Weekly news from the farm!!!

Greetings Everyone,

In order to streamline our harvest day, we’re implementing store hours for order placement. We’ll open up the store right after sending our newsletter, then close it Tuesday at 8 AM. To assure the quality of your veggies, it’s important on Tuesday mornings for us to have our harvest schedule ready as early in the morning as possible, that way we are able to harvest crops before they heat up from the sun. Going forward, if we don’t have an order from you by Tuesday AM, we’re assuming you don’t need any CSA groceries for the week!

We know our CSA works differently than most, in that we require you to place an order, so it may be helpful for you to set an alert Monday PM reminding you to place an order. This can easily be done using your phone alarm or a calendar notification. If you are the personality type to keep a paper “To Do” list, simply add it to your Monday evening task list each week.

Here is a link to the online store to place your order.

Your Farmers (and cleaning staff),
Carl and Julie

NOTE: Your’re receiving this eNewsletter because you’ve either been a subscriber to MHO in the past OR if you’ve registered for our newsletters from our website.  Feel free to unsubscribe if you no longer wish to receive this eNewsletter!  All orders are due by 8 AM on Tuesday.  Pick-ups in Spring Creek are either Wednesday from 1pm – 8pm OR Friday from 8am – 8pm. 

The first harvest of Slicing Tomatoes…. Because they are just starting to mature and we want to share the bounty with everyone, we’re reducing our normal amount from 1 pound to 3/4 pound portions and limiting it to one per order. We’re hopeful next week we’ll have more of these.  We love tomato sandwiches and practically live off these all summer long.  During the summer, our meals are quick, mostly because like you we have a gazillion jobs to do. If you find some a little less ripe, just leave on your counter top and they will ripen over the next couple of  days.

Spring Broccoli is here!  This crop has been through a lot of cold and hot weather so we’re very surprised they formed heads.  This crop is super tender so it won’t need to be cooked as long as the varieties found in the grocery store.  While your broccoli may end up on a salad, consider, steaming and tossing with lemon juice and garlic as it is quick and delicious. We’re big fans of grilling it along with other veggies such as yellow squash and zucchini. Our “go to” spring meals is making a simple stir-fry with it or using it in fried rice. This recipe for caramelizing broccoli might be worth a try because It seems that almost anything roasted or caramelized is fabulous so perhaps you might consider try.

Have you ever tried sprouting broccoli?  Broccoli used to be among Carl’s favorite crops to grow, but in recent years we’ve found it very finicky to grow, many times it flowering before forming heads because of the crazy temperature swings between nighttime lows and daytime highs that we’re starting to experience here in the mountains. This week in the Farmer’s Choice Shares, we’re including a sprouting broccoli that is known for it’s tender stems.  We’re hoping to harvest side shoots of tender stems from this crop over a period of time. We’ll be interested in hearing your feedback from this crop!  

Above is Bok Choi salad featuring bok choy, the last of overwintered carrots, radishes, turnips, cilantro and onions!  The farming season is changing, we’re moving from the Spring Crops into Summer crops, so we won’t see radishes and turnips again until late summer/early fall! 

This week’s Farmer’s Choice Share includes: (share contents are subject to change based on our actual harvest.)

We’re offer both a Farmer’s Choice Veggie and Farmers’ Choice Veggie & Meat Share.  Items common in both shares are listed first, followed by items specific to the veggie share the finally the veggie/meat share. The Farmer’s Choice Veggie & Meat share normally has smaller portions of vegetables. )

• Lettuce:  Salad Mix!!! Super convenient because just put it in a bowl and dress it up with salad dressing!
• Tomatoes:  Slicing Tomatoes!!! We’re excited about tomato sandwiches this year!
• Broccoli:  Sprouting Broccoli!!! Eat the stems because the claim to fame for this variety is the tender stems and small heads.
• Scallions:  This delicacy is only available in the spring!!! 

The following are included only in the veggie share:

• Lettuce: Romaine:  Great grilled! We also love using this in quesadillas.
• Greens: Swiss Chard:  Great chopped and added to hot rice! We also love using this in quesadillas.
• French Filet Beans: Also known as Haricot Vert and great steamed or roasted!
• Radishes – Daikon:  Great raw or roasted!
• Basil:  Genovese which is great for pesto or chopped in your salad for extra flavor.

The following are included only in the meat share

• Parsley:  Mixed bunches of Italian Large Leaf and Curly Leaf.
• Kale: Green Curly:  Great chopped and added to hot rice which is what we did for Bibimbap!
• Pork Sausage – Breakfast: So great for breakfast with our eggs or for stuffed cabbage!