CSA veggies & herbs

                                                                                                                                                              We raise everyone’s favorite vegetables—bi-color sweet corn, green beans (8 varieties), tomatoes (15 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, stalk celery, Brussels sprouts, tomatillos, nasturtiums. We raise long, thin Japanese eggplants, as well as round Italian eggplants. We raise white, yellow, indigo 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 ten varieties of sweet peppers, and ten 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 deer's tongue. We 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 ribbed heirloom Romansque 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, a smaller Spaghetti squash, and a new gold and white acorn squash called Jester.

We grow yellow and red onions from seed for their superior keeping quality. Ailsa Craig Exhibition is a sweet, softball-sized onion from England, especially suited for our long summer days. Red of Tropea early onions are long and torpedo-shaped, and have red flesh and a wonderful flavor.

Each share gets red and black raspberries when they are in season. We raise a big bed of Genovese basil for members to make pesto. Other herbs include parsley, cilantro, mints, tarragon, cinnamon basil, oregano, cutting celery, sage, marjoram, and lemon balm. Members can come and pick tomatoes for canning. Free.

We also will take special orders for pickling cucumbers and dill, garlic, and kraut cabbage.

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.