Hello everyone, Jess and Sarah here.
Hooray! Day 1 of the Summer CSA has arrived! We are thrilled to have many new “likes” and subscribers over these past few weeks here at CSA365. We encourage anyone and everyone to ask questions, and to share recipes, tips, and feedback along the way. The more we learn from each other, the more comprehensive a web page this will be for all of us in our CSA journey!
I caught our Springdell farmers hard at work staking the tomato plants today, one by one.
Alina and Jamie were tying each plant by hand, and not pictured are the 20+ rows of tomatoes that remain to be staked. To the Springdell Crew, we thank you for the time, care and hard work that goes into these fields that provide us our bounty.
Speaking of our bounty, let’s talk a bit about our shares. We will be showing the contents of our weekly shares with you every Monday, our pickup day. We are signed up for a full share, super greens share, super fruit share, egg share, and fresh cut flower share (which will start up a bit further into the season). If you are another share size your contents will be slightly different. Not to worry friends, farmer Jamie keeps track of it all and makes sure it balances out in the end. Remember, the beginning of the season will be “light”, but that doesn’t last long. Before you know it our summer shares will be so heavy you may be asking for help to get to your car! An awesome problem to have!
No matter what share you have be sure to look at the boards at CSA pickup time. The boards will tell you what is in your share, what you need to get from the water bins etc. The boards lay it all out for you, for example here is the board for a small share today:
When you are taking your contents from the water bins be sure to place them into your numbered bin. Quick tip for you, take a photo of your card so if you forget your number, just look it up in your phone.
Whew! After all of that let’s take a look at what is in our first share box of the summer:
- 3 quarts of strawberries
- 1 bunch of rhuubarb
- two bunches of red Russian kale
- 1 head of pak choi
- 1 bunch of parsley
- 1 bunch of kale
- 1 head of lettuce
- 2 quarts of strawberries
Don’t forget about the pick your own herb garden at the farm! On the way out, Jess stopped to pick a few sprigs of mint, lavender and thyme. Her boys took turns in their usual routine of pinching off and devouring the mini pansies in the herb garden. Jess’ littlest guy would only eat the purple ones, convinced that they were the tastiest.
Finally, just a quick note to say how excited we are not just that our shares are FILLED with amazingly sweet strawberries (Jess’ kids ate one entire quart on the car ride home alone and Sarah’s family polished one off at dinner) but also that Springdell will be selling these beauties at the Westford Strawberry Festival this Saturday from 10-4! Hope to see you there!
We send you off with this one yummy thought…
Have a great week everyone!