Full Shares: Salad mix, Broccoli, Basil, Lil’ Gem mini romaine, Purple Cauliflower, Green Cabbage, and Sauté Mix

Partial Shares: Salad mix, Sauté mix, Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Beets

Hello CSA members!

While this is not the wettest June that we’ve farmed in, there sure has been a lot of rain at the farm the past couple of weeks! I don’t recall so many forecasts for “showers” resulting in long heavy downpours. It’s certainly saved us from having to do any irrigation, and the cool weather crops have been enjoying it. So much so that the first cauliflower are ready this week, which is a couple weeks earlier than normal. On the flip side of that, we have finished up harvesting the carrots in the high tunnel, but the carrots growing out in the field are not quite ready due to cool conditions. So, we’re going to take a break from carrots this week to allow them to size up. The weather is turning warm this week, and with all the soil moisture, we’re expecting crops to really take off!

On top of harvesting, this is “the” week that we are going to tackle the major weedy spots and catch up. We’ve hired two more people, and so our farm crew is now at a total of 10, which is a new record for us. Seven women and three men….who said farming was a male dominated sector?! I do think agriculture needs to be reimagined in this country, and it certainly needs more compassion in how we treat the soil, the landscape, biodiversity, and field workers…basically, life in general….so who better to carry that torch forward than young women! It’s a stellar crew this year, and for the first time ever, I feel like we have enough people on the farm to make the work load somewhat more reasonable and take some of the pressure off Rebecca and I. In addition to weeding, this is the week that we start cutting our pasture and cover crops to make on farm compost for our master plan of reducing tillage and reducing weed pressure.

Flail chopping tall clover in the rain for making compost

It may seem strange, but both Rebecca and I separately commented on how “beautiful” the compost piles were.

Yep, pure beauty I tell ya.

It’s fun to see the health of the overall farm continuing to improve. The heavily compacted and unproductive pastures that were present when we first moved here have been turned into tall fields of clover, grass, pollinator plantings, and cover crops.

The pollinator plantings between the high tunnels are just starting to bloom!

This weeks share definitely is shifting into early summer crops, with broccoli, green cabbage, cauliflower, and even some of the first basil. If you ask me, there is nothing better than broccoli and cauliflower sautéed in a cast iron pan with some garlic (keep the lid on so it steams…maybe even add a shot of water part way through to help the steaming action). More than a few meals this week have been this garlicky broccoli, Rebecca’s homemade tortillas with pesto spread, and some venison sausage. When it starts pouring rain again this weekend, maybe you’ll be in the mood for some comfort food…so try this garlicky cauliflower pasta dish. Maybe Tahini isn’t your style? Well, how about this pasta dish with cauliflower? The beauty of picking recipes for this newsletter is that I can just pick all the recipes that I would personally cook if I ever decided to stop sautéing everyone in a cast iron pan. Living vicariously, I suppose.

Oh, and one quick note on CSA. While I know you are all experts by now and have this thing dialed…what about the friend, spouse, or child that you send to get your share like a lamb to slaughter? If you are sending someone else, please try to remind them to bring a bag, give them a quick run down on the process relative to your pickup location, and definitely tell them not take the white CSA boxes home with them. Me tackling unsuspecting people who are absconding with our CSA boxes is not good for our business or reputation. Thanks, and we’ll see you at CSA distribution!

Todd