June 7th, 2023

What’s in your share?

Kale
Bok Choy
Radishes
Romaine Lettuce
Cilantro
Salad Mix
Broccolini

Welcome to the 2023 CSA season! We’ve been prepping and planting and weeding and irrigating in preparation for today. We’re so happy to have y’all on board, whether you’re joining us for the first time or you’re a returning member.

How to prep bok choy: if you want to use leaves whole, remove them one by one, leaving the heart intact. You can also cut it thin and eat raw or sauteed.

It’s our sixth growing season and we’re feeling like we’ve developed a healthy rhythm to keep this farm and ourselves alive and feeling good. When we started out, we made all of our decisions and performed all tasks together, learning how to accomplish them most efficiently, and learning our personal strengths in turn. As we’ve honed in our skills, we’ve each learned where we excel, where we feel comfortable taking on a role of leadership, and where we’d prefer to take direction from someone else who may know better.

Sam is the farm planner. He has a knack for seeing the whole picture through a broad, long term vision. He makes a killer spreadsheet, which we use to keep track of membership, propagation seeding dates, field planting dates, a map of the field, CSA harvest targets, and revenue and expenses; to name a few. Sam thrives when he can be using his organizational skills to make sense of anything. He also takes care of all the farm finances, from banking, to insurance, to taxes; and making sure we’re making the right decisions to be a solvent business that can pay all of us a living wage throughout the season. Irrigation and general building/infrastructure are also areas where Sam takes the lead, being able to see how smaller pieces fit together to make something complete.

So easy: sauteed bok choy hearts. Remove the outer leaves of the bok choy and use them in pasta salad. Take the tender hearts and cut them in half. Get a cast iron pan hot and fry in an oil that can stand high heat.

Sara (myself) is who you’ve interacted with for anything CSA. I coordinate the emails, getting members signed up, and making sure everyone knows where to find what they need. I’m a creature of habit, using my early morning energy to stick to a routine that keeps me grounded throughout the day. That said, I enjoy other daily routines; opening and closing the field tunnels as needed, watering in the propagation house, and checking the crops daily to make note of new growth, a weird colored leaf, a growing insect population, and moisture levels. I’m also attempting to know more about soil health, and take on the responsibility of ordering and applying amendments, compost, and scheduling “fertility days” where we feed our crops with an extra boost of nutrients, usually through a foliar spray. I also manage our website, which is something I never thought would be part of my job description!

Many of you know Ali, Sam’s sister. She has always been a part of the farm, no matter where her travels have taken her. We call her our “ride or die” because she can jump in anywhere and know what’s going on. She knows what the crops want and enjoys tending to their needs. Ali is always down to move some dirt from one pile to another, drill some metal on a ladder, and have a good laugh while doing so. She is the best farm sitter, always willing to look after the farm if Sam and I want to get away for a night or a weekend, which is a luxury not all farmers have, and it makes all the difference in being able to push through a season.

Bed prep, planting, propagation work, weeding, harvesting, and packing shares are jobs we all do together. These are bulky tasks that take time, skill, but most of all - endurance - and are best done as a team. We have a crew of workshares who come every Tuesday for CSA harvest. The extra hands help to get the crops out of the field early in the day so we can spend the rest of the day washing to be ready to pack and deliver on Wednesday.

Hope you enjoy the first share!

June 14th, 2023

November 23rd, 2022