Full Share: Carrots, Collard Greens, Green Cabbage, Broccoli, Zucchini, Mesclun Mix, Chioggia Beets, and Romanesco Cauliflower
Partial Share: Carrots, Chioggia Beets, Graffiti Cauliflower, Zucchini, Head Lettuce and Broccoli
Hello CSA members!
What a crazy week! Saturday started with 4 hours of farm tours for a local fundraiser, followed by a huge thunderstorm that dropped over an inch of rain (and some hail, which makes for dented zucchini and holy lettuce) in about a half an hour. Plus we’ve had family in town for a week (which makes for big zucchini), we’ve been preparing for our Organic Inspection tomorrow, and we’ve been short one apprentice who needed to return home for a wedding. So, if I look a bit fried at CSA distribution and your zucchini is big and dented, now you know why. Just nod and smile when I call you by the wrong name 🙂
This is high season on the farm. A lot of fresh organic food is moving off this farm every week and into our community, which is one of the main reasons why we do what we do, but boy, it can be a bit overwhelming at times. There are 12 acres of vegetable crops being planted, weeded, irrigated and harvested by just 6 people. We harvest every morning 5 days a week, have CSA distribution 5 days a week and attend 3 Farmers Markets, all of which require lots of washing, sorting and packaging of produce. Then on top of that we try to keep the weeds in check, seed succession plantings of crops such as salad mix, do big harvests of items like garlic, cabbage, onions, and winter squash, and irrigate when needed. And it goes like that for 20 weeks in a row. It’s very gratifying work, but certainly a bit of a whirlwind.
As for the shares this week, the partial share folks should be seeing the graffiti purple cauliflower as promised, while full shares will be getting Romanesco, the crazy fractal relative to broccoli and cauliflower. Here’s a little tip and recipe for how to handle it. You are getting your first bunch of collards greens, which we highly recommend you use like tortillas for wraps, or stuff them and grill them. While cooking for the family this weekend, we sautéed some garlic scapes and summer squash, put that mix in a square piece of collards along with fresh mozzarella, brushed it with olive oil and grilled it lightly for a unique and delicious appetizer. You can also stuff them like cabbage rolls for a unique twist. The beets this week are Chioggia (pronounced Kee-OH-dja), which sounds much more satisfying if you do it in a deep samurai-type voice. These beets are white and red candy striped inside, and seemed to be at their best either roasted (or smoked?), combined with cheese, or combined with chocolate. Once the madness of this week calms down, I’m going to go check out the potatoes and tomatoes, and I’m guessing they will both be making appearances in the shares soon.
Hope you are enjoying this mild July weather! See you at CSA distribution!
