This Week’s Harvest
Watermelon
Salad Mix
Pickling Cucumbers
Hot Peppers
Sweet Italian Peppers
Green Beans
Potatoes
Candy Onions
Basil (last of the season!)
Tomatoes
Zucchini
Recipes
Warm Roasted Green Bean and Potato Salad with Quinoa and Kale
Zucchini, Potato, Tomato Casserole
Farm News
I found myself struggling to think of something to write about our small farm while the nation’s 4th largest city is experiencing catastrophic flooding. Then I realized our form of agriculture and direct marketing is the perfect thing to write about. The success of our season depends on us planning ahead and working hard, but ultimately a lot is out of our hands. Should our farm experience flooding we could end up baring the loss completely by ourselves. Except we don’t, because of the CSA!
It has occurred to me that many of our members come to us through word of mouth and may not even know what a CSA is. It stands for Community Supported Agriculture and the idea is that a community of people commit to getting their produce from a farm and the farmers commit to growing them nutritious food all season long. The CSA model shares the burden of weather and pest related crop failures with the customer. By committing to the entire season we have a steady income from our members that isn’t directly affected by how each individual crop produces. Of course we strive for every box to be as full as it can be and consequently we are stressed when crops slip away from us.
We are able to minimize the effects of crop failures and can often work around wet and dry periods, but I can’t imagine a catastrophic event like Hurricane Harvey. We follow several farms around the country on Instagram and I have seen hail storms, barn fires and floods decimate infrastructure and crops. The farmers often post a depressing picture of destruction followed by an inspirational post a few days later expressing gratitude for all the support they’ve received. I trust everyone in Houston, including small organic farms, will get the support thy need to get through this.