Veggie CSA Week #7

Half Shares:

Lettuce - 1 head - $2.50
Cabbage - approx. 2# - $4.00
Carrots - 1 bunch - $3.00
Cutting Celery (Herb) - $2.00
Green Onions - 1 bunch - $2.00
Cucumbers - 1# - $2.00
TOTAL - $15.50

Full Shares:

Lettuce - 1 head - $2.50
Cabbage - approx. 3# - $6.00
Carrots - 1 bunch - $3.00
Cutting Celery (herb) - $2.00
Green Onions- 1 bunch - $2.00
Cucumbers - 2 pounds - $4.00
Squash - 1 pound - $2.50
Fennel - 2 bulbs - $4.00
TOTAL - $26.00

Well, here we are, already one week into June. This month, here at the farm, signals the transition from spring crops to summer crops, and with the heat of the last few weeks, that transition has been rapid. No more radishes, turnips, sugar snap peas, kale, or cilantro, but we will start seeing onions, potatoes, squash, and soon tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. The lettuce will continue for a few more weeks. We grow a heat tolerant variety called Summer Crisp. This is a sort of intermediate between iceberg and green leaf lettuce, higher water content so it doesn't get bitter in the summer heat like the other lettuces do. Even this type doesn't hold up all summer here in the hot, humid South, but we will at least see it for another week or two.

A new herb in your boxes this week is "Cutting Celery". This herb could be mistaken for flat-leafed parsley--the two are related and part of the carrot family (Apiaceae). Cutting celery has a more pungent flavor than grocery-store celery, and can be substituted for regular celery in most recipes. A few sprigs can replace one large celery stalk. We chop it finely and add it to tuna salad, yum!

The first round of cucumbers (the ones in your boxes this week) aren't as pretty as I would like them to be. We were overrun by the Cucumber Beetle early on , the first few weeks after planting. Although they're gone now (short life cycle), they left their mark on the first fruits. Just peel or cut off the affected spot, it's only superficial, and just on the very tip, mostly. The ones we harvest later are looking less flawed.

In the next few weeks, you'll be seeing potatoes, beans, more of our awesome onions, more leeks, and, at the end of June, finally, tomatoes, melons and the first of the peppers (serranos & jalapenos)

Stay cool! :)