Hey folks,
I’ve been M.I.A. the last month in my updates. The Harvest Festival ended up taking a lot of my time and I missed the boat on giving you all an immediate response about the farm post-hail storm. A lot of changes have happened on the farms over the month of October. However, the end of the season is near and I’d like to give you all some updates and how we intend to transition into winter.
Happy September, folks!
Wow. This is the biggest share so far! Alfred, our Red Hook Senior Farm Assistant, and I were joking that this is the Asian share. Indeed, we have a lot of produce that is commonly found in East Asian cuisine, such as Pac Choi, Daikon Radish, Shiso, and Cilantro.
Dear CSA members:
Maybe you have noticed (or maybe you haven’t) the lemon grass growing in our greenhouse. I thought it would be fun to pretend we live in the lush and abundant rain forest by growing tropical foods in our hot, water-controlled greenhouse.
Well, we have successfully planted East Indian lemon grass and will be offering it in your share this week. East Indian is slightly smaller and more pungent than the common West Indian lemon grass. It will be paired quite nicely with all the nightshades (eggplant, tomatoes, peppers) that are starting to make a big debut in your shares.
CSA members:
Still more cucumbers! This is the example of what it means to “buy into the ups and downs of a farm’s harvest”. I trust that some of our creative members have come up with great cucumber recipes. However, if you are still finding you have leftovers and want to figure out ways to preserve them, don’t hesitate to ask me when you come pick up your share this Saturday.
Red Hook Farm melons are coming to the CSA.
CSA members:
August is here and all of our nightshades are, too! Right on schedule. That means the much anticipated trio for ratatouille: eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes. They are all just beginning and will pick up in abundance in the next couple of weeks.
The full shares will be getting cherry tomatoes and eggplant this week while the small shares will just be getting eggplant. Don’t be sad, small shares. There are just so many of you that we will be giving you the cherry tomatoes next week when we have abundance!
Summer is finally starting to fatten up our produce! Cucumbers and Okra are abundant right now. We just harvested out first eggplant and peppers. The sweet corn is almost ready, and I see so many healthy green tomatoes.
We’ve done a lot of planting this week as there is more rain in the forecast.
In the coming weeks look out for eggplant, more okra, beans and some new herbs. Though our first planting of summer squash isn’t as abundant as we’d hoped, we have a second succession in the ground and will hopefully have “late summer” squash by the end of August. Continue reading
Hey, members:
If I ever complained too much about the rain last year, I wish I hadn’t opened my mouth. What a hot spring and summer we have had! Luckily we are piece by piece installing an irrigation system.
Our summer crops have been so happy about that and this week everything will grow at lightening speed.
In the Midwest, a saying goes: “Knee high by the 4th of July” and it applies to the height corn should be. Well, unless you are verrrrry short, the corn is way past that!
Photo by Tracy27 on Flickr
Have a very happy Fourth of July. Here’s what will be in your share this week — plus a farm update from Kristen.
Full Share:
Swiss chard
Kale
Collards
Broccoli
Onion
Basil
Salad mix
Choice of herbs (summer savory, mint, thyme, parsley, chives)
Head of fresh garlic
Continue reading
Hi, members!
Welcome to the first CSA share pick up. For those of you who haven’t met me yet, I’m the Farm Manager and Agricultural Programs Coordinator for Added Value. You can call me Kristen, though, for short.
