CSA Newsletter for April 2023

 Farm Update

Our first direct planting of lettuce is up in the field!
It's still little, but it is looking strong!

Hi everyone!  Hope you're all doing well and enjoying the rapidly improving weather! Things are definitely in full swing at the farm now, and the name of the game right now is planting, planting, and more planting! We do many different types of planting, from starting seeds in flats in the greenhouse that will eventually be transplanted into the fields, to seeding into the protected soil in the hoophouses, to actually seeding directly into the field. And we're doing all of those things right now! Our first plantings of direct-seeded carrots and lettuce are coming up in the fields, and it is always so exciting to see those first little baby plants of the year emerge from the ground! Last week Fred and our crew spent the day transplanting kohlrabi and green onions that we started as seeds in the greenhouse back at the beginning of March into the field, and they also planted about half of the potatoes this week that will be making it onto our plates in a few months.

Most of the field work we are doing right now is preparatory in nature (seeding, planting, tilling, and spreading compost). But we're actually always preparing for some crops (tilling and preparing beds), planting some other crops (seeding or transplanting), maintaining and monitoring some other crops (weeding, cultivating, and keeping an eye on pests and disease), and harvesting some crops (actually removing the edible part from the plant or the soil, cleaning it it up, and bringing it to the CSA or our local stores and restaurant partners. This part of the season leans heavily toward the preparation and planting, and later in the fall will lean more heavily toward harvest, but there are elements of all of those life stages happening from about the end of February to about the middle of December at the farm.

Right now we're not harvesting as much as we will be in a few months, but we are already harvesting spring mix, cilantro, spinach, green onions, green garlic, and microgreens in pretty significant quantities. We're also fully into the very abundant but very short ramp season, and Fred has been working with our friend Willy to harvest some of the wild ramps in Willy's woods. This time of year, Willy's woods have such an abundance of ramps that we can harvest as many as we can eat or sell, and not even make a dent in what is out there. It is truly incredible. At this point, the crops and ramps we're harvesting are going to a few stores, restaurants, and some multifarm CSAs to which we contribute. These include GreenTree Cooperative Grocery in Mt. Pleasant, the Argus Farm Stop stores in Ann Arbor, the CSA through the Allen Neighborhood Center in Lansing, the Farm at St. Joe's CSA in Ypsilanti, and Spencer restaurant in Ann Arbor. As it is still early in the spring, we don't have enough variety of items to start our own CSA yet, but we are glad to be able to get the first spring veggies onto people's tables in these other ways.

The first little baby carrots are poking out of the ground, and 
I can't wait to actually eat them in a few months!  

And in just a few months, we'll have such an abundance of wonderful veggies coming out of the fields, that it will be time to start the CSA! We don't have an official start date yet, because it depends a lot on what the weather does between now and the start of the CSA season, but we generally get started in mid-June, and this year will likely be the same. I'll let you all know when we have an official start date, but tentatively mark your calendars for the third week of June!

I've had a few people ask if we still have availability for this season, and we do! So if you've been wondering if you can still sign up, or you have a friend who is interested in joining, you still can! Our availability will likely fill up significantly over the next month, so if you know you want to sign up, better go ahead and do it soon, but we likely won't sell out before the end of May. And as always, tell your friends! If you love our fresh, delicious organic vegetables, spread the word! Word of mouth is the way most people find out about us, and we always appreciate it so much. It's $630 for a full share or $340 for a half share at all of our regular CSA drop-off locations, and we also offer home/workplace delivery for an additional $95 (that covers the whole season) if you live/work within a few miles of where we're already driving. Just let me know if you have any questions, and if you are interested in signing up for the 2023 season, you can just fill out this registration form!

As the weather gets nicer and we all start to emerge from hibernation, it's time to start planning for summer! For you all, that might mean planning a vacation, getting your outdoor spaces cleaned up, and locking in your supply of wonderful veggie goodness (hint, hint!). For me, that means figuring out how to manage all of the various responsibilities of a fast-paced, demanding farm where there is very little flexibility and timing is everything, a home that is fortunately pretty forgiving when I get too busy, three very active kids, and my other off-farm job (which is also fortunately pretty flexible when I need it to be). It's really a lot like an advanced game of Tetris, but it's real life, and the stakes are a lot higher. It gets crazy busy for the warm half of the year, but it also means that I get to spend almost all of my hours outside, and you really can't find better food anywhere, which is a very high priority for us. So ready or not, here we go into another farm season! It's always an adventure, and I'm definitely looking forward to finding out what this year will send us, and I'm so glad to have you all along for the journey! Thanks so much, and we'll see you in June!

Recipes

It's finally spinach season! When we first start harvesting the first spinach of the year, it's like the clouds open up and the sun shines upon our dinner table. (That feeling may have to do with the fact that we actually are getting more sunlight around the time we start harvesting spinach, but nonetheless, spinach season feels like a sign that winter is over.) So needless to say, we've been eating a lot of spinach in our house lately! I like to just put some in a tortilla with some salad dressing and just make a quick salad wrap as a snack, or incorporate it into the stir fries that are a staple around our house, and use it in delicious pasta dishes, like this Creamy Lemon Orzo from Rachel Cooks. Rachel was a friend of mine in college, and now she has a really great food blog with accessible, healthy, and totally yummy recipes, and every week when I get her emails, I get a little bit geeked out about them. So enjoy the recipe, and definitely check out some of her other recipes, because I guarantee you'll find a bunch you'll want to try!