Welcome to the first week of the summer farm share season!
We begin the harvest season with lots of emotions after the police killing of George Floyd and the nationwide movement for racial equality that it sparked. We wholeheartedly support the calls to end the systemic racism that has long oppressed people of color in this country. Though our intense farming schedule hasn't allowed us to partake in protests personally, we have made both monetary and food donations to local organizations fighting for racial justice and supporting rebuilding efforts in the Twin Cities after the devastating riots.
A couple of notes about these weekly Farm Happenings. I plan to start off each one with a blurb about goings-on at the farm - the successes, the struggles, and the purely factual. Sometimes they'll be elaborate and other times quite succinct, depending on the time I have available. We may occasionally have our farm staff jump in to guest-write something, as well. We will also try to give a sense of where crops are at - which crops are on their way out, which ones at peak, and which ones coming ready soon.
This may also be the place we will give commentary on some items going into boxes if we feel additional explanation or guidance is required. Since each member's share is unique and this newsletter is generalized, we won't be getting too much into item-by-item descriptions.
Farm News and Crop Updates
We are in an intense period where every type of farm activity is occurring simultaneously. We are still doing some greenhouse seeding; transplanting and direct seeding in the field continues every week; posts are getting pounded and strings laid out for tomato trellis in our high tunnel and field plantings; weeds are growing rapidly so frequent tractor cultivation and handweeding are required; and now, lots of harvest, wash, and pack for farm shares! The crew has been working their butts off and getting this all done and we are keeping up on maintenance.
The last few weeks have brought a combination of heavy rains and heat. Our soils are prone to forming a crust when pounded with heavy rainfall, and the hot/dry weather that follows bakes the surface of the soil dry and hard. This has resulted in some setbacks for direct seeded crops. The upcoming second plantings of spinach and carrots are looking a bit sparse, as the delicate seedlings cannot push through the crust at the soil surface. We attempt to alleviate this by irrigating (to soften the soil) and sometimes by very carefully hoeing on either side of the rows to fracture the soil and create more gaps for these seedlings to emerge through. We have additional spinach plantings in the ground that will hopefully establish more fully, but you will be seeing less spinach in early shares than I would have liked.
The second bane of this spring has been the flea beetle. I've mentioned this in previous newsletters, and this insect pest hasn't subsided. We have had entire plantings of radishes, arugula, and baby kale get decimated within days of germinating, to the point where we will likely till them in and re-seed with something else. Our full-size bunching kale plants are close to harvestable, but somewhat perforated with holes from flea beetle feeding. You will still likely see kale in box 2 or 3, but they won't be the prettiest of the year. We have covered these crops with netting to exclude the insects, but they fly in through small tears and gaps along edges. We have even applied some organic insecticides, but they are only somewhat effective and have no residual effect - this lack of residual activity makes them very benign for human health (no residues on the food you eat), but it also allows new beetles to fly in mere hours later and begin feeding on the crop again with no ill effects.
But lots of crops are looking great! High tunnel tomatoes are flowering and have some small fruits; they're right on schedule and looking healthy. First plantings of cucurbits (cucumbers, zucchini, cantaloupe, watermelon) all established nicely and are growing well. We aimed to overcome our shaky history growing snap peas by transplanting rather than direct seeding them - they're lush and in full flower, so just a couple weeks away from the first fruits. Successions of salad mix and head lettuce are in the ground and it looks like we'll have consistent lettuce in shares for weeks to come. Herb plantings (basil, parsley, dill, cilantro) are getting big and will be showing up more in the coming shares.
Notes on items for this week's box:
***remember that all members are receiving different items, so these may not apply to you.
- Spinach - This week's spinach is coming from an earlier planting that has suffered a bit from to the heat. The field planting is just starting to bolt, and while the flavor is still quite good, you will see some longer petioles ("stems") and some lighter green leaves. If we do our job sorting in the packing shed, you shouldn't see any yellow or heavily damaged leaves in your bag. It's just not as high quality a planting as what we had in pre-season shares and should again have during the cooler weather in the fall. Fingers crossed for moderate temps in the coming weeks and we'll have a bunch of early July spinach.
- Dried cayenne peppers - These were harvested last October and dried in a dehydrator then stored in our packing shed. We like to grind them up in a blender to make red pepper flakes - just keep in mind that cayennes will be a little spicer than what you might be used to. Just pull of the stems and toss the whole peppers in the blender or food processor. You can also put whole peppers into a curry, chili, soup, or other cooked dish to add some spice - you would probably want to pull the pepper out after cooking rather than eat it. You can also make a simple hot sauce by reconstituting these dried peppers.
- Kale mix and radishes - you'll see some pinholes from flea beetle feeding on these, more on the radish tops than the kale.
A note on product sourcing this week:
We are buying in a few items from fellow farmers to supplement our offerings this week. Asparagus and rhubarb are perennial crops, so our supply is determined by what we planted 2-3 years ago. At that time, we had a much smaller CSA and didn't bring much of either of these items to the farmers' market. In our response to COVID-19, we dropped out of market and scaled up our farm share program, but unlike annual crops that we could scale up accordingly, our perennials (asparagus, rhubarb, and herbs like rosemary, thyme, and oregano) could not. So, a portion of the rhubarb and asparagus going into shares this week are coming from Kaona and Mai Xiong, who farm using organic practices (but are not certified). We are also bringing in some green leaf lettuce from our friends at Twin Organics in Northfield to supplement our own planting that is juuuuust about harvest-ready. But still a tad small. We don't anticipate sourcing product from other farms being a regular practice during most of the season, but we are happy to support fellow farmers during times where our own offerings are slimmer than we would like.
And a bit about Extras
You will see the option to purchase extras when you log in to customize your shares. When we have enough available, you will be able to purchase additional veggies. There will be many more extra veggies available a little later in the season and once more crops are being harvested.
But this year we are also stocking a handful of other products from food makers in the Twin Cities who buy our products. You will see hot sauce and salsa from Double Take Sales, Cry Baby Craig's, and soon Lucky's Sauces and Lost Capital Foods - most of these products contain peppers we grew from them last year. You will also see three different spice levels of kimchi from You Betcha Kimchi. We have historically grown many of their ingredients (cabbage, carrots, daikon radish, onion, chiles) but this year have scaled back to just supply their chiles. All of these items can be added to your share as needed, and you will find we are selling them at a lower price than you would find at the grocery store.
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If you've made it this far, congratulations! This is a longer than usual newsletter. Just a couple reminders to leave you with:
- You can customize your share by swapping one item for another or adding extras, but there will be somewhat less available to swap since many items are limited in supply this week.
- Make note of the customization window. We are choosing Sunday night at 8:00 pm, which gives you over 24 hours to make changes to your share but also gives us enough time to harvest and pack shares.
- You do NOT have to customize your share. If you like the box that's proposed to you, do nothing and it will be available at your delivery location and time.
- If you have questions about something in the Harvie platform, please reach out to their support team: support@harvie.farm. They know their software interface far better than the farmer does and their help relieves administrative burden on us.
- For those on payment plans, this week will be a larger payment, with the second 25% installment being charged. Going forward, it will just be 50% of your weekly box cost.
- Please remember to bring a tote bag for your veggies and leave the plastic share boxes at your pickup site. For home delivery members, just make sure to keep your box in a clean space and leave it out for us to pick up the following week.
Thank you for being a member of our farm share program this year. Here's to a great season!
Sincerely,
Dana
