12th Week of the Summer CSA Season: Week of August 27th

Aug 24

*green curly kale... growing tips are a mathematical beauty, photo by Adam Ford*

This Week’s Availability

This week we will have

Greens: head lettuce, spinach, arugula, pea shoots, green cabbage, green curly kale bunches, lacinato kale bunches, rainbow chard
Roots: red beets, yellow beets, carrots, new red potatoes, new yellow potatoes
Alliums: onions, garlic, scallions, garlic scapes, shallots
Fruiting Crops: slicing cucumbers, Japanese cucumbers, heirloom tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, tomatillos, shishito peppers*, jalapeno peppers, Asian eggplant, Italian eggplant, spaghetti squash, husk cherries
Herbs and Miscellaneous: basil, parsley, rhubarb, celery, cilantro

*Shishito peppers are a super fun and delicious pepper, but you have to enjoy surprises. They are sometimes sweet and mild and they are sometimes sweet and spicy. They are known to be of medium heat and delightful sweetness, but in our experience, they either have substantial heat, or they don’t. I recommend them to people who enjoy some spiciness in their life, but are also not disappointed if they are mild. They are commonly eaten blistered, either pan fried or grilled, by tossing them whole in olive oil, and then sprinkled with some salt and fresh lemon juice after they are removed from the heat. Then you have a delicious platter of peppers, some mild, some spicy.

We listed several items available for bulk purchasing at wholesale pricing on the online platform. This week we have heirloom tomatoes, roma tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, garlic scapes, garlic, onions, basil, and frozen elderberries, available in bulk amounts if you do any preserving for winter. If you pick up at the barn and want to order any of those items in bulk, just send us an email.

Click here to order your veggies for a delivered bag to Ludlow or Rutland

*Vanessa washing carrots in the barrel washer, photo by Adam Ford*

Farm News

Last weekend I got to visit our friends’ farm, Muddy Fingers Farm, in Hector, New York, where they also grow certified organic veggies for a CSA. I loved getting to walk around their fields to see their crop selection… we have gotten many cool ideas from them throughout the years. Once super fun thing I got to do while I was visiting, was use a special tool, called a prone weeder, to help transplant their fall fennel. This machine is pretty nifty: Two people can lay down in the superman position to save their knees and legs from hours of repetitive squats for weeding and transplanting. It also has a great shade structure over top for sun protection. It was definitely a learning curve for my body to practice transplanting in a totally different position than I am used to, but the idea is that it saves wear and tear on the body for the long term. At this point in my life, I feel lucky to have knees and quads that allow for hours of transplanting, but perhaps it’s shortsighted to not think of what those knees and quads will be like in a few more decades. Either way, it was cool to get to try out another small farm’s tools, because there are so many creative tools out there for smaller farm production.

*prone weeder at Muddy Fingers Farm... it's driven with your feet at the back (right), and there are even little forehead rests at the front (left), photo by Liz Martin*

This week at this farm, we continued seeding winter greens in the prop house for transplanting in a few weeks when we take out all the summer crops from the tunnels. We also transplanted some outdoor fall crops and started a some weeding projects. All the onions were harvested and brought in to cure. The cured garlic was snipped from the dried tops. We got a lot of elderberries vacuum sealed and frozen into 5-pound bulk bags. (If you make your own syrup for the winter, they are $50 per bag, reach out to us if you are interested.) And we just kept up with all the various harvests that continue to roll in this time of year.

For many years folks have asked if we sell Evening Song Farm t-shirts, and we finally got some printed in two different blues, a robin egg blue, and a sky blue, both pictured below. The shirts are organic cotton, the sizes seem to run a bit large, and we have XS, S, M, L, and XL available in both colors. You can buy it on the online platform where you order weekly veggies, or if you pickup up the barn, just send me an email with the size and color you want, and we will have it for you when you pick up veggies. We also had staff hoodies made with our logo, and when folks have seen those, they ask if we have any of those available… alas, we only had enough printed for the farmers who work here, but there seems to be enough interest that we may put together another order. If you might be interested in ordering a hoodie, fill out this quick interest poll so we get a sense of whether or not we will put in another order. (This is not a commitment, and we would send out a separate pre-order form at a later date.)

Have a great week!

-ESF Team: Ryan, Kara, Galen, Taylor, K2, Miguel, Katie, Vanessa, Evan, Bryan, Leah, and Cindy (and Sky and Soraya)

Weekly Recipe

If you are like me, and your favorite salad green is the baby lettuce… this is the week to lean into fancy spinach or arugula salad recipes. This arugula salad is a favorite of mine.

Roasted Beet and Arugula Salad