Week 3

Lots of greenery of various shades this week:

• kale – “rainbow lacinato”
• salad turnips – “hakurei” (remember you can eat the roots raw if you like, and the greens are lovely cooked, similar to mustard greens)
• parsley
• lettuce – one head of “Nevada” (green) and one mini head (various varieties)
• arugula – we bunched it with the roots this time as an experiment wondering if it might keep better.
• broccoli raab – just a small bunch this week
• fennel
• green onion

Fennel is probably the item this week that is confusing to many folks.  A few ideas: 1) fennel, arugula & citrus salad, 2) slice it thin and add it to a green salad, 3) pickle it, 4) grill it.  Also remember that as a CSA member you have access to the awesome Cook With What You Have recipe resource if you are ever stumped by a vegetable.

In the field we are getting our tomatoes strung up onto trellises using the double-leader method.  This basically means that we will prune each tomato plant to two main stalks, and train each of them up a string which is attached to a high horizontal top wire.  As they grow, we prune off other branches besides the main two in order to encourage more flowering & fruiting, and eventually to make harvest easier.

Other than trellising, we’re trying our best to keep up on the weeds of course.  Overall I’d say this is going well, though there are a few beds (carrots ….  ugh!)  that need some serious hand-weeding, which is so much more time-consuming than weeding upright with a hoe, as you can imagine.

Until next week, enjoy the flavors of spring,

Farmer Matt.