Spring Veggies: What They Are and Why They Thrive Right Now

Farm Update

Our piggies have arrived!  Here, they
 are just chilling in their shelter.

Hello everyone!  I hope you are all as excited as I am about the CSA starting this week!  It has been a hot and dry last few days, and the plants are really feeling it.  Fred has been irrigating like crazy, but the plants really just need a good rain to come out of survival mode and start growing again.  Looking around the farm, some of the crops are actually ahead of schedule.  The garlic, potatoes, and sweet corn will likely be earlier than usual, and we've actually been getting zucchini out of the heated greenhouse for the last several weeks despite the fact that it's usually a high summer crop.  If you get radishes at the drop-off this week, they'll probably be a little spicier than usual, because there's something about dry weather that causes them to be more intensely spicy.  In other news, our piggies have arrived!  We have eight little ones who are a mix of two heritage breeds, Hereford and Gloucester Old Spot, and they are super cute!  They serve multiple purposes around the farm.  Their presence makes the deer a little nervous, so they are a natural pest deterrent.  They help our farm stay tidier by eating all of the veggie scraps.  And of course, come fall they'll be delicious bacon and pork chops.  Pigs are certainly a multi-functional animal if ever there was one, and we love having them around!  On another note, I've heard from a few people that they are going to miss the first drop-off because they're out of town, so if that also applies to you, please just let me know by the day before your drop-off!  That way I can postpone your share and get you a double share when you get back.  See you all soon!

What to Expect in Your Share this Week

Here are the options in each veggie station this week!  If you have a half share, you'll choose one from each category, and if you have a full share, you'll choose two.

• Radishes or spinach
• Strawberries
• Spring mix or romaine
• Kale
• Green onions
• Garlic, dill, or cilantro
• Bok choi or cooking greens mix

If you have your share delivered to your home or workplace, or if you pick up at our East Lansing drop-off, here are your options for this week.  If you have a half share, choose one, and if you have a full share, choose two.

Share A:                                      Share B:

Radishes                                      Spinach
Strawberries                                Strawberries
Spring mix                                   Romaine lettuce
Kale                                             Kale
Green onions                               Green onions
Cilantro                                       Garlic
Cooking greens mix                    Bok choi

If you have a preference for share A or share B, just let me know by noonish the day before your delivery day, and I'll make sure you get your preferred share.  If you don't have a preference, I'll just choose for you. :-)

Spring Veggies:  What They Are and Why They Thrive Right Now

In my childhood and adolescence, I never actively thought about vegetables.  If you had asked me about them back then, I could have named most of the basics, and if you gave me a shopping list of produce, I could have found them all fairly admirably at the grocery store.  But it wasn’t until I was in my early twenties that I had any concept of seasonality.  It had never occurred to me before how odd it was to have cherries in January, carrots in March, asparagus in October, and bananas pretty much ever.  We are so used to all things being available at all times, so learning to enjoy fruits and vegetables in season is often an education for us in this modern age.  One of the biggest questions I get during the CSA season is “When do you expect to have blueberries/ tomatoes/ zucchini/ sweet potatoes?”  So for all of you wondering exactly what types of veggies are coming out of the fields this time of year, here is a primer on spring produce in Michigan.

Fred shows Jane and baby Timothy the nasturtiums in the
greenhouse.

Greens and other leafy things:  Kale, lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, bok choi, and herbs such as dill and cilantro are some of the stars of the spring produce scene!  They do well this time of year because they are cold-hardy, which means they can be planted early and withstand the frost.  The cooler temperatures and prevalent rainfall we usually get in spring are just the conditions that leafy greens love.

Radishes:  Radishes thrive in the spring because they are a fast-growing crop that doesn’t take too long to mature, and they also prefer cooler temperatures.  Because they grow so quickly, they are one of the first crops ready in the spring.

Rhubarb and asparagus:  While we don’t actually grow rhubarb and asparagus at the farm, no discussion of spring veggies would be complete without them.  There are two reasons we don’t grow them.  The first is that because they are some of the earliest produce, their season is actually almost over by the time the CSA starts, which doesn’t make a ton of economic sense for us.  The other reason is that they are perennials, which means that we can’t practice crop rotation with them, and they are much more susceptible to perennial weed pressure.  Asparagus does best in the spring because it requires a lot of moisture in the soil to survive.  Rhubarb requires average temperatures of less than 75 degrees to keep growing, so once the summer heat is upon us, rhubarb shuts down until temperatures dip into the 40s again in the late fall.

The corn is already a lot taller than it usually is this time of
year.  Fred experimented with starting the seeds in the
greenhouse and then transplanting it, and it seems to have
worked pretty well!

Strawberries:  Strawberries are one of the favorites of spring!  There are actually a few types of strawberries:  June-bearing (which prefer a shorter day length and are harvested all in one fell swoop in June), and everbearing (which produce small amounts of berries throughout the summer and have no preference for day length).  Although you can have strawberries in the summer with the everbearing types, the quality of the June-bearing varieties is so much better that it makes sense to enjoy the best berries in their short spring season.

Peas/ pea shoots:  Like leafy greens, peas and pea shoots prefer cooler temperatures and wet weather.  They are very cold-hardy, which makes them ideal for early planting, but they start to wither when the temperature gets too hot.  So as the days get hot and dry, peas are no longer in their element.

Garlic scapes:  These are actually the curly upper part of the garlic plant we all know and love.  While the root hides underground becoming the garlic we’re used to, the garlic scapes are the reproductive part of the plant.  Once the weather gets too warm, the garlic scapes die off and the root becomes the main event.

Green onions:  The main difference between green onions and bulbing onions is the variety.  Green onion varieties have been bred over time to have a slender bulb and lovely green shoots, whereas traditional onions have been bred for the bulb.  The green onion shoots do well in the spring for the same reason as most of the green leafy veggies:  the cooler spring temperatures are easier on them.

So now is the time to enjoy these spring veggies while they’re at their best!  As the weeks and months move along, spinach and strawberries will make way for corn and tomatoes, and asparagus will be only a pleasant memory.  For this reason, there is a simple beauty in being fully engaged in each season as it passes, and fully enjoying the bounty in its own time.

Recipes

I'm assuming you probably don't need help coming up with ideas on how to eat your strawberries, so let's talk kale!  This Easy Garlic Kale Recipe is one of the simplest and most delicious ways to prepare kale; indeed, it is pretty much our go-to kale technique.  Bonus:  you can also use your garlic scapes!