Full Share:  Beets, Carrots, Basil, Broccoli, Garlic Scapes, Red Romaine lettuce, Rainbow Chard, and Salad Mix

Partial Share:  Beets, Carrots, Broccoli, Garlic Scapes, and Red Romaine lettuce

Hello CSA members!

Summer is back for a little bit, it seems.  I’m not sure if there is normal weather any more, but the rain this spring and the warm temps (forgetting about the two frosts last week for the moment) have made for a pretty ideal growing season thus far.  Today I cruised through the first broccoli planting and was happy to find big, perfectly mature broccoli for the shares this week.  And after some thinning and some water, the beets have finally sized up in the quantity needed to include in the share again.  The garlic scapes are in abundance as well, so you will be seeing them again this week.  Rebecca has been on a bacon, garlic scape, and rainbow chard kick this week, and she gives it the thumbs up.  And she writes a great newsletter, as so many of you have commented on lately, even if being an Illeist is a bit weird 🙂  On top of the newsletter writing  slight, my mother called the other day to ask if my dog was still alive because she has not been in any farm photos lately.

Well, I am happy to report that Casey is doing great.  In fact, she is a bit like Benjamin Button and appears to be aging backwards this summer.  She has a complex social life of visiting all the apprentices at their cabins, napping in the shade, eating carrots, and acting like she hasn’t been fed dinner yet, and it seems to be working well for her.  Just because she is smart enough to not get sprayed by skunks, and hence left out of the newsletter, was not meant to imply her demise.

Now that we’ve cleared those important topics up….back to vegetables.  Just a reminder to keep your vegetables moist and sealed up in your refrigerator so that they keep well.  This is especially important with carrots.  Nobody likes a limp carrot.  We recommend cutting the tops off, and putting the carrots in a ziploc bag or tupperware container with a little water in it to keep them fresh and crispy.  Refrigerators are great big desiccating machines, which tend to suck all moisture out of vegetables in just a few days.  So, if your CSA share is not keeping for as long as you would like, try sealing them up a bit better in your fridge.

I know I’ve been telling lots of you to eat your beet greens, but did you know that traditionally, beets were grown for their leaves rather than their roots?  Aside from some history, This little snippet also gives some good info on their nutritional value, we well as a recipe for Borscht.  And beets are way more versatile than you might think….chocolate beet cake, beet tarts, and how about French Peasant Beets.  They seemed to get paired a lot with cheese or chocolate…..here is a list of some other ideas.

One last item…  Now that we are heading into July and are almost to the midway point of the CSA, we will be sending out emails within the next few days to all our CSA members who have outstanding balances.  We would greatly appreciate it if your balances could be paid off in the near future before we get to close to the end of the season.

Thanks again for your support, and enjoy the beautiful weather!

Todd and the Two Bear Farm Crew