June 23rd – wk #3 2020

CSA Share this week

• Lettuce Mix
• Snow Peas
• Asian Greens – Tat Soi, Pac Choy
• Garlic Scapes
• Tokyo Bekana -new this season
• Basil tops

Vegetable Directory

For more information about the above items, you can find storage and usage tips on the Vegetable Directory. This can be found from the menu on the website or the link above.

Quick Tips – Snow Peas!! They cook quickly and should be added to a hot pan and will cook to a bright green. Do not overcook to keep the crisp crunch. They can also be eaten raw but best lightly cooked. A great addition to any stirfry or salad. Garlic Scapes!! This is the curly flower stalk that grows from stiff neck garlic– a treasured delicacy. They are not around long. Usually for just 2 weeks of CSA shares. You can use them as you would garlic. Great in stirfry, pesto, blended into dressings, egg dishes. They can also be cut up into smaller pieces and frozen for later use. Tokyo Bekana – this is another Asian green that is new for us this season. This is a type of Chinese cabbage that is “lettucy” and mild. The leaves and stems are edible and suitable raw or cooked. Asian greens – unwashed red stem and green – see last week. Basil tops – the first cutting of basil. We keep ours under a row cover with hoops to keep off pests. So delicate and aromatic. will turn black if it gets too cold- store carefully. Best used or preserved within a day or two. Try to keep the air in your bag to insulate from cold temps in the fridge. If it is not going to last, I like to blend it up with a little bit of oil and keep in the fridge to add to dishes throughout the week. Sometimes I add walnuts or cheese but most of the time it is just basil and oil. It will keep in the fridge for the week and zip up a quick dish of squash, pasta, or rice. Chiffonade –video to add a delicate basil flavor to dishes without overpowering.

Farm Update: We finally received some rain last night. Our rain gauge is broken….so we don’t know how much but the fields seem quite happy. This will help tremendously as we could never water like a soaking rain. However, the weeds will love it too. With the heat that is coming, we are expecting a boom. Wondering what we will be doing next week…..more transplanting, seeding, trellising, and weeding.

Coccinellidae We love ladybugs!! On our farm, we do not use any pesticides. We do our best with row cover protection, crop rotation, and handpicking pests. While picking peas yesterday we saw a tremendous amount of ladybug adults, larvae, and pupating into adults. Ladybug larvae are voracious eaters and devour other pest eggs. We rely on natural predators to maintain the balance of our pests. This one of the reasons we choose not to use ANY pesticides as they are not pest-specific and would not wish to hinder our natural population of good bugs.

**Important Note – No deliveries 6/29 -7/3** Since we have deliveries several days during the week when holidays arise it can create issues. This is stated in our CSA membership details. For the past few seasons, we have not had deliveries during the week of July 4th. This tends to be a week that many people travel, take long weekends, and have work closures. This year the holiday is observed on Friday, July 3rd. We are unable to make changes in delivery days to accommodate Friday members. Therefore, to keep all members receiving the same weekly CSA shares, there will not be CSA deliveries the week of June 29th – July 3rd.

Farm Events — We have decided to cancel our first farm event of the season. This event was to be a cooking demo with tastings. We are hopeful that we will hold the July event.
We have our annual farm events scheduled. We will decide at a later date if they will go on depending on how the current distancing requirements evolve. These events are held outside for CSA members and their families.
SAVE THE DATE:
Saturday, June 27th – Celebrate the Season – CANCELLED
Saturday, July 18th – Glorious Garlic Harvest – 9-2
Saturday, August 8th – Can You Dig It? #2 – Potato Harvest 10-2
Saturday, October 17th – Gratitude Gathering 1-6

Thank you for supporting our small farm!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. Feel free to email or text.