CSA veggies & herbs
We raise everyone’s favorite vegetables—green beans (6 varieties), sweet corn, tomatoes (10 varieties), red potatoes, onions, radishes, broccoli (6 varieties), cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, melons, beets, zucchini and buttercup squash.
We also grow veggies that are interesting and unusual—purple cauliflowers, beige carrots, Brussels sprouts, tomatillos, nasturtiums. We raise long, thin Japanese eggplants, as well as round Italian eggplants. We raise white, yellow and red cherry tomatoes. We put edible flowers in bags of baby lettuce. Did you know borage blossoms taste like cucumbers, and radish flowers taste like radishes?
We raise eight varieties of sweet peppers, and six hot peppers of varying heat intensity. Italian Florence fennel is delicious raw or baked, and has a mild anise flavor.
A head of heirloom Deer Tongue lettuce fits in your hand. Its leaves are shaped like a tongue, and are probably the size of a deer’s tongue, but I have not verified this. We also grow red and green romaine lettuces, oakleaf lettuces, looseheads, Buttercrunch, and looseleafs. My favorite is Nancy, a large round Bibb with soft, buttery leaves. Just-picked CSA greens help replenish your body’s stores of vitamins and minerals.
We’d grow spinach all season if we could. (One chilly summer, we did!) Hot weather prompts spinach to bolt (go to seed), so we raise kale and Swiss chard until the fall harvest of spinach is ready.
In addition to regular zucchini, we raise yellow summer squash, round zucchini and light green marrow squash. (Dewane likes the yellow best.) We also grow a plethora of winter squashes. Delicata are not typically found in grocery stores, but CSA members have voted them #1 four years in a row. Red Kuri are nutty and dry, outstanding with lots of butter and a sprinkle of brown sugar. Carnival squashes are light and sweet like Acorns. We're trialing a new short-season Butternut this season.
We grow yellow and red onions from seed for their superior keeping quality. Ailsa Craig Exhibition is a sweet, soft-ball-sized, late summer onion from England, especially suited for our long summer days. Red of Tropea early onions are long and slender, with red flesh and wonderful flavor.
Each share will get a container of red and black raspberries, when they are in season. We raise a big bed of Genovese basil for members who want to make and freeze pesto. Other herbs include parsley, cilantro, mints, tarragon, more varieties of basil, oregano, cutting celery, sage, marjoram, and lemon balm.
Members receive an e-newsletter each Sunday that lists the produce coming in your share box, recipes and serving suggestions, observations and anecdotes of farm life. For now, visit our Seasonal Availability Chart for specifics on individual harvest seasons.
