CSA Newsletter for Week 11 of the 2023 Season

Farm Update

Hi everyone!  Hope you're doing well and enjoying the holiday weekend!  A few people have asked me what the plan is for Monday's CSA drop-off in Alma, as this Monday will be Labor Day.  So if you are also wondering about that, the CSA drop-off will be occurring as normal, but we totally understand if you can't make it to the drop-off because you're out of town, or at a party, or whatever.  If that's the case, you have a few options.  You can either have a friend come pick up your share, you can postpone your share and get a double share the following week, or you can pick up your share at one of our other drop-offs later in the week (such as in Mt. Pleasant on Tuesday).  If you're having a friend pick up your share, I don't need to know about it beforehand, but if you're not going to be picking up on Monday, just let me know by Sunday so I can take you off the harvest list for Monday, and we can go with whatever option is most convenient for you!  

For us at the farm, Labor Day is a pretty normal Monday, and we will be doing what the name implies... laboring.  We are still very much in the middle of our large harvests, and this week we will be harvesting and drying the first round of our onions.  We'll pull them out of the ground and spread them out flat in one of the now empty hoophouses where they will be warm and dry, and we let them cure.  That's how they get that papery skin, and also what allows them to last several months at room temperature so we can store them for winter.  Now that we have all of the potatoes harvested and safely in the barn, there are several empty beds that can receive new seeds, so we'll be planting the next round of arugula, spring mix, spinach, and radishes.  Those will be for the last few weeks of the CSA, and we can also continue harvesting them into November.  By then, the quintessentially summer veggies like green beans and cherry tomatoes will have finished their life cycle for this season, but some more cold-hardy vegetables (like most of the leafy greens) continue to survive the colder temperatures and produce food well into the late fall.  So we'll be relying on them to carry the day when things like zucchini and basil are but a fond memory, and we all start thinking about coming inside, putting extra blankets on the beds, and starting a fire in the fireplace.  

It has often been said that there is nothing new under the sun, and the very cyclical nature of life at the farm definitely reinforces that for me.  The subtle shift from late summer to early fall feels much the same this year as in years past.  However, this week at the farm, we got something very new under the sun!  Several months ago, Fred and I started looking into what it would entail to switch to primarily solar energy, and this week, that project came to fruition!  On Monday and Tuesday, a crew came out and installed 16 solar panels in the front field, and we are just awaiting the inspection before we can get them hooked up to the grid!  It is projected that the solar panels will cover 92% of the farm's electrical needs, and we are excited to be able to use the sun (which we often have in abundance) to power the farm!  So although the earth travels around the sun in the same way every year, and our lives at the farm look much the same from year to year depending on where we are in that journey, little by little, things actually are changing.  Every once in a while, we get a new tractor or a new greenhouse or new solar panels, and after a decade, everything looks completely different.  Even though we didn't really notice it changing, when I think about what the farm (and our lives) looked like 10 years ago, the difference is incredible.  It makes me excited to think about what it might be like 10 years in the future, even though it all happened in small, barely perceptible ways, one day and month and fence and tractor at a time.

But with all that said, welcome to week 11 of the CSA!  See you at the drop-offs, and have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

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 or spring mix
• Carrots or beets
• Slicing tomatoes
• Kale, leeks, or chard
• Basil, 2 onions, or frisée
• Green bell pepper or kohlrabi

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
• Carrots
• Spring mix
• Slicing tomatoes
• Kale
• 2 Onions
• Green bell pepper

Share B:

• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Cherry tomatoes
• Slicing tomatoes
• Leeks
• Frisée
• Green bell pepper

Share C:

• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Spring mix
• Slicing tomatoes
• Swiss chard
• Basil
• Kohlrabi

Recipes

I am beyond excited that we finally have green peppers!  I have been looking forward to them for weeks, and we just had the first one with lunch a couple of days ago, which was delicious.  And I am pleased to report that we will be bringing these lovely delicious peppers to you this week as well!  If you love starting the day out with a hearty breakfast, check out this recipe for Southwestern Skillet Potatoes.  Technically it's a breakfast recipe, but you can eat these potatoes any time of day, and it includes potatoes, peppers, and onions, which are all in the shares this week. What a nice way to slow down and enjoy a leisurely weekend breakfast!