Sangha Farm: Grown the Way Nature Intended

A word from your farmer; Derek We've had a busy two weeks here at the farm, we planted our cabbages, green & red storage, early green & new this year an early red cabbage. Some of you may remember the wonderful sweet early green cabbage from last year. We are all anxiously awaiting the coleslaw we make from this. Its so sweet & tender...yum!!!! Moses & Abe have been getting use to pulling their wagon, we've been going for 'walks' at least every other night. They are now walking next to me without a lead line. We're preparing for our first trip over the mountain..
The onions are in & doing wonderful, carrots have been weeded & thinned if all goes well we should have baby carrots by the middle of June. Next week we start planting all the warm weather crops..tomatoes,peppers, eggplant, summer squashes, cucumbers. Jayden just loves cucumbers, he can't wait for the first harvest. He's asked me to stop growing all other vegetables & just grow cucumbers; maybe some day. Potatoes have been planted, we're all awaiting the inevitable potato beetle pick which should be coming as soon as the potatoes sprout, the chickens & guinnea fowl should be happy when they receive that treat.

First CSA pick-up Our first CSA pick-up is Sat June 6th at the Ashfield Farmers' Market, Mondays pick-up is June 8th at the farm, wednesday June 10th is the first Florence Market pick-up. If you are picking up at one of the farmers market we urge you to come early for your share. Lisa & Carol feeding the squash & cucumbers What will be in your first pick-up??? As long as the weather cooperates with giving us some sunny days this week you will receive spinach, letttuce mix, radishes,& head lettuce,& of course herbs.

src="http://www.sanghafarm.com/uploaded_images/DSCF0027-727808.JPG" border=0>Cassie & her first baby Boo-Boo Meet the Cass... The next animal I would like to introduce you all to is Cassie, she has the honor of being Tava's Mom as well as being the first sheep to come & live here & she had the very first Sangha Farm baby Boo-Boo. We just love our Cassie. As far as fleeces go Cassie doesn't have a very good one, but with Aries she has produced some babies with amazing fleeces. Cassie came to live here as a companion to Bennie(our first goat). She was very shy of us at first, within a very short amount of time she became very, very friendly. We use to take Bennie & Cassie for walks to graze different areas, we would walk Bennie on a leash while Cassie ran along behind, stopping to chew on a blade of grass here & a blade of grass there. Cassie is also very vocal especially when out to pasture, you call her name & she answers with a very loud bleat...many times muffled due to a mouth full of food. Cassie loves her food, when we do our annual running of the sheep which usually happens on Mothers Day. The sheep leave the barn for the summer, their first spring pasture is on top of the hill, so someone has to run ahead of the sheep with a bowl of grain...for 3 yrs now Cassie has made it to the top first, huffing & puffing but she's there demanding her fill of grain. Cassie is also a lover, she very often lays in my lap when I sit with her in the pasture. She also likes to rub her hind end against trees, cars, your leg whatever she can find. In the 4 yrs that Cassie has been here she has given us 15 lambs, having had 2 sets of triplets & 2 sets of quads. Out of all the animals that share the farm with us Cassie is my favorite, shh! don't tell anyone else. She like all the other animals that live here has quite a personality!!!Cassie & one of this years boys I did an animal count today....there are 60 animals that share Sangha Farm with us, not including our dogs...Jebba,& Allie G., our cat Kitten, the goldfish:Freddie & Whitey, Hammie the Hamster & Gecki the Gecko... 2 Oxen 2 Yaks 10 goats 6 goat babies with more to come 33 sheep (adults, boys, babies) only 12 are ours the other 21 are our neighbor Roberta, we keep our flocks together 4 chickens 3 guinnea fowl. I hope they never decide revolt! If you haven't heard the Ashfield Farmers' Market has a web site www.ashfieldfarmersmarket.com, its a wonderful interactive website with farmer logs, updates on what will be at the market. We also have a facebook group & photo stream on flickr. Its possible to do most of your weekly shopping at the market, in addition to your CSA shares you can also buy bread, pastries, & granola from Bread Euphoria, goat cheese from us, yogurt from Sidehill farm, pork & eggs from Manda Farm, grass fed beef from Steadylane Farms, honey from BearPath Apairary, soap from Ashfield Soaps, dressings & plants from Atherton Farm, flowers & perrienals from Wilderbook Farm & free range organically fed chicken roasters from Earthfire Farm, tree fruit from Brook Farm, & cordials & berries from BugHill farm & berries from Springbrook Farm. Our neighbor Roberta even sells her beautiful handspun yarns, hats as well as offering knitting help. What a well rounded market. Here is another video of the boys bringing summer squash & cucumbers to the field