Week #1 Saturday, June 21 – Tuesday, June 24, 2008 Downloadable Word .doc for printing

In your bag
Lettuce (green leaf, red leaf)
Scallions
French breakfast radishes*
Red Russian Kale
Broccoli Raab
Garlic Scapes**
*We lost half of our first radish planting and all of the second one. Our plan is to give all shares a small bunch this week so everybody at least gets a few.
**These curly, tasty treats can be cut in 1 inch pieces and sautéed in olive oil for a few minutes until tender. They’ll add a nice, mild garlic flavor to your greens, salad, eggs, etc.

Coming Soon
More lettuce and scallions next week and probably some Red Russian Kale. The first planting of spinach is water-logged and yellow. We’re hoping with the dry weather it will come around before it bolts in the heat and we can send some next week. Cross your fingers!

Garlic plants are starting to send up their scape so look for those tasty treats over the next few weeks. We’re also keeping an eye on the first broccoli planting and the Chinese cabbage. They’re not long away. The peas are in full bloom and the zucchini has blossoms and a few very small fruits.

A Few Weather Notes
As you no doubt are aware, this spring has been cool and VERY wet. In the fields the cool weather has meant that things are growing slow and the heavy rains and continual wet weather have meant we have lost a couple of things – some radishes, maybe some spinach. Mostly it has meant we haven’t been able to either seed or transplant in a timely fashion. In the bags, it will likely mean that there are gaps of crops like beans, carrots, and greens. As we are reminded each year, weather trumps all. We will continue to do our best.

Farm News

The farm’s been all a-buzz this week getting ready for the first delivery and FINALLY getting some field work done. In the getting ready for the first delivery department, we’ve been cleaning tubs, organizing supplies, setting up the packing area, sorting through cloth bags and making sure everyone knows where and when to pick-up their vegetables.

In the fields, we’ve been playing catch-up. No floods here, but plenty of rain that has kept us from much of the planting and cultivating we would have liked to be doing. It’s been a good week though and with our crew of helpers – including a group of members last Tuesday – we’ve made good progress.

This year David and Maggie are joined by Roy and Amber who worked here last year and also Matt, who has done some odd jobs for us in the past and this year joins the daily crew. They’re a great bunch and we’re fortunate to have them. With everyone working together, we’ve cultivated and hilled the potatoes, weeded the garlic, trellised tomatoes and peas, cultivated the onions and greens sections, transplanted lettuce, fennel, beets, basil, chard, cucumbers, hand-weeded carrots, diamonded hoed the cabbage, Brussels sprouts and kale, transplanted pie and Halloween pumpkins into rye, seeded another round of cucumbers and chard in the greenhouse, and planted beans, cilantro in the field! Whew!

Saturday’s work crew doesn’t know it yet but we have big plans for them! We’ll have to harvest most of those leafy greens before they get here so we hope to put some of those extra hands in the fields planting parsley, flowers and setting tomato cages.
With the sun shining, it makes it much easier to say we are very much looking forward to the season.

Next Week’s Harvesters
Saturday, June 28th - Todd & Jean Seabury –Kolod, Bernadette Knaeble, NEED TWO!!!
Tuesday, July 1st – Mary Yee, Elaine Eschenbacher, Kari Hansen, Dayna Anderson