Week 3 Shares

This weeks shares will contain:

• Leaf Lettuce
• Cucumbers
• Chives
• Zucchini
• Turnips
• Collard Greens

A portion of this weeks leaf lettuce was supplied from the "farm" that I grew up on which is my dad's garden!  He has been growing organically from the beginning, back before most people were even aware of the concept.  His current garden site has been in use for almost 40 years and he has built up some amazing soil over that time!  Frequently his production exceeds the usage level that he and my mom need, so when he told me he had 100+ heads of lettuce ready for harvest, I told him I had the perfect outlet.

We harvested garlic this week also. It takes a couple of weeks to dry and cure and should be ready for shares by the beginning of August.  I was pleased with the results of our planting/weed block process that we used last fall when we put the garlic in.  We laid sheets of card board on the prepared beds, used a hole saw to make planting holes in the cardboard, and then planted the garlic cloves into the holes and covered with straw.  The result was almost no weeding this spring and much bigger bulbs than last season!

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The white and purple bulbs in this weeks shares are turnips.  They are a cool weather crop and we do both a spring and a fall planting.  If we have a cool start to summer then the spring planting is fairly abundant and helps fill in while some of the other warm weather crops catch up.  With our hot summer this season, the spring turnip harvest is pretty light, however if you are a big turnip fan, we should have another harvest in October.

The deer continue to be a pain, they topped both of the first two plantings of green beans and 3 of the 6 rows of snap peas.  We added fence height around all the fields and a strand of barbed wire at 7 feet.  Knock on wood, but no tracks in the fields since the barbed wire was added two weeks ago!  Now we are working on protecting our small orchard, each summer the deer have been eating most of the new growth that the trees put, so we are installing a 7' foot fence around the entire area.  Ash posts courtesy of all of the dead ash trees from my dad's place.  I have also worked up ground in between the trees to add 4 rows of strawberries as well.

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The heat loving crops like the blackberries and tomatoes are sizing up nicely!

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Week 2 Shares

I hope everyone had an enjoyable 4th of July week!  We spent a lot of time with family and friends, including a 4 day visit to Munising with my parents and sisters and their families.  We received close to 5" of rain at the farm while we were gone, which when combined with temps in the 80-90s, has resulted in the some awesome crop growth (and also weed growth).

Kale just before harvesting for this week's shares.  Leeks and onions to the right

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Broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts

Tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini

This week's shares will include:

• Lettuce
• Cucumber
• Radish
• Zucchini
• Broccoli
• Kale
• Arugula

For those who may not be all that familiar with or know what to do with the last two items, following is a brief introduction along with some suggested recipes.

Kale - Classified as a "Superfood" due to the high levels of nutrients and anti-oxidants.  There are several different types of kale: red kale, curly scotch kale, blue kale, and black kale (which is not black, and is also known as dinosaur kale, go figure).   To be honest, it is not my favorite vegetable when eaten just by itself, but it is a great addition to salads, and tastes awesome when made into chips, or included in a frittata.   Lots of people add it as part of a breakfast or energy shake as well since it has a high level of protein.

Arugula - This green ranks much higher on my personal ratings scale, it has an awesome sharp peppery flavor that adds a great kick to a salad or a sandwich, it is also delicious sauteed as a side dish or included with pasta.  It is also referred to as salad rocket, which is pretty cool.

Arugula Recipes       Kale Recipes

One more tip - While we haven't seen a lot of cabbage moth flight, I usually soak the broccoli heads in cold salt water for about 15-20 minutes before using, any small cabbage worms that may be in the heads will come out. Unless you want the additional protein, then just skip the step and move to roasting or steaming. :)

Week 1 Shares

It has been a busy and exciting start to the week!  Our first harvests have begun and chickens went from field to freezer yesterday morning.  The corn, tomatoes, and peppers have been loving the hot weather, but the snap peas and radishes not so much, which has resulted in somewhat lower yields for these early items.  Tuesday's cooler temperatures were a nice break and we were blessed with an unexpected afternoon rain shower that provided about 0.25" of water.

This weeks shares include:

• Snap Peas
• Garlic Scapes
• Leaf Lettuce
• Radishes
• Chives
• Chickens

Monday was our new recipe testing evening and we had positive reviews on all three

Garlic Scape Hummus   Garlic Scape and Cheese Biscuits     Snap Pea & Garlic Scape Stir Fry

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CSA Season Tips

As we get ready to kick off share distributions next week, I thought I would share some suggestions for optimizing your enjoyment of the produce you will be receiving throughout the upcoming season:

• Storage - Proper storage will make a huge difference in how long your produce will last.  Leafy greens need to stay refrigerated with high humidity but not wet.  There are several relatively inexpensive storage containers with vented lids that are awesome and will keep greens crisp for a week plus.  Another effective option for keeping greens fresh is to wrap them with a lightly dampened paper towel and place them in an unsealed plastic bag in the refrigerator. Not all produce needs to be refrigerated, several types such as tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, basil, and others actually last better at room temperature.  The University of California, Davis is an awesome resource we use for optimizing our storage after harvest, the following link is a great summary of how to store a wide range of fruits and vegetables:   UC_Davis Link

• Usage - Be open to trying new food and recipes.  We don't grow too many "exotic" items, but veggies such as beets, radishes, kale, swiss chard, collard greens, and others may not have been on your regular grocery list.  We have a continually expanding inventory of awesome recipes on our website to help you incorporate each week's share contents into your weekly meal planning.  Speaking of meal planning, preparing and eating in at least a couple times per week will help to make the best use of your share!  Many of our recipes have been provided by our shareholders - please feel free to share your favorites and we'll add them to the web page.  Recipe Page 

• Extras - If you don't think you will able to consume all of your share before it goes bad, freezing is a great option. We usually try and prep stuff so it will be in the easiest usable format out of the freezer, for example chopping peppers and freezing in 1 cup increments or shredding zucchini and storing it in 3 cup quantities perfect for using in zucchini bread in December.  Herbs can also be chopped and frozen, but I prefer to just let them hang in a warm, dry location for a few weeks and then then run them through the blender or food processor or just crumble by hand and store in a jar. Canning items such as tomatoes or pickling cucumbers and beets is also an easy extended storage option. While many people usually can large quantities at a time, you can process as little as one jar at a time if you like.  Following is a link to the Ball Canning website with all kinds of useful preserving information.  http://www.freshpreserving.com/