Tuesdays
3:00pm - 6:30pm (choice style shares)
3:00pm - 7:00pm (pre-boxed shares)
Farmer Dave's
437 Parker Road
Dracut, MA
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Farm Notes: Welcome!
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Spinach in the field
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Welcome to the first week of the main season CSA. Last year we had a severe drought and were irrigating in early May just to get the seeds to germinate. As long as we were able to provide water, the crops grew beautifully with the sunny days. The lack of cloudy days made the plants mature and be ready to harvest earlier than normal.
Fast forward to this year and the difference is huge. This May was one of the coolest on record. Cool weather slows down plant growth. Showery day followed showery day. The clouds blocked the sun from the plants thereby slowing the rate of photosynthesis. The first fruit of the season, the strawberries, are maturing later than they have in the last five years. Yet, in spite of their slow growth, all the crops are looking absolutely beautiful. The strawberry plants and tree fruit (peaches, pears, apples, and nectarines) are all loaded with fruit. So when they finally ripen we will be smothered in juicy summer fruit.
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Strawberries waiting for some warm days. |
This week's fruit share will be the smallest ever. The last of our apples, stored all winter from last year's harvest, will provide us a small amount of sweetness until the first of this year's apple crop begins in later August. Normally we are harvesting strawberries by early June. The strawberry harvest has not yet begun due to the cold spring weather. Once the first of this year's strawberries ripen, we will include them in the share. With the high heat of the beginning of the week, they may ripen a lot faster than they have been until now. We are keeping our fingers crossed that there will be a good amount ripe for Saturday's postponed strawberry day. We will make up for the light first week's share in future weeks as the delayed harvests begin.
The cool loving crops of spinach and chard have been loving the cool days. But, just like the fruit, the majority of the vegetables have been growing slower than normal. As a result, some area CSAs have delayed the start of their shares. Because of the wide diversity of the crops that we grow, we chose to start as planned, even though the shares will be a little smaller than preferred. Luckily we have our greenhouses where the warmer environment will be providing us this week with early juicy tomatoes despite the cloudy days, more than a month earlier than could be harvested from an outdoor garden. We also have some early raspberries growing in the warmer greenhouse environment. The first raspberries should be red next week, also more than two weeks earlier than those growing in our fields outside. Even though Mother Nature has been pushing back the first harvests this year, we have been pushing Mother Nature (gently) to ensure good food for all.
Enjoy the first course of the season's feast.
Farmer Dave
Join us this Saturday for Strawberry Day!
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Your First CSA Pick Up: Dracut!
The pick-ups in Dracut are on Tuesdays from 3:00 - 6:30pm (for the choice-style shares) and 3:00 - 7:00pm (for the pre-boxed shares). The pick-up is at Farmer Dave's farm at 437 Parker Road inside the red barn behind the white house.
Your first pick-up for vegetable and fruit shares will be on Tuesday, June 13th.
Karli, Laura and Elyse will be there to greet you and guide you through the pick-up process.
If you chose the pre-boxed vegetable share you will pick up one of our green or yellow plastic bins for easy pick up and transport.
The fruit shares are assemble your own so you'll still need to bring a reusable shopping bag or box with you to transport your share home.
We look forward to seeing you!
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What to Expect at Your CSA Pick-up
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Denise and Stacey fill you in on what to expect at your CSA pick up!
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What's in The Share:
Week 1
 Welcome to the first week of the vegetable share! The first few weeks of every New England CSA share will always have a great assortment of delicious, nutritious and tender greens. These greens grow well in the cool Spring weather. As the weather warms into summer, you can expect the number of greens to decrease as the weather continues to warm and more variety begins to be able to be harvested from the fields.
Vegetable Share:
- Lettuce
- Spinach
- Swiss Chard
- Sorrel
- Bok Choy
- Radishes
- Tomato, Cherry or Slicing
- Oregano, Sage or Mint
- and more!
Fruit Share:
This is what we are planning and hoping to harvest this week. Ultimately Mother Nature has the last word so the actual contents of your share will vary.
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Try some of these recipes from our blog!
- Sorrel Sauce with Yogurt Sorrel is a delicious, lemony herb with a short season in the spring. One bite and you know instantly that it is a cousin of rhubarb and a member of the knotweed family. With its intense tart flavor, sorrel is best used as an herb to help "brighten" dishes like grilled vegetables, potatoes, eggs and fish. A leaf or two finely chopped makes a great addition to a light grain dish like a rice pilaf or quinoa salad.
This recipe from Deborah Madison's Vegetable Literacy is a versatile favorite. My three year old and my husband love it equally. Whip it up, keep it in the fridge and enjoy it throughout the week on fish, vegetables and lentils. It's a knockout on salmon. -Ginger
- Potato, Leek and Sorrel Pesto Pizza This pesto also makes a great base for a vinaigrette. Just add some white wine vinegar and olive oil and shake to combine.
- Orzo with Swiss Chard
- Simple Prep for Swiss Chard, Kale and Other Leafy Greens
- Roasted Bok Choy
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Vegisode of the Week:
Unpacking your CSA Share!
forgetting about that extra zucchini before it turns into g
Check out our Vegisodes. These videos are designed to help you make the most of your CSA share with tips on storing, preparing and preserving your veggies.
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You may have noticed some extra categories on our website while you were signing up for your CSA shares this year. Check in each week to see what new items are available to purchase as an "Add-on" to your CSA share.
We are currently offering local honey (some from our own fields), local maple syrup from Maggie Brox, locally roasted coffee from Farmhouse Roasters in Salem, NH and Farmer Dave's apparel and bags.
As the summer progresses we'll be adding more local and seasonal products. For the food preservers in the group, we will be offering bulk quantities of some of our vegetables and fruits, on weeks that we have extra available.
To purchase an add-on,
visit the Farmer Dave's store on our website
and log-in with your user ID and password. Please note: add-on items must be paid for by a credit or debit card through our website.
The deadline for add-on purchases is 3 days prior to your regular pick up. Any orders placed after that time will be processed for the following week. Because many of our add-ons are perishable items and our drop-off sites are not equipped for storage we are not able to hold or refund add-on purchases if you are unable to pick up at your scheduled time. Your add-on purchases will be donated to one of our hunger relief partners at the close of your distribution time.
We are very excited to be offering these additional items to our CSA members. We hope that you enjoy the products that we've carefully selected for you!
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Groundwork Share-a-Share Update
Thanks to generous donations by you (CSA members) to the Groundwork Share-A-Share™ fund, we were able to subsidize the cost of shares in 2016 for over thirty individuals and families, as well as shares for local food pantries.
To learn more about the program, click here.
Thank you all for helping us keep this program going in 2017!
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C
ontact Us:
Farmer Dave's CSA
437 Parker Road
Dracut, MA 01826
(978) 349-1952
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