First Spring Harvest

Our first harvest day of the spring CSA has been busy and windy. Once again we have to thank the volunteers for getting that inflated double layer of plastic on the greenhouse -- we are getting gusts of 60+ mph today but the high tunnels are holding steady! Through the wind we've been picking, washing, and bagging goodies all morning for the CSA pickup t0morrow. The share this week will consist of your choice of greens (choose from kale, chard, spinach, arugula, and perpetual spinach), root vegetables (choose from scallions, radishes, parsnips, green garlic, and leeks), asian greens (choose from Chinese cabbage, bok choi, mizuna, and tatsoi), and herbs (choose from oregano, thyme, rosemary, lemongrass, sage, and marjoram).

Don't forget to bring a bag or two to take it all home! The share also contains a great salad mix including mustard greens, pea shoots, vitamin greens, arugula, minuta, cress, mixed lettuces, and baby greens of spinach, kale, chard, and beet greens.

We'll also have some of our eggs for sale for $4.50 per dozen. Our chickens are fed only non-GMO feed along with plenty of weeds, vegetable scraps, and grubs from the gardens. This highly varied diet gives their eggs the bright orange yolks and great flavor that are often lacking in eggs from the supermarket. The turkeys get all that plus an extra treat -- since turkeys don't scratch up the soil, as chickens do, they are allowed to roam in the garden during the day and eat as many grasshoppers as they can catch! Grasshoppers are chewing holes in the greens, so we appreciate the turkeys helping us to keep down the pest population. Our other form of grasshopper control is to set out dishes of NoLo Bait near where the grasshopper damage is the worst.

NoLo bait is not harmful to humans or any animals other than those in the grasshopper and locust family. It's not a poison, so it takes time for the grasshopper population to dwindle, because it works by infecting grasshoppers with a spore that will only grow inside the grasshopper's body, decreasing its appetite and eventually killing it. The spore is transmitted between grasshoppers and eventually takes hold of the population enough to keep the damage down.

Our other main pest problem right now are the flea beetles snacking on the smallest and most tender leaves in the greenhouse. We are addressing this problem by mixing flour and cayenne pepper and sprinkling it lightly on the greens.

The flour deters the beetles from eating the leaves since it gums up their mouths when they take a bite, and the cayenne gives it a kick to make it even more unpleasant for them. Hopefully they will get tired of it and leave our tatsoi alone. We do rinse the greens twice after harvesting, but you may see a small amount of flour left on some of the arugula and salad greens. Don't worry! It is perfectly edible, though you may want to give the greens an extra rinse if you are unable to eat wheat.

Belle's second baby finally got her name -- Blue and Creme are our two newest dairy goats! We hope you will come say hello to them at the Crop Mob this Saturday. Please get in touch with John if you are interested in coming. There will be good food and some good hard work! Hope to see you there,

Alyssa