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BLT Season has Begun. BLT Special Bundle - $25

There is a season for everything, and now is the start to BLT Season.

Try a BLT this week with:

• 1 loaf whole wheat bread
• 2# red slicing tomatoes
• 1 head romaine lettuce
• 8 oz homemade mayo
• 1# nitrate free bacon

Fruit Selection

This week, we continue to see more fruit coming in limited quantities.

Blueberries - from Rittman Orchard

Red Raspberries - also from Rittman

Cherries - from Quarry Hill

Last week I made a mistake on listing the cherries. Our system had a very old cost in it. We ended up selling all the berries for exactly what we paid for them. So sadly, this week the cherries are a bit more.

Fruit Trio - $20

1 pint blueberries, 1 pint red raspberries, 1# bing cherries

Also available individually in the online store.

Cherry Tomatoes and Slicing Tomatoes

Early tomatoes are a little more work, but very much worth it for the growers who invest in greenhouses to do it.

This week's grower doesn't even bother growing tomatoes outside anymore. Soil grown in the greenhouse, he can trellis them vertically for easier harvest and more air flow. He can also water them at the roots - keeping blights and other fungus diseases at bay.

This week, we have multi-color cherry tomatoes and nice red slicing tomatoes.

Quiches - Pullet Egg, Asparagus and Feta

A few of our laying hen flocks are in transition, meaning the old hens are done laying and the new ones that are brought in to replace them are just not quite ready yet. As the hens start to lay very small eggs, these are called pullet eggs. We used these in the kitchen in the spring, particularly to make quiches.

This week, we have two frozen quiche flavors available in our freezer:

Asparagus and Feta

Broccoli Cheddar

Heritage Turkeys - SALE - $4.50 per lb

Yes, I know it's 94 degrees and roasting a turkey isn't ideal. But here's what is going on.

I keep a flock of turkeys for breeding. They lay the eggs that we hatch for Thanksgiving turkeys. By the end of May, we no longer set eggs as the birds wouldn't be big enough for Thanksgiving.

I've found that by replacing the hens with younger hens each year I get many more eggs. So I've started harvesting the hens after we are done collecting eggs. I used to have the processor bone them out for ground turkey patties, but with a bird only around 10#, the processing fees come out to nearly $6 per lb alone. I'd rather sell the birds cheap and make someone happy than lose money on ground turkey.

So this week, we just got frozen turkeys back from the processor. These are mostly small hens - like 9# to 12# - and ideal for a summer deep fried turkey or even grilled turkey. Something I usually wouldn't do with one of our prized heritage turkeys, but this is a special situation.

Weekly Bag Protein - Smoked Kielbasa and Chicken Thighs - 10% off

Get extra of this week's bag meats at a discount.

Smoked Kielbasa - pork sausage in a natural hog casing with only the naturally occurring nitrates of celery powder.

Chicken Thighs - the best part of the chicken in my opinion. Ideal for the grlll. 4 per package.

Join Up. Just reply to this email.

The season is just starting and the best is yet to come.

2 easy ways to signup:

1) Just reply to this email with what size package and where you want to pickup.

2) or register online at http://csalogin.freshforkmarket.com

The Old Adage Stands True.

Mondays are busy as it is, but sometimes farming happens when it happens. When I saw the weather for yesterday, I was thrilled.

My 1st cutting hay came off May 9 thru 15. At that point, I put up 312 large bales for my cattle this winter. I'm guessing I need 350 to 400 to make it thru.

Several of the fields have grown back very nicely with the recent rains. They were lush and just before boot stage in the grass - so very high energy, protein, and digestibility.

And one field in particular - the one I'm planning for turkeys in mid-August - needs planted with the "pecking patch" ASAP - sunflowers, sorghum, and buckwheat for forage and shade.

I had been trying to find time to make 2nd cutting, so yesterday I pulled the trigger mid morning. Let's do "hay in a day."

Hay in a Day

There are a lot of considerations on making hay. If you let it get more mature, you get more yield. If you cut it young and tender, it's better feed value but less yield and more work.

Dry hay means you don't have to haul off as much water or store as much hay, but it also takes several days to get below 15 percent moisture. And perfect weather predictions.

Then there is Hay in a Day. This is the idea that you mow and bale in 1 day. The conditions have to be just right. Yesterday was just right.

Generally, the most energy is in the grass mid-afternoon after the forage has had time to absorb the sun's rays all day. Right now, the days are so long that by 10 AM there has already been almost 5 hours of sun.

As forage lays, it loses some nutrients. The faster you can dry it, the better. The sooner your wrap it for what we call high moisture hay (haylage), the higher the nutrient contents.

Mow - Ted - Ted Again - Rake - Bale - Wrap

Yesterday was a long race in the heat. Between the hectic-ness of Monday like loading animals and all the other farm work, we worked in making hay.

Mow. I got Roman started on mowing around 10 AM. By 1 PM, he was done.

Ted. And Ted again. This is the process of spreading the hay out and "fluffing" it to get it to dry faster. It's a specialized rake that tosses the hay around. Wayne hopped on it as soon as Roman had hay on the ground. A few hours later, he did it again.

Rake. This is where you work on your farmers tan. The sun was strong about 5 PM, and I started raking they hay into windrows. It was already dry enough to be crunchy under foot. A few hours later, it was ready to bale.

Bale. The baler picks up the piles of hay and wraps it into tight bales, about 1,000# each. A special net is used to hold it tightly together.

Wrap. The longest part of the process is actually hauling the bales off of the field and onto a trailer behind the truck. I then unload them where I want the hay wrapped. The wrapping is a heavy plastic wrap that "ensiles" the hay. This is an anaerobic environment where the hay can ferment and be preserved, kind of like sauerkraut for cattle.

The wrapping often takes place after dark. Last night I got in around 11 PM excited about the quality of the hay that was made!

Like the weather, subject to change.