12 May Tue 2009
Week 1 CSA delivery
May 12, 2009
Good Day to You!
Welcome to the opening week of our CSA season. Saturday in South Haven went relatively smoothly, given an untimely, yet characteristic spring day…The earth is greening slowly, even some trees seem reluctant to unfurl their leaves just yet. We are finding field growth very slow as the soil just isn’t warming any too quickly. The compost spread late March needs some 50+ degree avg. temps in order to activate. The microbes we depend upon to liven the soil, and release the nutrition held in the compost, remain dormant otherwise. April, on average was a little cool—and May hasn’t exactly been warm. The radishes and salad mix seem suspended in a miniature holding pattern, making harvest rather timid and un-plentiful. Really, our experience is different every year. On the other hand, we have seen a dandy asparagus season so far. The last two nights of chilly temps has left some damaged stalks behind, but this doesn’t seem to have a huge impact on our distribution of the crop. Organic asparagus is hard to come by, and very special, particularly when you are eating it within 24 hours of harvest. Every season we become greater asparagus snobs, eating all we can from our crop to the point of almost loathing it, knowing we will abstain from the sub-standard representation that can be found throughout the year, flown in from California or Mexico, or further….there’s my proof—complete snobbery.
The straight-from-the-pickers-mouth update on salad mix is that we will need to wait another week harvest it for distribution. There is a good deal of spinach—so this will need to stand in as the leafy green this week. The spinach is an over-wintered field crop. This is planted late fall, not for harvest, but solely intended for spring harvest. You will have tender spring radishes, asparagus, and green onions to round things out. Looking ahead, these items, except for onions as they are finishing this week, will be the make up of the boxes for a few weeks out. We like to begin our season this early in order to give you the asparagus part of the season, but things can be, and we are finding, are quiet in coming on, and your share may seem repetitive. As the season revs up, the variety will as well. This isn’t unusual for each season, and we like to put this out there as a reminder.
FYI: We are not accepting more members for the season. We haven’t quite met our designated capacity, but we feel it will be advantageous for all that we cap shares at the number we have now. If you passed our CSA info along to friends or colleagues, thank you. If you know people still interested, you can feel free to let them know we are filled for the season.
Thanks for joining us this season—I’m leaving off without recipes, if you need prep ideas for these spring delights, let me know!
Be well
Laurie, Lee and IRis
Good Day to You!
Welcome to the opening week of our CSA season. Saturday in South Haven went relatively smoothly, given an untimely, yet characteristic spring day…The earth is greening slowly, even some trees seem reluctant to unfurl their leaves just yet. We are finding field growth very slow as the soil just isn’t warming any too quickly. The compost spread late March needs some 50+ degree avg. temps in order to activate. The microbes we depend upon to liven the soil, and release the nutrition held in the compost, remain dormant otherwise. April, on average was a little cool—and May hasn’t exactly been warm. The radishes and salad mix seem suspended in a miniature holding pattern, making harvest rather timid and un-plentiful. Really, our experience is different every year. On the other hand, we have seen a dandy asparagus season so far. The last two nights of chilly temps has left some damaged stalks behind, but this doesn’t seem to have a huge impact on our distribution of the crop. Organic asparagus is hard to come by, and very special, particularly when you are eating it within 24 hours of harvest. Every season we become greater asparagus snobs, eating all we can from our crop to the point of almost loathing it, knowing we will abstain from the sub-standard representation that can be found throughout the year, flown in from California or Mexico, or further….there’s my proof—complete snobbery.
The straight-from-the-pickers-mouth update on salad mix is that we will need to wait another week harvest it for distribution. There is a good deal of spinach—so this will need to stand in as the leafy green this week. The spinach is an over-wintered field crop. This is planted late fall, not for harvest, but solely intended for spring harvest. You will have tender spring radishes, asparagus, and green onions to round things out. Looking ahead, these items, except for onions as they are finishing this week, will be the make up of the boxes for a few weeks out. We like to begin our season this early in order to give you the asparagus part of the season, but things can be, and we are finding, are quiet in coming on, and your share may seem repetitive. As the season revs up, the variety will as well. This isn’t unusual for each season, and we like to put this out there as a reminder.
FYI: We are not accepting more members for the season. We haven’t quite met our designated capacity, but we feel it will be advantageous for all that we cap shares at the number we have now. If you passed our CSA info along to friends or colleagues, thank you. If you know people still interested, you can feel free to let them know we are filled for the season.
Thanks for joining us this season—I’m leaving off without recipes, if you need prep ideas for these spring delights, let me know!
Be well
Laurie, Lee and IRis
Laurie_2
11:36 AM EDT
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