In this Update:
Shares Available
Note from Terra Farma
What’s Going on at the Farm
Photos

Winter is (apparently) already over – it was barely noticeable! Our local weatherman even said to “stick a fork in it!” It’s actually a little disconcerting to have had so little of a winter, and dare it to say, such little wind!

Shares Available
We still have shares available at all 3 pick up locations – the farm, NE Parkrose and N Piedmont. Please help us spread the word! A farm brochure with membership form is found on the website, and please direct your friends & family there too, www.dancingrootsfarm.com. We also have money in the Scholarship Fund and hope to find at least 10 new families who would love our produce but can’t afford the full cost of a share.

From Terra Farma
“Terra Farma is pleased to again offer egg shares from our pastured hens to Dancing Roots CSA members. The price will remain at $120 for a dozen per week for the entire CSA season, or if that’s too many eggs for you we also have an option for a dozen every other week for $60.

We’re also excited to have a full season of raw milk available; we have both cow and goat milk for which you can sign up and start getting milk right now! State law prevents us from delivering it, but we do have a milk buying group already established where members take turns coming out to our farm to pick up the milk for the entire group. It’s $6 per half gallon, and we’d be happy to provide more information. Contact us, Mike or Linda, at terrafarma@comcast.net or 503-849-8121.”

What’s Going on at the Farm
Visitors & Press
This spring we got to host a field trip for attendees in a Soil Quality Network workshop. It was lucky for us to get to have a soil specialist come and take cores from different places on the farm and offer valuable insights! See photo below.

Other visitors this spring included a Channel 2 Special Projects producer and cameraman! See photo below, and look for the small segment on CSAs sometime in the 3rd or 4th week of March.

Speaking of CSA’s and how they work, there is an entire article devoted to the subject in the newest Edible Portland magazine with photos from Dancing Root Farm! Look for it at any number of outlets or http://www.edibleportland.com. They’re free, so grab a stack and hand them out to all your friends and encourage them to join Dancing Roots CSA!

In the Fields
The garlic patch is looking exceptionally good; we’ve already put on the first application of feathermeal, the source of nitrogen we use, and will do so at least one more time before the end of April to help with spring growth. It’s so rewarding seeing the healthy garlic it’s easy to go overboard with the picture taking! See photo below, and several pictures were just posted on facebook, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dancing-Roots-Farm/159168000805629.

The lovely dry weather last week allowed Bryan to get out there with the tractor to spade, add compost, and try out our newest implement, a rotary (or power) harrow. Gary got his first chance to use the Planet Jr. seeders on the Allis Chalmers G as he and Bryan sowed the snap peas. A full 2 weeks before we did it last year! Wish we had photos of that too.

Seeds and Their Costs
All seeds are in and organized in their proper place in coolers. Just to give you an idea of how seeds fit into our operation, we just spent a little over $4000 dollars on them. And we’re not done yet! In the fall we’ll probably spend another $7-800 on cover crop seed, but that counts as both a seed cost AND a fertility cost since cover crops add so much to our fertility.

We even saved money on seed this year. Except for a small amount of garlic seed we bought, we had saved our own which resulted in a $500 savings. Also, we went in with a few other farms on potatoes to get our order over 1000 lbs and saved $300 between seed and shipping.

Generally though, we’re not looking to cut corners on seed costs. Fuel, electricity and used tractor implements – yes, we’re looking for bargains. But seeds are the foundation of everything we do! Just as we understand that spending money on good, healthy food will nourish our bodies, so does buying really good seeds result in higher quality, better tasting crops. And just like spending money on healthy food can result in less medications and doctor bills, high quality seeds results in healthier crops, saving us expensive and time consuming remediation measures like sprays, even organic ones.

Thanks so much for all your support and encouragement.

We hope this finds you warm and healthy; and enjoying this rather unusual late January/early February weather! We (mostly) appreciate the cold, wind, rain and low light levels as it’s Planning, Marketing and Conference Season…

In the Planning category, we’re pouring over seed catalogues, finalizing our crew and budget, and deciding which crops will grow where. Bryan has been researching and reconsidering our field equipment and in just a few days (since it’s been so dry), we’re going to be able to try out an  implement to decide if we want to buy it. If we do, we’ll let you know more about it in the next update.

In the Conferences department, Shari had the good fortune of attending an Organic Seed Growers conference in Port Townsend Jan. 20 –22, put on by the Organic Seed Alliance. It was excellent: Very informative and highly inspirational. A few photos have been posted on our Dancing Roots Farm facebook page. Brought home some varieties that we’ll be trying this year including a spring broccoli, a long-storing butternut squash, and some padrone peppers.

As for Marketing, we’re looking into all the ways we can get the word out about CSA’s in general and our farm in particular. It all starts with updating the brochure, and after nearly 2 weeks of technical difficulties, we’re pleased to announce our brochure is updated and ready to go; it’s attached to this email and on the website. This year we would very much like to reach our goal of 200 households, so we’ll be tabling, putting up posters & flyers, speaking to groups, and anything else YOU might suggest! (We’ll be tabling at the University of Portland’s Employee Wellness Fair on Tuesday, Feb. 7th from 11a – 2pm. If you’re an employee or student, come visit!)

We’re still looking into partnering with other producers so we can offer locally sourced grass fed beef, fair-traded coffee and California grown olives/olive oil. Any interest in that? Let us know.

Either way, we hope that you will renew and send in your $100 deposit soon to reserve your spot. Also, please tell all your friend sand neighbors about us!

The cost for 2012 has risen slightly to $530 for the 24 week season, mid-May through the end of October. This keeps us in line with the vast majority of Portland area CSAs. Pick ups will all be at the same time in the same locations.

Friendly Farmer Mike from Terra Farma will once again offer their excellent pasture-raised eggs, chicken, pork, turkey, goat and, new this year, Jersey cow milk.

Why Renew? We’re glad you asked!
- Our pick ups are fun, family-friendly, events – it’s like having our own harvest celebration each week! One or more of us are always at the pick up to talk about veggies, recipes, growing practices, what’s happening on the farm, and anything else you want to talk about.
- We keep our membership price moderate and actively solicit donations to our Scholarship Fund. We’re doing what we can to ensure healthy, fresh vegetables are accessible to everybody.
- Our weekly share, while changing with the seasons, is generally right for a household of 2 adults and up to 2 kids. Each year we adjust items and quantities in our efforts to improve our bounty and selection.
- We offer flexible payment options.
- As our long time members can attest, our vegetables are super high quality and delicious!

Because of your support we’ve been offering farm memberships since 1997. We still love what we do and intend to keep getting better at choosing varieties, improving our soil, and offering the best weekly shares possible.

You can send in either the full amount or a $100 deposit to reserve your spot now. Make checks out to Dancing Roots Farm.

Thank YOU for being part of the solution with us.

My sweet little dorm room.

This kind of thing gets us motivated!

Why we (mostly) grow OP-Open Pollinated seed

Seed Swap Madness! I tried to stay away, but got sucked into the excitement and left with several new varieties to try.

And speaking of the weather, come get your blackberries! Wear closed toe shoes and long pants, bring lots of containers and be ready to get poked!

In Your Share This Week

Lettuce – Magenta; some biggies some smallies.

Parsley – Survivor

Scarlet Nantes Carrots These old heirloom carrots date back to the 1850’s in France.

Summer Squash – Black Beauty, Golden, White Bush, Bennings Green Tint, Yellow Scallop, Lemon

Here’s an absolutely delicious use for those huge summer squashes! Use a standard vegetable peeler to shave off thin strips of… zuccha-cini! (or zuccha-getti!). Make a thick sauce by cooking together eggplant, your pepper and tomatoes and put the hot sauce over the fresh, raw ‘zucchacini.’ Grated fresh parmesan over all. Any type of large squash would work; peeling the whole thing first was probably not necessary. The strips ranged from 1/4 to 1” in width and were just peeled right into the pasta bowl.

Gold of Bacau Yellow Romano Beans – They’ve gotten a bit tough recently, but are still very tasty and both beans & pod are still edible. Best cooked for at least an hour in a soup, stew, crock pot or in the oven.

Walla Walla Onions – Try carmelizing one or 2. Then put on pizza, in lasagna, over pasta or just on toast!

Cucumbers, Marketmore & Diva (slicers)  or Wautoma (picklers)

Sweet Peppers Mostly Antohi’s, some Romanian Sweets – first peppers of the season!

Hot Peppers, Jalapeños

Tomatoes!! Glacier (red) & Taxi (yellow) – Finally we get some summer! Hopefully this is just the beginning…

‘Just a farmer’ you said and I laughed ‘cause I knew all the things that farmers must be able to do.

They must study the land then watch the sky and figure just when is the right time and why

to sow and to plant to buy and to sell to go to the market with cattle and well…

You know the books that farmers must keep to pay all those taxes and be able to sleep

and you know the fixin’ that farmers must do when machines like mad monsters blow a gasket or two.

I guess when God needed folks to care for His earth he chose “just farmers” cause He knew their true worth

Future grapes

Lush Spinach

Green Beans Overcame Early Trouble

Vining beans in search of a trellis

Healthy young tomatoes

Weedy Pea Patch

Two green bean buds-can you find them?