Greentree Naturals CSA Newsletter - July 5, 2006

Fresh from the Garden News

One of the lovely things about where we live is the wildlife visitors. Most of our sightings are early mornings. Just this morning, I watched a mother deer cautiously wander about the lower fields, looking like she was searching for something, when sure enough; a brand new baby came popping out of the brush. It is likely that the little one was hunkered down and hiding, waiting for mom to return for it. Often times mother deer will somehow relate to their offspring in times of trouble, to lay down while she runs away to deter whatever is chasing them away from finding the little one that is too young to run fast or far. It was so sweet as they reunited, the little one wagged its tail with a fury as it nursed for its morning breakfast. What a great way to start the day!

Our apprentices are both gone this week. Christine traveled down to Mesa, AZ where I am sure she is wondering why she made this decision with the temps there about 115 right now. Emily went to Portland to visit family for the weekend and ended up not finding her way back. We have found that summer is often a challenge for young ones to stay committed to the farm life due to fun being had somewhere else and work eternal here to keep things growing.

We have found that of the 18 apprentices we have had here over the past nine years, only four of them are actually pursuing a farm life. The rest found that it was more work and commitment than they ever imagined and have gone on to pursue other careers. I suspect that all of them will have organic gardens, even if they don't go into some kind of production to grow to feed people outside their family.

This Thursday, we have 40 teachers from across the state coming with the 'Ag in the Classroom' tour. I will talk with them about organic production practices with the hope that they will take some of this back to the classroom with them and teach their students about sustainable methods of food production.

We have a number of on-farm events coming this month. If you get a chance, check out our website on the 'what's happening on the farm' page for details. We are hopeful that you will find your way out to visit the farm this summer to see where your food is coming from. I keep repeating this for those of you that have NEVER been out here. It is certainly OK to call and make a date to come out when we are not having some kind of event as well!

We are going to let the kale and Swiss Chard rest from harvest this week to let them grow. I figured you wouldn't mind a week off from these greens. The heat makes the cold loving crops slow down with growth a bit, even when they are growing under a shade cloth. Gardening can be a fickle with the weather being good for some crops and not so good for others.

Lettuce Give Peas a Chance!

"There is another way to live and think: it's called agrarianism.It is not so much a philosophy as a practice, an attitude, a loyalty and a passion - all based in close connection with the land.It results in a sound local economy in which producers and consumers are neighbors and in which nature herself becomes the standard for work and production."
 --Wendell Berry

WHAT'S IN THE BAG...

Everything is from Greentree this week.

• Salad Mix - Always double washed and ready to eat!
• Snow Peas and a couple of sugar snaps - The sugar snaps come next week when they are filled out more. These are both excellent in a stir fry but we usually just eat them raw.
• Radishes - We realize that there may be some wire worms in the radishes. Please cut them and cut out the little boogers b4 eating!
• Garlic Scapes - These are the flowers of our Rapid Lightning Roja Garlic that will come to you as big bulbs later in the season. Use them like green onions or a clove of garlic in any recipe. Put in a food processor with olive oil and make pesto out of them like we do!
• Herbs - Dill, French Tarragon and Italian basil. Excellent chopped up and added to salad or most dishes! If you don't use it, dry it or freeze it for later
• Kohlrabi - Chop them up in a stir-fry or in your salad.
• Summer squash and broccoli - Just the first of the harvest to let you know more is coming!
• Strawberries - Ripened by the sun. We do not wash these as they keep better fresh from the field.