CSA Newsletter ~ Week 1

Getting ready for planting in our new hoop house.

Here it goes the start of our 6th CSA season.

A huge Thank You to everyone who has signed up for this years CSA at Strattons Farm and for choosing to support a local farm and to eat seasonally over the next twenty weeks!

It has been a roller coaster weather ride so far this year from a very hot May which effected some of our seed germination and caused some of our lovely Asian greens to bolt early, no rain for 39 days and then to cap it off a killing frost which now is nearly forgotten as all the plants have bounced back, been reseeded or replaced with spares we had available. Then we entered June.... and I think we have been making up for all the rain we did not get in May!  Weeding and transplanting has been fun in the mud!!!!

So here's hoping for a season of warm weather and regular evenings filled with rain, but a few days without rain would be lovely so hay making and weeding can start!  

Over the next twenty weeks we will include lots of recipes in the newsletters but do remember to read through some of last years recipes or if you find a recipe you love then please e-mail it in with a photo or you can post it directly to our Facebook page. We have also been adding recipes to our Pinterest page as well.  Our aim is to get the newsletter up and ready by Monday but please do not hold us to this! Between the two of us we do rather a lot at the farm, and some evenings all we want to do is crawl into our beds, but we will do our best to have the newsletter up a few days before the first pick up of the week.

Here are some great resources (books and websites) that we love using for finding different recipes from!  If you have a favourite book or website please let us know and we will add it into the newsletters.
This is also a great read on how to not get behind on your CSA vegetables.
Riverford Farms
Abel and Cole
Jamie Oliver
River Cottage
"River Cottage Veg everyday" by Hugh Fearnly Whittingstall
 "Jamie at Home"  by Jamie Oliver 

This weeks basket:
Mustard Greens This weeks is greenwave! Has a nice bit to it, can be eaten raw, cooked or turned into Pesto!
Lettuce - Why not try cooking your lettuce and trying a lettuce soup
Swiss Chard - Always feel a bit sorry for chard, everyone seems to want kale! Chard actually ranks higher in nutrient density than kale according to the Centers for Disease Control!
It can be eaten raw or cooked.  We really like the sound of this gratin dish.
Kale - Lemony kale just exchange the garlic for the scapes you have in your basket.
Turnips - These are spring turnips and you will get a mixture of white Hakuri and pink Scarlet queen.  These are delicious raw! Grated into salad, added to a coleslaw mix or of course you can cook them too.
Spinach - Do not wash spinach until you need it!

Garlic Scape

Garlic Scapes - The bunch of green curly things are scapes! It is never a very long season but one that lots of us get very excited about! Garlic gives us not only the bulb but also the flower head which is the scape, these are milder in flavour and it has been said that if you are unable to digest garlic, then scapes may be easier for you.  They can be roasted, added to stir frys, made into pesto or even pickled.
Pac Choy/Bok Choy - They do have a few holes in them! We covered everything but due to the high heat in May the flea beetles had already made camp in the soil!
Rhubarb - If you do not want to use it now just chop it up place in a ziplock bag and pop it in the freezer till winter.