Community Supported Agriculture for the Upper Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont
Week Seven
June 29 & July 1, 2009
Good Morning Shareholders:
We’re starting to level off this week as we reach our cruising altitude for the summer. All the squash is in the ground, leaving a few rounds of melons still to go before we conclude the big planting push. Nothing to do now but wait for the beverage cart to come around. And get after those weeds.
The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture recently released the 2007 Census of Agriculture. (New stats are compiled every five years.) I haven’t had a chance to dive too deeply into the numbers yet, but here are some interesting tidbits. Since 2002, the number of farms in Vermont has increased by 6%, to 7,000. In New Hampshire, the number is up 24%, to 4,000. News of agriculture’s death has been premature!
The average gross from Vermont farms is $96,000, from New Hampshire farms is $48,000. Our budgeted gross for Sunrise this year is $116,000. Amazingly, this means that sleepy-old, tiny-old Sunrise CSA is now a larger-than-average farm hereabouts. Wow. It should be mentioned that a farm is anything that grosses more than $1,000 per year, and there are lots of small side ventures that are being counted. But it also should be noted that you need to file your taxes as a farm to be counted, and most small operations don’t go to the trouble.
Final stat: the average per-acre gross in Vermont is $3,000, in New Hampshire $5,000. That’s because VT’s top crop is milk, which is in trouble, while NH’s is “nursery & greenhouse”, which is thriving. Dairying is land intensive, which makes for a lovely, pastoral countryside but a less lovely bottom line. Sunrise is either like a typical New Hampshire farm, since we gross $25,000 per acre on the land where we grow vegetables, or like a Vermont farm, since our gross drops to $7,000 per acre if you add in the pasture land. Here we are, right on the river.
OK, back from the world of statistics to the world of food. Some of the quantities are TBA here, since we’re taking our time starting the harvest this morning. (Dragging our feet and writing email is more like it.)
*Escarole, 1 head. Escarole is a lettuce-like green that can be eaten raw but that is usually cooked. My favorite use comes from Sue’s grandmother, who used to quarter and boil potatoes, drain, throw in the chopped escarole, and mash everything together, adding salt, pepper, olive oil, and vinegar to taste. The key is to add enough vinegar to give it a nice bite.
*Mesclun, one bag of sweet leaves for salad.
*Strawberries, looks like lots.
*Snap peas, same.
*Scallions, one bunch.
*Zucchini and summer squash, first of the year, I hope.
*Broccoli, several heads.
There are a few other wild cards in play - time will tell. (Chard?) Meanwhile, we have eggs, syrup, cheese (out of brie this morning), and steak burgers for sale per usual. It’s also chicken pickup day for those of you who pre-ordered, and we have about a dozen extra birds from this batch if you meant to order but forgot.
See you later,
—Chuck