This Week
Kaden and I have a wonderful selection of vegetables for you this week! There are several vegetables only up for swaps or add-ons this week. I'm trying a new strategy this season. If we have enough inventory of a particular vegetable, then I will add enough so that the option is open to every farm share member. Examples include salad mixes, bok choy, and carrots. I always leave some wiggle room for you to swap or add. If we have a vegetable with a quantity less than 10, then I will only set those as swaps or add-ons. Our goal is for you to get exactly the produce you want every week. We thought it was most fair to make those specialty crops first come, first served.
There are more that 25 different options for you to choose from! New this week we added a lot of arugula this is the first cutting of this succession and that one is always the best! Cilantro and spinach are ready and we will begin harvesting the Detroit Dark Red beets for the first time! They will be mixed with the Chioggia beets. This week is the last big romaine lettuce harvest. I think the stir fry mix is particularly good this week! We are having some fun and will include baby broccoli raab, and a few slender orange carrots into the mix.
Since it rained 6 inches a few weeks ago, we have been dealing with terrible insect outbreaks. Please keep an eye out for slugs. Affected crops include romaine lettuce, red mustard, bok choy, and also every salad mix with leaf lettuce. To deal with this, we added an extra washing to all of those crops. I'm also checking more closely during harvest time to catch slugs before we even start washing. We are washing every single vegetable that goes into the farm shares. It's nearly impossible for us to clean inside the bases of the bok choy, Napa cabbage, and romaine lettuce. These crops grow outside, and with the hard rains recently, there is a lot of backsplash of soil. I apologize for the additional steps you will have to take in preparing those crops.
Next Week
We should be able to add more baby spinach, cilantro, dill, and beets. Also, there will be both bundles of carrots, and bags of baby carrots. The baby carrots will only be available for add-ons or swaps. The sugar snap peas are LOADED with blooms, so I'm hoping for a really good harvest soon! Yellow squash and green beans will be ready for harvest really soon!
Farm Update
We would like to congratulate 3 Board Farm on the birth of their daughter! Kaden and I are so fortunate to have farmers like them in Union Parish, and we love seeing their family grow! They are opening a new store at their farm in Downsville by May, so please go check them out!
I would love to get some feedback of how you liked the romaine lettuce we grew this season. This was our first time growing it, so we for sure have to iron out some bugs-literally! I think we had an OK crop, but two things I didn't like were how much slugs like them, and backsplash from hard rains getting into the middles. In the future we will make sure to add the insect nettings earlier and bury the sides. We will probably only grow that crop under the protection of our covered tunnels. We will try again in the Fall!
It's been really busy around here for several months now. We are working long hours without weekends off to keep up with harvesting and planting the large succession of late Spring/early Summer crops. 50 yards of compost will be delivered tomorrow morning and we have a long list of vegetables to plant!
We are actively planning an event just for our farm share members. Hosting farm to table events here at the farm is tough for us, because we just don't have the infrastructure for making sure everyone has a fun and comfortable time. I was talking with the folks at Thirsty Farmer Vineyard in Calhoun, and they have offered to let us host a farm share member event there!! I think it's a great location that is beautiful and accommodates the commutes of Monroe, Farmerville, Ruston, and Bossier farm share members. There's still a lot to plan, but I hope to officially announce the date for a farm share party soon! I think it would be a fun and constructive community building event centered around local food. We would love to hear what you think about it!
I hope you all cook something delicious for yourself and your families this week! Thank you so much for supporting our farm!
Your Farmer,
Conrad Cable
