2013 Season

Greetings everyone! We are fast approaching another new season here at The Dahlia Farm, and again this year we’re excited to offer CSA membership. We will have both the Half-Share and the Full-Share sizes, so that you can choose the quantity of vegetables, fruits, herbs, eggs and flowers that best fit your family’s lifestyle. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support over the last 5 years and let you know we look forward to seeing you again this season! If you have not yet signed-up for this season, now’s the time! Simply visit our website TheDahliaFarm.com and print out the ‘CSA sign-up sheet.’ We can usually accept memberships throughout May, but don’t delay as openings are filling up quickly. Here’s to a wonderful season for all. We look forward to seeing you soon!

CSA Week #1

CSA Week #1 Full share includes:

SNAP PEAS Whole pods, best eaten raw as a snack (do not shell).
SPINACH Sauté or eat as a salad green.
RAMPS Treat as asparagus. Sauté French-style (Julienne-cut and skillet with butter and coarse salt).
ITALIAN DANDELION Bitter green. Wilt and serve, or add to other dishes, soups or stir-fry
MIZUNA Braise or treat as a raw green.
RADISH Raw snack, prepared for salad topping, or sliced and baked with olive oil and salt for “radish chips.”
RAPINI (Brocolli Raab) Sauté, stir-fry, or incorporate into soups.
PAC CHOI (Mei Quing Choi) Use as a raw green, sauté, stir-fry, or incorporate into Asian soups.
HERB: LAVENDER Edible flowers or dried for its aroma (use as a sachet in drawers, in laundry dryer).
HERB: SAGE Use fresh or dried
CUT FLOWER: KNIFOPHIA

WEEK 10

Welcome to WEEK 10 here at The Dahlia Farm. This week features "Washington Cherry" Tomatoes, Golden Beets, New Potatoes, fresh cut Genovese Basil, Blueberries, Cucumbers, "Summer Spinach" (Chard), "Zephyr" Summer Squash and Curly Kale.

Be sure to tell your friends to get their own share - but they don't have to wait until next year. CSA shares (and half-shares) are available now through the remaining second half of the season. Full shares are $25 per week and the generous half-share is only $15 a week.

A half-season share is a great way to test-drive the CSA model, especially if you're not sure the weekly market basket idea is for you. We are so sure you'll be satisifed, we are currently developing an off-season plan to deliver a 12-month-long New England CSA in collaboration with several other farms, bakers & pastry chefs, fishermen & meat producers.

As always, please help us out with your feedback. Email, call us or post here. Your suggestions help us serve you better.

Heres the rundown in video format for Week #10:

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WEEK 8 CSA Full-share

Week 8 full-share includes Baby Carrots, Beets, Kohlrabi, Arugula, Swiss Chard, Romaine Lettuce, Cucumbers, Broccoli, Zucchini Squash, Sage (fresh herb), and Calendula & Sweetpea Bouquet.

WEEK 6

"This week's share sees the sunshine's effects draw to fruition,
The leaves of spring, fore-telling in their way, meet the summer's transition..."
--Seamus MacRagnall

Week Six moves us along toward the development of more hearty stock (and roots!)

Included here are Curly Kale, Mizuna, Sugar Beets, Kholrabi, Peppery Cress, Summer Squash, Zucchini, and some mixed cutflowers (again, there may be a slight variation between the first of the week and the end).

Enjoy the video:

CSA BEGINS THIS WEEK

Our 2009 CSA shares begin this week. Monday pick-ups will be available after 11am in Middleboro.

If you haven't yet declared a pick-up day please drop us an email. Middleboro can be monday or friday (most are monday), Boston is sunday, Plymouth saturday and Duxbury wednesday.

If you've been thinking about signing up, now's the time. There are still shares available and joining is easy. Just click here and we'll see you this week.

Locally grown food finds niche in Brockton area - Brockton, MA - The Enterprise

Locally grown food finds niche in Brockton area - Brockton, MA - The Enterprise:

By Kyle Alspach
ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
Posted Mar 27, 2009 @ 11:28 PM

MIDDLEBORO —
A new organic farm in Middleboro and a farmers market in Bridgewater are set to debut this year, two signs that locally grown food is a growing commodity in the region.
The Dahlia Farm on Plymouth Street in Middleboro will offer organic vegetables and herbs, eggs from free-range chickens and cut flowers, said farmer Jim Reynolds.
People will be able to buy “shares” of the vegetable crop this summer, entitling them to an assortment of veggies each week starting in June.
Meanwhile in Bridgewater, organizers say a new farmers market will kick off in July at a Bridgewater State College parking lot on Spring Street.
Local farm advocates say it’s all a response to rapidly rising demand for locally produced food, for reasons ranging from health to climate change to food security.
“We’re realizing we can’t rely on the big farms in California or New Jersey anymore, that we’re going to have to think a lot more locally,” said Sarah Cogswell, a coordinator for the Southeastern Massachusetts Agricultural Partnership in Wareham.
Cogswell was among the nearly 500 people who crowded into a Bridgewater State College hall on Wednesday to hear a talk from Michael Pollan, local food advocate and author of best-sellers “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “In Defense of Food.”
Pollan’s emphasis on eating “real food” — with little or no processing — is something that resonates with farmers such as Jim Reynolds.
“People are becoming more and more aware of what exactly is in the food they’ve been eating — that just because something has an FDA approval, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for you,” he said.
The Dahlia Farm is located on the property of Reynolds Flowers, a business run by Reynolds’ family since the 1950s.
Reynolds, 46, and his wife, Michele, will be farming the land together this year. One acre is being devoted this year to vegetables, he said.
Another two acres are allotted for the farm’s 50 chickens, which are currently producing organic eggs for the Rockin K Cafe in Bridgewater.
Reynolds joins several dozen other farmers in southeastern Massachusetts growing food mainly for local consumption.
“There’s very much a movement of people becoming educated in what we’re eating,” he said.
Elsewhere in Middleboro, the Golden Rule Farm at Soule Homestead Education Center is planning to double its production of organic veggies this year, said farmer Frank Albani.
Growing demand for local food, Albani said, is behind the boost. Albani plans to sell some of the produce at the new Bridgewater farmers market this summer.
The town hasn’t had a farmers market any time in recent memory, said Arthur Lizie, an associate professor in communications studies at Bridgewater State who had the idea for the market.
“I really saw a lack of access to good local food around here,” he said.
Lizie is hoping five to 10 vendors will take part in the market, selling local foods including vegetables, cheeses and maple syrup.
The market will be held one afternoon a week in a college parking lot for commuter students. The day of the week hasn’t been finalized, but the market is expected to run from July through October, Lizie said.
“I just think it’s going to be a great opportunity to really engage the community,” he said. “We hope to let people know about good eating options that help themselves, help the community and the local economy.”
For more on the Bridgewater farmers market, e-mail organizer Amy Braga at amybraga@hotmail.com.

Kyle Alspach can be reached at kalspach@enterprisenews.com.

CHICKENS FIRST SNOW

These guys just turned 6-months old around Christmas. They are comprised of Plymouth Rock Whites, Plymouth Rock Barreds (speckled black) and New Hampshire Reds (similar to RI Reds). In thieir entire existence they have never seen snow before this moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1DV4jy12AQ