If you are interested in bees, honey or mead then join us to celebrate National Mead Day. We will start at 11 a.m. with a tour of the bee hives at the H.O.G. with our beekeepers Judy Calloway and Desmond Lowe. Following will be a mead-making workshop with H.O.G. homebrewers Matt Bollerman and Matt Bobiak. All are welcome. This is a N.O.F.A. field day and admission is $5.00 for N.O.F.A. members and $15.00 for non-N.O.F.A. members. See you there! Bring some lunch!
Archive for July, 2008
Mead Day Saturday Augut 2nd 11am-2pm
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008Share 9 Recipes
Monday, July 28th, 2008
Seriously Piling Up
Beet, Carrot, and Lentil Salad
Summer Beet Soup
Pickled Beets (more…)
HOG Trough 9
Monday, July 28th, 2008July 29, 2008 Share 9
A reminder to please park your car at the barn and walk to the farm for pick your own. Driving creates a problem for farm vehicles and tractors trying to work and is dangerous to the many children wandering in the driveway. If you are disabled you may drive but otherwise please respect this rule.
Also please always keep your dogs on a leash. No dogs are permitted onto the farm fields regardless of how well behaved you may feel your dog is. Please tie them to the fence outside of the farm before going in to pick.
Whats Happening At the Farm
By Shareholder Thomas B. Williams
Today is pickup day at the HOG. I can tell from the voices next door. “Mommy, can I pick the raspberries?” ” What is a garlic scape?” “oh, look at these beautiful carrots!”
I have the good fortune to live next to our own local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm here in Brookhaven, and Sean asked if I would write a little piece for the newsletter,
Over the past several weeks, I have been impressed with the number of articles appearing in both local and national media regarding growing food locally. Yesterday, in the New York Times was an article about a farmer who comes to your house and “will build an organic garden in your backyard (NY Times 7/22/08). A week ago there was a front page article, again in the Times (NY Times 7/10/08) titled “Cutting out the Middlemen, Shoppers Buy Slices of Farms”, explaining the concept of a CSA. The article pointed out that in the 1990s there were about 100 such farms and now there are close to 1500 across the country. “Most (shareholders) agreed that the urge to buy and spend locally-to avoid the costs and environmental degredation that comes with shipping and storage-was behind their decision to join.” Another article notes the growing number of gardens that are being developed on rooftops in New York City.
There is a new word in our language that has become a common way to describe this growing phenomenon: Locavore (a person who eats local food). Many restaurants strive to ensure that the food they serve comes from within a 50 mile radius. There are posters here in Suffolk County that proclaim supporting local farms promotes homeland security, and a recent popular movie “The Real Dirt on Farmer John” chronicles the story of a family farm in northern Illinois that was successful in the middle part of the last century, then almost failed, but was renewed by the development of a CSA on the farm.
During World War II it has been claimed that as much as 40% of food for families came from Victory Gardens. This effort to promote and encourage local food production and consumption is a way tp preserve both our agricultural lands and an important way of life, as well as to imbue in all citizens the love for the land that sustains us.
I saw the joy and happiness on the face of that child with her little box on her way down to the farm to pick raspberries. This seemingly small endeavor will have a profound impact on saving our planet. Thanks HOG
-Thomas B. Williams for the HOG Crew
In Season Now
Lettuce
Escarole-Delicious Italian green, great sauteed with garlic, or chopped up for a salad with a warm bacon dressing
Eggplants-We grow a variety of eggplants, including long, thin Japenese Eggplants as well as the standard Italian variety.
Peppers-These are mostly green Cubanelle Peppers, very sweet!
Cherry Tomatoes-the beginnings of the best time of year!
Potatoes-white Onaway variety, smooth creamy flavor great for potato salad!
Carrots
Beets-Talk about the year of the Beet! This newsletter focuses on beet recipes
Onions- a variety of colors and flavors
On The Way
Tomatoes
Sweet Corn
Edamame
Pick Your Own
Pick your own items are available for you to harvest at any time, as long as it’s not raining. Look for the signs marking the beds!
Green Beans-limit 1 pint
Basil—no limit, pinch the tops off to pick please! Have mercy on the first plants in the bed and walk further down the bed to the less picked-on plants please. Pick a lot and freeze some pesto!
Cilantro-1 small bunch
Chives-no limit
Mint-no limit
Oregano-no limit
Thyme-no limit
Parsley-5 stalk limit, only pick 1-2 stalks per plant please!
Flowers-20 stem limit zinnias, snapdragons, amaranth, sunflowers, strawflowers, rudbeckia
HOG Farm Calendar
Board meetings are at 9am the third Saturday of every month at the Red Barn in the summer
National Mead Day Saturday August 2nd 11-2pm
NOFA Long Island Field Day!
NOFA-NY Members $5/Non-Members $15
Celebrate National Mead Day with the HOG. Mead is honey wine! First we’ll learn about bees and their place on an organic farm, and sample some HOG wildflower honey. Then with Matt Bollerman and Matt Bobiak (official HOG homebrewers) we’ll learn about the history of mead, sample some local, Long Island brews, and sample our own HOG meads from last year’s Mead Day. We will start a must, rack a mead to secondary, add herbs, spices, fruits, and bottle a mead from secondary, showing the entire mead-building process.
Tomato Canning Workshop Saturday August 23rd 11-???
$5 Covers the cost of the propane, lemon juice, and ice! Please bring your own jars and lids! Come spend the day with Jill and learn the old-fashioned art of putting up tomatoes. Last year we canned about 65 jars! We split what we can so everyone goes home with something! Bring a snack and be prepared to spend the day, it can take awhile, but its worth it!
No e-mail
Sunday, July 20th, 2008In our constant battle with technology, we lost our newsletter management program, so are unable to send group e-mails. If you are reading this, you have sought the Trough on your own, congratulations. Our apologies and we hope to have things back to normal by next week. We can still receive your e-mails and respond to them on an individual basis, so feel free to contact us as usual.
HOG Trough 8
Sunday, July 20th, 2008July 21, 2008 Share 8
A reminder to please park your car at the barn and walk to the farm for pick your own. Driving creates a problem for farm vehicles and tractors trying to work and is dangerous to the many children. If you are disabled you may drive of course but otherwise please respect this rule.Also please always keep your dogs on a leash. No dogs are permitted onto the farm fields regardless of how well behaved you may feel your dog is. Please tie them to the fence outside of the farm before going in to pick.
Whats Happening At the Farm
Our Garlic Festival this past weekend was great! We had over 150 people come out to celebrate the wonder of garlic. Thanks to Ilene Gelfer for doing all of the grunt work, and Ryan Pilger for standing over a hot grill for four hours on a 90 degree day, turning out chicken, sausages, eggplant, and zucchini. Painters Restaurant, Avino’s, Porters, and The Bellport all cooked over 20 heads each of H.O.G garlic into four delectable dishes which they donated for our enjoyment. Blue Point Brewery donated refreshing summer ale and HOG brewmeister Matt Bollerman provided several delicious varieties of home brew. The now infamous Tom Stock provided garlic information, crafts, and entertaining garlic theatre. Jen Fox kept the kids busy painting shells and coloring HOG t-shirts. Over the whole event wafted the harmonious strummings of Justin Flagg, the brothers Gelfer (Matt and Sam), and Reiny Schuhmann. The crown jewel of the afternoon was the T-shirt contest between Dan Gelfer and Don David, with Dan emerging triumphant as the crowd favorite. Thanks also to each and every one who came and brought potluck dishes and desserts. Ticket sales raised nearly $1500.00 towards our capital improvement fund. Past projects were deer fencing, the tractor barn, and the purchase of a new cultivating tractor. Some capital improvement projects in the works are solar panels for our new electric tractor and improved sprinkler heads for our irrigation system to further increase our farm’s fuel efficiency!
-Sean, Jill, Adam, Steve, Bryan, Ezra, Jamie, and Brian
In Season Now
Lettuce
Purslane-Succulent addition to salads, eaten raw, purslane has the highest concentration of omega-3’s of any leafy plant
Kale/Collards/Chard
Sweet Corn-yes! But be prepared for the familiar caterpillar munching on the tip. Just cut off the tip and enjoy!
Garlic-these cloves are grade B-they won’t store, but they are great for eating in the next month or so!
Carrots
Beets
Zucchini or Summer Squash
Cucumbers
Onions- a variety of colors and flavors
On The Way
Peppers
Eggplant
Cherry Tomatoes
Pick Your Own
Pick your own items are available for you to harvest at any time, as long as it’s not raining. Look for the signs marking the beds! Pick lightly from each plant to encourage bountiful growth and don’t pull anything up by the roots!
Dill and Cilantro are not currently available but the flowering dill heads can be picked if you want to use them for pickling
Raspberries-1 pint limit
Basil—no limit, pinch the tops off to pick please! Have mercy on the first plants in the bed and walk further down the bed to the less picked-on plants please. Pick a lot and freeze some pesto!
Chives-no limit
Mint-no limit
Oregano-no limit
Thyme-no limit
Parsley-5 stalk limit, only pick 1-2 stalks per plant please!
Flowers-20 stem limit zinnias, snapdragons, amaranth, sunflowers, strawflowers, rudbeckia
HOG Farm Calendar
Board meetings are at 9am the third Saturday of every month at the Red Barn in the summer
National Mead Day Saturday August 2nd 11-2pm
NOFA Long Island Field Day!
NOFA-NY Members $5/Non-Members $15
Celebrate National Mead Day with the HOG. Mead is honey wine! First we’ll learn about bees and their place on an organic farm, and sample some HOG wildflower honey. Then with Matt Bollerman and Matt Bobiak (official HOG homebrewers) we’ll learn about the history of mead, sample some local, Long Island brews, and sample our own HOG meads from last year’s Mead Day. We will start a must, rack a mead to secondary, add herbs, spices, fruits, and bottle a mead from secondary, showing the entire mead-building process.
Tomato Canning Workshop Saturday August 23rd 11-???
$5 Covers the cost of the propane, lemon juice, and ice! Please bring your own jars and lids! Come spend the day with Jill and learn the old-fashioned art of putting up tomatoes. Last year we canned about 65 jars! We split what we can so everyone goes home with something! Bring a snack and be prepared to spend the day, it can take awhile, but its worth it!
Share 8 recipe
Sunday, July 20th, 2008Zucchini Bread- in case it’s piling up (more…)
Garlic Fest Saturday July 19th 12-5pm
Monday, July 14th, 2008We are throwing a party to celebrate one of our favorite crops: GARLIC! Local chefs will be preparing garlic themed dishes for us all to enjoy, and we’ll be grilling chicken, sausage, zucchini, eggplant, and garlic. Bring a potluck dish or dessert to share and sip some locally brewed beer and listen to some homebrewed live music. All this for $10.00 per person which enters you into a raffle for a free 2009 share of the H.O.G. Kids under 14 are FREE! All are welcome so tell your friends and neighbors to help us raise some good old fashioned money to invest in improving the H.O.G. Proceeds go to the H.O.G. Capital Improvement Fund. In the past these events have given us the funds for for projects like electric tractor conversion, irrigation sysytems, permanent deer fencing, and our tractor barn! Thanks and we look forward to hanging out with all of you this Saturday!
HOG Trough 7
Monday, July 14th, 2008July 14, 2008 Share 7
We are now out of plastic bags at the farm! Please remember to bring your own reusable bags for your share!
Whats Happening At the Farm
The rain gods have forsaken us. After about 10 weeks of perfectly scheduled rainfall, we’re experiencing a bit of a drought. We have fond memories of some pretty spectacular thunderstorms: a wall of rain that slowly swept across the farm towards us, and spiky hail the size of whole walnuts! All of our plants have adapted to a ready supply of water and they are taking the cut back a little hard. When there is lots of surface water available, a plant doesn’t bother growing many deep roots. So if the ground dries up quickly it can leave plants high and dry.
By not overwatering, we encourage the plants to look deeper for water. Nevertheless, we have to supply them with enough water to stay healthy so we’ve been moving irrigation pipe all over the farm over the past couple of days.
Thankfully we have been able to invest in a good amount of new pipe so we don’t need to move it around as far or as often.
Which brings me to Garlic Fest this weekend. We are throwing a party to celebrate one of our favorite crops: GARLIC! Local chefs will be preparing garlic themed dishes for us all to enjoy, and we’ll be grilling chicken, sausage, zucchini, eggplant, and garlic. Bring a potluck dish or dessert to share and sip some locally brewed beer and listen to some homebrewed live music. All this for $10.00 per person which enters you into a raffle for a free 2009 share of the H.O.G. Kids under 14 are FREE! All are welcome so tell your friends and neighbors to help us raise some good old fashioned money to invest in improving the H.O.G. Proceeds go to the H.O.G. Capital Improvement Fund. In the past these events have given us the funds for for projects like electric tractor conversion, irrigation sysytems, permanent deer fencing, and our tractor barn! Thanks and we look forward to hanging out with all of you this Saturday!
-Sean, Jill, Adam, Steve, Bryan, Ezra, Jamie, and Brian
In Season Now
Lettuce-Summer lettuce is different from spring lettuce! In the hot, dry summer, we harvest it smaller so it doesn’t go to seeds, or turn bitter. That’s the joy of eating seasonally-everything changes with the time of year!
Cabbage
Celery or Fennel-the celery is not as mild or tender as what you buy in the store, but its got real celery flavor! The fennel is licorice flavored, great in salads.
Potatoes- Red Gold the earliest potato! Creamy yellow flesh, bright red skin-great for salt potatoes!
Garlic-these cloves are grade B-they won’t store, but they are great for eating in the next month or so!
Carrots
Zucchini or Summer Squash
Cucumbers
Mini Onions
Green Beans
On The Way
Peppers
Eggplant
Cherry Tomatoes
Pick Your Own
Pick your own items are available for you to harvest at any time, as long as it’s not raining. Look for the signs marking the beds!
Raspberries-1 pint limit
Basil—no limit, pinch the tops off to pick please! Pick a lot and freeze some pesto!
Chives-no limit
Mint-no limit
Oregano-no limit
Thyme-no limit
Dill-no limit
Parsley-5 stalk limit, only pick 1-2 stalks per plant please!
Flowers-20 stem limit zinnias, snapdragons, amaranth, sunflowers, strawflowers, rudbeckia
HOG Farm Calendar
Board meetings are at 9am the third Saturday of every month at the Red Barn in the summerGarlic Fest Saturday July 19th 12-5pm
$10 per person, kinds under 14 free! Your ticket enters you to win a FREE 2009 Share! Come enjoy music, BBQ chicken, zucchini, and of course, tons of roasted garlic.
National Mead Day Saturday August 2nd 11-2pm
NOFA Long Island Field Day!
NOFA-NY Members $5/Non-Members $15
Celebrate National Mead Day with the HOG. Mead is honey wine! First we’ll learn about bees and their place on an organic farm, and sample some HOG wildflower honey. Then with Matt Bollerman and Matt Bobiak (official HOG homebrewers) we’ll learn about the history of mead, sample some local, Long Island brews, and sample our own HOG meads from last year’s Mead Day. We will start a must, rack a mead to secondary, add herbs, spices, fruits, and bottle a mead from secondary, showing the entire mead-building process.
Tomato Canning Workshop Saturday August 23rd 11-???
$5 Covers the cost of the propane, lemon juice, and ice! Please bring your own jars and lids! Come spend the day with Jill and learn the old-fashioned art of putting up tomatoes. Last year we canned about 65 jars! We split what we can so everyone goes home with something! Bring a snack and be prepared to spend the day, it can take awhile, but its worth it!
Contact Us:
mail@hamletorganicgarden.org for general farm information
sean@hamletorganicgarden.org to send Sean an E-mail
jill@hamletorganicgarden.org to send Jill an E-mail
board@hamletorganicgarden.org to send an e-mail to the president of the Board, Katherine Fritz
Share 7 Recipes
Monday, July 14th, 2008Mess O’ Pesto
HOG Trough 6
Monday, July 7th, 2008July 7, 2008 Share 6
We are now out of plastic bags at the farm! Please remember to bring your own reusable bags for your share!
Whats Happening At the Farm
It’s that time of year again! The garlic has grown as much as it will. If we wait any longer the heads will split open in the ground and start growing new garlic plants, one from each clove. So they must be pulled from the soil that has been their home since last October, cleaned, bunched and hung to cure from the rafters of the tractor barn.
These activities have proven to be quite popular with our members and the past few years we have had large social groups gather at the farm to participate in this fragrant task. So the call goes out again: all are welcome to put in work hours this week, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Come between 9 and 5 and stay for as long as you wish. There are 9000 garlic plants out there and some of them have each of our names on them.
On the topic of work hours, we haven’t seen many of you at the farm so far this year. The farm will always benefit from as many caring hands helping plant seeds, pull weeds, harvest, or whatever else needs to be done. Working 15 hours earns you a $100.00 refund on your share cost. If you and a friend come work for two hours four times over the course of the summer, that adds up to 16 hours.
In 2 weeks we will celebrate the end of the garlic curing with our annual summer fundraiser-Garlic Fest! We will have live music, farm animals to play with, BBQ chicken and sausage, grilled veggies, and of course, roasted garlic cloves and plenty of bread to spread it on! You are welcome to bring a potluck side dish or dessert, and please bring your own plates and silverware! Admission is $10 per person, with kids under 14 free! Your admission ticket also enters you in a raffle to win a free 2009 share, a $600 value! Tickets are on sale at the pickups!
-Adam for Jill, Sean, Steve, Bryan, Ezra, Jamie, and BrianIn Season Now
Lettuce
Bok Choy
Broccoli-our first attempt at summer broccoli.
Potatoes- Red Gold the earliest potato! Creamy yellow flesh, bright red skin-great for salt potatoes!
Garlic-fresh and uncured, milder flavor
Beets- this time with greens!
Carrots
Zucchini or Summer Squash
Cucumbers
On The Way
Peppers
Cherry Tomatoes
Pick Your Own
Pick your own items are available for you to harvest at any time, as long as it’s not raining. Look for the signs marking the beds!
Basil-2 handful limit
Peas-2 quart limit-Be sure to walk to the back of the beds, they are loaded with peas!
Chives-no limit
Mint-no limit
Oregano-no limit
Thyme-no limit
Dill-no limit
Parsley-5 stalk limit, only pick 1-2 stalks per plant please!
Flowers-15 stem limit zinnias, snapdragons, amaranth, sunflowers, strawflowers, rudbeckia
HOG Farm Calendar
Board meetings are at 9am the third Saturday of every month at the Red Barn in the summer
Garlic Fest Saturday July 19th 12-5pm
$10 per person, kinds under 14 free! Your ticket enters you to win a FREE 2009 Share! Come enjoy music, BBQ chicken, zucchini, and of course, tons of roasted garlic.
National Mead Day Saturday August 2nd 11-2pm
NOFA Long Island Field Day!
NOFA-NY Members $5/Non-Members $15
Celebrate National Mead Day with the HOG. Mead is honey wine! First we’ll learn about bees and their place on an organic farm, and sample some HOG wildflower honey. Then with Matt Bollerman and Matt Bobiak (official HOG homebrewers) we’ll learn about the history of mead, sample some local, Long Island brews, and sample our own HOG meads from last year’s Mead Day. We will start a must, rack a mead to secondary, add herbs, spices, fruits, and bottle a mead from secondary, showing the entire mead-building process.
