5th Week of Winter CSA: Feb 24–26
This week’s availability
This week we will have yellow onions, red onions, garlic, celeriac, yellow beets, red beets, carrots, red potatoes, yellow potatoes, watermelon radish, green cabbage, red cabbage, sweet potatoes, mini mixed roots, mesclun mix, rainbow chard, and parsley.
Mini mixed roots are bags of an assortment of smaller root veggies, often a mixture of potatoes, carrots, beets, and watermelon radishes. They are perfect for roasting whole, or adding to soups and stews.
*wow, if it’s possible, I am enjoying the sweet potato varieties from Laughing Child Farm even more!
This week’s greens limit:
Mini shares: 1 greens item
Small shares: 2 greens items
Medium shares: 2 greens items
Large shares: 3 greens items
Super shares: 3 greens items
You do not need to use the order form if you are coming to the farm to pick out your veggies from the display cooler.
All delivery days and times are provided as a reminder at the bottom of the newsletter.
Reminder to sign up for a Spring CSA Share if you haven’t already!
We will probably need to turn our Spring CSA signup into a wait list in a few weeks, so sign up now if you haven’t already.
Planning a garden for the summer?
here for our online plant sales that are up and running to pre-order spring plants for your garden.
Chickweed (our annoying winter weed) in the understory of Tokyo bekana (one of the greens in the mesclun mix)
Parsley in the display cooler, photo by Adam Ford
Farm News
(Feel free to stop reading anything below here.)
Last week we transplanted lots of baby greens in the understory of the mature kale plants in the tunnel. As the spring marches forward the kale plants will eventually produce smaller and fewer leaves, making more space for the salad greens underneath to grow. When we are ready to take the kale plants out, the greens underneath are nearly ready for their first harvest themselves.
We had one downer though: While moving the tender little transplants from the grow room to the high tunnel on a very cold (but beautiful, sunny day!) some plants got blasted too hard by the cold temperatures, and we were not able to transplant them. It was wild. In the spring, when we move especially tender, frost-intolerant crops from the propagation house to the high tunnels for transplanting, we usually bring them over with some make shift covers on them to avoid this exact issue. We were surprised to see how quick these little greens could be killed even with their general hardiness. Just shows us how farming will ALWAYS keep us on our toes, no matter how many times we have done things year after year!
Last week I mentioned the book War on Bugs, by Will Allen, and Shrewsbury’s library wizard, Joan, let us know that the book is available in our town library! Shrewsbury’s library is so cool, and if you are interested in checking out that book, it’s right here in town. Thanks, Joan!
In my February quest to learn more about agricultural Black history, I found it somewhat hard to learn about historical Black women farmers. This wasn’t surprising given the marginalization of both Black farmers and women farmers, but I did enjoy this short, inspiring read about contemporary Black women famers.
I do want to highlight, a lesser known skill and gift shared by Harriet Tubman. Besides rescuing many dozens of enslave people and working as a spy for the Union army during the Civil War, she was also a knowledgeable herbalist and wildcrafter. Her herbalism practice is most well known for how she was able to use herbs to keep babies calm and quiet as their families fled for freedom on the Underground Railroad. She had extensive foraging knowledge which provided needed food for many people during the 13 trips to freedom she led. Tubman also used her herbal skills during her service in the Civil War. On a recent post by Soul Fire Farm, I read that she “famously cured a soldier who was dying from dysentery by concocting a medicinal infusion made from water lilies and cranesbill.”
Recipe of the Week
We’re working on creating a recipe index on this site so that you can easily search and browse the recipes that we share. It’s a work in progress, but we will be posting our weekly recipes there from here on out. You can find this week’s recipe for Chard and Sweet Potato Stew here in our new recipe index.
Have a great week,
-ESF Team: Kara, Ryan, Molly, Katie, Grace, Taylor, Cindy, and Sam
radishes & salad turnips recently tucked into an open bed in the tunnels
Yellow beets in the display cooler, photo by Adam Ford
snow on the propagation house, photo by Adam Ford
Sweet sunset during CSA pickup day, photo by Adam Ford
How to get veggies during the Winter CSA Share
All online orders are due by noon on Tuesdays. Harvesting winter greens requires many factors to be just right, so we need the flexibility to know exactly what we are harvesting as early in the week as possible.
Oh no, I missed the order deadline! No worries. (I would probably miss it pretty often myself.) You are welcome to come to the barn on Wednesdays between 9 am and 7 pm to pick out your veggies. Or send us an email, and we will pack whatever we are able to deliver. It just might not include any greens if the many harvesting conditions don’t allow after the order deadline.
Pickup at the farm: The display cooler will be set up to pick out your veggies from 9 am to 7 pm on Wednesdays. Shunpike Road can be narrow during the winter months, and slippery on actively snowy days. If you are not comfortable coming to the farm any week, consider getting a pre-packed bag at either Stewart’s or Pierce’s in Shrewsbury, or in Ludlow or Rutland. We will try to make a note of Wednesday’s projected weather each week in the newsletter. (So far it looks like it won’t be snowy this Wednesday for pickup.)
Pickup at Pierce’s Store in Shrewsbury: Fill out the weekly order form by noon on Tuesday and pick up your bag from Peirce’s Store on Wednesday between noon and 6 pm.
Pickup at Stewarts Maple Marketplace in Cuttingsville: Fill out the weekly order form by noon on Tuesday and pick up your bag from the Stewart Maple Marketplace on Route 103 on Friday between noon and 5 pm.
Pickup at the Rutland Area Food Co-op in Rutland: Fill out the weekly order form by noon on Tuesday and pick up your bag from the co-op on Wednesday or Friday between noon and 7 pm.
Pickup at Knight Tubs, Pools, and Spas in Ludlow: Fill out the weekly order form by noon on Tuesday and pick up your bag from Knight Tubs between 2 and 5 pm on Wednesday. They are curbside only, so call or knock when you arrive, and they will bring your bag out.
All of these pickup spots love supporting their community, like offering us this favor to use their spaces. If you have any trouble getting your bag, let us know.