Fans of Down on the Farm Newsletter

When you sign up for a CSA, you never know what might happen.  You just might get a call from your Amish farmer asking you to write a summary newsletter of the farm day you just attended!  So it goes…

Eleven adults and seven children were treated to the Stutzman famous homemade doughnuts newly made with coconut oil.  What a treat!  Wow!  Seriously good!  I could write about the doughnuts all day, but I don’t think that’s what Andy was looking for.  We also toured the farm, saw what was working and what wasn’t, and picked strawberries from Andy’s two greenhouses, which extend his growing season considerably.  Besides the strawberries themselves, the best thing about this experience was the actual picking.  Andy and his family have rigged up a series of shelves that the strawberries grow on.  You don’t have to bend down to pick them.  They’re all right at your fingertips.  I could get used to u–pick like this!

A highlight of any trip to the Stutzman farm is seeing how the Amish go about farming using horse-drawn cultivators and tillers.  Andy Jr. even gave all the kids bareback rides on the pony.

While reclining in the electric-free comfort of the Stutzman home, we all had a chance to eat more doughnuts and hear about some of the philosophy behind Down on the Farm and CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture).  Here are some highlights:

·      Farming is all about the soil.  Andy is working to rejuvenate a depleted soil by putting nutrients back in the soil in organic ways (resting fields, cover crops, compost, etc.).

·      Better soil means produce full of great nutrients.  Produce full of great nutrients not only tastes better and is better for you, but it lasts longer too.  Andy is currently working on getting the right mix of nutrients so that his heirloom tomatoes last longer and his strawberries have even more sugar content.  Yum!

·      Andy recommended the book, From Asparagus to Zucchini, written by a Wisconsin CSA, which has tons of great recipes in it for CSA produce.  (On a side note: I would highly recommend the cookbook, Simply In Season.) This book is also full of great CSA facts including its birth in Europe in the 1960s and its adoption in the USA in 1984.

·      As a group we encouraged one another to bring copies of recipes that we use with our CSA boxes to the Farmers Market so that Andy can pass them on to other CSA members.  Or consider visiting the new “fans of” blog and submitting a recipe here. 

·      Andy also introduced the very popular idea of a farm workday or a help-crew.  There will be a sign-up sheet at the farmers market if you’d like to be added to a list for possible workdays.

Chilled Watermelon Soup

Hi there!

For those of you who have been wondering about creative things to do with watermelon from "Down on the Farm" CSA, here's a recipe that I put together based on a couple of similar recipes I found online. It was delicious as a lunch soup or first course--in small quantities. Think "garden party."

8 cups fresh watermelon, seeded and cubed
1-2 cups plain yogurt
2-3 Tb white wine vinegar (some recipes call for 1/3 C)
1-2 Tb lemon juice
2-3 Tb sugar
1 bunch fresh mint, reserving some for garnish

Combine SIX cups of watermelon and the smallest suggested amount of each ingredient in a blender and blend until smooth. Taste the soup, then add more of each ingredient as needed (if you add more yogurt, you will need to add more sugar). The consistency should be thick enough to be creamy but not as thick as a smoothie. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Ladle into small bowls (I use glass pyrex ones that I've chilled in the fridge). Garnish with remaining watermelon cubes (I pile them in the middle of each bowl) and a sprig of mint. Makes 4-6 servings (or more?). NOTE: If you do this in a food processor, you are maxing out the liquid level--trust me, I learned the hard way--so you will want to do this in several batches.

--Submitted by Sarah

Welcome!

For folks in southern Michigan, a new CSA farm (community supported agriculture) has started in 2009. It is run by several Amish families near Homer, Michigan. My husband and I met farmer Andy Stutzman at the Holt Farmers Market earlier this summer, where we signed up for half a share. After participating in a CSA near Durham, North Carolina, we were fairly familiar with how CSAs work. You pay up front early in the season to help a farm get its crops in the ground, then whenever produce is ready, you begin receiving a weekly box (we pick ours up at the Holt Farmer's Market). If it is a good week or month, your produce is glorious and bountiful. If not, you have participated in some of the risks of farming and helped a local farmer survive when things are not so great.

Because the season started off cold, produce was a bit slow at first. But now our boxes are overflowing with vegetables--and this past Saturday we took home a huge watermelon too! And meanwhile the Stutzman's very graciously invited their shareholders and friends to visit their farm on August 15. A small crowd of us, including many children, got to see where our food grows, the chickens that produce the eggs, and the horses that pull the Amish buggies. We learned how an organic farmer operates a CSA without electricity, pesticides, or fuel-driven equipment. And we were fed copious amounts of homemade donuts, freshly cut watermelon, and treated to the quiet smiles and hospitality of Andy's wife and children.

And that's only the beginning! This blog is a way for friends & supporters of the farm to communicate, post comments, ask questions, share recipes, and spread the word. Please keep it kind and family-friendly, please.

See you down on the farm,
Sarah Arthur