*first round of gorgeous tomatoes in the ground! photo by Adam Ford*

Do you pickup in Rutland?

Starting this week, the co-op will store all the CSA bags on a shelf near the back of the store: Go all the way back towards the cleaning section, turn right, and the rack is there against the wall by the staff area. Pictures below to help orient you to the new bag location.

Click here to order your veggies for a delivered bag

This Week’s Availability

This week we will have red beets, orange carrots (Juniper Hill), rainbow carrots (Juniper Hill), sweet potatoes (Juniper Hill) shallots, red and yellow onions (Juniper Hill), red potatoes (Atlas Farm), cooking spinach, mesclun mix, arugula, green curly kale, baby lettuce, pea shoots, claytonia, microgreens, and frozen heirloom/beefsteak tomatoes.

(There are no limits on baby lettuce or mesclun mix this week.)

Cooking spinach is our final harvest of our high tunnel spinach before our outdoor planting will be ready to harvest next week. This spinach has some spots on the leaves that make it less attractive for salads. But it still stores well in the fridge for a long time, and these bags will be packed larger for great spinach to cook with! We love sautéing spinach in butter with a little garlic, white wine, and a pinch of salt.

Click here to order your veggies for a delivered bag

Ordering closes at noon on Tuesdays for Wednesday bags, and at midnight on Wednesday for Friday bags.

You do not need to fill out the form if you plan to come to the barn on Wednesdays or Thursdays to pick out your items yourself.

Farm News

This week began with cold, grey weather and ended with fierce windy weather. It was a good week to do indoor projects, and we were lucky that we had quite a bit to do in the greenhouse and high tunnels. In the high tunnels, the photos above show the cucumbers and tomatoes that went into the Trunchbull, kept warm through these cold nights with the assistance of the pellet boiler. Cindy set up the drip irrigation lines, and this week we’ll roll landscape fabric in between the rows to minimize weed competition with these plants. Last year we experienced problems with aphids on our tomatoes, and another vegetable grower who visited our farm observed that not all of our tomato flowers were turning into fruit: he suggested that we were likely experiencing a pollination issue. This year we will be getting some technical assistance from UVM extension to help us develop a comprehensive plan to manage aphids in our tunnel: I’m looking forward to learning more how to manage those very interesting animals. For pollination, we will likely try something new and purchase a hive of bumble bees to set in our high tunnel to aid pollination.

In the propagation house, we spent the bulk of our working hours seeding and potting up all the plants pre-ordered for people’s gardens. So many plants! Last year we increased the size of our propagation house to be able to grow more plants for people to grow in their own gardens, and we’re feeling really good about all the different vegetables, herbs, and flowers that are started in there. In about 3 weeks that space will be so full of big, eager plants!

Sign up for the summer CSA season is still available. We aren’t close to full yet, but it is the most popular season, and we like to make sure there is always room for current members, so if you plan on doing the summer season, sign up when you are ready.

Have a great week,

-ESF Team: Kara, Ryan, Molly, Cindy, Taylor, Vanessa, Katie, K2, and Galen

This Week's Recipe: Kale Chips