In the Share - Week 5

hail-pummeled peas

PEAS F/P  Beaten by hail and flooded, the pea harvest is pretty dismal. 

NAPA CABBAGE F/P  aka Chinese cabbage.  Let the fermenting begin!

BROCCOLI F/P  Another week of these tasty guys.

KOHLRABI F  The rain has made them especially juicy.

BEETS OR TURNIPS F/P  We will have more of both next week. 

GAI  LAN OR BROCCOLI SIDESHOOTS F

PARSLEY OR GARLIC SCAPES F

NEXT WEEK:  Lettuce, beets or turnips, kohlrabi, and cabbage.

FARM REPORT:
Last Thursday morning I decided to visit my brother Shawn and his family who live in Kearney.  It was raining so it seemed like a good time to get off of the farm and run some errands.  While I was gone we had a doozie of a hailstorm and a massive amount of rain.  For ten minutes Tom watched as the farm was pelted with balls of ice of varying sizes. 

So much rain fell in so short a period of time that I had to re-route around two impassable roadways to reach the farm.  When it finally stopped raining Friday morning 10.85 inches of rain had fallen in 48 hours.  Add that to the rain that has been non-stop for the last month and we have had 23 inches of rain in the last 30 days. 

water streaming through the barnyard

Needless to say, the plants on the farm have been affected by the soggy conditions and by the hailstorm.  The strawberry patch that was ready to fill pints for the shares this week is done for the season.  The berries looked like they had been beaten up by a small-fisted fairy.  This week's lettuces were shredded.  The kale and chard leaves were full of holes, so on Saturday the CSA workers and the farm crew stripped the plants down to the younger good leaves.  The young tomato plants lost limbs, flowers and fruit to the hail.  The peppers and eggplant were almost washed away.  We spent part of the last two afternoons covering them in a thick layer of compost and hay mulch with the hopes that they will recover. 

Please expect lighter shares for the next few weeks at least.  The spring crops are coming to an abrupt end and the summer crops are not nearly ready for harvest.  We appreciate everyone's understanding of our situation and feel so fortunate to have a community supporting us through the good and the bad weather.  There is still time to plant more summer crops which we have been doing any chance we get.  There is also the fall season still to go.  We are optimistic that we can provide a bounty of crops to you, our dear supporters.  Just let the sun shine!