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 that use 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. 

Pick-ups are at the Durham Farmers’ Market so you get to know us, and we get to know you.  We send you blog posts and you can visit the participating farms by prearrangement to help, to learn, and to enjoy. 

All participating farms are members of the Durham Farmers’ Market.  Most of the produce and herbs will come from Harland’s Creek Farm, Pine Knot Farm, and Roberson Creek Farm. Harland’s Creek Farm and Pine Knot Farm are certified organic, and Roberson Creek Farm uses sustainable, earth friendly methods. Fickle Creek Farm raises healthy meat, poultry, and eggs using “environmental stewardship, sustainable practices, and humane animal treatment.”  Chapel Hill Creamery makes cheeses from their own herds of Jersey Cows. Use the links above to learn more about our collaborators. 

 The Main Season of the Durham Collaborative CSA runs for 22 weeks from May through September with pick-up at the Durham Farmers Market on Wednesdays. This year we are offering an early Fall Extension which will include seven deliveries beginning on Saturday, October 6, 2012 and ending the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  Pick-ups for the Fall Extension will be at the Saturday Durham Farmers’ Market.  Food options include:

 Produce and Herb Shares:  Weekly shares of from 5 to 10 vegetables and herbs selected from a wide range of items that vary with the seasons. Deliveries are made in wax vegetable boxes, and customers return their prior week’s box when they pick up the current box.  Boxes will be larger during the 22 weeks of the main CSA season and somewhat smaller during the fall extension.  $470 main, $120 fall extension.

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. $416 and $350 main; $126 and $105 fall extension.

Check out this link for examples of each type of meat share.

Eggs Shares:  We are offering two types of egg shars this year: small is a half dozen eggs provided weekly; a large share is a weekly dozen.  $69.50 and $139  main; $15.75 and $31,5o, fall extension

Cheese Shares:  Weekly cheese selected from the seven kinds of cheese made by Chapel Hill Creamery including camembert like Carolina Moon and New Moon, mozzarella, farmers cheese, feta, an aged cheese called Hickory Grove, and the award winning Calvander cheese which won a gold medal in the hard cheese category at the North American Jersey Cheese Show and was second best in show. This cheese is similar to Asiago. $218 main; $63 fall extension. 

Click on these links for more information:

• What we grow and example produce and herb box contents

• 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 online with PayPal; there is a small  charge for online payment.  Click here to get a paper form for the 2012 Durham Collaborative CSA.

Member signup online at this link.  It is also on the drop down menu.

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.  We will have pick up locations in:

• Chatham County at Harland’s Creek Farm (Tuesday - Friday)
  
• Chapel Hill at Southern Village and possibly another location (Tuesday)
  
• Raleigh area with the exact site still to be determined (Tuesday)
  

For the first time, we are offering all options at all locations  and staffed pick-up sites at 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

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 will be provided for 17 weeks.  We will begin the season with seven weeks of organic strawberries from Pine Knot Farms.  Then in late June, Clayton Orchard will provide peaches, grapes, plums, and melons for 10 weeks.  Two sizes are offered:[1]

• Large: Two quarts of strawberries in the spring and for the summer fruits either a) large bag of peaches [18 to 20 peaches] or b) a medium bag of peaches plus either a watermelon, a cantaloupe, pint of plums, or quart of Muscadine grapes. $244.50
  
• Small: One quart of strawberries in spring, and for summer, (a) medium bag of peaches or (b) a small bag of peaches plus either a watermelon, a cantaloupe, pint of plums, or quart of Muscadine grapes. $161.50

 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 print out a paper form to enroll.  You can enroll online.

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.

The Saturday Winter Market is open from 10 am to 12 noon. 

We will have organic  salad mixes, turnips, kohlrabi, and a variety of greens and herbs available at the market.   Pasture raised chicken will also be available. 

Given the short hours and the limited time, you may want to order ahead using our online ordering system.  Place an order and it will be ready for you when you arrive. Click her to go to the order form:  ORDER HERE

We are also offering gift certificates so that you can treat your friends and relatives with organic, local food from Harland's Creek Farm.  Scroll down on the order form to find these items.

 OUR WINTER LOCATION IS JUST DOWN FORM THE LADIES ROOM

ON THE PART OF THE PAVILLION THAT LEADS TO FOSTER STREET

• 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
  

PRE-ORDER web site

Wednesday CSA for August 3, 2011

LINK TO MEAL PLANS

This week’s CSA box contains corn, edamame, garlic, a small bunch of green onions, bell pepper, potatoes, lots of cherry tomatoes, and slicing tomatoes.  The corn is from Roberson Creek Farm.  Ben Bergman of Fickle Creek Farm is providing chuck eye steak and a chicken leg pair.  Chapel Hill Creamery is providing mozzarella cheese.  We will have mixed bunches of summer flowers for the flower subscribers.   

 A word about the meal plans. I am recommending that you stew some chicken for M1 and save the broth to make the potato soup. I think that stewing chicken is the best approach for summer because it yields meat that can be used in a chicken salad or tossed into a stir-fry right at the end and merely heated rather than cooked.  Elote recipes in the meal plans are from my Mexican colleagues.

 Rooting Basil.  When you get a bunch of basil, the best way to care for it is sit it in a glass of water in your kitchen and use it as needed. Do not put it in the refrigerator.   In almost all cases, it will root, and you could pot it and grow if for a winter treat if you wish.  Below are some pictures of a bunch that I rooted in my kitchen.  The method that I recommend is:

• Remove band or twist time from bunch
• Remove leaves from part of stem that would be under water
• Trim off bottom of stem a slight amount
• Place basil in a glass of water and sit glass in a window that gets plenty of light. 
• Change and replenish water as needed
• Use basil as needed by picking from stems 

If you look at the pictures closely, you will see that I did not remove the twist tie this time.  The plants still rooted but the stems would have been healthier if I had removed the twist tie.  These pictures are from a bunch that is about 2 weeks old.  You can see that I have used a lot of the basil already.  The picture on the left is the entire bunch.  That on the right shows the root detail.

Wishing you healthy and delicious meals, All the farmers in the Durham Collaborative CSA,   

For latest updates follow Judy on twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/judylessler

Harland's Creek Farm will be at Durham Farmers' Market on Saturday July 22, 2011 with a BEAT THE HEAT recipes and a suggested strategy.We are bringing recipes for Packs for:

Salsa Verde and Salsa Cruda
Cold Potato, Basil, and Tomato Salad and Cold Potato Soup
Cold Green and Gold Chicken Salad with tomatillos and Sungold tomatoes and Cold Basil and Peach Chicken Salad

AND here is your BEAT the HEAT strategy: Stew a whole chicken, take the meat off the bones, and save the broth. Boil some potatoes and the same time.  Cool all and store.  Then you can use basic ingredients during the week for making the cold soups and cold salads.

 We will have Vegetable Packs with all the vegetables and herbs you need to make the Salsa Verde, Potato, Basil,a dn Tomato Salad, and the Cold Green and Gold Chicken Salad.  The latter recipe is below.  Others will be available at market or you can email me at lesslerjud@msn.com for a copy.

 Summer Green and Gold Chicken Salad

6 servings

1-1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken

1/3 cup mayonnaise

¼ to ½ teaspoon salt according to taste

1/8 teaspoon pepper

6-oz (1½ cups) Sungold cherry tomatoes split  

1-2 Serrano peppers, minced (optional)

Coarsely chop chicken and tomatillos and combine.  Add mayonnaise, salt, and pepper and mix well. If desired, add minced Serrano peppers and mix well.  Toss with split tomatoes and chill. Serve on lettuce leaves or in sandwiches.

Original recipe from Harland's Creek Farm. © August 16, 2001