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CSA

CSA 2015: Happening.

June 9, 2015 QueSehraFarm Leave a comment

Week One Members’ Newsletter

It was a beautiful summer day for our first harvest of the year; over 90 and sunny, with a slight breeze and little puffy white clouds. We got out early to get the leafy greens harvested, before the radiance could rob them of their juicy vitality.

Or us of ours, for that matter.

It was a long cool spring, but now things are really heating up – lows are in the 50s, soil temps are around 70, we’ve stopped checking the weather obsessively for forecasted freezes, the windows stay open at night, and taking a cool shower can sound appealing.

We like it, and so do the plants.

Things really turned around recently, or felt like they did at least.

Even just a week ago, we were feeling pretty bleak about the field. It seemed that everything was being devoured and decimated. Everything we’d tried to do to improve the situation somehow made things worse. We went careening through various stages of grief; denial, anger, acceptance, determination, and cannibalism. Storm clouds loomed and we battened the hatches. But then the darkness broke and the sunshine busted out.

As it does.

The sad brassicas and lettuces revived. Voles, while still active, did their damage within acceptable parameters. The cut worms increasingly (if not entirely) were squished by us, eaten by birds, or leveled up and became immobile chrysalis types that don’t make nightly surface raids. The kohlrabi survived emergency untransplantation and retransplantation. The quack grass agreed to a draw for the season. (We’re not sure if we trust it, but it’s good for now.) Legions of plants graduated out from the greenhouse – tomatilloes, ground cherries, tomatoes, peppers – and we even planted a bunch of wildflowers and clover. WWOOFer and HelpX requests (to come stay on the farm and help out with the work) came rolling in, after a long period of silence. It rained, a lot, but with good hot sunshine between deluges.

Things feel good.

The woods around us are unfolding in a kaleidoscope of life. The field looks lively and bursting with wonderful potential – quite welcome really. Although I’d gotten well along toward accepting that my fate was to toil in a desolate wasteland (“why do you think they call it ‘The Barrens’?”), and even finding humor and beauty and meaning in it – I’d rather not, really. I love our living field and growing plants, and Spring has sprung,

And it’s already time to start the fall broccoli crop!? Holy crap.

Box #1: Early Risers

Please return your empty boxes every week! We need them! We want them! We don’t want to buy more! Thanks. :)

Radishes – About 75% of the radishes we’ve tried planting (in multiple waves) have fallen to the forces of the cutworms and voles. And then the survivors were recently subjected to sudden intense rainfalls (one day we got 1.5″ drenching, a short respite, and then another 1/2″ fell in the course of one soaking half hour) – like tomatoes, radishes absorb water uncontrollably and split when they expand too quickly. But they’re still good!
Radish Greens – Great in a pesto. Really; make some pesto with these things; recipes abound on the googlebot. Or if you’re the oppositional type, cook em and do something else – chop em up with the onion whites and sautee them together, add that to scrambled eggs or into an omelette. They hold sauces well, so they’re good to sautee with other vegetables.
Sunflower Greens – I like these best fresh, but some folks also like ’em cooked. Use in salads, sandwiches, stir fries, wraps – or munch them alone as a snack.
Early Riser Salad Mix: A tasty mix of the first arrivals up in our chilly climate: pea tips, Arugula, Lettuces, Wild Spinach (Lamb’s Quarter), a tad of Mizuna. Farmer Kristin’s Serving Suggestion is to use a green onion dressing, but anything you like will do just fine. The arugula has little holes in it; these are harmless and ickless, just voids left by the organic gardener’s companion, flea beetles. We will be battling them with Neem Oil this week … But in the meantime, don’t hate the holes.
Green Onions – Use both the tops (similar to chives) and the bottoms (mini onions basically). Tops can be used in a dip with sour cream or cream cheese, or added into your radish leaf pesto! The greens don’t stay fresh as long as the white bottoms, so use them first! Serve with Booker T and the M.G.s.
a Jar of Preserves – Depending on your predestined fate, you have received either marmalade we made with fresh oranges in Arizona in March, cactus jelly made from prickly pear cacti fruits in Texas in January , preserves from raspberries that we picked fresh from a neighboring farm, sweet pickles made from pumpkins we grew last year, or garden huckleberry (aka Wonderberry) syrup or jelly or sauce, from last year’s field. Or maybe something else that we can’t remember right now.

(Note: The first week is a light box – the early spring was dry, and the season was slow to warm up. Really, the first box is always light, and even the second and third ones are too – we have a short growing season and there’s not a whole lot growin’ on. Fear not; future boxes will be heavier and heavier …)

Recently in pictures:

innoculating oak logs with shiitake mushroom spores with friends of the farm

Vengeance; a cutworm's guts show the color of the plant it had spent the night munching on — Vengeance; a cutworm’s guts show the color of the plant it had spent the night munching on

added a sawdust bucket composting toilet to the guest trailer

shielding tender transplants from a blazing afternoon

So, here is a zombie fly. It has been infected by a fungus that fills it to bursting, then hijacks its little brain and forces it to climb up in something tall, assume a specific position with its butt in the air and its proboscis stuck to a leaf, and then it finishes hollowing out its guts and bursts out in white bands between the segmented exoskeleton, in a spray of spores. Go, nature! They are all over the tomatoes and scared us, but they’re harmless to the plants it seems.

6" wingspan' on the trailer — Moth with a 6″ wingspan’ on the trailer

Does a bear poop in the woods? No, it poops in our front path

CSA, farming

Farming is War – May CSA Newsletter

May 18, 2015 QueSehraFarm Leave a comment

the News

We’ve been kept incredibly busy dealing with a series of challenges that have given us much to do … and plenty of opportunities to practice saying “que sera, sera” and letting go of stressing over potential dooms!

Like bosses in the first levels of video games, our Spring challenges started out easy enough. First, there was the incredibly dry and droughty spring – we wound up irrigating in April for the first time ever! We set up the 600 gallon rainwater collection tanks to gravity feed to a sprayer hose we could walk up and down the rows of seedlings – and since there wasn’t much rain to collect, we ran the pump using solar power on sunny days, filling them with well water.

Next came the quack grass. We’d known it was in the field and all around us, but this spring it came on with a vengeance, sprouting up in thick mats throughout the field. And so we did some research – and identified the species as one of the most notorious and loathed garden weeds on earth. The waving green blades were just the visible tip of the treacherous iceberg; quack grass forms dense mats of allelopathic root rhizomes that choke out other plants, and it spreads like a cancer if left unchecked. There is no easy way to eradicate it (you could choose to not grow any crops for a year or two while you either smother your entire garden with thick plastic, or till the whole thing every few weeks for an entire season … not options for us!)

We knew we couldn’t totally defeat it, but we had to fight it back enough to keep it off our crops and prevent it from getting worse – so we got into warrior mode and went into battle. That may sound like an exaggeration, but it’s not. Each row we planted, we broadforked to loosen the soil around the grass roots. Then hand weeded out the long, ropey rhizomes – commonly up to two feet long – and if you break them and leave pieces in the ground, they will re-sprout from the bits, like the Hydra’s heads. Our hands became deeply stained black with soil, as we slowly reclaimed rows one at a time from the grassy menace.

Then came the voles. Voles! I thought they were just cute little field mice. I even saved one’s life last year. Now, I regret that – now, I want them all dead. Not moles; moles eat bugs, whereas voles eat your crops. They create crazy tunnel mazes throughout your field, from which they can launch ambushes.

meandering vole tunnel down last year's potato rows — exposed vole tunnel meandering down last year’s potato rows

They lurk, feasting on your emerging garlic beneath the mulch, and waiting until you transplant all of your kohlrabi out into the field after nurturing them from seeds. And then they tunnel right through the row and eat those lovely kohlrabi’s roots right off, leaving them to wilt and die slowly while you watch, uncomprehending … until you pull the first completely dead plant out to autopsy, and discover the tunnel where the roots used to be.

casualties of the Vole War - de-rooted kohlrabi in the hospital after being taken back in from the front (aka field) — casualties of the Vole War – de-rooted kohlrabi in the hospital after being taken back in from the front (aka field)

Voles live in colonies and reproduce furiously all year round. They worship Satan and dance upon the graves of children. After you catch one in a snap trap, they all learn to avoid them and bury them in dirt whenever you try to sneak one into a tunnel mouth. Science has shown that the only good vole is a dead vole. Unfortunately, they are harder to kill than Steven Seagal.

Our survival strategy for the Vole Challenge was threefold:

1) we dug trenches down each side of new rows and left them bare of mulch for the time being – thus cutting off shallow tunnel networks and creating barriers of openess that the secretive rodents would be loath to cross.

2) We brought mass death to one of their main lairs – the hugelkultur mound we’ve been building near the greenhouse. The buried pile of logs and branches proved ideal habitat for the beasts, and their burrow holes peppered the surface; we called it the Vole Hotel. The day we discovered the kohlrabi had been decimated by the little monsters, we got innovative. I used some plumbing and vent tape to rig up an adapter between a garden hose and the van’s exhaust. Then I plugged up all the burrow holes but one in the vole hotel, and filled their nest with sweet, sweet carbon monoxide.

Payback for our kohlrabi! Exterminating the Vole Hotel with carbon monoxide.

It worked! But there were still all the voles in the field … which brought us to:

3) we gave up on our plan of ‘No-Till’ gardening, for now. Que sera, sera! It turns out that voles thrive under the same conditions that we had created to nurture our soil, and tilling was the time-honored method to take out their tunnels and reduce their ability to decimate a garden.

So we sent out an S.O.S. to our wonderful neighbors Dave & Marcie – and they came riding in on a shining green steed, a John Deere tractor with a PTO tiller attachment – and chewed up the portion of the field not yet planted. It was disappointing to have to till after all, but it felt great to set the vile voles back enough to buy our transplants some breathing room to grow without being devoured.

But now there are the cutworms.

Cutworms are gross caterpillars that live just beneath the surface of your garden. Like vampires, they emerge to feed at night – climbing up your young tender crops and devouring them – sometimes just the leaves, but all too often chewing through their stems and killing the entire plant.

And this has been a boom year for cutworms; they have simply decimated our direct-seeded radishes, lettuce, spinach, and turnip plants, chewing them up as soon as they emerge from the ground.

Every morning, we start our day with a walk. Not a nice looking-at-nature-and-smiling-at-the-sky walk – a grim hunt through the field, stalking through the rows of transplanted cabbage, kale, broccoli, looking for the telltale chewed up holes, fallen leaves, and felled plants that indicate a cutworm has been munching in the night. When such damage is seen, we dig through the soil all around the ravaged plant, sifting and probing until we discover the culprit or culprits and squish their green* guts out. (*purplish, if they’ve been eating the Red Russian kale) In the night, we stalk through the field with flashlights, squishing the worms we catch in the act.

So far, in spite of our vigilance and the scores of squished bugs in our wake, the damage is unrelenting. We’ve lost a lot of plants to these horrible bugs – we can keep most of the transplants alive through constant vigilance, but the tiny direct seeded plants are really taking a beating. Although we planted well more than we needed, the losses are mounting, and it can be a struggle to avoid falling into despair in the face of the enemies arrayed against us.

But overall, we’re doing alright – it’s interesting, even when it feels overwhelming. We knew this wouldn’t be easy, we anticipated unexpected obstacles and setbacks – we even named our farm with this in mind.

So, we let ourselves feel whatever sadness or anxiety is appropriate for just a bit – and then gird up for battle; put on a bloodlusty grin, and wade into the thick of it – rending the destroyers and avenging our fallen crops.

Farming is war.

And fortunately, we have a great battle cry:

Que sera, seraaaaaAAAAAAAA!

some Pictures!

baiting the electric fence with sweet syrup, so deer learn to fear it

it takes a village to raise a farm! Jim Sehr, Neighbor Dave, and the truck driver helping unload the giant delivery of the future high tunnel greenhouse

the giant egg turned out to be a double yolker

heating up the hot tub - great way to loosen up sore muscles and caked on dirt! — heating up the hot tub – great way to loosen up sore muscles and caked on dirt!

hens working in the field in one of the two chicken tractors — hens working in the field in one of our two chicken tractors

new waterproof roof completed over the Albatross guesthouse, thanks to Jim!

putting down a thick weed barrier and mulch

at a local farm getting loaded up with rounds of old hay for mulch

built a chicken composter box in their yard - they can eat lots of good scraps, while mixing it up with the dead leaves — built a chicken composter box in their yard – they can eat lots of good scraps, while mixing it up with the dead leaves

relaxing in the Albatross guesthouse after a long day afield – it has working lights now!

CSA, farming, homestead

Germination 2015

April 21, 2015 QueSehraFarm 1 Comment

We’ve been back on the Farm since mid-March, getting things started for the year …

It’s been a month of preparation: hooking the solar power and rainwater collection systems back up, moving and fixing up the new guesthouse (a ’58 mobile home we got free on Craigslist), getting a new flock of laying hens, upgrading the nest boxes, turning dead trees into firewood, setting up fences, planning upgrades to the rainwater system, paying taxes, layering the hugelkultur mound, preparing for the coming 70×30′ high tunnel, and, of course, soaking in the hillbilly hot tubs.

the 1958 Gilder Albatross - our new guest cabin — the 1958 Glider Albatross – our new guest cabin

old tractor tires & former tabletop repurposed as front steps on the Albatross

harvesting dinner from the field - parsnips that survived the winter — harvesting dinner from the field – parsnips that survived the winter

Gabe Sehr: Rhizome Hunter of the Hugelkultur, Destroyer of Crab Grass

this pine tree blew partway over in a spring windstorm - we made a sling from an old tractor tire tube and anchored it back upright to reroot — this pine tree blew partway over in a spring windstorm – we made a sling from an old tractor tire tube and anchored it back upright to re-root

we got ten 2-year old hens; they provide about 7 jumbo-sized eggs a day

the hens run toward the axe on our farm - because it means we're breaking some carpenter ant treats out of a log — the hens run toward the axe on our farm – because it means we’re breaking some carpenter ant treats out of a log

Neighbor Dave doing some tractormancy on a pile of aged horse manure, to prepare the soil for the new high tunnel greenhouse

handwashing and line drying; not too bad, but the wringing part is a pain.

Cleo may be almost 15 & a bit limpy, but she still loves life on the farm

"Science," the free deeeep freezer we got on Craigslist to use as our fridge (in conjunction w/ the buried chest freezer pseudo-root cellar) - it once went down to 120 below. The alarm still works. — “Science,” the free deeeep freezer we got on Craigslist to use as our fridge (in conjunction w/ the buried chest freezer pseudo-root cellar) – it once went down to 120 below. The alarm still works.

the Albatross came with some weird plastic cabinet things; we used their sliding doors for eas,y egg-gathering from outside, with the female edge of cheap pine paneling as the tracks

Foreman Jim and Kristin starting work on the new waterproof Albatross roof

the hens, minus Broody McBrooderson who hangs out alone on her own perch, off camera

chickens considering free-ranging right up the ladder with Jim

Widget knows the River Road well enough by this point

suspected double-yolker, and the biggest egg we've ever seen. Scientists theorize this was the consequence of Broody McBrooderson eating a bunch of venison sausage. — suspected double-yolker, and the biggest egg we’ve ever seen. Scientists theorize this was the consequence of Broody McBrooderson eating a bunch of venison sausage.

We got Jim some bee-keeping gear for Christmas, and he took a class ... next thing you know, he's in a bee suit, you're helping dump a hive of bees into a box, and everyone is getting stung. Except for the man in the suit of course ... — We got Jim some bee-keeping gear for Christmas, and he took a class … next thing you know, he’s in a bee suit, you’re helping dump a hive of bees into a box, and everyone is getting stung. Except for the man in the suit of course …

Pepe, our new rooster - he's in heaven here — Pepe, our new rooster – he’s in heaven here

But primarily, it’s been all about the seeds. This is our first year starting seedlings off grid, without either the electricity to run banks of lights or the controlled heat of a modern home – so we’ve had to do some improvising.

making soil blocks for seed starting - a mix made from compost we made last year, Perlite, peat moss, lime, blood meal, green sand, and rock phosphate — making soil blocks for seed starting – a mix made from compost we made last year, Perlite, peat moss, lime, blood meal, green sand, and rock phosphate

For next spring, we plan to have a wood fired, slow-release heating system installed in the greenhouse – a “rocket mass heater” that stores heat in a clay and stone bench running the length of the greenhouse, which we can germinate seeds on and leave plants overnight when temps drop down. But for this year, there was no time to build it …

So at first, we tried propane heat. We quickly discovered that it is far too expensive to try to maintain temperatures overnight in a structure that is not really made to hold heat – the thin plastic is great for letting sunlight in and holding the heat briefly, but when there is no sun and the temps are below freezing, a 200 square foot hoophouse will quickly drain your bank account – as well as leave you stressing about a propane cylinder going empty in the middle of the night and costing you everything you’ve worked so hard to start.

the dogs grazing on the crab grass coming up in the greenhouse, long before it appeared outdoors

Cleo is over the cold & ready to enjoy the Greenhouse Effect

The first seedlings started were the cool weather crops – hardy specimens that can survive chilly air and soil, such as lettuce, broccoli, and kale. We also got some more perennials going – asparagus and rhubarb.

you've heard of Baby Kale - this is Newborn Kale — you’ve heard of Baby Kale – this is Newborn Kale …

Using a handy digital thermometer with a probe (which lets us take readings in two separate locations), we experimented with different techniques for maintaining adequate temperature, and discovered that if we put the flats on the ground of the greenhouse at night and layered them with row cover fabric, the warmth of the earth keeps the trays several degrees warmer than the rest of the greenhouse.

using cold climate greenhouse tactics similar to those promoted by Eliot Coleman and Helen and Scott Nearing

When it is very cold, we bring them up into the trailer with us, to stay toasty with the heat from our wood stove.

This set the stage for the next wave of seedlings – the much more sensitive hot weather plants such as tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants.

These seeds will not germinate well unless soil temperatures are at least 80 degrees – and once they finally do emerge, the plants don’t like it much cooler than that, either – no lower than 50. So, we started a new regimen to accommodate them.

On clear days, when the sun warms the greenhouse up in the 80 to 100 degree range, we set up the warm-weather plants on the greenhouse shelves, to benefit from both the heat and the sunlight.

During these times, the cool weather crops are moved outside, to temperatures more to their liking, as well as into the wind and more direct sunlight that they need to get, in preparation for being transplanted into the open field.

We used the storm-ravaged mosquito gazebo frame and some row cover to build them a shelter, which keeps the sunlight moderated during the strongest times of day.

For nighttime and for still-germinating seeds (which require no sun and more heat), we hung ceiling-to-floor curtains in our trailer, dividing it into three areas: the living room with its big bright windows (which lose heat at night), the kitchen in the middle with the woodstove, and the bedroom in the rear of the trailer. Rearranging the furniture allowed us to set up a big wire shelving rack in the middle zone, capable of holding almost 20 flats of seedlings. The uppermost (warmest) shelves became our germination area – the curtains trap much of the heat from the woodstove, allowing us to easily maintain temperatures between 70 and 100 degrees overnight for the seeds to germinate within, without roasting ourselves to death while we sleep in the rear.

In the mornings, we load the sprouted trays into the van and move them “downstairs” into the protected sunny greenhouse. If it’s warm enough, the cool weather crops (which spend the nights on the greenhouse floor) get moved outside into the gazebo shelter. And then when the sun goes down, we bring them back into the greenhouse, and load the hot weather plants back into the van for a trip “upstairs” to their woodheated shelving in the trailer with us.

It’s a lot of shuffling trays back and forth and all around, but we’ve gotten pretty good at the process, handing the trays off from one person to the other at the doorways, using bread trays to move two flats at once, and making it a smooth and painless habit, a simple and quick routine. And because we’re here with the seedlings full-time (last year we did our germination in Kristin’s folks’ basement), we can pay close attention to maintaining consistent moisture levels, avoiding extremes of dry or wet soil that cause problems.

Not only does it work for us – it seems to be working great for the plants. This year we have the strongest and healthiest looking seedlings we’ve had yet – strong stems, glowing leaves, high germination rates, and no sign of damping off, yellow leaves, or other signs of stressed or unhappy seedlings.

Of course, just as it gets easier and feeling under control, it’s time for the next phase of things – this week we started planting seeds out in the field – so far, onions and snap peas, with lettuce and spinach on the to-do list next.

This means weeding rows and beds, planting, and mulching … making this a great time of year to come out and help if you’re interested in volunteering; there’s a lot to do, but it’s not hot and there aren’t any mosquitoes, gnats, or flies to speak of … yet!

2015 is off to an awesome start – I know there is no certainty when it comes to the future especially in farming, and ‘whatever will be, will be’ – but I’m predicting the best year yet!

Thanks for being a part of it!

– Gabe Sehr

CSA, farming, homestead

2014 CSA Wrap-up & 2015 Preview

October 22, 2014 QueSehraFarm 5 Comments

We want to start by thanking everyone for a beautiful year – a transitional, magical year we will remember forever.

The leap of faith we took – away from career, from life and home as we’d known them – was truly the best thing we could have done. Our days have never felt more fulfilling, our work never so meaningful, our hearts never so calm and in love with all we see and do. This has been a life-sized proof of concept for being guided by intuition and letting “que sera, sera” replace fear when faced with the unknown. It’s indubitably been the best year of our lives – we’re so grateful that you joined us and helped make this possible.

The Year in Review

Looking around us and smiling in wonder, I’ve often exclaimed to Kristin, “Look! This is our life!! Aaaaaa!!!”

We’ve made the place feel like home, and improved our processes and systems in countless ways. We built a greenhouse, a chicken coop, a hugelkultur mound, and composting outhouse, planted several dozen raspberry bushes, began doing salad mix, sold at market and wholesale for the first time, did late season planting for fall, got to know the locals and explored the ‘hood, hosted our first WWOOFers … it’s been an amazing first year here, and we’re excited to start next year with all the progress we made as a foundation.

We’d love to hear any feedback you have for us – good or bad, it will help us continue to grow and improve.

Looking Ahead

We have just a few weeks before we hit the road for warmer climes. Until then, we’re keeping busy removing and composting dead crops, cleaning and storing away equipment and materials, taking down trellises, planting and mulching garlic, preserving food, finishing the pallet fort/guest shack, and packing up.

scavenging lichen-crusted old sheet metal from a collapsed 60-year old hunting shack in the woods

Then we load up the dogs and roll out for a long journey south – meeting up with family at the beginning and end, some friends in the middle, but mostly working on four other organic farms – learning new things, meeting new people, experiencing new places. (We did this last winter too, and it was incredibly rewarding.)

Come March, we’re coming back and hitting the ground plantin’ – starting seeds and preparing the field for a new year. We’ll be planting different varieties, new greens, more spinach, starting the fall crops sooner, experimenting more with compost tea, and expanding to new markets.

The biggest change we’re planning is transitioning to “no till” farming – rather than plowing the field in spring, we’ll be leaving the existing mulch and delicate soil structure intact, and working more organic material into the rows as we plant. (We reckon that this is the best way to address the sandy soil we have to work with here in the Sand Barrens – where nutrient leaching and moisture loss are major pitfalls.)

2015 CSA

We will be keeping the CSA about the same size, so spots will be limited – but returning members get priority.

Let us know now if you’d would like to be on board next year, so that we can reserve a spot!

Whether you’re joining us next year or not, please stay in touch! We’ll be continuing to update this blog throughout the winter – let us know if you want us to keep emailing you a link when we update the site.

It’s been amazing; thanks again. Have a wonderful winter – hope to see you soon!

– the Sehrs

CSA, farming

CSA Week 18 – The Final Box

October 8, 2014 QueSehraFarm Leave a comment

the weekly News

The cold has arrived; we were ready for it. We did a ton of preserving this week, capturing the food that needed to be brought in from the freezing nights, and maintaining it for enjoyment this winter or next year. Huckleberries, ground cherries, green tomatoes, peppers, and salsas were canned and pickled and jarred and dried.

We took advantage of All Wheel Drive and a lot of exploring the crazy dead end network of narrow two-track logging “roads” that surround us out in the Barrens.

the waxy mystery stump found in the woods off a dead-end logging road. A piece of plywood is cut to shape and nailed to the bottom of the hollow log, the thick slab is covered in some kind of black wax. WHAT

the hollowed out log may or may not have been some kind of secret cache, but the slab was definitely used by one – we found this cache of acorns beneath it

This morning, the field was covered in sparking white beneath the lunar eclipse – frozen again. Most vulnerable crops were already dead, but even some cold-hardy plants took damage.

We finished the upgrade of the old pit outhouse, adding a window and some art as we transformed it into a raised composter.

the Weekly Box

(Well, it’s a bag this week – we didn’t have enough boxes to give out and figured this was best for everyone.)

Kristin, Mark, & Florian washing veggies & packing the boxes

Salad mix – with arugula, red and green lettuce, baby spinach, green and Ruby Streaks Mizuna, pea tips, baby kale, sheep sorrel, and baby Bok Choi

Potatoes

a Gourd or three

Peppers

Parsnips – best roasted. Most people don’t love them on their own, but they are a great component in a soup or roasted vegetable mix. We cut the greens off not only to maintain fresh crisp texture, but because they are toxic – they make any skin that they contact prone to being burned by the sun. So we didn’t include those in the box.

Broccoli – from the fall planting

Green onions

Kale (Dino, Red Russian, & Dwarf Curly Blue)

Parsley – dries well if you want to save it or later – simply tie the bundle and hang it somewhere dry and out of direct sunlight, leaves down/stems up.

Carrots

Daikon Radish – we left the greens on these so you could easily tell them apart from the Parsnips – cut them off when you get home though, to keep the radish from getting soft prematurely.

the Weekly Pics