Strawberry harvest is just beginning. We only had enough today to put berries in the full shares. Rest assured, CSA members are first in line for berries! Hopefully we will have enough to give all the small shares strawberries next week.
Things don’t always go according to plan
But when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, right? When life gives the CSA farmer lemons, we give them to you to make lemonade. No, there aren’t any lemons in your share this week (because we can’t grow them in this climate. Also they’re not in season). There is some Napa cabbage that we had to harvest a bit earlier than we had planned.
Earlier than we planned. Oh, the audacity of the farmer who plans! The wild swings in the weather convinced the Napa cabbage that now would be a good time to start to flower, even though the plants haven’t made heads yet. Leaving us no choice but to pick them now! They are still a delicious and versatile vegetable. Just not the vegetable we expected. How do you prepare and eat a bolting Napa cabbage? Just like our other greens, raw or cooked is dealers choice. You can shred it and use it as a salad. You can steam the leaves and make wraps. Or, you can treat it like bok choy and chop it up for a stir-fry.
We’ve got your vegetable starts
Planning on doing some gardening this year? Our greenhouse is full to bursting with plants! We have 13 varieties of tomatoes in addition to eggplant, peppers, squash and cucumbers, melons, okra, sunflowers and zinnias. We will be selling plants at the Cooper Young Community Farmers Market and through our online store for pick up at the farmers market or here at the farm. Visit the web store to see what is currently available.
Tomato Time!
On Sunday and Monday Randy cranked out a whole bunch of tractor work and got the first ten beds prepared for summer planting. Ten beds made, another 55 to go to complete the summer garden! The first succession of tomatoes – around 600 plants – will be going in the ground later this week. The first round of eggplant and squash is ready to plant as well. Preparing the soil and making beds is actually an eight step process involving six different implements, or attachments, for the tractor. I was going to describe the whole process but I can’t imagine it would be all that interesting to a non-farmer. I’ll save that for a later newsletter when I’m struggling to find a topic.
Full Shares
- Strawberries
- Napa Cabbage
- Salanova Lettuce mix
- Mixed Mustard Greens
- Rainbow Chard
- Hakurei Salad Turnips (try these raw!)
- Lettuce and Arugula Salad Mix
Small Shares
- Napa Cabbage
- Salanova Lettuce mix
- Mixed Mustard Greens
- Rainbow Chard
- Crunchy King Radishes
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