And we’re back!
This week kicked off the first full CSA week of the season.
But, before we get lost in the CSA sauce though, Brick Oven Pizza Nights will start up on June 9th! Woohoo! You can click here to pre-order your pizzas. If we are not sold out with pre-orders, pizzas may be ordered at the farm 5-7pm on Friday. Rocking the oven again this year will be Volchy and Katie Jo. They make a mean pizza, come check it out!
Okay, so all of the harvesting, cleaning, packaging, sorting, and delivering process that goes down behind the scenes was in full effect this week. About time, right? Here’s what a first CSA week looks like for Hawkins Family Farm:
We started our Monday off with a trip over to Hoop Four to gather some crispy crunchy lettuce into bins for blending and washing. With our little knives, we carefully went down the line, holding up bunches while making our cuts straight through, just slightly above the halfway point of the plant. We worked quickly and carefully, making sure that cuts weren’t made too low so that the plant can continue to grow. Once finished, we escorted eight bins of blended lettuce, a mixture of four different varieties, into the washroom to be washed and dried for bagging on Wednesday.
Tuesday was for onions and carrots. Starting in Hoop Two, we spent some time cutting the onions free from their roots so that we could pull them from the ground, clean them up, and tie them into bunches of three or four.
The carrots needed a little more attention. Using a digging fork, Michael led the charge in his digging boots, shaking free carrot after carrot so that Erin and I could sort and clean bigger dirt clumps off of them. We then would count them into little clusters and band them into bunches like we did with the onions, before carrying them in bins over to Zach, who was waiting for us with a big tub of water so that he could soak them and rinse them off so that they could dry in the sun before being stored in the cooler.
The more we dug, the more personal it became. This sort of thing tends to happen when you sweat over something for a long period of time. Michael shared his thoughts on the beauty of these orange roots while we were at it, expressing the importance of handling and cleaning for the sake of showing CSA members just how gorgeous these plants can be when they are finished doing what they do in the dirt. By the time we got to green garlic on Wednesday, I was grateful to find myself handling each green stalk with a level of respect I did not have at the beginning of the season.
Wednesday was a day of putting things into bags, which was well received--our legs were sore from Tuesday's harvest! Michael and I bagged up about 220 bags of lettuce and 35 bags of beets before spending the afternoon sorting out this year's meat storage method. I provided moral support as Michael wrestled a lot of thermal bags into coolers for the pack the following day. I was evermore grateful for the logistical thought Zach and Jeff have put into the CSA process by the end of the day.
Thursday packs are a riot. Packs will take place at Myron’s place at Berry Hill Farm this year, featuring a line up of the Hawkins crew, Nellie and her kiddos Abbie, Maddie, and Abe, as well as our friend Paige. It was like a pack parade, all of us walking clockwise around tables stuffed with vegetables, carrying crates for about four hours, filling CSA orders, kind of like a little parade of grocery shoppers. Thanks, team!
Then we were off! Michael made stops at some of our Parkview hospital locations before dropping off bins to be delivered by Noah, Dakota, and myself to homes in the Fort Wayne area. If you’re home when we arrive with your share, feel free to pop out and tell us how you’re enjoying your farm-fresh groceries. We’d love to hear about it!
That’s CSA week, folks. I’m sure it will look different week to week, since the farm never stops moving, and new crops are being put into the ground every week. That being said, make sure to keep a lookout for new offerings! I’ll do my best to give you a heads up along the way. Speaking of, in the midst of all the harvest and packing activities we also planted eggplant this week!
Thanks to all who support Hawkins Farm, RiverRidge, and Berry Hill, as well as all of the additional product providers that have joined in on the farm collective! By purchasing a farm share, you make it easier for us to do what we’re doing out here. Thank you for letting us feed you!
-Alex
