Hello Farm friends,
A Helter-skelter week indeed, CSA Pick-up, Markets and so many things to tend to all at once! Today we were joined by Sofie, who I met when her family joined our CSA a few years back, at the time she said she would love to work on a farm but she was a bit too young to work. A few years went by and sure enough she is still interested and now old enough for a summer job, so we put her to work today in the sweltering heat moving rocks and heavy tarps around. Welcome to the team Sofie!
It looks like there might be a Thunder Storms rolling in and with all this heat, we will be happy for some rain once again and a bit of relief from the humidity. Although a brief pause in the morning when we are harvesting would be nice too.
Some of the crops and all of the weeds do seem to be enjoying the heat more than we are. The tomatoes are growing like mad and the zucchini plants are already producing some tiny fruit and looking big and healthy. If we get the rain that’s forecast, I suspect we will harvest more summer squash and zucchini in the next two weeks then we did all last year!
The aforementioned giant tarp we moved to free up a new planting area so we can catch-up on some of our direct seeding of beets and carrots among other things. I’m excited to say, though, that the first of the Spring carrots should be ready to harvest this week.
Also new and highly anticipated this week are Peas! Between the three varieties we planted, I think we should have enough to fill our CSA shares and still have a few left over for market, fingers crossed, but come early if you are hoping to get some. We had to change our Market weeks in Toronto, so we will hopefully be back again this week.
Gai Lan, sometimes called Chinese Broccoli, will also make an appearance, I understand it is a common side dish in China, but not as easy to find here in Canada. It is a little bit like Broccoli but you eat the leaves and stalk as well as the little florets. I find it delicious sauteed with garlic scapes and a little soy sauce, but I would love to hear what others like to do with it.
Maybe you can tell me next week after you have tried it.
Sincerely,
— Jenny
This week’s share:
🥬 Lettuce
🎈Radishes
🌱 Scapes
🍃 Spicy Mix
☮️ Peas
🥕 Baby Carrots
🥬 Gai Lan or Bok Choi
🇨🇭 Swiss Chard
🌿 Herbs
