Turkey Hill CSA Blog

Turkey Hill CSA Newsletter - Week 4

From the Farm

Its mid-July and the farm is looking great! The beds have all been weeded at least once, and we are passing through the field weeding for nearly the last time. The planting is all but over, with just a few salad mix blocks and some cover crop to get in the ground. Harvest is in full swing, and the crops are outgrowing the cricket damage. This week I put together a little captioned photo slide show. I've tried to embed the slide show into the email, but if that doesn't work, or for a full screen version of the slide slow - follow this link to the July 2008 Round Earth Farm Tour slideshow.

Questions and Answers

Q: Why didn't I get Oregano/Thyme last week?
A: The list you read in the newsletter is my best guess at what will be in your box that week, but we occasionally run out of a crop, or decide to hold of on a harvest to let the crop mature completely. We'll do our best to replace the missed items the following week, but please email if you missed a specific crop.

Q: When will the beans, corn and tomatoes be ready?
A: This is a late season, most crops are 2-3 weeks behind their usual schedule, and we are on week 4 of approximately 17, so many crops aren't quite ready. Beans are flowering now and will be ready in two weeks. The sweet corn looks great and will be ready in September, but I hope to buy some Organic Olathe sweet corn to add to the boxes for a few weeks in August. Tomatoes are also late this year, but I may be able to find another local grower willing to spare some early tomatoes for your boxes. Stay tuned for more updates, or email if you have a specific vegetable in mind.

Q: What am I supposed to do with all these GREENS!?
A: Some people love cooked greens and can eat them every day, others can't figure out how to eat all the chard, kale, lettuce and salad the early CSA boxes contain! If you fall into the latter group, see if you can find a friend or neighbor who might want them! In a few weeks, as the boxes fill out with other vegetables, we will lighten up on the greens, and offer these in the (soon to appear in CB) "extras" area.

Send me your questions! Need a recipe? We have a recipe page on the website. Want to know when a certain vegetable is coming in? confused about something in your box? email me!

This Week's Box

Chard - bunched
Beets - still more to come
Head Lettuce - this is the peak season for head lettuce - green & red romaines, green butters, red butter next week.
Salad Mix - i keep planting these greens nearly every week, and we water them every day to try to keep them tender. watch for a changing mix of lettuce types.
Dill - fine leafed for now, dill seed later in the season
Scallions (green onions) - a special treat at our farm, this crop takes a lot of attention and many years we have little or no scallions or pearl onions. this year we have one really nice stand so everyone can get some! Delicious in a soup, you can add at the very end so the scallions are barely cooked - they are very sweet.
Peas (unless we run out again, the rabbits really decimated the 1st batch of shelling peas. the second batch is a week away and is rabbit free)
Radishes - spicy, try these thinly sliced on salad
Kohlrabi - These round brassicas are similar to broccoli stem. Peel off the hard shell, then steam or fry the inside. Usually harvested a bit larger, we are harvesting these at a smaller size while they are still looking good.

Full Share

Extra heads lettuce

Kale - bunched or bagged

Fruit

Yellow Reinier Bing Cherries & Bing Cherries from First Fruits of Paonia (transitional organic this week) - YUM - enjoy these delicious fruits

Next Week

garlic - we picked all the garlic this week and it looks great, we'll start giving everyone garlic after it dries a bit, next week.
more peas
parsley
more head lettuce varieties

Apricots (fruit share)

Coming Soon (1-3 weeks)

Peaches
Chives
Carrots, Baby
Garlic, dried
Beans - Green, Yellow & Purple
Summer Squash
Bulb Fennel

3 or more Weeks

Broccoli
Cauliflower

Cabbage - Red, Green & Savoy

Cucumbers

Carrots

Onions

Potatoes

Winter Squash

Pumpkins

Flowers - Gladioli, Zinnias, Snapdragons, Bouquets - i'll have these for special order (CB) and for sale at the farm

everything else!