Edgewood Farm Organics CSA
6/16/15 Newsletter
Happy Wild Spring!
We hope you enjoyed the spring bounty in the last box, and as the season continues we are striving to add variety each week. Pass on the recipes that really wowed you and we will put them up on the website so everyone’s taste buds can be tantalized.
I don’t think it needs to be mentioned but whoa this spring has been intense. There is truly “a new mother nature taking over,” and her son, “el nino” is mostly to blame for this. We have to blame something right?! The storms from the south have been taking their route right up to North Central and central Illinois and that my friends is why we were standing in water past our ankles in the field. Last week we melted in the field to our first humid blasts of the season and now we are wading through water and rescuing plants along the way after last night’s flooding storm. The sunshine today is our glimpse of hope that the powerful rains will take a nap and let our friend the sun do some much need work.
In the field we are continuing to put up the good fight with the weeds and the insects that are all so very happy with the warmth, moisture and splashes of sun. Who wants to talk about weeds anyways?! On a way more positive note, each day we walk into the field there are new blossoms to be discovered. The peas and the first round of zucchini and cucumbers are all blossoming and showing us that they will be ready to bear gifts to us very soon. Zucchini will be coming out of our ears in no time, grab your Momma’s recipes and get ready!
In the Greenhouse we are nurturing our winter squash seedlings that we planted last week. Although they are not germinating “perfectly” the seedlings look healthy and are getting us excited about butter and brown sugar and acorn squash in the fall (when it’s appropriate to cook with your oven again)! We also seeded our first round of Brassicas for the fall. This includes the, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and kohlrabi. Organic farming is truly a song that never ends. Other than that the greenhouse is quiet and we don’t mind at all.
As for the lil Russian Helpers, they are still on summer break, everyday, forever, J. Joe has been a great addition to the field especially when we need help fertilizing with our organic fish gunk, which I don’t know a single other ten year old that would be up for such a task. He is also monumental to us on harvest days when we need produce moved out of the field and out of the sun fast. He is the ultimate “runner” and I can pay him with non-organic gummy worms so everyone is happy. Timmy has been looking for celery in the field for a couple weeks now; there isn’t any celery so that is entertaining. While looking for the celery though he found the peas and I caught him over there trying to take some of the very first ones…..you can’t really get upset with a child that is harvesting and eating raw veggies though! Our most recent delight is our creek swims after work. Bureau Creek runs through the farm just past the field, so we load up our float tubes (thanks MOM), and head to the creek to skip rocks, float down mini rapids and celebrate a day well done.
In Goatlandia, the goats have been naughty and they are probably a little antsy from the intense storms and heat we have had as well. When I say naughty this means that they try to kick and fuss when I’m milking, and provide me with a weekly lesson about not “crying over spilled milk.” Our hands are getting strong from the hand milking and Emily and I have a vision of an automatic system to conquer milking two goats and one time without the use of our hands! It can’t hurt to dream right?! We are making cheese and yogurt and hoping to dive into soaps soon. After a little more practice we would delight in sharing these products with all of you as they are available.
That’s the news on the farm front and this week we are excited to deliver the third box of the season. It’s still necessary to stay keen for those greens but we hope some of the other vegetables will help spice up the meal ventures.
What to expect in the on June 16, 2015
Kale - Blue Dwarf and Winterbor, Curly leaf varieties
Head Lettuce
Spring Salad Mix
Radishes - Pink Beauty variety
Kohlrabi - the alien vegetable, it is the earliest to arrive in the cabbage family and so tasty
Cilantro!!
Garlic Scapes – the curly green thing that looks kind of like a green onion. This is the first part you harvest of the garlic. Look up how to use it but your taste buds will be psyched for this amazing garlic flavor. A little bit goes a long ways!
Turnips - my dear friends and essential farm mentors, PrairiErth Farm, had a surplus of professionally grown turnips and provided them to us so that you could experience them in the CSA boxes. They are a certified organic farm and also run a CSA program down near Bloomington.
I will have a box of extra Pink Beauty radishes available to those who can’t get enough of them.
We want to share our surplus throughout the season to show how grateful we are for your commitment. I hope that system works and always feel free to email feedback anytime. Garden Avenue can expect their box delivery by 3pm and then Campus delivery by 3:45pm. Keep checking out our websites for updates and pictures throughout the season.
Website: http://edgewoodfarmorganics.wix.com/farm
Like us on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edgewoodfarmorganics
“Grow, inspire, repeat.”
With kindness,
Edgewood Farm Organics CSA crew