CSA Newsletter // Week 3

Greetings All & Happy 4th of July!!! I hope everyone is enjoying some time and hopefully staying cool. Today is another scorcher!

We are happy to have this hot weather. We needed this hot & windy weather so bad, and we're seeing improvements in parts of the fields where the plants were really struggling. We definitely lost plants during this past week and a half of rain, but we did everything we could to mitigate it. Not to worry though- when I explain that we lost some plants it's not like an entire variety was wiped out. I mean there is damage on one end of the field or another; a few rows with the ends nipped basically, is what we are seeing right now. We'll still be able to provide a great variety, but we are hopeful that some of the crops that are wet & sad out there can still rebound and get back to health. They're not happy, it's still too wet.

We got the water pumped off the field by the tomatoes and we started staking them for tying! We got a couple rows done but Ben needs to cultivate the rest of the tomatoes before we can stake them. The tractor straddles right over the top of the plants when he's cultivating the weeds and opening up the soil so it can dry out. So he's doing one last cultivation and then we're pounding the rest of the stakes. You can see the pic above what I'm talking about with the stakes and tying (and where he has cultivated and broken up the soil). We'll talk more about how we care for our tomatoes next week! We have some more storms coming in tonight and tomorrow it looks like, so hopefully we don't get much rain. In preparation for the rain, Ben is cultivating more today and bedding the hogs so that they've got fresh straw in their hog huts for comfort. Though I swear it's for us because sometimes they'll just sit in the rain, sleep in the rain, they don't mind it at all. Especially after this past heat wave, I bet they'll be running around in the rain like it's a sprinkler.

SWEET CORN UPDATE:

This is exciting!! The Sweet Corn is overachieving the "knee high by the Fourth of July" saying!! The pic below is showing the stalks of corn and the silk coming out where the ears are developing. As you know, when you shuck your corn you have all those pesky little silk hairs throughout and at the tip too. One thing that I don't think I've ever talked about before is the pollination necessary for sweet corn!

EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF SILK has to be pollinated. Each piece of silk actually corresponds to a kernel of corn. Yes, that is a LOT of work for the bees! If it's not pollinated thoroughly, you'll have knobby corn (where it looks like a science experiment and some has developed kernels and others don't).

Each plant has one good ear and then depending on the weather and growing conditions, you might be able to go back through and harvest the second ear. It depends on too many variables to say right now- but the first (strongest/largest) ears are looking great!!

My Dad is keeping 4 bee colonies here this summer. Two of them are doing great and the other two are a little slower to get going. But the big blossoms are starting with the trees around us and we're seeing a lot more flowers on veggie plants (and corn silk!) around for the bees too, so hoping to see them pick up with their honey production.

We have Honey Packages available on our website for purchase, if you'd like to get a variety pack of goodies!

This package is the "Honey Enthusiast" and it has regular honey, creamed honey, the comb and honey with comb inside of it as well, these are 1.5 pound glass jars and the creamed honey is in a standard 1 pound container. It's all natural and isn't pasteurized; it's just how nature intended! I package these in cute little brown paper bags with special tissue papers too, they make a cute present (to yourself or others, haha!)!

There is another smaller package as well, that's got the traditional creamed honey and plain, all natural honey, too!

**Fun fact: honey can not be certified organic. There is no such thing, per the standards set by the USDA. It's impossible to know if it's organic because we can't follow the bees and see what they're all pollinating. So be aware when you're buying honey at the big box stores: If it says "organic" it basically guarantees that it's from a different country. That really defeats the purpose of honey and the health benefits to eating local honey. Not to mention we don't know the other countries' standards for their 'organic' labeling.

Because I have an extra minute here today, I want to explain some stuff about onions in general. All these veggies we grow are unique and this is a great example. Did you know that onions are a two year crop? The first year they focus on growing a large bulb and the second year they sprout and grow their bulb a little bit, but mostly focus on shooting a seed stalk right out through the center of the onion. They have purple flowers that are actually quite pretty!

The center flower stems are FIRM. Like you can't even harvest them and put them in a bin without breaking off the flower (unless it's a really short stalk, which doesn't happen often). You can see from the picture I took here, I have the one in my hand and then the one off to the left is still intact. You can see how much taller the flower is there compared to the rest of the onion plant.

Why does it make sense to grow 2 year old onions?! If you're at the local hardware store, there is a 100% guarantee that you've seen those little bags full of onion starts, right by the seed potatoes for home gardeners. Those are second year onions. Here at Brown Family Farm we grow onions in two ways- 1. we start some by seed and 2. we grow others from onion starts. The reason is that the onions that we seed in the greenhouse will get bigger in this first year because we're growing them for their size. We wait to harvest those onions until later in the summer/fall when they have nice big bulbs. Those are also better for drying and getting you guys the long-term storage onions like the ones we have at the fall sale. The onions that we're going to harvest for you this week are the onion starts. We also grow these because they're way faster!!! They look like little baby onions when you plant them, they get a little water on their roots and they start to grow a little more. They don't have the potential for getting really big like the onions we start from seed, but that's ok because we use them as spring onions. They still get really big pretty onion greens on them and the bulbs are nice and tight! So we grow all these onions so we can offer you the best, at different points in the season!!

We buy our onions starts in bags of 30,000. We planted 2.5 bags like that this year already... not to mention all the seeded onions. Lots to come!!

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT IN YOUR CSA SHARES:

JUMBO & FAMILY SHARES: Beets, 2-3 different varieties of lettuces, Onions & Broccoli!

SINGLE SHARES:  Beets, 2 different varieties of lettuces, Onions, Swiss Chard!

If you got a chance to read the blog post last week, you understand that the lettuce season is quickly approaching the end. We still have quite a few heads out there but we don't have enough for everyone to get the exact same heads. So we're going to go out and harvest a variety pack for everyone!! We are going to do our best to make sure that everyone gets 1 of each kind of lettuces- the buttercrunch and the romaine. We are also going to do our best to make sure that you get BOTH colors, so a green romaine and red buttercrunch, for example. I know that we eat with our eyes first- so having the color variation will be nice in your meal preparation, I hope!

This week we will be adding another head to the Family & Jumbo Shares if we can! As I'm sure you've noticed, there isn't a ton of room in the boxes after we pack the planned CSAs. But we want to get this produce eaten up, if we can fit it in your boxes! Single Shares are getting Swiss Chard this week! There is a lot of info in the Farm to Table Storage Guide (which is linked at the bottom of every CSA Newsletter you receive this season for convenience). Just as a quick reminder though- these leaves are smaller and they're delicate. You can add them to a salad or you can steam them, there are a lot of possibilities with Swiss Chard. They do have a little more of a bitter taste when eaten raw but if you cook it, it's gets a little sweeter and reminds me of beet greens. It's in the beet family, it just doesn't produce a bulb. **Look at the beet greens this week and compare them to the swiss chard! It's pretty cool how similar they are!

I should have gotten a close-up on the beets here but this morning on my field walk I didn't think about it. I did get over 4,000 steps walking the field by 8am this morning, so that's a win! Usually Ben & I walk together and look at things but Ben is under the weather (in every sense of the word), so it was a solo mission today.

Let's talk beets!!! Of course everyone knows them for their earthy root, but the tops are also edible and packed with nutrients!

In the spring, we will give you the beets with greens intact. In the fall we always cut off the greens because they're weathered and we wouldn't use them in a salad or any cooked greens dishes because they'll be damaged from the weather or bugs. In the spring the greens are usually really nice, and these greens might have a little spot here or there but you should be able to utilize the greens this week!

Beets are known for their earthy flavor, and they can add depth to a lot of dishes because of that. They are notoriously strong colored and stain your hands. I even used them one time to tie-dye shirts when I worked at the kid's summer program back in college. I had a whole line of veggies, and we were 'experimenting' which veggie color would hold the best and the beets were by far the strongest colored for the tie-dye shirts! They also have a TON of nutrients, they're best known for their antioxidants. They're known to help with cell wall functioning and inflammation and the juice is known for cleansing your liver and improving it's function. So maybe after the 4th of July weekend this is very timely....

Did you know that cooking beets won't give you the same health benefits as eating them raw because heat destroys betalain pigments? Most veggies have different nutritional info BEFORE and AFTER cooking because you lose some nutrients when they're cooked. Though I like to think of ANY veggies in our diet as a win... We can't only eat them raw, as that would limit the uses in the kitchen and ultimately result in us eating less beets all together. Just an interesting tidbit I wanted to share, because it applies to all the produce we're enjoying.

If you've ever used beets in your kitchen you know that they're bound to stain your hands and cutting board, everything! You need to peel beets, unless they're just tiny (because the skins are so thin at that size). Personally, I would rather peel beets when they're raw because the color doesn't bleed as bad. Your hands won't be red if you peel them with a paring knife and they're raw. If you boil them or roast them first, the skins come off super easy! The hotter the beet, the easier it is to peel; don't burn yourself though! The staining is more prominent in cooked beets so if that bothers you, you could wear gloves!

I'll add a recipe to the email this week so you have some inspiration, if you don't usually cook with them.

Storing them: If your beets still have greens attached, cut them off, leaving an inch of stem. Keep the greens unwashed and refrigerated in a closed plastic bag. Store the beet roots, with the rootlets (or "tails") attached, unwashed, in a plastic bag in the crisper bin of your refrigerator. They will keep for several weeks, but their sweetness diminishes with time, please try to use them within a week.

Did you know that there are TWO sections in the Farm to Table Handbook about beets and beet greens?! SO MUCH info there just waiting for you to dig in. Pro tip: If you open the Farm to Table Storage document and want to find something specific, just hit the "ctrl" (control) button on your computer and the letter "f" at the same time. It's the "Find" function and works in microsoft word, excel and PDF documents too. Type "beet" in the little window that pops up and see that the word "beet" is in the Handbook 25 times!!

BROCCOLI!

We are so excited to have broccoli!! This is one of our staple crops as we consider it, we grow many patches so that we're able to harvest it all summer long. The same with cauliflower and cabbage too, they're such an easy veggie to use in the kitchen and can be enjoyed raw and cooked too. Very versatile veggie.

I could spend all day writing about broccoli but I'll just leave you with a few paragraphs ;P

We don’t use pesticides if we don’t absolutely have to. Broccoli really only has one prominent pest, the broccoli worm. We harvest them right away in the morning and put them in the wash tank with a burlap sack over the top of them. Let them sit for an hour or so, which will essentially drown the worms. Then we take all the broccoli heads out of the tank and let them dry slightly before we add them to your CSA boxes. I think we can all agree, we would rather see a bug or two than be applying some sort of pesticide to your produce.

Our suggestion is to soak them at home too, because there is nothing good about finding a hitch hiker. I fill my sink halfway full and then put about a tbsp of salt in the water, and about a quarter cup of vinegar and then let it soak in the sink for a half hour just to be sure. Some folks just use vinegar or salt in a sink full of water, but in my opinion if you have both in your kitchen already you may as well use both. They're inexpensive and most importantly, you won't be able to taste any difference after you rinse off your broccoli!

Keep in mind that you can use the broccoli florets and the stems alike! If you get a chance, cut yourself a piece of the stem and try it plain. You'll find that it's much more tender than the storebought broccoli because it's super fresh. If you like slaw, you can use the stems from your broccoli in your slaw! The smell of fresh broccoli is much more strong compared to broccoli in the store. So don't be alarmed if the smell makes you wonder... it's just really fresh broccoli!!

Store it in the fridge for a few days wrapped loosely in plastic or in a glass tupperware container with cheese cloth draped loosely around the head (for those of you trying to get plastics out of your kitchen, same). If you can't get to it soon enough and it gets a little soft you can always put it in a sink full of cold water to revive it, or just add it to your alfredo for a nice finishing touch!

Please remember that every vegetable has a use and depending on the state and how it's been preserved, sometimes it's best used in alternative way. Don't get me wrong, this broccoli will be cut fresh in the morning for you, I just want to cover this base now because we'll talk about it later too. For example, strawberries in your fridge- if they go soft do you just toss them out? We don't, because they're expensive and we can find another use for them. For example, cut the stem off and add a little sugar, use the back of a fork to 'mash' them and let them sit in the sugar for a few hours before topping your yogurt with fresh strawberries and granola (or ice cream, whatever you want!!).

WRAPPING IT UP

You might be wondering why I have extra time on the 4th of July to write a longer newsletter? Well first of all- I enjoy sharing all of these fun facts and tidbits about the produce we're enjoying together!! Obviously you can tell that I am the talker in the family ;)

But also, we have been too busy to do anything, because Ben is getting over being sick for the past few days and I have too much to do. I don't want to dwell on this but just to mention that when Ben is sick, he has to accomplish some of his day to day tasks regardless.. being sick is not a luxury as a farmer. There is no such thing as PTO. It actually just compounds the anxiety as he waits to feel better and his work load is stacking up.

(Also just for our new folks who don't know this already: I want to quickly mention that if anyone on our team is sick, they do not come into work. They don't harvest, wash, or handle produce at all.. Ben never helped last week with CSAs.)

So I've been putting in 14-16 hour days here keeping up with the animals and all of my 'normal' work load, and also taking on almost everything that he usually does. I'm trying to help him get ahead where-ever I can, so he doesn't feel like there is a brick on his chest when he does get better and back to work. So it's been a challenging week, for sure! My Dad was up here yesterday checking on the bees. He took our kiddos back to their house down in Apple Valley and they're doing all sorts of fun things this weekend! I love that for them because I don't have time to do anything fun this weekend; if I am awake, I am working. (I.e. sending a newsletter at 10:30 on the 4th of July lol). They went to a waterpark and movie, trips to the lake and fishing.. It's natural to be jealous as I watch everyone else at the lake and enjoying their 4th of July but I am going to focus on being grateful. That's a better place to be mentally. Grateful that my parents spend time with our kids and care enough to take them for the weekend so they can do something fun together, grateful that the animals are in good health, grateful that I haven't gotten sick (eeek!), grateful for our farm and our livelihood, grateful for our CSA Members and your support, I could go on. Some days it's harder to see, but life is good- you can always find something to be grateful for.

Today I spent the majority of my time getting caught up on my emails (sorry if you haven't gotten a response- I'm still working through my inbox), cleaning up around the farm here, prepping livestock for the rain and putting away stuff that can't get rained on. You never realize how much stuff is sitting outside until you have to prep for rain, lol!! It felt good checking a few things off the list today.

I've been praying that the rain isn't too bad over the next couple days. We don't have time for extra work right now that would accompany a big rainstorm. We still have to catch up on the weeds that we've been neglecting for the past couple weeks! That wasn't by choice though, we have had employees ready to work and they've been sent home early a few days or had work called off completely. We had them do everything we could! The thing is, if you weed or hoe a row of veggies and the soil is super moist, those pesky weeds can re-root themselves! The only thing worse than hoeing the fields is having to do it two times, back to back, to get the desired results. So we NEED it to dry out for us to keep rolling with some of the bigger projects this summer.

I am looking forward to a couple more days here of checking some projects off of my list!! It feels good to get them out of the way so I can focus more on what I can do for Ben. To be noted; Ben broke his hand a couple years ago when he was holding down a tent at the farm stand during a crazy storm and he never even took a day off. He's a tough guy- so this is just as hard on him as it is for everyone else around here.

We've got a good line up for this coming week and we're hopeful to introduce some new varieties for week 4, too! Spoiler alert- Ben is digging some test potatoes next week to see if we can add them for the following week's CSAs! We have a lot to look forward to!!!

Enjoy your veggies this week!!! & Happy 4th of July weekend :D

Eat Good & Be Well,

~The Farmer's Wife