Birds and Buds

Hello Farm Friends,

Is it possible we have had our last sub-zero night ’till Fall? I sure hope so!

There are finally buds on all of the trees and our hay fields are looking green again. Tiny weeds are already sprouting in our wet garden beds so I’m pleased things have dried up enough to at least do a little hand preparation even if we can’t get the tiller out yet.

Charlie and I filled the last of the beds in the Small Spade greenhouse with some lovely little lettuce transplants and an insurance seeding of radishes while Lauren was distracted by baby goats!

With the greenhouse full, the rest of our seedlings will have to go out to the field ready or not, so I’m hoping we can get some in tomorrow before the next rain blows in, it will be a chance to test out our new transplanter as the first of our paperpot trays are ready to go. Will it work in untilled soil? Only one way to find out.

Along with the garlic, in the garden right now we have some overwintered Onions and Kale returning. Both of those crops are incredibly cold hardy, but they are also biennial which means that in their second year they will produce seed. For us, that means that it is a rush in the Spring to harvest them for an extra early crop before they begin to flower. The buds on the kale plants can be eaten just like rapini or broccoli, but if you don’t catch them right away they begin to put all of their energy up into the flowers and stop producing leaves.

That time was this week so our Spring Shares will have some Kale Raab included. We also harvested Spring Onions although they give us a longer harvest window and I have heard too that the flower stalks, or scapes on onions are a delicacy in some places, if you can catch them just at the right moment, which I have yet to do, but maybe this year is the year.

Our harvest this week has a bit of an unintended Asian theme with the Green Onions joined by Daikon Radish and the cutest Baby Bok Choi, sadly our Cilantro wasn’t quite big enough to bunch but if you just can’t wait I can send you home with enough for a garnish!

Sincerely,
— Jenny

This Week’s Share:

💚 Green Onions (or Green Garlic if you prefer)
⚪️ Daikon Radish
🥬 Baby Kale Raab
🍃 Spring Mix
🚀 Arugula
🥬 Baby Bok Choi