CSA Newsletter Week 1, 2023

CSA Newsletter Week 1

June 19-24, 2023    |    “A” Week

The tops of the garlic plant form a curlicue. This is called the garlic “scape,” and it’s totally edible!

What’s in the Share this Week?

WEEK #1 STANDARD VEGETABLE BOX:

Large size boxes will get a double portion of the standard box.

GREEN HEAD LETTUCE, OAK LEAF (1) ~ these are gorgeous!! Store it in a Debbie Meyer Green bag or Tupperware FridgeSmart container right away and leave it in the fridge. Don’t wash until you’re ready to use it. Then spin it dry in a salad spinner.

BOOM LETTUCE MIX (8 oz) ~  Store in a Debbie Meyer Green bag or Tupperware FridgeSmart container right away and leave it in the fridge. Don’t wash until you’re ready to use it. Then spin it dry in a salad spinner. This is a special mix of greens including: Bok Choy, Komatsuna Red, and Rezetto Tatsoi — so it has a bit of a kick in flavor! Dress your salad with a DIY vinaigrette! To tone down some of the asian greens flavor, you can mix it in with some of the green head lettuce from this week’s box.

ORANGE CARROTS (with tops), 1 bunch ~ SAVE THE CARROT TOPS! You can make really cool stuff with them… To store, first take the tops off your carrots and put them into a plastic bag in the fridge. The roots should be stored separately in the crisper in a plastic bag. If they get soft, just put them in some water to crisp them up again. Eat within 3 weeks.

Don’t throw the carrot greens away! Use them to make carrot top pesto! Or dehydrate them on your counter and add them as a parsley-type herb to future dishes. Or throw them into a “veggie scrap bag” in your freezer (with other things like the tops of celery, onion skins, carrot ends). When the bag gets full, use it to create your own DIY veggie broth (which you can then freeze into ice cubes for later use!) Not sure how to make DIY broth?… grab our guide here.

PURPLE SCALLIONS,, 1 bunch  ~ Place your scallions into a glass filled with an inch of cold water and place it in your fridge (or leave on the counter).  I like to place a baggie over the tops of the greens, if it’s going in my fridge to keep them from drying out. Refresh the water every 3 days. These will last a long time stored this way. You can trim the green tops off the scallion and use them to garnish tacos or salads or meat dishes. You can also chop them up and freeze them for later use in a Ziploc baggie! The whites of the onions are often used in salad dressing vinaigrettes, on salads, or enjoyed grilled with a little olive oil and s/p.

GARLIC SCAPES (5-6) ~ Download my Garlic Scape E-Guide here. (Super helpful if you’re new to scapes!) These June delicacies will be in your box for the next 2 weeks. They have a curlicue shape, and a garlic flavor. Chop off the bottom inch of the scape (the tough end), and discard in your Veggie Scrap bag. Chop/mince the scape (even the flower bulb part), and use it wherever you would use garlic. You can eat the scapes roasted on the grill whole.  Store the scapes whole or chopped in a Ziploc baggie, and use within a couple weeks. If you can’t get through them fast enough, just chop them up and throw them into the freezer in a Ziploc freezer bag. Use them all winter long as a garlic substitute. I like to use these in garlic-scape compound butter or add to my own DIY cream cheese.

SNAP PEAS (5 oz) ~ To store: Use as soon as possible within 4-5 days of harvest. Refrigerate in a perforated plastic bag in the crisper drawer. To prep: Wash well. Snap off the ends and remove the string if present. To cook: Eat young, fresh snap peas raw. Put them on top of a salad. Add raw peas to stir-fry or soup in the last stages of cooking. Steam peas until just tender-crisp, for three minutes. Toss with butter, olive oil, cream, vinaigrette, or pesto. To freeze: Peas freeze well but will lose their crunchy texture. Remove stems/strings. Blanch peas for 1 minute, rinse under cold water, drain, and pack into Ziplock freezer bags.

POTTED HERB PLANT  (YOUR CHOICE) ~  Every year, we give our CSA members two different potted herb plants. You will receive one herb this week, and the other option on week 2. At your pickup site, you will be shown a list of several herb types while you are waiting in the drive-through lane. Once you get to your site host, let them know which variety you want. When you take it home, put it in a sunny place in your garden or on your kitchen windowsill. Then be sure to “prune” the plant as it grows. This means cutting the herb leaves along the stem. This will cause the plant to branch off where you pruned it, and get bushier over time. It’s important to stimulate growth by pruning! You can start enjoying your herbs in your kitchen after a few weeks, once they bush out! The herbs this year come from Mulberry Creek Herb Farm. They are also USDA certified organic.

WEEK #1 ADD-ON SHARES: We are Week “A”

Odd-numbered weeks of our CSA season (week 1,3,5) are called “A” weeks. And even-numbered weeks (week 2,4,6) are called “B” weeks. If you have any kind of non-veggie, bi-weekly share, you have been assigned to either “A” or “B” week for the season. If you get a cheese share, it always comes on Week “A.”

WEEK 1 FRUIT SHARE:

NOTE: We are not sure if we will be able to source enough berries to start the fruit share this week. But if we can, then THIS is what it will be:

STRAWBERRIES (3 QUARTS) ~ (from Polter’s Berry Farm, Fremont) To store: Put your berries in a colander in your fridge (or store them in a Debbie Meyer Green Bag), where they will keep for up to 5 days. Do not wash until you eat them. To prep: Wash off the berries and remove the green tops before eating. To freeze: Place whole berries on a cookie sheet and freeze. Once they are frozen, pop them into a Ziplock bag for easy storage and freeze.

RHUBARB (1 bunch) ~ (from Wayward Seed Farm, Fremont) This tart vegetable is one of the first to emerge in the spring. Because of its sour taste, sugar is usually added. It has the look and texture of celery and can be red or green. To store: Wrap in plastic baggie and place in the fridge. Use within a week. To prep: Remove the leaves and bottom inch of the stalk. Chop or mince. To use: Add to pies, cakes, muffins, scones, jello, or just try making an easy sauce to top your ice cream or pound cake. Try eating rhubarb raw as a snack, dipped in sugar! To freeze: Super easy! Just chop and pack into Ziplock freezer bags to flash freeze. I often do this with my rhubarb, because I’m at a loss for how to use so much of it. It lasts for up to a year this way!

Rhubarb is also just good raw — it’s pretty sour so dip it in a bit of sugar and take a bite!

CHEESE SAMPLER:

1. Hulls Trace & Gretna Grillin from Blue Jacket Dairy.  
   1. Gretna is a halloumi-style cheese It is a semi-soft, salty, buttery non-melting cheese made from pasteurized whole cow’s milk. When browned in a sizzling hot skillet it forms a beautiful golden crust. Eat it grilled, baked, grated on pasta, or served with fruit. This cheese was named after a hamlet in Logan County. Cooking tips. Cut into 3/4” slabs or cubes. Preheat pan to 350-375° Cook in a sizzling hot non-stick pan or a very lightly oiled pan for about 30 seconds, or less, until a light beautiful golden crust forms, flip with a toothpick and brown the other side. The inside will be warm and soft. Do not overcook.
   2.  Hulls Trace is a semi-hard aged cheddar made from cow’s milk; lots of flavor with 4 months of aging. This name was chosen in recognition of the historical significance of the Hull’s Trace that runs through Logan County and near our cheese facility. At the beginning of the War of 1812, the United States was concerned about supplying Fort Detroit and the surrounding Michigan Territory. Since the British forces controlled Lake Erie, supplies could only be brought overland. In June and July 1812, the troops, under the command of General William Hull, constructed a trail that became known as “Hull’s Trace,” a 200-mile military road running from Urbana to Detroit.
2. Apricot-Ginger chevre from MacKenzie Creamery – this goat cheese comes in a little cup container. The apricot flavor sits at the bottom. So when you open it up and dump it out, the fruit will run down like a volcano. This chevre CAN BE FROZEN! It’s Farmer Corinna’s favorite Mackenize chevre variety, which is why we start with it!!

ICE CREAM Flavor of the Week:

Rhubarb Crumble from Knueven Creamery. Note: be sure to stop and pick up your ice cream from the Knueven milk truck at your pickup site! They will be located either right before or after your veggie pickup. Your farmers will not be passing this out in their delivery line.

COFFEE Flavor of the Week:

Maddie & Bella Coffee Company ~ In Bloom — sweet with hints of springtime. We are happy to support our favorite coffee roasters in the metro-Toledo area! Fun Fact: Maddie and Bella gives us their leftover burlap bags (that the coffee beans come in). We are able to use these as a form of weed mat in the fields.

Here are some examples of some of last year’s fun car signs!

This week: ENTER THE CAR SIGN CONTEST

It’s that time again! We’re holding the third annual CSA CAR NAME SIGN contest! Time to bling up and decorate your CSA name sign this weekend in anticipation of the first week’s pickup. These signs help our site hosts quickly find your order and learn your names. I still remember Tony Unum and his Mylar balloon extravaganza coming out of the car sunshield. AND it’s also really fun. We’re picking our favorite sign from EACH site, and giving them a free pint of Knueven Creamery ice cream the next week. (That’s a total of 4 winners!) Make sure your sign has your last name written in large letters, so we can see it from 2 car lengths away. I’ll announce the winners in next week’s newsletter!

Look how big Daisy has gotten!

HOW TO PICK UP YOUR SHARE:

All pickups will be drive-thru style. To help us keep things moving, do not get out of your cars.

1. Follow the flow of traffic until you get to the site staff host at the tent/truck. For Perrysburg and Sylvania, you will be able to form TWO identical lines on either side of the tent. Do not leave your vehicle. Hold up a sign in your car window with your customer last name on it. Pop your trunk (or roll down your window and tell us where you want us to put your bin). Make sure your veggie bin from the last week is in the trunk (starting week 2).
2. Staff host will remove your bin from the prior week from your vehicle. Please return all egg cartons and veggie totes each week.
3. The staff host will consult the master checklist and give you your share(s) – this could include vegetable, fruit, flowers, coffee, cheese, or an egg share. (Cheese is delivered on the odd weeks of the season — also known as “A” week). You will be asked to choose from a variety of potted culinary herbs during week 1 and 2.
4. Staff will add any additional online store orders you may have purchased in advance from Shared Legacy Farms store.
5. Perrysburg and Sylvania: Drive to the Knueven Creamery station and pick up your milk or ice cream order or any store order you placed the week prior at www.KnuevenCreamy.com. (Elmore customers will get their milk share and /or dairy store orders from Corinna and her team.)

Elmore Pickup (Tuesdays, 5:30-6:30 PM) – Cell phone: 419-344-7092

Sylvania Pickup (Tuesdays, 5:30-6:30 PM) – Cell phone: 419-345-5659 – expect longer lines the first half hour

Perrysburg Pickup (Thursdays, 5-6:30 PM) – Cell phone: 419-345-5659 – expect long lines the first 45 minutes

Port Clinton Pickup (Thursdays, 6-6:30 PM) – Cell phone: 419-344-7092 – quick in and out! Only 30 of you!!

When we were short on rain, it was a tough week for Farmer Kurt. Here he is falling asleep on the lawn for a quick nap.

FARMER KURT’S FIELD NOTES

Welcome to week 1!! Are you ready? It’s been a whirlwind the last 2 weeks! I have so much to catch you up on!

First of all, I have to just mention how amazing it is to be able to have the same crew as last year. Noah, Jose, Asuncion, Pedro, Glen, John, and Polo are back again, and they are kicking a** and taking names. I can’t tell you how much time I’m saving by NOT having to retrain a new crew. Plus, they already have so much synergy. It felt like old friends coming back together! Daisy (our new pup) has already bonded with everyone, and she makes it a habit to spend lunch time with them in the break room at noon every day.

The month of May, we were definitely hurting for rain. Luckily, our farm has a well, and my awesome crew was able to put together the irrigation system for me in half a day, and start getting water to the plants. I’ve never had to get the irrigation set out so early before in my career! We used a mix of overhead sprinklers, the big irrigation reel, and drip tape. A few days ago, when the big storm rolled through, we got a big downpour and a tornado warning! I drove the family up to the front house where the guys live, and we watched the storm unfold from there — with access to their basement. We saw some marble size hail fall, but nothing did any damage.

The big project this past week during this rainy period has been working on our cooler installation. I used our capital budget this year to buy a “new” $16,000 cooler and condenser unit. This is twice the size of our current “large” silver cooler, and it has a nice big door in it, so we can move product in easily with a pallet jack. We drove a trailer out all the way to Cleveland to pick it up. My guys figured out how to put it together this week — so big shout out to them for making this come together. I won’t have it operational until week 2, due to some technical difficulties that I have to trouble-shoot.

The silver cooler was moved to a new concrete pad outside the pack shed.

Our old silver cooler was moved to a new location. It’s now sitting OUTSIDE the pack shed on a new concrete pad. We cut a hole in the pack shed wall, and we took a full day to put this together. Yackee’s Electric came out to wire it up properly with me. It still needs a new AC unit, but it should be up and running by Monday — just in time to store our packed CSA boxes! In the process of moving everything around, we are creating a net gain in usable space. I’ll be tearing out the “old” cooler in the pack shed and selling it next week, once we have the BIG cooler operational. And that means re-arranging where everything goes. Hopefully we can figure out an efficient place to put the line washer, all the harvest bins, and carts. I also hired Northwood Door to come and install my overhead door to the packing shed. It was a beautiful moment the other day to walk in and “press a button” and watch the huge door go up and down.

The cooler door gets installed. This thing is HUGE.

Wouldn’t you know it? My line washer went down 3 days ago. just when I was getting ready to wash all the CSA bins. So there’s a quick fire to put out. Turns out the first repair didn’t do the trick. The pump broke down. Tracking down some pump bearings has been tricky. But I’ve got them ordered! I’ve come to depend on that line washer a lot. It not only washes our bins, it also washes a lot of our veggies quickly (and cools them down in the process). The sooner we get that back online, the faster we can move.

My organic certifier came by this Friday for our inspection. We passed!

In the middle of all this activity, I got a call to inform me that I was getting my USDA organic certification inspection this Friday! Normally that happens later in the year, but they can come anytime. So I set aside the morning block to sit with my inspector at the kitchen table and pull out all the records and data to let him peek behind the curtain of our operation. It actually went really fast this year. We passed with flying colors! 

Notice how the broccoli was cut and that spurred other shoots to form!

The melons and sweet corn, peppers, and tomatoes are in the ground, and coming along nicely. The watermelons have a little bit of gummy stem rot, which comes from being exposed to all that wind. Everything looks really good. We spent a lot of time before the recent rain irrigating, and stuff has taken off well. We need to get the cucumbers into the ground. I also told my crew to cut the garlic scapes! I feel bad telling you this, because I know we normally have a big Scaping Event for our members to help with this. However, I don’t have as much garlic this year, and I really needed it done ASAP, so we took care of it in a few hours. Maybe next year! We also had to trim the tops of the first crop of broccoli. They were going to seed (flowering). The nice upside is that it stimulates off-shoots to grow, and I may be able to collect those to create some broccolini bundles.

Josiah celebrated his 12th birthday last weekend. My family came over for a small party. Grandma baked him 4 cherry pies — how is that fair?!  Josiah is working on a big RC airplane project — a giant “flying wing” that he custom-designed. For his birthday, he asked for money so he can buy a high-powered battery to make it fly. We’re all secretly wondering if it will actually work. I love his confidence and big dreams! We’ll be sure to take a video of the maiden voyage! I think he wants to take it to Flite Fest in late June, which is a big RC airplane festival in Canton.

Here’s the plane Josiah wants to fly with his birthday money.

Well, that’s a big update for this week. There was a lot of talk about! I can’t wait to see all of you at the pickup. Remember, you’ll see Corinna if you go to Elmore or Port Clinton. I’m leading the team at Perrysburg and Sylvania. Be patient with us on week one! There will likely be a few mistakes as we work out the logistics of 399 bins moving around Toledo.

I want to take a moment to say thank you for choosing our CSA this year. Your decision to “have our backs” allows me to do what I love every day — which is to grow food and grow people. Farming is my calling. And unlike many of my farmer friends, I can wake up every day with a confidence that the work of my hands has already been blessed in advance by people like you. I imagine your faces when I cultivate my peppers or get up in the middle of the night to check if the irrigation is working. I may be the farmer, but YOU are the energy behind this place.

Welcome to the family.

~Your Farmer, Kurt

Look for Cadie Jardin (left), our CSA Coach, in the Facebook Group this Tuesday night with the first Unboxing Video!

WEEK 1 ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. Don’t forget to bring back your plastic veggie tote on week 2. We’ll sub it out with a fresh one. Simply leave it in your car wherever you want the next bin to be placed by our team. Do not use your veggie box for anything else besides storing our food — don’t let your pets or your kids play in them. Please return all egg cartons the following week. We can re-use them.
2. Watch our weekly Live Unboxing video this Tuesday around 8 PM inside the private Facebook group. Cadie Jardin, our CSA coach and dietitian, will show you what’s in the box, share storage tips and ideas for how to use your product. You can find the Facebook group at this link. If you’re not on Facebook, we also upload this video by Wednesday night into the CSA Academy (free with your membership in our CSA). See below for how that Academy works.
3. This week, I’ll be scheduling volunteers for the first 8 weeks of the season. If you’d like to help out one time during a CSA Pack night (Mondays and Wednesdays from 4-8 PM), please email me.
4. T-shirts orders are closed! If you pre-ordered a farm tshirt last month, thank you! They will be mailed to your house directly by our printer sometime near the end of June.
5. Schedule a reminder for box pickup in your phone, and add your farmers’ cell phones to your contact list. If you miss your box pickup, call one of us as soon as you can. Please review our “Missed Box” policy in our CSA handbook. If you fail to pick up your box, we now bring ALL boxes back to the farm and hold them here until Sunday — at which point we designate them for a food bank or local family in need. You can come and get them “self-serve” from our silver cooler.
6. Beginning this week, you can order additional items from the Shared Legacy Farms online store. This week, we have extra carrots, spinach (limited amounts), Boom cut lettuce, Oak Leaf Green head lettuce, Merlot red head lettuce, Green Romaine lettuce, SLF die-cut stickers, maple syrup, rye flour, and honey. Our store link is super easy to remember: www.sharedlegacyfarms.com/store. Just be sure to select the right pickup site that coincides with your pickup location. If the pickup option is greyed out or not available, it means you missed the window to order. You need to place your order 48 hours before your site time. We harvest the product on Monday and Wednesday mornings — early.

Pre-Order Salmon NOW!

from Citizen Salmon Alaska

Our Community Supported Fishery partner begins fishing for wild Alaskan salmon in June. Aaron is trying to get an idea of how many folks will be wanting fresh wild salmon, so he can schedule his small-crew fishermen. Place your order for salmon, halibut, or scallops now at www.CitizenSalmonAlaska.com. You can order ANY time of year while supplies last, but the official Salmon Promotion Period happens in June!

The fish is SUPER fresh — processed and blast-frozen within 5 hours of the catch. Aaron processes it into smaller cuts (individual portion sizes) and each portion is vacuum-sealed. It arrives frozen on your doorstep, or your money back. And you’ll get a notification from Aaron once it’s shipped so you can keep track of its progress.

As a CSA member you get a 5% discount on ALL online orders with CitizenSalmonAlaska.com through December, 2023. Use the coupon code we gave you in your email. Note that the price of overnight FedEx shipping is included in the cost you see per pound on the website. You get a significant savings the more fish you buy. So a 40 lb. order of salmon will be much less than a 10 pound order. CSA members are organizing group orders right now inside the CSA Facebook group. So if you only want 10 lbs, you can partner up with other folks to get to the 40 lb. level and get the big discount.

Kate Lynn shared this delicious meal she put together with Citizen Salmon shrimp!

WEEK 1 CSA RECIPES

Members: You can download these recipes as a PDF here.   These recipes are designed to inspire you to use your box this week! Please check inside our private Facebook group to find your fellow members sharing ideas for what to make with their box! Share a photo and you might be featured in next week’s newsletter!

Garlic Scape Hummus
White Bean & Garlic Scape Dip
Garlic Scape Pesto
Scallion Vinaigrette
Veggie Cream Cheese
Simple Roasted Carrots & Radishes
Seared Scallions with Poached Eggs
Roasted Carrots with Carrot Top Pesto
Roasted Radishes with Brown Butter, Lemon and Radish Tops
Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Bars
Rhubarb Liqueur