Déjà Rhu !
It’s déjà vu all over again, except this year we’ll calling it déjà rhu. Wet, wet, and more wet, similar to last year, but a few weeks later, though we have Rhubarb right on time!! Recent wet weather has impacted some of the fields, not liking the excessive rains that happen to fall in one day. We had 5” of rain in 8 days, similar to the start of the season last year. As of this newsletter we have gone almost 48 hours without rain! Some of our spots are just too wet with some plants exhibiting stunted growth. Luckily no plant losses of any significance have been noted.
News from the Farm: A lot of plantings were done very early. All fields are planted, except for a new field which is 
ready to plant; it just needs to be fenced. This is our old “round” field. We extended it and double its size. The beds have been made and we laid down the plastic. We are just waiting for time to install the fencing, which is no small chore.
Transplanting is on schedule, though we got behind on the seeding. Our projects this week is to catch up. Transplanting that will be done during this week include a whole gamut of herbs, additional varieties of tomatoes, and peppers as well five different varieties of eggplant. This week we will be seeding lettuce and spinach. Also in the Franklin Greenhouse, Renee has seeded microgreens for deliveries in the weeks to come.
The tomatoes in this week’s delivery are from North State Growers whom we developed a relationship last year for early season tomatoes & cucumbers. Len grows them in greenhouses utilizing unique trellising. The cucumbers will be available soon. Len has similar growing practices to ours and does not spray or use any chemicals. Like us, he uses beneficial insects to control the ones we don’t want. We plan on planting our tomatoes in the lower greenhouse, though we will not have the unique trellising. We are worried about the weather, so we are hoping that this move will help prevent some of the diseases that are common to tomatoes during a wet season.
Thank you for supporting our farm. It is only through the continued support of our members that our farm continues to be sustainable and we continue the practice of farming. We welcome back many of you who have been supporting us for most of our 17 years of CSA deliveries as well as welcome many new members this year. It is also important to acknowledge the efforts of the coordinators at all our drop-off locations. Without drop-off locations that are fully supported the CSA concept is lost. We should all participate in the sense of “community” by helping out, sharing recipes and giving support to each other.
We like to grow many interesting veggies, some of which you may have never tried before. We encourage you to try-it, you’ll like it!! We always provide you with recipes and have our Harvest Identifier online as well.
Remember you are eating seasonally, so the early spring deliveries will be mostly greens and lighter with perhaps 5-7 different items. As the weeks progress, there will also be more variety and the deliveries will become heavier. In the newsletter each week I include recipes for the items that are being delivered. If you have some recipes you would like to share, we can post them on the blog for others to try.
Community supported farm members soon become connected to each other as the weeks go by. We welcome you all and look forward to working with all of you.
Meet the Crew – Lisa returns for her 4th year, Ali her 3rd and Dory her 2nd. Renee who manages our greenhouse in Franklin is back for her 3rd year.. We can’t forget John, who keeps all our machines running and helps with tilling and wrapping the beds with plastic and was instrumental in setting up the irrigation system. They are all doing an amazing job in getting together the delivery and trying to catch up on the season for future weeks.
What’s Up & Growing:
Here is an overview of what is up & growing on the Farm:
| Potatoes – 2 varieties | Leeks | Onions |
| Sunchokes | Lettuce 5-6 varieties | Broccoli |
| Cauliflower | Chicory | Collards |
| Fava Beans | Red Cabbage | Kale |
| Tomatoes 10+ varieties, more to be planted | Summer Squash 4 varieties | Peppers 10+ varieties, more to be planted |
| Chard | Garlic | Cucumbers – 4 varieties |
| Chives | Garlic Chives | Basil |
| Potatoes – 2 varieties | Leeks | Onions |
| Sunchokes | Lettuce 5-6 varieties | Broccoli |
And in the Franklin Greenhouse we have the following up & growing:
| Texas Super Sweets | Carrots- Rainbow variety | Stevia |
| Rosemary | Summer Spinach | Basil |
| Salad Burnet | Ginger |
Weather Report: As in years past, we anticipate a perfect year, only to have the weather play a role in what we can & can’t do. We had May in March and March in April and now April in June with all the recent rain. We had to have Matt deliver some hay so that we could work in the new field, as it was too muddy to work and the hay allowed us to work reasonably without getting stuck in the mud.
Animal report: The animals are on a rampage, one groundhog in particular has been enjoying the kale. Another likes the chicory and we have a family of rabbits that are quite content eating the clover instead of your veggies.
Week of June 11th - Pick of the Week: click on the links below or to the right to bring you to the delivery specific to your pick-up location. Deliveries will be of similar variety & poundage, but may contain different items at anytime during the season. Occasionally, some crops are ready to harvest but not enough to deliver to all our drop-off locations. What we do is start to filter them in each week to a different drop-off until there is enough to delivery to everyone.
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