This is our tenth season running our CSA, filing schedule F and really making a go for it as farmers. We’ve survived two seasons with serious droughts and two seasons with floods. No season has been quite like this one as of yet. This season has been mild, comfortable, and almost text book perfect. Farmers really love to complain about things, especially if there is too much rain or not enough rain. But this year…terrific. 
Cultivating the potato field. THe potatoes are flowering now and looking beautiful!
Probably I shouldn’t say these words just yet. Maybe I’m jinxing the season now and next week we’ll get hammered with golf-ball sized hail. The season is far from over and there is still plenty of time for flood or drought, but I’m counting my blessings here. The rains have been wonderfully timed averaging about 1 inch per week which is exactly what we want. There have been breezy days with sunshine and heat, but it hasn’t been extreme. Even the insect pressure this year has been mild with some of our annual pests such as the flea beetle, cabbage looper and the cucumber beetle. We are still seeing these pest, but in more manageable numbers.
This farm grows over 60 different varieties of vegetables and it is difficult to raise 60 different things and do it all well each year. Every crop has its temperament and its special needs. We are seeing some disease on our brassicas and deer damage on some of our lettuce crops. All the rain is also helping the weeds grow. The sweet potato slips arrived late and potato plant germination this year was a little poor, but since I’m counting my blessings here, all things considered, the fields looks amazing.
Farming is inherently a very risky business. It is interesting that we’ve chosen farming as a vocation since Adam and I are both the type of people to play on the safe side. We’re not exactly the risk-taking kind when it comes to the health and safety of our family, but for some reason, year after year, we play our cards in the game of farming and we’re learning to play them wisely. We are taking precautions against drought by upgrading our well so we have the capacity to irrigate in the event of drought. We do what little we can to protect the farm from erosion in the event of a flood by contouring, seeding clover in driveways and mulching on what crops we can.
This season has also been pronounced in that we have had plenty of really great helpers on the farm. We have returning worker shares and employees who are competent and work enthusiastically and joyfully. We have returning CSA members in greater numbers who see the value in knowing their farmers and where their food comes from and how it was grown. The inherent beauty of the CSA model is such that we are sharing the risks and the blessings of the season together. We are sharing the experience of the season and are eating together our way through a relationship of trust and transparency and really good food.
Green Cabbage- Another fine head of green cabbage. Our Spring variety of green cabbage is called Quickstart which is a more tender salad-type cabbage. The heads aren’t as compact as a storage type variety, but are extra crunchy and make great for eating raw in coleslaw or cooking too if you prefer to use it that way.
White Kohlrabi- These kohlrabis are a very nice size and are still very tender on the inside. Kohlrabi makes for nice veggie snack sticks if you peel off the outer layer and cut the inside up into dip sticks and eat with a home-made veggie dip.
Cauliflower- Very nice heads of cauliflower for everyone this week. Cauliflower is a notoriously difficult crop to grow, especially in the Spring and Summer as it really does not tolerate heat very well. We have been very happy with the size and volume of cauliflowers we have been harvesting this year. They have a nice sweet flavor to them we noticed. These are also nice if broken into floretts and dipped in that Sour Cream Veggie Dip.
Zucchini and Summer Squash and Patty Pans- Yep, it’s starting. One of our worker shares, Kathy, says that since now it’s zucchini season, it’s time to lock your car doors. You never know when someone is going to stick a bag of zucchini in there. In case you don’t have a lot of gardening experience, zucchini is a very prolific plant that is very generous with its fruits. You can expect to find plenty more zucchini, summer squash and patty pans in the next several CSA boxes. Dig up your favorite recipes!
Green onions- Because we can all use onions every day.
Peas- Peas are a very time-consuming harvest, so it is very impressive that we were able to give a .79lb bag of peas to 300 people. Imagine how long it takes to pick 237lbs of peas. That’s a lot of little hands a lot of hours and a lot of silly conversation going on while picking. Enjoy these peas, we put a lot of love into picking them for you!
Green Top Beets– We call them “green top” because they come with their greens still growing on top of them. The beet greens can be used in cooking a lot like swiss chard. Beets are in the same family as swiss chard. They will keep best in a plastic bag in the fridge. 
Green tomatoes hanging on the vines. It will be another 3 or 4 weeks before we have tomatoes.
Red Curly Kale- A hefty bunch of red curly kale for everyone. These red kale bunches would make great kale chips. Kale keeps best in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Lettuce- Either a red leaf or green leaf heat of lettuce for everyone this week. Keeps best in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Garlic Scapes- 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.
Strawberries- One quart of flavor-bursting strawberries for everyone this week! Strawberries are extremely perishable. They don’t keep well, so we recommend eating them up as soon as possible.
