Author: Cane Creek Asparagus & Company CSA

We are starting the delivery of our CSA Boxes of local, seasonal gourmet vegetables on Tuesday, May 16. All CSA Members who are to pick up their first box of veggies during this first week have been notified by email. Please check your Spam Boxes. And please RSVP to my email so we know that you know you are to come for your first box of delights!

If you have signed up for Cane Creek Asparagus & Company CSA and do not find an email from us, then you know your first box of veggies will be coming during the second rotation or the Week of May 22. I have not sent out those informational emails yet. Do not fear!! I have not forgotten you. They will go out next Friday. Remember it takes us two full weeks to complete our start up. We have been operating using this procedure for nearly thirty years as we have discovered most families prefer every-other-week CSA Boxes and our veggies will last at least that long as we harvest the day of delivery!

The veggies in the boxes will be similar both weeks. And if something new is added one week, you can be sure it will still be available the following week. Most crops have a four week harvest window because we plant in waves so that we can maintain a constant supply–or as constant as Nature will allow because sometimes they grow at the same rate! The first boxes will contain five different Asian green varieties of choi or choy as shown in the above photo. Four are green and one is purple. The variety on the far right is new to us this season. It is called Asian Delight! You will need to look closely to tell one variety from another. The Veggie ID pages on the website will help. However, mixing them all together into one big salad is how we like to enjoy them.

The item in the photo on towel is called Tatsoi. This can go into your salads, too. You have seen this before I am sure, but usually they are quite LARGE in size. We attempt to harvest as seasonal gourmet vegetables. Of course, anything in the soil will continue to grow until it is harvested so they will get bigger as the weeks pass. We do plant our crops in “waves,” but sometimes the weather conditions still cause everything to grow at the same rate. Gardening can be tricky!

Most all crops will be rinsed one time before leaving the farm, but I recommend two to three more washing to remove all of our Fairview soil. I like to wash them all at once and store greens in a two-gallon Hefty Bag. Pour out as much of the remaining water as possible and gently squeeze most of the air from the bag without damaging the tender leaves. Then at mealtime all one needs to do is pull out some greens and a chef’s knife to prepare salads! The leaves are hearty, so I do not recommend tearing as it will bruise them. We usually add a drizzle of honey or something sweet like dried cranberries to our salads. Asian greens fall into the bitters category when it comes to vegetables. There will be lettuces, but we start with hearty, nutritional greens.

And now the Parade of Salads begins! Yes, all of the greens can be sauteed or sauteed and properly frozen for later. And we love Tatsoi Quiche Cakes, Tatsoi Feta Pie, and a tasty Tasoi Casserole in the dead of winter, but fresh garden salads is my absolute favorite time of the year! All of these recipes are on the website under “G” for greens and “T” for tatsoi.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers and mothering people this Sunday, May 14! What? You did not realize it was this coming Sunday?! There is still time to run to the mall and find a gift or you could give a CSA Farm Share! If you want a gift certificate to hand deliver on Sunday, let me know by 6 p.m. on Saturday and I will email one to you!

I love my vegetables, but I also love my flowers! Right now peonies are in season and I like having bouquets all over the house! Our gardens are growing well. We are seeing the sizes of the greens double every week now and soon I will be sending out start notices for the first CSA Box pick up.

The photo above shows one of the five (5) varieties of choi or choys that we are growing this season. and the photo below is kale. The kale is slower for some strange reason, so it will not be in the first boxes this year. Every year is different! And we have so many different crops to get into the ground. Some of you may have a tomato plant on your patio or in your garden. Our tomatoes are still in the greenhouse! So you may be ahead of us with that particular crop; however, we trust you will enjoy our early Asian greens for the best salads you have ever tasted! They are hearty, flavorful, and full of vitamins!

CSA Farm Shares are still available. We will be starting our CSA Box pick up soon, so watch for your email in your INBOX.

We have been using drip irrigation during the month of May. It is amazing how quickly the soil dries out when the wind is blowing. More mowing has been accomplished on the property. The fabric has been laid between the various rows of potatoes. This fabric will help to retain moisture, keep the weeds down, and give us a clean area to walk upon. Beets, peas, carrots, and spring onions have been planted via direct seeding into the soil. There is never a shortage of things to attend to on this family farm.

Each week on this Blog, I will give you some idea of what to expect in your box. You can subscribe to receive it sent to your Inbox. We also have a Harvest Calendar, Vegetable Identification Photo Albums, FAQ, and recipes. If you have other questions, the best way to reach me is via email.

I have been working on CSA scheduling. Once I get things arranged, I will be sending emails out to each and every CSA Member with more details. Remember we do schedule on a every-other-week basis. This means half of the CSA Members will start before the other half.

Each CSA Member will get a direct email from me indicating when your first CSA Box is being prepared.  You will be asked to reply (RSVP) to the email so we know you are expecting it.  We will give as much notice as possible before we harvest your first box of veggies.  In this every changing world one thing is certain, the garden does not stop growing; so be there every other week to get your veggies! Once we begin harvesting, just follow the calendar every other week from your Start Date until you hear from us that our season is ending.

We still do have CSA farm shares available fresh, local vegetables if anyone is interested. Just go to the website Join Our CSA page and sign up. I will get right back to you with an email of acceptance.

The weather is crazy in WNC. It is like this every year in the sense that nothing can be predicted! The blueberry bushes seems to have made it through the late freeze. There are still buds blooming out and the bushes have been a haven for area bees for the last several weeks. This should make for lots of (late season variety) blueberries for those CSA Members who are brave enough to come and harvest for themselves. We do not put these berries into our CSA Boxes and we are NOT open to the public in general.

I have now finished transplanting seedlings in the greenhouse. Eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes were the last crops I worked on. Robert has made much progress transplanting our vegetable starts into the first spring garden. Each tray has fifty plants in it. One afternoon he managed to put 1,100 plants into the ground–all by himself. Of course, he had made the holes the night before in order to manage this feat. Still, he is a human machine when it comes to getting the crops into the ground!

We did have to put the deer fence up the day after the first plants were set out There were footprints and tracks from our beloved wildlife friends who were quick to nibble. We have a seven foot fence which goes around the entire first garden. It is installed in a manner so that we can move one side and extend the fence around the second garden in time. You will have to look closely to see the fencing on the white poles as it is practically invisible to our eyes, but NOT to the deer!! YIPPEE!!!

I will begin working on CSA scheduling NEXT WEEK. Once I get things arranged, I will be sending emails out to each and every CSA Member with more details. We do have shares available if anyone is interested. Just go to the website Join Our CSA page and sign up. I will get right back to you with an email of acceptance. Spring salads are right around the corner . . .

We thought we might need to put the frost cloth again this weekend, but it turned out to be absolutely perfect weather for planting our first broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, choi, tatsoi, kale, and kohlrabi. These types of plants like cooler weather. Easter weekend Robert put the potatoes into the ground–one week later than usual, but the ground was too wet before. You can see the first four rows planted in the photo below. Notice the drip tape running down the middle of the plants. Our water is sourced from deep, drilled wells.

The plants look small in the field, but they will grow quickly. We trust that in one month’s time they will be going into out CSA Boxes for your first fresh spring salads!! I am continuing to transplant, and we repeat the process. Here is the next wave of plants leaving the greenhouse to go into the “hardening off” area of our driveway. Going directly from the greenhouse to the field is too much of a shock for the tender leaves. After a couple of weeks “in the real world,” they ready to for the final transplant.

This is a beautiful time of the year! All of the trees are greening and the dogwoods are in full bloom. The fallow fields are lush and the wildlife is in full reproduction mode. The turkeys and the birds are busy building their nests and the air if full of their various calls celebrating glorious SPRING!

We do have CSA Farm Shares available at this time! Please read over our website. If you decide we are a good “fit” for you and your lifestyle, join our CSA for the 2023 harvest of fresh, local, seasonal vegetables. Robert and I would be pleased to grow veggies for your family’s table!

First come the nice, warm days getting us all excited about Springs arrival and then get these cold snaps! I “harvested” all of my pretty daffodils on Friday evening and made a huge bouquet. I will miss seeing them when I am transplanting in the greenhouse this week, but I knew the extended cold would wilt them. I wanted to enjoy their beauty just a bit longer. Perhaps our blueberries will survive this cold weather as they were not all bloomed out yet. Time will tell.

The plants in the greenhouse are growing in leaps and bounds. Robert keeps starting new seed beds and I do my best to keep up with transplanting the seedlings. This stage reminds me having baby chicks to watch over . . . windows open, heater off, mist, then mist again, then windows shut, heater on, and mist again! It is important to start the gardens with strong plants. And we do have some beautiful plants which is one of the first steps in growing vegetables to fill up our CSA Boxes!

The winter gardens have been turned over putting nutrients into the soil. It is still too early for us to plant in the gardens, of course, so Robert has been tackling some multi-floral rose bushes along the driveway and in the woods. This pest has an amazing root system and can quickly take over an area. He does not use chemicals. Robert uses a pick axe! He says it is good exercise!!

This might be a good time to thank the two people who help keep our bodies in working order! The Geberin’s moved to our area after 50 years in practice in San Diego, CA. Victor is a Certified Advanced Rolfer which means he is a master practitioner and teacher of the Rolf Technique of Structural Integration. If you have never heard of this type of bodywork before, you are not alone! We had to look it up to see what it entailed, but Robert and I can both testify that his work is AWESOME. If you want to know how we were helped with our various physical “ailments,” give me a call and I will be happy to share our experiences.

We are grateful for those of our CSA Members who have been with us for nearly thirty years! However, we always have room for new veggie lovers! If you decide we are a good “fit” for you and your lifestyle, join our CSA for the 2023 harvest of fresh, local, seasonal vegetables. We do have CSA Farm Shares available at this time! Feel free to call or email me (Glenda) with any questions.

How many times in one’s day (or one’s life) does one think I am in the right place at the right time? This happens to me frequently. A vehicle runs a red light, but I delayed in proceeding through the intersection. That item I have been considering just happens to be on sale the day I go to purchase it. The person you randomly meet in a location you seldom frequent becomes your good friend. Life is all about time and place!

The same is true in the garden. From a microscopic seed to a seedling to a plant to a fruit or vegetable which one can harvest and eat for the nourishment of one’s body the variables of time and place are constantly a factor. Remember the cabbages which we were unable to grow in 2022? Out of the hundreds we planted, truly less than a dozen were harvested and this was all a matter of time and place. The seedlings looked beautiful in the greenhouse; the plants we transplanted to the garden were some of the best we had ever grown. Then the May rains arrived and that particular section of the garden was swamped; the plants were stunted and unable to produce the crops we planned for and expected. But what if those plants had been in a different time and place? Oh, but one was!!

My grandson was growing one special cabbage plant for a school project. In 2022 the plant company Bonnie gave each third-grade student in the Nation a cabbage seedling to plant and attempt to grow with a winner to be selected from each state. My grandson brought his seedling to our greenhouse in his backpack and in a small plastic sleeve. I will admit Robert and I did not hold much hope for its survival. However, the nine-year old lovingly planted it into a pot; and as it grew, into a larger pot, and then yet again! Finally, the day arrived when it went into the garden. A place was selected at the end of the cabbage row so he could identify “his” cabbage plant. Of course, this plant was larger than ours since it had been started at an earlier time. And the place he chose to plant it was slightly higher in the garden. Pictured below is the amazing twelve pound cabbage he was able to harvest! For the life of me, I do not understand why it was not declared a winner. I suppose it all had to do with time and place!

The May 2022 crops which we did plant at the “magic time and place” were our Asian greens! My mouth waters as I recall the delicious salads we had for weeks. 2022 was a good year for green beans, squash, zucchini, eggplant and sweet bell peppers, too! Currently, we are starting the 2023 joi choi, ching chang, tatsoi, romaine, cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, etc. seedbeds. Each seedling is moved from its germination seedbed and lovingly transplanting into its individual pot so it can grow to the proper size in our climate controlled greenhouse until it is time to be transplanted to the field gardens. With each seedling, I say a prayer for it to have the time and place and temperature and moisture and lack of pests necessary to flourish. And as we are working with hundreds and hundreds of seedlings each and every day, this is a prayer without ceasing!

With our unique CSA Box pick up schedules, Robert and I attempt to cover the time and place for our CSA Members to obtain their veggies in a manner that is most convenient to each family. We cannot be all things to all people, but we do our best by offering our daily harvest on various days and at various locations throughout Buncombe County. We are grateful that some of our members have been with us for nearly thirty years, but we always have room for new veggie lovers!

We do have CSA Farm Shares available at this time! Please read over our website. If you decide we are a good “fit” for you and your lifestyle, join our CSA for the 2023 harvest of fresh, local, seasonal vegetables.

This is an amazing time to be on Planet Earth.  Participate in the Shift.

In mid-November the 2022 CSA Season ended and while planning our family’s Thanksgiving Feast, life came rushing at me with an unexpected challenge.  Suffice it to say, I possess the latest viral antibodies as we begin the 2023 New Year!  Now thru February is when we turn our attention projects other than farming.  Thanks to Corvus Wood Company, we can walk on our decks and no longer fear falling through a rotting board.  I have nothing but praise for their craftsmanship and professionalism. If you are in the need of such services, I can happily give a recommendation!

With one home project successfully completed, our attention turns to rebuilding the second project which has been demolished and is currently a gaping hole!  What joys do wait?  I do realize many of you recently experienced water challenges.  We faced water issues as well.  Of course, we are not on a city water supply so it was necessary to call Reuben Caldwell Drilling.  Another company to whom I can offer a glowing recommendation for services rendered over the years.

Our Christmas tree is still up.  I am waiting for the wise men to appear!  The tree came from The Garden Spot on Hwy 74 in Fairview and is so fresh and beautiful that we have not the heart to remove it to our “wildlife sanctuary” before its time.  I have been playing with food recipes and Robert with seed catalogs in addition to cleaning out the ditches and working on the road now that the gardens are all in their winter state of slumber.

We are fortunate to reside in Western North Carolina where local food is in abundance. Granted that food may be coming from a freezer this time of the year, but we know where and how it was grown. The food one eats either fuels disease or fights disease. There is no middle ground. Eating a clean diet and living an active lifestyle are the most important elements to staying healthy. Science-based research is available on supporting the body systems through nutrition, supplementation, and detoxification. Your Body is a miraculous Temple! Treat it with the love and respect it deserves and it will serve you well for many decades. 

Robert and I look forward to growing vegetables for our CSA Member Family in the 2023 Harvest Season. We will do our part to plan, prepare, and plant to ensure success; however, I learned from my father that prayers for the success of the farm do work!  Please join us in our daily prayers for sunshine, appropriate amounts of rain and frost and heat at the proper times, minimal pest issues, cooperative wildlife, and an overall bountiful production in 2023 Harvest Season!

 Here’s wishing you a Healthy, Happy New Year!