CSA Newsletter -- Week 8
Greetings All!
I hope you guys had a great weekend! Thank you to everyone who was able to make it out for the big sale here, it was a lot of fun and I got to meet so many of our CSA Members! In between stocking tables and chatting with Members, I was taking some of the kiddos over to see the livestock too. I always joke with the kids that the hogs here have superpowers- they can eat leftover/scrap veggies and turn it into bacon!! It's really incredible though, being able to have folks out, show the kids around, share our passions here at the farm all while sending folks home with heaping handfuls of goodies! What a blessing!!
Grandpa Brown made a surprise guest appearance before the sale started, that was incredible! He called today to check in and let me know how impressed he was with the kids and how helpful they were. They gave him a personal tour of all the livestock around here and he enjoyed his visit seeing everything Ben (his grandson) is growing.
My Mom & Dad came up and helped me & the kids get everything ready before the sale- which is a huge job!!! We had employees out helping us harvest and prep/clean veggies for the sale and Ben was working super long days at the stand and then coming home to help us, too! Lots of long days and we're wiped out!
I made 78 jars of jam on Thursday! ALL DAY I was cooking jam, processing it in the hot water bath and then labeling it too- all start to finish in one fell swoop. I made Raspberry Jam & Raspberry Jalapeno Jam too- that is SO good!! Of course, all of my canned goods are either sourced from our own farm or someone we know personally- the raspberries come from Vern & Sharon who live in Zimmerman, and the jalapenos in the jam I made were actually the first jalapenos that we picked on the farm here this whole season!
After the weekend here, we've got about a dozen jars of jam left but I am planning on making some more before the season is over. The only problem is that there are only so many days in a week, when I'm trying to balance dill pickles, jams, not to mention the hot sauces, pickled peppers and salsa in my future too, it's hard to know what to work on!
Guys- some of those jalapenos William brought me were as long as my hand! We need a little more time to let them all get to that desirable size, but I expect to put those into your CSAs for week 9!! Just a strong heads up- these jalapenos are going to be hot. The weather influences the heat of the peppers and super strong hot weather patterns (and drought) push hot peppers to be even hotter. It also produces stronger, healthier, heavier producing plants too!
Look at these plants- they're absolutely loaded! We're even losing some of the white bell peppers plants because they're so heavy they're tipping and cracking at the stem- that's a new one for us- we don't see that often with peppers!!
SEASONS CHANGING
Don't jump to conclusions- because we've still got 8 more weeks of boxes together- but yes you will start to notice some changes with the box contents! We're starting to see the summer squash/zucchini and slicer/pickle patch burning out. In the peak of the season we were going out and harvesting hundreds of pounds, and now we're down to just a handful of boxes every time we harvest. It's not enough to satisfy what we'd need for your CSA Shares anymore. If we end up with enough to plug into your CSAs we will do so this week but I'm not adding it to the list because those patches are really simmering out.
We're starting to see some of the spaghetti squash ripening! They grow a light green color and when they get bigger they start turning a yellow color, that's how you know they're ripe! That and we don't harvest them immediately when we see color change, we let them ripen for another week or two on the vine before we harvest them just to be sure it's ripened throughout. You'll be seeing a lot more about winter squash varieties in the blog here very soon! We also are seeing some netting on the muskmelon! I mentioned this last week but once they get to the right size they start netting (which is where they grow that textured material all over the muskmelons) and then they'll turn yellow when they're ripening! Ben grew a couple varieties of muskmelons this season- the traditional sized one and a new one for us- it's called the "sugar cube" which is a smaller muskmelon. We have friends who grew them and really liked the flavor so we're hoping these little beauties will be nice and sweet when they're ready!!
TOMATOES Gosh, we are so ready for these to ripen!! We went out last Thursday and picked a couple baskets of romas, which are always ready before the regular slicing tomatoes. We didn't get any regulars last Thursday. We're going to run through the patch either tomorrow or Tuesday afternoon and hope to see more turning! When I say "we'll have a lot of tomatoes" I think that's actually an understatement. We grow over 7,000 tomato plants and they're all healthy and loaded, no blight out there (because there hasn't been any rain!), so when we start harvesting, we will have a lot!
At that point I will add tomatoes to the online store so that folks can order boxes of tomatoes, peppers and onions with normal CSA Share deliveries. So keep an eye on the store in the next couple weeks for more seasonal goodies to be added! Of course I'll mention it here when we've got that set up as well. That way you can get set up for your salsa or sauces and you also get a better price than everyone else as a CSA Member!
We're seeing the seasons changing here at the farm and we're saying 'goodbye' to some varieties while others are just coming into harvest. Being a part of the CSA has a lot of benefits, but I think a big one is understanding what's actually in season and why we get so excited for some of these varieties!
In some parts of the fields here at the farm, we're going to go back to square one...
LOOK AT THEST BABIES! These are little baby cole-crops that we'll be enjoying this fall! Cauliflower, broccoli and some herbs too!
Ben worked up the fields (closest to the barn) which is where these little baby plants will get put in. The real problem is that we've only had one measurable rain once in the last month. We got 6/10th of an inch THIS MONTH. Meaning that Ben is still babysitting a lot of the crops that are already in the fields, switching irrigation every 8 hours- making sure the plants we do have are thriving. Currently- at almost 10pm on Sunday night he has two spigots running full blast watering two whole patches at one time.
The problem is that we have to water that area before we plant, so it's easier for them to root themselves of course, and it decreases stress on the baby plants which helps them produce faster. If we got a rain event here, we'd be in good shape to plant those last crops of the season but we're still waiting... We did get sprinkles this weekend twice but it wasn't even enough to wet the gravel.
So if we don't get any rain, there is a good chance we won't even be able to get these plants in the ground because we can't divert the water away from the heavy-hitter crops (tomatoes, melons, sweet corn, peppers, etc) to get water to these delicate seedlings. These plants can last in the trays for another week or so but if they don't get in the ground soon, they won't have time to head before the winter anyways. I.e. we NEED rain!!
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT IN YOUR CSA SHARES THIS WEEK: Jumbo & Family Shares: Sweet Corn, Red Cabbage, Red Potatoes, Bell Peppers, Onions, & Basil! Single Shares: Sweet Corn, Red Cabbage, Red Potatoes, Bell Peppers, Onions, & Basil! This is one of the few weeks of the season that we've got the exact same varieties in all of our CSA Shares but the quantities are very different of course. Sweet Corn! We still have corn for you if you want to put some up. I added the guide on how to freeze corn but I'll tag that again here this week if you missed it last week-
Order online through the "SHOP" tab on our website, you'll see sweet corn as an option there to purchase and have delivered with your CSA.
Bell Peppers- These are the variety that everyone knows and loves! We do grow a few colored bell pepper varieties that I am excited to share with you in the coming weeks! We'll going out tomorrow morning and the plan is to harvest green bells but if they're big enough- we'll include the purple and white bell peppers too!
We'll have stuffed bell peppers on our menu for this week, it's been SO LONG since we've had those and Ben's peppers are picked at a good size so the flesh isn't super thin like the ones in the grocery stores a lot of the time. These hold up to being stuffed and baked ;)
Onions- This patch is producing so many good-sized onions!! We don't usually see these sizes this early in the season. If you remember this spring, I sent out a whole blog post about onions. Here is the link if you want to geek out and read more about the types of onions we grow and why:
Onion Update These are the ones we started from seed, so they're much bigger and they're not bolting, they're still growing!! We'll have a lot of big dried onions this season too, which are available to purchase through the online store in the fall- those storage onions last for months if kept properly! We'll dive into that more in the coming weeks as we start rolling out more storage crops, but it's just too early for that quite yet.
BASIL! We were hoping this would be ready at the same time as our tomatoes so we could send them together in your CSA Share. The good news is that when we send this basil with you this week, we're cutting the plants back and then they'll just grow in thicker. Meaning we'll be able to send basil with tomatoes this season, just not this week because the tomatoes aren't ripening fast enough!!
Basil can NOT be refrigerated! It needs to be kept on the counter, at room temperature. I keep mine in a mason jar with some water on the windowsill so that it stays good for a long time. We use ours on sandwiches, brushetta, pasta (pesto!) and you can dry it and use it homemade seasonings (or meat rubs!).
When I go to the grocery store it always drives me crazy that the basil is in the refrigerated section by the other herbs- because it will turn black and shrivel if it gets too cold. I would guess within a day or two of being in the refrigerated section that basil looks like trash. I think that's why basil is one of the only varieties of herbs that I actually see sold as plants with dirt in a pot, in the produce section... just food for thought. (Sorry it's getting too late for bad jokes, haha!)
Remember that I have a whole guide for you to use your veggies this season! I try to highlight what I can here but there is never enough space to write it all- here is a section from the Farm to Table Storage Guide on basil: Traditional Basil Uses: Try chopping it and adding to butter, cream cheese, or your favorite pasta sauce. Make a batch of pesto or simply puree extra basil with a bit of olive oil and freeze it in ice cube trays. It pairs well with tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, green beans and summer squash. Because it is so fragile, it is best to add basil near the end of a dish’s cooking time. (The full handbook is at the bottom of every email newsletter- just scroll down and you'll see the button that will bring you to the document that lists every variety with tips on usage, storage and more!) WRAPPING IT UP!
This time of year everything moves very fast!! We're keeping up pretty good right now (with the exception of this super late newsletter), everything in the fields looks great and we have a full crew through the end of the season now that we hired another helper. We have almost all teenagers working for us and we're very thankful for these hardworking kids!
On a personal note, we've got a birthday party for our son next weekend and I'm bringing him with a handful of friends down to the river to go fishing. William has enough poles for everyone but they can bring their own gear if they want to. We'll also bring some nets to see if there are a bunch of crayfish like last time, it's fun to catch (and release) them and the water is so clear there in Milaca.
He's turning 14 next weekend and the expression that time is a thief doesn't even cover it! We'll be checking out the drivers ed program this year at school, now he actually cares what his hair looks like and requests going to get haircuts, and he's graduated to wearing jeans instead of sweatpants every day. He wakes up before us most days and works full days with us on the farm but we don't even put him on the schedule- we actually have to tell him when to take days off!
It's so awesome watching our kids grow up on the farm, and also watching the farm grow up at the same time...
Ben and I started farming the year before William (our oldest) was born in 2012, we only had a handful of different plants and had one little roadside stand where we sold everything. I never canned (I didn't even know how to at that time!), we didn't have livestock or our own farm, we rented fields all over the place and tried to make this into something. We were just two young dumb kids getting in over our head, in a hurry!
One story I don't think I've ever even shared before is that I actually went into labor with William in the middle of our tomato patch. I was out picking tomatoes 9 months pregnant, and I know most pregnant ladies say this too- but I really was enormous, haha!! He really has been a farm kid since day 1 😂 We made it to the hospital in time and William came into the world at 9 pounds 13 ounces. Ben brought tomatoes, peppers and onions to the hospital for our nurses and they actually made Pico (fresh salsa) and brought it in to share with us. Nothing like farm fresh veggies to say, "Thank you for taking such good care of us!" 💕
Seems like a whole different lifetime now. The kids are growing up fast and so is our farm, but it's all moving too fast for me!! Anyways, that's enough for tonight- I gotta stop while I'm behind, haha! We'll have employees here at 7am tomorrow morning!! Have a great week & I hope you guys enjoy your veggies!!
XO ~The Farmer's Wife
