THE BEET: VOLUME 16; ISSUE 2
FULL SHARE & YELLOW HALF SHARE
Pick up today: 5pm - 7:30pm at PS 56 on the corner of Gates and Downing
Reminders:
Sign up for your volunteer hours now! The CSA is a community endeavor that runs primarily on member labor. Shifts tend to fill up toward the end of the season, so get your work in now! Sign up HERE.
Bring bags for your veggies! We have a few plastic bags for those who forget, but it's important to remember to bring your own bags and containers for your veggies and other shares.
If you have any Beet submissions, please feel free to contribute! We'd love to have our members represented in these pages. Send recipes, neighborhood news, food articles to newsletter@clintonhillcsa.org
This Week's Share
- Swiss Chard or Broccoli Rabe
- Scallions
- Lettuces
- Lacinatio (Dinosaur) or Red Russian Kale
- Arugula
- Green Kohlrabi
- Potted Herbs
- Fruit Share: Strawberries
Eggs and Fruit are here! Come pick up if you have these optional shares. Flower Shares will start in the coming few weeks.
From Windflower Farm
As you’d imagine, we have daily encounters with wildlife here on the farm. Last weekend, as I was returning to the field to work on our sweet potatoes, I saw a doe and her spotted twins bedded down in the rye stubble in the field next door. It was bad news for us; deer love sweet potato vines and could easily destroy our entire crop if given enough time. I knew to be alert to them because deer had been eating our celeriac in a nearby field. But I was a little surprised. Last year, I spent quite a bit of money on a perimeter fence to avoid just such an event. Apparently, gates had been left open. Deer don’t associate tractors with danger, so I was able to get quite close. The doe eventually darted off, leaving her little ones to hunker down, trying to be invisible, a strategy for which all those spots might be helpful. But they were only a couple of weeks old and easy to catch. Warm, soft, boney-ribbed, all legs, and wild, they bleated loudly once I got them into my arms. Fifty yards away or so, the doe snorted and stomped, while the fawns wriggled and kicked. One got away and disappeared in the brush. I set the other little one just outside the gate, hoping the doe would lead them out once I was no longer a threat. At that point, I thought, I would close the gate, locking them outside of our farm and away from your vegetables. All were gone when I returned an hour later to close the gate, leaving no indication whether they had found a hiding spot within my perimeter or without.
This week’s share contents.
This week you’ll be getting Swiss chard or broccoli rabe, depending on what you got last week, scallions, lettuces, your choice of dinosaur or Red Russian kale, arugula, green kohlrabi, and your choice of another potted herb. Next week, you’ll get more spring salad crops, including sweet Japanese turnips, garlic scapes and spinach. Our cucumbers and zucchinis are doing well, and they should begin showing up with broccoli during week four or five. Our Chandler strawberries continue to come in and will be in your fruit share. As our organic early variety slows, we’ll reach out to Pete at Yonder Farm to provide later strawberries and rhubarb. Cherries and blueberries will come in afterwards.
Every week, we’ll post an image or two from the farm on Instagram (here). You can also find us on Facebook (here), where you’ll find recipes and can exchange information with farm staff and fellow CSA members. You can reach the farm by sending an email to Andrea, our membership coordinator, at windflowercsa@gmail.com.
Enjoy the week. Best wishes, Ted and Jan
NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS
Longtime CSA member Julio Grinblatt is showing a series of his beautiful photographs at Minus Space in Dumbo. The series, Pasillos, depicts the experience of his first two years as an immigrant in New York City. Here is the gallery's write up of the show and some great press about Julio and his work. See you there!