Let’s start this week’s newsletter with a couple questions. What is your definition of a Community Supported Agriculture farm? Why did you join a CSA farm? What is/was your expectation in joining a CSA farm? I’m trying to gauge what people think CSA farming is all about. I appreciate all responses!!
This past Sunday we experienced a bit of wind. Well, maybe it was more than a bit. It was more like a lot of wind. Wind isn’t good for farming – unless you are a wind farmer. Wind just blows stuff around. And when we farm we put things where we want them hoping they pretty much stay there until we harvest them. Wind tries to do the exact opposite. It wants to move things from where they should be to where they shouldn’t – much like a two year old. Actually, pretty much like children of any age.
Anyway, the wind did a bit of damage here on the farm. Not a lot, just a bit. The biggest and only thing worth mentioning was it knocked down the sweet corn. This has happened before so we know what to expect. The first time wind knocked down the corn we thought for sure that we were out of the corn business that year. The corn lay flat on the ground. It looked like a disaster area. Well, a couple days later it was back upright. Well, upright in the sense of an 89 year-old man is upright. Not quite straight but not fallen over either. We did get corn that year but much of it was poorly pollinated. And we all know what poorly pollinated corn is like. It isn’t fully filled with kernels.
I suspect this year’s first corn will be similar. Since the wind brought the corn down while it was silking the ears may not fully develop. The later plantings of corn should be fine — as long as there is no great winds during their silking time.
Other than the wind, the storm on Sunday brought a nice amount of rain. We started irrigating last week. It was getting a bit dry. So we figured the only way to get it to rain was to turn on the irrigation. Works every time!
This week’s Vegetables
Get ready for the onslaught of Broccoli! We plant three varieties of broccoli that have maturities about a week apart. We do this three times during the spring and once more in the fall. If all goes exactly correctly you would receive nine weeks of broccoli in the spring/early summer and another three weeks of broccoli in the fall. Well, it didn’t work out exactly as planned. Actually it never works out exactly as planned. But it does work out none the less. This year the broccoli started coming on later than usual. We also had to plant it later than usual. The second planting caught up to the first planting. The third planting isn’t far behind. Hot weather adversely affects broccoli. So we are now being inundated with broccoli. Which means you will be inundated with broccoli. Start looking for recipes. Learn how to freeze (it is very easy and highly worthwhile).
In addition to broccoli the summer squash are coming on strong. The cukes just started and if past performance indicates future results (which according to all my financial institutions it does not), we should see a big blast of cukes for a while then a slow fade to none. But never fear, we have a second planting gearing up for later in the summer!
We are planning on digging potatoes this week. It is a variety call Red Gold. Red is for the skin; gold for the inside. It is a delicious potato. I recommend cutting them into bite sized pieces, putting them on the grill in a pan with some olive oil. If you leave them uncovered they will roast and get a nice crust — turn frequently so they don’t burn on the bottom. If you cover them they steam. Either way they are delicious!
To recap: we will have broccoli, potatoes, summer squash/zucchini (another great thing to grill), cucumbers, lettuce and kohlrabi. We will also most likely have peas, kale, chard, beets, garlic scapes, basil and maybe a few eggplants. There might be other things out there that I am forgetting.
FruitShare
No Fruit this week. Next Wednesday (July 20th) we will be picking up Cherries. If you would like to order delicious, organic cherries please let me know by noon Monday July 18th.
We also have one more chance to order flats of blueberries. The deadline for blueberries is the same as the cherries – noon Monday July 18th.
MeatShare
No MeatShare this week.
CheeseShare
No CheeseShare this week but we are still taking orders for garlic scape cream cheese. Let me know if you would like a tub or two! This is an exclusive Fresh Earth Farms offering. Don’t miss your chance!
And don’t forget to respond to my questions from above!! If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact me.