THE BEET: VOLUME 19; WEEK 2

 

Welcome to the 2020 CHCSA Season! 

 

FULL SHARE & GREEN HALF SHARE
PICK UP TONIGHT

 

5pm–7:30pm at JACK Theater
18 Putnam Ave (between Grand and Downing)

This Week's Share

  • Magenta lettuce

  • Green Forest (romaine) lettuce

  • Ruby Red Swiss chard

  • Toscano kale

  • Garlic scapes

  • Red radishes

  • Scallions

  • Potted purple, green, or Thai basil

  • Fruit: strawberries

Flower shares start tonight! 

Things to remember for pick up:

  • Please wear a mask and practice social distancing!  

  • For the time being, your vegetable share will come pre-packed 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!

News from Windflower Farm

Distribution #2 - Week of June 15, 2020


Greetings from Windflower Farm. Although we had showers last week, we continue to irrigate. Rainfall totals in Albany are 3.5” below normal, and I think that we’ve been drier here. But dragging irrigating pipe around is not all we’ll do this week. We’ll wrap up winter squash transplanting, we’ll sow successions of corn, beans, cucumbers and greens, and we’ll weed onions, potatoes and cabbages.
 
What’s in your share?
This week, you’ll be getting more salad crops.
Magenta, a red leaf lettuce
Green Forest, a green Romaine lettuce
Ruby Red Swiss chard
Toscano (a.k.a. Dinosaur) kale
Garlic Scapes
Red radishes
Scallions
Potted purple, green or Thai basil
 
Your fruit share will be our own organically grown Chandler strawberries. When ours run their course, you’ll get strawberries from Pete at Yonder Farm, and then back to us for blueberries. Flower shares will be starting at many but not all sites this week. Egg shares from the Davis Family farmstead started last week. Next week’s vegetable shares will, as advertised, include more salad crops, including kohlrabi, a CSA favorite, or sweet, white Hakurei turnips. Squashes are getting close.
 
Keeping your share longer than just a day or two takes a few simple steps. First, remove your share from the bag it came in. Please try to reuse the bag if you can. It will make for a good trash bag liner if nothing else. Second, rinse everything, particularly the greens, in cold water. Third, spin or gently shake the greens to remove excess water. Finally, place the contents of your share in a perforated bag in the refrigerator. The crisper drawer is made for this, but the bottom shelf will do.  
 
What’s new on the farm?
I picked up Angelica, Elisa and Martin Medina at LaGuardia on Friday. For fifteen years or so, members of the extended Medina family have come from Laguna Prieta in Guanajuato, Mexico to help us out at the farm. The shutdown caused by the Coronavirus made them two months late in getting here, and I am very pleased that they have finally arrived. There is still a good deal to plant and the farm is getting weedy - we are all happy to have the reinforcements.
 
Angelica and Elisa are Martin’s aunties, and they will live with their sister Candelaria in Cambridge, who has been counting the days until their arrival. Today was their first day together on the farm, and they talked and laughed all day long as they weeded the shallots and red onions, catching one another up on what’s been going on in the lives of their families. Martin will be living with us in an apartment on the farm. Daniel, Candelaria’s 20 year-old son, has decided to live here with Martin. There are too many aunties, he says, for his small house. Salvador, Candelaria’s husband, jokes about moving here, too, but he won’t, because the three women he’ll share his home with this summer are fantastic cooks, and he knows that he’s in for one great traditional Mexican meal after another, fully aware of his good fortune.
 
I hope you have a great week, Ted

Neighborhood News


The New York State Primary Election is this Tuesday, June 23! Click here to find your polling place and read up on the candidates running in your district.

Here are some *free* online offerings from the Brooklyn Public Library!

As you may know, funding for municipal compost services (curbside pick up and GrowNYC drop off sites) has been suspended until at least June 2021, due to COVID-19 related budget cuts. A few organizations are still accepting food scrap drop offs: 

We hope to add to this list - if you know of any other composting sites that are operational and open to the public, please let us know! Send an email to information@clintonhillcsa.org.

Recipes

Radishes are edible roots of the mustard family.  It is best to snip the greens off of the root and store them separately.  The greens are great sauteed with garlic, or in pesto. The roots are sharp and peppery when eaten raw, and slightly sweet when roasted. Try quick pickling them for a versatile, piquant topping.

See a vegetable you don't recognize?  Our website has information, storage tips, and recipe ideas for nearly everything that comes in the box! 

We'd like to hear from you!

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! 

Veronica