CSA Newsletter for June 13, 2015

Farm Update

The lettuce really appreciated this great rain we
got yesterday!

Hello everyone! We just had a nice much needed rain, and things are really growing right now! The fields were really dry, but fortunately now they have had a good soaking.  Fred was also happy to get a little break from the field work on Friday morning after an intense week at the farm. It seems we are now winning the fight against the flea beetles, though we did start to see our first cucumber beetles this week, so the respite from insect pressure will likely be brief.  Our potatoes are really looking nice, and things in general look very vibrant.  There are a lot of green strawberries, so we are hoping they dry out quickly after the rain, and that we get warm enough temperatures to ripen them quickly in time for the CSA this week.  This is a very busy time at the farm as the crops are growing quickly, and also because harvesting, planting, and weeding are all at their highest demand.  The next few weeks should be really crazy until Fred’s insane workload tapers off a little bit after the 4^th of July.  It is so great to finally have an abundance of fresh veggies and fruit here at home, and we hope you will enjoy it this week as well!

What to Expect in Your Share This Week

If you love green onions as much as I do,
you can look forward to some of these lovely
bunches of goodness as a choice in your share
this week!

At the regular drop-offs:

• Choice kohlrabi or green onions
• Choice of chives, cilantro, or baby fennel
• Choice of spring mix or large-leaf salad mix
• Choice of head lettuce or spinach
• Strawberries
• Choice of kale or chard
• Choice of bok choy or radishes

We'll also have fennel in the shares this week,
because some of it is getting big enough to harvest!

For home/workplace delivery:

A Share:

Kohlrabi
Cilantro
Spring mix
Head lettuce
Strawberries
Kale
Bok choy

B Share:

Green onions
Chives
Large-leaf salad mix
Spinach
Strawberries
Chard
Radishes

Veggie Spotlight:  Cilantro

Cilantro is often confused with parsley because
the leaves have such a similar look, but the flavor
is totally different.

Also known as coriander or Chinese parsley, cilantro is an herb that is very widely used throughout the world, and is actually thought to be the most widely used spice on the planet.  Here in the U.S. coriander is used to refer to the seeds of the plant (which have kind of an orangy flavor), and cilantro usually refers to the leaf and stem portion, which we most often find bunched in the supermarket.  Cilantro has one of the shortest shelf lives of any fresh herb, so it really is best to get it very fresh.  If you have ever confused it with parsley, you are not alone.  Though the taste is very different, the look is similar and botanically it is closely related to parsley.

If you happen to be one of those people who strongly dislike cilantro, you may have your genes to blame, because studies have shown that there is a strong correlation between genetics and finding it repulsive.  Apparently, the olfactory-sensor sensor gene OR6A2 is strongly linked to a strong repulsion to the aldehydes in cilantro, which give it its flavor.  A few of our teenage workers find it repulsive, as Fred did when he was a teenager, so maybe there is an age component to disliking it as well.

The history of humans and cilantro is long, and it is thought to be cultivated for over 5000 years.  Partly because it has been cultivated for so long, its origin is unclear, but it is thought to have been native to somewhere between the Southern Mediterranean and Southeastern Asia.  It has been found in ancient Egyptian tombs and other ancient burial sites throughout the world.  Coriander also was referenced in the biblical Exodus account (apparently manna had a coriander flavor to it), and in Arabian Nights. 

This is what cilantro looks like growing in the
field, long before you see it bunched at the store
or the CSA drop-off.

We grow cilantro every year at the farm, and we love to use it at home during the season.  Usually we grow cilantro by planting the seeds directly into the ground with our field seeder, and then harvesting about 40-50 days later.  This year we have mostly grown it from transplants, starting the seeds in the greenhouse and then transplanting it into the field when the plants were a little bit bigger.  Micro cilantro is also one of the microgreens we grow in the greenhouse.  Since we know we can plant them in the field later as transplants, we usually seed more micro cilantro than we think we will need in the greenhouse, and then transplant what does not sell at the micro size in the field so it can grow nice and tall to a size we can bunch.  It cuts down on weeding significantly, and also cuts the time down in the field to about for weeks instead of 40-50 days. 

Hopefully this leaves you a little more educated about the cilantro you may be eating this week, and you enjoyed learning more about this delicious herb as much as I did! Enjoy!

Recipes

Every year when people first see kohlrabi as one of the choices, it creates quite a stir, just because it looks so weird!  It kind of looks like a UFO, or one of those little green aliens in the claw machine on Toy Story.  But kohlrabi is actually really versatile, so try out one of these 5 Tasty Ways to Prepare Kohlrabi this week!

And if you are super excited to use cilantro in a new way after reading all about it, here are 22 Cilantro Recipes for the Herb's Biggest Fans!  Or if you're one of the cilantro haters, you might just want to ignore this one. :-)