Week of August 20th 

Brooklyn: Mondays 4-8pm, Greenpoint Reformed Church
Poughkeepsie: Thursdays 4-7pm, Jewish Community Center, Grand Ave.
Hudson: Thursdays 4-6pm, Sam Sutty's on Warren St.

This week's share (subject to change):
Lettuce, Cucumbers, Dandelion Greens, Summer Squash, Zucchini, Garlic, Peppers, Tomatoes, Perpetual Spinach, Rainbow Chard, various culinary herbs

Apple Shares: 8 weeks of delicious, biodynamic apples, 5lbs a week for a total of $84, to include Gala, Cox Orange Pippin, Jonagold, Macoun, Ida Red, Liberty, Golden Delicious, Baldwin, Fuji, and Jonafree (depending on harvest).  Threshold Farm is the only biodynamic apple grower on the east coast, and we are thrilled to be able to offer these apples to our members.  Sign up today!  Email us at lineagefarm AT riseup DOT net, or sign up with the site coordinators.  Shares will start in the next two weeks, as the apple harvest thickens, so let us know ASAP!

Dear Members,

I heard a story recently, about days gone by, when farmers were on every block and blocks were several acres long, that there came a time in every season called the "laying by" days.  Laying by brings to my mind setting crops aside for storage, canning and fermenting and freezing and drying, but this "laying by" carries quite a different meaning.  I believe it would need to refer to farmers growing crops you harvest once a season – grains, winter squash, and the like.  It refers to the time between planting and harvesting, when you can, for a short time, lay down your work for a few more socially related activities.  This would be the time of year for the big church revivals, traveling ministers bringing out large portions of the town to their tents for some serious religious showdowns.  It would also, I learned, be the time of year that the traveling minstrels and teachers would come to town, offering singing schools to all who would lift their voices.  This is what I would love, the opportunity to come together with neighbors, learning songs to share between our fields over the months, and through the winter, to come.

Already, the days have turned from heavy hot to light and breezy with a hint of fall's crispness.  There's a delicate orange reflected on the trees from the sunset that shows up towards the end of summer, adding a new beauty to our shortenng days.  The early mornings and evenings are chilly to bare arms grown accustomed to 80 and 90 degree days, and the nights have been dropping down into the 50s.  We've even noticed a few yellowing leaves.  Hard to believe, but fall is indeed around the corner.  Hard also to believe, but this season's CSA is half over, 11 weeks gone, 11 weeks to come.  We've planted the fall specials, to load up your baskets with winter radishes, tat soi, turnips and mustard greens.  We'll be prepping the garlic beds, planting garlic in October to harvest next July.  The spring bed that was plowed under has been harrowed and is ready for its winter cover crop of triticale and vetch, along with next year's grain crops of wheat and emmer.  We're busy planning where to best position a new greenhouse, that would aid in harvest extension as well as make such heat loving crops as sweet potatoes more possible in the warm months.  And I'm attempting to teach Jon how to ride a bike.  Ahh, the sweet breezy days of laying by…

August brings a new balance to our farm work, a breath after the long haul of June and July, a time to start reflecting on crops of this season as we look towards the crops of next season, as well as a shift from the summer bounty to the fall harvest of winter squash and leeks, spinach and arugula.  A time to cleanse the pallette, because these butternuts that are coming your way in the next few weeks are some heavy hitters, aiming to please as well as to warm us through cold months ahead.  

Geese have been honking by overhead, in groups of 12 or 24, whether circling or travelling I know not, but I do enjoy their company.  They seem to be getting organized, less loosey goosey than the ones and twos that show up in the spring, crash landing in the ponds nearby, splashing and congregating yet not exactly cohesive.  Now, they come together.  Perhaps the ever longer, cooler nights signal to them that company is necessary.  As ever, we appreciate your company, and look forward to the years ahead of coming together, loosely at first, in the spring time, gathering communal strength through shared vegetables all summer long, with a strong fall harvest to keep our strength up, and our taste buds dreaming of farm fresh greens all winter long.

In the 50, and the 90 degree days,
Your Farmers,
Jen and Jon

From soil to salad bowl (and other bowls, besides)

START CLOSE IN
by David Whyte

Start close in,
don't take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don't want to take.

Start with
the ground
you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own
way of starting
the conversation.

Start with your own
question,
give up on other
people's questions,
don't let them
smother something
simple.

To find
another's voice,
follow
your own voice,
wait until
that voice
becomes a 
private ear
listening
to another.

Start right now
take a small step
you can call your own
don't follow
someone else's 
heroics, be humble
and focused,
start close in,
don't mistake
that other
for your own.

Start close in,
don't take
the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don't want to take.

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