CSA Week 4

This Week’s Harvest

Salad Mix
Head Lettuce
Basil
Cilantro
Golden Beets
Cabbage
Broccoli OR Carrots OR Zucchini
Scallions
Kale

Farm News

We have had a lot of really neat animal encounters this year- specifically birds! First in the spring during the heavy planting season we had a flock of birds we’d never seen stick around for about 3 weeks. They would be in the freshly worked fields walking up and down the beds with their long skinny legs. But they were much smaller than Robins and Killdeer- other birds that also forage in the fields. And when we tried to look them up based on how they looked gnatcatchers and flycatchers where the only birds coming up – but those have smaller beaks and legs and fly around in the trees and aren’t on the ground. Fortunately I was able to get my Merlin ap out to get a recording of their songs- which they only do while in flight. So I had to approach the field with the recording going, scare them off into flight and hope the phone could pick up their sound. And it did! Back bounced American Pipit, which I totally ruled out at first because I had never heard of them. But sure enough a close look at the description of and pictures of the American Pipit clearly showed a match! What’s fun about them is that they are only in Ohio for migration and live in the Canadian and Alaskan tundra during the summer and in coastal beaches in the winter.

One of several American Pipits looking for bugs and seeds as we plant potatoes. It took a week to ID these cool visitors.

Another unique bird encounter this spring was a wild turkey in the fields! We only saw it once but it was cool! And also a sign of a healthy ecosystem