**Special Orders and the online shop are only visible to current members of the Summer Season. To join up, either signup online or reply to this email. **

Berry Season Stalls...But Red Raspberries are Here

Our growers went above and beyond last week to help us out. We effectively wiped out the blueberry crop, and black raspberries are struggling this year.

Last week, the strawberries were a very special situation. Emanual and Andy at Moreland Fruit Farm literally gave us everything they had to help cover the orders. They didn't even have any for their own customers or family. As Andy explained, the berries were there, but they were literally "melting." Yes, it was so hot that the field heat never left the berries. The berries would turn to mush on the plants and fall to the ground. When they came off the plant, the field heat caused rapid degradation. They worked extra hard to circulate cold air over them and try to get us some shelf life. Thank you again for their extra effort.

This week, the only berry we can guarantee is red raspberries.

Peaches are Here

Matt at the previous Eshleman Orchard in Clyde was able to harvest a mere 54 half bushels off of the nearly 60 acres of peaches they have. Not good by any means, but something. Here the staff sorts thru them to grade them out for us.

This week's peaches are sold in 2# bags and are a cling type. Get them while you can. We likely won't have crates available for canning this year.

Methley Plums

Similar story top the peaches, a very limited crops this year. Sold by the quart basket, approx 2#.

Weekly Meats - 10% off

For those who need more or vegetarian shares needing the meat option.

Pork Arm Roast

Jamaican Jerk Chicken Drumsticks

Zucchini Bread - $6

This is one of our customer favorites. This quick bread is made with fresh organic zucchini, organic flour and sugar, farm fresh eggs, and homemade applesauce - the secret ingredient for keeping it extra moist and reducing the amount of sugar.

There is a season for everything, and now is BLT season.

I had a bad day on Saturday with the power outage in Ohio City, but I came home to a big BLT sandwich with homemade mayo.

So this week for $20

1 lb nitrate free bacon

1 package english muffins

1.5# tomatoes

1 head romaine lettuce

8 oz homemade mayo

I remember once being challenged by a customer of mine. I was supplying eggs to a popular non-gmo restaurant and needed to raise prices by a small amount. The general manager refused and told me he could get organic eggs cheaper at Costco, and, he claimed "hens do better in the summer anyhow. My prices should be going down."

To this day, every time I struggle in the summer, I think about that guy and the ignorance across the board, even in food professionals. Farming with nature has it's ups and downs, that's why the commercial sector prefers factory farming. There are no variances when you control the feed, heat, light, and total environment.

Bring Out Ye Dead

If you read my newsletters regularly, you know I've been experimenting with more heritage chickens.

One of my biggest struggles as a pasture based farmer is caring for meat chickens - broilers - as the commercial genetics - the cornish cross - lacks hardiness and is a struggle to raise outside.

So last year I start hatching dual-purpose breeds, where the hen is a layer and the cockerell is for meat. The meat side hasn't really been working - everyone still wants white meat and breasts - but the hens have been doing great.

The heritage hens are large framed, heavier, and more heavily feathered than the more common red sex link - the hybrid, commercial brown egg layer.

Last week, I had an eye opener though. With the heat, I was concerned about the more sensitive broilers. We moved them outside at a younger age and lower density to help them stay cooler (than in the brooder). They ate less with the heat, but survived just fine.

The hens, on the other hand, didn't do so well. Wed thru Friday they practically quit eating. Usually we have to refill the feeders daily. I had to only fill them once in 3 days. This cut egg production by almost half due to heat stress.

Then on Wednesday, we noticed a few of the hens laying around huffing. 6 died. OK, let's keep an eye on that.

Thursday morning, everything seemed fine. Thursday afternoon, not so fine. Birds scattered all over, under shade bushes, under the perches, etc. Dead. I hauled out 70 dead hens. All of them were the heritage breeds - not a single red sex link.

The heavier framed birds were overweight and just overheated. The thin, red sex link was perky and did fine.

My goal with these hens was that at the end of their laying, we'd have enough meat to justify deboning them for sausage. Now I'm rethinking that strategy. I've already been butting-heads with the nutritionist at the feed mill over the energy level of the feed. I think we are overfeeding them - he claims though that the other birds need that much energy to lay efficiently. Summary: today's genetics demand a more engineered feed ration; the birds of yester years are intended to scratch around and get a lower quality feed. With our rich feed, the heritage birds are getting too big, too heavy, and can't withstand the heat!

Milk Production Tied to Body Heat

I was also talking to another farmer just yesterday about his dairy herd.

I commented that his corn had doubled in size since last week. He agreed, "It's the only thing linking this heat!"

He explained that his cows were eating less and milk production dropped 7# per cow. Over 30 cows (very small herd), that's 210# per day. At $40 per hundredweight, that's $80 per day. $560 per week. You can do the math. It's nearly a 9% decrease in production all from heat stress.

The cows earlier in their lactation cycle should recover when it cools down some, but still not a profitable scenario.

** This is the end of asparagus for the season. We expect to probably get enough for Wed/Thurs, then we'll switch to tomatoes.