Respite Desperate

Relief has arrived from the west! We hold real-time data in our hands. We can watch it approach from a God’s-eye view.

Without the blessings of modern technology and the miracle of accurate and dependable forecasting, would we smell it coming? Would we sense it? Would we read about it on a calendar or in an Almanac? Recreationally, we wonder how ancient agriculturalists, or even our great grandparents’ grandparents retained a morsel of sanity amidst such unpredictability, and we’re lucky that the thought experiment is just that- an experiment, an exercise, a daydream. Keeping crops alive in bone-dry topsoil becoming more and more hyrdophobic by the day has taken significant effort, but aren’t we lucky to have our creek, our well, our youth, and our patrons insuring such effort? We have our health and thus far, so do our crops. Thankfully, a well-earned, good night’s sleep rarely eludes us.

This has been an odd drought, a scary one. Larger scale, conventional farmers are worried, unsurprisingly. In the past month, they’ve sown into remarkably dry soil. If their crops were fortunate to find the moisture to sprout, they’ll struggle to mine the necessary nutrients for further growth without a good rain. We’ve heard of such farmers preparing themselves for a total loss. While they steer their tractors and drag their implements over acres and acres of cultivation, they navigate simultaneously the turbulence of agricultural variability and scale. It’s a high-stakes moment balancing the likelihoods of success or failure. We’re fortunate and reassured that we are allowed to share these stakes with our community, our shareholders, our stakeholders.

We’re relieved by the hope of rainfall in the next few days, but we also have a scheduled respite approaching on the calendar. We will be taking one week off of harvests and deliveries from June 17-24, with deliveries starting back up on the 25th. This is basically the halfway point for our growing season as we started preparing seedlings and early sowings in February and will continue growing through October. We took separate vacations last season so that one of us could be on the farm while the other is away, but this year we get to take some time off together. We’re very grateful, especially to our parents who have been willing to support us and keep an eye on things while we are away- a big ask on our part.

We will deliver this week, June 11th and June 14th, we will take a break from deliveries June 18th and June 21st, and we will start back up June 25th and June 28th.

Housekeeping

Please leave your used boxes with materials out so that we can replace them with your fresh delivery. We really appreciate your cooperation in making our delivery logistics efficient and resourceful.

Thank you to those shareholders who have shared contact information for delivery notifications. We’re still missing a few numbers, so if you’d like a heads up as to when your box has arrived, feel free to share an appropriate contact.

Week 4 CSA Harvest:

Spinach

Long term Spinachin’ conditions ought not be hot. Many of The Goosefoots, or Chenopods, prefer the cool and the shade and the naturally saturated soil of such an environment. Amaranth and Quinoa are common Goosefoot grains while garden variety Chenopods include Spinach, Beets, and Swiss Chard. These cool season crops thrive in the Spring and the Autumn but struggle to grow nicely in the Summer heat. We work our Spinach hard in the cool seasons, cutting and coming back again and again. Though our varieties are slow to bolt (flower and attenuate), Spring Spinach will soon come to an end.

Bagged Lettuce Mix

We’re multi-cut converts. Growing multi-cut Head Lettuces has allowed us to create nicer mixes more quickly and efficiency than the traditional methods of baby greens production. It allows us to better plan and manage inventories and successions. Sowing a thick bed of baby Lettuces is simple, quick, and easy but there is a great deal of maintenance required to keep the bed weed-free and well-prepared for a quick harvest. We have many living things to watch over on our farm and there is great value in avoiding such a chore-heavy approach.

Snow Peas

Peas generally grow themselves. They feed lightly on the soil’s available nutrients and even contribute some nitrogen of their own. They sprout easily and worry not about pests or diseases. The construction of structural support is really the only struggle to grow a large crop of Peas. With our new hoophouse, we’ve been able to produce an early Pea crop better than any we’ve done before. We’ve learned a lot really look forward to restarting cool season Legumes like Snow and Sugar Snap Peas later in the Summer.

Kale & Collards

While the giant foliage of our Collard Greens gets funky as we near summertime, our other Kale varieties are growing well with the past week’s cooler temps and overcast skies. Shareholders will receive a bunch with their produce this week.

Broccoli

We spoke last week about the challenges of a good Broccoli grow, especially when we want to provide a large harvest/inventory all at once, without dedicating too many beds for a comparably unproductive crop. Last week, we were relieved to be able to share a bunch of our Sprouting variety with our Sunday deliveries and a single head from our Crowing variety with our Wednesday deliveries. We will switch it up this week, with Sunday shareholders receiving crowns and Wednesday shareholders receiving loose bunches.

Kohlrabi

Our remaining varieties and unharvested plants are sizing up and will be distributed again this week. Don’t throw away those greens! They’ll collaborate nicely and appropriately with the Kale included in this week’s harvest.

Cilantro

Many of our cool season herbs have remained surprisingly stable and productive through the Spring drought. We have a lot of Cilantro to cut and will hand out fresh, flavorful bunches this week.

Summer Teaser/Sampler

While our summer gardens have established themselves decently, we’ve been conflicted about how to handle their early fruit. Without rain, they’ve grown slowly and sometimes unevenly. Because we have natural irrigation upcoming and a short break from harvests ahead, we’re going to go ahead and pull some of these early baby fruits for families to sample this week. Baby Summer Squashes and Sweet Peppers will slip into this week’s produce boxes. Try them fresh and raw! Thin, shaved slices of Zucchini is a great way to mix up salad ingredients and while the peppers are small, they’re a teaser of what’s to come in July.

Eggs & Flowers

Our chickens are happy and continue to provide consistently this season. We have been readily incorporating eggs into our daily meals - and with Erin home on summer break from teaching, breakfasts look a lot more like casseroles, scrambles, egg-in-the-holes, frittatas - and less like David’s favorite- three or four butt nuggets cracked and fried over-easy in the skillet.

Bouquets are headed to our weekly and biweekly folks this week and feature more Dwarf Sunflowers, Daisies, Elegant Clarkia, Celosia, Fleabane, Yarrow, Cosmos, False Indigo Greens & Velvet Grass. We hope that when we return from our trip our flower rows will have exploded with new blooms!

Have a wonderful couple of weeks and don’t hesitate to email, text or DM us if you have any questions about your produce this week or how to use/store it. No deliveries the week of June 19th!

Erin & David