You know that children’s book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie? It goes something like if you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to want a glass of milk to go with it. And if he has a glass of milk then he’s going to want to…. you get the idea. This week has been one of those weeks. However, my version is more like, “If a farmer goes to the barn to get her clipboard, she might as well grab a few things out of the cooler for dinner. On her way to the barn/cooler she notices the plants in the greenhouse are dried out and need to be watered immediately. While watering, she decides that the lettuce is ready for transplanting and she should move them outside. While moving the plants outside, she notices how insanely tall the grass is. She decides to mow…. (I don’t think I ever did get that clipboard.)

It is a frantic, but exciting time on the farm. We are still doing weekly plantings, weeding like mad, and harvesting new crops every week. The weather has been phenomenal this spring and early summer. It is one of the driest springs we’d had, at least early on. It allowed us to plant potatoes in late March, which is crazy-early for us. In fact the potatoes you got today are from that miracle planting. It was just at the onset of the pandemic and we were wondering what we should do about the upcoming season and what that was going to look like. Do we plant less, because maybe the markets will close? Do we plant more because we all have to eat, pandemic or not? We decided to keep the plan more or less the same, but planted extra storage and staple crops. We feel like no matter what happens, we will find a way to get food to the people. It has been a stressful spring wondering will we have workers? Will we stay healthy? Will markets be open? What new protocols and procedures must we put in place? We’ve been rolling with it pretty well, much to my surprise. It seemed more daunting at the outset. I suppose after 25+ years of being a farmers, where things seldom follow the plan, we have gained a bit of resilience and adaptability.

March 21st - Jim, Cylas, and I doing a family pandemic potato planting

Also, our crew is fantastic this year. We have a lot of new folks which can be tricky as it takes awhile to get everyone up to speed. But this is a sharp lot. We will try to herd all of the cats together for a crew photo soon.

Let’s dive in to this week’s box!

WHAT’S IN THE BOX:
Carrots
Green onions
Dill, parsley, or rosemary
Chard or beets
Lettuce
Curly or Red Russian kale
Snow, snap, or shell peas
New potatoes-Yellow Finn
Green or Italian zucchini

NOTES:
Peas- (see below for pictures). You should have gotten 2 of the 3 types of peas. Shell peas are the longer fat ones. The shells are tough and fibrous, so you must break them open and just eat the peas inside. This is a great activity for little kids who keep whining “I’m hungry, I’m hungry” while you are trying to make dinner. They are so sweet and tasty raw, but are also wonderful steamed or lightly boiled. Drizzle with melted butter and sprinkle with chopped fresh dill or parsley. Snow Peas are the flat ones. They are sweet and crunchy-great for snacking. Add to stir fry, curry, cold pasta salads, etc. Snap peas are shorter and plumper than shell peas. They are the sweetest pea. Again, great for snacking or adding to green or pasta salad. Enjoy the peas while you can. Peas do not like the the heat, and we are getting a lot of it lately. There is another planting coming down the pike, so you’ll see them for another week or two at least.
New Potatoes: This variety is yellow Finn. The skin is so thin and tender and we tried not to rough them up too much while washing (hence some lingering dirt). Enjoy them steamed, perhaps with the shell peas, drizzled with butter and fresh herbs.
Everything else in the box should be familiar.
Kale: Jim found a delicious new way to prepare kale and is now a regular item on our rotating dinner menu. Massaged Kale Salad. It is ridiculously easy to make and is bright and refreshing-great on a hot day.

Enjoy your veggies!

Jen

CSA Newsletter - Week 2 - 2020