“A community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared, and that the people who share the place define and limit the possibilities of each other's lives. It is the knowledge that people have of each other, their concern for each other, their trust in each other, the freedom with which they come and go among themselves.”
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We have been waiting patiently since mid-March, and cabbages are finally ready! I counted 20 harvestable heads this afternoon, so I hope you enjoy those in the shares! This is the first time we have ever had two types of cabbage in the farm shares. We had a good harvest of broccolini and there is enough for every share. There was a great response with Thompson's peaches last week, so I ordered an extra case this week, and made them a default share item instead of an extra. Lots of leafy greens, plenty of roots and potatoes round out the options for this week. For extras, we have free-range chicken eggs, a few goose eggs, honey, and three of our small-batch jams.
Next Week
Unfortunately, we will not be able to offer salad mix or mesclun mix for the rest of the farm share season. We had several of our outdoor lettuce plantings fail. We will still offer arugula, baby mustard, and microgreens sold individually. This will be the first week for tomatoes. I did not dial in the soil amendments correctly for the tomatoes we started this Spring, so we will source these from Thompson's Farm, and pick them up when we grab the peaches next Saturday.
Farm Update
We accomplished a lot of essential tasks on the farm this week. Between harvests, we flipped dozens of beds and had a massive planting before the rains on Thursday. We expanded our growing area 20 percent, adding two, 110 ft by 40 ft field blocks. We will leave the soil tarped until the Fall, and then plant into weed-free beds. The black silage tarps are part of a process called occultation. The tarps create a wet, hot, and humid environment that is perfect for germinating weed seeds. They emerge, only to perish from the absence of light. Months of this process will destroy a large portion of the seed bank in the topsoil. Adding compost and only disturbing the top two inches of soil with the power harrow suppresses even more weeds. With the increase in farm share membership, we will make good use of this space in the Fall season.
Not going to the Ruston Farmers Market put a real dent in our jam sales. We decided to pursue more retail avenues and we had some great feedback from nearly every business we approached! You can now find our jam and jelly at The Good Daze, Fiesta on Eighteenth, Tenore's Wine Cellar, Washington Wine and Spirits, and Chauvin's Bayou Market!
Members
One of the biggest struggles we faced our first year of farming was a dedicated customer base. Every day I am so grateful for each one of you who has decided to support our farm through the farm shares. There are so many tasks to juggle on a small farm. Showing up on Monday morning knowing exactly what needs to be harvested for the week is absolutely invaluable to my sanity. We have about a month left of farm shares this season, and I'm really proud of what we have accomplished thus far. We have made a few mistakes, and had adverse weather, but so many things have gone right. I think consumers should judge new businesses by the rate at which they improve and change. For those of you who participated in last Spring's farm share's, the change is most notable. We added the Napa cabbage, more bok choy, beets, Yukon golds, cucumbers, cabbages, green beans, new salad mixes, microgreens and a whole lot more to our growing repertoire. We addressed packaging issues, expanded our delivery route, and added new pick up locations. We also made the choice to stop going to the farmers market on Saturday, and focus all of our efforts to making sure that your farm share experience is an easy and enjoyable part of your week. Next year, we plan to add some fun crops to the Spring shares like garlic, ginger, turmeric, strawberries, storage onions, radicchio, and brussel sprouts. Growing new varieties is fun for your home kitchen, and also presents us with new challenges to expand our growing expertise and challenge our creativity.
In our home kitchen, braising greens and rainbow chard have worked their way into a number of dishes! Emi made kohlrabi fries this week, and they are so good! We baked them in the oven. Delia posted a beautiful stir fry this week. Sometimes, the best meals are ones that are created on the spot using whole foods, and a little inspiration.
