Growing up on my family's farm in Pennsylvania, I never would have pictured the life I live at Willow Haven farm. As a kid I spent summers in our large family garden we called, “The Truck Patch”. I helped mom every summer, picking beans, weeding, and cutting fruit and vegetables for the hundreds of jars of canned and frozen produce we put up. Now I spend less time out in the field and more time in the kitchen doing the same preserving for my own farm family. Farmer Reuben values my many hours doing much of the behind the scenes marketing, writing emails to cultivate customers and capturing the farm story each week. I'm always learning along the way in my quest to improve the farm experience for each of our current and future farm members in our 500+ member, year-round customized farm box delivery program. Reading our stories will connect you with your food in a way you never experienced before. Someday soon you will want to fit local food into your life and we'll be here to help you.
What we don't want to talk about + Bread-ucation!
Hi Reader,
Some questions don't have good answers.
I like to get a sense of the farm accomplishments at the end of the week so today I hung around the pack barn while Reuben and Simeon were packing up the vegetables for Farm Share pick up at our Open Farm Market tomorrow.
Knowing they were tired from a long week of a long summer I ventured to ask:
➢ How many hours did you spend picking and bagging beans this week? So many I can't remember.
➢ Did you get the all the onions harvested in August? Yes. Amazing onions, all good sizes and put into strorage areas,
➢ Did we suffer from the 3inches of rain we had Wednesday night? No.
➢ When did you finish picking potatoes? We stopped and we don't want to talk about it.
Ouch! Sure it hurts a little bit to rehash a dissappointing harvest but I wanted to know a little more.
- I knew that the potato planting in May didn't go according to our usual schdule.
- By June we knew that some of the potaotes plants didn't grow and the field had empty spaces.
- Digging potatoes dragged from July into August as the August rains and hurricanes kept interrupting the harvest becuase it's impossible to dig them up in wet fields.
The short end of the story was that the potato harvest was slim and difficult. At a certain point they called it quits and moved on to other more important tasks.
We'll improve the plan for a better potato harvest next year just like we remedied the problems with bean harvests. For example, last fall we had rows of green beans that had flowered but were growing so slowly that they weren't ready to harvest before a "killing frost" ended their chances.
Better Beans this Month
Our bean planting struggled in the spring and early summer but we are making up for the loss. From Dragon Beans to classic green beans, everyone on the farm has spent hours are picking and bagging beans over the last few weeks.
Even Farmer Reuben!
Bread-ucation! (Say it out loud).
While the harvest notes on the farm aren't that exciting, I thought I would explain our bread making process to you. It's the same week in and week out, although the heat and humidity do create challenges in the summer.
Walking across the backyard, brings me to the bakery where I can usually find Cheesemaker/Breadmaker Vince on a Friday afternoon.
On Fridays, Farmer Reuben is busy packing vegetables for our Saturday market and Farm Share CSA pickup. While he make sure the fire is maintaind in the brick oven Thursday and Friday, he is glad to have Vince in charge of the baking now.
Baking sourdough with a slow fermentation process means a high quality, nutritious and delicious whole grain bread and also long breaks between stages in the process as the bread ferments, rises, proofs and bakes. Vince usually works in the cheese room below the bakery while waiting for the bread.
I am wrong in this video about not seeing Reuben use the techniques Vince is using and explaining. Even though Reuben trained him, every bread maker brings his own finesse to the process.
The bread starts coming out of the oven at about 6 pm on Friday.
That's when the kids start showing up at the bakery looking for a job. I mean, a way to earn fresh hunk of bread! Especially, the eight and nine year olds.
Each batch of loaves is coordinated with the heat of the oven so the timing is slightly different each week. Vince are often pulling the last loaves out of the brick oven after 9 pm. That’s fresh for you on Saturday!
Boy, is that bread GOOD!
We hope our bread share members are enjoying their loaves!
Great Sourdough Bread - What does it take?
By Stephen Dougherty (cheesemaker and former bread baker)
What does it take to bake great sourdough bread?
Baking is the easy part— and a mere fraction of the effort— in crafting good sourdough breads. By the time we’ve swept the last coals out of the brick oven, and the oven sits idle at 600 degrees awaiting it’s first loaves, we have worked for hours to develop a healthy, bacteria-rich dough which will taste great and offer up all the vitamins and minerals contained in the whole grain flours. By using a sourdough fermentation we accomplish three critical things.
First, the wild bacteria and yeasts eat the starches in the bread which creates lactic acid. You recognize this as a sour flavor. Each bakery has their own unique sourdoughs, and therefore, their own unique flavors.
Secondly, the long soaking and fermentation periods help break down the bran in whole wheat making the vitamins and minerals in the bran accessible to your body. The gluten profile changes too during this time, making the gluten in wheat flour more digestible. Cool, huh!?
Lastly, the fermentation process provides gas (CO2) which lifts the loaves and allows them to spring up in the oven, creating a nice airy crumb. This is especially important (not to mention difficult) when working with the organic whole flours we have here at Willow Haven Farm.
While this process is occurring we are tending the dough— turning it, coaxing it, shaping it. . .and finally, baking it. Like I said, that’s the easy part! -Steve
You can get our brick oven bread any week of the year by ordering from our Online Farm Stand but we only deliver locally.
Sorry, Grandma! (My 98 year old grandma in Illinois often responds to these emails and asks if we can deliver food to her.)
We'll keep farming for you!
Reuben and Tessa DeMaster
Willow Haven Farm
Directions to the farm
P. S. WINTER SHARES, including winter bread shares, will be offered to farm members beginning September 22. Get on our waitinglist for the shares that remain after our members renew. If you were a winter share member last year your auto-renew options will be sent to you soon. Find out more
P.P.S. ON FARM MARKET OPEN THIS SATURDAY! Come in for Alaskan salmon, local honey, fresh brick oven
Are you new? More info about our farm:
ON FARM MARKET OPEN THIS SATURDAY! Come in for Alaskan salmon, local honey, fresh brick oven bread, Haven Farmstead cheese and organically grown veggies, or check out the Online Farm Stand to make an order for Wednesday.
SUMMER SHARES: Get the six question guide Is a Farm Share CSA Right for You Guide to find out if our Farm Share CSA will fit into your life and your goals. YES! SEND ME THE GUIDE.
How do you Refer A Friend? Members get REWARDED for getting their friends to join too! When you tell others about our farm, you both earn $15 Farm Credit when they start their own membership using your unique referral code. Read this article to find your link, then send it to your friends.
FLOWERS: Annika's private CSA takes members who want flowers delivered to them every week during the summer and fall. Members enjoy the beautiful variety of local flowers, information from Farmer Annika about the flowers, a Flower Guide and a unique note each week. Flower Shares can be added to your farm vegetable share as well. They come carefully wrapped and included in your box with each delivery. Just select Flower Add On Share after choosing your perfect size Veggie Share.
CHEESE: Want to purchase amazing grass-fed artisan cheese from our sister business, Haven Farmstead? The grass-fed dairy cows at Willow Haven Farm are co-owned by farmer Reuben and cheesemaker, Steve. Living on pasture and milked once a day, they produce excellent milk for the best old-world style cheeses. If you've traveled to Europe, you'll be pleasantly surprised to find the same excellent flavors here in PA. Shop the Cheese Store.
Thinking of unsubscribing? current CSA members need to stay connected to our emails but you can limit them to just vital information about your membership by clicking here.
Tessa DeMaster
Growing up on my family's farm in Pennsylvania, I never would have pictured the life I live at Willow Haven farm. As a kid I spent summers in our large family garden we called, “The Truck Patch”. I helped mom every summer, picking beans, weeding, and cutting fruit and vegetables for the hundreds of jars of canned and frozen produce we put up. Now I spend less time out in the field and more time in the kitchen doing the same preserving for my own farm family. Farmer Reuben values my many hours doing much of the behind the scenes marketing, writing emails to cultivate customers and capturing the farm story each week. I'm always learning along the way in my quest to improve the farm experience for each of our current and future farm members in our 500+ member, year-round customized farm box delivery program. Reading our stories will connect you with your food in a way you never experienced before. Someday soon you will want to fit local food into your life and we'll be here to help you.
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