Greetings Country Valley Farm Members,
This is week 18 of the season and the first week of Autumn. For our 30-week members, we continue to distribute shares until the last week of Autumn (December 18th).
For folks that signed up for less than 30 weeks, and want to extend their share, we welcome extensions and can coordinate with you if you are interested in doing so.
If you currently pick up your share but would like to add home delivery, we can do that also. Just let Adam know.
Home delivery will resume the normal Sunday schedule this week. There is no change to pickups for members that pickup at Genesis of Ann Arbor.
Big thank yous to all of our home delivery members for accommodating the change in delivery schedule last week. We greatly appreciate the flexibility and your support to make it happen.
We are experiencing some extreme cold weather after a heat wave – oh Michigan… Most of our crops are fine with this weather, the basil is the most sensitive and this will likely be the last week for it.
We are proud to be offering organic apples from Almar Orchards in the shares starting this week. Almar is a family owned and operated, 5th generation farm, which has been in the same family since the 1850s. They are located in Flushing, MI (just over 1 hour north of us). I visited the orchard today while picking up the apples and caught up with Jim Koan (owner and well-respected organic fruit grower). This year is a great crop and the apple quality is excellent. The care and work that went into producing these apples is evident in the fruit. We are excited for everyone to get their share this weekend and give it a try. We are starting with honeycrisp this week, and will rotate other varieties in the coming weeks.
A bit about what is going on at the Farm:
We harvested Thai basil and Tulsi basil for the shares this week. It has been a great basil year and we are thankful that the Thai basil made it happen at the end of the season here as it was such a slow poke until now.
The cilantro is looking good but not as abundant of a stand as we hoped for. We will include it in the shares next week of the week after.
The sage is super abundant and will be a nice fall herb that we rotate through every few weeks or so for awhile.
The rosemary is healthy and will also be a nice fall herb now and then.
Thyme is less abundant but what is growing looks great.
We direct seeded some dill for fall, but it isn’t looking there will be much of it.
Lavender didn’t set many flowers but the plants are a nice size, we will include it in the shares in the coming weeks.
The tarragon didn’t transplant well and most of the plants didn’t make it, it is a hardy perennial so we are hopeful those that survived will produce a decent crop next year.
Other herbs like peppermint, oregano, and lemon balm seem to have run their course for the year – but may surprise us, as some plants do this time of year, and produce a return crop.
We are still harvesting potatoes each week and have plenty left in the field. The huckleberry gold did the best of all of the varieties. Many of the fingerlings made tiny potatoes, which makes for quite a bit of work for a small amount of weight overall….
The tomato plants are winding down – next week may be our last week for tomatoes in the shares.
The pepper plants are solid, we covered them with row cover to give some protection and expect they should continue for another few weeks or so.
The greens are happy and loving the sunny days and cool nights (those that aren’t getting eaten by rabbits that is).
A few broccoli plants are setting crowns but most are not yet. We planted 256 broccoli plants some time ago with the hopes that we’d have broccoli for the shares multiple weeks. Broccoli can be a fickle crop, we will see what the near future holds.
The lettuces are looking great. We have many successions and will begin to include lettuce in the shares this weekend. We have all lettuce beds covered with row cover to help extend the season as long as possible.
The fall root crops and baby greens are happy, they have some more growing to do before they are ready; except the turnips which are speeding along in a good way.
We will have plenty of hard squashes and other fall crops coming from Cinzori Farm each week as well.
This week’s small shares contain the following items:
- Orange sweet snacking peppers – 1 pint from our farm
- Red and Green Leaf Lettuce – 1 head of each from our farm
- Thai basil – 1 bunch from our farm
- Tulsi sacred basil – 1 bunch from our farm
- Honeycrisp Apples – 4 from Almar Orchard
- Pink brandywine tomatoes – 1 quart from Cinzori Farm
- Pink radishes – 1 bunch from Cinzori Farm
- Delicata Squash – 2 from Cinzori Farm
- Medium shares will receive extra tomatoes, squash, and apples
- Large shares will packed as 2 small shares.
Some preparation and cooking tips:
- Orange snacking peppers – these are the sweetest pepper we know. They have no heat whatsoever. They are great on their own as a snack, or cut into a salad. They also have a nice thick wall for a small pepper and cook up very tasty.
- Red and green leaf lettuce – this is our first cutting of the fall crop. We are thankful to be able to include lettuce in the shares. We will rotate lettuce varieties weekly until it gets too cold for them
- Thai basil – the leaves and flowers are edible. The stems are brittle and should be removed before eating as they can be sharp like twig. It has a nice smoky flavor that makes it an excellent aromatic to include in any recipe you want to add some extra pizzaz to. It got a bit affected by the cold and some of the leaves are not as green as we’d want but it is super fresh. This is Michigan fall thai basil (we don’t live in Hawaii or San Diego….)
- Tulsi sacred basil – the leaves and flowers are edible. This can be combined with the thai basil in whatever dish you are adding it to. It also goes well in a salad (veggie or fruit) and makes a remarkable tea if you feel inclined to steep a cup, you may find it to be your favorite tea herb.
- Honeycrisp apples – known for their crisp and juicy texture, these are great fresh eating apples.
- Pink brandywine tomatoes – a legendary heirloom variety, known for it’s great flavor and tender texture. They often looks purplish. They are ripe now and don’t need to turn a darker red.
- Pink radishes – just like a red radish but this variety is pink. The leaves and roots are edible.
- Delicata squash – one of the fastest cooking squashes. You can also eat the peel of this squash. We like to cut them into round slices and add to a soup or roast in the oven. While it is faster cooking than other squashes, we are big advocates for fully cooking hard squashes – it is preferred for them to be fully or overcooked than to be undercooked. Also, remember the seeds are a great source of healthy fats, protein, and other vitamins and minerals. Just wash them off and roast them at a low heat.
Check out our website and peruse old newsletters for additional cooking tips and recipe ideas: https://countryvalleyfarm.com/newsletter/
That’s all for now. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon.
Adam Mitchel
Country Valley Farm