CSA - Week 4

Half way through July already, awfully cliche, but summer is flying by!

We are finally starting to see some good progress in the fields, broccoli is beginning to head up, zucchini and summer squash are blossoming and setting fruit, and some of our herbs which were in standing water a couple weeks ago are starting to look much better!  We harvested garlic this week, it was a bit earlier than I had wanted, but didn't want to risk the heads starting to rot in the wet ground.  It can be used now or for longer storage life it should "cure" for a couple of weeks in a warm, well ventilated area out of direct sunlight.  A garage or storage shed works great.

Recent apple orchard activity - we hung sticky traps, which are large yellow cards coated with nasty smelly sticky gunk that attracts flies, including apple maggot flies which are our major pest concern between now and harvest.  The cards catch some of the flies and allows us to monitor levels and know when it becomes necessary to spray.  The Prima apples are sizing up nice and the McIntosh are not far behind!

This weeks share is still on the light side, but expect some more heft starting next week.  Week 4 contents:

• Garlic
• Collard Greens
• Radishes
• Snap Peas - They are loving the cool wet weather!

Have a good rest of the week.

-Wade

CSA - Week 3

This week and next week will be on the lighter side as we transition from produce grown in the hoophouses to crops grown in the fields.  The very wet and fairly cool weather in June has us 1-2 weeks behind where we would like to be, but a couple of weeks of 80s and sun should get us back on track.

This weeks shares will include

• Carrots
• Snap Peas
• Chives

Extra chives can easily be frozen for future use.  Following is link with a step by step process http://www.wikihow.com/Freeze-Dry-Chives

Also one of our shareholders (thank you Jessica!) has shared a couple of delicious chive recipes:

• Lobster & Chive Bisque
• Bacon and Chive Jarlsberg Burger

Following are a few photos of the recently built wash station, blackberries in the fruit hoop house, a couple of the fields, and getting the vegetable hoop house ready for round 2 of planting.

Hope everyone has a great week!

CSA - Week 2

Looking for some warm, dry days, seems like we have gotten rain on a daily basis for a while now!

Most of this week's share comes from the hoop house, but we also get our first harvest from the fields with snap peas.  We planted garlic for the first time last fall, while it is in a lower part of the fields and not appreciating all of the extra water, it has produced some nice scapes. For those of you who have never tasted or seen a garlic scape (includes me until this year) following is a brief description: 

While the garlic bulb is growing below ground, the garlic plant also produces a curly stalk, know as a scape. with a large bud on the end which if left to develop will eventually flower.  It is recommended to cut the scapes before they flower so that the plant concentrates it's energy to producing a larger bulb below ground.  Turns out the scapes are not only edible, but quite a delicacy.  They definitely smell and taste like garlic, but a bit more subtle.  You can chop them up and use just like regular garlic cloves.

This weeks shares include:

• Red Romaine
• Beets
• Turnips
• Snap  Peas
• Garlic Scapes

There are two featured turnip recipes this week, each has butter and sugar in them, like vegetable desserts!

http://dfo-recipes.weebly.com/this-week.html

And, if you don't have  a favorite beet recipe, following is a simple but delicious one for roasted beets  http://dfo-recipes.weebly.com/roasted-beet-slices.html

Hope everyone has a great 4th of July weekend!

CSA - Week 1

Ahhh, the thrill of the first week of share distributions.  Hectic and nerve wracking as we scramble to make sure everything is ready, mixed with the excitement of finally getting to harvest and share the good stuff that we have been watching grow for the last month and a half.

As this may be the first CSA season for many folks, following are just a few random thoughts on what to expect and a couple of hopefully useful links.

• The first several weeks of the season are lighter shares, usually lettuces, radishes, peas,etc.  The shares will get larger and heavier as we move into the season
• Most of the crops are harvested and directly put into the cooler to chill,  Items such as beets, radishes, carrots which are in the ground will be washed and then cooled.  Greens that have a lot of rain splashed dirt and sand will also usually be quickly dunked in water and then cooled.  However we don't individually review each leaf of lettuce, beet green, etc as a result  you may still find some dirt or a stray slug, snail, or bug tagging along,  So its always a good idea to rinse and inspect you produce prior to consuming.
• Lettuce and greens like to stay cool with high humidity but not wet.  A salad crisper is a valuable storage tool, but if you don't have one available, wrap the greens in a damp paper towel and place inside a plastic bag in your refrigerator. This should keep things nice and crisp for up to or more than a week.  It will also crisp back up greens that are slightly wilted
• A couple of links to kitchen items that we use constantly throughout the season:
  • Salad spinner - http://www.walmart.com/ip/Cookpro-605-Salad-Spinner-4.5qt-With-Locking-Straining/41080295
  • Crisper - Tupperware FridgeSmart

This weeks share includes:

• Leaf lettuce
• Kale
• Radishes
• Chicken

Following are a couple of recipe links.  The first is to our Kale Chip recipe which can be found with others on our Recipes page.  The second one is the roasted chicken recipe that I have used for the last 5 chickens I have roasted.  It's from Pioneer Woman, (who I am a big fan of)

http://dfo-recipes.weebly.com/kale-chips.html

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/04/herb-roasted-whole-chicken/