Week Four Newsletter

Greetings to all of our members!  We are very glad to see that May will soon be coming to an end; it is our busiest month of the year as we're harvesting all our spring and overwintered vegetables and flowers as well as planting late spring items and many of our summer ones.  We have logged some 60-70 hour work weeks and we'll be glad to have things ease up a little.  Berries are almost over, so savor them these next two weeks.  On the farm we've been dealing with all kinds of mishaps and pests.  This first picture is of a stink bug feasting on a Colorado Potato beetle larvae.  The potato beetle is one of our biggest pests as it likes to devour our potato plants.  Next year we plan to buy an organic spray called Entrust to kill these nuisances.  Speaking of potatoes, besides some of the plants being hit hard by the beetles, it does look like our best crop yet, so expect some delicious potatoes in your boxes in three to four weeks.  As our members who have been with us for more than this season know, we are not the best potato growers, but looks like this year they will make more than one appearance in your boxes (hopefully!)  

We have also had another nuisance come onto our farm; we had a thief come and steal our very nice comet sprinkler worth about $300.  They must have come in the middle of the night, crawled through our electric fence, and used a screwdriver to get it off of our irrigation hose.  Punk losers, right?  We were very disappointed and are still recovering from the shock and violation.  So watch your things and watch your back, people must be desperate to be stealing from farmers.  Good news to announce to you all is the progress we've seen on our composting toilet, as pictured.  Gerard is a good friend of ours and a great builder and he is doing an excellent job on this future throne.  We're really looking forward to being able to use it on farm as we currently have no bathroom.  We'll have some facts for you all about composting toilets as I'm now reading some bits from The Humanure Handbook.  Also pictured here are some goodies that will be making appearances in your box in the not too distant future.  Stuart and I have been enjoying the first of these summer veggies that are coming from our hoophouse, and before long you will be as well.  

IMPORTANT REMINDERS:  This past week we had a mishap occur where a CSA member accidently took a full share instead of a half-share so that one of our full share members did not get what they paid for.  Please note the size of your boxes when you pick them up so this doesn't happen again.   Also, at Fosters this week, one of the full shares will be clearly labeled with a name on it, so please do not pick up this full share unless it is your name written on the box.  We'll try and set it aside from the others so it is a bit more clear.  Also, if you're having a friend pick up your share for you, please let your friend know which size share you have and be clear about the two sizes of boxes.   

IN YOUR BOXES THIS WEEK:

half shares

two pints of strawberries 

two pints of peas (snow peas/sugar snaps) 

turnips 

carrots

lettuce

full-shares

half-share plus

extra pint of peas

extra turnips

collards

Recipes

Stir-Fry snow peas and sugar snaps with carrots and garlic

snow peas and sugar snaps, washed and with strings pulled

2-3 small cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

carrots rinsed and cut into two inch long 1/4 inch thick slivers

oil (1tbsp) and butter (optional, 1/2 tbsp)

salt and pepper to flavor

warm olive oil and butter in saute pan over medium heat.  add garlic and saute garlic for about a minute, stirring and making sure it doesn't brown.  add carrots and peas.  stir and saute for around 8-10 minutes, adding a little water if the veggies start to stick to the pan.  add salt and pepper to flavor and you're done!  

Sauteed Collard Greens from Epicurious; this recipe calls for more collards than in your box so just pare down the other ingredients.  

FLOWER SHARES:

This week the flowers will be larkspur bouquets, not the blue-cloud larkspur you got last week, but the sword shaped larkspur.  Hope you enjoy them.  Also as a reminder, strip the flowers of any foliage below your water line as any foliage floating in the water is a bacteria's heaven.  

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments!  thanks everyone!