Dear Country Valley Farm Community,
This is week #10 of the 2023 season! We are 1/3 of the way into the year for 30-week share members. Some folks’ membership will end after this week. If anyone wants to extend their membership and add weeks or if you’d like to increase the size of your share, please reach out. If a payment plan would be helpful, just let me know – we are happy to make it work for everyone in a good way. If you know other folks who would like to join, we are still accepting new members and we appreciate any referrals.
Next week is the Ann Arbor Art Fair, which traditionally means hot weather and big rains. We are thankful for the rains we’ve been receiving. The crops are thriving and catching a nice stride.
Thank you for your support and participation. It means a whole lot to us.
This week’s shares contain the following, some preparation inspiration is below:
- Sweet Cherries – 1 pint from North Star Organics
- Siberian Kale – 1 big bunch from our farm
- Sage – 1 big bunch from our farm
- Navy Beans – 1 pint from Hampshire Farms
- Beets with tops – 1 bunch from Sunny Side Farm
- Cucumbers – 2 from Sunny Side Farm
Medium shares contain the above listed items, and:
- Sweet Cherries – 1 extra pint
- Kale – 1 extra bunch
- Cucumbers – 1 extra
Some preparation inspiration: Remember to wash all produce thoroughly.
- Sweet Cherries from Frankfort, Michigan. We are so excited to be able to offer this amazing fruit to our members. It is grown by the Kobernik family on their small certified organic orchard. There are very few organic fruit growers left in Michigan, and sweet cherries are a rare treat. These cherries need to be washed, as the Koberniks use kaolin clay as an organic simple covering to protect the cherries while they are growing – this is natural clay. Alan Kobernik says he thinks it is a good thing when you can see what was used for pest control and we agree with the transparency and insight to the food production that this sort of thing brings to light. Don’t expect the shelf life of store bought cherries – expect amazing flavor and texture that only a Northern Michigan grown organic sweet cherry can offer!
- Siberian Kale – we are loving this variety. We grow it as a baby to mid-sized kale, which means tender leaves and stems. The entire leaf and stem are edible and delicious. You can use it as a salad green or cook it like you would any green.
- Sage – a versatile culinary herb that can even be made into a cooling and refreshing herbal tea. It pairs well with the kale and the navy beans.
- Navy Beans – did you know that Michigan is a major producer of dry beans, with much of the production coming from the thumb area? We are thankful to include these certified organic beans from the Hampshire family. A simple and healthy kale and white bean soup with sage is certainly on the menu for this week. You can add your other favorite soup veggies, or keep it to just a few ingredients. We like to use a nice veggie stock or veggie bouillon, you can also use chicken stock.
- Beets with tops – the roots are great for roasting, or can be shredded and eaten raw, cubed and use on a salad, make your own pickled beets… give beets a try. The greens also can be used as a hearty salad green, or used with the kale in a greens dish or soup.
- Cucumbers – crisp and tasty. No wax or plastic wrap, just local goodness. Now that our lettuces are done, we use cucumbers as the base for salads and as a fresh veggie option on sandwiches.
What is going on at the Farm:
We decided to delay the garlic harvest a bit – the big harvest will be this coming Tuesday. We will then dry the garlic for about 2-3 weeks to let it cure, and then we will move it into the root cellar for storage and use into the winter. We will include garlic bulbs in the shares in a couple weeks or so.
The onions are almost done. They usually get harvested right after the garlic harvest is complete.
The potato beds are looking great. Some varieties are ready to begin harvest already – we will begin to harvest them after we finish the garlic and onion harvests. Potatoes will begin to rotate through the shares in a couple weeks or so.
The tomatoes, peppers and tomatillos are growing well and looking healthy. We plan to have peppers in the shares next week and tomatoes perhaps the week after, from other local organic farms that we partner with!
We transplanted dandelion greens and rosemary this week.
The okra that we direct-seeded is up and there is a good little stand. We hope to have a nice harvest starting around the end of August.
Our first sowing of cucumbers is now a bed of nice little plants that should begin to flower soonish. We will plant a lot more cucumbers once the onions and garlic are harvested.
Our first sowing of summer squash is starting to flower. We will plant a lot more summer squash also when the beds are free from the onions and garlic.
The turnips are making nice roots now and we hope to have enough to include in the shares real soon.
The greens are all looking really good. We will rotate varieties week to keep it exciting.
In terms of herbs – the tulsi holy basil is looking great and will be in the shares next week. The dill isn’t producing as much at a time as we had hoped; we have another bed that we succession planted that is growing and we hope to have enough overall to include dill in the shares in a couple weeks or so. The oregano and sage are looking better than ever. The peppermint has a good stand and just wants a few good showers or rain to give it some height. Our last direct-seeding of herbs didn’t seem to germinate well. It went into new beds between the asparagus, not sure what happened, sometimes we direct seed things and they never grow and sometimes they just take more time…. We ordered new basil seed and will planting a lot this coming week, so we can have some big basil shares before the season comes and goes.
Cabbages will begin next week from Cinzori Farm.
There are lots of summer squash varieties coming into their harvest time, we will rotate these through the shares most weeks with some off weeks, until hard squash starts in the fall.
This is the last week of sweet cherries. We are planning for organic Michigan blueberries for the shares starting next week. August should bring organic Michigan pears, and then apples start in September.
Here is the plan for deliveries:
Route:
8-10AM Ypsilanti and Milan
9AM-1PM Ann Arbor
12PM-2PM Canton, Plymouth, and Northville
1PM-3PM Farmington Hills and Bloomfield Hills
2PM-4PM Troy, Hazel Park, Ferndale
We understand that there may be weeks that folks want to skip their share. That is okay so long as you confirm with us at least 7 days in advance of the skip week. In those cases, you can let us know if you want to add a share to the end of your season, or receive double shares some weeks etc. We encourage members to find a friend, family member, or neighbor to pick up your share from your porch and share the bounty of the harvest, instead of skipping weeks – if that is a viable option for you. Some members opt to notify us of skip weeks and ask that we donate the shares – we are happy to do that. We don’t donate to a food bank in those instances, we give the food directly to our neighbors or folks in the community that would benefit from it.
My phone number is (831) 706-1237. You can call or text if it is the day of or day before delivery if you have anything urgent to communicate. I don’t usually check emails much over the weekend but I do have my phone on me if you need to touch base.
There is lots of good info on our website www.countryvalleyfarm.com
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions at all.
Thank you for sharing this message and our contact info with anyone who you know who may be interested. We appreciate the community support.
Kind regards,
Adam Mitchel
Country Valley Farm
Follow us on Instagram @ countryvalleyfarm