THE BEET: VOLUME 19; WEEK 9

FULL SHARE & YELLOW 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!  

These before and after photos show just how much rain the farm got during Hurricane Isiais!

Attention cyclists, novice and experienced: Street Riders NYC is hosting their 10th Justice Ride this Saturday, August 8th. Nearly 15,000 people participated in last weekends' ride, and organizers hope to make this their biggest yet. The ride begins at 4:30 at Tweed Courthouse (52 Chambers St, Manhattan) and ends in Brooklyn. Check their Instagram or Facebook page for more information.  
 

And a friendly reminder for those heading out of town: 

If you're unable to pick up your share, you can have a friend come and pick it up for you. Remind them to give your name at check in, and to bring canvas bags! Unfortunately, we cannot hold shares past 7:30, or provide any "make ups" for missed pickups - everything left on site after distribution is picked up by a local food pantry. 

And if you ARE able to pick up your share, but think you may not be able to get through everything (they're starting to get hefty!), consider leaving some items in a community fridge - locations are listed later in this letter!

News from Windflower Farm

Distribution #9 - Week of August 3, 2020
 
August greetings from all of us at Windflower Farm.

What’s in your share?
Lettuce
Koji on Tuesday, cabbage on Thursday
Tomatoes
Sweet corn
Green beans
Onions or scallions
Summer squashes or zucchinis
Sweet peppers
 
The share list that I provide at the top of each newsletter is not to be taken verbatim. It’s my educated guess about what should be ready in adequate supply and of a quality that is good enough to send to you that week. But I’m generally making this guess a couple of days ahead of the actual harvest, and it’s harder than you might think to get this right. Heat can cause bolting in virtually all of the greens, and insects can render them inedible overnight. And getting precise counts of eggplants or peppers or cucumbers is just not practical. And so, if we run out of the eggplants we promised, we might substitute peppers or cucumbers or cabbage. They say that a little mystery is good for a relationship.
 
What’s new on the farm?
A light rain is falling as I write this. The greens seeder is mounted on the John Deere and I’d like to sow a round of arugula, chard, kale and cilantro into beds I prepared yesterday. Our greens production has suffered lately, and I’m hoping to get it back on track. It has been so dry that a little rain won’t be a problem for the seeder. In fact, it has been so hot and dry that It’s been difficult to get some of our crops established. Most vegetables seeds, and all of the seeds that produce greens, are small, and they generally can’t be seeded more than half an inch deep. And evaporative water loss from the top half inch of soil has been a big problem for us this year. A strategy that has proven successful in getting our carrots established (after two previous attempts) has now become common practice here. Immediately after seeding, we set up runs of micro-sprinklers, called Mini-Wobblers, along the entire length of the new planting and run them for an hour every other day until the crop comes up. The sprinklers come from a company that got its start in Florida, where they know how to deal with heat. According to the brochure, “they replicate a light summer rain shower and keep the seeds bathed in moisture throughout their germination and emergence.” So, once I manage to get these greens seeded, I’ll ask the guys to help me move the Mini-Wobblers into place, and I’ll leave them there until I see nice little rows of greens getting off to a good start.     
 
Have a great week, Ted   

Free Fridges and Local Composting Sites - Updated!


There are now free fridges operating in Fort Greene, outside Farmer in the Deli on the corner of Adelphi 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 as well. 

We've added more composting sites to our list - here's what's nearby (for a more extensive list organized by borough, click here).

BK Rot offers a home pick up service!

Fort Greene

  • PS 20 (225 Adelphi St, same building as Arts and Letters): Fridays 12-9pm.

  • Rhodora Wine Bar (197 Adelphi St): 7 days a week during business hours; must make a purchase to drop off compost

Bed Stuy

Prospect Heights

Gowanus 

  • Nature Based (123 3rd Street): Sundays 9am-5pm.  Membership or small donation required, please see website for more details! 

Williamsburg

  • Domino Park (15 River St) Mondays 10am-12pm and Thursdays 6pm-8pm

Recipes

This polenta recipe uses only fresh sweet corn!

And here's a recipe for saag paneer - I've made this 3 times so far this season, both vegan (with extra firm tofu and coconut milk), and not (I got my paneer at Whole Foods but it's really easy to make your own, ditto the garam masala), using whatever green vegetables I had on hand - collards, kale, turnip greens, even zucchini. 

Visit our website for more recipes, storage tips, and information.

We'd like to hear from you!

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