Week 4 News

Touring the orchard Thursday night

We had a good time with everyone at our tour Thursday night! Unfortunately the mosquitoes cut things a little short! I know I warned about mosquitoes but that was by far the worst I've ever experienced with them at the farm!!! I think it's just going to be that kind of summer with them. Hopefully no one went home with too many bites!

What's in the box:
Baby arugula
Lettuce - 2 beautiful heirloom varieties this week
Tatsoi - Will need washing, it's the last thing we pick as it perishes quickly. Excellent added to stir fries, sauteed until and drizzled with sesame oil, or mixed into salads.
Sweet cherries
Green onions
Dill - sprinkly on potatoes, mix into summer salads (chicken, tuna), use on fish, salad dressings
Radishes - Purple plum heirloom variety
Pint Blueberries or our strawberries - very likely
Potatoes?
Peas or brocoli?

Strawberries: Versluis orchards are on the end of their strawberries and we are beginning to get more and more from our greenhouse and field grown berries. We will begin rotating who gets them each week.

Snow Peas (Flat pod): These are getting close and are one of our favorites! We just started getting some and had a handful dipped in hummus this afternoon! Great raw, steamed, or sauted (see recipe idea for snow peas with ginger). They are coming!!!

Coming soon:
more varieties of peas and potatoes
onions
tart cherries NEXT WEEK - the PIE CHERRY, they are also great for making cherry topping for cheesecake, ice cream, etc.. (If you would prefer extra blueberries - let me know)
blueberries, blueberries, blueberries
Peaches - two weeks or so...


Farmer's Markets:
Thursday: Spring Lake from 9 until 1:00 at least (we've been selling out early!)
Saturday: Grand Haven Farmers Market from 7:30 - 12:00

* Sweetwater market is going to Rothbury for the music festival this week and we decided it was a little too far!

Cookbooks ordered: Asparagus to Zucchini, A guide to cooking farm-fresh seasonal produce - This is the most helpful cookbook and produce guide I have found thus far. You can look up just about any vegetable and herb listed alphabetically to find storage information, usage ideas, recipes, and MUCH more.

I ordered quite a few and will have my copy at the markets for you to check out if interested. Retail $20 / your price $17.

Week 3

I just returned from our first day as a vendor at Sweetwater Market. I absolutely LOVED it! They are so welcoming and helpful to new vendors. Very different from our other market firsts we've had.

This week marked the beginning of an epic battle with the birds. We forgot how brutal they can be to cherry trees as ours froze off last season. A few greenhouse shade tarps used as netting are slowing them down for now. You should have seen my father in-law lift my dad up in the loader bucket to put the nets up as Russ and I ran around tying streamers to trees.

We hope to see you at the farm this Thursday night. We will be there by 7:45 and hope to start right at 8:00. Please let me know if you can make it so we can plan for parking. We will likely add one more tour on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon in a couple of weeks as a few of you are requesting. I will send out directions soon after I talk to Russ about parking, etc.. He is busy with beneficial nematodes right now - will explain later :)

Thanks for returning your jars last week! We also love to recycle clam-shells and the other cartons. No need to clean the jars or clam-shells as we will clean them again anyways!

We will be at the Spring Lake Market this Thursday from 9:00 a.m. until 2:00, though last week we were out of everything pretty early. If you are a market pick-up it would be helpful to arrive by 1:00 if possible this week - even though we're planning to bring more produce. I suppose it would be good for your goodies to get to the fridge a little earlier (lettuce is always kept in a cooler until you arrive).

What's in the Box This Week:

- Sweet cherries
- Strawberries
- Snap peas
- Red skin potatoes
- Bunch of cilantro - see killer burger recipe
- Lettuce mix
- Bunch Tatsoi - Dark asian green similar to to bok choy and spinach that is best used within 2-3 days. I posted a super simple and delicious recipe for sauted tatsoi that we just tested.

-Green onions? Great sprinkled on cooked baby potatoes!
- Arugula? (likely one more week)


* Broccoli Raab - Let me know if you want to try some, especially if you have had it before. It started growing too quickly a week ago when it was really hot so we cut off the first batch (the heads weren't developing correctly). Looks like the cooler weather is helping the second batch.
If you get some this week you will want to use it up in 2-3 days as it will loose its crispiness.

For more on broccoli raab check out: http://whatscookingamerica.net/Vegetables/BroccoliRaab.htm



Coming soon:
Heirloom lettuce varieties
blueberries 1-2 weeks
tart cherries 1-2 weeks
snow peas
more arugula and baby bok choy


I borrowed a digi cam for a few pics. One of these days I will have time to shop for a replacement.







Our little bosc pears look so cute on the trees right now!

Our hideous attempt at keeping the birds out of a couple of our cherry trees.

Greenhouse strawberries are coming along! Not all huge berries but very sweet tasting variety!

Our first baby red skins are here!

These taters were grown from our own seed potatoes from last seasons crop!