Attention CSA Members: It is time to prepare for a gradual Season Change of veggies! Some of you will be sad to hear this; others of you will be thrilled. Whichever camp you fall into, we thank you for your support. We are not a retail grocery store with semi-trucks bringing in our supply of produce. Our vegetables are grown in the Fairview soil with our labor and the Grace of the Almighty!
As you know, we do NOT require our CSA Members to pay for the entire season in advance, but rather accept payment box by box. There are two reasons we have decided upon this manner of payment. First, we would not be able to sleep at night if we had all of your money and then Mother Nature gave us a year where we were unable to supply the promised veggies. In reality, this has never happened, but this is still the first reason. Sometimes all of the crops we plant do not grow as we planned, but we have always had vegetables to fill our CSA Boxes!
The second reason we are willing to accept payment in this manner is that over the last two decades, we have been told too many times that THIS is the only way some families are able to join a CSA. Some people get paid by the week and coming up with six months of grocery money all at once simply is not a viable option. So thank you to everyone who is a member of Cane Creek Asparagus & Company CSA. You are helping to support our small, family farm and you are helping to provide fresh, local seasonal veggies to others in the community! When we have excess, we donate to area shelters and food banks. And interestingly enough, Bell South, Duke Progress Energy, Verizon Wireless and the rest of the companies we must pay each month simply will not take vegetables for payment!
After a look in the garden, it appears the tatsoi, Joi Choi, Ching Chang, and Black Summer chois are done for the season. The heat and insects have taken over those early crops. It is possible we will have some white, juicy Joi Choi stalks we can put into the boxes. (I will remove the leaves.) I use them just like celery. They can add crunch to your romaine and lettuce salads and are wonderful for dipping or filling with cream cheese, humus, or peanut butter! Children love “ants on a log.”
Going forward you can expect to see broccoli heads. We grow several varieties—some have traditional crowns, some have long stalks with little heads on the end, some are in between. And later there will be “florets.” They all taste like fresh broccoli (grown on a local farm)! At this time we are getting the first smattering of cauliflower heads. They will become more plentiful. The collards and kale are coming into a second wave. We have red and green romaine and red, butter head lettuce. We trust you are figuring out how to enjoy the green and purple kohlrabi, because the “fleet has landed!” We still have endive and escarole. Spring onions round out the mix for now. Seasonal eating from a local farm!
Sadly, the rain and heat were hard on the peonies in my front yard this year, but the wildflowers are doing exceptional well. We enjoy our bits of beauty where we can!
Cane Creek Asparagus & Company CSA 