Week 4

What a crazy week.  We had a couple crew members out of town and it has been hard to keep up.  We have been doing a lot of harvesting and not enough weeding.  We capped off our busy week with a wedding yesterday.  It was fun to get out of our everyday clothes and relax a bit.

We filled all the containers we grabbed for pea harvest on Friday and had to go back for more after lunch!

 We have some extra help this week and that should help us get the weeds under control.  Hopefully new potatoes are about ready to be dug…maybe for next week's box (pure speculation).   We did get the peppers uncovered this week and are happy with how they look.  

Box looks like the perfect box for the nice weather that is in store for us.  Enjoy the sunshine and the veggies.

Lettuce - a pretty red oak leaf
Carrots
Snap Peas
Zucchini - green and yellow
Cucumbers
Raspberries - if you didn't get raspberries last week they will be in your box this week.
Spinach - Large Share Only

Week 3

I've noticed in the past few years that food magazines have become much better at focusing on recipes that use vegetables that are in season.  As someone who grows food I really appreciate that.  I looked through a few pages of the new Food & Wine and there were recipes for both kale and snap peas that caught my eye.  A customer asked what I like to do with snap peas on Saturday and I had nothing to say.  I said " I don't know, I usually just eat them raw".  Sure I throw them in salads and spring rolls and maybe chop a few up for a curry or stir fry but I don't have a go to snap pea dish.  In general, the idea of cooking them doesn't really appeal to me.  They just seem so good as they are.  The truth is I hardly even ever take any home - they mostly just serve as farm snacks.  That isn't to say I don't eat my fair share.  I eat a lot them.  There are often a few peas in my pocket!   I am attaching links to the recipes that caught my eye in the magazine.  The kale one is a grilled pesto.  Kale pesto is a winter staple in our house but I imagine blanching the kale and then grilling it (which sounds kind hard) gives it a completely different flavor.  It includes a pasta recipe that I will not be making anytime soon but the way time flies, winter and hours spent cooking are just around the corner.  The other is a snap pea salad that will involve a little adaptation of the recipe as we are done with green garlic.  However, the garlic that is in your boxes today isn't cured down and while it doesn't have the same flavor of green garlic it still has a nice fresh taste and would be a fine substitute.  If you still have your garlic scapes you could do a mix of the two.  I like that it uses dill and mint and raw snap peas.

Last week you had garlic scapes off of our last garlic to send out a scape and the last to mature, Chesnook.  This week you have recently harvested garlic(some last Friday, some Monday) off the the variety that was the first to scape for us, Bangkok Red.  It is one of the prettiest garlics we grow.  There is still a lot of moisture in the head so don't store it in a plastic bag/container.  It will do best just sitting on your counter.

You may have or may not have noticed that this is your second week without head lettuce.  That is pretty unusual.  Lettuce usually falls into an almost every week category when we plan what goes in your box.  The hot weather we had a couple weeks ago caused two lettuce plantings to bolt.  Lettuce doesn't like heat but usually we only see mature lettuce bolt.  I don't know if the plants were a little stressed to begin with but I was surprised to see not just the oldest planting bolt but also a newer planting.   All in all though things look good the fields and we should be back into head lettuce next week.

Carrots
Cilantro
Cabbage
Snap Peas
Kale
Garlic
Salad Mix- Large Only

Grilled Kale Pesto
Snap Pea Salad

Next week we will fully embrace summer with zukes and cukes!

Week 2

It rained!  Last June I would look at the weather and see a chance of rain, I would hope and I would be disappointed.  This year I decided to skip the hope thing and just go straight to pessimism, and everything turned out great.  I don't know if that means I should have a better attitude and not get so down or if being pessimistic sets me up for more joy later.

Our first week of the farm share was also our first week of the Chehalis market.  Both went smoothly (I think, correct me if there was a problem with your veggies) and we are off and running.  We are thankful to have one great crew member returning from last year and some new folks who are getting in the swing of things.  We also called in some extra hands this week because we realized that we were getting a little behind.   Ian worked the stand on Wednesdays last year and will again this year but for the most part Kelly and I are the face of the farm and I think it gives people the false impression that we do this all ourselves.  There is no way we could do this without help.  The vegetables in your box were most likely the product of many hands.  Take the bunch of carrots in your box.  Someone did the tractor work to prep that bed which included adding fertilizer, incorporating it into the soil and then making the bed.  That is at least three changes of implements on the back of the tractor and three separate passes through the field to get it ready.  Then the carrots were seeded, covered with the white row cover for a little extra warmth since we seed at the end of February.  The row cover was pulled off in April and they were scuffled (a type of hoe we like to use) and recovered.  A couple weeks later the row cover was removed again and they were hand weeded and thinned on hands and knees and recovered.  They were uncovered one last time and scuffled again.  They were harvested,  and then sorted, sized and bunched.  They were then sprayed down, dunked and packed into a box and put in the walk in.  They were then removed and placed in each of your boxes.  That is a lot of hand labor and we are thankful to have help doing it.  If you would ever like to take a peak at what goes on in our fields you should feel free to walk around when you come to pick up your box.

I think we should have one last round of strawberries for you.  The first planting of peas went by quickly and we will be skipping a week on those but we will be back into plentiful peas next week in the second planting (hopefully).

Carrots
Beets - These beets have gorgeous greens on them.  Don't let them go to waste - they are delicious.  You can cook them however you like to cook spinach, chard or kale.  I like to sauté them with a little onion and garlic and then squeeze a little lemon juice on them at the end.
Broccoli
Summer Turnips - If you aren't familiar with these you are in for a treat.  They are great raw or cooked and you can eat these greens as well.  Sometimes the greens can have a bit of a bite and sometimes they are quite mild.  Don't be afraid to try one raw.  They are nice sliced and added to lettuce in a salad or thrown in soup at the end or you can sautee the turnips and then add the greens at the end. The turnips tend to be mild, juicier than a radish with a little bit of sweetness and just a little sharpness at the end.
Strawberries
Garlic Scapes - The garlic is early this year and we have one last variety that has scapes left on it.  By the time the garlic plant starts to shoot up a scape we are suffering through the end of last years sprouted storage garlic and are so thankful to have them.  They taste just like garlic but with a fresher, greener flavor.  They can be chopped and used like garlic, cut larger and tossed with pasta and other veggies or left whole and grilled or roasted.  The also make a great pesto and are fun to pickle.  They should be stored in a bag in your fridge.  They will keep for at least a couple weeks.
Spinach - Large Only
Scallions - Large Only

See you at the farm stand!

Week 1

I feel like we should have started the farm share about two weeks ago.  In my mind it should be a struggle to fill your boxes the first week or two.  It should be filled with greens and spring treats.  Instead, Kelly and I had a difficult time narrowing it down today.  The warm spring has put the farm into fast forward.  We are already knee deep in strawberries and peas, we have had carrots for a few weeks and we started selling cucumbers and zucchini last week.  At the same time I don't want to cut autumn short (you know you love rutabagas) and I think that 19 weeks is a good amount of time for all of us.  Anyway, that is something to contemplate during winter but if you have an opinion let me know.

We hope we have a great season ahead of us.  As a farm, we made some changes over the winter.  We signed up to go to a farmers market, we certified organic and we added some seed crops.  We are growing a little more ground this year and have a bigger crew.   After a couple years of minimal change - same size, same markets, same labor hours, same crops,  it feels a little uncertain around here.  It isn't that Kelly and I thought to ourselves, "ya know, we have this so dialed in and have so much free time, we should switch things up".  We will never master growing vegetables but things did feel a little routine and the time seemed right to explore some new things.

The beets we are growing for seed just started to pollen.  If you look closely you can see it on my fingers.  It has a strong, floral smell which is hard to miss when you walk by it.  

The second seed crop we are growing is a beautiful purple stemmed kale.  The tops are above our heads and thick with flowers and bees.

Boxes look delicious! 

Carrots

Head Lettuce

Rainbow Chard - Chard can be steamed or sautéed.  The stems and leaves can be eaten. The stems take a little longer to cook.  You can remove the stems and stuff the leaves or add it to soup.  It is related to spinach and beets.  If you pull up a mature plant the root looks like an ugly beet.  If you look at the leaf of a beet you can see the resemblance.  

Snap Peas - plump and sweet - great raw or cooked

Snow Peas - just a few for a stir-fry, curry or a snack.  The one and only planting of snow peas is almost done picking and I wanted to get you a few before they disappeared.  Next year we will have to put an additional round in the second planting of peas. 

Strawberries

Radishes - Large Only

Thanks for being a part of the farm share and supporting local agriculture.  Cheers to a season of good meals.