CSA Newsletter for November 2020

 

Farm Update

Under these layers of plastic in 
the coldframe, spinach has been
seeded for overwintering.  It will
get a head start for spring, sheltered
from the wind and extreme
temperatures of the winter by the
protective layers of plastic.

Hi everyone! It's been three weeks since we wrapped up the CSA for this year, and we are settling into a somewhat slower pace of life.  Fred is still working at the farm every day, but instead of harvesting and getting things ready for the CSA drop-offs, he's prepping the fields for next year's planting, doing some harvesting for our wholesale accounts, and making deliveries to a few stores (Greentree Co-Op in Mt. Pleasant and Argus Farm Stop in Ann Arbor).  I haven't been at the farm very much since the CSA ended, and the number of hours I spend on farm work drastically decreases from November through May.  So lately I've been working a lot more for my other off-farm job (which I get to do from home these days!), spending time with Fred and the kids, training for another half marathon, and generally getting our house back under control after letting some things slide during the CSA season.  After a busy season, it feels really restful to be at home washing dishes, running, attending zoom meetings, getting the farm's financial books in order, and reading to my kids.  But everything has its season and its time, and I know that by spring, I'll be itching to get back out to the fields and plant some onions and do some weeding in the coldframes.  Thus is the cyclical nature of the farm life.  Each season comes back around again, and it feels both exciting and familiar at the same time.

And even though it seems far away now, June will be here before we know it!  If you're interested in signing up for the CSA next year, just fill out this form, and I'll get you all signed up!  The price will be $600 for a full share and $325 for a half share at our regular drop-offs, but anyone who signs up and puts down a partial payment by December 31 will get the early bird special, which is $580 for a full share or $315 for a half share.  And if you're interested in home or workplace delivery, just let me know, and I'll send you a quote.

Thank you all so much for being a part of what we do!  We hope you all stay healthy and safe and have an awesome Thanksgiving, no matter how you'll be celebrating this year! :-)

The Shoulder Seasons

by Fred

Our CSA goes for 19 weeks of the season, encompassing the main parts of the spring, summer, and fall growing seasons. However, we are actually growing and harvesting veggies for usually all but about 6-8 weeks of the year and for our family pretty much year-round. These weeks that are on either end of the main 19-week CSA season are commonly referred to as shoulder seasons.

We are currently in a shoulder season, so what is the farm up to right now? As you might guess we are eating some outstanding food with an abundance of fall veggies in storage, still at some of their highest quality and tastiness. Little is left to harvest, especially this year, when high demand means we had to harvest most crops sooner than usual. However, especially for our family, we still have some spring mix, spinach, brussels sprouts, and kale still in the field and unheated tunnels. I love greens and these shoulder season greens are really some of the best of the season. They are mild, hardy, and very nutrient-dense. This is because they have divested their leaves of as much water as possible as they try to withstand the cold and freezing temps. These shoulder season greens are usually more challenging to harvest. Cold hands and picking around some damage are common obstacles, but it is well worth it in the flavor department, and the greens we harvest in the shoulder seasons are almost always very nutrient dense. I took a Brix reading today, which is a measure of the nutrient density of produce. The brix number of our kale was 16, which is absolutely excellent for kale. These Brix readings are some the easiest and best ways to assess the nutrient quality of produce.

This spinach in the field will be
covered by the plastic low tunnel
to protect it from the cold and wind
throughout the winter.

Right now we are harvesting the most cold hardy of greens, but what remains of even these will soon succumb to the cold. However, lately we have been seeding new plantings that will overwinter in low tunnels and unheated greenhouses. The low tunnels are comprised of thin clear plastic that forms low and long temporary growing space held up by spring wire that pops back up after the snow melts. All the while this short tunnel provides just enough protection to get the little spinach plants to survive and have a nice crop in April and May when we take these temporary covers off completely. The unheated greenhouses are what we refer to as hoophouses, and we are also planting these with spinach, spring mix, and garlic (for early green garlic). The hoophouses keep things much warmer and protected than the low tunnels and we will be harvesting some of these plantings even as early as late February.

Last year for the first time we overwintered carrots and had some great fresh carrots in March and April. Having these tasty carrots on our table after a long winter was amazing, so we planted carrots for overwintering again and they are well on their way. These carrot plantings are seeded much earlier (mostly in late August) and we have one in a hoophouse and another planting in what will be a caterpillar tunnel, which is a hybrid approach between the hoophouse and low tunnels. If you are more curious about this newer tunnel there are some good YouTube videos that can show what they are about.

These shoulder seasons are typically more challenging as we fight the ever present and sometimes severe cold using clear plastic covers and tunnels to protect crops. Also challenging is fending off deer, rabbits, and mice who also are especially hungry for our produce during these shoulder seasons. But even though the shoulder seasons tend to be more of a struggle, they also yield some of the best produce and keep this family supplied with awesome food throughout the year.

Recipes

Thanksgiving will likely look different for many of us this year than it does most years.  Almost every year since I can remember, I've gathered with my whole extended family on my dad's side to celebrate.  The gathering has grown over the decades as children have grown up, brought spouses and significant others, and had kids of their own, and now the group numbers around 6o people.  So needless to say, that won't be happening this year, and most of us will be doing Thanksgiving in our own homes with our own nuclear families, or getting together with a sibling to keep it small.  So if that's you this year, you probably don't need the gigantic bowl of mashed potatoes that usually graces the table.  Why not switch it up and try one of these 40 Thanksgiving Potato Recipes from Bon Appetit?  Who knows, maybe you'll discover your new favorite way to make potatoes for Thanksgiving!

CSA Newsletter for Week 19- Final CSA Week!

 

Farm Update

Hi everyone!  Well, here we are in the last week of the CSA!  It's been quite the year for all of humanity, and certainly for us at the farm as well.  As the weather gets cold and the days grow shorter, we are glad to be getting the farm ready for its long winter's nap.  Each season has its own combination of struggles and successes, joys and frustrations, and as the year winds down, I look back over the CSA season and breathe a deep sigh of relief.  Relief that we made it through the rains, the dry periods, the bugs, the weeds, the labor shortages, the exhaustion, the aches and pains, the extreme heat and the bone-chilling cold.  We're about to steer the proverbial train into the station again after another long season, and take a break.  

And yet when I look back on the season, I'm grateful too.  I'm grateful to be so integrated into the community.  I'm grateful that while most of the world was in isolation, I got to see and interact with all of you each week, and life felt surprisingly normal.  I'm grateful that we got to spend our summer working outside in the sun, getting good exercise, and doing simple, rewarding, and measurable work.  And I'm grateful that our community came out so strongly to support our farm and other local businesses in this crazy year.  Thank you all for coming with us on this crazy journey we call the 2020 CSA season, and for making our whole farm possible!

And in case you missed it the last few weeks, you can sign up for the 2021 season by filling out this Google form!  The cost for a full share next year will be $600, but anyone who signs up and puts down at least a half payment by December 31 will get the early bird special of $580.  A half share will be $325 next year, but early birds get their share for $315.  If you have any questions, just let me know!  And if you're wondering where you can get our produce after the CSA ends, we'll have veggies available at Greentree Cooperative Grocery in Mt. Pleasant and at Argus Farm Stop in Ann Arbor until about mid-December, so look for us there!  Thank you all so much for another great CSA season, and we hope to see you again in 2021!

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! 

Spinach, lettuce, or sweet potatoes

Large squash (Butternut or Tetsukabuto)

Carrots or beets

Brussels sprouts or potatoes

Kale, a bag of small onions, or leeks

Cabbage or a small squash (Acorn or Delicata)

Cilantro, onion, or shallot

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 it comes in after that, I might still be able to get you the share you wanted, but I can't guarantee it. And if I don't hear from you, I'll just choose for you. :-)

Share A:  Spinach, large squash, carrots, potatoes, leeks, cabbage, and onion.

Share B:  Lettuce, large squash, carrots, Brussels sprouts, bag of small onions, small squash, and cilantro.

Share C:  Sweet potato, large squash, beets, potatoes, kale, small squash, and onion.

Recipes

Oh, winter squash!  So delicious, and so versatile.  We love to slice them in half, bake them, and sprinkle them with butter and brown sugar.  We also love to make them into wonderful creamy soups, or dice them up, sauté them in butter, and top them with maple syrup or brown sugar.  Another hearty and delicious way to prepare them is to make Stuffed Winter Squash.  Check out this mouthwatering recipe and give it a try!

CSA Newsletter for Week 18

 

Farm Update

Our old root washer cleans sweet
potatoes by spraying them with
water while they travel through a
series of rollers that gently scrub the
dirt off of them.  Then they fall into
the crates at the end, where we
separate them by size for the shares.

Hi everyone!  We've wrapped up another week of the CSA, and there are two more CSA weeks left until the end of the season!  So the final drop-offs will be during the last week of October in case you were wondering.  And things definitely feel like they're winding down at the farm.  The weather is getting colder, and we've had a number of hard freezes overnight.  We cover our more vulnerable crops with a layer of plastic to protect them from the cold and wind, but each time we get a hard frost, we know that some of them might not make it through.  The frost last night actually killed off our last planting of green beans, which we knew might happen.  We know that anything we plant after the first half of September is a gamble, and this year the weather was not in our favor.  But fortunately, the radishes and romaine (which are also among our more vulnerable crops right now) came through last night's frost just fine, so they'll be in the shares this week!

While there aren't as many types of farm work that need to occur now as there were in the early summer, the main one that remains (harvesting) takes a lot more time than it used to.  It is a lot harder to harvest when the weather gets cold and nasty, and takes a lot longer.  We also don't have nearly as many workers as we did in June and July, so basically, it's slow going.  It makes us really appreciate when we get to come indoors for mealtime, and we've been making some really great fall meals in our kitchen!  We've been enjoying lots of warm soups, and plenty of squash, sweet potatoes, beets, kale, and all the other great things that get their chance to shine in autumn!

If you're interested in signing up for next season, sign-up is open for the 2021 season!  The price will be going up next year to $600 for a full share or $325 for a half share, but we do have an early bird special!  Anyone who signs up and pays for at least half of their share before the end of the calendar year will get their half share for $315 or their full share for $580!  So if you have any questions, just send me an email, and if you're interested in signing up for the CSA next year, fill out this google for for the Monroe Family Organics 2021 CSA season! 

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! 

Onion, cilantro, or dill

Carrots

Brussels sprouts or leeks

Squash or sweet potatoes

Lettuce or potatoes

Kale or radish

Acorn squash, delicata squash, or a bag of small onions

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 it comes in after that, I might still be able to get you the share you wanted, but I can't guarantee it. And if I don't hear from you, I'll just choose for you. :-)

Share A:  Carrots, Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, lettuce, acorn squash, and onion.

Share B:  Carrots, Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, lettuce, kale, bag of small onions, and cilantro.

Share C:  Carrots, leeks, butternut squash, potatoes, kale, acorn squash, and onion.

Recipes

Everyone knows that radishes are great sliced really thin on top of a salad.  But did you know that there are a lot more great ways to use radishes in your meals?  Check out these 10 Best Radish Recipes from the Kitchn for some great ideas for this lovely cool-weather veggie!

CSA Newsletter for Week 17 and 2021 CSA Sign-Up Info!

 

Farm Update

Hi everyone!  What gorgeous weather we had last week!  It was just a joy to be working outside!  Sometimes in the fall, when the weather gets rainy and cold and the harvesting conditions are miserable, it's the opposite of joyful.  But last week was the type of weather that makes me love being at the farm!  And I've been at the farm a lot more as of late, because as the season winds down, our few remaining employees have extremely limited availability.  It's definitely been a balancing act between the needs of the farm, the needs of my other off-farm job (which fortunately is extremely flexible), our three young kids, and all of the various home and life-maintenance tasks that keep things humming along.  It's definitely life on all cylinders in the month of October, and it's fortunate that the weather was so great this week, because we were really rushing every day this week to get everything harvested, washed, packed, and on the truck in time to leave for the drop-offs.  It's like constantly laying track for a train we can see coming, and the train can't slow down, so we just have to keep laying track as fast as we can.  But the end is in sight.  Just three more weeks until we get the metaphorical train safely into the station, and wrap up another successful CSA season!

And looking around the farm, things still look really nice!  We've had a few more frosts, but our greens are looking great, and we've got our massive harvests of potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, and onions in the barn where freezing temperatures can't hurt them.  So I'm feeling optimistic about having several weeks of really great CSA shares ahead of us.  And we have Brussels sprouts this week!  Like many people, I thought I didn't like Brussels sprouts when I was a kid, but now they are one of my favorite vegetables.  We had the first Brussels sprouts of the year in our own kitchen yesterday, and they were just amazing, so I'm so excited to be able to bring them to you guys this week! 

If you're interested in signing up for the CSA next year, sign-up for our 2021 season is officially open!  The cost will be going up a little bit next year to account for the annual cost of living increase, and also because our labor costs are going up a lot, and that trend is only going to continue into the future.  For the last few years, it's been harder and harder to find good employees, for a number of reasons.  Because we operate seasonally and can't offer year-round employment, it makes it really hard to keep good people.  Most adults need employment all year, so each year we have to start from scratch and train new people, and they're often very young and inexperienced.  This year the work miraculously got done by a crew of teens, several family members and friends who made themselves available when they didn't have to be at their "real" jobs, and Fred just gunning it nonstop all season.  But living like that has been stressful and exhausting, and we can't keep doing it this way.  We considered downsizing and getting rid of one of our CSA drop-offs so the workload would more manageable within our existing structure, but we didn't want to do that.  We want to make high-quality, affordable, organic produce available to all of you, and every time we discussed which drop-off to cut, we just felt awful about all of the options.  So that is obviously not the answer.  What we need to be able to do is offer a good wage so it's worth it for qualified college-age or older people to work with us for the season.  As wages continue to rise, it makes working hard in the dirt and heat seem a lot less attractive when someone can make the same amount of money doing much easier work.  So we need to be able to raise our wages so we can get good people and pay them what they deserve.

So that's a really long way of saying that we are going to be raising our CSA prices this year.  In the past, we've raised the price by $5 every other year or so, but this year, they're going to be going up from $305 to $325 for a half share, and from $560 to $600 for a full share at our regular drop-offs.  After looking around at the prices of other local CSA farms around mid-Michigan, I was glad to see that ours is still less expensive than any of the other farms I checked out, because it's extremely important to us to make good food available to everyone, not just people with deep pockets.  And as always, we have an early bird special!  Anyone who signs up and pays for at least half of their share before the end of the calendar year will get their half share for $315 or their full share for $580!  So if you have any questions, just send me an email, and if you're interested in signing up for the CSA next year, fill out this google for for the Monroe Family Organics 2021 CSA season! 

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! 

Lettuce or potatoes

Carrots

Brussels sprouts or cherry tomatoes

Sweet potatoes or butternut squash

Dill, microgreens, small cabbage, or acorn squash

Radishes, beets, or kale

Onion, shallot, or a fennel bulb

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 it comes in after that, I might still be able to get you the share you wanted, but I can't guarantee it. And if I don't hear from you, I'll just choose for you. :-)

Share A:  Potatoes, carrots, Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, beets, and onion.

Share B:  Spring mix, carrots, Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, microgreens, kale, onion.

Share C:  Spring mix, carrots, cherry tomatoes, sweet potatoes, small cabbage, radishes, shallot.

Recipes

Pretty much every fall, one of our favorite things to make is roasted root vegetables!  It's so versatile, because you can use whatever potatoes, carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, etc. that you have on hand, and it is warm and earthy and filling.  Perfect for when the weather starts to get a little chilly!  So check out this recipe for Oven Roasted Root Vegetables!

CSA Newsletter for Week 16

 

Farm Update

Our trailer was loaded down with squash
after the big harvest on Friday!

Hi everyone!  It was another busy week at the farm, and I am glad to announce that we now have all of our storage crops out of the field!  We traditionally think of fall as harvest season, because that's when farms do a huge, all-hands-on-deck harvest of potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, onions, and other crops that will get them through the long, cold winter.  We don't have very many people working for us this time of year (just Fred and three part-time people who each come in a couple days a week), but we were able to round up a great crew on Friday to bring in the squash.  We had Fred, his sister Mary, our employee Lindy, her boyfriend Blake, and his friend Josh, and the five of them brought in all the remaining squash from the field.  So now that the massive harvest push is done, our day-to-day harvest for the CSA will be a lot more manageable.  We'll still be harvesting things like kale, lettuce, leeks, carrots, beets, and tomatoes, and peppers daily.  The warm season crops (tomatoes, peppers, and the like) will start to peter out as the season goes on, to be replaced by more root vegetables and leafy greens.  We did have some frost this week, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the forecast predicted, so the summer veggies aren't quite dead yet!  We'll still have cherry tomatoes in the shares this week, and while the larger tomatoes aren't going to be listed in the shares, it's likely that we'll still have some on the trade table, or interspersed on the tables throughout the week.  And there are still four more weeks of great veggies!  So we'll see you at the drop-off for week 16 of the CSA!

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! 

Lettuce

Sweet potatoes or potatoes

Squash or cherry tomatoes

Carrots or beets

Kale, cabbage, or fennel

Onion or garlic

Leeks, microgreens, radish

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:  Lettuce, sweet potatoes, cherry tomatoes, carrots, kale, onion, and leek.

Share B:  Lettuce, potatoes, squash, carrots, fennel, onion, and leek.

Share C:  Lettuce, sweet potatoes, squash, beets, cabbage, garlic, and radishes.

Recipes

With more of a chill in the air, doesn't it just seem like the perfect time to make Potato Leek Soup?  This recipe calls for Yukon Gold potatoes, and those are not the potatoes we have in the shares.  But really, the author just wants to make sure that you're using a potato with great flavor, and our Red Norlands will certainly make a delicious soup!  So check out this Potato Leek Soup from Once Upon a Chef!

CSA Newsletter for Week 15

 

Farm Update

Hi everyone!  It's officially fall, and it definitely feels like it out there!  Our cool-weather crops (the leafy greens and the root vegetables) are doing great, and will likely continue to do well until the end of the season.  Our warm weather veggies (peppers, tomatoes, etc.) are still doing pretty well, but they'll start winding down as time goes on, and by the time the snow flies, they'll just be a memory of a warmer time.  Interestingly, sweet potatoes (which most people link inextricably with fall due to their prevalence on the Thanksgiving table), require a long and hot summer to meet their full potential.  Cool, cloudy summers produce small and spindly sweet potatoes, but they look great this year!  Fred and our three remaining part time workers (all of our teens are officially back to school, so we're down to a pretty minimal workforce right now) have been working on bringing in all of the sweet potatoes from the field this week.  Now is the time, because that significant frost we got last weekend effectively killed the sweet potato vines, and once the vines are dead, the roots (that's the part we eat) need to come in quickly so they aren't ruined.  So that means it's sweet potato season!  Fortunately, the frost that affected some of our veggies also finished off a lot of the weeds, so most of the weeding we'll need to do for the rest of the season will actually be in the coldframes.  I relish weeding in the coldframes in fall, because by the end of October, it's the warmest place at the farm to be!  But for now, the weather is still pretty nice even out in the field, and we still have five weeks of veggies ahead of us!  The last week of October will be the final week of the CSA, so if you were wondering about that, you can mark your calendars!  In the meantime, check out the options for this week's share, and we'll see you at the drop-off! :-)

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! 

Spring mix or arugula

Cherry tomatoes or squash

Carrots or sweet potatoes

Potatoes or Roma tomatoes

Radishes or kale

Pepper or onion

Leeks or 2 tomatoes

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:  Spring mix, cherry tomatoes, sweet potatoes, Roma tomatoes, radishes, pepper, and leeks.

Share B:  Spring mix, squash, carrots, potatoes, kale, onion, and 2 tomatoes.

Share C:  Arugula, cherry tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, kale, pepper, and leeks.

Recipes

It's soup season! If you're not sure what to do with kale besides making kale chips or sautéing it with olive oil and garlic (that's my favorite quick kale recipe!), check out this Vegetarian Kale Soup!  It's hearty, delicious, and perfect for this time of year! 

CSA Newsletter for Week 14

 

Farm Update

Last night's frost hit us pretty hard! 
This is what the lettuce looked like
when Fred went out to the field this
morning.

Hi everyone!  Last week was just a whirlwind of activity between harvesting, getting ready for the CSA drop-offs, doing deliveries, getting our records ready for our organic certification inspection, and prepping the farm for the significant frost we had last night.  Fred was at the farm until about 12:45 last night trying to get as many plants as possible covered to protect them from the frost, and fortunately, most of our crops made it through with minimal damage.  Most of the coldhardy fall crops still look pretty good, and only time will tell whether some of the summer veggies will maintain their quality.  The peppers are kind of on the edge, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens with them.  It's that part of the year where one by one, our summer crops run their course for the season and we say good-bye to them until next year.  Fortunately, we still have plenty of variety coming out of the fields this week!  We'll have the first sweet potatoes of the year in the shares this week, as well as more cabbage and arugula, and of course, our old friends tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, and others!  So here we go into Week 14!  See you later this week! :-)

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! 

Tomatoes or cherry tomatoes

Lettuce

Arugula, kale, or cabbage

Potatoes or beets

Cilantro or 2 peppers

Squash, carrots, or sweet potatoes

Onion

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:  Tomatoes, spring mix, cabbage, potatoes, cilantro, sweet potatoes, and an onion.

Share B:  Cherry tomatoes, spring mix, kale, potatoes, 2 peppers, carrots, and an onion.

Share C:  Cherry tomatoes, romaine, arugula, beets, 2 peppers, squash, and an onion.

Recipes

When the weather gets cold, we naturally seek out foods that make us feel warm and cozy, and these Oven Fresh Seasoned Potato Wedges are the ultimate comfort food for a chilly evening!  

CSA Newsletter for Week13

 

Farm Update

Charlie harvesting cherry tomatoes
on Monday.

Hi everyone!   Wow, it got cold in a hurry, didn't it?  We're definitely into fall now, but we have high hopes that it won't be this chilly and damp for the rest of the season.  When the temperature drops, it really slows down the ripening of the tomatoes.  The upside to that is that we will have canning tomatoes again this week, because they didn't all ripen last week like we thought they would.  So if you're interested in romas or slicing tomatoes for canning, just let me know! They'll be $12 per half bushel.

The cold and wet weather also made harvesting a lot trickier than it is in warmer, dryer parts of the year.  The dampness in the air causes our cherry tomatoes to burst, which means we need to harvest a lot more of them to make sure that you are all getting the best cherry tomatoes without any splits in them.  So they take a lot longer to harvest, and a lot longer to package in those little pint containers, because a much larger percentage of them need to be tossed out.  Harvesting basically anything is also less pleasant in the cold, so we're really hoping the nice weather comes back soon!

The cooler fall weather has certainly been good for our lettuces though!  We finally have tons of spring mix again, and it is looking and tasting great!  We've also started harvesting the first of the sweet potatoes, and we've put the first round out to cure.  Like garlic, sweet potatoes need to cure for a little while so that they can last for long periods of time at room temperature.  This makes sweet potatoes one of the ultimate storage vegetables for winter, because if they've been properly cured, they don't need to go into the fridge.

In other news, we have our big annual organic inspection coming up on Friday!  We'll be putting in a lot of time this week making sure we have all of our records in one place, because our inspector will want to see everything from a detailed record of what seeds we planted on which dates, to our daily harvest records.  He and Fred will walk around the main farm, the blueberry patch, the orchard, and the barn (which is where our packing area and walk-in cooler are) inspecting a bunch of stuff.  It's usually a process that takes about six hours, plus all of the hours (and months) of record-keeping that lead up to the actual inspection.  So it's a time-consuming process, but after Friday, we can cross that off of our to-do list!  So wish us luck!  See you at the drop-off!

What to Expect in Your Share

• Potatoes or Roma tomatoes
• Spring mix or arugula
• Slicing tomatoes or cherry tomatoes
• Acorn squash or leeks
• Kale, Swiss chard, or a young romaine head
• Microgreens, dill, or 2 peppers
• Garlic, onion, or an heirloom tomato

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! 

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:  Potatoes, arugula, slicing tomatoes, acorn squash, young romaine head, microgreens, and an heirloom tomato.

Share B:  Roma tomatoes, spring mix, cherry tomatoes, acorn squash, kale, dill, and an onion.

Share C:  Potatoes, spring mix, slicing tomatoes, leeks, chard, 2 peppers, and an onion.

Recipes

I love tomato season!  I miss tomatoes in the winter, spring, and early summer, and I just glory in them when they finally become abundant in late summer.  The only thing about tomato season is that there are just so. many. tomatoes!  But never fear!  If like me, you feel like you're swimming in tomatoes right now, this is the perfect time to make salsa!  Try out this Best Fresh Tomato Salsa recipe, and enjoy it with your favorite tortilla chips, put it on tacos, or use it to top some grilled chicken!

 

CSA Newsletter for Week 12

 

Farm Update

On Wednesday, I snuck up on Fred as
he was harvesting the last few handfuls
of kale for our cooking greens mix. :-)

Hi everyone!   Most people think of fall as harvest time, and while we actually harvest every week from mid-March to mid-December, it's certainly true that a much larger percentage of our time is spent harvesting in the fall.  Now that the pressure from weeds and insects is lower than it has been all summer, and we've slowed down on planting for the rest of the year, harvesting has taken center stage at the farm.  Aside from harvesting all of the veggies for the CSA shares this week, Fred also has spent a bunch of time getting all of our onions out of the ground.  Our onion crop wasn't as big as we would have hoped because they were planted in our back field, which was flooded out back in the spring, but now is the time to get them out of the ground before the fall rains start.  It's getting pretty close to sweet potato time too!  The vines are looking great, which bodes well for an abundant sweet potato harvest later in the month.  The carrots are finally starting to grow quickly as well, so we should have plenty of carrots for you all in a few weeks, and the greens are really starting to take off now that it's a little cooler.  I'm also especially excited to be back into tons of spring mix!  After about a month of eking out whatever we could after a series of unsuccessful plantings, it's starting to feel really abundant again at the farm, which is a huge relief.  September will probably be a golden month, full of all of the things we love about fall!  And then the rains will start in October, and our thoughts will turn toward wrapping up the farm season and coming inside for the year.  But for right now, we still have eight weeks of CSA ahead of us, and eight more weeks of fantastic veggies!

We'll also have canning tomatoes available this week!  They'll be $12 for a half bushel, and we'll have both Roma tomatoes and slicers available.  So if you'd like to get some canning tomatoes, just let me know what quantity you'd like and whether you'd prefer Romas or slicers, and I'll put you on the list!  If we get a ton of tomato orders, it will be first come, first serve, so it's best to let me know sooner rather than later.  Also, this Monday is Labor Day, so if you have plans that will prevent you from making it to the drop-off this week, just let me know.  You can either postpone your share and get a double share next week, or you can pick up at one of our other drop-offs later in the week if that works better for you.  I'll just need to know by Sunday if you're going to miss Monday, so I can adjust the harvest list accordingly.  Thanks so much, and we'll see you all this week! :-)

What to Expect in Your Share

• Lettuce

• Potatoes

• Cilantro, kale, Swiss chard, or sweet potato greens

• Tomatoes

• Small cabbage, 2 peppers, or microgreens

• Cherry tomatoes or delicata squash

• Onion or garlic

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! 

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:  Lettuce, potatoes, kale, tomatoes, 2 peppers, delicata squash, and an onion.

Share B:  Lettuce, potatoes, Swiss chard, tomatoes, microgreens, cherry tomatoes, and an onion.

Share C:  Lettuce, potatoes, sweet potato greens, tomatoes, 2 peppers, cherry tomatoes, and garlic.

Recipes

Several years ago, a CSA member who had been travelling told us all about the amazing sweet potato greens he had gotten at a farmer's market in Minneapolis.  Neither he nor we had ever heard of eating sweet potato greens before that, but we tried them at his suggestion, and he was right, they are fantastic!  They're milder than most greens, and they have a delicate sweet potato flavor.  The CSA member who first told us about them has since passed away, but every time we eat sweet potato greens, I think about Kelvin and I'm thankful that he took a chance on some unusual greens at the farmer's market.  And now here's your chance to try them too!After looking around the internet for recipes, I found that most of them require ingredients that would be hard to find, or preparations that are a little complicated for our purposes.  But at our house, Fred and I just cook them lightly in either olive oil or coconut oil in a pan over high heat, until they're starting to wilt just a little bit.  Then you can toss them in maple syrup (if you used coconut oil) or chopped garlic and pepper flakes (if you used olive oil), because they're great either sweet or savory.  Enjoy!

 

CSA Newsletter for Week 11

 

Farm Update

   Hi everyone!  It's starting to look like fall out there!  We transplanted lettuce we started in the greenhouse into the field for the last time this season.  This is the first of the "lasts" of this year, to be followed by many others:  the last field planting, the last coldframe planting, the last weeding spree, the last CSA drop-off.  This last transplanting ushers in the slow decline of the growing season and marks the point in the bell curve of work where the line starts to dip slightly.  There are still many farm tasks to do, but there is a little less of each job.  We're still weeding, but not as much as we used to.  We're still planting in the fields, but there will come a time, probably in late September or early October when anything we plant in the field won't be harvestable by the time the snow flies.  We've also pulled out all of the dying zucchini and cucumber plants from the coldframes, and replanted the space with lettuce for the fall and carrots for November deliveries to the stores and restaurants we work with.  Another signal that the season is starting to wane is the return to school of most of our workers.  At the height of the season, we had ten employees on the payroll, most of them teenagers.  Many of them are returning to school next week and either reducing their work hours or saying good-bye to the farm altogether for the year, so we are glad to have a few adults working for us at the farm who will be sticking around to help us finish out the season.

But even as the season shifts from summer to fall, we still have a lot growing!  We're pretty much at the height of cherry tomato season right now, and the field tomatoes are ripening really quickly!  We'll have a new head lettuce in the shares this week, a variety called Verigo, which is bright green, thicker like a romaine, and has kind of a dramatic spiky look, so that will be fun!  We had a few really good rains this week, and now all of the crops, from kale to lettuce to sweet potatoes to squash, have perked up considerably.  When the dry soil gets a good rain, it's a relief to crops and people alike, because it means we don't have to spend as much time irrigating.  And anything that saves us time is a good thing, because like many of you, our family is also transitioning back into the school year!  This year will look pretty different than most since our kids will be distance learning, but that also means an added responsibility on this mama's plate.  For all of us who are trying to navigate going back to school this year, I offer up a hearty "Good luck!"  I think we're going to need it!  But at least we'll all be able to eat some great meals while we're figuring it all out! :-)

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! 

• Spring mix
• Cherry tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Delicata Squash or 3-4 tomatoes
• Kale, Swiss chard, or leeks
• Onion, garlic, or green pepper
• Okra, microgreens, or Verigo head lettuce

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:  Spring mix, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, 3-4 tomatoes, kale, onion, and Verigo head lettuce.

Share B:  Spring mix, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, Delicata squash, kale, green pepper, and microgreens.

Share C: Spring mix, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, 3-4 tomatoes, leeks, green pepper, and Verigo head lettuce.

 

Recipes

How cute is this green pepper octopus?!?

If you've got kids going back to school this week, either in the classroom or virtually, they might enjoy some of these super cute veggie snacks!  Let's kick this school year off right with some healthy food that is both yummy and fun!  But don't let the perfect-looking foods cause you stress or put pressure on you, because we already have enough of that.  So if the cute Octopus doesn't come out as cute as the picture, or if you're too busy and just cut up pepper slices instead, that is still a win!  Go forth and be awesome! :-)

CSA Newsletter for Week 10

 

Farm Update

Hi everyone!  This week, we are officially halfway through the CSA season, and we're starting to feel a change in the air.  You know how around mid-August, there's something about the air that feels just a little bit like fall, even though it's still really hot out?  We've noticed that change recently.  I think of it as back-to-school weather, and it always makes me want to buy school supplies and walk around MSU campus drinking orange spice tea.  But maybe that's just me. 😂

We are officially done with our massive potato harvest!  That was a huge job, but it is done for the season!  The humongous amount of weeding has also finally subsided, and now we're basically just doing maintenance weeding.  We'll be starting our large onion harvest this week, which should also be a big job.  Remember those 60,000 onion plants we put in the ground in March?  Now they all have to come out of the ground, so I expect that will take up a major portion of the next few weeks.  After the onions are harvested, we'll lay them out to cure in one of our coldframes that isn't currently planted.  Onions that are intended to be stored for long periods of time at room temperature need to be cured first so they don't rot after a few weeks, and the empty coldframe is just the right place to do it!  

New this week, we're finally into our green peppers!  I'm especially excited about our green Carmen peppers, which are an elongated sweet pepper variety with a fantastic flavor.  They kind of resemble hot peppers because they're longer than your traditional green bell peppers, but they're actually sweet instead of spicy.  So if you've never tried them before, you're in for a treat!  We're also on the verge of having a ton of slicing tomatoes! Right now we're getting the first trickle of red, ripe slicers, and we've got plenty of tangy green tomatoes on the vine (which will be making an appearance in the share this week!  Yum!) But as the week wears on, a lot more of them will be ripening, and we'll probably be fully into tomatoes next week.  Then we'll start drowning in them and eating them for every meal, and by October I'll be pretty content to never see another tomato again until next summer.  And then next July, I'll be counting down the days until the tomatoes are ready again.  I know this, because that is what has happened pretty much every year since we started the farm 10 years ago.  There is a very cyclical nature to farming, and while each growing season is unique, there are some things that don't change, like weeds in June, rain in October, and feeling like you can take on the world in February.  And lots of tomatoes in September.

So welcome to week 10 of the CSA!  See you guys at the drop-off!

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! 

• Potatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Beets, kale, or a bag of small onions
• Leeks, okra, or 2 green peppers
• Romaine lettuce
• Microgreens, basil, or green tomatoes
• Garlic, onions, or slicing tomatoes

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:  Romaine, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, beets, 2 green peppers, onions, and microgreens.

Share B:  Romaine, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, kale, leeks, garlic, and microgreens.

Share C:  Romaine, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, bag of small onions, okra, slicing tomato, and basil.

 

Recipes

About 15 years ago, microgreens were the fancy thing that all the cool restaurants were using to convey how hip they were.  Now they're a little more mainstream, and even regular home cooks have access to these flavorful tiny versions of the vegetables we know and love!  And now that we're all eating at home more, what a perfect time to fancy up our everyday meals and make every dinner a celebration!  If you've never really worked with micros, here are 8 Ways to Kick up Your Meals with Microgreens from Urban Cultivator.  Fred and I regularly use micros in some variation of all of these ways (except the pesto, because we have tons of basil), and it definitely makes a regular dish feel special.  So check it out and give some of these a try!