June 8th, 2022
What’s in your share?
Salad Mix
Stir Fry Mix*
Japanese Salad Turnips*
Napa Cabbage
Kale
Romaine Lettuce
Sam, Judy, and Shelby crushing an early morning turnip harvest!
Stir Fry Mix - This mix is something we usually put together once in the spring and fall. We got feedback from the last share that people LOVED the bok choy and wish we would have grew more for the spring! We will certainly plant more in the fall. We cut the remaining plants into individual leaves and mixed them with some extra Napa cabbage and a mustard leaf called “pak choy”. This mix is great roughly chopped and sautéed lightly, or cut very thin and made into a slaw.
Japanese Salad Turnips - We love “Hakurei” turnips! They have become very popular among our members because of their tenderness and sweetness, unlike a storage turnip, which has a tendency to be more dense and slightly bitter. We definitely recommend trying them raw; on a salad, sandwich, salad, or just plain. They also sauté nicely and pair well with Napa cabbage, bok choy, carrots, and scallions. The greens are also delicious and nourishing! Add them to salads or stir fries.
Our friend, Jenny, is tending two beds of medicinal and culinary herb beds on the farm. We’re excited to have more diversity added to the farm and our diets! This is a calendula flower.
A NOTE ABOUT STORAGE:
Most of the crops we grow have a surprisingly long shelf life. The key to preserving the life of the vegetables is all about how they are stored, starting in the field. On each harvest day, we begin harvesting early in the morning, before the sun gets hot. Harvesting when the cool morning dew is still on the plants helps them stay crisp and fresh as they make their way to your table. When a vegetable is harvested, it is full of what we call “field heat”. When a plant is no longer connected to the soil, the field heat needs to be removed quickly. Immediately after harvesting, we submerge, soak, or spray the crops with our cold well water to release field heat. We then put the crates of harvested vegetables in our walk-in cooler, and return to the field to harvest everything on the list for that day.
We take a great deal of time making sure that your produce comes to you as clean as possible. This is not only to provide you with a clean and tidy box, but thoroughly cleaning each crop with very cold water helps to keep the veggies as fresh as possible. As we hand the them over to you, we wanted to provide some tips for keeping their vitality as long as possible.
Take a few minutes to look this over if you can, and if you’re ever in doubt, put your produce in a plastic bag or a glass or plastic container.
Almost every bed is planted at this moment. Winter squash goes in this week.