Monroe Family Organics CSA Newsletter for Week 13

Farm Update

Hi everyone!  September is a very transitional time of year at the farm, just as it is in the rest of nature.  Even if you don't work outside most of the day, you've likely noticed that the mornings are chillier and darker than they have been, and your yard isn't as crispy as it probably was for most of the summer.  We are definitely moving into cooler weather, and that means that we are moving into our cool-weather crops at the farm.  Indeed, we have finished harvesting from some of our older plantings of lettuce and green beans (among other things), so Fred went through and mowed them down with the tractor the other day.  This allows the remaining plant matter to make its way into the ground and add nutrients to the soil for future crops that will be planted in the same space.  While some of the summer veggies are on their way out for the year, plenty of new fall fare is coming in!  We've been spending time this week cultivating some newer plantings of arugula, radishes, spring mix, spinach, and cilantro that will be making their way into the shares in a few weeks.  In general discourse, the word "cultivating" means something like, "intentionally putting in effort to support and promote a particular outcome", such as signing your child up for an activity they seem to gravitate to so they can continue to develop their skills in that arena.  But in agriculture, cultivating has a very specific meaning that is not the same as the general usage.  In farming, to cultivate means to go through with implements and take out the weeds growing between rows of crops.  There are various types of cultivators, from small ones you can manually push down a row of crops, to larger implements you attach to the back of a tractor and pull over a bed of plants.  This year, we bought a new tractor specifically designed for cultivating, and we love it!  It has allowed us to stay on top of the weeds better than we ever have in the past.  That's not to say that the farm doesn't still get overrun with weeds in June and July, but it's so much better than it was, and it reduces the number of man hours we spend on weeding, thus freeing up time to do the myriad other things that need to happen to keep the farm going.

Aside from mowing down old crops and cultivating more recent plantings, Fred is also making a big push to get in a much-needed planting of spinach before we get rained on for most of the week.  He's out there as I write this, preparing a bed for the new spinach, and then he'll actually get the seeds in the ground this evening.  As much as I am going to miss the heat and sun of summer, I do really look forward to spinach every fall, and alas, spinach doesn't do well in hot, dry summer conditions.  So even as we move out of the vibrancy and abundance of full summer, there are also some very good things about fall that we can lean into.  Like spinach, and warm soups, and cute boots, and a cozy fire on a rainy afternoon.  Although I am already feeling preemptively nostalgic for summer, there is nothing we can do to stop the year from rolling into fall, so I'm going to follow Henry David Thoreau's advice to "Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of each."  Right now, I'm going to truly relish the last weeks of summer.  I am going to eat all the basil, tomatoes, and peppers that I can, sit in the sun on my deck, and really enjoy mowing my lawn for the last few times this year.  And then when that's over, it will be time to lean into spinach, cider, roasted root vegetables, and fuzzy throw blankets, and resign myself to the influence of fall.  

So that's it for this week!  See you at the drop-offs for week 13!

What to Expect in the Shares this Week

 

If you pick up at our Alma, Mt. Pleasant, or Midland drop-off, here are the options for your shares!  If you have a half share, you’ll choose one item from each choice category, and if you have a full share, you’ll choose two.  And if there is something you don’t like or can’t eat, you can bring it to the trading station at the end and trade it for something you like better. 

• Cherry tomatoes or fennel
• Potatoes or beets
• Carrots or green beans
• Tomatoes or winter squash
• Kale, bag of onions, or spaghetti squash
• Basil, parsley, cilantro, or microgreens
• Green pepper, onion, or garlic

 

If you pick up at our Lansing, Okemos, St. Johns, Midland hospital, or Alma hospital drop-off, or if you have home or workplace delivery, here are your options!  We have three different prepacked shares, and you can let me know which one you want by filling out this quick form by lunchtime the day before your drop-off.  If you have a half share, you can choose one of these options, and if you have a full share, you’ll choose two.

Share A:

• Cherry tomatoes
• Beets
• Green beans
• Tomatoes
• Bag of onions
• Basil
• Green pepper

 

Share B:

• Cherry tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Green beans
• Butternut squash
• Bag of onions
• Microgreens
• Garlic

 

Share C:

• Cherry tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Tomatoes
• Kale
• Cilantro
• Onion

 

Recipes

Minestrone is perhaps the perfect recipe for this transitional time of year, because it uses the abundance of summer veggies we have coming out of the fields right now, and being a soup, it will also keep you warm on the chillier, rainier evenings.  This particular minestrone recipe calls for a bunch of stuff that we have in the shares this week (yay!), but the great thing about minestrone is that you can substitute many veggie ingredients for different veggies if you happen to have different things on hand.  So this recipe will carry you through the transition from summer to fall, and help you use up any veggies that might be building up in your fridge!