CSA Newsletter for June 27, 2015

Farm Update

The squash blossoms are on the plants, so we
should start having summer squash for the CSA
pretty soon!

Hello everyone!  It's been another good and busy week at the farm!  With the fields being so wet after all that rain we've gotten, we couldn't get into the fields to cultivate, so we had to do quite a lot of weeding on Friday.  Fred was pretty glad to get that back under control.  The strawberries are winding down for the season, although we will still have some for this next week.  We've actually had a longer-than-normal strawberry season, prolonged by the cooler temperatures.  Indeed, it looks like it is shaping up to be a cool start to July as well.  The blueberries are looking pretty good on the plants; there are a lot of green berries on the plants, and we expect them to ripen up in about two weeks.  Despite the trouble we've been having with the new irrigation system, the berries are filling out pretty nicely, partly because of all the rain we got, and partly because Fred is watering them pretty heavily this weekend.  The tomato plants are growing quickly in the coldframes, and the zucchini plants have doubled in size since last week.  Fred actually brought home the first little zucchinis yesterday, so it's only a matter of time before they are ready for the CSA.  Just a reminder:  I know that a lot of people are going to be out of town this week for the holiday, so if you are one of those people, just let me know!  I'll plan on postponing your share for you and getting you a double share when you get back.  See you all soon!

What to Expect in Your Share This Week

At the regular drop-offs:

• Choice of strawberries, carrots, or snap peas
• Choice of kohlrabi or herbs (might be garlic scapes, cilantro, basil, or chives)
• Choice of spring mix or large-leaf salad mix
• Choice of radishes or bok choy
• Choice of savoy cabbage or bunched onions
• Choice of broccoli or beets
• Choice of kale or chard

For home/workplace delivery:

These lovely pearl onions
will be one of the choices
in this week's shares!

A Share:
Carrots
Kohlrabi
Spring mix
Radishes
Savoy cabbage
Broccoli
Kale

B Share:
Snap peas
Herbs
Large-leaf salad mix
Bok choy
Onions
Beets
Chard

This Week in Pictures

I know I've mentioned it before in a previous newsletter, but I always love when news sources run "This Week in Pictures" type articles.  I think it's fun to see what has been going on in the world in the past week through images people have captured.  So here is a small sampling of what has been going on at the farm this week through the pictures Fred has been taking.  Enjoy!

Here are some of our squash blossoms, bagged up and ready to go out to one of our Lansing-area restaurants on Thursday.

We've been seeing quite a few toads at the farm lately.  Here, a toad finds shade under one of our kale plants.

Jane and Jessamine came out to the field on Friday to survey the progress of all the veggies and ride on the tractor with Fred.

Saturday morning, Mary and Aram hand-transplanted a whole bunch of romaine and frisee into the field.  That was one of the many random tasks that Fred and the crew took care of on Friday and Saturday after a busy week of harvesting, packing, irrigating, deliveries, and CSA drop-offs.

The savoy cabbage is looking gorgeous!  We harvested the first of it on Thursday, and we'll be bringing it to the CSA drop-offs this next week.

 The lettuce for our spring mix grows up in long rows, which makes for easier weeding and harvesting.

The blueberry plants have plenty of little green berries on them right now!  In a few weeks, they will be blue, beautiful, and ready to eat!

Our edible nasturtiums grow in hanging pots in the coldframes.  We've got a mix of red, yellow, and orange blooms that go mostly to restaurants, but we've occasionally brought them to the CSA in past years as well.  Fred brings also often brings them home to put on our salads.

Fred harvested and brought home the very first potatoes today, and was surprised to find how big they are already!  It will be a few weeks before the majority of them are big enough to bring to the CSA, but it's encouraging to see that they are doing so well.

Recipes

Admittedly, I get really excited about each new veggie that comes out of the field, but I got especially giddy when I saw Fred bringing home the first sugar snap peas.  So in honor of one of my very favorite spring veggies, here is a super simple, super yummy recipe for Sugar Snap Peas.

CSA Newsletter for June 21, 2015

Farm Update

Fred harvests some of our
microgreens by hand.

Hello everyone! It's a busy time at the farm, but things are looking good.  This last week we had a lot of rain, and we were fortunate that we did not have much damage from flooding or rot, which is a big risk with so much rain.  As it was, we lost a few plants in the back field (which has a tendency not to drain as well as the rest of the farm) and lost a few strawberries in our older plantings.  It turned out the biggest hassle was just trying to wash the muddy soil off the veggies.  The chickens are doing well and our young hens are starting to increase their egg size very gradually, which is normal for young hens.   At the end of this rainy week we were finally able to get a lot of transplants planted into the ground, though the soil was a bit moist. The potato beetles have come out in full force after the rain, so we will be spraying them with our organic spray mix Sunday.  The blueberry patch has definitely enjoyed the rain and the berries are sizing rapidly.  Weeds are still growing fast with the moisture, but hopefully this week we can get them back under control. This time of year everything happens so quickly, but this early on in the season, we still have the energy and enthusiasm for all the running, and we're thrilled to be doing what we love!

What to Expect in Your Share This Week

At the regular drop-offs:

Mary harvests kale for the CSA
drop-off.

• Choice of strawberries or snap peas
• Choice of romaine lettuce or spring mix
• Choice of bok choy, cooking greens, or Chinese cabbage
• Choice of radishes, kale, or chard
• Choice of green onions, kohlrabi, or fennel
• Choice of broccoli or beets
• Choice of red head lettuce or herbs (might be basil, cilantro, or chives)

For home/workplace delivery:

A Share:
Strawberries
Romaine lettuce
Bok choy
Radishes
Green onions
Beets
Herbs

B Share:
Snap peas
Spring mix
Chinese cabbage
Kale
Fennel
Broccoli
Red leaf lettuce

June at the Farm:  A Typical Week

While harvesting for the various
orders and CSA drop-offs takes the
bulk of our time, we also spend
plenty of time seeding for future
weeks of veggies with our push seeder.

The month of June is the busiest month of our farm and our family life every year.  During the week Fred gets up to make breakfast for the family around 5:15-5:45 using mostly our veggies, eggs, and few other locally sourced items like bacon or bread.  After breakfast Michele does as much farm work as she can before our girls get up, answering emails, making drop-off signs, creating harvest lists, financial record keeping, etc.  At the farm Fred starts the farm crew out harvesting different items for both our wholesale accounts and the CSA.  Then as the veggies start coming up to the wash area, Mary, Aram, and Fred start washing, drying, packing, and doing quality control for the veggies we will distribute that day.   This is where we also bag the produce and then put it into our refrigerated delivery truck or the cooler that is attached to our small greenhouse. 

Harvest takes up most of everyone’s time out at the field, but after harvest (most of which happens in the morning), there is still a lot of work to do.  At that point there is plenty of weeding, cultivating, planting, spraying (organic sprays, usually made from plant extracts), and other maintenance work to be done.  Weeding especially takes a lot of time at the farm, as nature tries to cover bare soil areas of the farm with foliage.  With warm (but not scorching) temperatures and plenty of moisture, there are ideal conditions for both crop and weed seed germination.  Most weeds are taken out with tractor-driven cultivators, but weeding inside the rows of the crops by hand is what takes most of the time. 

With these warm air temperatures and adequate moisture comes incredibly fast growth, especially of plant foliage.  Since our farm’s specialty is leafy greens, June is a very heavy harvest month as hundreds of pounds of mostly leafy veggies go out to the CSA, restaurants, stores, and local distributors every day Monday-Thursday.   All of our leafy green harvesting is done by hand (usually with a knife) so our time into harvesting is considerable, but the quality is really exceptional compared with mechanical harvesting, which we have tried.  Everything is fast paced at the farm, occasionally bordering on frantic, as we try to meet delivery and pick up times under the heavy harvest load during this time of year.  

A lot of planting is also occurring in June as we try to seed more plantings for future weeks later in the year.  There is also a lot of transplanting going on (which is done by hand), especially of crops like romaine lettuce, broccoli, and cabbage. Transplanting is more labor intensive than seeding directly into the field, but it cuts down on hand weeding considerably since the weeds will be 4 weeks behind the growth cycle of the crop. 

Mary washes spring mix at our
wash station.

For the CSA drop-offs, Michele drops our little girls off at Grandpa and Grandma's and meets Fred at the farm to get everything packed, bagged, and organized, and then we head to the drop-off and set up.  Most places where we have CSA drop-offs, we also deliver to restaurants, stores, and our home delivery customers on the same trip, making timing critical on these fast-paced days.

With so many aspects of the farm moving so fast there are a lot of balls to juggle at the same time in June.  Getting all our workers, customers, crops, and equipment moving together in the same harmonious direction, and managing all the information that flows in and between, is a huge almost crushing undertaking this time of year. However, it is very gratifying to see so much of the planning, preparation, stressing, and short nights come to fruition to daily send off hundreds of pounds of truly good food to people who really value the food they are getting.  It is also great to have a farm where we can bring home really fresh food everyday and have closer connections with our community and the many personalities that make up our local food system.

Recipes

Beets are one of the new choices in this week's shares, and for us, they're kind of like an old friend.  Because we have them around for most of the year (the fall beets will even last in the fridge until well into the winter), we can kind of start to take them for granted.  So I'm always looking for new things to do with beets.  Check out this Cavatelli with Beets and Swiss Chard recipe from Martha Stewart for a delicious recipe to bring to your next potluck!  Just note that the first step does need to chill in the fridge for at least an hour before you can do the rest of the recipe, so you don't want to start it right before you leave for the party.  Or, for a very fast, very easy, and very delicious beet recipe, try our old standby:  Coarsely dice the beets, sautée them in olive oil until they are fork tender but not mushy, add some rosemary, and serve as a hearty side dish.  That's our go-to beet preparation, and it is always excellent!

Fennel is one of those things I always get a lot of questions about, so if you're not sure what to do with it, try out one of these Fennel Recipes You'll Make Over and Over Again.  You're sure to find several recipes you love in here, because there are ideas for every taste preference and skill level!

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. :-)

CSA Newsletter for June 8, 2015

Farm Update

Fred harvested the first strawberry of the year a
few days ago, and there should be plenty in a
few days when the CSA starts!

Hello everyone!  It has been a flurry of activity around the farm and around our home office!  With all the craziness getting the CSA up and running, I didn't actually get a real newsletter out this weekend!  But I did want to let all of you know what to expect in your shares for this week at the Midland and East Lansing drop-offs.  (Alma and Mt. Pleasant folks will be starting next week on the 15th and 16th, so stay tuned for next week's newsletter!) So here is the extremely abbreviated CSA newsletter for this week!

What to Expect in Your Share This Week

• Choice of radishes or bok choy
• Choice of spring mix or large-leaf salad mix
• Green onions for everyone!
• Choice of kale or Swiss chard
• Strawberries for everyone!
• Choice of spinach or head lettuce
• Choice of cilantro, micro basil, or frisee

Apparently the deer are
getting a little too comfortable
at the farm!  This one walked
right up to Keegan last week
and started checking out
his hand.  Yikes!

So if you are at one of the regular drop-offs, these will be the veggies available at the various stations.  If you have a half share, you'll choose one item at each station, and if you have a full share, you'll choose two items at each station.

If you have home/workplace delivery (again, this just applies to the Midland and Lansing area people this week!), here are your choices for your prepacked shares.  Just let me know which option you prefer, and we'll bring it to you!  Or if you don't have a preference, we can just pick out your choices for you.

A Share:

Radishes
Spring mix
Green onions
Kale
Strawberries
Spinach
Cilantro

B Share:

Bok choy

Large-leaf salad mix

Green onions

Kale

Strawberries

Head lettuce

Micro basil

Recipes

Especially if you're new to the CSA, there were probably a few things you saw on the list and thought, "What in the world do I do with that?"  I usually get a lot of questions about the bok choy and frisee at the drop-offs, and our micro basil is new this year for the CSA, so I wanted to give you lots of ideas on how to use these awesome veggies to their best advantage!  Enjoy!

Stir-Fried Bok Choy with Ginger and Garlic:  Bok Choy is great in stir-fries of any type, but this one with ginger and garlic is especially tasty, and who doesn't love a recipe you can make in 10 minutes?  You can prepare it just the way it is in the recipe, or you can serve it over rice.

Frisee Salad with Lardons and Poached Eggs:  Frisee, which is also called French curly endive, is a great addition to salads.  It's kind of like a thin lettuce, but with a slightly more bitter taste.  You can add it in with regular salad greens for a salad with a little more depth, or you can make a salad featuring frisee as the main green, like this recipe.  For the bacon, let me recommend the thick-cut Walsh bacon that they have at LaLonde's Market if you're in Midland; that would be perfect for this recipe!  Also, you can substitute the green onions in your share for the shallots in the recipe, and it would be just as good. :-)

Micro basil is one of those things that you see in restaurants that serve interesting and/or innovative dishes, but you almost never see them in chain restaurants or on people's kitchen tables.  So it's pretty unfamiliar to a lot of people, but we use it a lot at home to fancy up basically anything.  You can sprinkle it on top of pork chops, or salads, or omelets, or stir-fries.  Basically anything where you want a subtle basil flavor, and you want it to look gorgeous!  So go crazy!  Put some of this lovely stuff on your omelet for breakfast, and it will automatically feel fancy.  I can't think of a better way to start the day!