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Share #17 September 27th and 30th

9/25/2016

Crop list: Cosmic Mix, Purple, Yellow and Orange Carrots, Yellow and Red Onions, Leeks, Daikon Radish, Shunkyo Radish, Kale, Basil, Broccoli, Garlic, Pumpkins and All Blue, La Rott Fingerling, French Fingerling, Red Norland, Rose Finn Fingerling Potatoes

BRING BAGS!! There are about 19 items this week and we are out of bags. PLEASE bring any you can find!! And give yourself a bit of extra time to collect your share!

We are set on emptying the garden this week. It is a big share. We like to end with a grand finale! Yes, this is the last share of 2016!
It felt like a great year to us. Like all years of farming, some things do better some years then others. The weeds were tough this year and we wish there were less of them. The purple carrots were late due to weeds and the beets never got as big as we like them to get. The sunflowers were planted a bit too late and most were frosted before they reached maturity. Although I did change up the varieties, and I think the ones I harvested had a longer vase life.Good thing we have next year!
The onions, leeks and garlic are turning out to be stellar crops this year. Something about 2016 really made the allium family happy! We were also impressed with the basil, arugula and early season radishes this year. One of my favorite parts of 2016 was opening up the raspberry patch for members to come pick! We hope to do that every year as long as the patch stays in good shape.
We would love to hear your feedback about 2016. What worked for you? What would you like us to improve? Send us an email!

Last week I went to an event at the Center For the Arts which showed two movies about "regenerative agriculture". Two parts stood out to me. In one of the films Wes Jackson said "Soil is more important then oil." I love how succinct this is, and as a Biodynamic farmer, I agree. I only hope we can figure out how to honor soil before we start waging wars for it. I am glad we put soil first at Cosmic Apple. It is the beginning of it all for us. Taking care of the soil will take care of us. I also am proud of how much oil is saved by not trucking our veggies very far.
Yvon Chouinard, of the Patagonia company spoke at the event. As he travels the world speaking to people he has found the passion people have for food really stands out. He really believes the love of food is starting a revolution. I spoke about both of these topics and how important they are to me in earlier newsletters. These two thoughts may be themes for me in 2016! Revering the soil and changing the world through agriculture.
I want to end this year by thanking YOU. Thank you for being passionate about food. Seeking us out and collecting your veggies once a week is no easy task. You are swimming against the current, and I truly hope your efforts have been rewarded with delicious goods. Thank you for trusting us to tend to the soil. Your support allows us to use Biodynamic methods to leave the earth in better shape then we found it. Thank you for taking the time to read my weekly ramblings. Writing (typing!) gives me a space to articulate ideas I could easily ignore. This weekly forum gets me excited about farming, our community and food!
Jed and I are forever grateful for the opportunity to grow your food. It has been an honor.

Sign up for 2017 and get free stuff!!!
This is the last week for a free t-shirt or hat! Sign up at your pick-up site this week and get a free Cosmic Apple hat or T-shirt! Both made with organic cotton. Reserve the time and place you want to get your veggies next year before any of the days and locations sell out! Check out the payment plan options if you want to spread the checks out! Your site host will have paper copies tonight or you can follow the link below!

2017 CSA Sign-up!

Pork Available!
New Sausage available! Fresh Fennel! Our butcher made fresh fennel sausage with veggies from the garden! It's yummy! Check the attachment on your email for prices. Available cuts are:Sausage, Boneless Loin Chops, Spare Ribs, Neck Bones, Bone in Shoulder Roast, Heart and Liver.

Beef Available!
Check the coolers at your site. I attached a list of prices and cuts to your email. If you know you want something, please email me and I will send it over for you. You can also tell your site hosts you have a request and I will send it the next week. We purchased 2 cows from Lifeline. They are packaged with our label because we brought them to the butcher live and for us to sell them they needed a label...and well, we are Cosmic Apple! It is really just the legalities of selling USDA inspected meat. More info then you need, but we want to be completely honest about what we have!

Find recipes for this weeks share here: www.cosmicapple.com/recipes.html
Bring Bags to pick-ups!
Wash Your veggies!
If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend!
Missed shares are forfeited for the week.
Members get 20% off at the Farmer's Markets!
The Driggs Market is Fridays 9-1. Until 10/7

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Share #16 September 20th and 23rd

9/19/2016

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Crop list: Cosmic Mix, Turnips, Baby Kale, Beets, Carrots, Onions, Leeks, Yukon Gold and Purple Viking Potatoes, Garlic, and Orange Summer or Sugar Dumpling Winter Squash

Week 16! This week is the week we try to make it to every year. Our goal is to provide you with 16 shares. There was only one year in the twenty years of the farm that we did not make it to 16 weeks. We went only 15 weeks, it must have been a late summer and an early fall that year! We started so early this year we knew it would be no problem hitting that magic number for us. Our goal this year is to get the garden empty by the end of week 17! It will be a daunting task.We will definitely see you next week. Hopefully the garden will be empty by the end of week 17! This is the last week of Jackson markets for the farm. Our pace will slow down a bit next week, and it will give us more time to empty the garden! Jed and I believe our CSA is a better model for getting fresh food then the markets because there are so many years when we have produce earlier and later then the markets go. CSA members really do benefit from choosing to support a farm through the whole growing season.
As I write this, Jed is firing up the potato digger to start pulling in some serious spud tons.We will spend Monday afternoon and most of Tuesday harvesting, sorting and weighing potatoes. We are racing the rain forecast for the end of the week. The digger does not work when the soil is wet, and the hands needed to pick the potatoes up move more slowly when they are cold!
Next week Jed and I will let you know the highs and lows of Cosmic Apple's 2016 season! Or at least what we can remember of it.
We are also ready to get you signed up for your 2017 share! If you sign up for next year at your veggie pick up site we will give you a Cosmic Apple t-shirt or hat! The shirts and hats are made with organic cotton. We have women's, men's, kid's and baby sizes! You will also save money by signing up before Jan. 1st. and most importantly, you will get the veggie pick-up time and location you want! I attached a sign-up sheet to your email, your site host will have a sign-up sheet for you tonight or you can find a sign-up sheet here:

2017 CSA Sign-up

Salmon Available!
Captain Todd is back in the Tetons with his catch. He will be coming to the farm on September 20th from 5-7 pm to sell Sockeye, Coho, King, canned and Smoked salmon. Capt. Todd follows the best environmental practices for fishing, is an independent fisherman (no corporations telling him what to do!) and freezes the fish on the boat for the best flavor. We are lucky because he calls Victor home when he is not on his boat, "The Gallant Maid"! If you are going to purchase any fish this year, I wholeheartedly recommend supporting Todd. I feel honored he wants to sell his goods to members of Cosmic Apple's CSA.

Pork Available!
Sausage! Yes! Breakfast Sausage is now available! Breakfast Sausage is a blend of white pepper and sage. Magical if you add a bit of maple syrup! Check the attachment on your email for prices. Available cuts are: Sausage, Boneless Loin Chops, Spare Ribs, Neck Bones, Bone in Shoulder Roast, Heart and Liver.

Beef Available!
Check the coolers at your site. I attached a list of prices and cuts to your email. If you know you want something, please email me and I will send it over for you. You can also tell your site hosts you have a request and I will send it the next week. We purchased 2 cows from Lifeline. They are packaged with our label because we brought them to the butcher live and for us to sell them they needed a label...and well, we are Cosmic Apple! It is really just the legalities of selling USDA inspected meat. More info then you need, but we want to be completely honest about what we have!

Find recipes for this weeks share here: www.cosmicapple.com/recipes.html
Bring Bags to pick-ups!
Wash Your veggies!
If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend!
Missed shares are forfeited for the week.
Members get 20% off at the Farmer's Markets!
The People's Market is Wednesdays 4-7. Until 9/21
The Driggs Market is Fridays 9-1. Until 10/7
Jackson Market is Saturdays 8-12. Until 9/24

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Share #15 September 13th and 16th

9/12/2016

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Crop list: Cosmic Mix, Rose Finn Apple Fingerling Potatoes, Carrots, Onions. Leeks, Basil, Garlic, Sugar Dumpling Squash, Maybe Arugula, Kale and/or Sunflowers

The frost got us last week, so we are on to root crops like crazy! The workshares have been digging fingerling potatoes. These little spuds are time consuming to dig and find! They slip through digging forks and elude our tractor driven potato digger, you have to use your hands to locate them.
The sunflowers got a bit toasted by the freeze. Some of them have brown tips on the petals, some may finish opening in a funny sort of manner, some are just going to stay in the field.
All the squash plants died, so long until next year summer squash! We pulled all the winter squash out of the garden on Friday afternoon and will start distributing it this week. This week's flavor is "Sugar Dumpling". You can find recipes under "Winter Squash" on the recipe page.
The onions! We have not had a great crop of onions the last couple of years. But this year, wooohooo!!! The onions look amazing and taste great. I know they are not a super sexy garden veggie, but I love starting a yummy fall soup with the best onions around. After a couple years of having tiny onions these lunkers are making me happy!
Jed has been doing lots of laps on the tractor the past couple of days. Earlier in the season I wrote about how we rotate pasture and garden space (share #8 newsletter). About a month ago Jed tilled in our buckwheat and rye cover crop. He is now keeping the weeds at bay and breaking up the organic matter so the field can rest for the winter and be planted in the spring. The soil looks great after being in pasture for about 12 years.

Salmon Available!
Captain Todd is back in the Tetons with his catch. He will be coming to the farm on September 20th from 5-7 pm to sell Sockeye, Coho, King and Smoked salmon. Capt. Todd follows the best environmental practices for fishing, is an independent fisherman (no corporations telling him what to do!) and freezes the fish on the boat for the best flavor. We are lucky because he calls Victor home when he is not on his boat, "The Gallant Maid"! If you are going to purchase any fish this year, I wholeheartedly recommend supporting Todd. I feel honored he wants to sell his goods to members of Cosmic Apple's CSA.

Pork Available!
Sausage! Yes! Chorizo and Breakfast Sausage are the flavors we have now. Chorizo is a classic Mexican sausage, spicy with vinegar. Breakfast Sausage is a blend of white pepper and sage. Magical if you add a bit of maple syrup! Check the attachment on your email for prices. Available cuts are: Sausage, Boneless Loin Chops, Spare Ribs, Neck Bones, Bone in Shoulder Roast, Heart and Liver.

Beef Available!
Check the coolers at your site. I attached a list of prices and cuts to your email. If you know you want something, please email me and I will send it over for you. You can also tell your site hosts you have a request and I will send it the next week. We purchased 2 cows from Lifeline. They are packaged with our label because we brought them to the butcher live and for us to sell them they needed a label...and well, we are Cosmic Apple! It is really just the legalities of selling USDA inspected meat. More info then you need, but we want to be completely honest about what we have!

Find recipes for this weeks share here: www.cosmicapple.com/recipes.html
Bring Bags to pick-ups!
Wash Your veggies!
If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend!
Missed shares are forfeited for the week.
Members get 20% off at the Farmer's Markets!
The People's Market is Wednesdays 4-7. Until 9/21
The Driggs Market is Fridays 9-1. Until 10/7
Jackson Market is Saturdays 8-12. Until 9/24

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Share #14 September 6th and 9th

9/5/2016

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Crop list: Cosmic Mix, Dill, Green Peppers, Summer Squash, Cucumbers, Pirat Heirloom Lettuce, Carrots, Larott Fingerling Potatoes, Onions, Sunflowers and maybe Leeks

Monday, 3:13pm. It's a nail biter out there folks. Will it freeze? Will it not freeze? The forecasters can't make up their minds either. Since Friday, predicted temps have ranged from 37 to 31 degrees for tonight's low. We harvested lots of goodies that could die in a frost. Some things were covered. Some things we just look at and think warm thoughts for them. I know I will not sleep well tonight wondering what the temperature will get to. I really have my fingers crossed for one more week without frost. There are a lot of sunflowers that need a few more days. They may make it if the frost is light. If not, well, that's life (and death).
Peppers! WoooHoo!! These are a treat in our climate. They have been growing all summer and could have used a bit more time but we pulled them all in to make sure we got to eat them instead of freezing them. This is the first time we have grown peppers outside for the whole CSA.
This is also the time of year we all start to wonder how long the shares will go. We don't know yet. At this point it depends on when it freezes and how fast we can get everything out of the garden. I can tell you the shares are about to get huge and heavy! Root crops weigh a lot compared to all those spring greens!
Monday, 10:31 pm. When I was working on the newsletter earlier, Jed was taking a much deserved nap. He headed out to the farm around 6 for evening chores. The kids and I sat down for dinner and the phone rang. Jed told us Bertha had a calf! She was not "due" until Saturday. It was our favorite kind of birth. Healthy mama, healthy calf. No interventions. On her own as nature intended. As much as I love witnessing a birth, I know the moms would rather do it on their own without an audience, and that is ideal when it all goes smooth. The calf was already up nursing when Jed found them. About 3 hours lapsed since he last saw Bertha. Stay warm tonight little buddy.
Monday, 11:54 pm. I just wasted an hour of my life on the internet. It is 34 degrees outside.
Tuesday, 7:58 am. The temperature was down to 28. Colder then anyone predicted. Now we just have to see how much damage there is. By this afternoon we will be able to tell what plants made it and what plants didn't. The leaves on the hill will have turned a couple of shades brighter, and we should be hearing the elk bugling soon! Fall has arrived!!!

Pork Available!
Sausage! Yes! Chorizo Sausage is the flavor we have now. Chorizo is a classic Mexican sausage, mildly spicy with vinegar. Check the attachment on your email for prices. Available cuts are: Sausage, Boneless Loin Chops, Spare Ribs, Neck Bones, Bone in Shoulder Roast, Heart and Liver.

Beef Available!
Check the coolers at your site. I attached a list of prices and cuts to your email. If you know you want something, please email me and I will send it over for you. You can also tell your site hosts you have a request and I will send it the next week. We purchased 2 cows from Lifeline. They are packaged with our label because we brought them to the butcher live and for us to sell them they needed a label...and well, we are Cosmic Apple! It is really just the legalities of selling USDA inspected meat. More info then you need, but we want to be completely honest about what we have!

Find recipes for this weeks share here: www.cosmicapple.com/recipes.html
Bring Bags to pick-ups!
Wash Your veggies!
If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend!
Missed shares are forfeited for the week.
Members get 20% off at the Farmer's Markets!
The Driggs Market is Fridays 9-1.
The People's Market is Wednesdays 4-7.
Jackson Market is Saturdays 8-12.

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Share #17 September 27th and 30th

Share #16 September 20th and 23rd

Share #15 September 13th and 16th

Share #14 September 6th and 9th

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