Full shares: Carrots, head lettuce, braising mix, kale, napa or green cabbage, and bok choi
Half shares: Everything minus head lettuce
Week #5 CSA share
It’s a beautiful time of year out here on K M Ranch Road. Everything is green, and the evening light really glows. For much of the spring, we keep woven frost blankets over all our crops, both for insect exclusion and warmer temps, which makes the farm look completely white. And for good reason…even with the amazingly warm spring we’re having, the cold front that blew through this past Saturday morning brought the temperatures down to 32 degrees at the farm by sunrise. But this week, we’ve pulled the vast majority of covers, and voila, it’s like a chia farm out there. The cabbages are ready, the broccoli are heading up, and the kale is super abundant. It’s a lot of green, and it looks great. And we are done planting. Like really, finally, done with the planting (ok, we have a little corn left still and lettuce and and …). That is a big load off our shoulders. Now it’s time to address the weeds, but just today we put a huge dent in that task. The investments we’ve made over the years in a cultivating tractor and figuring out how to best use it have really paid off. And what the tractor can’t get, the crew of apprentices have taken down with gusto. It’s exciting to see the farm taking shape. Over the past two years, we’ve not only been trying to grow a lot of food for our community, but we’ve been trying to build a farm from scratch with a view to the long term. And it’s pretty amazing how quickly it is shaping up. Just this week, we discovered that Whitefish Legacy and their trail contractor have constructed a great little single track trail on Spencer that overlooks the farm. The view up there during the evening light really gives a great view of how the farm is shaping up. I’ll make a point to take a photo for next weeks entry. For now, here’s a shot from the ground level, looking across about a quarter of the main field towards the high tunnels and greenhouse.
The brassica patch…this is southwest quarter of our original field
And how about the weather? The amazing warm streak continues! June started off great, with a little rain, but now we’re right back into the warm and dry pattern with no end in sight. It might actually turn out to feel like a real summer here at the 48th parallel, although the lack of rain may come back to bite us (smoke, anyone?). It’s this time of year where the farm undergoes a bit of a lull. Most of the food you’ve received up to this point has been grown in hoop houses and high tunnels, but we’ve had to till in these spring crops to make way for our summer crops. Which means we are now relying on only crops that are grown out in the field…and making the timing line up is quite difficult. For instance, the salad mix outside is still a week away from being ready, yet the salad mix in the high tunnel was tilled in and planted with tomatoes. So, the share this week reflects this lull. That said, the cabbage is ready. Oh, and there’s carrots too. And no, the lull didn’t take down the bok choy…wishful thinking. In fact, a CSA member who came out to the farm last week said she wished there was more bok choy because the recipe last year was so good! Well, after hearing that, I went back and mined the old blog posts, and here’s what I found:
Bok Choy Slaw– http://www.susiefreakinghomemaker.com/2013/07/bok-choy-slaw.html
Bok Choy for Breakfast! – http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/03/spicy-potato-bok-choy-and-shallot-hash-hangover-helper-recipe.html
And, since we are in before dark, I thought I’d take a quick stroll on Google to see what they had to serve up. First is a pretty typical saute style: http://www.chow.com/recipes/28071-sauteed-bok-choy, but I thought the sesame oil might flavor it up nicely.
And then I found this one, which looks really good for your kale and bok choi: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/03/bok-choy-kale-fried-rice-garlic-chinese-recipe.html
Sunday Seeding Selfies…beds of carrots and salad mix being direct seeded
For anyone who is struggling to keep their produce looking fresh, we wanted to offer the helpful tip that refrigerators are basically dehydrators. If you are going to put bok choi, or carrots, or any greens in the fridge, you need to put them in a plastic bag or sealable container so that they keep their moisture and stay fresh. We hope you are getting outside and enjoying the weather. See you at CSA distribution!
