Farm Update
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| The potato plants are looking strong and healthy! It is nice to see them looking so good after their recent battles with frost and insect pests! |
Hi everyone! The CSA starts next week, and we are excited to see everyone again! If you are new to the CSA, and you missed my post a few weeks ago about what to expect at your first drop-off, you can check that out here learn everything you need to know about the first drop-off! This season has been up and down so far, between the late frosts and the drought we've been experiencing for about the last two months, but we finally have enough abundance and variety of vegetables to start the CSA. We're also supposed to get a good rain in the next few days, which we could really use! It's looking like we're going to get rained on for most of Sunday and Monday, and while I don't love the idea of getting rained on at the first CSA drop-off of the year, I'll take it. Once we get a good rain, so many crops that have been held back from growing will take off, and we'll have even more variety for the next few weeks. Also, we've been experiencing a lot of pressure from insects, which attack our plants even more ferociously in really dry periods. Because we've been irrigating our plants like crazy with our drip irrigation system, they look a lot better and greener than any other plants that are around in the wild, and naturally, the bugs want to eat the healthiest plants. So once all the other plants in the ecosystem get the water they need, our plants will be proportionately less attractive to the bugs, and we won't have to fight them as hard.
The upside to the drier weather is that the weeds really haven't gotten as out of control as they usually do this time of year, because their growth has also been stunted by the drought. When we irrigate our crops, we use a drip irrigation system, which is basically a series of little flat perforated hoses that run right along the rows of crops and drip water only where it is needed. This uses a lot less water than overhead irrigation systems, and it also keeps the weeds at bay by watering (mostly) only the plants we want. Now that we're past those late frosts that damaged so many of our plants in May, and since we've been irrigating so much, there are a lot of things that are looking really good around the farm. It was pretty discouraging for a while to see everything looking so beaten down after we worked so hard to take care of it, but now things are starting to look really healthy. The hoophouses are verdant with zucchini and cucumber plants and tomato vines, and our plantings of carrots look really strong and beautiful. The potato plants are growing large and nice, and we pulled up a potato plant yesterday to see how the potatoes themselves are developing. They're looking good so far, and Fred and I ate those first delicious little potatoes with our lunch yesterday. We are so excited that we finally have so much variety coming out of the fields and hoophouses, and we've definitely been enjoying all the abundance in our own kitchen!
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| Our drip line irrigation on a new planting of onions, carrots, and spring mix. |
We have made it through the first big planting push of the spring, and now there are just a few beds that have yet to be planted. Since we didn't get any rain over the last few months, there is still so much cover crop in those beds that we can't plant until we get some rain and the winter cover crop starts its normal process of composting. Once that happens, we're going to plant those beds pretty aggressively with some of the veggies that will be in the shares in late summer. We always need to have plants that are at the right stage to harvest, so we plant new crops every few weeks. It's definitely an art and a science, because you need to have open beds to plant, you have to have the right weather conditions for planting, and you have to have the right amount of time before you intend to harvest those plants so that you don't ever have a week where there is too much or too little coming out of the fields. Too much, and we risk not being able to harvest everything (which is hugely wasteful), and too little, and we feel bad that we don't have as much variety as we'd like for the CSA. There is a lot to manage, including a lot of factors that are out of our control. But the best we can do is make an educated guess, control the factors we can can, and be ready to pivot around the ones we can't.
Fortunately, we have a really great crew this summer, and unreliable labor is not an issue this year as it has sometimes been in the past. With farming, the work needs to be done when it needs to be done. There is no such thing as getting to it later, so there were a lot of years where Fred just had to work nonstop in order to keep everything from falling apart. Having reliable, enthusiastic, capable workers this year has been such a joy and a relief! A huge shout out to Abby, Ander, and Amy, who have been wonderful to work with! I am so looking forward to doing this whole season with them!
And with that said, here we go into the first week of the 2023 CSA season!
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.
- Spring mix for everyone!
- Carrots for everyone!
- Cucumbers or radishes
- Oyster mushrooms, snap peas, or zucchini
- Kale, Swiss chard, or bok choy
- Kohlrabi, microgreens, or frisee
- Green onions or garlic scapes
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:
- Spring mix
- Carrots
- Oyster mushrooms
- Kale
- Frisee
- Radishes
- Green onions
Share B:
- Spring mix
- Carrots
- Oyster mushrooms
- Swiss chard
- Kohlrabi
- Cucumbers
- Green onions
Share C:
- Spring mix
- Carrots
- Zucchini
- Bok choy
- Microgreens
- Cucumbers
- Garlic scapes
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| Look at these lovely tomato vines in flower! They have a bunch of green cherry tomatoes on them, which will make their way into the shares when they ripen in a month or so. |
Recipes
The start of the CSA season is always exciting, and especially if you're new, you may encounter some veggies you've never cooked with before! Kohlrabi is one I always get questions about, so if you've never tried kohlrabi, you are in for a treat! It's very fresh tasting, and while you can find many kohlrabi recipes on the internet (I'll link to some below), we've been making a really simple and delicious salad with it lately in our kitchen!
Fred's Asian Kohlrabi and Carrot Salad
This salad is really simple, and you can play around with amounts and ingredients as you see fit. To start, grab a handful of spring mix and put it on a plate. Then grab a cheese grater, and use the large grating holes to grate some carrots over the spring mix (however much you want! We generally use a lot!). Peel the outer skin off the kohlrabi and discard. Take the peeled kohlrabi and use the large grating holes of your grater to sprinkle some shaved kohlrabi over the salad (again, however much you want!). Then, grab any Asian inspired sauce, vinaigrette, or dressing you have on hand, and sprinkle liberally over your salad. We use a mix of sesame vinaigrette, soy sauce, and teriyaki sauce, but you could also use Thai peanut sauce, a soy/hoisin sauce mix, or any other dressing you like. Enjoy as a small side dish, or you could also add little bits of grilled chicken, venison, or other meat to make it a main dish!
If you just want to check out a whole bunch of kohlrabi recipes to get your creative juices going, here are 10 Fun Kohlrabi Recipes from A Couple Cooks! And honestly, I also like just cutting them into sticks and munching on them raw with ranch dressing. :-)
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| Here is the Swiss chard that will be in the shares this week! |
Swiss chard is more mainstream now than it was when we first started the CSA in 2011, but it is another thing that you may never have cooked with before, especially if you haven't ventured much into leafy greens. (Do it! Leafy greens are so good for you, and they are also delicious!) Chard is fantastic in omelets! Here is a great base recipe for a Chard and Onion Omelet from the Food Network, but you could also play around with different cheeses, herbs, and veggies. The thing I love about omelets is that you can put pretty much whatever you want in them, so have fun with it!
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