WhatÕs Going On?
Hello everyone! I am going to try to include a picture
of the week along with a recipe of the week in the newsletters. I only have a black and white printer
though so you may not be able to see the real beauty in them. I do have all the newsletters archived
on the website at www.elysianfarm.com
though, and the color will be visible there. I do wait until I have a collection of four newsletters before
I send them to my web guy to post, so you have to be patient. The above photo is posted in honor of
the large garlic harvest and drying we accomplished last week. This photo is of myself and Gemma, a
daughter of a long time CSA member.
Gemma and her mom Nancy came out last October to help plant the garlic,
and here we are ÔpoppingÕ the garlic, or rather breaking up the heads into
cloves to prepare them for planting.
Other members, John Lepofsky
and his wife Sadie have been members for about four seasons now. John, who
works at the Carolina Friends School, brought out ten great high school kids
for three days this past week to work on the farm. They weeded, transplanted, thinned, hoed, you name it! They were great, and really helped to
get the farm caught up on some lingering tasks!!!! Thanks again John!
Produce Info...
Are you curious about your
onions? Well, I am pulling them
right before they are finished forming their bulbs. When that happens, in mid-June typically, it is obvious
because the greens turn yellow and die back. At that point the onions are harvested and then ÔcuredÕ
which means the are laid out in a dry warm area for a few days for their outer
layer of skin to dry and become papery.
I am harvesting them before the greens die down but while the bulb is
also almost fully formed because I think that being able to eat the greens can
be a treat. The greens taste mild,
like scallions, and are good raw in salads. The onion itself can be refrigerated and stored for a couple
weeks and tastes like a regular onion.
What To Look Forward
To....
I have never had Sungold
Cherry tomatoes ready the first week of June before, they are definitely a week
or two early this year. By ready,
I mean I have a couple of pints worth.
The real quantity at this point will take a couple weeks to amount, and
at that point you will receive them in your boxes. The regular tomatoes are showing a few signs of ripening as
well, which is rather early, but exciting all the same. I estimate about three weeks before we
see tomatoes in the shares. We
will have green beans in about two weeks, as well as more cucumbers. Summer has sprung! We are going to be a little late with
basil, as we lost our first planting, very sad. Potatoes are doing well though and we will see them in a
couple weeks, as well as some very pretty red cabbage. Yum. Thanks! Let me
know if you have any thoughts or feedback, always appreciated. Elise.