Great Music on August 15th!

Thank you to Dorothy Calveard for recommending her son as a musician for one of our Fresh Stop events. Sam Calveard and his friend of the Temple Mountain Boys came up from Nashville, Tennessee to play and sing for us...what a treat!

Fresh Stop Fiesta!

On Saturday, August 8th we held our first ever Fresh Stop Fiesta and it was a beautiful day with great people, fresh food, and music. A huge thank you to Richardo Farfan for providing wonderful guitar music, his wife Chabuka, for providing tortilla chips and drinks, and Ginny Pratt Rodriguez for the cooking demonstration on how to make fresh salsa. The Courier-Journal even stopped by and will feature us in an upcoming article!

Source of Produce Update

Due to such an unseasonably cool and wet summer season, Misty Meadows Farm has not had as much produce to pick some weeks as is usual for this time of year. While the majority of our produce will remain from the Packards of Misty Meadows Farm, there may also be some produce in your share each week from several Amish and Mennonite Farmers in Kentuckiana as well. All of the farmers use as little additives as possible to grow their produce. Let us know if you have any questions!

Whole Foods serves up delicious food!

For our second Fresh Stop on Saturday June 27th, Tim Roethgen and chef Allan Rothenberg from Whole Foods helped served up some wonderful food. They did a great cooking demonstration with fresh veggies and some andouille sausage and then sampled out what they made! Thank you to Whole Foods for donating all of the food used and for their time! They will be back on Saturday July 25th, so be sure to stop by!

First Fresh Stop a Success!

Check out these fun pictures from our first Fresh Stop on Saturday, June 20th! It was a huge succcess. Wave 3 was even there and we had a story on the 11:00 evening news that night! Join us next week if you missed it...Whole Foods will be doing a cooking demo and providing a food sampling!

First Fresh Stop: June 20th!

Fresh Stop starts tomorrow, 6/20! Pick-up times will be from 10am - 12pm in the garden of Fourth Avenue United Methodist Church, on the corner of 4th and St.Catherine. Whatever is not picked up by 12, will be donated, so please send someone to pick up your share if you cannot make it! It should be a fun time...there will be a cooking demo/sampling and some live music.

We will be sending out an e-mail every Friday that lets you know what will be in the shares the next day and what is expected to be in the shares the next week. Please remember, that fresh, local produce is completely dependent upon the weather, so things could change even up to the morning of a pick-up. The list of next week's produce is purely an fyi for people who have already paid for the full season and it is to give our weekly share buyers an idea of whether they want to place an order for the next week or not. Remember, weekly orders (and money!) are due by the Sunday before a Saturday pick-up. It is $10 for a weekly half share, $20 for a weekly full share (we also have discounted prices for low-income families). Orders may be given to Deborah, Lindsey, Lauren, or Al.

Here's what you can expect tomorrow, 6/20, in your share:

• Siberian Kale
• Red Russian Kale
• lettuce
• cucumbers
• broccoli
• tomatoes
• squash
• spring green onions
• candy onions

Possibilities for next week's share, 6/27:

• kale
• squash
• cucumbers
• onions
• lettuce
• radishes
• swiss chard
• tomatoes

Straight from the Farm

On Saturday, May 23, Lindsey, Ben and I (Lauren) from the Fresh Stop Ministry headed out to Misty Meadows farm for a riveting day of planting, planting and more planting with our Farmers Ralph and Kathy. Before we headed out there, they had informed us that in their neck of the woods, it had started raining in March and didn't stop until mid-May. This bombardment of rain definitely complicated the planting process; planting when the soil is too wet just isn't advisable and rarely successful. In addition to that, after the rain, the farmers must wait until the soil is dry enough to be re-tilled (which could be several days). This poses yet another problem because certain vegetables need to be in the ground at very specific times based on their (the vegetable's) preference of climate and soil temperature. As a result, Ralph and Kathy lost a variety of crops such as arugula, parsley, cabbage, kale, lettuce, beets and onions (lots of onions!). After hearing this, I was sure to find Misty Meadows farm in a muddy, brown, swampy state with no signs of growth.

However, despite the abundance of rain and much to our sweet surprise, the farm was covered with a lovely green blanket of upcoming vegetables consisting of kale (2 types), kohlrabi, green onions, bulb onions, lettuce (several types), yellow squash, zephyr squash, zucchini, cucumbers (slicers and picklers), approximately 2500 tomato plants (several varieties), peppers, eggplant, broccoli, potatoes, cauliflower, cabbage, napa cabbage, peas and swiss chard. The three of us helped with the manual planting of four long rows of two different types of tomatoes and then with the planting of an assortment of greens using the setter. Lindsey, Ben and I had no previous experience with a setter, which is a fun-looking apparatus that attaches to the back of the tractor and assists in transplanting. We are all still trying to figure this machine out, so explaining

precisely how it works would be complicated....so I'll give you a mental image instead. It felt similar to one of those shaky rides found at a traveling carnival, but proved to be very efficient and enjoyable to ride.

As soon as the rain calms down yet again, Ralph, Kathy and any volunteers interested in helping out, will be ready to plant carrots and beets (this week), winter squash, pumpkins, more tomatoes, spinach, swiss chard, eggplant…not all at one time, but over the course of the next few months. They'll have fall turnips, but no spring turnips as it’s too late. And last but not least (one of my personal favorites), sweet potato slips will be arriving mid-June to the farm and will need to be planted! A CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS!!!!

In conclusion, the day at the farm was a complete inspiration to see how resilient and steadfast vegetables can be even when pummeled incessantly by large amounts of water. We encourage our blog readers to get involved with this project and with the growth of their food. There is nothing more refreshing than being out in nature, working with our hands, connecting with the land and seeing the fruits of our previous labor coming up and blanketing the ground. Soon, we will be nourished by what we have grown ourselves. Thanks again to you all for being a part of this project and a HUGE thank you to our amazing farmers Ralph and Kathy Packard.

If you are interested in volunteering, email Lauren at lauren.sawayer@gmail.com.

Meet, Eat, and Greet HUGE Success!

On Sunday, April 26th, the Fresh Stop ministry held a luncheon after church full of fresh, healthy and (mostly) local food. It was a wonderful time for church members and friends to get together and eat a nutritious meal as well as meet Ralph and Kathy Packard who will be our farmers this year. Kathy brought her famous deviled eggs, which were gone in no time, and Al delighted the crowd with his greens and wild rice dish. Deborah and Lauren also brought several dishes as well as many church members. Thank you to everyone who came and a special thanks to those who brought something. It was a great time to learn a little bit about eating healthy and get some fun recipe ideas too! Check out these great photos from the event!