CSA Newsletter for Week 5

Farm Update

Bunching carrots is a messy business!  You'd
never guess it when you get the carrots in your
shares, but we are always covered in mud after
a carrot-bunching session!  Here, Jen, Brayden,
Charlie, and Max are laughing at some oddly
shaped carrots.

Hi everyone!  Each week you win some and you lose some, and I think this week we came out about even.  On the upside, we're very pleased to have gotten a few more workers!  We were starting to fall behind on some important things because there were just not enough hours in the day.  Finding good workers for the farm is especially difficult, because not only do they have to be able and willing to work long hours in the hot sun, but they also have to be strong, fast, make good decisions on the fly, and have a good eye for what quality produce looks like.  And there aren't too many people who possess all of those qualities.  But we've had a few faithful teenage farm workers who have recruited some of their most capable friends, and suddenly, we're able to get things done!  Now we're making a dent in the weeds that were threatening to take over, we got a new round of lettuce planted, and we got our garlic harvested and curing.  We've also been harvesting a ton of blueberries, but we actually have a local guy named Tomas bring a crew of a few friends or relatives, and they harvest our blueberries for us every year.  The blueberry harvest is such a huge job that we wouldn't be able to get anything else done if we were doing it ourselves, so we're always glad to have Tomas and friends come out and do the blueberries!  

But with the good also comes the bad, and there has been some of that this week too.  We've discovered a new insect pest that we've never had to deal with before, the squash vine borer.  These annoying bugs do exactly what their name implies, boring deep into the vines of our winter squash, where they're nearly impossible to get to, and killing our squash plants.  Fred did some research, and it's likely that they're affecting us this year for the first time because last fall was so wet and we weren't able to till last year's squash planting under until months later than we usually do.  So we're doing our research and trying to figure out how to meet this latest challenge, because we want to be able to bring you guys a bunch of yummy squash this fall!

It's actually good I'm writing this now and not last night, because yesterday we were so dispirited that this would have been a completely different newsletter.  Fred stopped by just as I was about to mow the lawn yesterday and told me that he had been out to the blueberry patch, and a massive swarm of birds had come through and eaten most of our beautiful blueberry harvest.  We would probably be able to cover the CSA, but there would definitely be no berries for bulk orders, and none to sell to the stores we supply or the other CSAs to which we contribute.  We would have to tell the people we had offered blueberries to that we wouldn't be able to come through with their orders.  And let me just tell you, I HATE not being able to come through on something I said I'd do.  I actually wrote the beginning of this newsletter while riding around doing our Midland deliveries on Thursday, because the cardinal rule of summer on the farm is that you don't waste time.  And being a passenger in a vehicle and not doing something else productive is wasting time.  But when Fred came home and told me about the blueberries, I was devastated.  I planned to scrap the newsletter I had written, and as I was riding around on the lawnmower, I was mentally composing a new newsletter about heartache and resilience that pulled in quotes from Teddy Roosevelt and Rudyard Kipling, and acknowledged the collective heartache that our local community and our world at large has been through this year.  But there was no time to sit down and write that newsletter last night, because we had longstanding plans to have some friends over for dinner, and I had to get that started.

So when Fred texted me this morning saying he and Tomas had taken a look at the blueberries, and Tomas thinks he can still get about 60% of what we expected to have this week, it was an enormous weight off my shoulders.  Maybe we could fill some of the bulk blueberry orders that you all requested last week after all, and maybe we wouldn't have to leave another CSA to whom we promised blueberries in the lurch!

The bottom line is that I don't know what to expect for next week as far as blueberries go.  If you already put in an order for bulk blueberries, I can't guarantee that we'll be able to fill it, but I will try my best to fill as many as possible.  We can't guarantee that the birds won't come back to finish off the blueberry patch, but I am pretty sure that we'll be able to get you each a pint of blueberries in your share, and cautiously optimistic that that we'll be able to fill at least some of the bulk orders. 

So I'll just keep that newsletter I composed while mowing the lawn in my back pocket for a rainy day (or drought, or flood, or hailstorm, or plague of locusts).  Because with the farm, you just never know when I'm going to need it!

What to Expect in Your Share

If you are going through the line at one of our traditional style drop-offs (Alma, Mt. Pleasant, and 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! 

• Cucumbers
• Carrots or beets
• Blueberries
• Lettuce or potatoes
• Zucchini or green onions
• Swiss chard, kale, or fennel
• Basil or kohlrabi

If you have a prepacked share, here are your options.  If you have a half share, you’ll choose either share A, B, or C, and if you have a full share, you can choose two of them.  So just fill out this Google form by lunchtime the day before your drop-off to let me know which share you want for this week!  If I don't hear from you, I'll just choose for you. :-)

Share A:  Cucumbers, carrots, blueberries, lettuce, zucchini, fennel, and kohlrabi.

Share B:  Cucumbers, carrots, blueberries, potatoes, zucchini, kale, and basil.

Share C:   Cucumbers, beets, blueberries, potatoes, green onions, chard, and basil.

 

Recipes

It's basil time!  If you're not sure what to do with basil aside from making pesto, here are 20 delicious ideas!  There's a great cucumber basil mocktail recipe in here that is extremely similar to one I made last night for the kid contingent at our dinner, and it was a hit!  So definitely check out these great recipe ideas!