Farm Share Week 2 – Uncommon Spring Veggies
It was fantastic getting a start to our season last week – thank you to all our members, new and old! For those who are starting with us this week for the first time – welcome! The aim of this newsletter is to keep you connected with the stories surrounding the food you eat. Read on to find out about two lesser-known veggies making their way into your share this week, and learn about the honey we will be now be offering as an extra.
Customization
Now is your chance to customize your share! Log onto your Harvie account to swap, add, or purchase additional items. You'll have til Tuesday at 10pm to do this. After that, we'll receive a pick list and start harvesting!
On the Farm
We are still ringing with the energy of last week’s harvest. It’s such a satisfying thing to finally see the outcome of a veggie we planted from seed many months ago. Now that we’ve added harvesting to our weekly tasks, it’s quite the grand juggling scheme to prioritize our long to-do list. When working with nature, you don’t have much wiggle room to wait and do something later. This week, we are tending to our tomatoes (pruning, irrigation, weed control), weeding our onions, and seeding kale, fennel, greens, and lettuce in the greenhouse. We’re also finishing up last week’s plantings in the field.
Here's some scenes from our first big harvest last week:
Veggie Highlights
Garlic Scapes
This is something you won’t find in the grocery store. Every year, we harvest the garlic scapes off our growing garlic. These curly spears will make garlic seeds if we let them be; by harvesting them, we encourage the bulb of the garlic to get nice and big. They’re delicious grilled, or made into pesto. You can also slice them and add them to anything you’re cooking for a garlic flavour boost.
Recipe suggestion: Garlic Scape Pesto https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/pasta-with-garlic-scape-pesto-395769
Kohlrabi
I could wax poetic about this sweet member of the cabbage family – a hardy, quick-growing crop that can be eaten raw or cooked. Just peel the outside skin off and it's ready to eat. You can cook it too - stirfries, fritters, even mashed. It also makes a fantastic slaw! Of course the simplest way to enjoy it is just peel it, slice it and eat. Great on a platter with dip. It's sweet, juicy, and crisp. Your kids might even like it!
Try this slaw recipe: https://www.loveandlemons.com/kohlrabi-slaw/
Introducing: Z&Bee's Honey
We are excited to say that we will now be adding Z&Bee’s honey as an add-on you can purchase when you customize your share. We have been hosting Nick and Brittany’s hives for three seasons now. The bees love it here, and we love having them. Our farm is unique in the area, as we have about 30 acres of woods, including a creek and a pond. The woods, along with our organic veggie field, provide an abundant amount of food for the bees. And we truly see them everywhere – flying around the field, buzzing in the hawthorn trees when they’re in flower, and even drinking from the pond. We hope you’ll enjoy the honey as much as we do.
Pick Up Reminders
Farm Pick Up Procedure
Pick up on the farm is on Thursdays between 3pm-7pm.
We like to be organized and have everything ready before 3pm, but please don't be tempted to arrive early because sometimes, as with all things, we're not done til the last minute. Our address is 30073 Centre Rd, Strathroy. We're down a long driveway, with a sign at the top of the driveway. Pick up happens outside our packhouse. It's just on the left about halfway down the driveway. There's a small gravel parking area there. Let us know your name when you arrive and we’ll bring you your share – you can come out, or stay in your car if you prefer. We’ll be wearing our masks and practicing social distancing.
Tips:
- Put your turn signal on early when slowing down– cars drive fast along this road and get impatient if they don’t know you’re turning.
- Please avoid turning around in our neighbours driveways.
- Be mindful of other cars coming and going, as we have a narrow driveway.
Market Pick up
Find us at the market, we’ll have your share ready for you!
Komoka market is from 9-12 and Strathroy 8-12.
Forget to pick up your share? Going to be late?
Don’t worry, it happens! In that case, send us an email or text and we'll leave it in our cold room for you, to pick up later or the next day.
If you need to get in touch with me on pick up day, send me a text rather than an email if you can. 519-719-7253. Email is mulberrymoonfarm@gmail.com
Contact me at any time with your questions, comments, concerns :) We love to see what you are doing with your veggies, so make sure to tag us @mulberrymoonfarm in your social media posts and stories.
Happy eating, and thanks for keeping us growing!
- Farmer Kim
