Dear Country Valley Farm Community,
This is week #7 of the 2023 season! Happy Summer Solstice everyone. We are getting some nice slow drizzles of rain throughout the day and the crops are happy for it.
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
- Baby Bok Choy – 1 big bunch from our farm
- Garlic Scapes – 1 bunch from our farm
- Cilantro – 1 bunch from our farm
- Asparagus – 2 bunches from Cinzori Farm
- Microgreens – 1 package from Gardenworks (They don’t have enough of one variety for our entire CSA, you will receive either Arugula Sprouts, Sunflower Microgreens, or Pea Shoots)
Medium shares contain the above listed items, and:
- Garlic Scapes – 1 extra bunch
- Baby Bok Choy – 1 extra bunch
- Asparagus – 1 extra 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 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.
- Baby Bok Choy is a yummy and healthy vegetable that can be served raw or cooked. The entire bok choy is edible, just cut off and remove the very bottom root part. We love to use them to make a stir fry or steam them with a little ginger and soy sauce. You can cut them into tiny pieces or cut them length-wise for a different presentation and texture.
- 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.
- Cilantro is not only tasty but it is a super food that is filled with chlorophyl and helps cleanse the body. We love to use cilantro in abundance, don’t be shy with it. It pairs excellently with the bok choy and garlic scapes in this week’s share. It also helps brighten up a salad. This cilantro is feathery and has thinner leaves than the standard varieties. We recommend chopping it up finely, including the stems.
- Asparagus is a pleasant surprise this late into the season. This will most likely be the actual last week of asparagus in the shares for 2023.
- Microgreens can be eaten alone as a super healthy snack, added to a salad, put on a sandwich, or sprinkle a few on top of most any entrée.
What is going on at the Farm:
We transplanted another 128 plants each of purple curly kale, lacinato kale, and collard greens this week to fill in the spaces where the original plantings did not take.
We transplanted about 100 lemongrass plants, these will be a nice addition to late summer and early fall shares.
We didn’t get to planting more cucumbers, summer squashes, okra and callaloo this week; but will make it a priority this coming week.
The cucumbers we direct-seeded a couple weeks ago are up and will be moving along quickly.
The heirloom summer squashes we planted some weeks ago have nice plants and should start flowering soon and then developing fruit.
The dill is looking real good and will be in the shares in a few weeks or so.
The parsley bed is battling weeds but holding strong and ought to produce a nice crop later in the season.
The lavender is looking nice and making lots of blooms. This may be in the shares next week even.
Our peppermint, which has been in our family for over 25 years, is looking good and will be ready to begin cutting soon.
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 are looking happy and are sending up flowers now in most of the rows; this means the plants are now developing tubers (potatoes). We expect to begin harvesting in the second half of July.
The onion crop is doing well, but was impacted by hail so the tops are not as nice. Our plan is to allow the remainder of the onion plants to finish making bulbs and then they will be harvested as regular onions and in the shares in the second half of July or so.
Garlic scapes are in the shares again this week, they are taking their time and some plants are just now sending out scapes. We may have scapes in the shares next week again. Then we will have fresh garlic bulbs once the harvest begins in mid-July.
Bunching greens are growing well.
Turnips are starting to make some nice roots, 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.
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