2023 CSA Newsletter #2
Week 2 is here, folks! It was great to see and meet folks at last week's pick up. As we near the end of the month, we are continuing the bulk of our work in the greenhouse and hoophouses. After getting all of those plants in the ground, especially the tomatoes, the next big task is to get our trellis system setup. We grow indeterminate tomato plants and each one will get its own string to climb up during the season. It is fairly labor intensive on the front end because each string is single use and will be composted at the end of the season. Well, all 700 plus tomato plants have string and most are now clipped and supported. Now we can begin our weekly "suckering and trellising". In a few weeks, when the peppers and eggplants get a bit larger, we will set up their trellis system.
Additionally, garlic scapes were harvested daily to ensure we were getting them at peak tenderness. If you are unfamiliar with scapes, you will be introduced to them tomorrow. Garlic scapes are in my top ten, possibly even top five, of my favorite things that we grow. This edible part of the plant is found in hardneck varieties of garlic. It is actually important to harvest the scapes to maximize the size of the garlic. After the scapes have been harvested, the plant activates its remaining energy into bulb formation. In about 3 weeks or so, we can start harvesting "fresh" garlic. It appears that we have the possibility of some really nice size heads forming. I'm leaning towards curing most of it for fall garlic, but I'll get an inventory of what we have growing and make that decision. There is also a small number of garlic that is going to end up significantly smaller and that is most likely going to be the "fresh" garlic. We usually plant garlic at the end of October but this garlic was planted in mid-December. It was one of those freakishly warm days and there was this extra garlic laying around that we had prepped to plant but never got around to it.
Alright, let's get to this week's CSA share. As you may have guessed, a new item this week are the garlic scapes. Garlic scapes can be used just as you would garlic but probably my favorite is to make garlic scape pesto. Another favorite and super simple way to consume scapes is to marinate them in some olive oil and a coarse salt and toss them on the grill until they just begin to blacken. Speaking of pesto, have you tried swiss chard pesto before? Because rainbow chard is in the share again this week. The one great thing about pesto is that it is easily frozen. If that's the route that you ever plan on going, consider blanching to maintain as much vibrancy in the color. There is also going to be the lettuce mix, spinach, carrots, and salad turnips. This week we also have basil plants in the share. In addition to your traditional pesto basil, there will also be Thai, cinnamon, lemon and Tulsi plants. Lastly, there will be a small amount of strawberries in the share. They were hit pretty hard in the mid-May deep freeze, but some berries have survived. They are much, much smaller and appear to be ripening a bit later this season. If the weather cooperates, we could get a couple of more weeks of strawberries. Fingers crossed.
Have a great week!
-Farmer Todd