CSA Newsletter -- Week 5

Greetings All! I hope you guys had a good week!

This past week has been rough working outside, that's for sure! We sent everyone home at about noon every day this past week. The earlier half of the week was just oppressively hot and the second half was like sitting inside of a bon-fire with all that smoke! So we didn't get a lot of field work done like weeding or hoeing in the afternoon, but they did get the third tie on the tomatoes! We tie our tomatoes for support so the branches don't break- they are loaded!!

Our irrigation system has been running around the clock this week; it never really turns off... I had to call Ben this weekend to ask him if I could turn off the irrigation to run some laundry. All of the irrigation runs off of our well which also feeds our house, the spigots by the barn to take care of the chicks and hogs, etc. so we have to make sure it's not all on at once or we don't have enough water pressure to run stuff in the house. (Showers are fun at this time of year- timing it so we get good water pressure between irrigation runs) haha!

We got our last batch of chickens on Wednesday!! I posted a video on facebook- if you're not on there yet following our page I suggest that you check it out! I still don't know what the difference is between stories, reels and posts is 😜 but I have been doing better about posting more often!! These chicks will be in the barn for a couple weeks until they're big enough to go outside in their chicken tractors for pasturing. When they're small and they don't have feathers (they're just puff balls right now!) we keep them in the barn. Once they get their feathers and can regulate temperature better, they can go outside. Then they'll be outside for the next couple months and we'll have this batch of chickens processed ahead of the Fall Sale. For those of you that haven't ever been out here, the Fall Sale is kind of a big deal. We glean the fields (harvest everything that's out there) and bring it up to our pole shed where we set it up like a farm store for the weekend. Tables with produce by the tray, or by the box (for those of you who want to preserve it in bulk), pastured chickens available whole or by the cut, and our heritage hog pork products too! You'll hear a lot more about this sale when it's closer, but I just wanted to mention that since we sold out so fast last year with our chicken, we decided to up the anty and raise hundreds of chickens just for the Fall Sale.

Gypsy Peppers are doing great! We're thinking that we should be able to put them into your CSAs next week. They are totally loaded!!! Once they grow to the right size they start putting on mass in the thickness of the pepper. They start more of light green (thinner skinned) pepper and end up bulking out to be the big sweet gypsy peppers we love!! The one on the bottom is the biggest but that's still not ready. Farmer Ben said next week he thinks he can start picking them!

I also want to share that he mentioned this could be his biggest pepper crop ever. He's got way more plants this season and they are so healthy. I know I'm a broken record, but this heat does make that big of a difference!!! Same as with the melon patch-- I went out there tonight because my BIL told me there were deer out there browsing. So I drove out there to check it out and didn't see any deer, but I took this photo- it's just gorgeous out there. It's all thanks the hot weather we've gotten!

This is the best melon crop Farmer Ben's had in years. The heat pushes certain varieties to really put out- but it also stresses out some other varieties. Ben is worried about our cool weather crops- cauliflower, broccoli and cabbages, among others. They're getting stressed in this heat so he's running a lot of water on them trying to keep them happy. The great thing about getting a CSA is that this is our only job. We are specialized and you know we're got the tools, will power and know-how to get the crop in. It looks like we don't have any rain in the forecast but plenty of 90 degree days next week too- but Farmer Ben has us covered and he knows what he's doing, which is why I can't run laundry haha! If we were a big industrial farm we'd run a new well just for irrigation, but on the scale we grow, that doesn't make sense for us.

Did ya'll notice your broccoli was a little looser this week? The heads weren't as tight because of this stinking heat! They loosen up and grow in funny shapes when the weather is too hot. We ended up cutting a lot of the patch and throwing about half of it to the hogs because it wasn't even close to up to par. We do still have some out there in the field too. The great thing about broccoli is that it makes side shoots!! And the great thing about hogs is that they turn broccoli into bacon!!

If we cut the heads before they flower, they'll produce more 'side shoots' of broccoli off of the same plant, that will actually grow into little heads. It'll be a couple weeks still but we expect to have a lot of side shoots when the time comes- which is nice because we can bunch them to make a "head" of broccoli, or sell them in bulk to folks who want to put it up for the off-season. We still have a handful of small heads out in the field so hopefully the heat doesn't stress them too much! (And just to be noted, Ben has another patch coming for the fall anyways 😍)

Last week, we had to put cabbages into our CSAs on Wednesday because we had cut quite a bit of the cauliflower patch and naturally we just take the biggest ones. So the ones that were out there weren't big enough to harvest, hence the cabbages! So last week we mixed in the white cauliflower, the purple cauliflower and the cabbage this past week, because that what was ready to harvest. I apologize to those who got cabbage unexpectedly! We weren't planning on that either. Since we want to make sure everyone gets every variety, we're going to mix up the harvest and you'll either get a white cauliflower, purple cauliflower, or green cabbage over the next 3 weeks. I apologize I can't plan in advance farther, because the plan is to harvest all of the biggest of every variety and plug it into your Shares. We don't know exactly the break down because we haven't harvested it yet! 😬

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT IN YOUR CSA SHARES: Jumbo & Family Shares: SWEET CORN, Cauliflower/Cabbage, Pickles, Zucchini & Beets! Single Shares: SWEET CORN, Cauliflower/Cabbage, Slicing Cucumbers, Summer Squash, and Green Beans! I can't spend a ton of time on this section because as you know-it's getting late and we have a crew that will be knocking down my door at 7am, haha!

Sweet corn is ready!! It's officially the best time of the year!!! I wanted to mention that the sweet corn is pretty young, but it's so nice!! We had it for the Farm Stand this weekend and it's super sweet!! Remember that as soon as corn is harvested the sugars are converting to starch, which takes away the sweetness. I'm sure this sweet corn won't last long anyways, but just wanted to mention that the sooner you eat it, the sweeter it is! The advantage here is that the corn is getting harvested every morning- this is a lot fresher than the grocery store!! Hope ya'll enjoy!!

Beets!! We pulled a few test plants the other day and we'll actually have red & golden beets for you!!! I feel like the golden beets are a little less earthy so the sweetness shines through better. While others say that they just like the golden beets because it'll make less of a mess in your kitchen! A lot of folks will trim off the beet greens and enjoy those too! It really depends on the time of year, though. As the season goes on, we start to see more pest damage. Since we’re not spraying, there are bugs out in the fields doing their thing. By the later part of the season, the beets won’t come with greens at all.

But at this time of year, we do our best to break off the damaged/unusable leaves before the beets get into your CSA. We have several recipes online, I'll find a good one to add to the email this week as inspiration, but remember there is always the Farm to Table Storage Guide that will walk you through how to cook the beets, peel them, utilize the greens, how to store them if you don't have time to use them right away.. it's a great resource and it'll be included in every CSA email from here on out (just scroll to the bottom of the email and look for the button).

The beets are coming for the Family & Jumbo Shares this week but we'll be adding them to the Single Shares next week! Just like the green beans this week, varieties often alternate because of the size of our patches or production in general, depending on the type of crop.

WRAPPING IT UP:

Kelsi's tournament went great last weekend in St. Cloud! The girls pulled off a win in the first game (our 2nd win of the season) and they lost the second game but it was so hot on Sunday last weekend that they were calling time-outs in the middle of innings to have all the girls from both teams go take water breaks. Keep in mind these girls are tough but they're only 10 years old- it's a good thing not to push them too hard! They were happy with how they did and I am happy they're still so young and sweet, they are so good at talking each other up!! I picked up Karli on Friday morning from Camp Jim! Naturally, she had a great time and made a lot of new friends this week!! She always comes home with a whole notebook of phone numbers to keep in touch with the girls from year to year. They did have to stay inside for a couple of the days because of the smoke but she said they had really fun activities planned so she wasn't bummed at all. She's back to reality here at the farm and asking her to empty the dishwasher is basically a punishment haha!

We got a lot of the tree cleaned up in the front yard but we haven't gotten the trunk down yet because there was so much brush to chip and logs to move. Not to mention an entire limb from our maple tree came down this week- but we got that chopped up tonight too. We have a log splitter but I'm not sure if we'll spend the time splitting this ash tree, they're a knotted mess and honestly we have so much firewood already we don't even want it. I know I promised a before & after photo but it's hard to do when it's not all-done yet, stay tuned haha!

William had a tournament this weekend and holy cripes that was a long hot weekend!!! We played 2 games saturday and won them both. We had a whole cheering section of about 20 of us (but I was definitely the loudest haha). Then today we had the championship game and they WON THE GOLD!!!

This pic was taken last week by a parent with a much nicer camera ;)

This big guy is rocking a heck of a farmer's tan, haha!! He got 3 triples this week and today, in the finals, he got TWO home-runs!!! It's not easy to do in 13-U but I'd say he definitely has an advantage because he's one of the 'big kids'. He's tall and skinny "like a green bean" his Grandma says. He's already as tall as me and I know he isn't done growing yet!

It was a great weekend overall but we're all sunburnt and fried from sitting in the heat all day. Ben included, he was at the farm stand all weekend, which went great!

Ben was happy to get back out there to Hudson's Hardware in Zimmerman. He calls to tell me when his favorite customers stop by too- he loves visiting with people and comes home with the best stories!! He also brought me 40 pints of raspberries from Vern, our friend in Zimmerman who grows fruit and then I buy it to make my jams. Of course folks like it- it's home grown and homemade ;) So I just got all of those washed and put in the freezer tonight too. That way when I have more than a minute, I can take them out and make jam for the farm stand- stay tuned!!

Can't wait to send you another update next week- this time of year moves as fast as a bolt of lightning!! XO ~The Farmer's Wife