14 May First CSA pick-ups scheduled!
The first CSA pick-ups of the season will be the first week of June: Tuesday June 3rd and Thursday June 5th. For half shares, this is week A. Week B will start Tuesday June 10th and Thursday June 12th. (*Full shares come every week, half shares come every other week on their designated week: A or B). New members, please read over the CSA Rough Guide so you are prepared for your first trip to the farm. Delivery shares to Doylestown Presbyterian Church will begin Friday June 27th. *There is still space available for the CSA so please help us spread the word.
The past two weeks have been crazy busy. The farm season feels like it kicked into high gear and we are full steam ahead. We survived the torrential donpours in May that brought almost 5 inches of rain to the farm over just a few hours. It was an anxious day, watching topsoil flow by in a river of muddy water, but despite some potatoes washing out of their hills, for the most part the crops seem to have weathered the wet weather.
Our crew is a flurry of stamina, enthusiasm and bustling activity, working long days to make up for the late winter of cold and wet weather that seems to finally have ended. We’ve been seeding, tilling, making beds, transplanting, cultivating, moving row covers, trellising, mowing, building a high tunnel, marketing and more!
High Tunnel Construction
It’s hard to believe less than a month ago the temperature dropped down to a freezing 19 degrees!
Planting onions- 3 rows to a bed, 6 inches apart.
The list of vegetables in the ground is long and growing. The spring crops are sizing up: head lettuce, sugar snap peas, bok choy, cabbages, fennel, beets, kohlrabi, spring onions, kale, arugula, broccoli raab and more…the summer crops are going in and growing quickly: potatoes, summer squash, onions, cucumbers, beans, sweet corn, field and greenhouse tomatoes.
Transplanting grafted heirloom tomatoes and tatsoi.
The strawberries are looking lush and green. Tom counted over 30 blossoms on just one plant. It won’t be long before we are all enjoying these sweet tasty fruits!
The farm is a vibrant dynamic organism, beyond just the soil and crops. Tom and Jen must keep the crew moving in what seems like ten different directions at once- getting folks trained and confident in so many different tasks requires organization and delegation on our part. It takes a group effort to make this farm function.
We are constantly looking for new ways to be more efficient and more sustainable. One way we have found is to empower folks in our crew with specific responsibility such as cultivation manager, tractor operator, or greenhouse propagation manager. Jared, who joins us with his partner Cheyenne from Wisconsin, is our new irrigation manager. He will be responsible for learning drip tape installation and repair, as well as following a complex watering schedule. With over 35 acres of crops this is no small job!
Drip tape irrigation tutorial.
Another way to achieve better efficiency is to look at existing tasks with creativity. A new technique discovered this season is to use the drip tape winder to remove and roll up remay from the field. Dealing with the huge rolls of white cloth that we use as both a frost, wind and insect barrier is no easy task. It was a eureka moment!
We are often asked what’s new for this season. New crops, new greenhouses, new crew- these all apply, but the one thing we are super excited about is the addition of Farm Chef Educator Kristin Moyer. Not only will the farm crew enjoy the fruits of our labor in delicious field-to-table lunches prepared by Kristin twice a week, but you, our farm community, will get to enjoy the recipes from these meals that Kristin will post on the blog.
Chef Kristin will be at the farm doing demos and tastings during CSA pick-ups two weeks a month- she’ll be available to answer your questions and share her cooking tips and techniques. She is also planning an evening cooking class series, as well as a children’s drop-in cooking club during CSA pick-ups. We are committed to supporting you, our community of eaters, in your journey of cooking and enjoying fresh seasonal produce!
Post and photos by Tricia Borneman, Blooming Glen farmer and co-owner. Additional photos contributed by Tom Murtha.
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