CSA Summer Newsletter: September 4th, 2023 (Week 15/23)

Howdy Folks,

Well, the celery isn’t what we hoped for! The stems are little and many versus thick and fewer, but they still taste great and are wonderful for their texture and flavor, just maybe not the most excellent ants on a log kinda celery.  So if you love the traditional celery with peanut butter and raisins, it’s going to be more like beetles on a twig.

We are busy putting many farm fields to rest for the season planting cover crops that will remain until next season.  We do several different kinds of cover crops, some short seasoned, like the buckwheat I’ve mentioned in past newsletters.  Just after the Buckwheat flowers peak about two months after seeding and the insects have had their fill of pollen, then we till it under to increase biomass AKA carbon. Then we plant a more permanent cover like rye & winter peas or a mix of oats and peas.  The Rye and Winter Peas are cold tolerant and will survive the winter.  These fields sown in this mixture won’t be tilled until just before the summer in the beginning of June, versus the fields sown in Oats and peas (peas that aren’t as hardy).  The oats and peas die, AKA winterkill, so it makes for an easy breaking of soil in spring.  The plant matter still holds the soil and prevents erosion, yet makes prepping beds in early spring way easier as we don’t have to wait for the plant matter to be broken down by the bacteria, the weather already started this breakdown as they don’t survive the harsh winter temperatures.  Our soil is alive and what does that mean?  Bacteria is needed to process and turn minerals and vitamins into a form that the plant can absorb and therefore give to us in return when we eat them.  There are lots of beings that live in the soil.  Rocks aren’t really alive, they are inanimate, but together the ingredients of the soil are a part of the greater ecosystem that sustains life.  The soil mass is full of minerals & vitamins that plants decompose and release and also uptake.  The soil is the neighborhood where all the particles that make us alive and well live until they enter another being like a vegetable!  So remember when you are eating vegetables you are eating some of the best, most assimilable nutrients there are available and that we are a moving part in the micro/macrocosm of life on earth.  Ha!

We are working on posting the Fall CSA registration by this Friday! So keep your eyes peeled for an email with a link to the registration.  We will also most likely be putting a link in the newsletter in future weeks as well.  Note, you can always find a link on our website under the Traditional CSA tab for this registration as long as it is open.  The link to click will say 2023 Fall CSA Registration.

Cheers,
Your Farmers

Chris, Aeros and the Who Crew!