Ring the Bell that can Ring
Lacinato Kale growing on the plant and looking healthy!
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
At some point in time, something really interesting happened in the produce industry. I’m not sure when or where, but it was long before my time. Likely it had a lot to do with the invent of the “Supermarket”. When distributers and buyers and semis and cooler-sheflife stepped in between the farmer and the eater. I wonder now if we were trained to prefer perfect looking food or if we instinctively are drawn to perfect-looking food.
We’ve all stood in the produce aisle picking up 5 or 6 different apples to find one that looks perfect, giving each one a squeeze and spin to examine it closely-looking for bruises or brown marks or to see if it is mis-shapen. Are we looking for the most bang for our buck? I wonder if we were taught to expect perfect appearances in food through big marketing or if there is a deeply engrained instinct inside of us all that seeks out a sort of genetic selection or pedigree in our food. Why did this happen, why does it continue today, especially in a world today where millions of pounds of food are going into dumpsters for being the wrong shape or color?
Now with agri-businesses, large-scale farms can produce 20 acres of carrots and cull out anything that isn’t the right length, diameter, color and shape. I love to harvest carrots with our worker shares because anyone who is new to it gets to see forked and split carrots for the first time or two carrots that “hug”. I’m here to tell ya folks, it’s true! Carrots come in all shapes and sizes, just like you and me! It’s a well-kept secret, but it is very true!
I think the perfect trend is over. We’re bored with it. It’s too mechanical, too standardized, too plain, too clean, too perfect. The perfect looking varieties of vegetables out there that are bred and selected and re-selected and hybridized again and again and are loosing their very souls. They’re loosing flavor and color and style. Hybridized vegetables are the donkeys. They can’t even re-produce true to their parent. We grow plenty of hybrid vegetable varieties on our farm because we are trying to make a living at it and if it came right down to it, most of us just aren’t ready for the crude-looking heirlooms-we’re not there yet.
I love to see the rise in artisanal bakeries and cheese shops. I love the locally roasted single-origin coffee businesses. I love the chocolatiers, micro-breweries and the restaurants featuring local and seasonal food. It feels like it has been so long since we’ve seen the human touch on our food or something that looks different for once. The creators of McDonalds discovered that people love fast and predictable. We love to go to a store and get the exact same product every time. It could be the rebel-child inside me, but I’m done with that. I want my apple cider to taste different every fall. I want to try new kinds of cheese and new shapes of bread with different kinds of grain. I want my food to go bad if I don’t eat it fast enough. I want to know that it’s alive. I don’t want it to come in a plastic wrap or with a sticker and a barcode and a number on it. I want to know the name of the person who grew or brewed or raised or butchered or cooked my food. That’s how the light gets in.
Green Cabbage- Very nice heads of green cabbage for all this week!
Kohlrabi- You may have received a red or white kohlrabi. Remember that your kohlrabi greens are edible if you’re in need of more greens!
Sugar Snap Peas- A hefty .96lbs of peas for everyone this week! Sugar Snaps are wonderful as a healthy snack raw, cut up onto salads or tossed with stir-fry veggies. There were some snow peas (the more flat pod) mixed in with the sugar snaps.
Zucchini and/or Summer Squash- It’s hard to believe it, but the zucchini and summer squash harvest has begun! Harvesting soft summer squashes is always pretty intense because the plants will now need to be picked every other day until they fizzle out in late August some time. So get digging for your favorite soft squash recipes(I call zucchini and the yellow straight necks both ‘summer squashes’) because these offerings are just getting started! Summer Squashes keep best at 50 degrees and a cold refrigerator will cause them to wilt. They sometimes keep better on the countertop depending on the temperature of your house. 
Todd and Kevin weeding around the newly un-covered squash plants.
Garlic Scapes- Such a wonderful addition to your everyday cooking! Use the part of the scape up until the light yellow nodule. Everything below the nodule is tender and delicious! Use garlic scapes anywhere that you would normally use garlic. The flavor is less potent than garlic, so you can feel free to use more by volume than you would use for garlic.
Parsley- You may have received a bunch of the Italian Flat Leaf parsley or the Curly Leaf parsley. Which is your favorite and why?
Lacinato Kale- Wow! These are amazing bunches of kale! Probably one of our best kale years so far! Greens keep best in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Lettuce X2- Two heads of lettuce for everyone this week. We barely were able to get the boxes closed with all of the items in the box this week, but somehow we managed! So nice to have plenty of lettuce in the fridge.
Strawberry Quarts- From our farm! In previous years we have purchased strawberries for our CSA members because we weren’t able to produce the volume needed for CSA, and this year we are giving quarts of strawberries! We’re so excited to offer these. We think we’ll have a couple more weeks of berries still to come!
Cauliflower- A nice, white head of cauliflower. We noticed they have a sweet flavor. Keeps best in a plastic bag in the fridge. We keep the outer leaves of the cauliflower on to keep them from getting bumped around and turning brown. They are sort of a protective layer.
Cabbage, Beets, Peas, Lettuce, Garlic Scapes, Bunching Onions, Zucchini, Summe Squash, Green or Red Kale, Cauliflower, Kohlrabi, Strawberries
