Dear Country Valley Farm Community,
This is week #9 of the 2023 season! We have 21 weeks left in the season after this week, for 30 week share members. Some folks membership will end after next week. If anyone wants to extend their membership and add weeks or if you’d like to increase the size of your share, please reach out. If a payment plan would be helpful, just let me know – we are happy to make it work for everyone in a good way. If you know other folks who would like to join, we are still accepting new members and we appreciate any referrals.
This is the time of year where local food is getting really fun! We hope that the CSA share is helping you eat healthy, feel good about your local certified-organic purchases, and celebrate culinary pleasures.
Thank you for your support and participation. It means a whole lot to us.
This week’s shares contain the following, some preparation inspiration is below:
- Sweet Cherries – 1 pint from North Star Organics
- Red Scallions – 1 bunch from Cinzori Farm
- Fennel Bulbs with Tops – 2 from Cinzori Farm
- Summer Squash Mix (green and gold zuchini) – 1 quart from Sunny Side Farm
- Cucumbers – 2 from Sunny Side Farm
Medium shares contain the above listed items, and:
- Sweet Cherries – 1 extra pint
- Fennel – 1 extra bulb
- Cucumbers – 1 extra
Some preparation inspiration:
- Sweet Cherries from Frankfort, Michigan. We are so excited to be able to offer this amazing fruit to our members. It is grown by the Kobernik family on their small certified organic orchard. There are very few organic fruit growers left in Michigan, and sweet cherries are a rare treat. These cherries need to be washed, as the Koberniks use kaolin clay as an organic simple covering to protect the cherries while they are growing – this is natural clay. Alan Kobernik says he thinks it is a good thing when you can see what was used for pest control and we agree with the transparency and insight to the food production that this sort of thing brings to light. Don’t expect the shelf life of store bought cherries – expect amazing flavor and texture that only a Northern Michigan grown organic sweet cherry can offer!
- Red Scallions are a nice colorful change from regular green onions. They can be eaten raw or cooked anywhere you would use an onion. They go great on the grill and the color brightens up the plate. We had thought we’d have one more week of garlic scapes, but the plants said otherwise so we wanted to be sure to include an allium in the shares.
- Fennel Bulb with Tops – The entire thing is edible. We like to chop the bulb into big chunks and air fry in a cast iron pan. It is amazing on the grill. You can shred it or dice it into a salad. Don Cinzori likes to use the tops in his pasta sauce for a tasty summer delight. Don’t be shy – give the fennel a try!
- Summer squashes are quintessential summer produce items. This is a colorful mix that would go great on the grill, could be sauteed with the fennel, make your own zoodles for a grain free pasta option, the possibilities are endless.
- Cucumbers are one of our favorite veggies week in and week out, and when the local cukes start we really like to increase our cucumber eating. These are the first pickings. No wax or plastic wrap, just local goodness. Now that our lettuces are done, we use cucumbers as the base for salads. We like to add garbanzo beans often, chop up some scallions, throw some fennel in with it, add a dressing of choice, chop up on avocado on there, and enjoy.
What is going on at the Farm:
The garlic crop is finishing up faster than we thought. We are planning our big harvest for this coming Tuesday. We’ve pulled some bulbs and it looks like the size is a bit smaller than last year. We attribute this to the drought, as well as our focusing on watering other crops and not irrigating most of the garlic. This is totally okay – dry farmed garlic will have a more concentrated flavor. We are thankful for the crops we focused on irrigating and the food that those beds provided. The garlic quality from the few we’ve harvested is showing that it will be an excellent crop and uphold everyone’s expectations based on our last few year’s of garlic.
The onions are almost done. They usually get harvested right after the garlic harvest is complete.
The potato beds are looking great. We had one trial field of fingerlings that we actually planted in February… That field doesn’t look so good, but the main potato field looks excellent. We pulled up a potato plant to see what is going on below the soil and it looks like they need more time.
The tomatoes, peppers and tomatillos are growing well and looking healthy. We know we planted these later than previous years, but expect some great crops from them when they are ready. It is our plan to help support other local organic farms for these kind of items when they come available, until ours are ready.
We transplanted the leeks this past week, those should be ready in November.
The okra that we direct-seeded is up and there is a good little stand. We hope to have a nice harvest starting around the end of August.
Our first sowing of cucumbers is now a bed of nice little plants that should begin to flower soonish. We will plant a lot more cucumbers once the onions and garlic are harvested.
Our first sowing of summer squash is starting to flower. We will plant a lot more summer squash also when the beds are free from the onions and garlic.
The turnips are making nice roots now and we hope to have enough to include in the shares real soon.
We transplanted more kales and collards a few weeks ago and they are looking real good. This will help ensure we have greens through the fall.
We will transplant more lettuce next month so it enters it’s heading stage in the cooler weather of September.
We are transplanting more dandelion greens along with rosemary next week.
In terms of herbs – the tulsi holy basil is looking great and will be in the shares soon. The dill is happy and will pair with cucumbers next week most likely. The oregano and sage are looking better than ever. The peppermint has a good stand and just wants a few good showers or rain to give it some height. Our last direct-seeding of herbs didn’t seem to germinate well. It went into new beds between the asparagus, not sure what happened, sometimes we direct seed things and they never grow and sometimes they just take more time….
We plan to get more sweet cherries for next week’s share and that will likely end the season. Then we are working on getting organic Michigan blueberries for the shares. August should bring organic Michigan pears, and then apples start in September.
We are in communication with the organic farms we work with, so that as soon as they have enough tomatoes and peppers for our CSA, we will get them.
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