Share Notes – May 8, 2025

YOU GUYS.  3rd week in a row with massive storms interrupting our harvest.  It is so difficult to get this job done in the rain for you. We’re really, really tired. Say a pray for your farmers, and ask that the rain starts falling on Sundays or Mondays or something!

A couple of things you’ll notice from the rain: some of the leafy greens (chard, tender kale) had holes ripped through them from the huge deluge.  And the harder the rain falls, the more dirt is splashed up on the leaves of the plants, so plan to do a lot of washing. We do our best, but it’s a huge job with a small crew and we can only do a preliminary wash. You’ll need to get it table-ready.

Crops are growing really well, but we do need the rain to stop so the soil can drain out. It’s quite saturated and does not need any more water for at least 2 weeks.

This past weekend’s cool front definitely made the head lettuce, turnips, arugula, and broccoli super happy. They don’t like heat. Now with all this rain, we’ve got our work cut out for us to keep up with the weeds. If any of you wants to grab your sun hat and come spend a beautiful day hand pulling weeds, let us know. We’ve got a row with your name on it. Bring a buddy!

Here’s your vegetable line-up:

• Garlic Scapes – This week we made a delicious spring time frittata with loads of garlic scapes and Swiss chard, and our hens’ fresh eggs (they just began laying about 2 weeks ago! We’ll have a few dozen in the online store soon). We more-or-less followed the recipe for our Springtime Quiche, but reduced the milk a little, and didn’t bother with a crust. It was fantastic.
• Snow Peas – One of my favorite spring crops, that’s very short-lived, so enjoy them while we’ve got them! Just a pint for everyone this week. A little snack.
• Lettuce – Beautiful, huge heads of lettuce for each share. Large shares received 3 heads, Regular 2, and Mini 1.  This week’s varieties we had ready were Fusion, Cherokee, Muir, and Magenta.  As mentioned, the rain really splashes a LOT of dirt up onto the leaves so be diligent in washing your greens to avoid a gritty bite.
• Spring Mix – for Mini shares. A super flavorful blend of Asian greens filled with an array of colors and textures. Excellent as a salad, also wonderful braised or sauteed.
• Arugula – For Large shares. So tasty! Enjoy a classic spring salad this week.
• Radishes – Red Rover radishes for everyone. Did you know they’re excellent roasted? Really mellows them out, if you dislike the spicy bite of radishes.
• Turnips – White Hakurei for the large shares.  Scarlet Queen for the regular shares (A few regular shares received Hakurei). Hakurei are a Japanese salad turnip, and you eat them raw. They’re so wonderful! If you think you dislike turnips, you gotta try them.  The scarlet queen turnips are more like the southern purple top turnip and are excellent prepared with a little bacon, garlic, onion, (and tobasco, of course!)
• Kale/Collard – Bunched Red Russian kale AND collard greens for the Large shares, Lacinato kale for the Mini shares, and Curly Winterbor kale for the Regular shares.
• Chard – Bunches for the Regular shares this week! As mentioned above, this was fantastic this week in a frittata. Follow our recipe above!
• Spring onions – a few young white onions. They can also be cooked at this age. They have not cured, so their shelf-life isnt’ very long. Store them in your fridge.

Veggie Storage tips:

• Everything wants to be washed well before cooking, but keep the dirt on till then, to prevent faster spoilage.
• Everything in this week’s harvest wants to be stored in your fridge except for sweet potatoes. Seal all your leafy greens up in a bag or container to retain moisture for longest storage life.
• Roots will store best when severed from their tops, and stored separately (remember the tops of all these roots are edible, too!)

We’d love to hear stories and recipes of your culinary adventures this week. Tag us on Instagram or Facebook, showing us how you’ve used your CSA share.

Your farmers, Jess & Justin

Regular Share

Regular Share – top row left to right: Curly  kale, Fusion and Cherokee lettuce, radishes, snow peas, Chard (2nd row) Scarlet Queen turnips, onions and scapes.

Large Share

Large shares – top row left to right: Red Russian kale, Muir and Fusion lettuce, radishes, and collards (2nd row) Magenta lettuce, arugula, Hakurei turnips, snow peas, scapes, and onions across the bottom.

Mini Share

Mini shares – top row left to right:  Lacinato kale, Magenta lettuce, radishes, snow peas, Spring Mix, and onions and scapes across the bottom.

Flower Shares!

This week everyone received bouquets that each contained Nigella, Yarrow, Queen Anne’s lace, Cosmos, Statice, Didiscus, Veronica, Baptisia, and Buplurum, and I had a little Verbena and Blue sage to mix in.  Each bouquet also had either one stem of beautiful Foxglove, or a few stems of our lovely Breadseed Poppies.