Other updates from the farm: our first three apprentices (Benny, Laura and Alex) are doing great and are enthusiastic participants in all aspects of getting the farm in gear for the season. They helped us get around 20,000 onion plants into the ground last month, as well as transplanted thousands of kale, broccoli, cauliflower and chard plants. The heated section of the greenhouse is full of tomato seedlings in large pots, growing strong and healthy to get planted out later this month. We have a couple big building projects underway: we’re replacing many of the sills and floors in our big barn so that the barn can be a more usable space and, in August, we’ll have room to cure all those onions and garlic that are currently in the fields. The other big project will help facilitate CSA pick-ups for years to come: a 40′ x 16′ CSA pick-up stand near the head of our driveway (airy and spacious for CSA pick-ups, and a very useful space for equipment storage in the winter!).

There are a handful of CSA spots still available, so if you know of someone who is thinking about signing up, tell them to do so quickly! Thank you for your checks and online payments that have been coming in. They are truly a spring lifeline for the farm. If you have questions about payments due, please feel free to send an email or give a call.

Barring something unexpected, we’ll start the CSA the week starting June 10th (just one month away!). As that week draws near I’ll be in touch with details specific to your pick-up location. We truly can’t wait to see you all and to hear about the amazing meals that you will be creating!

Be well, and please be in touch with any questions or to say hello,

Reba, Bill and the HCF crew

It’s amazing that a month has flown by since I was last in touch. Things are busier by the day on the farm. Whether we’re with planting the greenhouse for the first salad greens of the season, seeding for the first round of spring transplants, vying with Fluffy the calf for milk from his mom Boston, organizing and promoting the CSA, or boiling sap down for the farm’s yearly maple syrup needs, there’s so much to do! But the good weather has been a treat, and we hope to get the first peas into the ground before long. 

Thank you to all who already signed up for the CSA, or who told me that you plan to. We’re about halfway full at this point. Remember that there are five-month payment plans, and financial aid is available (just send me an email if you’re interested). There is also a grant to cover half of the cost of your share if you use EBT. There are so many options to make good food affordable, so don’t hesitate to put these resources to use! Remember, too, that if you just sign up for veggies initially, you can always add the add-on shares later on. 

For pictures and more frequent updates of what is going on at the farm, visit or ‘like’ our Facebook page (you don’t need to be registered with Facebook to view it). Or click here to see a picture I posted on Facebook this week of Cecilia helping Bill seed kale. We won’t be surprised if some of the seedling cells have a dozen little plants sprouting out of them… perhaps next year she’ll understand more the concept of one or two seeds per cell!

Please be in touch with any questions, if you know of friends or neighbors who you think would be interested in learning more about the CSA (I can send them a postcard), or just to say hi! We’re really looking forward to seeing so many of you soon!

Be well, 

Reba

2012 CSA sign-up: http://www.farmigo.com/join/hatchetcovefarm/summer2012

Remember that this Sunday, February 26th from 1-3pm is the free CSA fair at the UUR in Rockland.  Our add-on share producers will all be there, so if you want to ask questions of Cheryl Denz about the meat or egg shares, or if you want to sample the Village Bakery’s breads or Appleton Creamery’s cheeses or have some crunchy HCF carrots, come on by!  It will take place at the First Universalist Church, 345 Broadway, Rockland..

Before you rush off to the online sign-up link, though, take note of a few changes ahead in 2012. This is just an overview… more details can be found on the CSA page of our website and within the online sign-up wizard.

• New Delivery Location: Pen Bay Medical Center Café, Rockport. While we may end up shifting the time to accommodate members’ work schedules, we are planning a farmers market-style pick-up outside of the Pen Bay Café from 3:30-5:00pm on Tuesday afternoons. All MaineHealth employees are able to receive a $50 biannual CSA rebate through the WOW! program.
• New Delivery Location: Village Bakery and Café, Waldoboro. The bakery will host a CSA pick-up on Tuesday afternoons from 3:30 to 5:30pm. Since we will not be providing home delivery this year, we hope that this pick-up location will help Waldoboro-area members access their shares more easily. These shares will be pre-bagged.
• New Meat CSA Options: Beef Share and/or Pork Share. We love the chicken and egg shares from Cheryl Denz at Terra Optima Farm and so this year she will also offer a monthly beef and/or pork shares. Another new feature this year is that the Terra Optima chickens will be cryovaced, eliminating any possibility of frost on the chicken.
• Sample the add-on options and meet the cheese, meat, bread and mushroom producers! Mark your calendar for Sunday, February 26th, 1-3pm at the First Universalist Church in Rockland (345 Broadway). We will be hosting a CSA & CSF “Fair” and the add-on producers will be there for you to ask questions of and to sample their products. This event is open to the public and is free of charge.
• Opportunity to “Share-a-Share.” When you reach the page in the online sign-up wizard for add-on shares, you will see the opportunity to donate $1 per CSA delivery (or more if you wish) to the CSA “scholarship” fund. Your donation will go directly to help cover the cost of a share for a family who would otherwise find it challenging to afford the CSA. If you would like to be the recipient of a scholarship, please just let us know (a slightly more formal application is in the works). SNAP (EBT) payments continue to be a payment option, and we hope to have SNAP matching funds again this year.
• Hatchet Cove Farm on Facebook (finally!). If you’re on Facebook, please “like” us (or just find us at www.facebook.com/HatchetCoveFarm)! I’ll utilize Facebook for crop and farm updates as the season nears, and the first pictures of Boston’s new calf will be up as soon as she or he is born! But don’t worry if you’re not on Facebook. Newsletters and important information will still arrive via email and will be posted to our website.
• “Farmers Market-Style” pick-up at the Farm. In response to feedback from the 2011 survey we are replacing the pre-bagged shares with “farmers market-style” pick up where you will be able to bag your own share (the same way we do it at the Rockland UUR). This will give you the opportunity to choose vegetables in the size (and sometimes quantity) you want, use your own bag or basket, and participate in a “trade” table. There will always be a couple of pre-bagged shares available for those in a rush.

Now that you made it through all those bullet points, here is a little bit of news from the farm… we’ve had a great winter so far. Bill completely rebuilt the second floor of our big barn with lumber milled from our woods, and we’re so excited to use that space to cure even more garlic, onions and shallots than ever before. It has been so rickety up there for so long that it’s like having a whole new barn… and Eli and Cecilia think it’s their newest playroom! Our seed orders are finally completed, and this year we’re super excited to use our small hoophouses to experiment with two new crops for the CSA: watermelons and sweet potatoes! Keep your fingers crossed for a bountiful harvest! Boston, our old lady Jersey cow, is due to calve in mid-February. She had a bout of illness over Thanksgiving and we’re a little worried about how she will make it through the birth, but we’ve been coddling her with extra minerals and hope for the best. Our cute little Dexter heifer, Cookie, is due in May. So hopefully we’ll have two calves on the farm this summer!

We’re all looking forward to another season of great food and great community. Please contact us with any questions, small or large. We can’t wait to get planting!

Be well,

Reba, Bill, Eli & Cecilia

Sign Up for the 2012 Season: http://www.farmigo.com/join/hatchetcovefarm/summer2012

In addition, we’re really excited to be able to put enough storage crops into each share this week to hopefully contribute to everyone’s Thanksgiving meal.  If you’re wondering how to store these larger quantities, remember that potatoes like a cool, dark and humid environment (a cellar works well), carrots like cold and humid (keep them inside their plastic bag and squeeze them into a corner of your fridge), and onions and garlic like cold, dark and dry (a cold cupboard or cold room that doesn’t freeze).

Finally, the last surprise is the kale.  The warm temperatures last week allowed our field greens to rebound, and we are so pleased to have enough to put together a small bunch for everyone.  Enjoy what is likely to be your last fresh local green until next spring!

Thank you, every one of you, for being part of the community experiment which is the CSA.  We feel so lucky to be able to grow the food that feeds our remarkably diverse CSA families.  Your support, trust and encouragement inspires us and is truly central to our ability to succeed as an organic farm in the Midcoast.  So thank you not only from our family, but from the apprentices who learn how to farm with us, from our animals who live a good life at HCF, and from your neighbors and friends who appreciate open space and non-polluted waterways and soil.  We hope that the CSA gives you a connection to and satisfaction from your food that otherwise might be hard to come by.  It certainly makes our work satisfying in a way that I never could have dreamed.

Have a wonderful winter, please stay in touch, and you’ll hear from us in February when we start sign-ups for the 2012 season.  It’ll be here before we know it!

Reba, Bill, Eli, Cecilia and the HCF crew!

Week 4 (of 4):  Dry Beans (1 lb), Carrots (7 lbs), Onions (2 lbs), Potatoes (5 lbs), Garlic, Kale, baby Red or Savoy Cabbage

This week’s recipes:  Bean Soup with Cumin and Cilantro, Beans, Sausage and Rice

It was sad to say farewell to the bunching greens (kale, chard, collards) under the snow.  We’re counting on our freezer full of greens to get our family through to next April.  At most points in the season, when a crop is done for the year we’re lucky enough to have a new crop ready to harvest and enjoy.  At this time of year, though, it’s not necessarily that we have new vegetables to enjoy eating, but that we finally have time to savor the storage and root crops that have been sitting, waiting for us.  It’s ironic that winter is the time that we do the most cooking, but it’s how it works on the farm, and we are grateful for  the tastes of summer that peek through in our meals, no matter the weather outside.

Next week will be the final CSA delivery of the season.  Terra Optima Farm will be delivering the pre-ordered boxes o’meat to the pick-ups, and if you placed bulk veggie orders they will be available at that point as well.  Carrots (15 lb/$25) and potatoes (35 lb/$40) are still available for order.

A student at the Maine Media Workshop recently created a very short video about the farm.  It includes some beautiful images of the farm and from harvest days.   If you’d like to view it, you can visit http://vimeo.com/31281994 .

Have a wonderful fall week!

Reba and the HCF crew

A quiet moment at the end of the day: Reba watching CJ watching Bill drive the tractor in from the field.

Week 3 (of 4):  Carrots, Garlic, Potatoes, Beets, Mesclun Mix, Brussels Sprouts (or baby red cabbage), Winter Squash  

This week’s recipe:  Roasted Beet Salad

If you’d like to stock up on pork, beef or lamb for winter, check out the opportunities below.  We’re really pleased to be able to connect our members to such great local farms.  It has become one of the most unexpected and satisfying aspects of growing such an engaged and hungry CSA community!

For those of you who are interested, remember that I will be speaking at the Juice conference PechaKucha at the Camden Opera House on 7pm on Friday, November 4th.  I’m second-to-last and so will have the whole time to get nervous, but hopefully I can talk slow enough for everyone to understand me!

Bulk items still available for purchase:  yellow onions (20lb/$30), Russet (white) potatoes (35lb/$40), carrots (15lb/$25), shallots (10lb/$45), turnips or rutabaga (15lb/$15).

Happy snowy Halloween!

Reba and the HCF crew

Pork and Beef from Terra Optima Farm
Terra Optima Farm will be offering a farmer’s choice selection of pasture-raised pork and/or beef for $50 per box (at direct sale prices).  You can choose between all pork selections (will include bacon), all beef (will include ground beef), or a mixture of pork and beef.  Delivery will be at the final CSA pick-up of the season (November 13/14).   Contact Reba (info@hatchetcovefarm.com) by November 4th with questions or with your order of an all beef, all pork, or mixed beef/pork box.   You can also order additional chickens for your winter freezer if you wish for delivery at that time.

Lamb from the Ullbrich Farm in Warren
The Ullbrich family has been raising sheep on Finntown Rd. since 1977.  The breed is mostly Scottish Blackface, which are a hearty, slow-growing breed that is mild in flavor.  They are completely grassfed on the farm’s own pasture and hay.

Lamb is sold by the 1/2 lamb (15-25 lbs) or whole lamb (30-50 lbs) at $7 per pound (finished product weight).   A whole lamb will generally fit into one generous-sized box and could be squeezed into a kitchen freezer.  Cuts include legs (bone in or out as requested), shoulder roasts (they recommend bone out), rib chops, loin chops, ground lamb (1 lb packages) and shanks.  They will request organ meat if you want it.

Pick up for the first batch of lambs is Sat. Dec 3 or Mon Dec 5 at the farm at 732 Finntown Rd, Warren (before you reach HCF on FInntown Rd).   Pick up for the second batch is Sat. Dec 31 or Mon Jan 2.

Contact Willy Ullbrich directly with questions or to order:  273-3044 or whulbrich@yahoo.com

Our most recent volunteer, Erin, moving the turkeys out of the field and into the barn before the snowstorm hits.

Week 2 (of 4):  Winter Squash, Salad (Hakurei) Turnips, Fall Salad Mix, Shallots, Savoy Cabbage, Potatoes, Carrots

This week’s recipes:  Ziti with Winter Squash and Roasted Garlic, Bubble and Squeak

It was  a lovely time at the cider-pressing, garlic-popping potluck at the farm on Saturday.  We popped over a hundred pounds of garlic cloves out of their bulbs, thanks to the help of members who will undoubtedly be smelling garlic on their hands for the rest of the day.  One highlight of the

A scene from Saturday’s potluck at the farm: the little girls carefully inspecting the chicken tractor for eggs.

afternoon was the band of little girls who roamed the farm together, inspecting the chickens and exploring every possible inch of the field.  And it’s always good for Bill and I to see our kids take pride in showing off the farm, since they usually view it as an inconvenient intrusion into what they suspect would otherwise be total domination of their parents.  Of course, the food was amazing.  Thanks to all who contributed.

As part of the upcoming Juice Conference in Camden, I’ll be presenting at a PechaKucha  at the Camden Opera House on November 4th at 7pm.  PechaKucha is a presentation format where ten members of the “creative economy” (in this case) will each present 20 slides, with 20 seconds to speak about each slide.  Other presenters on the 4th will include Elisabeth Tove Bailey, the author of The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, who I am excited to hear speak.  If you’re interested in life on the farm but haven’t been able to make it out to the farm in person this season, hopefully you can come and have these slides give you a bit of a sense of life at HCF.

Have a great week, please contact me with any questions or concerns, and enjoy your meals!

Reba and the HCF crew

Week 1 (of 4):  Pie Pumpkin, Onion, Mesclun Mix, Rutabaga, Potatoes, Carrots, Collards, and just for fun…Decorative Gourds (don’t try to eat the gourds!)

This week’s recipes:  “You Won’t Believe These” Brown-Roasted Rutabaga Wedges, Collard Potato Salad with Mustard Dressing

We were unbelievably lucky with the weather and the attendance at last Sunday’s fundraiser.  Thanks to all the generous contributors and attendees, we raised $3000!!  Half will go to the CSA scholarship fund, and half will go to the Rockland host of the CSAs, the UUR.  It was a fun, beautiful, delicious afternoon, and we were happy that so many of you could make it.

Remember that next Saturday, October 22nd, we are planning on having the garlic-planting, cider-pressing, csa potluck at the farm, starting at noon.  Bring apples to make cider if you have an apple tree, a dish to share, a plate and utensils to enjoy the food, and a folding chair or blanket to relax on.  It’s always a lovely, relaxed afternoon of popping garlic cloves and sharing good food, and we hope to see you there.   If the weather report calls for rain, I’ll send out an email with updated plans by Friday afternoon.

You should have already received an email with a link to our 2011 survey.  Thanks for taking the time to fill it out.  We really appreciate it. Sometimes it’s a little bit confusing what to do with all the information (for every person who hates beets or kale, there is another person who wants more of both!).  But we take it all into account, and it certainly impacts our planning in the winter.

Be well, and don’t be startled if you have a furry, bumpy little ball in your share this week.  It is my favorite soup component:  celeriac.  Just peel it, chop it up, and use it like you would use celery in any cooked dish.  It may be ugly, but it’s one of my favorite winter veggies!

Take care, and thanks for being a part of the farm this season.  We couldn’t do it without you!

Reba and the HCF crew

Week 18 (of 18) veggies:  Salad Mix, Brussels Sprouts, Celeriac or Celery, Potatoes, Red Cabbage, Garlic, Winter Squash, Redbor Kale

This week’s recipes:  Spicy No-Mayo Coleslaw, Kale Chips