Our Saturday harvest day began in the rain and fog and ended with one of the more glorious days of the season.  And to top it off, between the veggies and the cheese, mushroom, and bread shares, we ate  ridiculously well this week.  We hope you had a chance to enjoy the weather and your meals, too.

The farm feels wonderfully alive with animal life this year.  Our new barn cat, “Ten Cat” (yet another interesting  name provided by Eli — she arrived with the name Miss Kitty) is adjusting well and trails us in and out of the fields.  We adopted her from a CSA family, and Tux (the King of the barn cats) is barely tolerating her, so we think she’ll stick around.  The honeybees that our apprentice John brought to the farm this June love the flowering mustard plants.  It’s also fun to see Eli trail after John on his beekeeping rounds, always watching from a cautious distance.

Apprentice Megan (below in the photo with the huge mass of chard) has assumed caretaking for all things fowl and coddled the baby turkeys and meat bird chicks when they were in their infancy.  Now that the meat birds are older and far less attractive they’ve lost a bit of their allure, but she soldiers forward and we’ve lost fewer than usual.

Tink and Cookie continue to charm us with their bovine-y enthusiasm.  As I write this, I hear Cookie making her incredibly odd, elephant-like trumpets.  And Tink really seems to think she is a dog.  If you visit the farm, ask us for some wilted lettuce or kale to feed to them, or bring some stale soft bread from home.  If you arrive empty-handed, though, she’ll happily just lick your arm instead.

If you save disposable Hannafords plastic bags, we’d love to have them to make available to members who forget their reusable bag.  Please remember to return your empty cloth bag this week, though — we’re not running short quite yet, but if we keep up the current rate of return, we’ll likely run short soon!

Have a great week, and eat well!

Reba and the HCF crew

Week 4 (of 18) veggies:  Mesclun Mix, Scallions, Spinach, Swiss Chard, Depending on delivery day: Napa or Green Cabbage, Sugar Snap Peas, Pac Choi

This week’s recipes:  Swiss Chard Pie, Mango Slaw with Cashews and Mint, Napa Wasabi Slaw

Apprentice Megan Racely, weighed down by an armful of Swiss Chard.