Late Spring on the Farm... for May 31, 2023

Springtime vegetables are loving this cool weather! Cabbage, Lettuces, Radishes, Turnips, Beets, and Chard and Kale are in their prime! They are usually rushed in the spring season because it often gets quite warm quite fast, but this spring has been especially cool. (We figure you've noticed!) Eat these vegetables in abundance now and soon they'll be out of season. Then we'll switch to eating the beauties of Summertime in abundance.

The farm is in full swing now -- the fields are all fully planted. (It's so beautiful! Please try to visit and see the abundant fields full of colors!) All market channels are rolling -- Farm Share, grocery stores, the main market season. We've started picking Tomatoes and Summer Squash in modest quantities. (The first fruits come from our one heated greenhouse. These delights will become more and more plentiful each week through the end of July - so long as the plants stay healthy.) 

Radishes may be the unsung hero of Spring and Fall. Every household should be eating 3 bunches per week, in our opinion. Sliced on salads, pickled, smothered with butter on toast, topped on tacos, stirred with cream cheese and a dried herb blend… Embrace seasonal eating! They are crisp and flavorful and they won’t be around much longer.

Our heads of Lettuce are incredible right now! Our enormous Romaine lettuce is pictured above and below. Romaine specifically is more picky and it will only be around the next couple of weeks. Other Green heads and Red heads are also super delicious. Napa Cabbages are also short lived in our spring crops, but they are so dense and feed us for daaaayyyss. Round cabbages will be around for more weeks of harvest than the Napa cabbages, and we savor them raw and cooked and fermented as krauts. 

Have you seen a white dusty layer on some of our vegetables? The white stuff is Diatomaceous Earth which is a food grade supplement sold in natural food stores. People take it internally for gut health as well as use it topically for skin health. It also is an irritant for bugs with exoskeletons so we use Diatomaceous Earth to deter some pests. It’s a great fit with Organic farm management. We just can’t wash every leaf and vegetable surface to make it not show up. So - as you encounter it on our veggies, feel free to wipe it off or not. Some people go out of their way to include it in their diet! This photo is from the bulk section at Good Foods Grocery where you can buy our select vegetables AND this Diatomaceous Earth. 

Bread Share members: You'll get a SEPARATE email to customize your bread share in just a few moments. 

To Customize Your Share: 
Each time you are scheduled to have a share, you'll receive an email from us 2 days prior. It should have subject line "Time to Customize Your Share." The software will create a default share for you (based on your indicated preferences and what we have available to harvest) and list those default contents in the email. The email also contains a link saying "Want to make changes to your share or add extras?" Click on that link to customize your share! Customization ends between 6 and 7 am on the day before your pick up day (depending on the time of year and thus how early we start harvesting). The cut off time is always specified in the email.

For Pick Up:

- At Staffed locations: One of us will be there to quickly gather your items for you to bag up and bring home.
- Preparation ideas and recipe suggestions are in your email. Also check out our Pinterest Page for lots of recipe ideas, organized by vegetable. 

Self-serve Pick Up looks something like these (with seasonal variation!):

 

EGGS: Steve Ault of Aults' Family Farm and Ring-a-Bell Farm in Pamplin offer their eggs for sale through us. Their chickens live on pasture and are fed supplemental non-gmo feed from Sunrise Farms. Their eggs are fabulous and we trust their farming practices completely. You can purchase their eggs in our self-serve FarmStand at our farm and you can order them through the Harvie system "Extras" when you customize your share. 

Our FarmStand is at our farm and open every day of the week, 9am-dusk (or 7pm, whichever is earlier). Visit us to see where your vegetables grow and pick up some extras for yourself or a friend. We have vegetable and herb plants for your garden available in the Spring, in addition to a host of our vegetables, and we have flower bouquets most weeks of the summer. Driving directions here.  

 

You are also invited to shop for our goods at the farmers' market where we vend on Saturdays: Farmers' Market @ St. Stephens. 

Additionally, we send an e-newsletter a couple of times per season to let folks know what's growing and happening on the farm, what recipes we're digging, and any special events. We've added your email address to our list of recipients. 

 

Finally, we have a Facebook group for our members to share recipes ideas, etc. Visit and join here.

 

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO REGISTER FOR OUR FOLK SCHOOL WORKSHOPS  June 3 & 4: Join us on the farm for some creative carpentry, knife making, carving, weaving, and more! Choose your project and sign up by reading details about our June 3-4 Folk School workshops here. Project options include your own custom knife, pine needle baskets, creative carpentry, pack basket, bow and arrows, leather bags, and more. 

  

 

Other vegetable notes: 

- Rainbow Swiss Chard is very creamy and incredible this way: wilt in a saute pan with butter and then served with eggs and/or pasta with cheese sauce. 

- Our Cucumbers are best NOT peeled! Enjoy those peels! (and the tiny seeds)

- Our Turnips are really tasty prepared as a saute in a pan on the stove top. Slice the roots into rounds and saute in a pan with butter/avocado oil/fat of your choice until the edges caramelize/brown. They get so sweet and tasty this way! Salt them AFTER cooking so as to prevent them from sweating and then steaming instead of caramelizing in the pan. ALSO - they are the bomb prepared as Turnips au Gratin! See photo below (huge crowd pleaser at a recent family birthday dinner) and the recipe here. 

- Slice up those Radishes and serve them on top of salads, or with butter and toast. Or pickle them with rice vinegar and honey/sugar and serve them on top of Korean Tacos.  See this Quick Radish Pickle recipe. 

- KALE: Eat it as raw salad, or put it in Portugese Kale Soup (there are LOTS of versions of this recipe online), or dry it and powder it for use as a supplement, or freeze it for use in smoothies all summer long. SEASONAL NOTE: We will have Kale each week between now and July 1. Then we won't have any Kale until maybe late September. If you want to use Kale in July, August, and/or the first few weeks in September, you need to preserve it! Freezing is best. 

- Preparation ideas and recipe suggestions will be below your share contents in your confirmation email sent the morning of pick up day. Also check out our Pinterest Page for lots of recipe ideas, organized by vegetable. 

Any questions? Just reach out! And remember to log in and check your delivery days and location details. 

We so deeply appreciate the opportunity to farm for you. Thank you for being the most important part of our farm! We love you! 

With blessings on your meals ~
Janet, Dan, and the whole Broadfork crew (Julie, Tait, Alisa, Erica, Leah, Siera, Jen, and the farm kids)

Want to follow along during the week, including Farm Stand updates? Visit us on Facebook or Instagram