(CSA Newsletter: Week 11)
Meet this week’s vegetables:
This last week, we spent more time outside working in the fields than we have in months — thanks of course to the gorgeous warm sunny weather we’ve been enjoying here in Oregon.
I imagine that many other people in the CSA have been puttering around outside lately. We know that many of you enjoy vegetable gardening and are probably busy planting as well. We thought it might be useful at this point in the season to share a sneak preview of the upcoming season and how it might help dictate what you want to plant in your own garden.
Let’s start with the “negative.” Here are things that (alas) we will not be growing or providing this year: any fruit (aside from melons), cherry tomatoes, stalk celery (as opposed to celery root), and hot peppers (we’ve grown hot peppers the last three years and have found that most people were not excited about them). If you love any of these things, make sure you have some in your own garden — especially things like cherry tomatoes that are quite easy to grow (but time intensive for us to pick for all of you). Strawberries and raspberries are also relatively easy to grow at home, where you can pick and eat them as fresh as can be.
Next, there are some things we will grow this year, but perhaps not in the quantity you might desire. We will be growing sweet corn, but only once or twice, since it is a very inefficient use of our space (but sooooo good, so of course we need some!). We will provide enough green beans, tomatoes, and peppers for you to eat fresh but not enough for you to put up. If you love making big batches of salsa, perhaps you should plant several tomato plants of your own. For the purpose of putting up, we recommend growing ‘determinate’ tomatoes, which are ‘bush style.’ They’re easier to grow and generally set tomatoes that ripen all once rather than over time (more useful if you want a big batch at once). Roma is a great simple variety that makes great thick sauces and salsas. There may be the opportunity for you to place special orders for sweet corn and tomatoes when we have them in abundance, but we can’t plan for that well in advance.
Also, while we will give out lots of fresh cooking greens in the early summer and early fall, we tend to avoid giving out many cooking greens mid-summer. So, if you want to eat kale every day all summer long, you might want to plant a few plants in your garden. They’re beautiful, easy to grow, and will keep producing through the fall and winter!
There are many vegetables that we plan to provide in abundance so that you will most likely get your fill (unless there’s something you just love love love and want to eat all the time). We plan to harvest plenty of: lettuce, broccoli, carrots, onions, beets, summer squash and zucchini, cucumbers, basil, tomatoes (for fresh eating), sweet peppers, and more. In the early season, there will be plenty of fresh eating greens, Asian greens, radishes, turnips, peas, fava beans, etc. In the main season, we’ll supplement the staples listed above with other fun vegetables: fennel bulbs, shelling beans, melons, summer cabbages, potatoes, eggplants, and more.
Hopefully this sneak peek is helpful as you plan your own garden. For those of you who don’t also have a home vegetable garden and want to supplement your CSA shares, we recommend checking out the McMinnville Farmers Market. The market opens in late May and will be awesome this year. This will be our first year not being at market as a vendor, but many new veggie and fruit vendors will be participating this year. We’re also blessed with many great farm stands around Yamhill County that offer quality produce at very reasonable prices — some even offer discounted U-pick prices for traditional canning veggies like tomatoes.
On a warm day like today (our high was 85° at the farm on Monday), talk of tomatoes seems perfectly reasonable. Of course, the reality is that tomatoes are still months off. All day today, I kept reminding myself that — yes — it is still April. But gardens take planning, and it is certainly time to begin planting our favorite fruits and veggies for summer eating.
It is also time for us to be busy out here on the farm. Between weeding what we’ve already planted, working up new ground, sowing new seeds for future planting, and harvesting — we’re busy! But it feels good to be making great progress towards this delicious season. Although this week’s share doesn’t quite reflect the changing season yet, this warm weather is having an effect on the garden. The salad mix is growing; the radishes have germinated; and soon we’ll be shifting our diet to truly spring foods.
It’s hard for us to continue eating winter foods when it’s 85° out, but it’s important to remember that it takes time for the weather to actually be reflected in the fields. Soon! Enjoy this week’s vegetables!
Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla
