It’s CSA Week Two and the gorgeous greens keep pouring in! Does anyone remember this time last year, when we were already entering a drought and the spring greens were few and far between? This kind of seasonal variation is both the beauty and the challenge of a farm and a CSA. While we may not love the rain and the mosquitoes that this kind of year brings, we are really loving these greens!
We’ve discovered that we have a star jumping cow (literally, we have Star the Jumping Cow). Star has really high standards for pasture, and we thought she had been regularly breaking out of the fence by leaning through the electric line to reach the (nominally) greener grass. But we never found a fence that was knocked down, and after she escaped she would inevitably clomp through the pea patch, always leading the others back to the barn door to await Becky’s morning arrival. Then, last week, we caught Star in action. She was gracefully leaping over the electric fence like a bovine ballerina, and the other two cows were excitedly gearing up to follow suit. Some days (many days?) I wonder why we have livestock. Unquestionably, they add huge headaches to our life, but they also add a lot of entertainment. Star may not have been jumping over the moon, but we were still impressed. And we have started stringing the gate higher. We’ll see if we can outwit her yet.
One of the side benefits of being a CSA member is that when we have a crop surplus, we open the field up for members to glean. Right now we have a few beds of spinach that we won’t be able to fully harvest before they go by. So if you are excited to make a big batch of spanikopita (with this week’s Cheese Share Feta!), or if you would like to blanche and freeze a big bag of spinach for next winter, come and by and harvest yourself some delicious spinach! When you enter the driveway, the beds are on your right immediately before the first hoophouse on your right. The spinach is weedy but there is still lots of good stuff there. See this map for the correct spot (the little pin next to the hoophouse). Bring something to harvest into, and you can do what we do and pluck each leaf by hand. And if anyone wants to glean to bring down to the food pantries in Portland, I’ve heard that they are specifically looking for spinach to help feed a familiar vegetable to the refugees that have arrived there in the last week. We’d love to get this excess down there, but we’re stretched too thin to harvest and deliver it ourselves. Let me know if you’d like to try and do this and I’ll get you the contact information.
If you are a yogurt member, you probably already realized that the delivery from The Milkhouse didn’t happen last week! We’re so sorry! It will be in this week’s share, though. Remember that if you would like to add any add-on share, just get in touch with me… most likely we can still fit you in (and pro-rate it for any weeks you missed).
If you still have a balance and haven’t made a June payment, please do so as soon as you can! If you use EBT, I plan to withdraw this month’s payment on Friday (unless I’ve told you otherwise). I will send you an email to confirm. Thank you!
Have a great week, enjoy your crunchy bok choi, your palm-like chard leaves, and your salad greens galore! As always, please be in touch with any questions!
Be well,
Reba and the HCF crew
CSA Week Two: Bok Choi, Lettuce Mix, Spinach, Arugula, Swiss Chard, Broccolini or Broccoli, Summer Turnips (Hakurai), Radishes
Week Two Add-ons: Milk, Yogurt, Bread, Cheese, Mushrooms, Oil & Vinegar
This week’s recipes: Radish Salsa, Double Sesame Bok Choi, Bulgur with Swiss Chard, Chickpeas and Feta
HATCHET COVE FARM 