Dear Country Valley Farm Community,
This is week #16 of the 2023 season. What a storm that came through the last few nights. We received close to 10 inches of rain in 2 days, that is more than we would normally get in 2 months! We hope everyone is doing okay. We know some folks lost power, our thoughts are with you.
Thank you for your support and participation. It means a whole lot and makes a big difference.
This week’s shares contain the following, some preparation inspiration is below:
- Green Tomatoes – 1 quart from our farm
- Purple Top Turnips – 1 pint from our farm
- Peppermint – 1 bunch from our farm
- Green Curly Kale – 1 bunch from our farm
- Garlic – 3 bulbs from our farm. We forgot to pack them in the shares last week. We apologize for the error and inconvenience. We will include garlic this week and next week and are not counting it as part of what is in the shares, because it should have been in the boxes last week.
- Mixed Cherry Tomatoes – 1 pint from Cinzori Farm of Ceresco, MI
- Small Cucumbers – 1 pint from Cinzori Farm
- Redskin Potatoes – 1 quart from Cinzori Farm
Medium shares contain the above listed items, and:
- Green Curly Kale – 1 extra bunch
- Cucumbers – 1 extra pint
- Redskin Potatoes – 1 extra quart
Some preparation inspiration: Remember to wash all produce thoroughly.
- Green Tomatoes – a summer treat. You can bread them or dust them with flour and corn meal and fry them. They make tasty pickles and chutneys. Some folks like to use them in salads (similar to a granny smith apple). They go great in soups and sauces. If you haven’t tried green tomatoes before, this is a great chance to try something new. We like to fry them and dip them barbecue sauce and hot sauce.
- Purple Top Turnips – a healthy root vegetable. Simply peel them and cook or eat raw. So easy to make a nice mash with the redskin potatoes. They are amazing when cooked in the air fryer, broiler, or on the grill. A little vinegar and maple syrup brings out the tangy flavor or turnips.
- Peppermint – there is nothing like fresh peppermint. You can steep it and make a nice tea to serve hot or cold (don’t boil the herb, just pour boiling water over it and cover for at least 10 minutes, sweeten to taste. It also makes aromatic and tasty baked goods. You could even use it to make summer fresh rolls or other Asian fusion type dishes. Note, this is not spearmint and probably shouldn’t be used for dishes like tabouli etc. This peppermint has actually been in our family for 26 years now. We started with one little plant that my oldest daughter and I planted at my grandparents house when she was 3 years old. When my grandparents moved, we dug up some of the peppermint and planted it at my mother’s house. Then when she moved, we dug some up and planted it at our house. Then when we moved to this farm in 2017, we dug some up and planted it here at the farm where it is thriving.
- Hard Neck Garlic – as we dry farmed the garlic this year, and it was a drought Spring, the flavor is very concentrated. You can eat it raw, the flavor mellows and develops when cooked. Even the cloves in the small bulbs are a good size and easy to work with in the kitchen.
- Mixed Cherry Tomatoes – a nice mix of a variety of cherry tomatoes. Great for snacking, salads, and sandwiches!
- Green Curly Kale – the standard. This is the best kale for making kale chips. Of course, steamed or stewed kale is a healthy dish that can add lots of vitamins and minerals to your meal. Also nice in a smoothie – an easy way to get more fresh green veggies into your routine.
- Small Cucumbers – aka pickling cukes or kirbies. They have a tender skin and crisp texture. A cucumber and tomato salad is a summer favorite. No need to peel the cukes as they have no wax or shellac on them.
- Redskin Potatoes – this is a great potato for making potato salad. It also makes a nice smashed or mashed potatoes. Cook them with the turnips to add some tang to your mash.
What is going on at the Farm:
As this is the last week of August, we are mindful that cool weather is coming. It is amazing how the crops respond to the shortening days and cooler nights. They seem to hasten to ensure they finish up and produce a nice harvest before it is too late.
This week is the beginning of the second half of our season. There is a lot of growing yet to come and a lot of harvesting too.
The sweet peppers are starting to color up finally. We will begin to harvest mini sweets for the shares next week or the week after. Once they start, we will harvest them weekly through most of October. We also plan to cover them with floating row cover once frost is in the forecast (usually around the second week of October). This cover helps them continue to fruit and be harvestable for an additional 2-4 weeks depending on the year.
Our tomato beds are getting trampled by deer. We saw some activity and went ahead and harvested quite a bit of green tomatoes before the rains. It may be that we get some nice ripe ones in the weeks to come, or it may be the deer decide they are taking over that part of the field. Either way, tomatoes will continue to be in the CSA shares for many weeks to come as we have some great other local farms that we can source from.
We didn’t transplant the lettuces yet, because we wanted the plants to get a bit bigger before putting them in the field. Lettuces will be transplanted this week and again in coming weeks to last through much of the Fall season.
The greens are looking great. We will continue to weed these beds to ensure a crop through the fall. We will take a break from including greens in the shares for a few weeks or so, and then will have greens in the shares most weeks until the end of the season.
The potato crop and onion crop is solid. There will be plenty of potatoes and onions to last through the fall.
The last seeding of herbs is looking good. We will have basil in the shares next week or the following week. Dill and cilantro will hopefully follow. We have green sweet basil, purple basil, and thai basil.
Our sage bed is abundant. We like to include sage more often once the weather gets cool as it helps make some wonderful fall themed dishes.
The rosemary we transplanted is growing slowly.
The lemongrass is thriving. We will begin to include that in the shares soon.
The peppermint is booming and will continue to spread due to the rains.
The tulsi basil is like a waist-high hedge row. This variety of basil seems to tolerate cooler weather than other basils. It will return to the CSA shares later on in the season.
The Italian parsley bed is doing well and is surviving amongst the weed pressure. This will also be a nice herb to include in the Fall.
The thyme we transplanted after the garlic harvest is happy and will also be in the shares as a Fall herb.
Summer squash will continue for another few weeks or so.
Winter squash/hard squash like butternut, acorn, delicata, etc will begin to be in the shares once the summer squash season ends.
There will be a great variety of fall root veggies later in the season.
Pears and apples will start soon enough.
More to share in the coming weeks!
Here is the plan for deliveries:
Route:
8-10AM Ypsilanti and Milan
9AM-1PM Ann Arbor
12PM-2PM Canton, Plymouth, Northville, and Novi
1PM-3PM Farmington, Farmington Hills and Bloomfield Hills
2PM-5PM Troy and Hazel Park
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.
Email is the best way to communicate with me. 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