Week 2: Hi everyone! We made it through last week – two on farm CSA pickups, CSA deliveries on Thursday to Milton, St Albans, Burlington and Colchester, and 2 farmers markets- whew! We have the best farm team. There was a lot of hustling and starting things back up last week. Thank you everyone for your patience and grace. We love thinking of you all while planting and harvesting. We get super excited when we see the big bodacious leaves of spinach or the perfect looking bok choys or the napa cabbage that is starting to squeal – and the little tiny, teeny, baby ZUCHINNI we saw this morning! It never gets old – the excitement of watching veggies grow. Just this morning Adam was like Look at this LEAF! Look at this bok choy! Look at this cabbage starting to head up. It’s huge! You nurture the plants and the land and the animals and just when you are feeling tired – they pull out all the stops and say Hey! look I’m growing and healthy thanks to you! And your heart smiles.
The spinach this week is bodacious. So yummy and buttery. The Boky choy variety we are growing this year is called Winn Winn and it sure is a win. The lettuce is going strong – would you all be interested in head lettuce too or just lettuce mix? The variety we grow can be cut into heads or made into lettuce mix because it is a loose leaf variety. The turnips are looking great and we are thinking we might be able to harvest those next week. The sugar snap peas are starting to flower and we should have them within a week or two. The cucumber and squash plants we put under this new kinf of row cover called protek net – which is a lot more durable than remay – its this netting made of spun plastic – its life span is 10-12 years – and it does not heat up under there like remay. It does not rip like remay. It was quite an investment this year – but the quality of produce coming out is phenomenal. We are keeping the cucurbit (squash and cukes)family covered until they get big and start to flower so they can be big strong plants that can fight off the cucumber beetle and squash bugs – the bane of an organic veggie farmer – these bugs spread viruses and make the plant wilt or deform the fruit and die. With these new row covers, we will hopefully be able to plant arugula in the summer season and not just in the shoulder seasons because it will not over heat it and bolt. We also have brassicas (cabbages/turnips/kale/bokchoy) covered to protect from the cabbage moth and flea beetles.
This past week we got the winter squash transplanted, field sauce tomatoes, okra, tomatilloes, melons, basil, tulsi, and flowers in. We are weeding the carrots and plants as we go. This week we hope to transplant more lettuce, more potatoes, more tomatoes, ground cherries, dye plants, more flowers, celery, herbs, and more direct seeding. We are trellising and pruning tomatoes. And Adam is constantly watering crops. This is the dryest spring/early summer we have ever had. Last year, it rained all of May and most of June – it’s the complete opposite this year. And are we ever grateful we put in town water at the veggie farm 2 years ago. We got a few more sprinklers from across the border and between the sprinklers and drip irrigation – we have water to every field on the farm. We can only run so many fields at a time – Adam has quite the schedule and alarms to move turn on this valve or turn off that valve.
Ok, well I better go. I need to help with set up for CSA pickup. See you all soon. Thanks for reading.
Thanks for being part of our farm. We look forward to farming with you this season.
Peace, your farmers, Christine, Adam, Sadie, Delia, Claire and Norma
What’s in the share this week:
This list is what is in a full share this week. Things may change between Monday and Thursday and Individual and Salad share will get differing amounts and may not get everything on the list. Lettuce mix, Spinach, Bok Choy, Red Russian Kale, cilantro, dill, plants
Eggs for sale We have the pretty girls’ eggs for sale – these are free-range, certified organic chicken eggs that are brown eggs– with the brightest yellow/orange yolks you ever seen. The eggs are $6.00 a dozen. $3.00 half dozen
RAW Jersey Milk for Sale: 1/2 gal jars available of Sandy and Skye’s Milk – cream is so creamy and they love all this spring grass. $5 a jar and if you don’t have a half gal jar to swap $3 deposit. Available at on farm pickup on Mondays and Thursdays.
RECIPES:
The fresh greens you get in your share this week can be eaten raw and put in a salad.
Bok Choy can be sauteed, grilled or steamed. I like to toss tamari on it in the pan for a quick sautee or split in half and grill it.
You can add fresh greens like kale, spinach, chard on pizza, in eggs, in smoothies. so good and very high in vitamins and minerals.
Garlicky Bok Choy – Bon Apetit
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
1 pound baby bok choy, rinsed, cut into quarters, with core intact
1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
RECIPE PREPARATION
Heat oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add garlic and shallot and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add bok choy, soy sauce, and 2 Tbsp. water and cover immediately. Cook 1 minute. Uncover and toss, then cover and cook until bok choy is tender at the core, about 3 more minutes.
Red Russian Kale with Garlic and Lemon
Ingredients
· 1 large bunch of red Russian kale, washed, stems removed and roughly chopped
· 2 tbsp olive oil
· 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
· Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
· ½ cup water
· Juice of half a lemon
Instructions
1. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and sauté for about a minute or until it turns just golden.
2. Add kale and stir until kale is fully coated with oil. Add salt, pepper and water. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes or until kale is soft and tender. Adjust seasonings and drizzle with lemon juice.