Week #1 Saturday, June 13 – Tuesday, June 16, 2009 Downloadable Word .doc for printing
In your bag
Red Leaf & Butterhead Lettuce
Spinach
Scallions
Baby Bok Choy
Cherriete Radishes
Red Russian Kale
Please note: All vegetables from Spring Hill will need to be washed. We rinse just about everything here but you’ll want to wash everything before eating.
Coming Soon
Next week we’ll have some spring turnips for you, more spinach and lettuce, green onions and kale and I’ll bet we’ll have some garlic scapes. We’re keeping an eye on the Chinese cabbage.
Going on Vacation – Donate your Share!
My name is Robin Schow, and I’ve been a member of the Spring Hill Community Farm for a number of years. My family and I live in the SE Minneapolis neighborhood of Prospect Park where there is a small food shelf that serves a public housing community (Glendale Townhomes) within the neighborhood - the Glendale food shelf is open three days/week and serves mostly Somali and African American families. As you may know, the high cost of organic produce puts it out of reach for most low income families, so I’ve been working with a community social worker this spring to help increase the Glendale community’s exposure to fresh produce, one way is to provide several weekly shares of produce from local CSA’s to the food shelf. I’m asking Spring Hill Community Farm members to participate in the following way: If you are going on vacation, please consider donating your unused shares to the Glendale Food Shelf. Let Mike and Patty know when you will be gone, and they will arrange to have your share delivered to my drop off site. Thank you for helping to increase access to healthful foods in this community.
Farm News
Welcome everyone to the first Spring Hill delivery of the 2009 season! It is so good to get some harvesting and thus some good, fresh eating underway. This year’s early greens are amazing. They have been loving this cool spring, particularly since we’ve been able to keep them well irrigated. The spinach and lettuce look beautiful as do the radishes. The early broccoli which will be ready in a few weeks is also thriving. When that beautiful rain came last Saturday and again on Monday, we were thrilled. The cool weather which has been so good for the greens has been a little tough on the heat lovers like tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. We had to delay their planting since we were still getting patchy frost here the first week of June. They all planted now, but clearly they’re hoping for some 80 degree days and 50 degree nights which we’re just not getting yet.
Speaking of planting, we purchased a mechanical transplanter this winter which has made an incredible difference in our work load this spring. Because we rely on students for additional labor, May can be a little crazy for us. There’s a lot to prepare and plant in a very short period of time. The transplanter made a huge difference. Not only was it quicker, our knees and backs weren’t sore at the end of the day. What surprised us though, was that the plants were actually happier after being mechanically transplanted than we have seen when we hand transplant them. We think it’s because the transplanter creates a hole, then drops a big dose of water in the hole and then the plant is placed in the mud. We’ve always planted and then watered. I think there’s something to the plant being placed in the mud. In any case we’re happy and the plants are happy. It’s a good mix!
Next Week’s Harvesters
Saturday, June 20th - Barkers, Gustafsons, McAllisters, Seabury-Kolods, Wells/Cornelius
Tuesday, July 23rd – Entzels, Melander/Ridgeway, Gersich/Hartman, Hage
