CSA Week #7

Full Share: Broccoli, Mixed Beets, Green Cabbage, Salad Mix, Basil, Carrots, and Baby Kale

Partial Share: Spinach, Broccoli, Green Cabbage, Basil, and Carrots.

Hello CSA members!

While the spring weather may have soured your weekend plans, the plants on the farm thoroughly enjoyed a good natural soaking. And I really enjoyed that it was too wet to work…it was definitely one of the more restful weekends I’ve had lately. Today we managed to harvest for CSA and market, and get all the onions weeded (~6,480 row feet). That allowed plenty of time for banter amongst the crew. The discussion topics covered climate change; optimism vs. pessimism; human potential; capitalism; GMO’s (transgenic vs. gene editing); the difference between errors, lies, and obfuscation and how it relates to Mike Pence’s recent CNN interview; trophic cascades; aliens; and my personal favorite…. the Wall-E movie, amongst other things. It’s left me feeling a bit mentally drained as I sit down to write. Or perhaps I”m just dehydrated. It’s hard to remember to drink water when you’re being rained on.

So, let’s take a little farm walk….

Here's Block 1...this is all the kale and broccolini, with the high tunnels in the background. — Up first….This is Block 1 looking west towards the Salish Mountains…it’s all the kale, collards, and broccolini, with the Rolling Thunder High Tunnel in the near background (full of tomatoes) as well as tunnels 2, 3, and 4, which are also full of tomatoes and basil.

This is a portion of 18 beds of carrots…the rows would stretch 2 miles if linked end to end. They have been pre-emergent flame weeded, basket weeded with the tractor, and now await a hand weeding by the farm crew.

Just to the north, a nice patch of cauliflower in Block 5

And always a fan favorite….18,000 freshly weeded garlic plants in Block 10…not that anyone is counting

All in all, there are 35 blocks on our 13-acre field. Each block has 13 beds that are 180 feet long. Lucky for you, block 13 this week happened to produce some real beautiful broccoli and sweet green cabbage. This is prime time for these “Cole” or cruciferous crops, as the heat and bugs have not ramped up enough to torment them. It’s hard to beat steamed broccoli with a little butter on it. Or, roast it, with this recipe variation. As for the cabbage, slice it super thin and make a oil & vinegar quick-slaw, use on tacos, or sauté. And then there are the beets. They are terrific cubed and roasted, but honestly, my favorite use is to simply grate them raw on top of my salad mix before I add my olive oil, balsamic vinegar and sea salt.

Enjoy the pleasant weather….the heat of summer will be here soon enough. See you at CSA pickup!

Todd