Week 1 2021 CSA!

Wow, the first blog and first CSA week of 2021. Summer has begun for real now here in Vermont! It has been an interesting Spring this year with unseasonable heat and dryness for the second year in a row. It is scary to think that this may be a trend up here in the north and I will be shifting plans for next year based on hotter, drier Spring conditions. I bet its been prime weather for getting out and enjoying all the natural beauty of our lovely state!

The farm is growing everyday - the greenhouses look great with the first fruit set of the tomatoes coming on, carrots planted in March will be ready in the next couple weeks, March planted kale has been producing for weeks, the cukes are producing fruit and will be ready soon (they grow soooo fast!!), and the peppers are putting on many blossoms. Everything that has been getting regular water is doing great and it has been a scramble making adjustments this Spring due to lack of precipitation. Setting up irrigation is a time-consuming task in a time of year where there is very little extra time. It is a good lesson to get things set up prior to necessity, a kind of “mise en place” for the field. Vermont is an unpredictable place to grow vegetables - one year it may be too wet to plant early crops like 2 years ago or it may be so dry and hot the next like the past 2 seasons. The allure of consistent weather patterns like in California are always present In my mind but it is definitely a “grass is greener” situation when you factor in forest fire, water laws, saturated markets, etc. In the end I’ll take the Vermont crapshoot every time because when we manage the land well and we get stretches of nice weather, the grass seems greenest right out our front door.

On to the share this week!

Green things!!!!!!!

a bag of lettuce mix for salad eating!
a bag of spinach for cooking or raw. I would suggest eating this tender spinach raw this week. So yummy!!
a bag of pea shoots - garnish so meat or seafood, top your salad, add to sandwiches or wraps. Nice pea flavor
a bunch of green kale - great for sauté or you could try chopping and steaming for a bit with an inch or so of water in a pan. Then I drain, add butter and salt and pepper and voila you have a (moderately) healthy side dish!!
a bunch of topped radishes - the early season heat has given these spring radishes a bit of a spicy bite. We thinly sliced them and added them to our salad last night!
a bunch of bok choi - you can add to any sauté, one restaurant uses it in a gnocchi dish - this is what we do - slice the leaves length wise and add them into the drippings of whatever meat we cook - sausage, steaks, etc and salt. For the vegetarians out there here is a recipe I sent last year that is really quick and delicious.
You can create a mega salad using the lettuce, spinach, pea shoots, and radish!