Spring Week 1—Early, But No Cigar

Our amazing first week of Spring CSA! Someone was very excited to dive in!

Last WEEK’S SUBSCRIBER MENU:

• Savoy Cabbage
• Purple Sprouting Broccoli
• Leeks
• Broccoli Raab (Turnip Rapini)
• Radish Rapini
• Kale
• Italian Parsley
• Miners’ Lettuce

Click on the links above for information and recipes about these crops.

COMING SOON: Radishes, Pea Shoots, Sorrel, Baby Lettuce

NO CSA PICKUP THIS WEEK!

Last year we tried a lot of experiments. Experiments designed to get us an early start on harvestable crops. As a result, we have broccoli, cabbages, and leeks a-plenty. We have lots of nearly-blooming turnips, which is where the broccoli raab is coming from. We planted Parsley inside one of our greenhouses, so we’d have it’s tastiness in the spring, before the spring-planted parsley would be ready in May or June.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli looks like lilacs just getting ready to bloom. We sowed seeds last June, transplanted outside in July, and now we reap the fruits of all that labor. 9 months.

But, as we all know, Spring is the most fickle season. We had a lot of goods to start picking extra early, so we started the CSA two weeks earlier than projected. We didn’t want to waste all of that deliciousness, and it seemed like too much to take to weekend markets. So we fired up the CSA engine.

But now, we’re looking again after a chilly week, and things have slowed down. We’ll be skipping this week. And since it’s supposed to be warm and sunny this week, we’ll most likely be swimming in all kinds of sprouting brassicas next week. Lots of rapini/broccoli-type vegetables on the way. Green garlic and spring onions are on the way as well.

Taking a break from harvesting this week also means that we’ll be able to focus on getting more spring crops in the ground as well. We’ve been itching to get peas, spinach, turnips, carrots, and beets in the ground. Not to mention the 20,000 onion transplants that are patiently waiting in a mountain of wood chips.  After last year’s super early warm spring, we’re feeling quite swamped this spring. Record-breaking super-rain and all. We need this sun to dry up some of the standing water lakes all over the low parts of the farm. Potatoes will be here next week, and we want to plant as early as possible for the biggest yield later on.

We appreciate your understanding, and we’ll be back next week.

So, NO PICKUPS this week!

This ancient Greengage Tree is the oldest living thing on our farm. Over 100 years old, most likely, and she blooms heavily every spring. But we only get fruit once a decade or so. Like eating honey. So delicious are those neon yellow-green fruits!