CSA Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden!  This box has a variety of lettuce, endive, salad and braising greens, sorrel,  young cilantro, green onions, radishes, sun chokes, asparagus, and strawberries as we have them.

Field Notes.  We have been getting plenty of rain.  A couple years back during several drought years, Ken joked that he forgot how to grow if we got adequate rain; this year may be the test!  It is so nice to see the crops and green manures look lush.

This has been a week of fencing - the bear fence, expanding the geese and pigs, and the cucumber fence in the garden.  Setting up fences takes time.  It is odd how many different jobs are involved in growing food - it is not just planting some seeds and harvesting!  

Ken has been cultivating all three growing spaces to stay ahead of weeds.  The heat loving plants have been doing well.  Our cool weather this week slows them down, so we will have to wait and see what the weather brings.Cool weather makes for great greens and all the brassica family like bok choy and Napa cabbage.  With heat the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and the members of the nightshade or solanaceae family thrive.  But even the nightshades prefer temperatures below 90; that is when they drop blossoms.

From the Kitchen. Endive is an early season favorite.  Each year I think of a friend who told me that she and her friend got together and their  favorite meal was endive with a creamy dressing and spaghetti with tomato sauce.  That would be a tasty combination!  Endive can also be cooked if it seems to have stronger or more bitter flavor than you like.  I often add rinsed chopped greens to hot pasta and toss before adding a sauce.

Strawberries - a power house of flavor and nutrition.  I eat them when I know their source - Why? Strawberries are often sprayed repeatedly with chemicals.  For more information check the Environmental Working Group's list of the Dirty Dozen - the fruits and vegetables with the highest chemical residues.  These in your box have no chemicals - organic or otherwise.  Rinse, eat and Enjoy!

'Til Next Week, 
Judith