Lindsey, setting out some Italian eggplant to plant.
Week 2! We hope you all enjoyed all the veggies from last week because here comes another full box. As you sill see, lots of greens this time of year, but some root crops have made an appearance in beets and kohlrabi (the weird purple things). It’s been a wild spring already, so warm with a last bit of drama thrown in. In this part of North Carolina our last frost date is May 15th, and over the weekend mother nature just wanted to make sure we were still on our toes, so she threw some cold weather our way. It didn’t actually frost here, but we had to go through the motions and protect everything that would have be affected if it had. It was pretty close.
We’re very confidant that the cold weather events are behind us so we’re going full steam ahead with planting all the tender summer crops: basil, eggplant, peppers, field tomatoes, beans, and more. We spent all day on Monday getting beds ready to plant all those things and to sow winter squash. We had some technical difficulties, as always happens when you have too much to do before rains come to ruin your plans. Our electric tractor just wouldn’t work. We got it into position to start and then, nothing. So I had to spend precious time figuring out what was wrong, send my dad on a emergency run to the auto parts store, and got it back in business. Stress. In the end, we’re in pretty good shape to plant everything we need to plant on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. (We planted it all!) All the winter squash was sown as well!
The over-wintering onions are on the verge of harvest. The garlic are about to start sending up their scapes. The first round of summer squash have tiny little squashes on them. The cucumbers are flowering. The broccoli is growing. The potatoes have been hilled and are looking great. The blueberries are even starting to barely turn towards blue.
Some unfortunate news…the strawberries are done…with the warm weather and misty rains this week a fungal disease has swept through our patch. We were able to get a few gallons today, but we won’t go back in there to pick (not worth the time and effort and it’s too depressing). Sad, but we will spent our time on other crops instead of picking strawberries. That’s the way of it…
Please return your CSA box next week. These boxes are waxed and are not recyclable, but we reuse them. So PLEASE remember to bring them back next week.
Ideas for Cooking
(We want to thank long time CSA member John Loyd for providing ideas and inspiration in this section!!!)
“If you’re afraid of butter, use cream.” Julia Child
Kohlrabi- those crazy purple root things in the box. Peel the skin away (it’s too tough to eat). You can grate the kohlrabi and put it in a salad; chop into sticks to use with your favorite dip (hummus, etc), or roast it with other root veg. (beets, potatoes, etc.)
THE DIRTY DOZEN
Here is a list of the most pesticide sprayed products in order of how nasty they are….
Apples
Celery
Strawberries
Peaches
Spinach
Nectarines (imported)
Sweet bell peppers
Potatoes
Blueberries (domestic)
Lettuce
Kale/collard GreensThis Week’s Recipes
Click on link:Creamy Mustard Dressing
Strawberry Almond Scones
Strawberry Jam
Easy Preparation Chard