Week 6

It's been 12 days straight with no rain here at the farm with temperatures consistently in the nineties and things are getting quite dry. We had one of our helpers Zak water yesterday and he literally watered for 8 hours. I don't know how he did it, I would have been an insane lunatic if I had to water for 8 straight hours. Our farm help, Michael, Tina, and Zak have been a great help this season and continue to accomplish so much when they're here. We planted 15 peach trees this week with hopes of having peaches as part of your share as we move into future years.

Here's what to expect for Week 6:

Saturday

Blueberries
Garlic
Beets
Spinach
Lettuce
Cabbage
Swiss Chard
Summer Squash Teaser
Kale

Wednesday

Garlic
Cabbage
Squash
Spinach
Lettuce
Swiss Chard
Beets
Blueberries?
Onions

Week 5 and the case of the "Radish Caper"

We had found some rogue radishes and offered them up to anyone who enjoyed a nice refreshing radish on pick up day at the farm. So, a few of you took me up on the offer and left with a nice bunch of radishes on Wednesday along with everything else. If you have tasted the "radishes" yet, you're probably thinking to yourself or out loud to all around you, that those could have been the worst tasting radishes on the planet. That's what I thought too Wednesday night when I bite into one and that's when I figured out......those weren't radishes, they were baby beets!

Hopefully I'll be able to tell an onion from a blueberry in this week's box which will include:

Blueberries
Garlic Scapes
Onions
Mild Mix Lettuces
Arugula
Spinach
Peas
Beets

What to do with a garlic scape?

Garlic Scape Pesto

The curly garlic scape made its appearance at many a farmers market this summer, confusing some with its curly, scallion-like appearance. The scape, which is the flowering, curly, central stalk of the garlic plant, has a pleasing, mild garlic flavor that translates well in this pesto. Try it on pasta or crackers or crusty bread.

(serves 8)
1/4 pound garlic scapes, chopped into one-inch lengths (seed bulb portion and above discarded)
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt or more to taste

Puree scapes and nuts in a food processor until finely chopped. With the machine running, slowly add the olive oil until smooth. Stir in Parmesan, lemon juice and salt to taste. Serve on bread, crackers or pasta.

Week 4

Hi Everyone,

Here's what to expect in your week 4 box:

Blueberries
Spinach
Beets
Purple Kohlrabi
Onions
Mild Lettuce Mix
Sugar Snap Peas

Also chickens are fresh and looking good...most in the 7-8 pound range.


See you Saturday and Wednesday!

Vicky and Steve

Fresh Chicken

Hi all,

The chickens will be in Thursday afternoon 6/10 and will be kept in the cooler fresh until Sunday evening at which time into the freezer they go. They are free range, all natural chickens, raised here on the farm. We will offer cut up and whole. I believe they will be quite large again this round, 8-lbs.. average. The price has been set at $2.99 per pound for whole and 3.19 per pound cut up. The cut up packages will include the whole chicken with the whole breast, the legs and thighs, and the back (good for soup). So four pieces. It's easy to split the breasts once you're ready to cook.

For the Saturday Park Heights crew, let's us know if you would like us to bring any with your CSA delivery this Saturday.

Steve

What the "Hail"

Just wanted you all to know that Friday evening a tremendous storm came through the Fallston area. There have been some reports of a tornado touching down a short distance from the farm. We received incredible high winds, a virtual downpour of rain, and the farmer's nightmare...hail. Many of our crops received some pretty severe damage. We'll see how things play out, but you may see a slightly smaller box of goods the next couple of weeks. Walking around the place looking at the plants, it looks like they were just hacked up or shot up with buckshot. Many of the bigger leaves, like the spinach, has holes sliced right through them where the hail just plowed through. The strawberries really got mangled, so it's doubtful they will recover in time for Wednesday's pick up. You Saturday folks lucked out because we picked most of your items Friday afternoon, just before the storm hit.

It's amazing how in maybe two minutes, things can be totally wiped out. The good news is that we aren't totally wiped out and will be fine. The blueberry bushes seemed to weather the hail pretty well. Many of the ripe berries were knocked off the branches and onto the ground. The only thing we could do was to collect them and eat them immediately...there's always a silver lining.

Vicky and Steve

Rousedale Farm CSA Week 3....plus the broccoli and cauliflower quandry

Hi Everyone!

Your boxes for week three will include:

Cauliflower (more on that in a moment)
Strawberries
Spinach
Sugar Snap Peas
Snow Peas
Romaine Lettuce
Iceberg Lettuce
Mild Mix
Spicy Mix
Spring Onions
Radishes
Red Russian Kale


A quick note on Broccoli and Cauliflower.....

It is very tough to grow these two vegetable in the Spring in our area of Maryland. Many growers have thrown in the towel and given up on springtime B&C. The problem is, it gets so hot so fast, these two cole crops don't perform well in the heat. The fall crops of these two are usually wonderful. That's why many have decided to just go for the Fall crops instead of Spring and Fall. We keep trying. Last year we threw it all out. It looked great, but tasted extremely bitter. Last week we picked all of our broccoli, as it got so hot, and threw half of it out. We taste tested all of it and felt the broccoli you received last week was OK, not fall like, but not bad. That brings us to the Cauliflower this week...I harvested all the cauliflower this week as the extreme heat was killing it. It doesn't look beautiful, but we cooked some up and it tastes fine. We would suggest cooking it instead of eating it raw. Raw, a bit of the bitterness comes through.

This Fall you will see a huge difference in these two crops.

So, will we try again next Spring for Broccoli and Cauliflower? Vicky says no, I say let me try one more year planting it under row covers so we can get in the ground a week earlier and see what happens. Really that's all we're talking here is a week or two that could make all the difference in the world.....maybe.

Steve

Who Wants Peas?

If you're interested...we have an abundance of snow peas and sugar snap peas that are delicious.  Please email us and we can give you the price and a time to pick them up