News from the Farm and Beyond

Where to start? Well, we trapped our second raccoon "Rocky II" the sequel. We are continuing to be vigilant about setting the traps in the second corn field. We suspect that the Rocky series will be just as prolific as the movies.

The tomatillos have arrived as well as our red potatoes. For week #8 of the 2011 C.S.A. we will have both tomatillos and red potatoes to offer as well as - cucumbers, garlic, bell peppers, some tomatoes, basil, dill and hot peppers and summer squash will be there as well.
We hope everyone is staying cool in this extended heat wave. The vegetables are a bit cranky and so we have continued our "Grab Bag" for the C.S.A. week #8 distribution. We all may have to rethink what to plant for the next season if the climate is indeed changing around these parts.

Big thanks to all of our volunteer help: Lisa Barnes, Talia Cruz, Betsy Herman and Jessica. Also big thanks to Glen Etzkorn for helping with the harvest.

My sister, who lives in Colorado, caught a blurb on NPR the other day about King Neptune the world war II Navy pig who came from, of all places, Mt. Pleasant in Union county which is very near to Anna and his resting place is in Cobden. Here is a link to an article about the 700 lb World War II pig and his contributions. http://weku.fm/post/paying-attention-forgotten-navy-pigs-plaque

The final photo is of some of the produce our members received last week on the 7th week of the C.S.A. distribution. There was arugula, some parsley, a mixture of white yellow and red onions, cherry tomatoes and slicers, basil, some cucumbers. We hope everyone enjoyed and we will be back for week #8 at the Co-op in Carbondale IL between 4pm and 6pm July 27th.

Celebrate ripe, local, organically grown produce and happy eating one and all!

Rocky Raccoon Has Been Caught

Hello from Hollow Pumpkin Farm. For the past two weeks or so we have been having major raccoon issues. The first field of corn was completely dined on by this little rascal. Today we finally caught the little bugger and took him a good distance away from the farm and released him. We certainly think he is cute but we hope he stays away this time.

The farm is bubbling with many new folks who have shown and interest in learning to farm organically. Steve loves to teach and he receives some needed help in return so it is a win win situation. We welcome Talia and Jessica to the farm and hope they learn all they want to and continue to farm or garden organically in the future.

Life on the farm is all about work these days. Steve takes advantage of all the daylight as the days get shorter. The good news is that the yields on many of our crops has increased and things are trying to get into their natural rhythm. We will see what this next heat wave will bring in the way of crop challenges.

Our 7th distribution is tomorrow and the list of produce is: Green peppers, cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, arugula and basil. Red potatoes are coming soon and we hope we will be able to provide some sweet corn from our second field at some point soon as well.

That's all for now. We hope everyone is enjoying the veggies and experimenting with some of the veggies they may not be as familiar with. Happy eating.

What's New for Week #5

It is easy to become impatient while farming, but as the saying goes: "Good things come to those who wait." The cucumbers have arrived and they are some of the best we have grown in a while. Our Yukon Gold potatoes and our broccoli are also pretty tasty. Steve has been putting in long hours and has some good help in Cliff Connolly and it is paying off.

The C.S.A. members received: Yukon Gold Potatoes, cucumbers, summer squash, broccoli, tomatoes and a choice of green cabbage, carrots, Kohl Rabi, basil or beets.

The tomatoes are popping too. We had our first full harvest of tomatoes yesterday and it only gets better from this point on. The heirlooms take a little longer but, we will wait....they are worth it.

we are contemplating having Steve camp out by the sweet corn to ward off the darn pesky raccoons! The coons are truly becoming public enemy number 2 (deer are number 1, rabbits number 3.) We finally realized that the raccoons got to our corn last year even before the ears were noticeable. We thought that our corn tasseled and never produced ears.....now we need to come up with a plan to save this years crop.....Any ideas are welcomed.