THE BEET: VOLUME 19; WEEK 6

FULL SHARE & GREEN HALF SHARE
PICK UP TONIGHT

 

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

Please wear a mask and practice social distancing!  

IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ!

Starting today, shares will no longer arrive in cardboard boxes.  Instead, they will be packed in bags according to type - you'll get a bag of greens, a bag of bulkier vegetables, and a bag of tomatoes. Please bring some tote bags to make transporting your share easier, and please bear with us - pick ups may take a little bit longer than usual, but we will strive to keep distribution efficient and safe. Thanks for your patience!

If you would like to purchase a recycled cotton Clinton Hill CSA tote bag, make a donation here (funds will be used to offset Windflower Farm's COVID-19 packaging expenses), or bring $10 cash to tonight's pick up. 

This Week's Share

  • Yellow onions

  • Leaf lettuce

  • Beets

  • Swiss chard

  • Mixed kales

  • Summer squash/zucchini

  • Cucumbers

  • Tomatoes

  • Potted parsley or Thai basil

  • Fruit: Yonder Farm's blueberries

News from Windflower Farm

Distribution #6 - Week of July 13, 2020


Hello from the Windflower Farm! Rain showers here this week have been light but very helpful. The massive storm that soaked New York City and the lower Hudson Valley did a clockwise run around the farm. This week, we’ll be harvesting garlic, planting fall broccoli and continuing the long process of getting ahead of the weeds.
 
What’s in your share?
Yellow ‘Forum’ onions
Leaf lettuce
Red bunched ‘Boro’ beets
Swiss chard
Mixed kales
Summer squashes/zucchinis
Slicing cucumbers
Tomatoes
Potted parsley or Thai basil
 
Your fruit share will be blueberries from Yonder Farm. Our own will be coming soon.
 
Tomatoes are just starting, but the crop looks good. Fennel will be coming next week, sweet peppers, corn and beans are around the corner – the vegetables of summer are nearly here.   
 
What’s new on the farm?
We will continue to prepackage your shares all season, and perhaps well into next year, depending on the availability of an effective vaccine. The safest distribution system continues to be the one that requires the fewest hands. But we’d like to get away from the boxes we’ve been using when and where we can. They are very expensive and produce quite a bit of waste. It might surprise those of you who are new to us, but, with the exception of a site that lacks storage facilities, we have not had to use boxes or bags ever before – instead we have used a returnable, washable tote.
 
We’ll begin to move away from boxes at some sites as early as this week (this will not apply to local shares or the park site in Washington Hts.). We’ll do it in a way that won’t require any more hands than in our first few weeks. We’ll pre-bag at the farm just as we have been doing, and instead of putting the bags in boxes for you to take home, we’ll put those bags into tubs – perhaps four per tub - that will be left at the site. This one simple change will reduce from the waste stream as many as a thousand boxes per week. When we bring the tubs back from the city to the farm, we will wash them under high pressure using a bleach solution, and then we’ll let them sit in clean storage for several days prior to reuse. Tomatoes and occasional other items will be packaged separately, much as is your fruit, so they are not damaged in transit. These will be handed out by a CSA volunteer - the only non-farm individual to handle your food package. Please tell me what you think. And thank you for bearing with us as we work through these logistics.    
 
Have a great week, Ted 

(More) Free Community Fridges

There are now free fridges operating in Fort Greene, on the corner of Washington Park and Myrtle Ave, and in Clinton Hill, at 73 Washington Ave (near the Navy Yard). Playground Coffee has stationed three fridges in Bed Stuy, and there are others in Crown Heights, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, and Bushwick, just to name a few.

If you or someone you know is experiencing food insecurity, the fridges are stocked! 

If you have food to spare, from your share or otherwise, consider leaving some in a community fridge! 

Recipes

Galettes are forgivingly informal, and lend themselves to experimentation. This recipe is tomato-centric, but you could add in whatever you like - carmelized onions, zucchini, kale, different herbs - just adjust the amounts, and make sure not to over fill it! 

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