It’s finally here, the first week of CSA pickups! We’ve thumbed through the seed catalogues, fired up the greenhouse, nestled countless tiny seeds into the soil and watched them emerge, and now it’s time reap what we sowed! This time of year is filled with excitement and expectation as the first fruits of our labor are harvested and our community gathers to enjoy them. Thanks for being part of our CSA this season, we are so excited to feed you!
This has been a very wet spring at the farm, and last night’s inch of rain had us especially appreciating the warm dry growing space of the greenhouses today. Our two solar-heated “high tunnels” (20×100 foot metal and poly structures) are what enable us to start the growing season early in Vermont’s cool, wet springs. We seeded the greens, scallions, lettuce and radishes that you’ll be enjoying over the next couple weeks in early April, while our outdoor fields were still wet with spring rains (and sometimes snow!). On a brisk but sunny April day the temperature can be 90 degrees in the tunnels, and night time temps stay above freezing even with a heavy frost outside. The growing space in the tunnels is of course more expensive to construct than simply tilling up a field, so we maximize the beds by planting crops on a higher density spacing and growing multiple crops per season. Just as soon as we’ve harvested all the spring greens out of the tunnels we will be planting our heat-loving solanacea crops (tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers) for round 2.
But for now, we’ll enjoy the first taste of spring! Now, on to this week’s harvest. Here’s what we have in store:
Week 1 harvest, Brimming Basket
- Arugula, .75 pound
- Spinach, .6 pound
- Asparagus, .8 pound
- Wild Leeks (aka Ramps), bunch of 16
Week 1 harvest, Half Pint
- Arugula, 0.4 pound
- Spinach, .3 pound
- Asparagus, .4 pound
- Wild Leeks (aka Ramps), bunch of 10
Recipes of the week:
- Fresh and caramelized unite in this Roasted Asparagus and Arugula Salad with Shallot Vinaigrette.
- New to Ramps? They are a wild relative of the onion that we harvest from our farm’s forest. We’ve been grilling them whole.
- This Fresh Spinach Quiche is great for morning, noon or night!