CSA Newsletter-- Week 2

Greetings All!

I hope you guys had a great first week of CSAs and enjoyed your produce pick-up! I have gotten SO MANY emails with pictures and recipes, inspiration for how folks are using the produce and what you're all cooking! It is such a treat to see how you guys are using your veggies!!

I can't believe it's already here.... America's Birthday!! This is the week of the 4th of July! Thank goodness it's on a Saturday this year too- it's so nice when it's on a weekend and doesn't interfere with our normal CSA deliveries.

Plus, since it's a Saturday Ben and I will be able to take the kids to Uncle Dan's cabin for a day trip! We still have livestock and plants in the greenhouse, etc. so we can't go for the night of course, but what a blessing to be able to go up to Garrison for the day and play on the sandbar with our family!!! We're really looking forward to that. HOUSEKEEPING

Since this is our first holiday together, and I figure some of ya'll might be out of town and unable to pick up your CSA Shares, I wanted to touch on the options you have for when you miss your CSA. This applies to every other week of the season too, not just for holiday weeks. You've got some options:

1. The first option is to gift it to a friend or family member. They can pick up your box on your behalf at your site, but make sure you tell them to grab the box with your name on it. If they take the wrong box, it really causes a whole big mess and that's why there is a $100 fee associated with it.
   

2. The second option is that you can gift it to a family member or a friend and have it delivered to a different site for them. So if you pick up in Blaine but you're not available to pick up, you can ask us to deliver it to our other CSA sites (like Robbinsdale on Tuesdays, Albertville on Wednesdays, etc). Here are all the sites: Pick Up Locations - Brown Family Farm | Oak Park, MN
   

3. The third option is to donate your CSA to the food shelf for the week. If you'd like to donate, there is a button at the bottom of every email that you'll get from now on. So when you see the "CSA Weekly Newsletter" email come in, scroll to the bottom and you'll find that form. It helps me streamline donations because it keeps everything in one folder which is really nice! There is only one of me 😅
   

Another tid-bit of housekeeping:

If your box got wet last week in the tsunami on Tuesday (if you know, you know haha), please set your box out to dry. If you're a host and you have some wet boxes, please set them out so they have a chance to dry. These wax covered boxes are almost indestructible, but water and direct sunshine are their kryptonite. They will get soft and they won't be strong enough to hold up for the season. The spring has lots of lighter veggies and greens, but in mid-season we get into some heavy boxes and we want to make sure they hold up. Please keep them dry and out of the direct sunlight if possible. Also remember to collapse your CSA boxes and put them in the plastic bin with the sides latched closed, that way if there are any more extreme weather events the boxes are protected. Thank you for helping our program run smoothly!!

Tomatoes are staked! This is a big job every year, we grow thousands of tomato plants and the stakes are put in each row, every other plant. We tie the tomatoes using twine in a weaving method up and down the rows so that it's time efficient too. This is the first tie- we'll do this another couple times as they're growing so that when they start producing fruit they don't break or sit on the ground!

The weather so far this season has been pretty great! We did have some really hot and dry weather to start us out but Ben has irrigation line run on every bit of these fields so that when/if we have a drought situation we're prepared to help out the plants. We also use the waterlines to run on new seedlings because they need a little more moisture to grab root. Then we had a couple really cool weeks back-to-back, which is really nice for working outside! This past week we had highs in the 60s and 70s which is great for the lettuces and other cool season crops. They've been growing so nicely these past couple weeks that we've already got little broccoli heads on!!

Little itty bitty broccoli!!!

The only problem is that the cool season crops really don't do well in hot weather, it causes those plants (lettuces included) to bolt. Bolting is when the plant goes to seed, and it changes the flavor of the lettuces and makes them really bitter, they shoot a seed stalk right up through the center- it's easy to tell when the lettuces are done-zo. So we're hoping this hot weather doesn't push the veggies to bolt. The flip side- the melons and peppers really need the heat. They were planted two weeks ago and haven't done much growing yet. They've taken roots and their color is good, but we're hoping that we get some really hot days to help them thrive! We want to see them double in size and if it's in the high 80s, they'll love it! We've also got some good chances for rain this week. We don't necessarily need rain right now but we're not flooding at all. We did get drain tile installed last fall so that should help with water flowing off of the fields instead of staying stagnant. I am more concerned that we're getting really hot weather with the possibility of thunder storms- because we all know that HOT weather is a catalyst for extreme weather, potentially storms that hold high winds, heavy rainfall or worse. So hopefully we get a few sprinkles this week and nothing major!!

That's the life of a farmer though- worrying about the what-ifs and planning for the worst-case-scenarios. WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT IN YOUR CSA SHARES:

JUMBO & FAMILY SHARES: Kohlrabi, Green Romaine, Green Buttercrunch lettuce, Onions, Swiss Chard, and *hopefully zucchini too!

SINGLE SHARES: Kohlrabi, Green Romaine, Green Buttercrunch lettuce, Onions & Kale! *We just started harvesting zucchini and it comes in slowly at first and then it's like a waterfall! So we just harvested last Friday and Ben got a couple cases, which is not much but it's still exciting! We start with a couple cases, then it's 5, then it's 15 and then it's 45 cases, hahah! (Not kidding though). So when they come in, we'll really have a lot of zucchini. We're hoping that next week we have enough to give some to every CSA Share size. This week, we put it on as a maybe, because we're hoping to be able to plug them into the bigger Shares! Green Romaine

We harvested these for you guys last week, too! This the most popular variety, but we usually alternate lettuces back and forth so you're seeing new lettuces every week. The problem is that these are growing so much that we're worried if we wait to cut them next week, they'll be too big to go into your CSA boxes!! So it's an obligation to cut these two weeks in a row- but the red romaine isn't at risk of not fitting into the boxes so we'll save that one for next week ;)

Green Buttercrunch Lettuce These are so good, the leaves are soft and more spongy like spinach. Which is part of the reason we love this variety! They're fun to mix into a salad and can also be used as lettuce wraps. They're not a firm or brittle as the romaine, so the buttercrunch lettuces are actually a lot better to use in replacement of tortilla shells because they won't crack and split (whereas romaine definitely would!). I know that using lettuce instead of wraps was last year's fad, but it's still fun to mix it up every once in a while!! One thing I should also mention is the shape of these lettuces. The green buttercrunch in particular is a very flat lettuce (look at picture above), unlike the romaine that grows straight up, the buttercrunch grows more outwards than upwards; you'll know what I'm talking about this week when you see it!!

Super colorful greens but they don't taste any different from each other. We just grow the variety of colors because it's more fun that way! Adding a pop of color is pleasing to the eyes!!

Swiss Chard I am sorry I forgot to add a section about swiss chard last week! This is a green that has a stronger flavor, more like beets or celery, and it's often added to salads or cooked/ braised on the stove top. You can add some onions to it as well, and dress it how you please! You could go with a raspberry vinaigrette for a sweet and savory, the classic wilted lettuce salads or try the Swiss Chard & Apple Salad I added to the newsletter email this week! Remember- if you're ever wondering about your veggies or how to use them, need some ideas or inspiration- head to the Farm to Table Storage Guide and look up the Swiss Chard. If you want to get there faster- click on the guide and then when it opens (on a laptop/desktop computer) click the "Ctrl" button and the "F" at the same time, which will pop up a box. That's the shortcut for finding a word in your document. So if you want to save time and you're looking for swiss chard, or carrots, or beet greens, whatever- just do the ctrl+F at the same time and type in the word you want to find, it'll bring you to every hit in that document. The word "tomato" is mentioned 41 times, for example!!

Onions We are excited to start sending you guys some onions this week!! As many of you know, I sent a whole blog post about onions earlier this season. It's all about what types of onions we grow, from seeds and from onion starts, what the difference is and why we grow both. Just my style- oversharing in hopes that someone else out there is as geeky as I am!! Here is that post from April, if you want to check it out: Onion Update These onions are not going to have big bulbs but they do pack a punch of flavor! They are bigger than green onions but a LOT stronger in flavor. These are the biggest onions we've got right now and these are from onion starts, not seeded onions. These onion starts are always for fresh-harvesting; never for drying. The seeded onions are for preservation! WRAPPING IT UP

Ben was just telling me that there are a ton of varieties of veggies that we'll have for week 3 but they're just barely not going to make it for week 2. Green beans are close, too!!

And just a special mention: we are seeing our first tomatoes on the plants now! We have lots of flowers too but it's always exciting seeing the little tomatoes growing!!

I am sorry that I am tardy with our newsletter this week! With the first week of Shares comes a bit of extra work making sure it all goes smoothly- and we had some big plans for this weekend that we were working on too...

It’s me & Mom's birthday TODAY!!

Mom (Betsy) just retired on Friday because she turned 65 today, so my sister and I threw her a party to celebrate, which turned into the best combo celebration! All 6 of us adults have bdays within a few weeks of eachother, then with Mom retiring too, it was so fun to celebrate together!!

We spent the whole day yesterday at Milaca Rec Park and it was a blast. That park seriously has everything- a river full of crayfish, a skate park, a splash pad, & a fun lunch together with family, we had everything we could have wanted!

We kept it simple and didn’t rent a pavilion since it was a small, intimate group. We found a picnic table right by the river, which ended up being perfect. I brought the dip nets so we could jump in and catch minnows and little critters, William brought all his fishing gear, the little kids were swimming, chasing crayfish, hiking the walking bridges… and of course, an extra helping of cake to top it off haha! Look at this picture- just a playground in the water! No fast moving water, some sandbars that are totally out of the water, plus a few deep holes where they were fishing down river a bit. It's got something for everyone!! Highly recommend this park to anyone local to our area- it's also FREE to go there, just find yourself a parking spot and bring a wagon & snacks so you can chase the kids ;)

Honestly, it was one of those days that I wish I could bottle up!! Anyways- lots of work to do yet today so I'm going to sign off but I hope you enjoy your veggies this week!! And your 4th of July celebrations this coming weekend too, what an exciting time of year!!

XO ~The Farmer's Wife