The first week of Summer CSA is always stressful for us. We double our delivery locations, taking us to two days of deliveries, with new share types, new members, and lots of assessing how we can do this better. I think this week went pretty well with only a couple of delivery/packing errors and a couple of missing products because the farmer miscounted at harvest. And three people who ordered 1/4 lb. Lions Mane Mushrooms received a full pound by mistake.
We recently changed our packing line to help minimize errors. We are gathering each share's contents into a bin and then the contents are double-checked as the share is placed in its box. We hope to have close to 100% accuracy with this new system.
As always, if something is not right with your share, please let us know so we can make it right. We want you to love your Farm Share!
Another change is that we will be moving to biodegradable grocery bags as box liners in the 1/2 bushel boxes to reduce plastic use. Unfortunately, we can't find food-grade biodegradable bags that are large enough for the 1 1/9 bushel boxes yet. We will keep looking, though.
Also as of June 9, Full Moon Mushrooms is packing all of their mushrooms in paper bags instead of the plastic clamshells, per our request. While the bags aren't as pretty, we think the trade-off is worth it.
This week begins our strawberry season!!! But we have a limited supply, so you won't see them in your initial share. Instead, they will be available as swaps and extras until they are sold out. So you will want to customize your share early if you want to grab some. Remember that you can change your share any number of times over the weekend, until Sunday at 3 p.m.
We are not sold out of shares yet, so please tell your friends about the fresh produce and other farm products that you get in your boxes. Sharing is caring, but in this case sharing information would be in order because I'm sure you love your veggies too much to give them away. Here's the link you can send to your friends and co-workers: https://www.harvie.farm/profile/nwpa-growers-co-op. They can even order a one-time box from the Farm Stand to try us out.
Farm News
Spur Hollow Farm: Congratulations to Jeff and Lindsay as they welcomed their first baby this week! Ruth Anne, was born on Monday, and Jeff still harvested scallions and lettuce for your CSA boxes.
Bushel and a Peck Farm: This week we hosted a 3-day workshop on our farm for shechita (kosher slaughter) students to get hands-on training. My husband Eric is studying shechita under a rabbi from Israel, and he offered the use of our farm for the students to practice what they have been learning via Zoom classes. Monday began with a knife seminar and knife sharpening, ensuring there there were no nicks in them. Then they butchered meat chickens that we had raised in the afternoon. Tuesday was filled with butchering ducks, geese, and turkeys from our farm, as well as roosters from Mickley Farm. From over 100 birds, there were only three that the students didn't do properly. Wednesday was large animal day, so they slaughtered several sheep. It was a busy week for our family, helping facilitate all the goings-on, as well as feeding 17 people (in addition to our family of 7). Here is a photo of Eric (on the left) with his teacher, Rav Shlomo, discussing the kosher status of a sheep.
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Hazy Hollow Farm is featuring ground pork, pork chops, and sweet Italian sausage this week. Are you planning a cookout for Father's Day? Hazy Hollow shared a simple recipe for pork burgers:
Thaw a pound of ground pork. Mix one egg into the pork in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper and whatever herbs you enjoy. Form patties and grill or fry. This is a great alternative to ground beef patties. Serve on buns with lettuce, tomato, dill pickle spears, and mustard.
Speaking of Father's Day, Humble Bee & Tree Farm has some new manly-scented soaps. And when you order 3 or more, you will receive a credit for $1.00/bar, only through this week.
Did you know that we have wild-caught fish available in our Webstore? Wild for Salmon, a family-owned Pennsylvania company, fishes in Alaska and ships their catch back home to sell in between trips. Check it out, along with all the other great products on the Webstore. Orders will be delivered with CSA shares. Be sure to choose "CSA Member" at checkout to avoid an extra delivery fee.
As always, if you have questions, don't hesitate to reach out to me.
On behalf of your NWPA Growers farmers,
Amy Philson
