The holidays have nearly arrived!

Hard to believe but we are approaching the winter solstice. After our delivery/pickup service on the 22nd, our days will begin to lengthen, even as winter begins. Just about the time we get into the heart of winter, the skies begin to lighten and the angle of the sun begins to change to give us more direct sunshine. For me, it is like a little bonus to get me through the winter!

The order form for our holiday delivery / pickup service, scheduled for Tuesday, December 22 is now available online. While the cut-off for placing your order is Friday, December 19 at midnight, we encourage you to order as early as possible since some items are sure to sell out. We will send out another reminder on Thursday.

Holiday Suggestions

We’ve got some nice ideas for buying great locally-made products, including gift items.

• A nice stocking stuffer is Becky Hamill’s new cookbook entitled From the Farmers’ Market to your Table. With beautiful watercolor illustrations created by Becky, the inspiration for the book is intended to give you ideas and recipes especially suited for locally obtained fresh foods.
• This is a great time of year to eat fresh oysters and Chinky’s oysters are great holiday favorite. You can purchase the book through our online order form.
• Backyard Jams & Jellies has over 50 flavors of jams, jellies, chutneys, mustards, including no-sugar added varieties.
• You can’t go wrong with raw honey from Baues’ Busy Bees hives.
• Duck eggs from Blackhog Farm for all your baking needs — or just use them for breakfast! Of course, we also have plenty of free-range chicken eggs from three of our vendors: Twin Post Farm, Deep Grass Organic and Bohemia Lea.
• Kale is delicious at this time of year and we have lots of varieties including beautiful Olympic Red Kale and Blue Scotch Curly Kale from Mossflower Farm, young Red Russian Kale from Hattie’s Garden, Curly Kale and Red Russian Kale from Chesapeake Organic and Curly Kale from Deep Grass Organic.
• For beautiful hydroponically grown produce, Fresh Harvest is offering two types of Romaine lettuce: mini red and green and regular green, as well as Arugula, Cilantro, Wheatgrass and Microgreens.
• Bohemia Lea Farm now has all kinds of pasture-raised beef roasts (chuck, round, rump) and sirloin tips.



• Chapel’s Country Creamery makes beautiful artisan cheese on their farm. Try their new Rainey’s Dream soft Camembert-style cheese for the holidays.
• And don’t forget your Portobella, Crimini and Shiitake mushrooms from Davidson’s Exotic Mushrooms.

For a peek at our prepared foods:

• Patty’s Gourmet Food is baking Pumpkin Cranberry loaves this week.
• Hattie’s Garden vegetarian 3-bean Chocolate Walnut Chili is rich and delicious and she will also be making a new Lentil Gravy suitable for breakfast over biscuits or as a nice side-dish at any meal.
• Jen is serving up her popular butter crust, 5″ and 9″ dessert pies and 5″ pot pies made with organic ingredients.

Please see the order form for a full list and more descriptive information!

Once you complete the order, you will receive a confirmation email listing all the items you ordered, along with an estimated total. You can reply to the order confirmation with any changes you may have, and you may email us with any additions or additional changes up until the Friday, midnight deadline. A final invoice will be sent to you on Sunday or Monday as we update any estimated items sold by the pound.

We wish you the best for the holiday season and look forward to working to serve you well into the winter.

Yours in the garden throughout the winter,