Last week of the Spring CSA

This is the final week of our spring share, thank you everyone for the privilege of being your farmers this season.   As always, some crops thrived this spring.  The beets have done exceptionally well, as has the kohlrabi.  (Full shares are getting it for the third time this week.  I know it is a lot of kohlrabi, and that it’s not exactly a staple vegetable, but sometimes when it rains it pours!  And there are some crops – like potatoes – that were just physically impossible to harvest this week with the non stop rain.)   The lettuce and the greens have been doing great in the cool, wet weather of late, fooling me into thinking that perhaps I should plant a fourth round of lettuce next spring.  Some things have not done as well this spring.  Only one out of three radish beds produced, the turnips struggled, and the first planting of Napa cabbage bolted.  We just pulled all the yellow onions out of the field and they look good but smaller than what is typical.  And despite the field

being full of millet, I’d say we had a pretty successful spring.  As unfavorable as the weather has been at times, we didn’t get hail and we didn’t get tornadoes or damaging winds, so I am happy.

Spring broccoli get the green light, up next green beans

The broccoli produced larger heads than I expected, had no pest problems, and tasted pretty good, too.  Belstar and Green Magic were our favorite varieties.  Next year I will plant more, so hopefully we will have more to share with the CSA.   And of course it will be back in the fall.

We are also doing a green bean variety trial.  We gave up on spring beans years ago because we never had time to pick them.  It seemed they were always ready at the same time as the cherry tomatoes, which are also time consuming to harvest.  Then I was introduced to the concept of growing beans for a single harvest.   You cut the whole plant and pick off the beans.  This year, I have three different bush beans planted.  They are flowering now, so beans aren’t too far off.  Two years ago we had a great spring bush bean crop.  Last year it was fairly disastrous.  So this is the deal breaker.   Fingers crossed the beans are as successful as the broccoli.

Small Shares

• Fennel
• Beets
• Red cabbage
• Red onions
• Kale

Full Shares

• Red cabbage
• Purple Kohlrabi
• Onions
• Chard
• Collards
• Lettuce Mix