CSA - Week 12

Hopefully everyone had an enjoyable Labor Day weekend and for those of you with school age children or that are teachers, I hope you survived backed to school Tuesday! 

We received almost 6" of rain since last Thursday, and since several of this weeks items grows underground so we will be doing plenty of washing with this week's harvest.

Nothing ever produces exactly as planned but one crop I had been disappointed in this year was green beans.  The primary plantings were stunted a bit from the overly wet June and just never got up to full yield.  Fortunately they are still producing and the two additional plantings that I did in early July are now kicking in. We picked 65 lbs of beans between Monday and today so heavier bean bags in the shares this week!

Prima apples are wrapping up, and we are now starting on McIntosh.  While the Prima's don't have a long shelf life, they are very resistant to apple scab. Meanwhile the McIntosh stay firmer longer and store better, but they are extremely susceptible to apple scab.  Apple scab is a caused by spores that infect the leaves of the apple tree in early spring following warm rains and then the spores on the leaves drop onto the apples as they are forming and cause black splotchy surface defects.  As long as the the scab is not too severe the apples are fine, just not very pretty.  In cases where it is more severe it causes the apple skins to crack as they grow larger.  The organic fungicide spray that we have used gets washed off with every rain, which also happens to be the time when the spores are released, as a result it isn't very effective.  So when you get both Prima's and Macs in your shares this week, the ones with the black surface blemishes are the McIntosh, they won't win any beauty contests but they are delicious!  :)

This week's shares include:

• Parsley
• Basil
• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Green Onions
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Tomatoes
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Green Beans
• Lettuce
• Apples

CSA - Week 11

Well its now September, so time to start harvesting some apples!  Our earliest variety, Prima, is hitting peak ripeness this week and I picked 6 bushels on Tuesday for this week's shares.

The chickens have moved onto pasture and are enjoying adding grass, seeds, insects, and grubs to their diets.  The biggest challenge related to moving the chickens outside is getting them all back into the coop at night.  I put down a small amount of feed for them in the coop to entice them, but it usually takes several evenings for all of them to get into the routine and those evenings involve us chasing and catching several chickens to get them all put away.  This batch of chickens were fairly quick learners and so by night four there was no more chasing required. :)

This weeks shares will include:

• Potatoes
• Tomatoes
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Lettuce
• Green Beans
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Beets
• Cabbage
• Basil
• Oregano
• Apples

Don't forget you can use both the beets and the greens, recipes for both can be found at http://dfo-recipes.weebly.com/beets.html

The Prima apple variety is a softer apple so its not great for long term storage but its awesome eaten fresh, used in pies and crisps, made into sauce,  or sliced and frozen for later use.

More basil and jalapenos this week. If you can't use them all right away you can chop up and freeze the jalapenos for use in chili, nachos, and other dishes this winter when you need some extra heat.  And the basil will stay fresh longer if you keep in a glass or vase of water out of direct sunlight at room temperature, or you can also hang it up to dry.

CSA - Week 10

This week feels more like the end of September not the end August!  Not complaining though, it sure is more enjoyable harvesting and weeding in cloudy 60 degree weather than when its humid and 90.

We have the return of sweet corn this week as well as beets and we are transitioning to Russet potatoes which we starting digging this week. It looks like it will also be the last week for zucchini and summer squash (I know, some of you won't be sad to not see any more of them for awhile) :)

This weeks shares include:

• Potatoes
• Tomatoes
• Sweet Corn
• Green Peppers
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Beets
• Cilantro
• Basil
• Zucchini or Summer Squash

CSA - Week 9

Well the raccoon have stayed out of the next harvest of corn so far, but that is probably because it isn't quite ripe yet.  They've been coming back to clean up on what's left from last week and so far 3 are now available for coon skin caps if anyone is interested.

The chicks are getting their white adult feathers in, they should be ready to move on to pasture about this time next week. 

This week's shares include:

• Arugula
• Basil
• Cilantro
• Dill
• Zucchini / Summer Squash
• Tomatoes
• Green Beans
• Red Potatoes
• Blackberries
• Green Peppers
• Jalapeno Peppers

Hope everyone has a great week!