The sampler share

This week there are a bunch of random small items which are in the share for a variety of reasons. You might have already noticed that we're not putting what we planned to into just about any share. I'm actually usually more surprised when we hit an item on the date we project but all the planning still helps us quite a bit. So, in this weeks share there is the usual lettuce - slightly smaller apportionment this week, a small fennel bulb, a few small to very small beets, a yellow carrot, a radish or two and for the lucky few who picked the golden ticket, a small summer squash. Let me tell you the story of how each of these items was decided on this morning...

From SHF CSA

I was out at the farm solo this morning. Danny had the day off to attend to some wedding duties so I was making all the choices. Unfortunately I get up too early to get donuts. Danny is much better than me about stopping by the donut shop in the morning to fuel our second breakfast.

From SHF CSA

So, no donuts for me, but I did end up having some much appreciated help from Rumy who rode her bike out to volunteer for the day. Here's the low down on what's in the share:

The lettuces, blushed icy oak and pirat: both of these were overdue for thinning and the blushed icy oak is almost over mature so it needed to be picked today and the pirat thinning was an attempt to let some of the remaining heads get a little bigger.

The fennel, perfection: we've had a lot of trouble germinating fennel in the field. We've switched to transplanting now, but these are the few plants that did germinate in the first three attempts at direct seeding in the field. If you haven't used fennel before it can be eaten raw - usually best thinly sliced across the "grain" and excellent with a citrus dressing - or cooked for an extended period which gives it a soft sweetness and greatly diminishes the anise flavor.

The beets, kestrel: the first two seedings of beets germinated well, but they haven't sized up well and so I decided to clear them out and hope that the next seedings that are seeing more favorable weather produce slightly larger roots.

The carrot, yellowstone: we'll have more carrots soon but there was a small section that didn't germinate well early on and I wanted to clear that to make way for new plantings. There weren't quite enough for everyone there so I also thinned another seeding to get one each.

The radish, french breakfast: These are the last from a late seeding we tossed in when we were feeling like we wanted a little more for the shares. They're a little spicier this time of year.

The summer squash, yellow scallopini or cocozelle: these only made it into about 11 shares and they are the very small first picks of the season. This first pick encourages more fruiting, and larger plants and signals the onset of summer squash season. We'll have more soon, they'll probably come in a variety of sizes as we're only picking once a week.

Hope you all enjoy the vegetables. Thanks for all the supportive comments we've been receiving and we hope to see you at the farm this Sunday afternoon.