Week 4 CSA Newsletter 2021
CSA Newsletter Week 4
June 27 – July 3, 2021 | “B” Week
What’s in the Box this Week?
FRESH GARLIC ~ Fresh garlic looks a lot like cured (dried) garlic you get at the store, except the skin hasn’t dried yet, so it’s bright white! You’ll need to store it in your fridge and use it within 10 days. (You could try to “cure” it on your counter top for the next 3 weeks, and watch it dry too). To use, cut the root ball off, and cut out the cloves. You may need to peel off the outer layer of skin. Use it like you would normal garlic. Pesto is also good. If you can’t get through it fast enough, just chop it up and throw it in a freezer bag to freeze.
BUNCHED ARUGULA ~ Arugula is a type of green that has a spicy kick to it. You will find you either love it or you hate it! It will come bunched. Store it in a Debbie Meyer Green bag, or in a FridgeSmart container, and try to use within 5 days. You can use it in a salad. To lessen the kick, try using just a few leaves and mixing it in with other lettuces. It’s also good in a pesto with some basil. Or try wilting it down in a pasta dish or to make a dip.
ZUCCHINI & YELLOW SQUASH (2) ~ Zucchini will only last about 3-5 days. Store it in a plastic bag or a Fridgesmart container. I like to grill these in long strips with some olive oil. They’re also great spiralized as noodles. Or try grating the zucchini and baking with it. You can freeze zucchini too in a Ziploc bag. (Just grate it first, squeeze out as much liquid as possible, and freeze it in the portion sizes you’ll need it for later).
SWISS CHARD ~ These are big leafy greens with bright stems that look like celery. Store the bunches in a Debbie Meyer green bag and use within 7 days. Remove the leaves from the stems. You can use the stems for stir fries. The leaves can be blanched and used in dips or sauces or simply sauteed with a vinegar dressing. If this veggie intimidates you, try making our CSA’s popular frozen “Green Cubes” and add them to stews/sauces for later.
These are tropea onions. We call them “torpedo onions”
RED TROPEA ONIONS (1 bunch) ~ We call these “torpedo onions” for their fun warhead-like shape. Tropea onions have a, medium-size pinkish/white bulb. These will come with green tops. You can trim the green tops and use them to garnish tacos or salads or meat dishes. (You can also chop them up and freeze them for later use!) Use the bulbs wherever you would use onions. They are a bit on the sweeter side, so they’d also be great for salad dressings.
PURPLE KOHLRABI — Kohlrabi showed up in your box last week too, but this week, it’s PURPLE-SKINNED! (The inside flesh is still white, though). This medium-sized head of kohlrabi is a member of the broccoli/cabbage family. It forms as a bulb on top of the soil bed, and it has a kind of cabbage/broccoli taste. The leaves are edible too — use them like you would kale. The bulb has a thick skin around it. You’ll need to peel that off (or use a knife). The inside is a crisp texture like a potato or radish. I like to eat it raw, diced, in a veggie platter with some dip. You can also steam it and then mash it with some potatoes. It’s also great grilled or roasted with other veggies. And you can grate it raw and add it to a cole slaw with some cabbage.
ARROWHEAD CABBAGE ~ These cabbages are on the smaller size — the perfect portion for a CSA box. Their name comes from their tell-tale pointy tip. Cabbage will store for a long time in the fridge. You can wrap it in a plastic bag and shove it towards the back of the fridge until you need it! To use, cut out the base stem. Then shred on a box grater or food processor for slaw. Or cut with a chef’s knife. I like to grill cabbage steaks with a little garlic. It’s also great simply sauteed in a pan, with some garlic and salt.
BROCCOLI ~ This veggie may or may not be in your share this week. Broccoli is one of those crops that is very finicky. When it decides to form its head, it comes fast! And we have a short time to harvest before it “bolts” and starts to form a flower. And we have a feeling that will happen mid-week — too late for the Tuesday deliveries. So we’re going to play this one by ear. If we have enough broccoli for Thursday deliveries, we’ll cut them and add them to the Port Clinton and Perrysburg boxes as a bonus. In that case, the Sylvania and Elmore customers will get theirs on the following week as a bonus. Either way, we’ll make sure you all get your share of broccoli!
This week’s fruit share includes sweet cherries from Quarry Hill Orchard.
THIS WEEK’S ADD-ON SHARES:
It’s “B” week again (for all our bi-weekly shares)
Knueven Ice Cream Club: Rhubarb Crumble (a seasonal special)
Fruit: 1/2 pint of red currants – these come from Wayward Seed Farm in Fremont, certified organic; 2 lb. pouch of sweet red cherries from Quarry Hill Orchard in Berlin Heights (not organic). We try very hard to keep the alternating A and B week shares similar. Strawberry season ended last week, so we are upping the cherry count for this week.
Maddie & Bella’s Coffee: Peru Chanchamayo Highland — nutty/bright/clean
Noah pounds the stake into the tomato bed.
The Great Tomato Staking
Every June, we spend approximately 2 full days, staking the tomato fields. This is probably one of the most physically demanding jobs on the farm all year long. The tomato stakes are needed because they help hold up the plants as they grow. We space the stakes about 5 feet apart, and then using string (called “tomato twine”) to wrap around the stakes in a pattern known as the “French Weave.” The plant’s stem fits in between the string’s wrapping.
Tomato stakes are pounded in by hand using a metal stake pounder. This tool is heavy, and it’s kind of like swinging a sledge hammer. It contains a hollowed-out column, into which the stake slides. Then with about 5-10 swift blows up and down, the stake is hammered into the ground. It’s quite an upper-body workout.
Here’s the kicker: we had to stake about 2000 stakes in one day. With a crew of 7, do the math, and that comes to 285 stakes per person. When you also consider that a couple of our crew members had gotten their second COVID vaccine the day before and were nursing a sore shoulder — it’s even more impressive. Luckily, the weather wasn’t too oppressive for most of the day. Our crew took a lot of popsicle breaks that day, and worked late Thursday night to get it all in before the rain.
Farmer Kurt ties the tomatoes. A box of twine is affixed to his belt.
FARMER KURT’S FIELD NOTES
Wow! Let’s start out by talking about the “Big Surprise” you pulled on us this Friday! If you missed it, Cadie Jardin (our CSA Coach) showed up at the farm with a giant check made out to your farmers, in the amount of $1210 — to cover the replacement of our lost freezer beef/pork last week! Apparently, there was an underground effort after last week’s announcement that we had lost our freezer, to raise some money to help us out. A bunch of you decided to Venmo Cadie your donations in just 24 hours. Talk about a surprise! In fact, when Cadie texted Corinna on Tuesday, “I need to talk to both you and Kurt on Friday in person” — she actually thought Cadie must be coming to tell us she was resigning from her post (and she was freaking out!). Corinna and I were so overwhelmed by the generosity of the gift. This will be more than enough for us to get that restocked. We were reflecting on how this moment was so much more than a monetary gift to replace the freezer beef. It represented how our little group of members has become a community of foodies that look out for each other — the epitome of Community Supported Agriculture. We have created what we always dreamed of — a true community. So thank you!
We started out this week with more weeding. We finished up the onions. We’ve still got the asparagus and root crops to work through. But I feel like we’re in a good spot. Thanks to everyone who showed up last weekend to help us with our weeding brigade. It really did give us a shot in the arm.
This week, I was managing my work load around rain events. Once things get too wet, I’m really limited in what I can do out in the field. I knew Friday we were going to see a big storm around lunch time. So the big push was to get the tomatoes staked before Friday. My team of 8 powered through and spent an entire day on Thursday, doing this physically exhausting task. Even more impressive is the fact that 3 of them had gotten their COVID shot the day before, so they were nursing a sore arm! Meanwhile, I was following up behind, tying the tomatoes to the stakes. Jed and Josiah helped prune the tomato plants (taking the lower stems off). My crew stayed late on Thursday to get it all done, while I was at the CSA site in Perrysburg. They all got a WOW sticker for their hard work.
The tomato plants are pruned before tying them. This means we cut off all secondary stems at the nodes on the bottom 4-5 inches.
The other priority has been getting the new fall ground worked, so it’s ready for planting once the rains pass and the ground dries out. We have a whole new block of ground coming into organic production this August. I’ll be able to put cabbage and radishes and root crops there. My dad danish-tined it last week. Glen mineralized it with another round of gypsum, and I was able to “throw up beds” (shape the beds with my bed shaper) early Friday morning around 5 AM as the sun came up (and before the rain).
Friday morning, my crew showed up early to quickly transplant the winter squash and Brussels sprouts, celery root, and the late tomatoes. We knew we only had about 4 hours to get it done. They also direct seeded a new batch of cut lettuces for this summer, and head lettuces. We got it all complete by 11:30 AM — just in time for our weekly “Community Meal.”
Catalina, Nellie, and Keren help plant winter squash.
This week, the Vasquez family volunteered to bring the Community Meal. We dined on fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans, and pasta salad. Plus a cookie! Thank you so much for giving us a chance to be together as a whole crew each week, and eat lunch together. It is a powerful signal we send to our crew that we are all one big family, and it helps them experience the power of our members thinking of THEM too. (If you’d like to donate a meal to feed about 15 people, just contact Corinna at sharedlegacyfarms@gmail.com).
I’ve decided to delegate the seeding of the fall transplants to my buddy Adam from Wayward Seed Farm in Fremont. (He’s a part of my organic farm cooperative, and we collaborate together to provide wholesale products to Whole Foods). It just made more sense for us to out-source that. It’s hard to believe that I am already putting my fall production plan in place! Seems like we just got started.
My boys are pros at laying poly now. We planted the winter squash into this weed barrier.
Jed and Josiah laid poly for our winter squash this week. And Josiah helped Glen lay the “drip tape” under the tomato beds before staking. This tape is the irrigation line that we tie into the big irrigation pipes from the well. They are like thin garden hoses (with small pin-pricked holes) that lay under the soil, and allow us to get water directly to the root of the plant when they need it. So far, we’ve had rain at just the right intervals. But I know that mid-summer is always hot and dry. We’ll need these before long.
We’re trying out a new bread share for 4 weeks for Elmore site only. See announcements for details.
Be sure to check out the details about our new Bread Share. One of our customers, Brad Yaniga, is quite the artisan baker. He’s started a micro-bakery business, and we’re such big fans of his bread that we agreed to trial a bread share for 4 weeks. Because this is still in the early stages, we’re only offering it to our Elmore site, and there are only 20 shares. The price is only $35 for 4 weeks (one loaf per week). A different variety each time. The share will begin on July 13th. ONLY ELMORE CSA MEMBERS CAN ORDER THIS SHARE. You can check his stuff out at PainNeuf.com. You’ll need to place your order in OUR online store though before July 7th.
Finally, on a personal note — Saul celebrated his 13th birthday this week on Monday. We enjoyed a pizza lunch with the crew. He was all dressed up in his Wranglers and button down shirt and belt buckle — looked like a real Texan! It was awesome seeing how our crew is so supportive of one another. I was able to take Saturday off and take the boys down to Columbus to a John Deere Tractor Expo. Meanwhile, Corinna and the boys have been foraging the bike path and scarfing down mulberries and black raspberries. She sported a fun vampire mouth the other day. I love her so much.
~Your Farmer, Kurt
Frozen pizza topped with SLF purple scallions, scapes and lemon thyme pesto. By Kate Lynn!
WEEK 4 ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Please return all “Happy Hen” egg cartons that we use to pack the CSA egg share into. We can re-use them. We do not need any other egg cartons donated at this time. Thank you.
- If you want to order items from Knueven Creamery each week, you must do so on their website by Sunday. Please be sure to select the CORRECT PICKUP SITE when you order, or your milk order may end up going to the wrong site. This applies for all sites except Port Clinton.
- ELMORE Customers only: We will be trialing a 4 week Bread Share, staring week 6 of the CSA with Pain Neuf Bakery — a local bread baker in Pemberville. This is a very limited product, since we are trialing it in Elmore only. (Only 20 are available). Price for this share will be $35 for a weekly bread loaf (for four weeks). Varieties will rotate as follows: Honey Oatmeal, Walnut Sourdough, Italian Sourdough, and Semolina Sourdough. If it goes well, we’ll repeat it another four weeks after. You can place your order in the online store — ELMORE CUSTOMERS ONLY. This item will only be delivered to our Elmore site.
- This is the second week for fruit shares. If you are “B” week or a weekly fruit share, you will receive a bag of fruit. We try very hard to balance the A and B week experiences, but we can’t always get them to be the same. You’ll notice that this week, we don’t include strawberries — that’s because last week was the very tail end of strawberry season locally. So we are upping the cherry portion for this week, and including the red currants again.
- 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 aren’t on Facebook, we download the unboxing video into the digital Academy library (which you all get free access to). Reach out to me if you can’t figure out how to get into the Academy. (www.sharedlegacyfarms.com/academy) — note: you should NOT pay for a membership to the Academy. You get in for free with your membership!
- Want to volunteer for a couple hours, packing the CSA bin? If you’d like to help out one time during a CSA Pack night (Mondays and Wednesdays from 4-8 PM), please email me at sharedlegacyfarms@gmail.com. We require our volunteers to be vaccinated if you want to be mask-less. Otherwise masks must be worn while working.
- You can order additional items from the Shared Legacy Farms online store. curly kale, white scallions, green cabbage heads, green kohlrabi, black currants (very limited), goose-berries (very limited), rye flour, maple syrup, and honey. Our store link is super easy to remember: www.sharedlegacyfarms.com/store. We usually reload and open the store inventory on Saturdays, around 6 PM. 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 2 days before your site, because we harvest the product early on Monday and Wednesday mornings.
Great idea to build a salad “board” with ingredients to add to your lettuce.
WEEK 4 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!
Slow Cooked Swiss Chard and Potatoes
Easy Swiss Chard
Garlicky Swiss Chard and Chickpeas
Herby Arugula Mint Pesto
Sliced Strip Steak with Arugula and Parsley
Tropea Onion Jam
Spaghetti with Tropea Onions
Zucchini, Tomato and Kale Pasta
Arrowhead Cabbage Slaw Salad
Grilled Cabbage Caesar Salad
Summer Squash Lasagna
Spicy Chickpea and Cheese Stuffed Zucchini
Zucchini Kohlrabi Carrot Fritters with Herb Yogurt Sauce
Kohlrabi Fries
Banana Cherry Smoothie
Red Currant Jam
Red Currant Crumb Bars