CSA Newsletter for Week 14 of the 2023 Season

Farm Update

Hi everyone! Happy fall!  It is officially autumn as of today, and the farm definitely reflects that right now!  We are very much in the middle of the harvest season, and while we finished bringing in all of our potatoes a few weeks ago, we are still working on bringing in the squash and onion harvest in the pockets of time when we're not harvesting, washing, packing, and delivering veggies for the deliveries and CSA drop-offs.  Fortunately, we've been delivering a lot of squash, and we've been sending it out the door almost as fast as we can harvest it.  That is a good thing, because it takes up A LOT of space, and the barn is already feeling pretty cramped as it is.  So as soon as I bring several crates of squash to the drop-offs, a few more appear to take their place.  In this way, we will probably work through most of our squash supply over the next six weeks of the CSA, and hopefully we'll still be able to move around the barn in the meantime.  We've also started harvesting the first of the sweet potatoes, and they are currently curing in the barn so that they will have the maximum shelf life out on your counter or in your pantry.  That is, unless you eat them as soon as you get them, because they are so delicious! 

Right now, harvesting takes up the majority of our time at the farm, but we are also doing some end-of-season planting.  We're still planting some things outside in the fields, such as some spinach, arugula, and radishes for the very end of the season, but most of our planting will move into the hoophouses now that the weather is starting to turn.  Fred planted the first hoophouse this week full of green onions, cilantro, dill, and spring mix to be harvested in October and November, and he plans to plant the second hoophouse this weekend.  (In the picture above, Fred is transplanting green onions in the coldframe with our paper pot planting system.)  The hoophouses (which are also called coldframes) are unheated greenhouses that allow us to extend the number of months each year that we can grow things at the farm.  They shelter the plants from wind, rain, and cold temperatures just enough to get another two months or so of produce in the late fall.  Then we are able to plant some especially coldhardy plants (like kale, spinach, and arugula) to overwinter, so that they have a head start growing when spring finally arrives.  That means we can start harvesting the very first veggies at the end of February or beginning of March, instead of two months later, which would be the very first harvests of anything from the field.  

The weather has been especially nice for this time of year!  Normally we expect it to rain most of October, but the extended forecast predicts a much drier fall than we're used to.  We've actually had to do some irrigating, which is extremely uncommon for this time of year, but I'll definitely take it.  The longer it stays sunny, the less we have to work in the cold October rain, which freezes you straight through and just kind of kills your soul after several weeks of it.  October rains also make it a lot more likely that our field crops will succumb to foliar diseases, which makes it a lot harder to plan for fall CSA shares.  So I will absolutely take the sun for as long as it sticks around, even if it does mean moving around irrigation lines a lot longer than we thought we'd have to. 

Today is the autumnal equinox, which means that today, the we have an equal amount of day and night.  That naturally means that starting tomorrow, the dark starts taking over little by little, coming earlier each evening, and staying later each morning.  When day length starts to decrease, the plants can't get the sunlight they need to keep thriving, and they eventually start to shut down for the season, and the soil gets a well-deserved break for the winter.  We still have several weeks before that happens, but when it does, the humans at the farm start to feel like it's time to wind things down and take a break as well.  

But for now, the sun is shining, it's surprisingly warm out, and the plants are happy and thriving.  So here's to six more weeks of excellent veggies!  Welcome to Week 14 of the CSA, and I'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. 
 

• Spring mix or arugula
• Beets, cauliflower, or Carnival squash
• Cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes, or broccoli
• Potatoes or bag of small onions
• Kale, cabbage, 2 kohlrabi, or Swiss chard
• Acorn squash, delicata squash, or a small pie pumpkin
• Onion, green pepper, or 3 serrano peppers

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
• Carnival squash
• Broccoli
• Bag of small onions
• 2 Kohlrabi
• Small pie pumpkin
• Green pepper

Share B:

• Arugula
• Beets
• Tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Cabbage
• Delicata
• 3 Serrano peppers

Share C:

• Spring mix
• Cauliflower
• Cherry tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Kale
• Acorn squash
• Onion

Recipes

Now that the evenings are getting decidedly chilly, it's starting to feel like soup weather!  If you're looking for something warm, filling, comforting, and tasty, try out this Cabbage, Sausage, and Potato Soup!  If you're getting a buildup of potatoes and you still have some carrots in your fridge from last week, this is a good way to use them up!  And if you still have leeks from last week, awesome!  Throw them in!  If not, you can substitute an onion.  That is the beautiful thing about soups; you can play around with the ingredients and proportions according to what you have, and you end up with something delicious and hearty comforting.  Just in time for fall! :-)

CSA Newsletter for Week 13 of the 2023 Seas

Farm Update

Hi everyone!  While we have a week before the calendar officially announces the fall season, all of the signs are pointing toward autumn at the farm!  We have a busy harvest week ahead of us continuing to bring in onions and squash, and quite a few of them are headed out on our delivery vehicle as soon as they come in from the fields and get cleaned up.  'Tis the season for fall veggies!  It's just as well that we don't have to store as many of our squashes, onions, and potatoes for long, because we're already pushing the limits of what our small space can handle.  This week is the perfect marriage of summer and fall veggies, and that means that we have a lot to harvest!  

Another thing that happens every year when the weather starts to look more like fall is that the deer start to act contrary to their best interest.  Once deer near their normal mating season, the young males especially try to enter the farm however they can, whether that's jumping over our deer fence, squeezing into cracks, or entering into the few places where the fence is the weakest.  We've definitely seen evidence of their presence the last few weeks, and Fred has been walking around the farm every morning and evening to scare them away.  Deer can do a surprising amount of damage to the veggies overnight, so we have to be extra vigilant this time of year so we don't return in the morning and find that they've eaten a week's worth of spring mix.  There is one yearling in particular who has been making his presence especially noticeable, and Fred has been quite intent on scaring him away for as long as possible.  I have taken to calling this young deer "Moby Dick".

We're still planting our fall greens, such as spinach and arugula, out in the fields, but the planting season is slowing down.  We'll still be harvesting for another two months, (or maybe even three, depending on the weather), but we won't be putting new seeds into the field for much longer.  We are nearing the time to slow down, and I'll definitely be ready when that happens.  But we continue to harvest a lot of onions and squash, and we have a large trailer full of pie pumpkins and winter squashes of all varieties curing in the shelter of one of our coldframes.  That will allow them to have a longer shelf life on your kitchen counter until you use them to make delicious fall dishes.  And there is nothing that says autumn like a big trailer piled with butternuts, spaghetti squash, delicatas, and pie pumpkins.  (You can see a picture of them above).  I hope you all enjoy them as much as we have been!  

And I guess that's it for this week!  Here we go into week 13 of the CSA, and I'll see you all 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 or a bag of small onions
• Spring mix or butternut squash
• Pie Pumpkin, leeks, or delicata squash
• Carrots, cherry tomatoes, or beets
• Cabbage, kale, or Swiss chard
• Microgreens, 2 tomatoes, or 2 peppers
• Kohlrabi or a large 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:

• Potatoes
• Spring mix
• Pie pumpkin
• Carrots
• Cabbage
• 2 peppers
• Kohlrabi

Share B:

• Potatoes
• Butternut squash
• Delicata squash
• Cherry tomatoes
• Cabbage
• Tomatoes
• Onion

Share C:

• Bag of small onions
• Spring mix
• Pie Pumpkin
• Cherry tomatoes
• Kale
• 2 peppers
• Kohlrabi

Recipes

It's pumpkin and squash season!  If you are one of the many many people who are not sure how to get the pretty pumpkin sitting on your counter into a form you can actually use to make food, never fear!  Here is a quick and easy tutorial on how to turn a pie pumpkin into pumpkin puree, and then you can make pies, pumpkin rolls, or whatever pumpkin goodies you like to make!  

We also have cabbage this week, which makes me really excited for fall veggies in general!  If you're not sure what to do with cabbage but want to try it out, here is a great recipe for Sautéed Cabbage, which is sure to answer your "What do I do with cabbage?" questions, and is super yummy for any meal of the day.  Enjoy! :-)

CSA Newsletter for Week 12 of the 2023 Season

 Farm Update

Hi everyone!  Things continue to be busy at the farm as we bring in the large fall harvests!  We are still bringing in all of the onions we planted back in the spring, and which are now ready to come out of the ground and be cured for winter storage, and we are starting to harvest the first of our winter squashes.  In fact, we'll have the first delicata squash, butternut squash, and spaghetti squash in the shares this week!  Fred and I cooked up one of each of them this week to make sure they were nice and ripe, and they were fabulous!  The season is shifting from summer to fall, and the next two weeks will have the best of what both seasons have to offer!  We're still rolling in tomatoes and enjoying peppers and other summer veggies, but we're also starting to see the first fall season veggies.  After two weeks or so, once the tomatoes start to wane and the beets, hearty greens, and sweet potatoes come into abundance, the shares will be much more autumnal in nature.  And this week, we'll have a rare treat available in the shares!  Usually once a year, we harvest sweet potato greens before they start to wither and die back, signaling the time to unearth the sweet potatoes.  They are actually the green part of the sweet potato plant that stays above the ground and photosynthesizes, producing energy so that the root of the plant (the part we generally eat) can grow big and delicious.  But the greens are also really yummy, so we like to harvest some of them and bring them to the CSA before sweet potato season starts in earnest. 

As for what we're doing around the farm, our farm work is also a mix of summer work and fall work.  We just finished planting the last of the greens for fall, and planting is something we are doing all the time in the summer and barely at all in the fall.  (The picture above is of a few new beds that have just been planted, but the seeds haven't germinated yet so they look pretty bare.)  Both insect pressure and weed pressure are greatly diminished from their summer heights, so we spend a lot less time fighting with bugs and weeds.  The relentless pace of farm work is starting to slow down a bit, which is extremely welcome after a long season, and the weather hasn't yet become uncooperative and started making everything we do harder.  So really, right now is a golden time that deserves to be fully appreciated for the beautiful transition that it is.  And we still have eight weeks of veggies to look forward to!

Welcome to Week 12 of the CSA!  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. 
 

• Potatoes or sweet potato greens
• Carrots or spring mix
• Butternut squash, spaghetti squash, or leeks
• Cherry tomatoes or Swiss chard
• Delicata squash or 3 tomatoes
• Microgreens, 2 green peppers, or 2 kohlrabi
• Onion or slicing tomato

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
• Leeks
• Cherry tomatoes
• Delicata squash
• 2 kohlrabi
• Onion

Share B:

• Potatoes
• Spring mix
• Butternut squash
• Swiss chard
• 3 slicing tomatoes
• 2 green peppers
• Onion

Share C:

• Sweet potato greens
• Spring mix
• Spaghetti squash
• Cherry tomatoes
• Delicata squash
• 2 peppers
• Slicing tomato

Recipes

Now that we're headed into fall, I am constantly reminded that in a few months, everything will be covered with snow and there won't be a decent tomato to be had anywhere, except for the ones we preserved ourselves right now.  So if you are also trying to carry a little bit of summer into the colder months, what better way to do that than with these Slow Roasted Cherry Tomatoes Preserved in Olive Oil!  When fresh tomatoes are long gone, you can add these to pasta or other winter dishes for some excellent summer flavor! 

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! 

CSA Newsletter for Week 10 of the 2023 Season

  Farm Update

Hi everyone!  Hope you're doing well!  We've been busy at the farm this week bringing in the big potato harvest in the time that we're not getting everything ready for the CSA drop-offs.  Getting everything harvested, washed, and packed up for the drop-offs four days a week takes quite a lot of time on its own, and this week we've also been using every spare minute to get the potatoes out of the field.  At the farm, there is a right time for everything, and we're racing against the clock to get the potatoes safely in the cooler before they get burned by the sun, rotted by the rain, eaten by critters, or try to resprout.  So far we have 6,000 pounds stacked up in our walk-in cooler in the barn, and we have about 2,000 more pounds to bring in in the next few days.  Once the potatoes are all in the barn, the onions are waiting in the wings (or, in the ground) for their turn to be harvested.  That will also be a big job, but not nearly as big as the potatoes.  We are definitely in the harvest season now, with successive large harvests of potatoes, onions, winter squash, and sweet potatoes all occurring within a month or so.  And like all of our ancestors who spent this time of year preparing for leaner times in the winter, we'll be able to look into a barn packed with storage vegetables and be proud of a job well done.  Unlike our ancestors, we won't actually be storing all of that bounty to get us through the snowy months when nothing much grows; instead, we're bringing most of it to all of you.  (And just as well, because we do actually need to be able to move around in the barn, and that gets really hard to do with such a large volume of storage crops in there!)  But like those Michigan farmers who came before us, we will be storing a bunch of potatoes, beets, carrots, sweet potatoes, and winter squash to cook with in our own kitchen until the first spring veggies start coming out of the coldframes in March.  

But in the meantime, it is still very much summertime, even if it is the time of year I think of as "mature summer".  It's almost on the edge of fall, but still has those warm days and plentiful food coming out of the fields.  And right now, the tomatoes are the stars!  Late August is an amazing time to enjoy the sweetest, ripest tomatoes, and I hope you've been enjoying them as much as we have!  We'll have more tomatoes for you this week, along with a whole bunch of other delicious veggies to make wonderful summer food!

So welcome to week 10 of the CSA!  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
• Cherry tomatoes or spring mix
• Tomatoes
• Kale, chard, or leeks
• Basil, parsley, or microgreens
• Onion or cucumber

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
• Cherry tomatoes
• Slicing tomatoes
• Kale
• Basil
• Cucumber

Share B:

• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Spring mix
• Slicing tomatoes
• Leeks
• Microgreens
• Onion

Share C:

• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Cherry tomatoes
• Slicing tomatoes
• Chard
• Parsley
• Onion

Recipes

I absolutely love peak tomato season.  We eat a ton of tomatoes at our house this time of year, prepared all different ways, because they just have such a great flavor.  Tomatoes that you get at the grocery store, which generally have been picked green and unripe and shipped across the country, just can't compete with a late summer vine-ripened tomato.  And fortunately, we have a bunch of those ripe, red, delicious gems this week!  If you have already had your fill of Caprese salads and BLTs, and you're looking for something new to try, check out Chef John's Gazpacho!  This chilled Spanish-style soup starts with tomatoes and cucumbers, and features a number of the veggies that are in the shares this week!  Enjoy!

CSA Newsletter for Week 9 of the 2023 Season

 Farm Update

Hi everyone!  It's starting to feel a little bit like fall out there!  The weather is getting a little cooler, the days are getting a little shorter, the kids are going back to school, and the massive job of bringing in the potato harvest is underway.  It's that transitional period between summer and fall that makes me feel like the glass of summer is half empty, and I am preemptively mourning the end of Michigan summer, even though we have a few weeks left.  

But summer inevitably slides into fall, and the farm is naturally starting to orient itself more toward preparing for the cooler months.  As I mentioned, we are harvesting the rest of the potatoes this week to store for the fall and winter months.  Our winter squash are looking good out in the field, and they'll be ready to harvest in a few weeks.  They are especially large this year, probably because we had such a hot and wet summer, so expect an abundance of delicatas, acorns, and all your other favorite winter squashes once we get into mid-September.  Over the next few weeks, we'll be planting our leafy greens for the last few weeks of the CSA, including spinach, which feels distinctly autumnal.  Spinach is one of those crops that can't handle the heat, so we have to be sure it's going to stay cool enough before we can plant spinach for the mid-to-late fall.  In the next few weeks, we're going to hit that point in the year where the temperatures stay consistently lower, which is good news for spinach and other fall veggies, and bad news for those of us who don't feel like we've had nearly enough summer yet.  (I'm definitely talking about myself here.)

One of the good things that happens at this transitional period of the year is that the weeds start to slow their growth.  We were able to get those extraordinarily large weeds in the back field back under control this week, and since the weather is starting to turn, we won't have to work so hard to stay on top of them from here on out.  Now we just have smaller, more manageable weeds in some of the newer plantings to take care of, and now that the kids are going back to school this week, I'll be able to spend some more time out in the fields working on keeping those weeds under control.

In the meantime, there is still the normal harvesting, washing, bagging, and delivering of the vegetables to keep us outside, so I intend to really soak up the rest of summer before the weather turns.  So let's all lean into late summer, enjoy the last summer veggies to the fullest, and when fall comes, we'll be ready to fully enjoy the new season in its turn.

So that's it!  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. 
 

• Carrots or beets
• Potatoes
• Slicing tomatoes or cucumbers
• Kale, chard, or leeks
• Cherry tomatoes or green beans
• Basil, microgreens, or baby frisée
• Onion, zucchini, or shallot

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
• Slicing tomatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Basil
• Kale
• Zucchini

Share B:

• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Slicing tomatoes
• Green beans
• Microgreens
• Leeks
• Onion

Share C:

• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Cucumbers
• Green beans
• Baby frisée
• Chard
• Shallot

Recipes

Late summer is the perfect time for tomatoes and basil, and we have been eating a startling number of Caprese salads lately!  They are so simple, and with flavorful, fresh ingredients, you really don't need to do anything fancy to have a spectacular meal.  This particular Easy Caprese Salad recipe uses a balsamic reduction, but you can make it even easier by just sprinkling olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette on your lovely Caprese salad, no reducing necessary.  So make up a delicious, easy Caprese salad and enjoy it outdoors to celebrate late summer goodness!

CSA Newsletter for Week 8 of the 2023 Season

 Farm Update

Hi everyone!  Hope you're doing well!  Unlike much of modern life, which mostly moves ahead in straight line with one thing leading to another, the farm is cyclical in nature.  While no month in any farm season is the same as the last month, from year to year, most Aprils are similar to the other Aprils, most Junes are similar to other Junes, and October will almost always find us harvesting leafy greens in the rain and handing out bags of root vegetables at the CSA drop-offs.  There is something beautiful about that cycle; while it's not fun to be overrun with gigantic weeds in August or harvest in a chilly October rain, there is comfort in knowing what to expect from each month, year after year.  And this year is no different.

Like most Augusts, the weeds are making a really valiant attempt to swallow up everything at the farm, and until this week, it was starting to look like they might win.  In every crop bed, there is a best time to weed, when the weeds are small and can be taken out easily.  In a perfect world, we'd be able to weed each bed at the right time, and then pass back through every few weeks to keep everything looking tidy.  Even if you've never gardened before, you probably have heard that weeds are the bad guys when you're trying to grow food or flowers, but you may not know why.  For one thing, they compete with the plants we want for scarce soil nutrients and water.  For another thing, if they get too tall, they can shade out the crops and keep them from getting all the sunlight they need to grow.  They also make it a lot harder to harvest the veggies.  Since we harvest everything by hand, it's hard to see what we're doing if the weeds are in the way, and it also makes it harder to keep weeds out of the spring mix.  Weeds are just generally a nuisance, and this year, we had a lot of weeds in the back field get away from us.  We weren't able to get back there to weed at the right time because we were too busy with other things around the farm.  And then it got really hot and really wet, and the weeds just took off in those tropical rainforest conditions.  So last week, we spent every spare moment trying to hack down the weeds so we don't loose a bunch of plantings.  We plant everything in long, straight beds that vary from 200 to 600 feet long, with a few feet of soil in between each bed.  Well, the weeds in between the beds got so large that some of them towered over me and looked like mini trees.  They were smaller and more manageable in the onion beds (you can see the difference in the picture above between what I had already weeded and what I hadn't gotten to yet), but they got really out of control around the peppers and Brussel sprouts.  So we got the heaviest duty weed whacker the tractor supply store had to offer, and went to town hacking down the insanely large weeds.  It took a lot of time and a lot of strength, and truth be told, my whole body was pretty sore by Friday.  But the back field is looking a lot better, and we've rescued the onions, peppers, and Brussels sprouts... for now.

This is also the part of the year that starts what most people think of as "the harvest season".  While we actually started the earliest harvests of overwintered leafy greens back in March, and have been harvesting four days a week since June, now is when we start to bring in the large harvests of storage vegetables that will last through the fall and winter.  This week, we will be bringing in thousands of pounds of potatoes in the margins of time around harvesting for the CSA, washing and packing the veggies, and bringing all of the veggies to you all at the drop-offs.  If you've ever seen those huge potato harvesters driving around in large fields, bringing in thousands of pounds of potatoes may not seem like a big deal to you.  However, we are a much smaller farm, and we don't have that kind of equipment, so it's actually a much more daunting task.  Fortunately, we have our handy dandy potato digger, which makes harvesting potatoes a much easier and more efficient process than digging them up by hand.

Basically, the potato digger is a contraption that we hook onto the back of the tractor (you can see it in the picture to the right), 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 and put them in large wooden bins 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.  

Speaking of protective barriers for your veggies, I had some folks recently 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.  If you get tomatoes that come in a plastic bag, it's best to take them out and just leave them in the open 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 might 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!  

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. 
 

• Leeks or tomatoes
• Potatoes or beets
• Carrots or cabbage
• Green beans, spring mix, or cherry tomatoes
• Kale, chard, or cucumber
• Basil, cilantro, or parsley
• Onion 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:

• Leeks
• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Cherry tomatoes
• Kale
• Basil
• Microgreens

Share B:

• Tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Green beans
• Cucumber
• Basil
• Onion

Share C:

• Tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Spring mix
• Chard
• Parsley
• Onion

Recipes

I love pretty much all veggies, and when people ask me what my favorites are, I never know how to answer.  It usually comes down to what I haven't yet had ample opportunity to eat this season.  So I was pretty excited when Fred said we were going to be able to bring leeks to the CSA this week, because I definitely haven't had enough leeks yet.  If you've never worked with leeks before, they are delicious and oniony, and they are great sautéed, grilled, in soups... there are so many delicious ways you can cook leeks!  This Vegetarian White Pizza with Shaved Vegetables and Pesto recipe caught my eye, both because of the leeks and also the basil... and because pizza.  Some of the veggies on the pizza are no longer in season, but you can switch out the asparagus and peas for things you do have on hand, like tomatoes or even microgreens.  That is the beauty of pizza; it is endlessly customizable!  Another super customizable and delicious idea for your leeks is this Farro and White Bean Salad with Seasonal Vegetables.  You can include any veggies you have on hand if you have something you want to use up, and you can even change up what types of beans or grains you use.  But really, anything you make is bound to be great with the bounty of late summer! Enjoy!