In the Share - Week Two

French butterhead (see the ladybug?)

LETTUCE (F2/P1) More luscious butterheads and brilliant red leaf lettuces.

NAPA CABBAGE (F) Great in slaws or pickled in a kimchi, aka Chinese cabbage.

RADISH OR ARUGULA (F) Neither fared well through our wintery Spring. We are picking them baby size, while they last.

CHARD OR KALE (F/P) The first pickings off these two reliable vegetables. Partial shares choose between chard, kale, or Napa cabbage.

BROCCOLI (F/P) Much less reliable, but much more popular … alas!

HAKUREI TURNIPS (F/P) If you are new to these, try eating the entire plant raw – top to bottom. 

STRAWBERRIES (F/P) The patch is just starting to produce. If you don’t get any this week, lots more are on their way.

GREEN GARLIC (F/P) The young garlic plants are tender and nice in any dish where you would use garlic.

HERB CHOICE (F/P) Cilantro, dill, garlic chives or dried herbs.

NEXT WEEK: More lettuce, strawberries, broccoli, green onions, turnips and herbs.

FARM REPORT: The weather has finally warmed and the plants are responding by pumping out new growth. The peas are racing up their trellising after sitting still for so long. Every plant on the farm is intent on sending out their solar collectors to soak up the sun’s energy. Meanwhile the humans try to keep up with all this activity to direct it towards productive forms. Tomatoes are pruned and trellised, weeds are pulled, cucumbers thinned. One of our favorite ways to direct plant growth is mulching. The crops benefit and the weeds lose. On Saturday, we had lots of help from the membership so after the morning's harvest was complete we tackled the tomato patch.

 tomato mulch

Four big round bales of hay later and the farm crew was reminded of the power of the CSA model.  Thanks everybody for making our job easier!

While we focus on the plants, the chickens carry on merrily in their new location in the lower part of the far field. Their spontaneous cackling reaches across the fields and they are fun to watch as they peck around in the grass. Sometimes all you can see is their backsides pointed to the sky as they search the tall grass for bugs. 

chicken circle

 In addition to whatever they find, we give them organic, non-GMO feed that we purchase by the ton to get the best price. If you come out to the farm we usually have a couple dozen eggs for sale, just ask.  We charge $5/dozen which we are hoping will allow us to break even on the annual costs of the feed. Having chickens on the farm gives us more than just egg money. The fringed benefits are cheep entertainment as mentioned, fertilizer, less bugs perhaps and of course frittatas. See Tom’s post below for tonight’s dinner – chard and leek frittata.  Yumm!