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Oh, what a light misty rain-fall, Oh, what a dark cloud-y day. Would like a bit of sun-shine! Please, please Lord send some our way! I have been singing this in my head all day–perhaps I shall be singing all week?! Gentle rain showers we like with a mix of sunshine to keep the molds and bacteria from presenting problems. And now for a quick tour of our beautiful 2023 garden..

The 2023 Harvest Season is shaping up to be a good one. This is just some of the garden. There are eggplant, cukes, beets, carrots, peppers, summer squash, winter squash, onions . . . and I am sure I am missing some things! Continuous scouting and application of organic inputs at just correct time is keeping the insect population down. Or perhaps it was the heat spell we had earlier? All we know is we have some of the most beautifully perfect greens ever!

In the box this week and next you can expect the last joi choi. This will be an exciting surprise for some CSA Members because I thought they were all gone and said as much last week. The crunchy kohlrabi have doubled in size so expect two! You will get perhaps the last of the green and red romaine. This will depend on what the weather does to the last planting. And escarole, endive, lettuce, kale and plenty of broccoli.

The weather has been unseasonably cool this last week. However, as you will recall it was unseasonably warm before that; thus, we are coming the end of the Asian Greens. The last of the Joi Choi and Black Summer will be joined by kohlrabi, red and green romaine, escarole, endive, head lettuce, kale and broccoli.

We grow several varieties of broccoli. With time you will find the long Artwork, heads in different sizes (depending on the variety), and florets. This appears to be a good year for growing broccoli. We are excited because last season, it was so wet we were able to grow very little of this crop! Every year is different and every day is different!!

Cheesy broccoli bites are a fun and flavorful way to introduce kids to this nutrient-packed veggie. Start by steaming fresh broccoli florets until they are tender. Mash the broccoli and mix it with breadcrumbs, grated cheddar cheese and a beaten egg. Form the mixture into bite-sized balls and bake until they turn golden and crispy. These bite-sized delights are sure to win over even the pickiest eaters.

Prepare to “dip into” your fresh, local, seasonal gourmet vegetables as we roll into this season change! We do not think you will get more broccoli than you are able to eat. If you feel you are, check out the Recipes under “F” for Freezing Vegetables. A simple 3-minute blanch and a 3-minute ice water cool down and they will be ready for the appropriate freezer bag. I also recommend a couple more steps on the webpage, but you get the idea. Freezing can be quick and easy!

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Grab some popcorn or some raw veggies and dip open your mind and enjoy! I will tell you about our beautiful garden on the next Blog . . .

The boxes this week will also have endive and escarole. It’s all green and can go into your salad. I also have seen a recipe that puts escarole in white bean soup! It is a hearty and versatile green.

The romaine comes in both green and red varieties–although, it really looks more purple. You will definitely know which one is the red romaine! And there is the red, head lettuce along with the kohlrabi and kale which are new for the week. Some of the Asian greens are approaching the end as the year moves to another stage of local, seasonal gourmet vegetable eating. Nothing lasts forever!

Since the middle of March we have had plants hardening off in our driveway with a fence around them to keep four-legged pests out of the area. Now all of that is gone! All of the plants are in the garden and I can pull in and back out without worrying about running over a tray of precious plants! In addition to planting these crops, Robert has been direct seeding others. Our cucumbers did not germinate properly on the first planting, so he has replanted those. They will grow quickly and we trust we will have a bountiful supply of the best cukes you have ever tasted.

The first kohlrabi will be in the boxes this week. We are growing both purple and green kohlrabi. You need to peel them first. The beautiful purple will be gone, but the bulb is crisp and crunchy! I prefer them raw in salads or as a snack. They can also be sauteed. The tops are edible as well.

The veggie boxes will contain most all of the crops you have been seeing with the addition of kohlrabi; also, romaine and kale for some CSA Members depending on where you are in the harvest/pickup rotation. The spring greens will not last forever, so enjoy them while you can.

We do have community supported agriculture (CSA) farm shares available. Veggie Adoption Stragglers will be pro-rated into the harvest season.

We believe all food should be local. Thank you for supporting local farmers and agriculture in whatever manner you do because No farmers . . . No food . . . No future is a fact and not just a tag line!

Today is the first of June and romaine and kale join the parade of vegetables you will find in your CSA Boxes this week! Romaine you can trust and how I love romaine!! The kale will be either of the red or green variety depending upon the day’s harvest. Of course, all of the previous Asian greens will continue!

Robert stapled the deer fencing around the garden every three feet. Still much like Peter Rabbit sneaking into Mr. McGregor’s Garden, Gregory Groundhog did the same this week in order to help himself to our tender broccoli and cauliflower plants. I see another Have A Heart trap purchase in the immediate future. One of the deer made a huge hole in the back of the fence late last week. This is the first time this has ever happened! Robert mended the fence with a Frankenstein stitch and we trust the intrusion was an accident and not intentional. The wildlife in our neighborhood is a continual challenge. We call our property a Wildlife Sanctuary, but we prefer they all remain on the outside of our seven-foot fencing!

We got enough rain to prevent us from resuming planting, but not so much that the soil could not absorb the moisture. Rain from the Heavens always makes plants grow more quickly it seems. The fabric and drip lines are in place and finishing the greenhouse transplanting is in the plans for the coming weekend.

This is all that remains in the “hardening zone.” You can see the remaining red lettuces and our eggplant, sweet bell peppers, and tomato plants waiting to be transplanted. Of course, many crops were previously direct seeded into the soil such as potatoes, carrots, beets, peas, onions, beans, squash, rutabaga, zucchini, etc. Thus, another stage of the 2023 Harvest Season approaches an end in sight just as the actual harvest gets into full swing!

Farm shares are still available. If you join now, you will have missed our first three weeks of harvest; but there are still plenty of lettuces and spring greens coming in the next couple of weeks!

As of today every one of our CSA Members has received their first veggie box of the 2023 Harvest Season! Remember it takes us two weeks to start up using the every-other-week pickup schedule. As the days passed, we added tatsoi and green or red kale to the Joi Choi, Ching Chang, Black Summer, Asian Delight, and the “Rosies” or purple choi. Next week will include all of the above in the CSA Box!

If you have been considering joining a CSA, now is the time! We do have CSA Farm Shares available! We always plan for those “late joiners” who have not yet thrown their hat into our Seasonal Gourmet Vegetable ring of veggie lovers. If you are enjoying our farm fresh veggies, please spread the word about our small, Fairview family farm. Oh, and just for your perspective, each of these rows is 180 foot in length.

Now an update on the gardens! Last weekend Robert expanded the seven-foot deer fence to enclose everything except the potatoes and winter squash–which the deer do not seem to like! Last year a Mamma Doe taught her twins to eat our tomatoes! Not the tomato plants–they actually ate the little tomatoes off of the plants! It took us a while to figure out this was happening as this was a first for us in 2022, but we learned the lesson and we have a good memory. This will not happen again.

It has been dry in May so we have been using our underground drip irrigation system. The weatherman says we may get about three inches of rain this weekend. Robert believes the soil is so dry that will absorb it all. The plants always prefer rain from the Heavens over drip irrigation! Below is one of our three broccoli varieties. As you can see the heads are beginning to form! Yay!!

The kohlrabi are also growing to the point when I can photograph them. If you have never had kohlrabi before, we think you will enjoy this unusual, crunchy vegetable! More on this later . . . they need to grow a bit before they can be harvested. They grow right on top of the soil and look a bit like little “space ships” that have landed in the garden.

Joi Choi like all of the Asian greens are hearty enough that you can add braised beef tips, or chicken strips, etc. to the top of your salads if you like. The ends will have the highest possibility of containing soil. When you cut the ends off, you can prevent some of the silt in your wash water by first rinsing these ends separately.

Do you have an Instant Pot? I was late to the game when it came to purchasing this kitchen tool as I am not one to buy gadgets. I like my big chef’s knife and cutting board and stainless steel cookware. However, I did finally buy an Instant Pot last March and I will say that I have used it every single day since! Robert likes sauteed Tatsoi for example, and we have discovered that pressure cooking it for “zero” minutes with a quick release gives perfectly sauteed Tatsoi (or any other green, for that matter). Of course, you can do the same in your large skillet with a lid!

We trust you are enjoying your first box/bag of veggies. There will be more to come! And then one day they will be gone until next spring. So enjoy these nutritious greens while you can!!

Tatsoi will be added to the choi mix in the second week CSA Boxes. And yes, this will be the first CSA Box for half of our CSA Members. Remember we schedule our veggie boxes on an every-other-week pickup schedule. We can do an every week schedule if that that what your family desires. The price per box is the same and the pickup location is more limited, but we can do it. However, in our thirty years of CSA farming experience, we have discovered most families are happiest on an every-other-week schedule.

Three (3) tatsoi are pictured in the photo above on my cutting board. And for your information, the cutting board measures 25 1/2 by 31 inches! We can do some serious chopping on this board!! One of our favorite ways to make tatsoi is TATSOI RICOTTA QUICHE CAKES. The recipe is under “T’. I realize my recipe pages are not particularly sophisticated, but you can be sure we have tested them all. This Asian green is in the bitter family and has lots of Vitamin C. I do include the stem in all of my recipes.

By Friday, May 19 at 2 p.m. every CSA Member should have received an email about their first veggie box pickup. Please be sure to reply to my email so I know you know when your CSA Box is coming. Once the vegetables are harvested, they cannot go back into the soil. The spring crops like this cooler weather! And so far the insect pests have been far and few. As it warms up, you will begin to see a bug bite here and there on the greens and perhaps even a worm or slug. Our veggies are ORGANIC so it is to be expected. Our position is: If the bugs won’t eat it, perhaps we should not either! We do have some organic inputs we can apply later when those pesky, little white “butterflies” become common, but so far, so good!

We do have CSA Farm Shares available! As I have said before, please spread the word about our small, Fairview family farm.

The first CSA Boxes are going out today. (Before you call to see when you are getting your first box, be sure to read the previous Blog posts, please!) In your box you will find at least two Black Summer choi, two Joi Choi, three purple choy, three Ching Chang, and three Asian Delights. I say at least because if I felt a particular item was “light,” I might have tossed in an extra one.

If you have ever eaten Chinese food, I guarantee you have had these greens before! All of these items mixed together make the most delicious salads! Or they can be sauteed, or shredded and tossed into soups and stews. I use some of the stems in the place of celery and fill them with peanut butter! Or chop the stems for chicken salad, etc. Of course, the Asian greens are wonderful juiced. Juicing will cause them to disappear quickly!! They were harvested this morning, so you can expect them to last two weeks in a refrigerator with the proper temperature control. However, we trust you will begin enjoying them immediately and not letting them sit in the ‘fridge!

We don’t think we gave you “too many” veggies. However, if you feel you have too many, please share them with someone who you think would appreciate our local, seasonal gourmet vegetables! your sharing them is a surefire way to introduce our family farm to a potential customer. Plus you friend will love your kindness! Or perhaps you have a house-sitter or neighbor or another person in your life with whom you would like to share the “choi joy.”

We do have CSA Shares available at this time. Please help to spread the word! Some of our members have been with us for over twenty years, but we always have room for new CSA Members who are fresh vegetable lovers!