Farm Update
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| Fred, Carson, and Ben harvesting baby carrots for the shares a while back. |
Hi everyone! We are
heading into week 4 of the CSA, and it seems like this season is just flying
by! We’ve been planting, harvesting, and
getting veggies ready for delivery this week, as well as moving the irrigation
lines around quite a bit. Despite the consistent
rains we had a week or two ago, we could actually use more now. We didn’t get the major flooding that hit the
Midland and Mt. Pleasant areas, so while our ground was pretty saturated, it
was able to handle all the water with just a minimal upset in our lower back
field. And now it’s bone dry again, so
we’ve been irrigating quite a bit. It’s
amazing how quickly it changes from needing rain, to wanting the rain to stop,
to needing it again! In other news, Fred
was at the Midland Farmers Market this morning, so I bet some of you saw him
there! As always, we look forward to
seeing you all this week! J
What to Expect in your Share this Week
If you pick up your shares at one of our regular drop-offs,
here’s what your options will be! If you
have a half share, choose one in each category, and if you have a full share,
choose two.
- Blueberries for everyone!
- Carrots
- Beets or pearl onions
- Cabbage, kale, or cucumbers
- Spring mix or head lettuce
- Frisee, 2 kohlrabi, or assorted herbs
- Zucchini or fennel
And if have your share delivered or pick up in Lansing or
Okemos, here are the options this week:
Share A: Share
B:
Blueberries Blueberries
Carrots Carrots
Beets Pearl
onions
Kale Cucumbers
Head lettuce Spring
mix
Herbs 2
Kohlrabi
Zucchini Fennel
The 2017 Dream Team: Our Fantastic Farm Crew!
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| Jewel, Carson, Ben, Mary, and Emily taking a few minutes out of their day to pose for a picture |
At the farm, each year is so different, and one season often
bears little or no resemblance to the one before it. You win some and lose some, and
this year, we definitely won the jackpot when it comes to employees! We have a really great team that includes a
few high school kids, a few college kids, and one grad student, and they have
been a joy to work with! So when you get
your shares each week, these are the people who helped bring your veggies to
your table!
Mary: Mary is Fred’s
youngest sister, and this is her second year working for us. She just finished up her freshman year at
Spring Arbor University, and when she returns to school in the fall, she is
going to continue working on her nursing degree. In her spare time she likes to hang out with
her friends, cook, eat great food, and baby-sit our kids. We seriously rely on this girl for everything,
so if you see her around, definitely give her a pat on the back! Her favorite thing to do at the farm is washing
and packing up the veggies for CSA shares and wholesale orders, and also
picking our edible nasturtiums. The skills
she has been glad to learn at the farm include how to plant crops and how to
not freak out about spiders.
Jewel: Jewel is the daughter
of some family friends, and she is just about the sweetest person you’ll ever
meet. Her older brother Keegan worked
for us for several years, and Jewel has taken over for him now that he is
studying to become an airplane mechanic.
At the farm, she most enjoys harvesting carrots and transplanting, and
cites learning how to deal with being in the hot sun all day as the most useful
life skill she’s learned at the farm.
That will come in handy, because she and her family are involved in
ministry work in Iraq. They have spent a
significant portion of the last two years there, and they’ll be headed back in
the fall.
Ben: Ben is another
family friend whose older brother, Joe, worked for us for several years. Ben is one of our high school kids, and he has
been great to have around! His favorite
thing to do at the farm is transplant, and learning how to use the transplanter
has been his favorite skill to learn. In
the fall, he is going to return to his studies, but since he is homeschooled,
we hope to still have him work for us part time throughout the season.
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| Mary harvests kale for the CSA shares |
Carson: Carson is our
resident grad student, working on his PhD in fisheries at CMU. His favorite thing to do at the farm is form
the plastic beds into which we plant many of our veggies. He has learned that this is an art to getting
the plastic laid straight and flat, with no tears, and the proper width, and he
appreciates the beauty of a nicely-done series of plastic beds. He has also learned this year just how much
work goes into farming, and what a wide variety of skills everyone needs to
have. You really need to be a jack of
all trades every day, and he likes looking around the farm at all of the
projects he’s been involved in. In his
spare time, he enjoys fishing, reading, and playing guitar. After the farm season, he is planning on
continuing his doctoral research, and he has a lot of home improvement projects
planned for the house he bought recently.
Emily: Emily is
another long-time family friend; in fact, she and Mary have been running around
together since their preschool years.
Her favorite thing to do at the farm is harvesting and bunching the
pearl onions, and she also really enjoys washing and packing veggies. Her favorite new skill she’s learned this
year is seeding the flats of transplants.
In her spare time, she likes to hang out with her family and friends and
watch movies on Netflix, and in the fall, she’s headed to England to be part of
a theater troupe and study drama for a year.
Therese: The most
recent addition to the crew is Therese, and we really appreciate her sweet
attitude! In her spare time, she enjoys
hanging out with her friends and family, and in the fall, she’s going to be
returning to Olivet for her sophomore year.
Around the farm, she likes catching snakes, is a friend to the baby
bunnies, and she doesn’t mind touching the stinging nettle!
So that’s our fantastic 2017 farm team! It has been so nice to work with each of them
so far, and I can’t say enough good things about them! Just having a group that is reliable and
doesn’t mind hard work is pretty awesome, but these guys are also really fun to
be around and have great attitudes to boot!
We’re definitely looking forward to spending the rest of the season with
them!
Recipes
If you’re like many people, you probably feel like you know
what to do with most fruits and veggies in the kitchen, but you might feel a
little less confident with fresh herbs.
Never fear! Here is A Guide to Fresh Herbs from the Food Network, and some helpful tips from the Kitchn forhow to use Summer Savory!
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