| TURKANA FARMS, LLC |
| Green E-Market Bulletin March 8, 2019 |
| WHAT’S NEW THIS WEEK: WE ARE BOTTLE FEEDING A LAMB WHO IS GETTING INSUFFICIENT MILK FROM HER MOM. SHE IS IMPRINTING STRONGLY ON TROY.EGGS CONTINUE TO ABOUND, PLEASE ORDER |
| Lettuce and peas waiting for real sunlight Grow Light Hi everyone It’s Victoria here. |
| I returned this week from a journey back to my homeland (also, the most honorable Dolly Parton’s homeland) in East Tennessee. It’s just under thirteen hours of driving from here, so I felt like I needed to make the most of my time back, as I imagine it will be a while before I can make that drive again, especially by myself.Despite some catastrophic flooding while I was there, I managed to spend hours tooling around the local yarn and wool shop and sifting through piles of books with my grandma, Frances Fox. She’s a community fixture, working as a storyteller, tour guide, craftsperson, fiber teacher, and all-around local historian, and is my best and surest connection to the place where both of us (and Dolly) grew up. In a brief, clear, break between rain storms, we went out to her back yard and dug wildflowers, something we’ve done together since I was tiny. She sent me back with pots of Arrow-Leaf Arum, Horsetail, Lenten Rose and bluebells, and I’m doing my best to keep them alive until the ground thaws and I can find a spot on the farm to plant them. If they make it, we’ll be completing a circle of growth and propagation that crosses time and distance, surviving fire, flood, and displacement, to bloom as a delicate and ephemeral symbol of endurance and resilience. Boy, I hope we make it.On the propagation front, I also received a message this week about the Morton Seed Library, located within Morton Memorial Library in Rhinecliff. When I was there for a community seed swap this winter, I signed up for their Seed Steward program, where community members receive both starter seed and ongoing support and training to propagate additional seeds for the library, and for their own stock. If you are in the area and anticipate having a little extra space in your garden this year, I recommend signing up to help produce locally adapted seed strains, and so we can eat cake at the library together.This program is one tiny example of the overwhelming wealth of community possibilities I’ve blundered into since arriving in the Hudson Valley. I have to admit, I was fully prepared to spend the majority of my time here solo (and maybe was even looking forward to the idea of haunting a huge old house by myself?). So far, aside from a few lonely weeks before Troy arrived, this has not been the case. Despite the distance, our dear friends Lauren and Morgan came up from Raleigh for Valentine’s day and helped us prune our trees and berry bushes. This week, our friend Lexi came to stay and work on their children’s book, The Ship We Built, even reading with our newest baby lambs. Thanks to Nica and the Fiberhouse Collective, I’ll be in Brooklyn all next week working on a fiber residency, and I can’t wait to report back about all the weird stuff I’m going to make while I’m there. I’m already getting carried away with thoughts of springtime dyeing, basketry, and outdoor felting as soon as it’s warm enough, as well as dreaming up the massive party we’ll have to celebrate Mapquest’s birthday.Still, going home reminded me of how much I miss it, and leaving was even harder because I had to say goodbye to my baby brother. I’m not sure what this winter would have looked like without his incredible sense of humor and nonstop stream of ambient music, arcane facts, and food safety advice, and I can’t really imagine the next season without him. Given the latitude, it was almost spring in Gatlinburg while I was there, and I already miss the plants I didn’t manage to dig up and drag with me. This feeling of full-hearted nostalgia isn’t what I usually associate with the onset of early spring, which usually has all the associations of a fresh start. I’m doubly glad, then, that I have all these pots and planters to encourage looking forward. And if the bluebells don’t make it, you might still catch me digging holes and filling them with the most particular, unique, special and lovely dirt and rocks, brought all the way from my mountain. |
| THIS WEEK’S OFFERINGSFROM LAST FALL’S GARDEN HARVEST:FROZEN SQUASH (SHREDDED, TROMBONCINO), GREAT FOR FRITTERS, $2/LB.EGGS: Production is now in overdrive. We can handle all your orders. $5/dozMEATS: We keep some on hand, but it helps to order ahead in case we need to retrieve from our stash in the big commercial freezerGEESE: One remaining, about 8.5 lbs. $10/lb.TURKEYS: A few small ones left over and frozen $11/lb .GUINEA FOWL, frozen $7/lb (half the price of the Union Sq. Farmers Market). These are excellent 3 lb. or so birds.ROASTING CHICKENS – Freedom Rangers, $6/lb, range of sizes, mostly in the 4 to 5 lb. rangeLAMB: Loin chops at $14 a pound, riblets $8/lb, rib rack roasts $14/lb, small leg roasts $14/lb, We will soon replenish our lamb supply as it’s time for several to go to market.PORK: Loin pork chops, $12/lb (2 to a pack, btwn 1 and 1.5 lbs), Jowl (roughly 2 to 3 lbs each), $12/lb, Spare ribs and country ribs $7/lb baby back ribs $8/lb fresh ham roasts (2 to 3 lbs), $12/lb picnic or Boston butt roasts (roughly 2 lbs) $12/lb smoked bacon, $12/lb ground pork $7/lb Kielbasa $8/lbBEEF the last of our diminishing stash Sirloin steaks, $14/lb. kidney, heart etc. $1/lbDUCKS: Last year we did Pekin ducks. The males are not so different in size from the females, and these are nice meaty birds, most between 5 and 7 lbs. Also $7/lb. We have to retrieve these from the big freezer, so please order a week ahead. |
| FARM PICKUPS:Email us your order at farm@turkanafarms.com, and let us know when you’d like to pick up your order. It will be put out for you on the side screened porch of the farmhouse (110 Lasher Ave., Germantown) in a bag. You can leave cash or a check in the now famous pineapple on the porch table. Regular pickup times are Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., other days by arrangement. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to call at 518-537-3815 or email. |
| HEAR OUR SHOWIf you’d enjoy hearing these bulletins out loud instead of reading them, we broadcast them on Robin Hood Radio, the nation’s smallest NPR station. You can find it on FM 91.9, AM 1020, WBSL-FM 91.7 “The Voice of Berkshire School” or streaming on the web at www.robinhoodradio.com, where podcasts of past broadcasts are also available under the title AgriCulture in the “On Demand” section. FM 91.7 “The Voice of Berkshire School”can be heard from just south of Pittsfield to the CT border. You can hear the station on WHDD FM 91.9 from Ashley Falls, MA down through the Cornwalls and in NY from just south of Hillsdale down to Dover Plains. You can hear the station on AM1020 from Stockbridge, MA to Kent and from Poughkeepsie to Pawling to Kent, Goshen, Torrington, Norfolk, and Ashley. Recently added for those in the Route 22 corridor from Ancram down to Pawling is FM frequency 97.5 And of course in our own neighborhood of Southwestern Columbia and Northwestern Dutchess County, where it is being broadcast from Annandale on Hudson, 88.1 FM. |
| FOLLOW USThe bulletins may also now be found in written form on line as well, at the Germantown, NY, portal ofhttp://imby.com/germantown/userblogs/agriculture-turkana-farms/ |
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