CSA Newsletter for Week 6 of the 2023 Season

 Farm Update

Hi everyone!  The nature of farming and gardening is that it is a huge ecosystem of moving parts.  Each crop, insect, animal, and person is on its own path, but those paths intersect and push against each other, sometimes changing the trajectory of the individual plant, person, or bug.  And all of us (plant, animal, person, and insect) are all at the mercy of the weather.  This ends up meaning, inevitably, that some individuals in the ecosystem have to suffer so that another can do well.  For example, the potato beetles have to suffer an untimely death so that the potatoes can thrive, and the people can have an abundant potato harvest.  The onions, who would love nothing better than to be left in the ground over the winter to come back in the spring, flower, and produce their little onion babies, are frustrated in this plan by the humans, who very inconsiderately pull them out of the ground and eat them before they've had a chance to produce a new generation of onions.  And the people pour a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (and water and compost) into the plants, and sometimes that crop just doesn't work out.  At the farm, there are always some things that are thriving and some things that aren't.

I always try to take that philosophical view when faced with multiple simultaneous disappointments, and right now is no exception.  While looking over the proposed roster of CSA veggies for this week, I couldn't help but grumble that we should have a lot more kale, much more spring mix, a bunch more blueberries, and... hey, what's the deal with the peppers?  Why don't we have peppers yet?  

And I know why, of course.  We had a few late frosts that damaged our kale plants much more than we expected, then we had an extended drought that caused the blueberry plants to be too thirsty for too long, and they didn't produce as many blueberries as usual.  And our last planting of spring mix didn't germinate properly for a reason we can't quite pin down, but it might be due to excessive heat, or to oversaturation of the soil after so much rain.  Any one of these weather-related shortfalls would be more easily absorbed, because a farm as diversified as ours has natural shock absorption, and the things that are thriving can pick up the slack for the things that are not.  But when they are all happening at once, it feels a little bit (or a lot) discouraging.  We have an idea in our minds of what the CSA shares this time of year should include, and how much variety there should be, and this week, nature just hasn't cooperated with that vision.  We'll likely still have some of those veggies at the drop-offs, but I am hesitant to put them on the roster, because I don't want anyone to base their meal plan around them and then be disappointed at the drop-off.  

But as always, even though we don't have as much of some crops as we feel we should right now, there are things that are doing well and growing abundantly.  Green beans are here, and we have a lot of them!  I always look forward to our fresh green beans, and they have finally arrived!  Our onions have hit the bulbing stage in their life cycle, which is when they start putting more energy into the underground part of the plant, instead of the above ground part, and the bulbs are starting to look more like what we generally think of as onions.  And this week, we seeded the next round of spring mix, carrots, cilantro, and dill, which will be ready to harvest in the fall.  Fred and I actually got to visit two large farmers markets over the last few weeks (the Davison Farmers Market last weekend and Detroit's Eastern Market this morning), and we were reminded again of how top-notch our veggies are and how much quality and variety we actually do have compared with what is generally available.

In the meantime, the life cycle of the farm continues to march on.  The hot weather and plentiful rain we've had recently have really caused the weeds to grow by leaps and bounds, so we have a lot of weeding to do in the upcoming week!  Fred was actually able to drive the tractor with the mowing attachment over the especially tall weeds growing up in our potato beds, because the green above-ground part of the potato plants are beginning their annual process of dying back.  Around this time every summer, the potato plants start to put less of their limited energy into their leafy parts, and more energy into their roots (ie, the part we eat).  When that happens, the leafy parts start to lose their vibrant green color and look a little less vigorous, and they get a little limp.  When this happens, they are no longer as tall, and Fred can actually drive over them with the mower attachment on the tractor and get the tall weeds under control without damaging the potato plants.  So he did that this week, which definitely helped.  It's all a part of the natural cycle that is the farm, and I guess that includes the wins and losses too.  I try to remember that, let it go, and keep my expectations realistic.  But you still might hear me grumble a little bit at the drop-off.  :-)

With that said, here we go into week 6!  See you soon! 

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. 
 

• Green beans
• Potatoes
• Cherry tomatoes or carrots
• Cucumbers, fennel, or cabbage
• Basil, green onions, or cilantro
• Swiss chard or zucchini
• White Spanish onion, garlic, or microgreens

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:

• Green beans
• Potatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• fennel
• Basil
• Zucchini
• White Spanish onion

Share B:

• Green beans
• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Cucumber
• Basil
• Chard
• Fresh garlic

Share C:

• Green beans
• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Cucumbers
• Cilantro
• Zucchini
• White Spanish onion

Recipes

It's green bean season!  Green beans are one of the most delicious vegetables out there, and I always look forward to eating a whole bunch of them through late July and August.  But when I was a kid, I thought I didn't like green beans, because I had only ever had the sad, grayish, falling-apart-mushy ones from a can.  So if you have never had fresh green beans, you are in for a treat.  The first step to making awesome green beans is don't boil them!  Fresh green beans are such a gem, and boiling them just takes all the wonderful flavor and texture out.  We love to sauté ours in olive oil and add a little spice, and if you're ready to never eat sad mushy green beans again, here is a recipe to get you started!  Check out these Simple Skillet Green Beans from Healthy Seasonal Recipes!

CSA Newsletter for Week 5

Farm Update

Hi everyone! I can't believe it's the end of July already!  Where has the summer gone?  

Things at the farm are humming along as usual. Aside from the usual massive amount of time harvesting, and we also managed to get a lot of the planting done that we needed to do!  On Wednesday while I was doing the Lansing area deliveries, Fred and the crew were getting a bunch of lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, and kohlrabi planted.  Although it is the height of summer, we're in fall planting mode at the farm.  Different crops have different seasons, and we always have to be thinking a few months ahead. Fortunately we were able to get our fall brassicas and lettuce into the ground before the rains on Thursday, which is a huge relief.  We have been getting nervous about finding a period of time that was dry enough to prep the ground and get the next round of crops planted, and that finally happened this week!

Our tomato vines are getting really long!  This week, we 
raised the lines of our tomato trellising system for the fifth time
this season.  Keeping the tomatoes off the ground keeps them a lot
cleaner and makes them much easier to harvest.

Despite the more-than-sufficient amount of rain we've had lately, we're starting to have to irrigate some of our larger plants again.  Our potato plants, tomato vines, and collards are all pretty large right now, and when plants get really big, they require a lot more water to thrive.  Since these particular crops are planted in black plastic mulch to keep the weeds down and the water from our drip line irrigation from evaporating when it's dry, sometimes the ground around them doesn't soak in a lot of rainwater.  This is just fine when the plants are smaller, but when they are really big, this often means that we need to do some additional irrigation.  And in the greenhouses, the plants are protected entirely from the rain (which really helps prevent foliar diseases).  But that means we are pretty much always having to irrigate the hoophouses, even when it's raining cats and dogs outside.  The tomato vines are getting nice and long, and we spent some time this week trellising them.  For our tomato plants, we have a trellis system that consists of a long line of T posts with twine wrapped tightly around the line.  Imagine two clothes lines that are really close together, and it's pretty much just like that.  We then snake the tomato vines up through the two lines of twine to keep them off the ground, which keeps them cleaner and makes them a lot easier to harvest.  As the tomato vines grow out throughout the season, we have to keep raising the height of the lines to accommodate the longer vines.  For our determinate varieties (where almost all of the tomatoes are ready to harvest at roughly the same time), we'll end up trellising them about five times throughout the season.  For our indeterminate varieties (which have a much longer season because the fruit ripens at different times), we'll trellis them about eight times, because they keep growing for much longer.  Finding the best way to grow and care for each crop in the diverse system that is the farm is both an art and a science.  Being outside in a dynamic and vibrant natural system, even the science often feels more like art.

So here we go into week 5!  Next time I see you, I'll officially be in my next decade of life!  I'm actually turning 40 today, so I'll be spending most of the day celebrating with my family, and I'll catch you guys next week at the drop-offs!  :-)

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. 
 

• Potatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Carrots or cabbage
• Fennel, chard, or kale
• Zucchini or green onions
• Basil, microgreens, or cilantro
• Cucumber, fresh garlic, parsley

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:

• Potatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Carrots
• Chard
• Green onions
• Cilantro
• Cucumber

Share B:

• Potatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Carrots
• Kale
• Zucchini
• Basil
• Fresh garlic

Share C:

• Potatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Cabbage
• Fennel
• Zucchini
• Basil
• Cucumber

Recipes

You guys have probably noticed that there have been carrots in the shares pretty much every week, and this week is no exception.  More than anything else we grow, I always hear from people how much they love our carrots, and I totally agree!  In chatting with folks at the drop-offs, I've heard that either their carrots are always gone within a couple days, or that they have a few bags of carrots still in the fridge from previous weeks that they haven't eaten yet.  (Incidentally, whether you're in the first category or the second category appears to come almost entirely down to whether you've got kids in your house.  Kids seem to be carrot eating machines!)  But if you're in the second category, here is a great recipe to help you use up some of those carrots!  This recipe first appeared in last year's newsletter, so you might remember it from last July.  But this is one of Fred's classic carrot recipes, and I love it so much I'm bringing it back out!  Enjoy!

Fred's Sautéed Baby Carrots with Pistachios

Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• 1 CSA bag of baby carrots
• 1/4 cup pistachios without shells
• Salt to taste
• Whatever seasoning you like!  We've made this with chili powder, cumin, curry powder, and basil, and they're all great.  This is pretty versatile, and you can change the flavor profile depending on what seasoning you use. 

Instructions:

Splash olive oil in a pan over medium heat, and add carrots.  Sauté the carrots until they are soft, but not mushy.  A few minutes before the carrots are ready to take off of the heat, add the pistachios and stir them around in the pan.  When the carrots are properly soft, take the pan off the heat, add salt and preferred seasoning to taste.  Enjoy!

CSA Newsletter for Week 4 of the 2023 Season

  Farm Update

This Lacinato kale will be in the shares this week!
It's also called dinosaur kale or Toscano kale, and it has a
nice hearty texture that is great for cooking.

Hi everyone!  It's amazing how different things are at the farm now than they were a month ago!  Everything is growing quickly, everything is abundant, and we have a ton of variety.  And now we are definitely on the edge of too much rain.  We've gotten quite a lot of rain lately, and all of the plants have gotten a good soaking.  This time of year, when our potato plants are really large and require a lot of water, we still have to irrigate them even when the rainfall has been sufficient for most other crops. But even they have all the water they need right now.  Now the trick will be getting enough dry days in a row so Fred can plant the next round of crops.  We have a lot of seeds and transplants that need to go into the ground, but the soil needs to dry enough for Fred to prep the ground, and then we have to actually do the planting.  How many dry days we would need varies a lot based on a number of factors (temperature and wind being the main ones), so we could actually use a little less rain at the moment.

The slicing tomatoes get closer to being ripe every day! 

As has been the case for the last several weeks, the main thing we've been spending a bunch of time on each week at the farm is harvesting, and also the washing and bagging of the veggies.  There is also weeding and seeding and deliveries and working on constructing the greenhouse, but the main thing is harvesting all the veggies that end up on your table each week!  And we've got a few new things this week, including potatoes, fennel, parsley, and cabbage, along with some of the old favorites!  The thing to know about the potatoes this week is that new potatoes are amazing, and they are a totally different food than the storage potatoes that you can get at the store.  So if you've only had those big bags of potatoes from the store, these will be pretty different.  Since they've just been harvested, they are a lot less starchy, and they have a wonderful creamy texture that you just can't get with potatoes that have been out of the field for several months.  I hope you enjoy them, and all the other goodies this week! 

So that's it for this week!  Thank you so much, and we'll see you at the drop-offs! :-)

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. 
 

• Potatoes
• Carrots or spring mix
• Cherry tomatoes or fennel
• Zucchini or Swiss chard
• Parsley, basil, or microgreens
• Cucumbers, frisée, or green onions
• Cabbage, kale, or collards

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:

I am super excited about parsley in 
the shares this week!  I think tabbouleh
or fried potatoes with parsley
will definitely be on the menu this week!

• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Cherry tomatoes
• Chard
• Cabbage
• Frisée
• Parsley

Share B:

• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Cherry tomatoes
• Zucchini
• Cabbage
• Cucumbers
• Basil

Share C:

• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Fennel
• Zucchini
• Kale
• Green onions
• Basil

Recipes

Cabbage is one of those things that people either love or hate.  I don't think I've ever heard from someone that they were kind of so-so about cabbage.  I love cabbage, but that wasn't always the case.  What changed my mind, back when I was a young little 20-year-old and had first started dating Fred, was a cabbage dish very similar to this one that he cooked for me.  So if you love cabbage, you will love this recipe.  And if you're not a a cabbage fan, give this Easy Fried Cabbage a try.  It might change your mind! :-)

CSA Newsletter for Week 3 of the 2023 Season

 Farm Update

It is so great to see all the plants looking
so healthy and verdant again after such a
long drought!  The crops are definitely
glad about all the rain we've been getting!

Hi everyone!  I hope you're all enjoying your veggies so far and making some awesome meals! We've definitely been enjoying having the bounty of summer veggies in our kitchen, and it is wonderful to have such a wide variety of great produce to work with!  During the winter and early spring, what we can make is very limited by the lack of good veggies, so we really relish this time of year when almost any food we want to make is possible!  We've had the first few cherry tomatoes in our kitchen for the last few weeks, and this week we finally have enough ripe cherry tomatoes to bring to you!  The yellow cherry tomato variety that will be in the shares this week is Golden Nugget, which an open pollenated variety with great heirloom tomato flavor.  They'll have a slightly shorter shelf life than some of the cherry tomato varieties that appear later in the season, but my guess is that won't be a problem, because they're so delicious you'll probably want to eat them all right away!  We've also got some really nice slicing tomatoes that are coming along nicely in the hoophouses, and they should be ready to harvest in a few weeks.  They're still green right now, but I'm already getting excited for the first BLT of the season.  It feels like real summer now that we're into tomato and basil season!

These golden cherry tomatoes are 
coming in the shares this week!  

With all this heat and rain, things are really taking off!  The crops are growing really quickly, and so are the weeds.  In any given week, we spend most of our time harvesting, and we felt like the weeds were getting away from us earlier in the week.  Fortunately, the farm crew was able to get a lot of weeding done later in the week, and things are back under some semblance of control for now.  The insect pressure we were experiencing a few weeks ago has also gone down now that it's not so dry out.  When we hadn't had rain in weeks, all the plants in the ecosystem surrounding the farm were really struggling, and naturally, the bugs wanted to eat the healthiest plants they could find.  Unfortunately, those were all the plants that we were irrigating like crazy, so it was definitely a battle to keep them all from getting eaten by desperate insects.  But now that we have gotten plenty of rain, the bugs have dispersed to other areas to avail themselves of all the lush green foliage that is around in the environment now. 

We are also excited to be making progress on getting the new hoophouse built!  If you've been reading the newsletter for a while, you may remember that we bought an old hoophouse at an auction in November.  We were just waiting for the weather to turn around enough to start reconstructing it at the farm, but we ran into a labor snafu back in March, and Fred wasn't able to get it put up before the planting season was in full swing.  We've been working on it little by little in the time margins that have presented themselves, but it was definitely slow going.  Yesterday our friend Danny came up to help at the farm, and he and Fred got some major work done on it!  There are still a few structural things we need to do with it, and then we have to put the plastic on, but it really feels like we are making real progress on the project, which is a relief.

The new hoophouse is coming along well!
We've got tomatoes planted in it already, and 
when we get the plastic on, that will help protect
the plants from the temperature fluctuations and 
cold rain we inevitably get in the fall.

Last week of the CSA, we had a whole bunch of people postpone their shares because of the 4th of July holiday.  If that's you, you can either get a double share this week, or some week in the future if that works better for you.  I have put all of the folks who postponed last week down for a double share this week by default unless you told me otherwise, but if you have an extra share coming to you and you don't want it this week, just send me an email or text and we can defer it to some future week.  If you have a prepacked share, when you fill out the form to let me know what share you prefer, you'll just select the full share option if you're making up for missing last week.  And if you postponed your share last week, but you just fill out the form and select a half share this week, I'll just assume that you are planning to take your makeup share sometime in the future.  This can get a little confusing, so if you have any questions, just let me know!  

So that's it for this week!  Thank you so much, and we'll see you at the drop-offs! :-)

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 beets
• Carrots
• Spring mix or cucumbers
• Zucchini or pearl onions
• Green onions or basil
• Kale, bok choy, collards, or Swiss chard
• Microgreens mix, micro cilantro, kohlrabi, or dill

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
• Carrots
• Spring mix
• Pearl onions
• Basil
• Collards
• Micro cilantro

Share B:

• Cherry tomatoes
• Carrots
• Cucumbers
• Zucchini
• Basil
• Swiss chard
• Kohlrabi

Share C:

• Beets
• Carrots
• Cucumbers
• Zucchini
• Green onions
• Kale
• Microgreens mix

Recipes

Once we start having cherry tomatoes, basil, and zucchini, it feels like real summer!  And just in case you don't already have plans for those beloved summer veggies, Fred has been making this really delicious salad lately that uses all three of them!  This is a true summer salad, and it only takes a few minutes to make!

Fred's Summer Zucchini Salad

Ingredients:  Zucchini, cherry tomatoes, basil, shaved parmesan cheese, olive oil, salt.  Use whatever amounts make sense to you. :-)

Chop zucchini into bite size pieces.  Put olive oil into a medium size pan over medium heat.  Sautee zucchini in olive oil until it is cooked through but not mushy.  Pour zucchini and remaining oil from pan into a large bowl and let it cool for a few minutes.  While you're waiting, cut your cherry tomatoes in half, and chop up your basil.  Once the zucchini is cooled down a little bit, add the basil and cherry tomatoes to the bowl.  Add salt and shaved parmesan cheese to taste, and stir it all up.  If you feel like you need to add a little more oil to get a nice salad dressing-y texture, go ahead and do so.  Serve as a side dish and enjoy! You could also switch it up a little bit by stirring in some goat cheese, or adding grilled chicken to make it more of a main dish.  This is a salad you can enjoy all summer long in different variations! 

CSA Newsletter for Week 2 of the 2023 Season

Farm Update

Fred and the crew harvested a whole bunch of carrots for Monday's CSA drop-off!
 All of these carrots are headed back to the barn to get washed and 
bagged for the CSA!

Hi everyone!  The first week of the CSA was a success!  It's always a big production to get the CSA up and running each season, and there are always a few bugs to work out, but this year was the smoothest start yet.  It was so awesome to see everyone again at the drop-offs too!  And speaking of the drop-offs, this Tuesday is 4th of July!  All of the drop-offs are going to be occurring as usual, but I know a lot of people have vacation plans, parties, and other things that will prevent them from making it to the drop-off.  If that's you, you have a few options.  The first one is to simply have a friend pick up your share for you.  They can just come to the drop-off, initial next to your name, and pick out your veggies.  Or if you usually go through the line but you'd like to have your share prepacked this week to make it easier for someone to pick up, just fill out the quick form below in the "What to Expect in the Shares this Week" section, and we'll prepack your share this week.  The second option is to plan to pick up your share at one of the other drop-offs this week.  For example, if you can't make it to the Mt. Pleasant drop-off this week because you're going to be at a party, you can pick up your share on Monday in Alma instead.  I just need to know a day ahead of time so I can make sure to put the right number of shares on the harvest list, so if you want to do that, just be sure to let me know by Sunday afternoon. You could also pick up in Midland on Thursday, and then I'd just need to know by Monday afternoon so I can adjust the harvest list for Tuesday.  Or, the third option is that you could just plan on postponing your share this week entirely, and picking up an extra share next week.  If you want to do that, I just need to know by the day before your missed drop-off.  And any of these options are available anytime you have plans during the CSA drop-off, not just holiday weeks!

On the farm front, things are growing really fast now that we've gotten some rain!  We could even actually use some more rain, so I'm glad that we're supposed to get some more tomorrow.  We've been continuing to irrigate some plants (such as our potatoes, which are so big that they just need tons of water).  But everything is looking a lot healthier and less desperate out there, and that is definitely a relief!  The weeds are also growing fast now, so we are doing a lot of weeding lately.  I actually really like weeding, because I like restoring order from chaos.  Sometimes the weeds just get crazy all of a sudden, and it's nice to be out there in the sun, getting plant beds under control while I listen to music or audiobooks or podcasts on my phone.  And then when I get done, my back usually hurts, but it's so nice to stand up, stretch out, and admire how nice those previously weedy beds look.

A whole coldframe full of zucchini plants.
These are the same zucchinis that you got at the drop-off last week, 
and we'll have them again this week!

Another big thing we've been spending a bunch of time on lately is harvesting!  It probably comes as no surprise that harvesting veggies for 320 CSA members, as well as our stores, restaurants, and food hub partners, takes a lot of hours every week!  When many people think of harvesting, they think of large tractors driving around in huge fields of corn, soybeans, and wheat.  That is definitely not what harvesting looks like at our farm, simply because we're on a much smaller scale, and we grow so many different types of vegetables that mechanical harvesting just doesn't apply.  We harvest everything by hand, so what that actually looks like is Fred and the crew walking out the field with knives and crates and sometimes rubber bands, and cutting/pulling/plucking whatever we need for that day's shares.  It is pretty labor intensive, and since Fred is by far the fastest harvester at the farm, most of that work falls to him.  So he gets an incredible amount of exercise bringing in all of the food that goes out on our truck every day.  While he is doing that, the rest of the crew is in the barn, washing and bagging all the veggies that Fred brings in, and putting them in our walk-in cooler until we're ready to load up the truck and hit the road.  Then once the veggies are washed and packed up, we go out to do whatever weeding, planting, seeding, or field work needs to happen to keep all of the plants growing and healthy.  The work is pretty fast and intense, sometimes really hot (or cold, if it's spring or fall), and always very immediate.  But it keeps us outside in the sun and physically active all summer, and it also allows us to have some spectacular food on our table when we do come in.  For me in particular, it gives me the ability to get to know some awesome people and talk with you all at the drop-offs every week, which I love.  So while there are definitely times when I can barely stay awake by the time I get home from the drop-off, or when I'm grumbling about some Sisyphean task like cleaning ramps, I can't actually imagine not doing this.  And we've got 18 more weeks of the CSA, so there will be a lot more work, joy, exhaustion, good food, exercise, community, and all the rest of it coming down the pike!

So here we go into week 2!  See you at the drop-offs! :-)

It's basil season!  I am so excited to be bringing
this lovely basil to you all this week!

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 or Swiss chard
• Carrots for everyone!
• Snap peas or beets
• Zucchini or frisée
• Basil, microgreens, or kohlrabi
• Green onions, pearl onions, or radishes
• Cucumbers, bok choy, or kale

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
• Beets
• Frisée
• Microgreens
• Green onions
• Cucumbers

Share B:

• Spring mix
• Carrots
• Snap peas
• Zucchini
• Basil
• Pearl onions
• Kale

Share C:

• Chard
• Carrots
• Snap peas
• Zucchini
• Kohlrabi
• Radishes
• Cucumbers

Recipes

One of the biggest questions I got last week was "What do I do with frisée?"  And for every person who asked me, I bet there are another two who are also wondering about it.  So here is a quick rundown on frisée!  Frisée is an endive, so it is pretty similar to lettuce, but with a slightly more bitter flavor.  It's used a lot in French cooking, and adds depth and sophistication to basic salads.  We like to tear some up and mix it with spring mix for a salad, or you can make a traditional Salade Lyonnaise.  Here is a great recipe for Lyonnaise Salad from The Kitchn!  And if you don't want to do the whole poached egg thing, you can make the recipe super easy by topping it with any fried egg that is still runny in the middle.  Yum!