Farmer’s Note — Week 5

Full vegetable share:
Summer Squash-2 pounds
Red Leaf Lettuce-1 head
Green Lettuce-1 head
Red Lake Currants-1 basket
Red Ace Beets With Greens-1 bunch
Scallions-1 bunch
Spinach-1 bunch
Parsley-1 bunch

Locally-grown fruit share:
Blueberries-no spray-1 basket

Apricots-1 basket- The orchards have been hit with an early season hail storm and so there is surface damage to the apricots.  Stoneledge felt it was better to have locally grown, delicious apricots with a bit of hail damage that is cosmetic than no apricots.

Sugar Plums-1 basket.  The hail missed this portion of the orchard.  Super sweet.

What’s in the Bag — Week 4

Dear CSA Member

Sugar Snap Peas.  They consume all of our time when they ripen and the week arrives that we are picking them for your share.  Such little bits of delicious flavor take an army of workers to pick from their vines.  They are worth it all.  Sugar Snap Peas are a edible pod pea and the entire pod and the peas inside are eaten.  Snap the end and strip the string from the edge of the pea.  Use the entire pod.  Quickly sauteed they turn a bright green color and the sweet flavor is intensified.  This will all depend on first getting them from the CSA pick up to your kitchen.  Sugar Snap Peas are also delicious fresh.

There are still lettuces for salad. New this week is Golden Purslane.  Golden Purslane is a relative of the garden purslane plant many weed from their gardens.  For others, it is a prized addition to a salad.   From https://botanical.com/ -” The succulent leaves and young shoots are cooling in spring salads, the older shoots are used as a pot-herb and the thick stems of plants that have run to seed are pickled in salt and vinegar. Purslane is largely cultivated in Holland and other countries for these purposes.  From Johnny’s Selected Seeds, “Flavor is crisp and mild.  Known as “verdolaga” in Latin America.”

Escarole, Summer Spinach, some Summer Squash and Summer Savory.  The dramatic changes we have been experiencing in the weather have essentially stopped the Summer Squash in its tracks.  Plants respond to the weather with more or less growth depending on the stress level.

Summer Savory is also known as Annual Thyme.  The flavor and aroma are like Thyme and will make a wonderful salad dressing.

Market Place Orders will be delivered with the Vegetable Shares.  This is also the last chance to add a Fruit Share.  Please do so this weekend if you would like to add one to your subscription.

Enjoy the Vegetables
Deborah
For everyone at Stoneledge Farm

Farmer’s Note — Week 4

This week’s full share contains:

Red Lettuce-1 head
Green Lettuce-1 head
Escarole-1 head
Sugar Snap Peas-1 pound
Summer Squash-1 pound
Golden Purslane-1 bunch
Summer Spinach-1 bunch
Summer Savory-1 bunch

Added last minute — Okra. Take a few.

CHCSA Newsletter/Recipes — Week 3

Here is the newsletter for week 3. As stated by one of the core group members — “Judi, you’ve managed to come up with great recipes for the mint, and just about every veggie in our share this week. Fabulous.” PJ

Thanks again to YooMi for putting the newsletter together.

WEEK 3.2012

What’s in the Bag — Week 3

Dear CSA Member

Summer Solstice and we fall right into heat and humidity.  A fresh salad will be welcome with the weather we have been experiencing and the lettuces are full and beautiful.  A bunch of Arugula and a salad dressing made with the fresh Oregano and chopped Garlic Scapes.

Also this week is Escarole.  Try it in Italian Wedding Soup or with white beans.  Just delicious.  Escarole is the green that gathers at the base.  If you have a hard time, just take a bite.  It is a bitter green and usually not eaten raw.

The beautiful Bright Lights Swiss Chard and Summer Spinach continue.  They are hardy enough to hold up to the heat.

What would Summer be without Summer Squash.  The first picking of Summer Squash also helps to round out the CSA share.  The first picking is never perfect.  It seems it takes the squash plants a picking or two to get the production down pat.  It does not matter.  There is just nothing like the first summer squash, lightly cooked with a pat of butter.  Not fancy but a taste that only comes with freshly picked summer squash.

There are four different varieties of Summer Squash and we pick and pack them as they come out of the field.  Photos of the different Summer Squash are posted on the Farm Face Book page.  There are Zucchini, Romanesco, Sunburst Patty Pan and Zephyr.

JUST A NOTE: If you have not added a Fruit Share and still would like to, I have included the directions below.  We will accept additions until the end of June and then will close the shares.  We will need to notify the other farms and will need our shares set.  If you have any questions, please send an e-mail.

Enjoy the Vegetables
Deborah
for everyone at Stoneledge Farm
Pete Sr., Peter, Arliss


DIRECTIONS TO ADD A FRUIT SHARE

PRIMARY SHARE HOLDER WOULD LIKE TO ADD A FRUIT SHARE
Log into your account from the farm website home page, click on “My Account” under the center photo.  Click on the red “Add Subscription” in the green summary box on the right.  Advance past the “Market Place Access Account”, as the primary share holder you already have access to the Market Place for online orders, by clicking on “Next” to the Options tab.  Select the Fruit Share and continue with payment.  The Fruit Share will be added to your membership.  Please send the farm an e-mail with the name of the share partner that will registering for the Fruit Share.

SHARE PARTNERS EACH WOULD LIKE A FRUIT SHARE
If each share partner would like a Fruit Share, log into the CSA account set up by the Primary Shareholder, select 2 Fruit Shares. There is currently no way for the Secondary Share Holder to add a Fruit Share unless it is added through the Primary Share Holders account.

ONE SHARE PARTNER WOULD LIKE A FRUIT SHARE
If only one of the share holders will be adding the Fruit Share and paying for the entire Fruit Share, please select “Pay with Check” option and send me an e-mail with the name of the share partner that will be picking up the Fruit Share.

BOTH SHARE HOLDERS WILL BE SPLITTING ONE FRUIT SHARE
If both share partners are splitting the Fruit Share, log into the CSA account set up by the Primary Shareholder, add one Fruit Share and both names will show on the roster like with the Vegetable Share that is being shared.

Farmer’s Note — Week 3

This week’s full share is:

Summer Squash-2 pounds
Garlic Scapes-6
Red Lettuce-1 head
Romaine Lettuce-1 head
Escarole-1 head
Arugula-1 bunch
Bright Lights Swiss Chard-1 bunch
Summer Spinach-1 bunch
Mint-1 bunch
Cucumber-1

What’s in the Bag — Week 2

Dear CSA Member

The farm is in overdrive this month with transplanting, seeding, cultivating, hoeing, picking, delivering, fertilizing…all in a crazy whirl of activity. The sun is shining and the plants are growing by leaps and bounds.

As we move from spring time into summer the vegetables that will fill your share will change. The cool spring loving plants will be replaced by those that soak in the heat and sunshine. This is still a transition week and there will be some of the same crops that you received the first delivery.  Mustard, Mizuna, Chinese Cabbage, Garlic Scapes, Lettuces are still producing beautifully. New this week will be Bright Lights Swiss Chard, Arugula and Summer Spinach. The Bright Lights and Summer Spinach are so delicious and the colors spectacular.  Almost a bouquet of vegetables.

Members have been sending recipes for Greens and you can find them on the farm website Recipe link. Many of the recipes for the early Oriental Greens are interchangeable so check under the Bok Choy link as well and substitute Chinese Cabbage for the Bok Choy. If you have favorites or a favorite on line blog or link for recipes, please send it to me so I can share it with the other CSA members.

As a CSA member you can also go online and order from the online CSA Market Place.  Just click the Market Place link on the left side bar.  Freshly roasted coffee that we have imported the beans from our fellow farmer partners in Guatemala and Honduras. All of our coffee beans are Organic, Fair Trade and locally roasted and some of the best tasting coffee around.

Honey, Maple Syrup and products from our farm: Salsa, Tomato Sauce, Raspberry Jam (no seeds), Dill Pickles. Fruit products include Apple Sauce, nothing but apples, Apple Butter, Pear Butter. All of the products have been locally processed. Your order will be delivered with your CSA share.

If you are an Additional Contact on the account, the order, for now, will need to go through the main shareholders account.  We are working with the programmers to include a function for Share Partners to have their own accounts to log in and order. I hope to have information about that next week.

Members have also been inquiring about adding a Fruit Share if they have not done so already. We will be accepting additions of Fruit Shares until the end of June. If you would like to add a Fruit Share to your account, go to the farm website homepage, click on My Account under the center photo and log in. Click on Add Subscription in the green Summary box on the right. Advance past the Vegetable Share page by hitting Next and add the share.

Enjoy the Vegetables
Deborah
for everyone at Stoneledge Farm
Pete Sr, Peter, Arliss and the crew

Farmer’s Note – Week 2

This week’s full share is:

Red Lettuce-1 head
Green Lettuce-1 head
Arugula-1 bunch
Bright Lights Swiss Chard-1 bunch
Summer Spinach-1 bunch
Mustard Greens-1 bunch
Mizuna-1 bunch
Chinese Cabbage-1 head
Garlic Scapes-6