CSA Newsletter -- Week 3

Greetings All! I hope you guys are having a great start to your 4th of July weekend!! Today is another scorcher outside here- it's almost 90 degrees with humidity too- but the green beans can't wait!!! We're picking this afternoon and got almost 7 bushels so far!!

We started this morning with weeding and then moved onto harvesting green beans after they dried out. It's important to wait until the dew is gone because if you harvest them with any amount of moisture on them, they'll get rusty. Rusty green beans have red spots on them, discolored with a red/orange hue.  While we try to avoid that as much as possible, it really doesn't affect the flavor. As you can see here- these beans are perfect, the right size, not rusty at all. I'm so excited to send green beans home in your CSAs this week!!

HOUSEKEEPING: This is the last time I'm going to add this section for the season so please bear with me. I just want to ask that everyone collapses their boxes at the CSA Site (and if you struggle with them, check out the video on our FB page to see how it's done). I also want to ask for your attention in closing the plastic bins after you put your box in. We had several sites on Tuesday that had standing water in the bottom of the plastic bin, rendering the boxes unusable in the future; i.e. we're replacing over a hundred boxes because the bins weren't closed all the way and rain got in. Even if you think it's sunny and unnecessary, please close the bins with the latches on the side anyways. This small detail will save our farm a lot of time and money in the future :) And with how fast storms blow in, things can change really fast especially in this heat! Reminder that our CSA Schedule does not change for this coming week. All deliveries will be made on time as usually planned. I did fix the "Donate my Share" button, so that's up and working now. Sorry about that- it was a broken link that I had to update on the website. If you already sent me an email about your donation, I received it and will be responding right after I send out this newsletter. BACK TO THE FUN: We are SO thankful that we avoided any severe weather this week!! We did have a couple storms push through and really dump on us but it was just rain, not downpours. It did get pretty windy and tipped some green bean plants but that just makes them harder to harvest, they're not damaged luckily and they'll continue producing! None of the plants were damaged in the winds that we can see. Overall things are looking really great around here!! The melons and peppers loved the hot weather and at least tripled in size the past few days!!! It's insane how much they can grow when they have the right conditions. Did you know that plants actually grow overnight? During the day their primary function is to use photosynthesis to collect energy, which translates to glucose. At night, their primary function changes in the absence of light, so they're actively utilizing all of the glucose (energy) they've made that day, translating to actual growth overnight in the darkness. So the phrase "zucchini doubled overnight" for example, is totally accurate!

SWEET CORN UPDATE:

This is exciting!! The Sweet Corn is overachieving the "knee high by the Fourth of July" saying!! The pic above shows 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!

Did you know that each piece of silk actually corresponds to a single kernel of corn. It's actually pollinated by the wind because it does not have any nectar to attract bees. Of course, they'll visit these plants just like everything else in the fields, but they're not actively pollinating each of the strands of silk. Whereas the beans for example- every single one is pollinated by a bee, which makes the bean!

If the wind doesn't pollinate thoroughly, you'll have knobby corn (where it looks like a science experiment and some has developed kernels and others don't). This can happen during large rain events or severe wind.

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!! The Farm Stand in Zimmerman should be opening for the weekend of Jul 17th! We will have our veggies, pork products, chicken cuts and more available at the stand every weekend from the 17th through the end of September (or whenever the frost cuts us off). I'll give you more about what we'll have and our hours of operation when we're closer to opening the stand.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT IN YOUR CSA SHARES THIS WEEK: Jumbo & Family Shares: Broccoli, Kohlrabi, Green Beans, Red Romaine, Red buttercrunch and Zucchini! Single Shares: Broccoli, Kohlrabi, Green Beans, Red Romaine, Red buttercrunch and Crook Neck Summer Squash! Let's get into some details on your produce varieties this week!! I want to mention that in the beginning of the season right now, you'll be seeing lots of little tips and tricks to make prep work easier. Info about the crops themselves and how they grow.. Then later on in the harvest season you'll be seeing more info here about storing and preserving your veggies. I imagine you probably aren't going to be blanching and freezing the first head of broccoli that you get this season ;) But later on this summer maybe you'll be putting some up for the winter! So, just an fyi that our content here changes gears throughout the season as I write about what I think you want to know more about. If you have tips or suggestions for me- shoot me an email, I'm all ears!

Green Zucchini

Zucchini & Summer Squash:

I want to start with these varieties. Zucchini and crook neck summer squash are all under the umbrella of the "Summer Squash" family. There are hundreds of varieties of summer squash, we just grow 3. Yellow zucchini, green zucchini and crook neck summer squash.

You'll see lots of winter squash later this fall too. The biggest difference is that summer squash continually produces all summer long, whereas winter squash grows all summer long only to ripen in the fall! You harvest the winter squash one time, after it ripens; whereas we harvest our summer squash varieties every other day, ALL SUMMER LONG, and it doesn't go through a ripening process before harvest.

These are crook neck summer squash. Single Shares will receive these this week! These are a little more delicate than zucchini and their shelf life is a little shorter as they bruise a lot more easily. They are desirable because they're so tender that a lot of folks use these raw. Their seed cavity is shorter and wider towards the end where they get fatter. The seeds are pretty small but if you end up getting a bigger one with larger seeds, some folks will use a spoon to carve out the seeds. Some folks do that with zucchini too. Personally, I don't to that unless I am shredding a big zucchini for bread, then it makes sense to remove some of the seeds because they're developed and not as soft anymore.

Zucchini is a variety that comes in a great deal of sizes and shapes. Just like us! 😜 The important thing is that we need to embrace the zucchini at whatever size they are. We grow yellow and green zucchini and when you see "Zucchini" on the harvest list, we do try to mix yellow and green for you when we can! We do that because it's more colorful and as you know, we eat with our eyes before our stomachs ;) the aesthetics of the food we're enjoying adds a lot to the meal presentation and overall satisfaction.

When we go out and harvest zucchini, we go through the entire patch and take every zucchini that's big enough. Since they grow SO fast, some can be thinner and shorter, and others can be larger and thicker. I think it's important in our CSA journey to mention that every zucchini has it's purpose!

Thinner smaller zucchini and crook neck summer squash are best suited for eating in salads, or a stir fry for example because they hold their shape a bit better than the larger ones. Larger zucchini are best suited for grating to make fritters or zucchini bread! Another way to use the bigger zucchini is to cut them in half and scoop out the middle/seed area and stuff them like a boat. Or consider quartering them, dipping in egg and bread crumbs and baking them.

Last thing about zucchini/summer squash, I promise, haha! We alternate them whenever possible. I document what share sizes get which varieties and colors. So if we run short and have to switch gears one week, we'll keep alternating that next week too. We do this to make sure it's fair and everyone gets just as many weeks of each variety over the season!! *The only exception is last week, haha! Because we just barely had enough so we plugged in zucchini & summer squash erratically- just making sure to use everything we had harvested each morning because we had just enough.

KOHLRABI: This week we're going to top these because the greens aren't looking very nice anymore. That means that you'll get the bulbs but not the big leaves. We don't spray so the pests so they take a toll on the greens. In the beginning of the season there is not as much pressure from pests, and now that we're seeing more damage we figure you're not going to want to use the kohlrabi greens anyways. So we're going to top them and feed the greens to the pigs here!

I took this pic a few weeks ago, they're a lot tighter now and have developed a nice head!

RED ROMAINE: This is a new one that you haven't seen yet!! Red romaine is beautiful and really makes a salad come to life. In the grocery store there are a lot of red buttercrunches available, but I've still never come across a red romaine. Anyways- they're crisp and firm just like their green counterpart; but they grow a little slower. Fun fact- we've found this to be true with all of the red/purple varieties; red onions, purple cauliflowers, purple beans, red cabbages, even purple kohlrabi grow slower than their green counterparts. *Side note- we used to grow purple kohlrabi, but we stopped a few years back because they grow significantly slower, and you peel them anyways. After they're peeled they look exactly the same as the green ones anyways lol!

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.

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. The evidence of the pests is at the bottom of the wash tanks. 

That being said, since we aren't spraying you should expect to see a pest or two throughout the season. While we would love if no 'hitchhikers' made it home with you, we do understand that this is a tradeoff we choose to make. I hope 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 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. If you want to use salt instead, that works too because it draws out the pests who dislike the salt water. I've never been able to taste a difference with our 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 towards the end of making the sauce. It'll soften up a bit more anyways.

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 with the sugar for a few hours before topping your yogurt with fresh strawberries and granola (or ice cream, whatever you want!!).

GREEN BEANS: These are an easy one to add-in to your meal planning, if they make it that long. Our kids eat these plain as snacks, just grab a handful and they're back out the door. Personally I have one recipe that I wait ALL YEAR to make, which is our garlic green beans, finished with fresh lemon juice. This is one of those dishes that makes me think: This is what summer is all about 😍

One end of the green bean has the stem and the other side had the flower attached. When we pick, sometimes there are still flowers but they're dried so they fall off. Snap off the stem end (the part with the hard bit) and enjoy! We'll get into freezing beans later on but for now, I'm sure these won't last long enough to put them up! We expect this patch to produce for a couple weeks at least. Then we've got another patch to move to!! Of course that doesn't mean you're getting green beans every week all summer because there are so many other crops to fit into your CSA Shares too, but just know we've got plenty lined up for this summer!!

WRAPPING IT UP: This weekend is such a blessing to our family!!! I am so happy the 4th lands on a Saturday this season. We'll finish our morning chores and then head to the lake. Play all day at the sandbar, eat some good food and then we'll come home early enough to do our evening chores. We're happy to have the time to sneak away for the day!! The kids know how special this is for us too 💗 They've seen it for years- work hard, play hard!

The only problem with sneaking away for a break is that I feel guilty because there is always so much I should or could be doing. I look around here and always feel like I should drop everything to do XYZ task but time has taught me that cutting it loose and taking a break always makes us more productive anyways. It's just hard because I want everything to be done, all the time! But that is not reality with farming. Farming means that you're OK with having a to-do list that overflows for a week at a time. Nothing is ever really done anyways, because even if you fix that fence, the hogs will have that undone next week 😜 I'm making peace with this stage in life knowing that it's OK if our kitchen looks like people actually live in our house. It's OK if the kids' crap is in the yard, they live here and play outside every day, which I am so thankful for! They still WANT to be outside. I think it helps that none of them have cell phones. They're still normal kids though- they'll sleep until 10am if we let them, and the girls will watch TV in the morning until we make them turn it off lol! Our son is taking working very seriously and starts at 7am with the rest of us & our crew every day of the week. Good for him though, he's saving money for another muskie rig! These farm kids got a tarp, a hose, and the rest of my dawn dish soap to make the ultimate slip-n-slide in the yard last night!! Wild and free- just how we should be 💗

Happy Independence Day!!! Hope ya'll can spend it doing something you want to do. Whether that's relaxing at home after a long week or chasing kids at the lake, more power to you!!

Hope you enjoy your veggies this week!! We'll have some new fun varieties for week 4 as well, more on that next week! XO ~The Farmer's Wife