In this week’s box:
Broccoli
Kale
Red Leaf Lettuce
Raspberries
Fennel Bulbs
Hakurei Salad Turnips
Summer Squash and Zucchini
Flat Leaf Parsley
1. Fruit share: blueberries from Berryhill outside of Xenia!
2. Flowers share begins this week and will run for ten weeks.
3. It’s hot! We do everything that we can to make sure that your veggies will be fresh when you pick them up, but if you find that some of the greens are a bit wilted you can shock them back to life using the following method. Submerge the greens fully in ice water for 3-4 minutes. Remove and shake dry, then store wrapped loosely in a plastic bag ideally in the crisper portion of your refrigerator.
Farm notes:
It’s a cliche and in our experience a reality that farming is very cyclical. Sometime this past week we settled into our main season routine. Monday and Friday are harvest days. Tuesday we make CSA boxes and deliver them and Saturday we are at market. Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday are left for farm work (planting, cultivating and general maintenance). Also since we are now getting into flower season at the market Emily is cutting sunflowers every day of the week and cutting other flowers for most of the day on Thursday.
Additionally at this point in the season we have also gotten most of the spring/early summer projects out of the way. The garlic is harvested and hanging in the barn. The tomatoes and peppers are planted and tying the tomatoes has begun. Remay (lightweight row covers that we use on many spring crops) is getting cleaned up and we are replanting where some spring crops are finished. Large scale tillage with the tractor-mounted rototiller has been replaced by precision cultivation with wheel hoes (which is exactly what it sounds like – a hoe with a wheel in front to make it easier to hoe long rows and larger areas) and the walk behind tiller.
Of course soon enough there will be the main season projects: pulling onions and setting them up to cure in the barn and digging all of the potatoes…but, thankfully we have a couple of weeks to get caught up on our weekly chores before we have to begin doing that work.
This Week’s Recipes
Penne with Kale, Olives and Feta
Soba Noodle Stir-Fry (I would double recipe and add chopped turnips and summer squash)