Dear Country Valley Farm Community,
This is week #6 of the 2023 season! We are thankful for the showers of rain we received this week, the last week of Spring. How about that hail yesterday, eh? We suffered some damage on some crops, but overall came through it without major losses. There are other farms in the area that are reporting major losses to the hail damage.
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:
- Red Romaine Lettuce – 1 head from our farm
- Green Romaine Lettuce -1 head from our farm
- White Siberian Kale – 1 bunch from our farm
- Garlic Scapes – 1 bunch from our farm
- Sage with blossoms – 1 bunch from our farm
- Honeycrisp Apples – 1 quart from Almar Orchards
- Pea Shoots – 1 package from Gardenworks
Medium shares contain the above listed items, and:
- Garlic Scapes – 1 extra bunch
- White Siberian Kale – 1 extra bunch (Sorry for noting it was kale last week, those were collard greens…)
- Honeycrisp Apples – 1 extra quart
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 in our home, like to wash produce 3 times to ensure it is nice and clean and has no debris.
- Red Romaine Lettuce returns to the shares for yet another week. This is such a beautiful variety of lettuce, and it tastes so mild and fresh. We hope to have lettuce in the shares for another week or so, and then it will return again in the fall shares.
- Green Romaine Lettuce is a standard favorite. The goal is to get a nice romaine head such that the heart of the lettuce has a good amount of weight to it. We are proud of the romaine we are harvesting this week. Did you know you can grill lettuce? You can and it is a nice variation to a standard salad. We also like to raw lettuce it to homemade wonton soup and ramen etc.
- White Siberian Kale is a serrated flat leaf type. It can be used anyway you would use kale; raw in a salad, steamed, sauteed, kale chips, in a soup or stew, etc.
- Garlic scapes are a seasonal favorite. The harvest window is only about 2 weeks, and then the bulbs are harvested about a month later – my how time flies. We encourage folks to do some internet searches for creative ways to use scapes, there are a lot of great recipes out there. The main thing to remember is don’t be shy, give scapes a try. Wash, chop and use the entire scape, no waste. You can use them raw in a salad if you like it a bit garlic-spicy, or make a scape pesto (with or without basil even), you can grill them, sauté them, include in a sauce, soup, or stew, etc. Anywhere you would use regular garlic bulbs, or onions, can be replaced with scapes.
- Sage with blossoms are another item that is only available for a short time each year. The blossoms are a bit milder than the sage leaves. They can be washed and used together. You can add the blossoms to a salad as an edible flower. They can be used in cocktails/mocktails, frozen into ice cubes, made into a hot or iced tea etc. Sage goes great with many proteins as well as starches, especially potatoes. Sage can be cooked with kale. You can make a sage and garlic scape pesto even.
- 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. This is the last week of apples for now. We are working on sourcing some other certified organic Michigan grown fruit for the shares this season – it is not confirmed yet; but we are hoping for organic blueberries, organic cherries, organic peaches, and organic pears throughout the Summer. Apples will resume in the Fall.
What is going on at the Farm:
We direct-seeded green basil, purple basil, thai basil, tulsi holy basil, dill, and cilantro this week along with a big bed of cucumbers, and another row of summer squash.
We will be planting more cucumbers, summer squashes, along with okra and callaloo this coming week.
The dill, cilantro, and parsley that we direct seeded in April look like they are nearing harvest time in the weeks to come. Wow how the weeds grow fast, we have weeded these beds twice already and they need another weeding now already.
The tulsi holy basil that we transplanted a few weeks ago are adjusting well and should begin to be harvestable in another few weeks or so also.
The tomatoes, peppers, and tomatillos are all nice and green and happily growing in their beds.
The potato plants got nice and tall and we expect to see flowers soon, with potato harvest beginning in the second half of July.
The onion crop is doing well, we will include spring onions again soon, and then will have bulb onions around the end of July or so.
Garlic scapes are in the shares this week and will be again next week. Then we will have fresh garlic bulbs once the harvest begins in mid-July.
Bunching greens are growing well. We are transplanting another succession of plants this coming week to make sure we have plenty of greens throughout the season.
Bok Choy will be in the shares next week and then will resume in the fall.
Turnips are growing well, we are still harvesting and thinning greens as we go and hope to have some turnip roots sometime in July. Last week we reported that the carrots and turnips did not do well, that should have said carrots and radishes actually. The turnip bed is thriving. We will plant lots of cool radish varieties for fall in another month or so.
The tat soi completely bolted after only about 20% of the bed had been harvested. We cut it down and planted cucumbers in that bed….
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
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.