CSA Newsletter for Week 10

Farm Update

We brought in a major part of the potato
 harvest this week!  Fred drives over the row
of potatoes with our old-school potato digger,
which picks up the soil the potatoes are in.
Then the potatoes and soil roll down a series of
rollers, where the soils fall through the spaces
between the rollers, and the potatoes are
deposited on the ground for us to follow behind
and pick up.

Hi everyone!  Hope you're all doing well!  We're just about halfway through the season, and it's already starting to feel like summer is winding down!  Maybe it's all the school supplies in the stores, and maybe it's the fact that in a few weeks, most of our employees are going back to school, but it feels like a distinct shift in the season.  August is kind of the golden age of summer for us, because most of the planting is done for the year, and there isn't the sheer insane volume of work that is characteristic of June and July.  There is still quite a lot of work to do, but if we're going to sneak away from the farm for a day or two, now is the time to do it, because we still have plenty of help.  In September and October, our constant presence at the farm is pretty much a necessity, because we'll have about a third of the available labor that we have right now.  So with that in mind, Fred took off yesterday afternoon to go camping and hiking at the Nordhaus Dunes near Ludington, and I took the kids down to the Midland Farmer's Market.  It's always so much fun to meet other local growers and producers, and I really appreciate the awesome community of small farmers here in mid-Michigan!  It really is an increasingly unusual life we've chosen, full of long hours of work in the summer and near hibernation in the winter, where your income is uncertain and success is far too dependant on the whims of the weather, and yet there is such an inexplicable richness to it.

In other news, things are going pretty well at the farm.  Fred actually took Thursday off from the Midland drop-off to speak at a soil seminar up at Morgan's Composting, which is where we have our custom organic soil fertility mixes made up each year.  As always, we could definitely use more rain (I think that is pretty much the running theme of this season), but we've got plenty of great summer veggies coming up in the shares!  There might even be a few more items that aren't on the list that will make an appearance at the drop-offs, depending on when things become ready, so don't be surprised if you see a few more veggies on the tables that weren't listed in the newsletter.  See you all this week! :-)

What to Expect in This Week's Share

These little lettuces in the greenhouse
will be transplanted into the field soon.

If you are picking up at one of our traditional style drop-offs (Alma, Mt. Pleasant, or Midland), here’s what the options will be at the different stations.  If you have a half share, you’ll choose one item at each station, and if you have a full share, you choose two items at each station.

• Potatoes
• Onion
• Carrots or sweet potato greens
• Cherry tomatoes
• Lettuce or tomatoes
• Zucchini, kale, or basil
• Leeks or delicata squash

If you have a prepacked share (Midland hospital, St. Johns, Lansing, Okemos, or home delivery), here are your options.  If you have a half share, you’ll choose either share A or share B, and if you have a full share, you can choose two of them.

Share A:                               Share B:

Potatoes                                Potatoes
Carrots                                  Carrots
Onion                                    Onion
Cherry tomatoes                   Cherry tomatoes
Lettuce                                  Tomatoes
Zucchini                                Kale
Leeks                                     Delicata squash

Recipes

If you're a stranger to delicata squash, you've got an exciting treat coming up!  This is my absolute favorite of the winter squashes, with it's thin skin and wonderful texture!  You can prepare it the same way you would any other winter squash, or you could try out this recipe for Maple-Roasted Delicata Squash with Red Onions from Epicurious.  Also new on the CSA list this week is sweet potato greens, which is exactly what it sounds like.  It's the leaves of the sweet potato plant, and they're awesome!  You can cook them in a similar way to kale or chard, but they're so much more tender.  We actually had no idea you could eat them until a CSA member picked some up at a farmer's market in Minneapolis on vacation and told us about them, and we were shocked at how good they are!  So try out this recipe for Stir-Fried Sweet Potato Leaves, or just saute them in coconut oil for a fantastic side dish.