Good Afternoon
It was a snowy drive in to work this morning. While I really don't like talking about the weather, it's certainly pertinent to a farmer these days.
Right now, I'm seeing many of our farmers are over a month behind on their spring plantings. The grass, while greening up, lacks mass and our grazing season is delayed. In fact, last year I started rotational grazing beef on April1. Today, our beef are still cooped up in barn eating hay. While there is a little bit for them to chew on out there, the fields are too wet and my opinion is that the damage their hooves would cause, and the smaller yields later will be pricier than feeding hay for a few more weeks.
I'm not alone either. The produce guys all have greenhouses bursting with produce that needs to go in the ground. Soon, the plants risk becoming root bound, a condition that can thwart future productivity of the plant.
Even the asparagus is behind schedule this year. We had hoped to feature that this week, but it is still just starting to poke from the ground. There is always next week!
But this too shall pass, and in the meantime we put in some extra hours in the kitchen the last few weeks to bring some special items for this week's bag:
Pepperoni Rolls - made from scratch, including the homemade pepperoni (each package has 8 oz of pepperoni in it!), organic flour from Stutzman's, and guernsey mozzarella from Paint Valley. Vegetarian shares will receive herb & cheese rolls (loaded up on cheese in place of pepperoni).
Tomato Sauce - we worked through the end of the tomatoes in the freezer to put together a pint of tomato sauce, perfect for dipping your pepperoni & cheese rolls.
Black Pepper & Butternut Squash Soup - At the end of the year, we were able to roast off all the remaining butternut squash and cook it down into a rich soup. Ingredients include house made chicken stock (or veggies stock in vegetarian version), house smoked bacon (not included in the vegetarian version), and guernsey cream. Vegetarian shares will receive a vegetarian version. I hope you enjoy it.
Sincerely,
Trevor & the FFM Team
