CSA Week 17

This Week’s Harvest

  • Carrots
  • Escarole
  • Celery
  • Garlic
  • Honeynut Squash
  • Sweet Peppers (Corno di Toro and/or Red Bell Peppers)
  • Red Potatoes
  • Watermelon
  • Eggplant (Japanese or Italian)
  • Basil
  • Broccoli
  • Tomatoes (plum, heirloom, or beefsteak)

Apple Share

  • Melrose
  • Jonagold

Farm News 

For a weeks now we’ve been waiting for the right window to plant our cover crop. We like to cover crop as many fields as possible with a winter cover of rye/clover/oats. We need there to be a significant rainfall predicated to ensure the seed has the best shot to germinate so we end up with a good stand. 

We also don’t want to prep the ground too far ahead of time. Ben goes through with a disc to kill the weeds and breakdown any plant matter. If we do this step too far ahead, the weeds just germinate and reestablish themselves and you’ll have to do it again. Any time you work the soil, the soil is compromised so you want to minimize any harsh passes you make.

Before the ground is ready to seed, we hill up beds. We take this extra step so our beds are already prehilled in the spring. This enables us to get into the fields even with typical wet spring weather. Then the seeding can begin!

12:30 pm Saturday
8:30 PM Saturday

All this means Ben has a crazy couple days preparing all the ground and spreading the seed ahead of the rain. And that’s what he did all weekend starting Friday. He seeded 5 fields, which totals over 10 acres! This cover crop will grow a little in the fall, survive the winter, and really explode in the spring. We’ll then mow or disc it in and all that green matter will break down and provide important nutrients for our next round of veggies.

Picture of cover crop from this spring

Recipes

Coming Up Next Week (our best guess….) Watermelon, honeynut squash, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, braising greens, kohlrabi, salad mix, onions, poblano peppers