CSA for Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Michelle, our helper this year, cleaning onions.  Michelle
is an ACC Hort student doing her practicum.  You will
probably meet her sometime soon at Global Market on
Saturday mornings!

The first CSA pick-up of our season: the latest start ever for us!  Just wanted things to get a little bigger, have a little more ready!  It's not a huge box by any means, but it will get better every week.  Next week the raspberries should be ready to pick so if anyone is interested in volunteering a little time on a Tuesday or Thursday morning to come help pick - that would be awesome!  (Always bonuses for volunteers....)

This seems like the perfect time for a little refresher on keeping fresh veggies fresh.  Here's a great link to storing your haul of fruit and vegetables!  Our own 'big' piece of advice is get everything out of plastic bags as soon as possible or open the plastic bags for good air circulation.  You're getting super-fresh food but some wilt is possible even in the time it sits waiting for you to pick it up!

Everyone is getting garlic scapes today - a one-time treat!  We love garlic and we always say the scapes are what gets us through until the garlic itself is ready!  They have a mild, fresh garlic taste when raw - cooked they lose that flavor and taste a bit more like asparagus.  They are awesome chopped into salads, into something like tuna salad or mushed up with a soft cheese for a dip or spread.  If you do want to use them in a stir fry or something, fully cook the stir fry, remove from the heat then add the chopped scapes just before serving.  They make an awesome pesto: here's a recipe here.

We've taken fully half of the present radish crop; Thursday members will get the other half.  It was one of a few areas that suffered some serious flooding and wash-outs in the storms of a month ago.  Over half the plot of radishes was ruined, so once we pull them all on Thursday, Farmer Man will till the area and we're going to replant!  We have a few areas that have suffered damage in the heavy rains of June.  We've had some serious losses in the tomatoes, I'm sorry to say, but what survived is doing well now!  I am also sad to report the the goat mommas got away on me one evening and managed to eat almost all the groundcherries before I could get the ladies back under control!  Summer squash is coming nicely and the beans have flowered like crazy and should be ready for picking in a couple of weeks!

So, in the boxes today:

FULL SHARES:  Large bag 'Grand Rapids' loose leaf lettuce, large bag 'Red Sails' loose leaf lettuce, large bag 'Buttercrunch' bibb lettuce, garlic scapes, red onions, radishes.

PART SHARES:  Mediium bag 'Grand Rapids' loose leaf lettuce, medium bag 'Red Sails' loose leaf lettuce, medium bag 'Buttercrunch' bibb lettuce, garlic scapes, red onions, radishes.

SINGLE SHARES:  Small bag 'Grand Rapids' loose leaf lettuce, small bag 'Red Sails' loose leaf lettuce, small bag 'Buttercrunch' bibb lettuce, garlic scapes, red onions, radishes.