I’m just checking in to thank all of you who have sent in your share memberships for the 2008 season and sending a friendly reminder to those that are still outstanding.  Again, please let me know, even if you are not re-joining for this season, so that I know how many shares are still available.  If you have any questions about figuring the costs, please email me.

Things are starting to “hum” here on the farm as Spring is officially here!  We are going to start planting early greens in the hoophouse in early April.  I will keep you informed so you can come out and get some fresh greens after the long winter.  We have baby meatbird chicks arriving aroung 4/2 - a treat for the kids to see!

Hope you are all well and avoiding the flu!

Thank you,
Charlotte

Who can believe it!  It is time for sign-up for shares in the 2008 season.  We want to thank those of you who signed on early to enable us to take advantage of the Fedco discounts.  We were able, thanks to you, to save significantly on sprays and amendments, which are big ticket items.

Now it is time to plan the garden and order seeds, so we hope you can get your payments in as soon as possible and this will help us know who is joining for this season.  We also welcome your input  on varieties of veggies you want to have available and any other thoughts you might have on how we can improve our CSA.

The price will remain the same for this season:  $10, $20 and $30/week shares X 14 weeks.  If you have any questions please call  me at 565-2312 or email me.  Our address is:  Shalom Orchard, P.O. Box 4, Franklin, ME  04634.

We are interviewing apprentices now and I will keep you informed.  We are happy Khimba and Jessica are still with us and my niece, Sarah Charlotte, will join us again this summer for a few weeks.  We hope some other old friends will be with us as well.

We are looking forward to another wonderful season of growing organic vegetables and fruit, chicken, lamb and eggs for you!

Thank you so much for your support of Shalom Orchard and Winery!!

Charlotte

I hope everyone had wonderful holidays and that you are enjoying all of this beautiful snow!  I am writing because I just found out that the Hancock County MOFGA Chapter orders from Fedco each year and, by buying in bulk, receive at least a 25% discount and even higher on some things.  I would like to be able to take advantage of this discount, but the cash flow on the farm is nothing at this time of year.  If any of you are able to buy your memberships in the CSA at this time, it would help us be able to save a lot on seeds, amendments, etc., and help keep our costs lower, thus keeping prices lower.  The order goes out on Feb. 1 and I realize this is really short notice.

Share prices are the same as last year:  $10, $20. $30/week times 14 weeks.  Also, we have eggs, chicken, and root veggies available now.

Thank you in advance to any of you who can join now.  I will send another reminder of “THE DREADED BILL”  at the end of February.

Happy Winter,

Charlotte

The chickens have gone to the butcher today.  I will be packaging and freezing them today and tomorrow.  I will be here Wednesday and I am hopeful that many of you can come by then to pick them up.  The price is $3.50/#, and they will be packaged whole and in leg and breast quarters (2 quarters/bag).

We also have a lot of other veggies:  carrots, beets, leeks, winter squash, brussels sprouts, cabbage, onions, potatoes, sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes), fennel, parsley, arugala, salad mix, and FRESH CIDER!! Think about freezing some cider for the holidays!

Please email with your updated chicken order.  We hope to see you on Wed., from 10:00 AM on.

Thank you,

Charlotte

We welcome all of you to the 2007 season!  We are glad to have so many of you back again - some for three years -  and to our new members, thank you for your support of the farm and local, organic food!  We think of you all as part of our farm family and look forward to growing good food for you this season and seeing you all each week.

We are very fortunate to have a wonderful crew on board for the season.  We continue to be very blessed to have Khimba with us, this will be her fourth year here!  We also welcome Jessica, who lives here and works part-time.  We are very fortunate to have two wonderful apprentices, Erin and Audrey, with us for the season and a friend of Audrey’s, Kim, will arrive in mid-August to finish out the fall harvest.  And to top it off,  Molly will be coming back to help with blueberries.  She just loves blueberry season!  So we are very thankful to have such excellent helpers.

Even though today is cold and damp, we have gotten off to a good start with planting.  We have carrots, beets, various greens, potatoes, the brassicas, peas and strawberries in.  Next week:  onions, leeks, shallots, asparagus, then we take a breath and start with the warmth- loving veggies.

We have meatbird chicks started, and will have lamb soon for the freezer.  We have frozen chicken and eggs available now, as always.  We are hoping to soon have 2 llamas join us from the Northeast Llama Rescue!  We have to get them here from NY State.  We hope to have a gelded male and a female.  They will guard the sheep and we hope to breed the female.  There is nothing sweeter than a baby llama (cria).

Some of you still have a balance for this year’s shares.  We would appreciate getting those in.  Our mailing address is:  PO Box 4, Franklin, ME  04634.  Thank you so very much!

We hope to “open” on Memorial Day Weekend.  We hope you will come out to say “hi” and try out the wines available.  We hope the orchard will be in full bloom, a sight you don’t want to miss. We hope to see you!

Looking forward to a bountiful season ahead,
Charlotte, Jim and all the Shalom Orchard crew

Hello CSA and Friends of Shalom Orchard,

We want to thank you all again for your support during the 2006 growing season! We are putting the farm to bed for the winter - moving the animals into the barn, tilling and putting compost on the gardens, mowing the blueberry barrens and generally cleaning up. We were hard hit by the big wind storm - both of our hoophouses were torn apart, so we are repairing those.

Yesterday, we took our last batch of meatbirds to the butcher, so we have a good supply of chicken for the winter. These birds are smaller than usual, running 4-5# and we have them whole and quartered. We will be pressing our last batch of cider on Saturday. We also have winter squash. garlic, a wonderful pear sauce, yarns, and wine for gifts! Give us a call if you would like to come out for any of these items.

Hope you are all enjoying your fall! Please stay in touch!

Thank you,

Charlotte and Jim

It was wonderful to see all you who were able to come to the Harvest Dinner!!  And we missed all of you who were unable to come.  I am again thanking Khimba, Jim, our 2006 apprentices, Sarah, Maddie and Michelle for all their help!  We all had a great time. And we thank you, our farm family,  again for your support of Shalom Orchard and Winery during the 2006 season!

We started making cider today.  The good news is that we made 50 gallons; the bad news is that the press broke down in the middle of pressing.  So we have cider, just not as much as we had hoped.    We will be pressing again over the weekend.

This year we have taken honey from our bees for the first time - 60#!!  We tasted it today and everyone describes it as tasting like fresh flowers!  Especially apple blossoms!  It is really good and will be available for sale on Wed.

This week we will set up the pickup a bit differently.  We will set everything out, but not make up bags.  We will indicate amounts you can take of each item, if limited.  You can “shop”.  We encourage you to stock up on some storage veggies and chicken, wine,  and freeze some cider.

Those of you who have blueberries ordered and have not picked them up can do so Wed.

Following is a list of available items and their prices:

Shalom Orchard honey - 1# jar        $6.00
Winter squash                      1.50/#
potatoes                              1.50/#
garlic                               6.00/#
Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes)       2.00/#
cabbage                           1.50/#
carrots                               1.50/#
sweet cider                           5.00/half gallon
cooking apples                         .75/#
tomatoes (red and green)                    2.00/#
leeks                                3.00/bunch
turnips                                1.50/#
chicken                                3.00/#
eggs                                3.25/doz.

The Bangor group will have to email us to prepare your orders. However, the other folks should plan a bit of extra time to decide what you want and make up your bag and “check out”.

We encourage your feedback on how to improve our CSA.  We want to know what you want more of, less of, any thing your think will make us meet your needs better!

It has been a pleasure to spend another growing season with all of you!

We look forward to seeing you all on Wed., 3:00 - 5:30.

Thank you,

Charlotte and Jim

A couple of P.S.’s:

I have frozen pesto for 4.50/4oz

Cabbage - 2.00/#

Maddie’s bread this week is zuke bread @ 4/loaf.

See you Wed.!

Charlotte

This message will be brief as I am hurrying off to my “day” job!

This week we will be harvesting:

Potatoes         1.50/#
Winter squash    1.50/#  (scarlet kobocha, spaghetti, butternut,                                    acorn, delicata)
leeks            3.00/bunch
carrots            1.50/bunch
tomatoes        2.50/#  (cherry and hothouse)
cukes            2.00/#  (not sure how many are available)
frozen berries     3.50/#  (if you have ordered)
chicken            3.00/#
eggs            3.25/doz

A reminder that the next pickup will be 10/11. This will be the final pickup for shares and the time to stock up on storage crops and cider.  We will have chicken and eggs throughout the winter and plan to have lamb available  late winter.  I will send out a notice.

Thank you to all who have RSVP’ed to the Harvest Dinner on 9/30.  We hope the rest of you will decide to come!

See you Wed., 3:00 to 5:30!

Thank you,
Charlotte and Jim

It seems I confused some folks (myself being confused at this time of year!) by stating at least one time in the last email that the dinner was on 9/27.  THIS IS NOT THE DATE!   The correct date is Saturday, 9/30, at 5:30.  Please bring a big appetite and an appetizer.  Many of you have RSVP’d.  Those who haven’t, please do.  Bring family and a guest if someone is visiting. Just let us know how many.

We will not have pickup on 9/27 and 10/4.  The last pickup will be 10/11 for all the storage veggies, apples, cider, chicken for the winter, left over shares, etc.  More on this later.  I will email you again regarding next week’s pickup.

Thank you,

Charlotte