| WEEK 7 July 16th, 2025 Your CSA Box: Rain Reigns! Over all, it’s been a wet season. Rainfall in our area is up by 33% when compared to the last 30-year average. On harvest days we have been harvesting between rain storms or in very muddy conditions. We are often bringing in a lot of mud from the fields down to the packing shed. The bins, the crew, and the produce have been muddy. We do our best to wash everything as well as we can with the time that we have on harvest days which can be very limited. We hope you understand if your lettuce heads have a little more dirt in the centers than what we all like to see. Most vegetables do get washed, so that helps a lot. We saw that the dill was showing signs of decay which was a new one for us to see. All the rain this year makes it hard to cultivate as well. We have had to work with the crew out even in very muddy conditions to weed the crops. Many of the weeds are likely to take root again if they are pulled, laid on the ground in the tractor tire path and then rained on again. It’s also challenging for the help to do a good job when weeding in the mud. It becomes a game of just keeping the weeds back. It’s mostly just difficult to have clean looking fields in a year like this. Although I do feel like we’re doing a really good job making sure the actual crops are in the lead and not the weeds despite the challenging season! The only real loss we’ve had from all the rain this year is a couple lettuce plantings. There was a succession of lettuce planted in one of the lower fields where the water will sometime accumulate in heavy rainfall. The lettuce heads mostly just rot from the underside and near the core or show early signs of bolting from the stress. Celery usually loves the rain so we might have a really great celery year! So far most of our cucurbits (cucumbers, melons, summer squash and winter squashes) all look really good and are handling it well. The summer heat, sun and day-length is helpful in drying out the leaves of the plants.The biggest concern in vegetable farming is when the leaves of vegetable plants are wet for too long. It’s usually fine if it rains and then the sun and wind come out to dry the leaves off, but if we get too many days of overcast and rain and the leaves of the plants are wet for extended periods of time as well as the roots and flowers, disease begins to set in. Our biggest fear is always that the tomato plants could get blight. If you’re a home gardener with tomatoes, there is a good chance that in a year like this you will be fighting some version of tomato blight. In organic farming we don’t have a lot we can do to prevent disease, but farmer Adam will spring a copper spring that is one of our only organic fungicides that we can use. We have to spray copper preventatively. If the disease has already set in, there isn’t a lot you can do about it. Great news for us, we are spraying copper weekly as a preventative, so things are still looking really good for us to have a great tomato year. The tomato plants are growing so fast every week. We are now trellising them every week once a week to keep them standing up. We even saw the first few sun gold cherry tomatoes out there. It will still be a few weeks before we have enough to harvest for CSA, but that’s just around the corner! The silver lining in all this rain is that we haven’t had to irrigate! Yes it’s been wet, but we haven’t had much for severe weather or erosion or excessive rainfall at one time or in a very short time. One should count their blessings, right? Yes, it’s been wet and that makes it messy and inconvenient, but we’re trudging through. We’re building character, working together and filling those CSA boxes up fatter and fatter every week! Just wait till cucumbers start!   What’s in the Box?   What’s in the Box? Lettuce– Green Leaf lettuce or romaine. One head per member this week. Fennel- I really love how fennel has so many different flavors. When eaten raw, it has a more licorice flavor. If you like that, that’s really a win! But fennel can take off it’s licorice hat and take on more the style and flavor of an onion when sautéed. If you like caramelizing onions, try caramelizing fennel! It’s delicious! And the frawns make a beautiful garnish if you’re having company. Green Kale– We’re keeping you stocked in cooking greens for the week. Add to pizza, egg bakes, soups, make kale chips, kale salads with beans and olives and cheeses. This week I added kale to a pan of enchiladas. Get creative and sneak it in everything! Green Onions- One bunch green onions per member. We should have green onions for a few more weeks still. Edible from the base of the onion to the tip of the greens. They’re getting bigger with each passing week holding us over until actual onions come into season in a few weeks. Garlic Scapes- These curly green ‘scapes’ are actually the garlic plants effort at making a seed head. Each plant produces one scape. When they have grown where there is enough edible quality on the scape, we snap them off and bunch them and give them to you. Scapes can be used much like regular garlic but they have a milder flavor. I usually cook with from the blunt end to the nodule on the scape, but the whole thing is edible! Summer Squash or Zucchini– 5 squash per member. You may have received one yellow squash and one zucchini or any combination of the two squash. Dust off your favorite summer squash/zucchini recipes-the season is just beginning! Broccoli x 2- or Broccoli and Cauliflower- Broccoli and Cauliflower prefer to be kept very cold. We recommend putting your broccoli and/or cauliflower in a plastic bag and get it into the fridge as quickly as possible. Broccoli and Cauliflower are both cool season crops. It’s difficult to get perfectly rounded and colored heads in 80-90 degree heat, but there will be many more successions coming on. Not everyone got a cauliflower this week. Kohlrabi x 2- You may have received either a purple or a green kohlrabi. I find that kohlrabis are best if you cut them up and eat the whole thing at once. If you try to refrigerate a partial kohlrabi or eat the leftovers the next day they become bitter. If you cut into one, use it up right away! The purple kohlrabis are a little scarred. Dill- Fresh herbs for your potato salad, egg salad, zucchini fritters or simply add your dill frawns to your green salads. Dill is also very easy to dry and store in a mason jar with a tight lid out of direct sunlight. Green Cabbage– The first cabbage of the season is always exciting!!! Quickstart is the variety name. Early season cabbage is always a little lighter and airier. Not as dense as storage cabbage. Next Week’s Best Guess: Broccoli, Cauliflower, lettuce, kale or collards, bunching onions, garlic scapes or fresh garlic, cucumbers, beets, maybe rainbow carrots, maybe celery Recipes- Zucchini Fritters with Feta and Dill  Cabbage Roll Skillet  Meatball Subs with Caramelised Fennel and Rocket PestoI know you didn’t get rocket in your CSA box this week, but maybe you have basil pesto on hand or want to make a quick pesto out of your kale or another green or herb you’re excited to use. Have fun!  Zucchini Fries  Roasted Broccoli and Fennel Soup (I think it would be really good with heavy cream added)  Crispy Kohlrabi Hashbrowns  Air Fryer Kale Chips  |
