Week 5, 2023

Dear Country Valley Farm Community,

This is week #5 of the 2023 season! Next week will be the last week of Spring, and the following week will be the first share in Summer.

Thanks to everyone who put their bins outside for me to pick up when dropping off the shares. Also, thanks to all those who have a cooler and ice packs/frozen water bottles out. We work hard to cool the produce and keep it cool until delivery to help ensure that members have the best possible quality and shelf life. If you haven’t already, please consider a cooler that can hold the bin and an ice pack if you aren’t home to bring the share inside and put in the refrigerator when it is delivered.

This week’s shares contain the following, some preparation inspiration is below:

1. Red Leaf Lettuce – 1 head from our farm
2. Green Leaf Lettuce -1 head from our farm
3. Bok Choy – 3 heads from our farm
4. Yellow Spring Onions – 1 bunch of 4 from our farm
5. Honeycrisp Apples – 10 apples from Almar Orchards
6. No sprouts of microgreens this week – they were not ready for harvest in time, that is why we doubled the apples this week. You can expect microgreens next week again!

Medium shares contain the above listed items, and:

1. Lettuce – 1 extra head
2. Bok Choy – 1 extra head
3. Yellow Spring Onions – 1 extra bunch
4. Green Curly Kale – 1 bunch

Some preparation inspiration:

• We recommend that everyone wash all produce before eating. We are an organic farm and you may find an occasional insect as well as a clump of soil now and then. We personally, like to wash produce 3 times to ensure it is nice and clean and has no debris.
• Red Leaf Lettuce is more delicate than Romaine, and makes a nice light and lofty salad. We hope to have lettuce in the shares for another couple weeks or so, and then it will return again in the fall shares.
• Green Leaf Lettuce is very similar to Red Leaf, with a lighter green color than Romaine, and a wonderful flavor and texture.
• Bok Choy is a versatile vegetable that can eaten raw or cooked. It makes a wonderful stir fry and combines well with most other veggies. It also can be steamed or sautéed on its own and served as a delectable side dish. Also nice in Pho or Ramen. These are larger than baby bok choy but not as big as full size bok choy.
• Yellow Spring Onions are harvested while the tops are still green and succulent and the onion bulb is just starting to form and is still cylindrical. The entire green and onion are edible. Just cut off the roots, wash, and chop. You can use them raw or cooked. Use them where you would a regular onion or green onion, for a seasonal twist to your recipes. They are excellent on the grill too.
• Honeycrisp Apples are known for their juicy and crisp texture, with a nice sweet flavor. These are exceptional eating quality, loaded with juice and great taste. Did you know that Almar Orchards uses no waxes or shellac or any of that on their apples? There is a difference and we are so proud to continue to offer their apples in our CSA shares. We may have apples in the shares next week, and then that will be the end of the storage apples until the Fall. We love being able to eat locally grown organic apples for 3 seasons of the year, and hope that you are enjoying it as well.

What is going on at the Farm:

We are doing all we can to keep up with the changing weather and keep the farm in a good place as Spring is coming to a close and Summer is near.

The garlic plants are starting to send out a scape here or there. We may have scapes in the shares starting next week, if not then for sure the following week.

The onion crop is doing great. The green onions are done for now, we will have them again in the late fall. Spring onions have started, we will have bulb onions starting in another 4-6 weeks or so.

The potato crop is looking real nice. We top dressed the potato beds with organic potting soil, that is our method of hilling in our no-till system. We expect to begin potato harvest in the second half of July.

The bunching greens and lettuces are looking good. We should have kale in all shares next week.

The tomatoes, peppers, and tomatillos are all transplanted. We have been watering them a lot to help them get established during this drought. These crops should begin harvest in late July or early August and continue well into the fall.

The dill is growing well and should begin in a few weeks or so.

Tulsi Basil has been transplanted and will also begin in a few weeks or so.

The first sowing of summer squash is growing well and the plants look good. We expect that to begin harvest sometime in July.

The cilantro bed is starting to move in a good direction. We planted a lot and hope to have it in the shares in a few weeks or so.

The spring planting of carrots and turnips didn’t seem to germinate well. We will plant lots more of these for the fall.

This week we will be direct sowing seeds for lots of basil, more dill and cilantro, along with lots of cucumbers, more summer squashes, and okra.

The drought and early heat waves that we had impacted some of our planting schedules. We made some adjustments and moved some plantings and sowings back to ensure that we could what was already planted well-watered and cared for. We have learned that it is better to do half as much and do it well than to do twice as much and do a half job….

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 and Hazel Park

New members in areas not listed, to be added as new folks join

We will try to stay on schedule. Our plan is to put the CSA boxes on folks’ front porches and ring the bell once and leave.

We also 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

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