Monroe Family Organics CSA Newsletter for Week 12

   Farm Update

After being pulled out of the ground, these onions were waiting to be collected into our black crates, spread out as thin as possible on an open trailer, and pulled into the hoophouse that until recently housed a planting of zucchini.  There they will stay, safe and dry, until we bring them to you at the drop-offs!

Hi everyone!  Hope you're all doing well and getting ready to enjoy a long weekend!  For us, it's still work as usual, because there are very few times when we can actually take a full day off during the CSA season.  However, we're planning to work only a half day on Saturday so we can spend some time playing in the pool with our kids, which feels like a big deal.  Then it's back out to the fields on Sunday to get ready for our early deliveries on Monday morning.  Once the delivery van and I are on the road to Ann Arbor Monday morning, Fred and the crew will start harvesting, washing, and packing up the veggies for Monday's CSA drop-off.  So just in case you missed the reminder last week, we will still be having our Alma drop-off on Monday as usual!  If you have plans and can't make it, we totally understand, and you have a few options.  You can have a friend pick up your share for you (you don't have to let me know beforehand; your friend can just initial for you on the sign-in sheet).  Or if you let me know by Sunday, I can plan on postponing your share and getting you a double share next week, or you can pick up your share at one of our other drop-offs this week.  When Monday falls on a holiday, plenty of folks opt to pick up their shares on Tuesday in Mt. Pleasant instead, so if you'd like to do that, just let me know! 

In other news, the main theme at the farm right now is harvesting, harvesting, and more harvesting!  We've been harvesting all season, but now is the time when we bring in larger amounts of storage crops, like potatoes, onions, and beets.  Fred's brother Charlie (who worked at the farm for several summers when he was in college) came up on Thursday to help us bring in the big onion harvest.  Once the onions are ready we have a limited window of time to bring them in, because if they get rained on out in the field, they can start to rot, and then we would lose a significant portion of the harvest.  So when they're ready, they're ready, and we were really glad Charlie wanted to come help.  For a lot of people who have worked for us at the farm, even when they move on (into their grownup careers like Charlie, or out of state like our friend Lindy), they still want to come back and get their hands dirty when they can.  The farm kind of gets into your soul, and you can take the person away from the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the person.  

I've definitely found that myself.  Many of you don't know that in my life before the farm and the kids, I was a high school French teacher.  It was so much fun, and I truly loved everything about it.  We always knew that eventually we would move back to one of our hometowns and start our farm (which would be mostly Fred's gig, because I was going to stay home with our kids), so when we found out we were expecting our first child, we started looking for farmland and a home in Fred's hometown of Alma and started that transition.  For the first year of the farm, I was a lot less involved in the farm operations, mostly just making the harvest lists, communicating with CSA members, and helping out at the CSA drop-offs.  Back then we had barely any infrastructure, which meant that Fred was working insanely hard and basically running himself into the ground, and I found that staying home with one baby wasn't nearly as hard as everyone had told me it would be.  It felt really lopsided, so for the second year, I took on pretty much the whole office administrative side of the farm as well as the CSA.  We also had another baby that summer, so between two babies, the CSA, and doing all the farm books, payroll, etc, I had quite a lot on my plate.  That held steady for the next few years, then one year we had a really hard time finding good employees, and there was more work than Fred could handle with the people we had available.  So I jumped in doing more field work, harvesting, washing, and packing, and it just kept going from there.  Now we have three kids, a way bigger CSA, more crops, more drop-offs, and just a lot more going on at the farm, and I can barely remember a time when I wasn't involved in day-to-day production operations.  So basically, I kind of fell into it on accident.  But now the farm is in my soul, and there's no getting me away from it.

So this Labor Day, we'll be out there doing what the name implies: laboring.  But it's the best kind of work, a true labor of love.  We do it for the love of the work itself and the food that we grow, for the love of our land, and our family, and our community that we serve.  And we are so grateful that you all come along with us on this adventure we call the farm, and use your food dollars to allow us to have this intense, crazy, full life.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.  :-)

And I guess I'll end with that!  See you all at the drop-off!

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. 

• Fennel Bulbs or onion
• Cherry tomatoes
• Tomatoes or winter squash
• Potatoes or beets
• Spring mix or carrots
• Kale, cabbage, or 2 green peppers
• Basil, cilantro, 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:

• Cherry tomatoes
• Winter squash
• Potatoes
• Spring mix
• 2 green peppers
• Microgreens
• Onion

 

Share B:

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

 

Share C:

• Cherry tomatoes
• Tomatoes
• Beets
• Spring mix
• 2 green peppers
• Cilantro
• Fennel bulb

 

Recipes

I adore bell peppers chopped up on top of a salad, in a stir fry, in burritos, and a bunch of other ways.  But one of my favorite ways to make an easy breakfast that feels fancy is these Bell Pepper Eggs-in-a-Hole!  They're super simple, but they feel like something you'd have with a cappuccino at a nice brunch place.  Enjoy!

Monroe Family Organics CSA Newsletter for Week 11

Farm Update

This is how we manage to clean and sort hundreds of pounds of potatoes each week for the CSA, as well as the stores, restaurants, and other programs we contribute to.  This is our very old but very useful potato washer, which washes and brushes the dirt off of the potatoes, and then sends them to the rotating table.  Then we sort the potatoes by size and take out any that aren't great quality, and put them in the black crates.  After that, we pack them into little plastic bags and bring them to you!

Hi everyone!  This part of the season always feels very transitional, and this year is no different.  Many of our schedules are transitioning as our kids go back to school, and all of the educators out there are starting classes again as well.  And out in the fields, we're seeing the shift from our summer veggies (like zucchini and cucumbers) to our fall veggies (like winter squash).  The weather is getting cooler, which means that the crops that struggle in the extreme heat (I'm looking at you, spring mix!) are going to be returning with more consistency soon, as are the rest of our leafy greens.  Last week we brought our signature cooking greens mix to the CSA for the first time this year, and it will be back again this week if you didn't get to try it!  It's a mix of several kinds of kale (including our green curly, red curly, and lacinato kales), Swiss chard, and Brussels sprout leaves.  It's really fantastic if you sauté it in olive oil or bacon as a side dish, or add it to a stir fry.  We also just started harvesting the first of our winter squashes over the last few days, and we are so excited to bring some to the CSA this week!  We've eaten the first delicata squash and the first acorn squash of the season, and they were both fantastic!  If you've never tried a delicata squash before, you're in for a treat.  Out of all of the squashes we grow, it's definitely my favorite, and its thin skin makes it easy to slice up and add to a bunch of different types of recipes without even having to take the skin off!  We're definitely into tomato season, and we've got plenty of really nice tomatoes coming out of our hoophouses (unheated greenhouses) right now!  The tomatoes we planted out in the area of the farm known as the new back field didn't do as well, however.  

The new back field got its name in the same way many places around farms do, haphazardly and without much thought.  But also in the grand tradition of farms, it would be nearly impossible to start calling it something else now.  It wasn't actually part of the original farm during the early years when we rented our land from some family friends, but when we bought the land in 2018, we added six more acres onto the original 14-acre parcel.  Before we added the new acreage, we had the front field (where we have all of our greenhouses, and which you've likely seen from the road if you've driven by the farm), and the back field (which is a little bit of a hike to get to, but is the most peaceful place I know). We had surrounded the farm with our 8-foot tall deer fence the year before we bought the land, but this new area is outside of the fenced in area, and we haven't gotten around to fencing it in yet.  (Mostly because the process of acquiring enough untreated lumber to enclose six acres, digging post holes, and putting up a really tall fence is a huge hassle, and by the time things slow down enough in the late fall to think about taking on such a project, the weather is such that we really can't.)  We started calling it "the new back field" because it's adjacent to the old back field, and the name stuck.  Normally we mostly plant onions out there because they are one of the few things the deer will leave alone, but we tried planting some field tomatoes out there this year too.  Well, between the deer bumping up against the tomatoes, the exposure to the damp weather, and some sort of disease that seems to have taken off as a result of said damp weather, those tomatoes didn't do too well.  So we just have the beautiful healthy ones that have been growing up in the hoophouses, and that should be enough to bring you all several weeks of delicious tomatoes.  It makes me grumble a little bit because if we could bring you all of the tomatoes we planted, there would be a lot more variety in the shares this week, and I always like to give you guys a whole bunch of choices.  But we really do have a lot of great stuff in the shares, so I shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good, and I should just make like Elsa and let it go. 

And in other news, next weekend is Labor Day weekend!  Our Monday drop-off in Alma on September 5th is still happening as normal, but if you have plans and can't make it, we completely understand!  Just let me know if you won't be able to make it, and you can either pick up a double share the following week, or you could pick up your share at one of our other drop-offs that week (like our Mt. Pleasant drop-off on Tuesday).  If you can't make it to the Alma drop-off on Monday, September 5th, just let me know by Sunday the 4th so I can adjust the harvest list and make plans to get you your share at a different time.  Thanks so much, and I'll see you at the drop-off!

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. 

• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Kale, fennel, a bag of small onions, or cooking greens mix (mix of different types of kale, chard, and other greens great for sautéing)
• Basil, microgreens, parsley, or 2 garlic bulbs
• Tomatoes, beets, or winter squash
• Green pepper or onion

 

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:

• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Yellow cherry tomatoes
• Kale
• Basil
• Beets
• Green pepper

 

Share B:

• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Mixed cherry tomatoes
• Cooking greens mix
• Microgreens
• Tomatoes
• Onion

 

Share C:

• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Mixed cherry tomatoes
• Bag of small onions
• 2 garlic bulbs
• Acorn or delicata squash
• Green pepper

 

Recipes

Potatoes, potatoes everywhere!  We've had potatoes available in the shares most weeks this season, so if you're starting to get a buildup of potatoes in your fridge, here are 51 Potato Side Dishes that Might Just Steal the Show!  There are so many creative, fun, and delicious potato recipes in here, you'll be sure to find a several new ideas you want to try with this old favorite!

Monroe Family Organics CSA Newsletter for Week 10

   Farm Update

Hi everyone!  Hope you're doing well!  For most folks, this week or next week will signal the end of  summer as kids go back to school and many people leave behind their relaxed summer routines in favor of fall's structure.  Our summers are always very structured and fast-paced, so our life will continue to look pretty much the same, except that I will be getting the kids on the bus each morning instead of dropping them off at grandma's.  For us, the pace this time of year is a lot less relentless than it was two months ago.  There is a lot less weed pressure than in June and July, and we're not doing as much planting as we were before.  Fred and the crew put in the last transplants of romaine and spring mix of the 2022 season, and he'll also plant another round of spring mix directly into the field next week.  We'll also be putting in our fall plantings of arugula, spinach, and radishes in the next few weeks so that we'll have lots of wonderful cool-season crops for you in October!  We're continuing to bring in the potato harvest, but that is a big job that happens in short spurts around all of the other things we have to in a given week.  We're starting to see the signs of early fall at the farm everywhere we look.  The vines of our winter squash plants are just huge right now, and we're starting to see lots of little butternut, acorn, and delicata squash right now on the vines, so it's looking good for lots of squash this fall!  Alas, the squash vine borers destroyed all of our kabocha squash, but they left the other varieties alone.  Squash vine borers are annoying bugs that, as their name implies, bore into the vines of squash plants and kill the plants.  It's always interesting to see which varieties of a crop the pests leave alone and which ones they decimate.  Fred's hypothesis about why the squash vine borers completely infested the kabocha squash and habitually leave the acorns and delicatas alone has to do with the thickness of the vine where it comes out of the ground.  Acorn and delicata squash have a smaller, more delicate vine close to the ground, whereas kabochas have a thicker vine, and the bugs seem to prefer that thicker vine.  In the end, there are so many things we just can't control at the farm, so the best thing we can do is plant way more than we think we'll need, do our best to give every crop what it needs to grow and thrive, and be flexible about the results.  We always have to have a few backup plans for every crop, planting, drop-off, and weather situation, because the farm is a series of moving parts where the parts sometimes zigzag around and don't do what you thought they would do.  The upside to all of this is that we have learned to be flexible, think fast, and change plans on the fly, and that keeps our brains young.  It also means that when the winter rolls around, we fully relish the slow season to give our brains and bodies a well-needed break.

But for right now, we are about halfway through the CSA season and truly enjoying the last of summer as it slides into fall.  Here we go into CSA week 10!  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. 

• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Surprise veggie! (could be green beans, beets, tomatoes, and other odds and ends.)
• Kale, cooking greens, zucchini, or green onions
• Basil, microgreens, or 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:

• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Kale
• Tomatoes
• Basil
• Garlic

 

Share B:

• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Zucchini
• Green beans
• Microgreens
• Onion

 

Share C:

• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Cooking greens
• Beets
• Green pepper
• Onion

 

Recipes

Fresh basil is one of the true joys of summer, and there are so many things you can do with it!  Plenty of people like to make pesto with their basil, and it is also great in an omelet or a stir-fry.  But my favorite thing to do with basil is make Caprese salad!  We're in full-on tomato and basil season, so don't let summer pass you by without making a delicious Caprese salad to celebrate the season!  Best enjoyed outside on the deck or patio with your favorite people. :-)

Monroe Family Organics CSA Newsletter for Week 9

  Farm Update

Hi everyone!  Hope you're all doing well!  It's starting to feel a little bit like fall out there!  As I write this, I am watching a drizzly rain out my window, the temperatures have definitely been cooler this week, and we just brought in a major harvest of potatoes.  While we harvest multiple times a week from March through November, this is the time of year when we start bringing in large amounts of various storage crops, and the beginning of what is traditionally thought of as "the harvest season".  Yesterday Fred and our farmhand Kevin brought in about 1800 pounds of potatoes from the field, and there are about 8000 pounds of potatoes still out there to dig up and bring into the barn over the next couple of weeks.  Our great grandfathers would have been amazed that two people could bring in 1800 pounds of potatoes in one day, but we fortunately have the benefit of a few technologies that were in their infancy when my own great grandfather was farming in the early part of the last century.  While he would have had the benefit of a rudimentary potato digger that was pulled by a horse, we have a more modern potato digger that is pulled by a much sturdier tractor than he would ever have had access to in his farming years.  

Our potato digger, hooked up to the tractor and ready to go.

Basically, the potato digger is a contraption that we hook onto the back of the tractor, and it has a metal plate that digs into the soil and loosens up about the top foot of earth.  Then the potatoes and dirt are propelled up a series of metal grates and fall out the back of the machine, where they lay on top of the soil and wait for us to pick them up.  Then we collect them by hand into our black plastic crates, stack them in our walk-in cooler in the barn with the dirt still on them, and then wash them up as needed when it's time to bring them to the CSA.  Leaving the dirt on until we are ready to distribute them helps them stay in peak condition for longer because it acts as a protective barrier from the air, which would begin to dry out the potatoes if they were left exposed to the air for a long period of time.  

These potatoes have been dug up by the potato digger and are waiting to be collected in our black plastic crates.

Speaking of protective barriers for your veggies, I had some folks at our Midland drop-off on Thursday ask me about the best way to store everything from the CSA so it will last as long as possible.  So here's a quick tutorial on how to store your CSA haul when you get home from the drop-off!

The first thing to know is that we do clean your produce up at the farm before we bring it to you.  There are regulations about calling produce pre-washed, so we can't label them as such or tell you that you don't have to rewash your veggies when you bring them home.  But I can say that whenever I bring things into my own kitchen, I don't rewash them.  If you do want to rewash the items, do it right before you use them, because if you do it as soon as you bring your veggies home, you'll really decrease their lifespan.  

The next thing to know is what to keep out on the counter and what to put in the fridge.   It's generally best to store things like tomatoes, onions, and garlic that has the papery skin out on the counter.  People are often surprised to learn that basil does much better at room temperature as well, and that if you put it in the fridge, it will get blackish after a few days.  I usually just leave it in the bag it came in out on my counter, and it usually lasts up to a week that way.  I store other fresh herbs in bags in the fridge, but I know plenty of people leave them in a cup of water on the counter, so play around with what works best for you when it comes to dill, parsley, and cilantro.

Most everything else, like root vegetables and leafy stuff, does best in the refrigerator.  And you know how I mentioned that leaving the dirt on the potatoes acts as a protective barrier between the potato and the air?  Leaving your veggies in the bags they came in will do the same thing, and they'll last a lot longer than if you take them out of the bag.  And if it's a leafy item and it doesn't come in a bag from the CSA, like kale or chard, I'd put it in a plastic grocery bag when you put it in the fridge.  If your leafy veggies get exposed to that dry refrigerated air, they'll get wilty a lot faster, but if they're in a bag, they'll last about a week and a half in the fridge.  Root vegetables like potatoes, carrots, and beets will last a really long time, like several months, if you leave them in the bag.  If you have any other questions about how to store your veggies, just let me know!  

Welcome to Week 9 of the CSA, and I'll see you at the drop-off! :-)

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 for everyone!
• Carrots or fennel bunches
• Potatoes or kale
• Cherry tomatoes, spring mix, or medium tomatoes
• Basil, microgreens, parsley, or dill
• Onion or garlic
• Beets, zucchini, cucumbers, or cabbage

 

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
• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Onion
• Basil
• Cabbage

 

Share B:

• Green beans
• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Garlic
• Basil
• Cucumbers or zucchini (we're not sure yet what proportions of these two we're going to have, so it will be a surprise!)

 

Share C:

• Green beans
• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Spring mix
• Onion
• Microgreens
• Beets

 

Recipes

It's green bean season!  Normally I think of late July/early August as green bean season, but due to the cold and rainy spring we had, a number of our crops are a week or two behind their normal schedule, and green beans are no exception.  So I am thrilled that they are finally here!  These Simple Skillet Grean Beans are such a fast, easy, delicious way to make a healthy side dish, so you can spend more time outside enjoying the last bit of summer!

Monroe Family Organics CSA Newsletter for Week 8

 Farm Update

Thursday afternoon at our Midland drop-off!  As I was watching the first rush of people go through the line at our CSA drop-off on Thursday, talking, laughing, and picking out their veggies, I got a little sentimental thinking about how much I love our awesome community of CSA members!  I am so grateful for all of the amazing people I have gotten to know through the CSA, so I took this picture to celebrate you all, and what we've built together. :-)

Hi everyone!  Hope you're all doing well and enjoying this hot weather!  Things at the farm continue to grow like crazy, and the rains we've had recently are definitely helping them along.  This is actually going to be a much shorter newsletter than normal because we are hitting the road in a few hours for my cousin's wedding, and as always, there is so much to do and so little time in which to do it.  And things at the farm are pretty much the same as last week; lots of weeds, lots of harvesting, lots of hot weather.  So I'll catch up with you next week with a longer newsletter with more details about what we're doing at the farm, but for now, here's what will be in the shares this week!  Enjoy, and I'll see you at the drop-off!

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. 

• Dill, basil, or microgreens
• Fennel, cabbage, kale, or chard
• Carrots or parsley
• Potatoes
• Cherry tomatoes or spring mix
• Surprise veggie! (We do this when we have a lot of odds and ends coming out of the fields, and right now we have several items that are on their way in or on their way out.  Hence, surprise veggies!)
• Onion or zucchini

 

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:

• Dill
• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Surprise veggie
• Onion

 

Share B:

• Basil
• Swiss chard
• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Surprise veggie
• Zucchini

 

Share C:

• Microgreens
• Fennel bunches
• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Spring mix
• Surprise veggie
• Onion

 

Recipes

You know how sometimes you get in a cooking rut, always doing the same thing with a particular ingredient?  Like maybe you always cook kale the same way, or you always make the same recipe with your zucchini.  If you've gotten into a little bit of a rut with your cherry tomatoes, always just cutting them in half and putting them on top of spring mix to make a quick salad, here is another idea to help you bust out of your rut!  This Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes is fast, easy, and you can play around with the proportions to suit what you have on hand.  Perfect for a busy weeknight! 

Monroe Family Organics CSA Newsletter for Week 7

Farm Update

Bags of our spring mix getting labeled and ready to deliver to GreenTree Cooperative
Grocery on Tuesday! Like the bags of spring mix you get in your shares, these were all hand-packed with care by me, but these ones get our pretty label so shoppers know where they came from. :-) 

Hi everyone!  I can't believe we're headed into August already!  It's starting to feel like the glass of summer is more than half empty, and I'm not ready for that yet.  But alas, you can't just refill summer from the faucet, so I guess I'll have to get used to the idea that winter is, in fact, coming.  Maybe it's just the fact that this week was a little cooler, and we were really gunning it at the farm this week because one of our employees was out sick, and cool weather and constant rush mode are both things I associate with fall.  But it feels like high summer is tipping into waning summer, and pretty soon those back-to-school vibes will be coming on.

Another thing that feels more like fall than high summer is all the rain we got last week!  The farm really needed it, and it definitely spurred on the growth of a bunch of crops, as well as several new plantings Fred put in the ground last week.  It also caused a bunch of weeds to germinate, so this week I will be spending all of my spare time heading out to pull our little green nemeses out by the roots so that we can save a really nice planting of carrots from being overtaken.  I'm actually looking forward to spending some time weeding this week though, because most of last week we were so focused on getting everything harvested, washed, packed, and loaded on the truck in time for delivery that a lot of other necessary farm tasks got away from us.  As I mentioned, one of our full-time employees was out sick last week, so that left three people to do the work that normally requires four people, which meant that a lot didn't get done.  And with weeds (as with most things around the farm), a stitch in time really does save nine.  If you get them when they're little, they are so much easier to handle than when they get bigger and more rooted.

But time marches on, and the farm waits for no man.  Fred is out there as I write this, putting in new plantings of carrots and spring mix that will make their appearance in the CSA shares later this fall.  It's interesting that even after 11 years of this work, I am still learning new things all the time about the science of growing food.  Fred was telling me this morning about why planting seeds is a much more involved process this time of year than it is in the late spring.  He headed out bright and early this morning to get the seeds in the ground while the soil was still at its coolest, and he'll need to water that ground immediately after he gets the seeds in.  If he were to neglect to give the ground a good soaking, the soil would soar to temperatures above 100 degrees, and that would cause all of our new little lettuce seeds to go into a heat-induced dormant state called thermodormancy.  Each crop and each type of seed has its ideal temperature range, and if the soil gets too hot or cold, it affects the seed's ability to germinate. With most plants, the percentage of seeds that germinate goes down a lot when the soil temperature isn't ideal (which is still bad), but with lettuce, a soil temperature of above 85-ish degrees will actually prevent the germination of any lettuce seeds.  When we plant seeds in say, May, much more of the each day stays within that ideal temperature range for seed germination, and there is usually much more moisture naturally in the soil because May is a rainier month in general.  But planting this time of year is a touchier business with a more limited window of time.  I realized this morning that every time Fred goes out to plant, he is playing a mental Tetris of soil temperatures, crop types, predicted time from planting to harvest (so we can make sure that the crops are the right size at the right time, so we always have the right amount of variety for the CSA), rainfall, and labor availability, and weighing that against all the other things that need to get done to keep the farm running.  It's an exact science, but without a lab where you can manufacture the conditions you need.  When I think about all that goes into bringing this much produce variety to this many people for this many months each year, I get amazed all over again.  I've been married to the guy for 17 years, and he just keeps blowing my mind.  :-)

So that's it for this week!  See you all at the drop-off!

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 romaine
• Carrots
• Potatoes or cucumbers (mostly pickling cucumbers)
• Cherry tomatoes or beets
• Zucchini, kale, or chard
• Basil, microgreens, or parsley
• 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:

• Spring mix
• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Kale
• Parsley
• Onion

 

Share B:

• Spring mix
• Carrots
• Cucumbers
• Cherry tomatoes
• Zucchini
• Basil
• Garlic

 

Share C:

• Spring mix
• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Beets
• Zucchini
• Microgreens
• Onion

 

Recipes

This is the time of year, when full summer starts to feel like summer half empty, is the time of year to start preserving what is coming out of the fields and coldframes to prepare for the wintery months ahead.  A lot of people don't realize that you can easily freeze kale and cabbage to pull out for soups a few months down the road, which we do a little bit of.  But usually in late July or early August, I make a Saturday of it and can a bunch of pickles for the pantry and make a bunch of zucchini bread for the freezer.  Then a few weeks later when the tomatoes are in full swing, I can enough sauce to get us through until next year's tomato season.  So if you are also in the mood to make zucchini bread this week, here a great zucchini bread recipe! 

Monroe Family Organics CSA Newsletter for Week 6

    Farm Update

This Swiss chard is looking
bright and lovely in the field!

Hi everyone!  Man, it got hot again in a hurry!  Last week, we were breathing a sigh of relief that we had gotten some rain and we could take a break from irrigating.  All of the moisture that made its way into the soil last week is now long gone, and now we're back to irrigating like crazy to keep all of the veggies from wilting in this heat!

You know when you're in rush mode trying to get out the door on time, or you're pushing against a major deadline and you can't think about anything else until you finish your project?  That was pretty much us every day last week.  We have a pretty good crew that consists of me and Fred, two full-time employees, and two part-time guys who each come in one or two days a week.  Well, one of our full-time employees was out for three days last week with what we think is the stomach bug that's been going around.  (He took a Covid test that came back negative, so probably no worries there, but he was feeling pretty awful.)  So the rest of us were in major hurry mode to get everything harvested, washed, packed up, and on the truck in time to leave for the drop-offs.  Fortunately, we got it all done, and we didn't fall down on any of our commitments, but it was intense.  I was definitely glad to return to the farm after the Midland drop-off on Thursday, put the remaining veggies in our big walk-in cooler, and know that we were done with the harvests and drop-offs for the week.

And on Friday morning, we got an unusual treat!  We had the school-age students from our local nonprofit childcare center, the Children's Discovery Academy in St. Louis, come out to the farm for a field trip!  I got to give them a lesson on ecosystems and all that goes into making a farm work, and it was super fun!  The kids enjoyed walking around the fields and identifying the various plants growing, talking about which parts we eat from each plant, and seeing how we weed and water everything.  They also got to see our wash/pack area in the barn and get an idea of how our system works on harvest days.  Then I brought the veggies that we had leftover after our Thursday drop-off out of our walk-in cooler, and the kids got to choose some veggies to take home to their families.  Their favorite part, though, was the little machine we have to close up the bags of veggies that go to the stores we sell to.  It's just a little machine that quickly applies tape to our plastic bags, and we call it the kachunker, because it makes a ka-chunk sound when it does the tape.  The kids got to use the kachunker to close up their bags of veggies, and that that was their favorite part by far!  Who knew? :-)

In other news, the tomatoes are ripening!  We're going to have our early variety of Gold Nugget cherry tomatoes in the shares this week, and we've harvested the first few ripe romas for our own kitchen, so it's only a matter of time before we have enough to bring to you!  Like the blueberries, tomatoes are one of the sure signs that it's the height of summer!  And speaking of blueberries, we'll have them in the shares again this week,  but it's not looking like we'll have a lot for bulk orders. I'll keep you posted, but if you have the opportunity to get bulk blueberries from another farm in the meantime, I'd take advantage of that.  Each season, we win some and we lose some, and it looks like the blueberries will be a little less profuse than in many other years.  But showing the kids around the farm this morning, I was struck again by just how much life is happening out there.  The end of July is my favorite time of year, and I am relishing all of the sun, the abundance of produce from the farm, and the vibrant outdoor world around us!  

So that's it for this week!  See you all at the drop-off!

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. 

• Yellow cherry tomatoes or blueberries
• Carrots or cauliflower
• Potatoes or beets
• Romaine lettuce or spring mix
• Basil, microgreens, parsley, or garlic
• Zucchini or cucumbers
• Fennel, chard, kale, or onion bunches

 

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
• Potatoes
• Spring mix
• Basil
• Zucchini
• Kale

 

Share B:

• Blueberries
• Cauliflower
• Potatoes
• Romaine
• Microgreens
• Zucchini
• Fennel

 

Share C:

• Blueberries
• Carrots
• Beets
• Spring mix
• Garlic
• Cucumber
• Onion bunch

 

Recipes

 

If you've never eaten or worked with fennel before, you're in for a treat!  It looks like a pale green bulb with long, darker green fronds on top, and you can actually use both parts of the plant!  There are a bunch of great things you can do with the bulb, from shaving it in thin slices and eating it raw, to roasting fennel wedges (here are some fabulous fennel tips, tricks, and recipes from Love and Lemons).  The fronds are totally delicious on top of fish, and they actually also make a lovely and satisfying tea that has traditionally been used to sooth an upset stomach.  Whatever you decide to do with your fennel, I bet it will be a new favorite!