June 15th, 2021

What’s in your share?

• Cabbage

• Broccoli

• Scallions

• Endive*

• Green Garlic*

• Beans or Snow Peas

• Salad Mix

*Green Garlic- is regular garlic that has not yet sized up and is uncured. Use it as you would garlic, using the green stem until it becomes papery.

*Endive- is in the chicory family, the same family as dandelion and radicchio. It is similar to lettuce but holds up to being cooked and provides arguably more minerals. It has a bitter flavor when raw, and softens and sweetens when cooked. It pairs nicely with fats such as nuts, cheese, eggs, and meats.

This past weekend we had our first farmers market of the season. Oak Creek showed up, as they always do. When we first started our farm in 2018, it was also the very first season of the Oak Creek Farmers Market. We happened to be in the right place at the right time, and started to develop a community around our farm. Looking back on our first market, I’m glad we at least had our “cuteness factor” to get people to our stand, because our produce certainly wasn’t anything to get excited about.

Four years later, it’s hard to believe how far our small operation has come. Our first season was very wet, and we had to establish our permanent raised beds in soil that was pure clay. We grew on 40 beds, all 100’ long and 30” wide. In our second year, we created more permanent raised beds, giving us the 100 beds we still grow on today. Our soil health and structure was less than ideal. The dry clay chunks made our fingers bleed during transplanting. All of our veggies were tiny because our soil didn’t have the structure to hold nutrients.

We’ve learned so much about soil health, microbiology, and are just starting to get a hang of how to interact with our lakeside micro climate. I can now stick my entire hand into the soil without resistance, feeling a balanced structure of clay and loam, teeming with life. We there is still a lifetime of things to learn, as things are always in flux, but we are becoming more and more attuned to how to look, observe, and coexist with the land we’re on.