2022 CSA Newsletter #3

Well, folks, I don't know if it's just me but I find it hard to believe that we are in the last week of June already. 

Last week was an interesting one, to say the least. I awoke on Father's Day not feeling great and on a whim, decided to take an at-home Covid test. Lo and behold, I tested positive. I joked with my wife thanking her because now I was able to spend the day with no one bothering me and to be in bed all day. A perfect present for the day. In all seriousness though, it definitely put a damper on things but thankfully I never experienced any serious symptoms other than the killer headache that I had that prompted me taking a test. Alison and Zach, the two summer interns and Laura, my student worker, really stepped up and held it down last week. I was able to get them started on what needed to be done and then walk away and let them take it from there. Another huge lift was the group of students from the Dominican Republic. We had already scheduled a day for them to do some work at the farm as part of their activities. It just so happened that they came last Tuesday and helped with the CSA harvest and a group of 9 made for quick work that morning. The group left early Saturday morning. I know I said it last week but it was as much an impactful experience for me as it was for the students. Here is little write-up that is on the College's website with a little more info about the two week experience.

Since I was sick for a good chunk of last week the name of the game was to just get done what needed to get done. Prep for the work that is about to begin with the tomatoes in our hoophouses got started. I'll go into more detail about what that entails next week but let's get to this week's CSA share. In the choice this week, there will once again be lettuce mix, as well as the Japanese salad turnips and the French Breakfast radishes. This will be the last week with the greens on the turnips and we already topped the radishes after clearing them out last week so they wouldn't get too big. Rainbow chard makes a return but it will most likely be the last week for carrots for a while. It will definitely be the last week for strawberries. Strawberry season is so fast that you can miss it, if you close your eyes for too long. But all in all, I am happy with this new planting and the varieties that we selected. After a full year of growth, I think next year's berries have the potential to be higher yielding that this year. Even though the harvest will end after this week, we still have to do a lot of work on them throughout the season to keep them healthy and prepare them for next year. Finally, there will be a new item this week. This week there will be mixed kale. We tried something new this year. Instead of transplanting kale in the spring we direct seeded a kale mix with at least four different varieties. It's nice and tender and easily can be used for a raw kale salad.

I hope y'all have a great week!

-Farmer Todd