CSA Newsletter Week 10 (Aug 8-14, 2021)
CSA Newsletter Week 10
August 8-14, 2021 | “B” Week
This Friday’s Field to Table dinner
What’s in the Box this Week?
WHITE SKINNED POTATOES (2 lbs.) — These are a buy-in from our partner organic farm Mile Creek outside Dayton. (We don’t have good luck growing potatoes, due to the infestation of Colorado Potato Beetles). Store these on your counter (away from onions). They should last for a couple weeks. Peeling is optional. .
CELERY (BUNCH) ~ Our super-charged celery comes as a big bunch with lots of frilly, fragrant leaves. The flavor in these thinner stalks is pretty strong, so I recommend toning it down in recipes. To store, place in a Green Bag in the fridge and use within a week. You can cut the tops off the stalks and store separately — use them for making celery salt. You can also store the celery in a jar of water to keep them crisp.
KALELETTE GREENS — These leaves look a little like Red Russian kale — with a slight pink coloring in the stems. Store these in a Debbie Meyer Green Bag in your fridge and use within 5 days. Wash just before using. Cut out the stem from the middle of the leaves. Compost them or save them in a Ziploc bag and freeze to use in soups later. The greens can be steamed or boiled for 2 minutes until they wilt down — then freeze them in “balls” or cubes to use in sauces later.
SWEET CORN (white), 6 EARS — Sweet corn should remain in its husk until you’re ready to eat it. Shuck the outer leaves and remove the silks/threads, as well as any wormy tip. You can cut the kernels off with a sharp knife or you can boil the corn in hot water for 6 minutes and eat it off the cob. Sweet corn should be stored in the fridge. Its sugars turn to starch in a few days, so the sooner you eat it, the sweeter it will taste! I like to try and eat it within 3 days, but it will last up to 8 days.
Grace Gibson is the Fennel Fairy. I’m not sure she’s a fan?…
CHERRY TOMATOES (2 pints) — The first of the tomatoes are finally here! These will be a mix of colors. Store them on your countertop for best flavor. However, I often store them in the fridge if I want them to last longer. Simply wash and eat! Try to eat these within 7 days.
RED BEETS, NO TOPS (1 quart) — Store in the fridge in a plastic bag. They will last for 8 weeks. To peel the skin off, roast the beets in foil, and the skins will slide right off. You can also peel them with a veggie peeler. I like beets roasted with other root veggies in olive oil and dressed in balsamic vinegar. Or try grating it raw in a salad. They’re also good “hidden” in baked goods.
SWEET YELLOW ONIONS (3) — Store in your fridge in a plastic bag. To use, peel the skin off and chop to size.
BASIL (1 bunch) — If these come with stems, store them on the counter in a glass jar of water. Otherwise, wrap them in a paper towel and leave on the counter top. Use within 3 days.
GREEN BELL PEPPERS (2) — Store in a plastic bag in your fridge and use within 7 days. To use, wash and then chop off the top stem. Remove the seed bank from inside, as well as the ribs. Then chop to size. Peppers can also be frozen whole or chopped using the “Ziploc bag and freeze” method.
It’s melon season! We picked 8 boxes last week. This becomes an every-other-day job, starting this week.
THIS WEEK’S ADD-ON SHARES:
It’s “B” week (for all our bi-weekly shares)
Fruit Share: pint of blackberries (Niese and Maag), and watermelon, canary melon (Bench Farms, St. Rte 2)
Coffee: Brazil Santos (dark chocolate, brown sugar, hazelnut tones)
Pain Neuf Bread share (week 1, Sylvania site): Honey Oatmeal
Knueven Ice Cream Share: Maple Pecan
Irrigation 101:
Getting Water around the Farm
This past week, Farmer Kurt’s priority has been setting up the irrigation system around the farm. With the hot, dry weather finally upon us, it is vital that we get water to our plants if we want them to stay alive. When you manage a 20 acre farm, this is anything but simple. And with crops moving around one year to the next, every year the irrigation map looks a little different.
There are four key elements to an irrigation plan: the well, the main transport supply lines (the aluminum pipes), the secondary lines (aka “firehose”), and the emitter lines.
The 300 foot deep well was replaced 3 years ago — a major capital investment in our future water security. It’s so powerful it requires its own generator to run.
The Well: It starts with the water source. Our well runs about 300 feet deep with a PSI of 80. Since our well isn’t connected to the electric grid way out in the back acreage, we also have to use a monster generator to pull the water from the ground. The generator runs on a steady source of fuel. A few years ago, we replaced our well piping (which had rusted out in places and had holes), and upgraded our well pump to a state-of-the-art system. This should (in theory) last us another 20-30 years if the water table doesn’t drop. The well was dug about 30 years ago by Kurt’s grandfather, Charles Bench. And it’s a lifesaver. The control system allows us to monitor the pressure and speed of the pump deep below.
The main arteries that carry water from the well to the field blocks are made of aluminum.
Main Transport Lines: These are 20 foot long sections of aluminum pipe with a roughly 12 inch- wide diameter. Their job is to carry the water long distances to the region we need to irrigate. Think of them as the “arteries” of the farm. The pipes lock together like a puzzle, but they must be put together by hand each time. So for instance, when we want to water one block of the sweet corn field, we disconnect and reconnect the pipes to get them to that part of the field. Later on, when we need to water the OPPOSITE end of the field, we must disconnect, transport, and rebuild the transport lines over there. It can be a laborious process. Every year, we add more and more pipe to our inventory, so we can just “leave the lines” in their primary locations. There are also connectors that allow you to turn pipes around corners at ninety-degree angles.
The lines that carry water from the aluminum pipes to the specific beds look like a fireman’s hose.
The Secondary Lines: These flexible fabric pipes remind me of “firehose.” They are blue in color, and smaller in diameter than the aluminum pipe. These connect to the giant arteries on the main line using house barb couplings, and carry the water to the specific vegetable beds around the field. They run perpendicular to the edges of the bed rows along one of the driveways. A hole is punched at intervals along this line, where the drip tape or emitter lines can tap into.
This is one form of emitter system — a sprinkler. We also use drip tape.
Emitter lines: These can take the form of sprinkler systems that pull water from the firehose and direct it to the plant in need. Or these can take the form of “drip tape” — which is thin black tubing (dotted with perforated holes) that runs down the middle of the vegetable beds right along the base of the plant’s stem. The water dribbles in small beads right where the plant needs it most — at the base of the plant. And the house barb couplings control the water pressure that flows down this line.
This is drip tape, and it runs like railroad track through the beds. It brings water directly to the base of the plant.
All of these four pieces must be carefully engineered and mapped, so that a “maze” of waterworks can flow at a moment’s notice where it is needed. The aluminum pipes can create a bit of a traffic hazard however, since they are always moving around. It’s not uncommon to be driving the Gator or tractor down a lane, only to be blocked off by a giant pipe at the end of the row. We then have to back up and make a detour. (It reminds me of the moving staircases at Hogwarts in Harry Potter). In fact, this past week, Jed accidentally ran over 3 pieces of aluminum piping while culti-packing a field — poking holes in the pipe and rendering them useless — a costly lesson he will not soon forget.
Because this process of building out the waterworks system is so complicated, it must be managed by Farmer Kurt. Luckily, thanks to all the help we received this week from volunteers (doing the day-to-day jobs on the farm), Kurt was able to devote the large blocks of time required to get this job done.
I took a lot of cat naps this week. I’m mentally and physically exhausted. But don’t despair. We’re going to make it! Day by day…
FARMER KURT’S FIELD NOTES
Hi everyone! Boy, am I tired! I want to thank all of you who came out this week again to help me keep the farm going. I’ve had several big priorities on the back burner that I was finally able to tackle, because of volunteers who could take care of the more immediate needs (like harvesting and mulching). I’ve been feeling extremely overwhelmed — trying to find people to do the “day to day” jobs like picking melons and sweet corn that are eating up my hours of the day. Pulling corn for Mom and Dad is a highly trained skill, that only a few folks can do (me, Noah, and Zack), so I have to do that every day until I can find some more skilled labor. The melons are now in season, and that means every 2 days, I’ll need a crew of 4 picking melons off the vine and getting them onto a trailer. Again, being able to identify a “ripe” melon is not something I can just give to anybody, so I’m feeling pulled to do that as well. This week, we’ll be adding tomatoes to this daily routine — which is another 2 hour job. This is something I hope to delegate!
Nike and John lay weed mat (aka Maddie and Bella coffee bags) into the peppers. John Sawvel (on the right) was such a hard worker that Kurt asked him to join the paid crew! John said yes!!
Thanks to John Sawvel and Nike Mendenhall who showed up Thursday to help me mulch the peppers. They laid out the coffee burlap bags over the drip tape lines. We had enough for 2 rows of peppers. After that, we used straw bales. It’s back-breaking work, but luckily it wasn’t too hot out that day.
HIRING UPDATE: I am making progress on replacing our crew! I hired a recent high school graduate from Oak Harbor last week — Gage begins on Monday. He comes from a cattle farm background, and can run all kinds of equipment too. I’m excited about his potential. John Sawvel, a CSA member, came out a couple times to volunteer this week on the farm. He impressed me so much with his speed and work ethic that I asked him if he wanted a job. He said yes! (Catalina even said he worked harder than her! And that’s saying something!) Yuriana and Manuel (who used to work for us 2 years ago) showed up last weekend to help weed and tie tomatoes — they agreed to work weekends as available. My brother-in-law Derek and his friend Rabbit are coming next week to help with CSA harvest.I’ve also been able to piece-meal some custom work out to local guys who are in between jobs at Rothert Farms. A crew of 6 guys weeded the really bad celery root beds, and I grabbed two H2A workers for the day to tie my tomatoes. Next year, Corinna and I are thinking very seriously about moving to a worker-visa program (the H2A program) for finding our crew. More on that in a future newsletter.
Yuriana (right) came back last weekend to help us weed Brussels sprouts and kale-lettes. She and husband Manuel used to work for us. They agreed to help out as needed on weekends for the rest of the season. We continue to piece together our team little by little. Thank you for your patience!
In the meantime, we appreciate any time you can give us volunteering on the farm as we finish stitching together our full-time crew. Our thanks to those of you who came to “clean” the garlic – Lori Weise, Mary Kay Baumgartner, Connie Taylor, Steph Saba, Judy McKenna, Kristi Kennelly, Gabby Beck, Peg Daly-Masternack, and Elizabeth Tore. This is one of those “tedious” things that has to be done, and every hour that volunteers spend chipping away at the mounds of garlic to clean is one less hour I have to pay my small crew to do it. We’ll also need another big push of folks to help pull the next block of onions. But I am feeling hopeful that I can do this! Your “standing in the gap” during this transition period has kept me sane.
Gabby Beck was one of 10 volunteers who helped clean garlic this week.
I was able to get the irrigation system put together on Thursday and Friday — many thanks to Beth Deakins (CSA member) who offered to take my place as the driver to the Perrysburg pickup site this week. That opened up a whole new block of time — which I desperately needed to make progress. With so many different balls I’m juggling, I struggle with the constant interruptions that keep me from finishing a big task. Corinna wrote a nice article above about how the complexity of the Irrigation system — I encourage you to read it. Basically, I spent the week designing the “plan” for how the waterworks would move through the farm most efficiently. And then I began to lay down and connect the main pipes, roll out the hoses, line up the emitter lines, and connect everything together with couplings. I’ve got some sections of the field ready for water. This morning, I started watering the cabbage and daikon radishes. I’m hoping to have the tomatoes, winter squash, peppers, eggplant, and kale hooked up by the end of the weekend.
Corinna said I looked like a fire-fighter hauling this irrigation hose across the fields.
Jed and Josiah have been working away their precious summer vacation for me the last two weeks. I’ve so appreciated their help. Jed can pretty much run any piece of equipment on the farm now — tractors, cultivators, disk-rippers, and forklift. I had him weeding beds with the cultivator tractor and culti-packing one of the large acres for me. Culti-packing is when you drive a rolling cylinder over a clumpy bed of soil to try and smooth it out. This makes it easier to plant seed later.
I disked up the rutabaga and kohlrabi beds that I tried seeding a few weeks ago. No germination, so we try again.
The tomatoes are finally turning! You’re getting some this week. They look beautiful. The plants are loaded down with fruit. I have a block of tomatoes that desperately needs to be tied. Luckily I found 2 guys from Rothert’s farm who were looking for custom hire work. They showed up today to take care of that for me. I’m the only one on the farm right now who can tie tomatoes – so it felt good to find someone to take that off my plate.
I got my new Hefty G tractor up and running this week! If you recall, this is the tractor that I rebuilt and custom-designed this winter for cultivation. I needed several cultivation tractors on the farm, so we can be doing two things at once. This has been such a huge project and it feels like a win to finally have it operational on the farm. (Plus it’s fun).
I disked up the fall beds of rutabaga and kohlrabi I planted a week ago. I had zero germination, so I decided to start over. Not sure about the carrots — they may need to be replanted too. So far, I don’t see them popping up either.
I finally got my Hefty G tractor up and running, and it works like a charm. I’m staring down at the bed here, making sure that the red cultivator blades are straight. I don’t want to pull out the radishes!
The Farm to Table Dinner was this past Friday. Another show-stopper event by Chef Joseph of Cork & Knife Provisions Catering. This time, we were able to set up the table in the actual field for a beautiful view. The temperature wasn’t too hot either, and the sun began to dip behind the barn just as dinner started. We enjoyed good food with good fellowship.
My boys got to attend the Combine Demolition Derby at the Wood County Fair with Grandpa this year. I normally go with them too, but this year, there was too much going on. They had a blast — I highly recommend this event if you have young boys. Mom and sister Heidi’s birthday party is Sunday evening — will try to get things done so I can make it. No down-time for me this week, but I do hope to get a good night’s rest on Saturday night! Hope you enjoy the box. It was truly a labor of love this week! So grateful for all of you…
~Your Farmer, Kurt
Thanks to the Picketts, John Sawvel, and Jahnine for helping out with the harvest this week.
WEEK 10 ANNOUNCEMENTS
- ORDER YOUR BULK CANNING PEACHES NOW. Cost is $35 for a half bushel box from Eshleman Orchard (approximately 25 lbs). You can place your order in the online store. Your order may not be delivered until Week 11 — depending on when you place your order in the store.
- You have until Sunday morning to enter your Fennel Dish in the Befuddling Fennel photo contest! Let me see what you’re making with our fennel! I’ll announce the winner Sunday afternoon.
- Bulk corn is now for sale in the online store. Due to space limitations, we are only offering a few bags per week right now. We’ll eventually ramp this up. Go to our store to place your order. You can also email Corinna (if it’s sold out) to get on a wait list at sharedlegacyfarms@gmail.com. Elmore customers especially should do this, as I can likely get your order filled right away.
Bulk Red Haven peaches (for canning) are a free-stone peach, and are now for sale in the online store. 25 lb boxes cost just $35.
- Now taking reservations for the Sept. 17th Field to Table Farm Dinner. Price is $75 per ticket. Arrive at 6 PM, and dinner will begin around 6:30 PM. This event is limited to 75 people, and we will set up tables in a giant horseshoe in the field near the pack shed, with a beautiful view. 5 course meal provided by Chef Joseph Jacobsen of Cork and Knife Provision (formerly the head chef of Degage Restaurant). To reserve your spot, head to this Google Sheet link to place your reservation. Payment is made via check or cash (to Shared Legacy Farms). If you can’t make the link work, then email Corinna at sharedlegacyfarms@gmail.com.
- Want to volunteer for a couple hours? If you’d like to help out during a CSA Pack night (Mondays and Wednesdays from 4-8 PM), or help us harvest on a Monday or Wednesday morning (8 am to noon), please email me at sharedlegacyfarms@gmail.com.
- You can order additional items from the Shared Legacy Farms online store. This week we have: bulk sweet corn (by the bushel, 65 ears), bicolor sweet corn (by the half dozen), bulk canning peaches ($35), rye flour, aronia berries, sweet and hot banana peppers. Our store link is super easy to remember: www.sharedlegacyfarms.com/store. We reload and open the store inventory on Saturdays, around 6 PM. Just be sure to select the right pickup site that coincides with your pickup location. If the pickup option is greyed out or not available, it means you missed the window to order. You need to place your order 2 days before your site, because we harvest the product early on Monday and Wednesday mornings.
Don’t forget to enter your entries into the Befuddling Fennel Contest! Haven’t seen too many photos yet… this one looks easy! Fennel with Citizen Salmon Alaska!
WEEK 10 CSA RECIPES
Members: You can download these recipes as a PDF here. These recipes are designed to inspire you to use your box this week! Please check inside our private Facebook group to find your fellow members sharing ideas for what to make with their box! Share a photo and you might be featured in next week’s newsletter!
- Pasta with 15-minute Burst Cherry Tomato Sauce
- Sausage Jambalaya with Celery and Bell Peppers
- Grilled Parmesan, Garlic and Basil Corn on the Cob
- Zuppa Toscana (Sausage, Bacon, Potato and Kale Soup)
- Corn, Tomato, Avocado Salad
- Stir Fry Kale with Tomatoes
- Beet and Onion Salad
- Grated Beet Salad
- Roasted Beet and Grilled Corn Salad
- Iced Melon Moroccan Mint Tea
- Cantaloupe and Black Pepper Granita
- Blackberry Basil Margarita