for the first four deliveries as follows:

In the 4 delivery, there is something labeled remainder.  That week we will make sure that you have received the total value that you have paid for.  If value of the specific chickens that you received is less than what you paid for, you will receive additional chicken.  Chicken can be picked up at the farm, at DFM, or at selected CSA delivery sites. 

You can enroll by check by completing and mailing the enrollment form. Or you can enroll and pay by PayPal at our Online Store.   The PayPal option includes the charges that are made for processing your order.  If you want to pick up at Harland's Creek Farm, choose a day of pick-up and let us know in a note that you want to pick up at the farm.

Planned deliveries and total costs are shown in this Anticipated Delivery Table.