THE BEET: VOLUME 19; WEEK 1
Welcome to the 2020 CHCSA Season!
FULL SHARE & YELLOW HALF SHARE
PICK UP TONIGHT
5pm–7:30pm at JACK Theater
18 Putnam Ave (between Grand and Downing)
Welcome to The Beet!
This newsletter is your weekly guide to all things CHCSA-related: share updates, news from Ted and Jan Blomgren at Windflower Farm, food storage tips, recipes, articles, neighborhood news, and more.
We'd love to hear from you, so don't hesitate to get involved. If you have any Beet submissions—recipes, articles, local events, etc—please feel free to send them to information@clintonhillcsa.org.
Please check your email settings and allow all emails from @clintonhillcsa.org email addresses!
Have a wonderful season!
Our New Location and Safe Pick-Up Protocol
We want to extend our deepest thanks to JACK Theater for allowing us to operate out of their space for the foreseeable future. We will be sharing the space with We Keep Us Safe Abolitionist Network, a BIPOC-led mutual-aid group providing food and supplies to community members in need. Please respect the space and community by wearing a mask at all times, maintaining a safe 6 foot distance between yourself and others, and limiting the amount of time spent on the premises. Unless the weather is VERY inclement, distribution will be taking place outside!
This Week's Share
Romaine lettuce
Arugula
Red Russian kale
Joi Choi
Red radishes
Green bunching onions
Egg shares begin this week. Fruit and flowers will be starting up soon - stay tuned!
A few things to remember for your first pick up:
Please wear a mask!
For the time being, your share will come prepacked in a cardboard box - if you wish to transfer your share into bags for transport, please also bring your box home to recycle. At this time, Ted is not accepting used boxes or egg cartons.
If you wish to make a donation to offset the farm's COVID-related packaging expenses, you may do so here! All those who donate will receive a recycled cotton Clinton Hill CSA tote bag, while supplies last!
If you cannot pick up your share on a given week, a friend or family member can always pick it up in your absence. They just need to give your name at the desk when picking up. You can also send a message to our half share group, or post on one of our social media pages to find a member willing to swap with you: we're on Facebook as well as Instagram and Twitter.
If it is medically unsafe for you to pick up your share, and you are unable to make other arrangements, please let us know at information@clintonhillcsa.org and we will do what we can to make sure your share gets to you.
Don't forget to sign up for your 2020 work shifts!
Your CHCSA Core team will all be on hand tonight, so make sure to introduce yourselves!
News from Windflower Farm
Distribution #1 - Week of June 8, 2020
Hello from Windflower Farm. I hope this note finds you healthy and safe. Thank you for joining us - I hope you enjoy your CSA experience! And many thanks to the volunteers in your community – the core group - who make the CSA happen. It was an especially challenging job this year because of the coronavirus, and I want them to know what champions they are to all of us at Windflower Farm.
What’s in the share?
This week, and for the next several weeks, you’ll be getting salad crops. Our last snow was a scant four weeks ago, and it’s early days on the farm. Warm weather crops lag behind the arrival of warm weather. Shares are typically small during the first four weeks of the season, so please keep your expectations modest. They will fill out, first with turnips and kohlrabi, then with squashes and cucumbers, and then with a diverse array of summer vegetables, including corn, tomatoes and beans.
This week’s lineup:
Romaine lettuce
Arugula
Red Russian kale
Joi Choi
Red radishes
Green bunching onions
We will be pre-packaging shares after the harvest tomorrow. I don’t think the learning curve will be especially steep – we pre-package in the winter - but we have not had to do it during the main season and we’re not sure how to budget our time. Nor do we know how to fit everything in the box. We’ve grown potted herbs intended for your first four deliveries (two basils, thyme and parsley), but they don’t fit in the box. Once we answer this question, they’ll be coming your way.
The box and bag we are sending your share in is yours to keep. The absence of printing and wax make the box recyclable (and inexpensive). The bag is needed so that the box is not instantly ruined by the moisture from your greens. Please reuse where possible. At some point soon, we hope to send a more durable box that can be returned to the farm to be reused. The chief reasons we are not currently taking boxes back is that we cannot be sure that the coronavirus will not be introduced into the truck contaminating the load and exposing our delivery team.
Egg shares start this week. Strawberries, the first items in fruit shares, will be coming along soon. Flowers will be starting at two locations on Thursday of this week. Please stay tuned.
What’s happening on the farm?
I should be out cultivating the beets. I irrigated them yesterday, and I can see that the weeds will soon get ahead. But today’s priority is irrigation. Nate has been getting water to the strawberries in the front field, the tomatoes and peppers in the “caterpillar” tunnels, and now the squash and cucumbers in the middle field. These are all on drip irrigation and can be managed by starting small pumps here and there and switching valves. I’m working on the overhead sprinklers in the cabbage field. The first moisture any of these crops experienced was a three-inch snowfall about a month ago, a “sugar snow” so called because it melts so fast. Old timers would call it poor man’s fertilizer. The only other precipitation these crops have received was a half-inch rainfall two weeks ago, hence, the need to irrigate.
I know that many of you are out protesting the injustices done to black people in America. We are thinking of you and stand with you.
Be safe, and take care of each other, Ted and Jan
Extras from Lewis Waite Farms
Interested in supplementing your share with locally produced meat, dairy, grains, jams, tea, spices, or apothecary products? Lewis Waite Farms, a consortium of Hudson Valley farms, offers monthly deliveries to the CSA! The first three delivery dates of the season will be July 2, July 30, and August 27. Check out their website to browse their vast and varied selection!
Work Shift
Your CSA depends on YOU to help make it run smoothly. All Clinton Hill CSA members with full vegetable shares are required to complete two two-hour work shifts during the season. Members with half vegetable shares work one two-hour work shift.
Sign up for your 2020 work shifts here!
For those who find volunteering on site to be a problem, we may have other opportunities for you; please email volunteer@clintonhillcsa.org for more information.
Recipes: It's Greens Season!
We will be receiving many different varieties of greens throughout the season, and there are so many ways to enjoy them! Here's how to prepare basic sautéed greens, with lots of room for improvisation. Planning a cookout? Consider this simple recipe for grilled romaine. And here's an incredible kale salad, with optional levels of involvement required in each step - choose your own adventure!