Farm News Week 1, 2023

June Sixth

And we’re off! The Small Family Farm is beginning its 18^th growing season as a CSA farm and we’re so thrilled to begin sharing with you the bounty from yet another fruitful growing season on the farm! An impressive 70% of you are returning CSA members who have been with us for several years returning to the table like faithful family members who journey together through another unpredictable Midwest growing season on our little small family farm! For the 30% of you who are new to our farm, welcome to the family! Welcome to a community of locavores who value fresh, local, organic produce and the incomparable difference between grocery store vegetables and sticker-free produce grown on a local, small family farm.

I like to devote the first newsletter of the season to introduce ourselves. I, Jill, am the one who has been writing the weekly newsletters for all 18 years. Many of you have become familiar with my voice and story. I apologize for the 70% of you who have heard this story-bear with me while we welcome our new friends! I feel background is foundational to everyone’s experience here. One upon a time I was a young lady spending her summers working on small scale organic vegetable farms slowly falling in love with life in the countryside much different than my city-girl up-bringing in Dubuque, IA. I loved being surrounded by the bounty that farms inherently provide, the inspiring community of people hemmed into these farms and the people who operated, supported and breathed life into these farm-anomalies that I was feeling so exhilarated by. After a handful of years working on other people’s farms, including a couple CSA farms that transformed my vision of farming, I met my husband Adam when we both came to work on his brother’s farm for two seasons in his produce fields and pizza-farm certified kitchen. We started our own little CSA in 2006 on his brother’s farm trying out the CSA model leaning on brother Dave’s infrastructure and tremendous moral support.

In the Spring of 2007 we finally bought our own farm. At that time we weren’t married yet and the farm was still in my name alone. We had sold 63 CSA Shares and we broke new ground on our own farm and decided we would work our little tushies off to make the dream work. And work it did. The CSA grew little by little with each passing year. In 2010 we finally married, and our first child was born in 2011. I continued to run the CSA operation with baby strapped onto my back while Adam kept his off-farm job at Organic Valley in the produce department. When our second child was born in 2014 the farm was viable enough that Adam was able to quit his off-farm job. Me still being a major player in production, Adam slowly took on more and more of the farmer-roles as motherhood demanded more and more of my time. Baby number three came along in 2014 and now I’m feeling tired telling this story just thinking about how hard it is to run a CSA farm and raise three little ones at the same time.

Doing hard things is like that. You think it’s hard or impossible or un-doable, but all you really need to do is just keep doing it, keep trying, keep going, keep working at it. Persevere. Eventually you get better at it, systems run smoother, you acquire more tools, more help, more experience, more knowledge, and the next thing you know, you did it. You’re doing it. We’ve been repeating for 18 years now, and while farming itself never really gets easier because you’re dealing with unpredictable variables that you cannot plan around like rain, temperature fluctuations, plant diseases, and the fact that farming is composed of mostly just plain hard work. But our capacity to handle the stress and manage the work load gets a little easier. We have more help, more infrastructure, and the kids are getting a wee-bit older which helps a-lot-a-bit. The children are still small-ish at the ages of 5, 8, 11, but mommy now gets to sleep through the night and I finally do not have at least one child crying, on my hip all day or needing to be put down for a nap. It finally feels like the happy little organic farm we dreamed about two decades ago.

This CSA farm was born as a romantic ideal in the glimmer of an impressionable girl’s eye. After all these years it continues to nourish our little family spiritually, emotionally, and physically while the romantic idealism still hasn’t faded away. No matter if you’ve been with us for 1 year or all 18, I’m SO glad you’re here! Thank you for coming to the table!

What’s in the Box????

Asparagus– 1 pound bunches of Asparagus. This is the one vegetable that we actually purchase each year for the CSA boxes that comes from a certified organic farm out of Adams, Wisconsin. We could not possibly grow enough asparagus to supply for our CSA. It’s a worth-while investment because everyone loves Aspargus in the Spring as it is delicacy that can be enjoyed in so many ways!

2 Green Oakleaf Lettuce– These very, very tender heads of lettuce were greenhouse grown this Spring to help us get a jump start on the season. It’s difficult to find lettuce varieties like this at a grocery store. There is an extra special tenderness to Spring lettuce that is unlike lettuce growing througout the heat of the season. We gave two heads per box this week. Salads for dinner!

Pac Choi– One large head of pac choi per member this week. Also greenhouse grown. Pac Choi is an asian green that loves to be grown in the cool weather of the Spring and Fall. We typically offer it once each season in the Spring. Chop up the crunchy stalks and greens in a pac choi salad or stir fry!

Shallots– .5 lb of shallots per member this week. These were overwintered shallots from last year that hold wonderfully in the cooler until Spring. Since they were overwintered, they will want to sprout if left out on the counter. Keep in your fridge until you are able to use them up. Shallots are typically used in sauces, dressings and marrinades, but you’re also welcome to use them anywhere you would use an onion. They have much the same flavor as an onion, just condensed into a smaller package.

Herb Packs– This week’s herb packs have tyme, oregano, sage and flat leaf parsley. All of these herbs would be thrilled to be planted outdoors with plenty of sun near your kitchen for easy access when you’re cooking and need to run out and grab a sprig of thyme, oregano, sage or parsley. If you don’t have a good outdoor garden space, you could grow them in pots outside or inside with plenty of sunlight and water!

Spinach- .55 lb bag of spinach per member. Spinach is a very special springtime treat! Can be eaten raw in salads, blanched and used in lasagne or put on top of your pizza!

Cherry Belle Radishes- The long awaited radish! All winter I dream of first Spring radishes! They are quickly forgotten and unappreciated once the more popular items like broccoli and zucchini enter the stage, but let us all enjoy the simple, modest, humble radish while it is here! If you’re wanting more greens this week, don’t forget that radish greens are edible! They can be cooked down and mixed into a fritatta, snuck onto a pizza, or sauteed into a hash of your choice.