CSA Up and Running

By now everyone should have received an email indicating their first CSA Box harvest of the 2025 season. The first few boxes will contain Spring Greens: Joi Choi, Black Summer, Ching Chang, Asian Delight, Tatsoi, and red and green kale. We love everything chopped and mixed together for giant raw salads. I add a drizzle of honey to my EVOO to counteract the “bitterness.” Bitter is one of the flavors GOOD for us! Toss in some cranberries, walnuts, and fetta cheese and you have possibly the best salad you have ever eaten!

Here is a more desirable section of the Spring Garden.

If you are new to the CSA, I recommend purchasing some Giant Hefty Ziplock bags for storing your greens. Robert rinses off the first layer of soil, but you will need at least two more washings, in my opinion. Then I bag–draining off as much water as possible by tipping the bag. Now my greens are ready to chop for meal prep! Or bag now and wash later–your choice. The Photo ID pages on our website will help you to identify each particular veggie. Recipes are on the website if you want to saute.

This garden section is TOO wet resulting in yellowing leaves and stunted plant growth!

2025 has been a slow start due to the rain. In the above photo you can see the challenge we face farming in bottom lands during a wet season! We have drip irrigation from drilled wells for a drought scenario, but there is nothing we can do about excessive rainfall. The crops in this photo are probably a loss.

Subscribe to this Blog if you want some idea of what is coming in your CSA Box. I will update it as the contents change with the seasons.

What Is Quick?

I may have a different view of quick than some people. For example, I realize how long it takes to get from tiny seed to edible vegetable and I have patience. When dealing with Quickbooks, however, I trust the process to be quick! Needless to say, I spent three full days dealing with Quickbooks upgrades, etc. during the past week. NOT QUICK! My patience was tested and my tongue said some words it should not have expressed. I trust this part of the job is done for another year.

I want to show you a photo taken with my camera right up to the deer fence! As you can see it is almost invisible to the human eye. It is seven feet tall which is necessary because we have a herd of about fifteen deer residing in the area. They love to eat our tender plants and shoots. We attempt to encourage them to stay near the woods by planting clover on that side of the field. Alas, they are comfortable enough with seeing us to venture out into the gardens–thus, the fencing! As you can see, the transplanting continues each and every day. Our plants are beautiful and have strong root systems. We lost some due to the cold temps, but that is to be expected and we plan for it.

Look closely at this photo and you can see the fencing bellowing out from the breeze! It is a very fine material. We must lift it up to enter and exit the garden. Turkeys have been known to fly from the trees and into the fence tearing it down. And they have been known to land inside the fence and tear it up on the way out. Our property is a Wildlife Sanctuary it seems! We have flock of over thirty turkeys some days. Much of the property along Cane Creek has been developed leaving less and less space for the wildlife to inhabit.

This is the designated “First Summer Garden”which will be enclosed inside the fence eventually. Robert tilled it this week in preparation for laying down the fabric and drip tape before planting. AND he needed to do some mowing on the property; hence the tiller came off for the season. The blueberries got a final mowing. He removed all of the sticker and briar bushes last winter, but the grass and weeds will come back quickly! Also, the berries will be set making it impossible to drive the mower between the rows again. If we were planting the bushes again, we would put more space between the rows. Hind sight is always 20/20!

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 in my nightly dreams!