Hello!

This letter will be a little brief (and probably riddled with typos), so apologies in advance! I had to train the delivery person and now need to be available for the inevitable 1st week “where is my box” phone calls.

Thank you for joining with us this season and thank you for your patience regarding the delivery date delay. The past few days of sun have made the last several months of endless rain and cold seem like a far-off dream. (Nightmare is more like it.) This has been one of the most horrendous springs we have ever experienced in our 25+ years of farming. It just rained so much and was so cold! It is always a bit of a struggle breaking ground in the spring with our heavy soil. We need a good multi-day stretch to dry things out before we can plow, fertilize, till and plant. This spring we hardly ever got that break. We’d look at the weather app one day and it would forecast sun and we’d get all excited and hopeful, and then a day later it would say, “Ha! Just kidding. You can go ahead and keep that tractor parked cuz it’s gonna be awhile.”

All of us farmers have been in a state of doom and despair, swapping stories of missed plantings, chunky soil, struggling plants, and broken equipment. I had 4 different farmers text me yesterday alone to commiserate, ask advice, and offer a mutual hang-in-there. I hate to start out of the gate with complaining, I just want to help you all understand how this season has started out for us (and all the local farms). I’m sure the cold and clouds have affected you as well.

All that being said, the sun is coming to us in its full glory. No dipping a toe in the waters of summer. It’s full-on cannon ball. This weekend is supposed to be in the high 80’s and I am excited to see how the plants respond. Summer, indeed!

And before you panic and think we hardly got anything planted, we did finally get some weather breaks and have many, many successions of crops in the grounds. I think some things might be a little later in coming than usual, but there is a lot of future food out there.

FANCY NEW BOXES!

At most pickup locations, we are using re-usable plastic totes. We have wanted to do this for years and are finally making it happen. These totes were pricey, so please return them when you pick up your box next week. (No need to make a special trip beforehand). Wipe them out once you’ve emptied them, so we don’t have to spend hours scrubbing funky crates. We will sanitize them before they get used again.

ATTN Farm Fresh Market Members: Due to the unsecure location of the CSA boxes, we cannot use the plastic totes. There is no way to ensure the boxes will still be there a week later and the store does not have the space inside to keep them.

WHAT’S IN THE BOX:
lettuce
carrots
green onions
cilantro
dill
garlic
garlic scapes
zucchini
red Russian kale

VEGGIE ID:
Returning members will be familiar with everything in the box, but new folks may be scratching their heads about the kale and garlic scapes.
Garlic scapes are the seed stock of the garlic plant. The texture is similar to asparagus and the flavor is garlicky, but milder than cloves. Use it anywhere you’d use garlic. The season for scapes is very short, so enjoy them while they are here!
Red Russian kale: This is our favorite kale. It is sweeter and more tender than traditional curly kale. It can be added to salads or cooked as you would any other kale. Makes good kale chips, too.

Crazy Winter Photos:

So far this year is proving to be one of weather extremes. We had record snow, record flooding, record rainy spring, and on it goes. Hearing about the crazy weather in other places however, I am grateful to be here!

Below are some snow and flood pics for perspective.

Enjoy your veggies!

Jen

CSA Newsletter - Summer - Week 1