by milecreekfarm

CSA Week 18

This Week’s Harvest

Farm News

Running a vegetable farm requires a lot of planning to ensure everything gets done properly and efficiently. We have our set things that have to happen- harvesting for CSA and packing and delivering- and then all the time in between we are trying to pick the best thing to work on from an endless list. If it’s going to rain that night we might plant. If we have a large crew, we’ll do something that goes much smoother with more people like harvest potatoes or weed carrots. Then there are the surprises that throw wrenches into our thought out plans for the day- an unexpected thunderstorm for example. Last Tuesday had a little bit of everything so I thought it would be a fun blog post to just write out what all happened that day.

Tuesday 10/1/24

  • CSA prep and pack takes Ellie and Debbie all morning. We have to count and double count the bins because the number of shares changes each week, set up the tables and bring out all the vegetables. Sometimes there are items that still need to be portioned out. Once the prep is done, the pack begins. The vegetables are lined up on a long multi-table line and Ellie and Debbie each go down a side with 2 CSA bins at a time and load the veggies in one by one. Finished boxes get closed and loaded into the truck or front room cooler for farm pick up.
  • While CSA pack is happening, Audrey, Lindsey and I harvest our storage cabbages. I noticed they were starting to split open due to the heavy watering they had just received. We cut the cabbages and used the tractor and harvest conveyer to collect the heavy bulky vegetable. The harvest gave us 2 bulk bins of cabbage that will go into the final weeks of CSA as well as the extended season. We didn’t lose many to spilts which was nice!
  • With CSA pack done we could load onto the truck an additional wholesale order of delicata squash and potatoes heading to Mission of Mary before Ian then proceeded with the CSA delivery.
  • Lunch Break as Ian and the truck head off to do the delivery.
  • Ellie and Lindsey wash all the harvest containers that were full of food earlier that morning with our rinse conveyor and dunk tank full of sanitized solution. We also had some of last week’s CSA bins to wash and clean as well. And just general Packshed clean up after the day of use.
  • Audrey and I pick Jalapeño peppers and Poblano peppers for another wholesale order. The goal was get 100 lbs of Poblanos and 150 lbs of Jalapeños.
  • We finished the harvest with a little bit of time left and with the ground still a mucky mess from the hurricane remnants, we worked on one of our “rainy day” projects. In our garage we have stored in giant bulk bags the fertilizer we use to side dress crops. A mouse or rat or something had gotten into it and chewed a large hole on the bottom and fertilizer had just been steadily pouring out from the hole and made a big mess. So we cleaned that up which involved shoveling the fertilizer into a different mouse proof container and sweeping up all the spillage.
  • With everyone gone for the day, I was getting ready to move onto the rest of my day- picking up kids from activities and making dinner- when Ian called. Whenever Ian calls while he is out on delivery my heart sinks a little and I hope the reason he is calling can be solved easily! This time he was pulled over with a flat tire. A really flat tire. We devised an elaborate plan of action. Ben happened to be 1 mile from the breakdown because he was picking Isla up from school, who now goes to Stivers downtown. So Ben drove to the truck and relieved Ian of that responsibility but saddled him with the new one of driving our car and daughter back to the farm which is where he needed to go anyway to retrieve his motorcycle to drive home! Meanwhile I quickly picked Evan up from his cross country practice, dropped him off back home, and drove to the truck. After all there were still CSA boxes on it that needed to be delivered! Fortunately there were only 5 home deliveries left to make. While I was finishing the deliveries Ben was waiting for the tow truck.
  • When I got home at 8pm Ben had actually beaten me, but he was out working on the truck removing the bad tire so he could take it in first thing to the tire shop to hopefully get repaired but more likely replaced. I said “hi” to the kids and got to work on dinner which was a heat and eat ready meal of noodles to which I threw in a few of our veggies because the “veggie” packets of those things is 5 peas, 2 carrots and some dried scallions. We somehow ate by 9 and bed by 10.

At the end of the day I like to think back at what I did at the start of the day. I’m always amazed when I recall what I did: “that was really today??!”

Market truck loaded with CSA shares and wholesale potato and winter squash orders.
Bringing in the cabbage harvest

Recipes

Curry with Potatoes and Bok Choy (use regular potatoes in place of sweet potatoes)

Pasta With Fennel and Kale (use spigarello in place of kale)

Spring Rolls (use any veggies you want. From this week Kohlrabi, Turnips, Sweet Peppers, Bok Choi are all good options )

Coming up next week (our best guess….) Sweet potatoes, Butternut Squash, Cabbage, Celery, Hakurei Salad Turnips, Cauliflower, Salad Mix, Dill, Kohlrabi, Collards