Shalom Orchard Organic Farm, Winery and B&B

Dear CSA and Friends of Shalom Orchard,

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

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Dear CSA and Friends of Shalom Orchard and Winery,

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

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Hello and updates

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

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