One week from today the season begins! (That would be June 20th for the calendarly challenged). Please check your email for pick-up instructions (except as noted below).
Before we can start the season we have a few quick announcements.
Please get any final orders for Fruit, Cheese, Ice Cream and Eggs to us by noon on Friday June 16th.
We can squeeze in a couple more veggies shares. Please order ASAP if you plan to participate this year!
Pick-up instructions went out to everyone except for International Plaza and the near 3M drop sites. I should have emails to members picking up at these locations sent shortly; sorry for the delay. For anyone else please let me know if you did not receive the instructions and I will try to discover why.
On-farm Pick-up. A couple people who picked up on Mondays last season have not chosen a new day. We do not have Monday on-farm pick-up anymore so please let us know which other day you prefer.
If you have any questions about pick-ups now is the time to ask them! It gets nothing but more busy from now on.
Farm News
First I must say I am extremely thankful that the severe weather that crossed the Twin Cities did not impact us. I’ve seen reports of farms completely wiped out by the large and voluminous hail. My heart goes out to those farmers who put their life into the hard work they do just to have it destroyed in a matter of moments. It can happen to any of us farmers. It is just the luck of the draw. Though we talk about CSA being about shared risk I would hate to have to inform our customers that all our plants and your vegetables were destroyed. I hope these farms recover to plant another day and wish them the best.
Second, the struggle we were having for quite a while was the lack of rain. We spent a considerable amount of time trying to keep our plants from dying. Saturday was perhaps the most trying day. 98 degrees with a fierce wind sucking all the moisture out of the ground and out of the plants. We did our best to keep the cool season crops from bolting and the warm season recent transplants from wilting. I think we were successful but time will tell.
Third, what the heck does the title of this newsletter even mean? For those of you new to the farm and to seasonal eating you may not know what garlic scapes are. In your first week you will receive these wonderful, curly-q treats. In fact you will probably receive them for the first few weeks. Garlic scapes are a part of the garlic plant that we cut off to force the garlic plant to put more energy into growing the garlic bulb. In the past, garlic growers used to leave these delectables in the field until one brave soul took a bite and discovered their wonderful taste! It has a mild, garlicky flavor.
We like to put garlic scapes through the food processor to grind them up then throw in a block of cream cheese to make a delicious spread. Using sour cream instead provides a nice dip! You can also roast them or add them to any dish that needs a nice garlic note. We’ve used them as edible shish kebob spears. The potential uses of garlic scapes are only limited by your imagination. If you have other ideas on how to use scapes please send them my way and I can put them in next week’s newsletter. By the way, garlic scapes store in the fridge for a very long time. The tips and cut end may dehydrate over time but just cut them off and use the rest. We’ve found scapes lost in our fridge that were more than a month old and they still tasted delicious!
Predictions for week one: I’m going out on a limb but I think we will have some of the following: lettuce, chard, kale, garlic scapes, snap peas, radishes, green onions, bok choi, and maybe broccoli. Oh and possibly beets!
As always, do not hesitate to send in your questions, comments, suggestions, jokes, brain teasers, etc.