Bike Delivery Raw Data

Here are the numbers from yesterday's ride. 

Total trip distance - 35 miles

Total riding time - 3 hours and 15 minutes

Load - 120lbs, 8 boxes of CSA shares, plus a pannier with a bit of farm gear

The full load was carried for less than half the route, although that comprised the part of the route with the most elevation gain and a very serious headwind yesterday. I had to be conservative with the electric assist and save it for the worst of the wind and hills. By the time I dropped the final shares at Near East Yoga I was down to no bars on the battery monitor, although there was still a little left for the 8 mile ride home. For the first 27 miles I was working hard to keep to a schedule. The eight mile ride home I took it easy (relatively), although it was so much easier with a load of just two empty boxes.

By way of comparison, when I do the route with a car it takes about 1 hour 30 minutes, and I pay for about 30 minutes of parking at delivery spots. I also eat a lot less, man was I hungry when I got home last night.

More Raab

Another beautiful and slightly bigger than expected share today. I shrunk the CSA this year by 1/3 in order to give Kji at Edible Horizons a bit more space for his project. One of the consequences is that I'm harvesting from a few overwintered crops that are in planting sizes for a larger CSA, which is temporarily beefing up the shares. Kind of nice.

Today's share has two beautiful green garlics (tinged with red), a small bunch of Hakurei turnips, a small bunch of very large Pink Beauty radishes, and raab from kale and brussels sprouts. The green garlic can be used like green onions, but be warned, it's powerful stuff. It also goes nicely just about anywhere you'd use garlic cloves, and you can use the entire plant. You can also use the entire turnip plant.  The roots are incredibly sweet and tender, great raw in salad, or you can cook them. The greens are best cooked.  The same goes for the radish, although those roots have a bit of a bite to them, a mild bite, but it's noticeable.  With last week's radish greens and raab I sautéed each lightly until their own juices were pretty much gone, and then baked them in a phyllo pie, all mixed up. I didn't even use any cheese, although that could have been nice. Phyllo might sound intimidating but you buy it in the freezer section of the grocery and follow the directions, which are very simple. I also had raab chopped up and sautéed and then mixed into pasta with tomato sauce. A little green garlic in there would be great too, maybe even a green garlic pesto.

Today is the day I run the shares to town by bike. I've actually completed almost half of the 37 miles at this point (and the electric assist battery is half discharged after some nasty headwinds and the hill up the St. John's bridge).  As I write I'm dropping the shares on my porch in St. Johns before making the final run into town. I left the farm early to make sure I have enough time. I did manage to hoe the garlic and onions before I took off though.  I'll give a longer review of the bike soon - I'm super excited about it and getting to test it out for a week has been incredibly educational.

Beautiful Sunny Ride

For those of you who haven't been following the Facebook page, I've been test riding a Bullitt that Joel at Splendid Cycles has been lending me. Yesterday I rode it out to the farm on a beautiful sunny day with a pretty full load of 8 boxes, plus an extra bulb crate I had at home. The boxes were empty back hauls, and Thursday I'll try it loaded and give an update. I'll also write a more complete review on my other site.

The ride was notable, but so was the beautiful sunny day, which we need more of. Soil is starting to dry out and make bed preparation easier. The grass is growing like crazy and I need to get on top of that, but for now it's actually a good cover crop (or so I'm telling myself).  I prepared beds for kale, spinach and beet plantings yesterday, removing lots of grass roots and rhizomes in the process. Celery and basil got seeded in the greenhouse, and several new yellow jacket nests were removed with the jet of a hose (they really like those warm, dry spots). I'm basically all caught up on planting right now, which is incredible. I need to spend a little time getting the irrigation system in order, and doing a few more maintenance projects leftover from the winter. What I really want to be doing right now is preparing more beds for future plantings, and that'll happen too.

Super Big Spring Share

This is perhaps the biggest spring share I can every remember giving out, much bigger than I originally intended.  I don't want to intimidate anyone with an excess of vegetables, or set unrealistic expectations for future shares, but there was so much good stuff in the field that wasn't going to hold that I felt like I should share the bounty.  Most of it will hold well in the refrigerator, so if it doesn't get used right away, that's fine.

There are two kinds of raab, kale and collards. These are the flower buds of the overwintered plants, along with some stem and small leaves.  It's all super tasty, super nutritious and only available for a short window of time in the spring.  I like it chopped coarsely, sauteed with a bit of olive oil and salt (I like most things that way). There's a huge head of frisee, which is really the thing that makes the share super big.  These are leftover from winter, and are from the same planting that I've been harvesting since late last fall.  They've changed a bit over time and are very dense and well blanched. I'm still enjoying these heads as a raw salad. It needs a bit of extra washing because they're so tight that they're holding a bit of extra soil in the creases.  Another great salad "green" is Ruby Streaks mustard.  This is very mild and delicate, and very red. A small bunch of chives could spice up your dressing, or a bit of yogurt or butter, or maybe flavor some biscuits.  Finally, a good number of Pink Beauty radishes would also go well in salad, or maybe even better on a butter and radish sandwich.  The greens are good cooked as well, not that you need any more greens, but they are good.

It was rainy in the field this afternoon, on and off, even a bit of hail. I did manage to get some sod stripped from beds that will be planted next week, weather permitting. Those beds are destined for kale and beets, and maybe a bit more spinach. I'm hoping for some nice, warm, dry days next week.  Might be wishful thinking.

More on the bags

Before every harvest day I have to remember to turn the bags inside out and wash them. Turning them inside out makes sure that nothing is hiding I the bag, and I suspect that it helps clean the inside better. I always notice the bags that CSA friend Sarah D. Spent time stitching up. The bags are cheap and come with raw edges on the fabric which frays in the wash. The extra stitching really helps prevent that so it makes me happy every time I see it, and reminds me of Sarah and all of the rest if the CSA community that contributes in small ways, which also makes me happy.

Luck

An incredible sunny day yesterday made me feel very lucky.  I was away last week and the grass seemed like it jumped out of the ground in that week.  The greenhouse plants are huge as well.

It's been so wet and cold so far this spring but I've been relatively lucky with the weather on my few work days and yesterday's weather was perfect.  More lettuce got planted, spinach, some fill in peas, radishes were seeded and so were mustard greens. It looks like there will be lots of raab and even radishes for Thursday's share, maybe even a few other items. 

Spring Break

Last Friday was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for getting a few beds seeded. I even managed to toss a few fingerling potatoes in the ground.

This week I'm on a kind of busman's holiday, visiting Foxglove Farm on Salt Spring Island in BC. They're planting strawberries between showers and preparing ground in the tunnels for tomatoes. I'm getting to hang out with the SOLE Food crew, who is having a little training up here, and enjoying some excellent food.

Next week is the first week of the spring harvest season. I'm hoping for more dry weather to get more plants in the ground. Harvest starts on Thursday and the sun would help speed up a few of the early greens too.