Newsletter: May Mayhem!
Sweet Mokum carrots grown at Foxtail Farm!
June. We somehow, someway, made it to June. May historically has proven to be the most frenetic, chaotic, and busiest month of our long growing season, and this year has been no exception. Between wacky weather, adding a second weekly harvest for farmers markets, going to farmers markets, growing and selling bedding plants, and prepping and planting our outdoor field, we know we always have to bring our best to the table in May.
And we delivered.
I follow enough professional sports to know that the phrase "battling through adversity" is pretty well watered down at this point, but I think it fits in this case. For starters, our amazing employee, Claire, left at the beginning of the month for Denali Park, Alaska. The person we hired to replace her was ready to go the following week, until her car's catalytic converter was stolen mere days before she was to move out here. She's en route now, but it's been challenging having fewer staff than we're used to this time of year. That said, we're doing pretty well getting our planting schedule back on track.
The long, cold spring and inopportune rainstorms delayed our field planting by almost three weeks from previous years, but thanks to Callie and Ashley — as well as a slew of honored guests, we've planted over a dozen beds with carrots, beets, cabbage, turnips, radishes, lettuces and Kickin' Mix. Now that the weather has seemingly turned around, we've also transplanted our hotter climate crops (tomatoes, peppers, zukes & cukes) into our hoop houses.
I've already written about the problem potting soil at length, so I'll keep that part brief. Let's just say there was a lot more time, effort, inputs, and staffing hours dedicated to our bedding plants than we needed in past years. Many of our plants did recover, but nursing them back to health was no small feat. Thanks to everyone for your understanding and words of encouragement. We really felt helpless and at the end of our rope; like nothing we did was going to get our plants healthy again. Which was true, until it wasn't. It took a little while, much longer than we would have preferred, sure, but they have turned around. Purple, nitrogen starved leaves are now a deep green, short and stunted stems have grown tall and thick.
There's a lot more I could say about this past May, but I don't think I will. It's a great month (my birthday is on the 19th!), and we get oh so much done, but it's a good thing that May is only one month long. We'll be plenty busy the rest of the year, but May takes the blue ribbon for the wildest and most transition-filled month.
Thanks to you all for hitching your horses to our wagon again, and we hope to continue this journey together soon!
- Cody
What’s in the Box?!
- Lettuce Mix: Slightly later than usual with this year's delayed spring but better late than never! SO tender and delicious.
- Hakuri Salad Turnips: Yahoo!!! ANOTHER ROUND! Been in love with these! Slice um up raw or sautee them into just about any dish, greens and all.
- Red Oakleaf Lettuce: Stunning color for a salad. I love how the green hides until you pull it apart.
- Green Onions: Great atop anything, in my humble opinion. I've been making spring rolls, and these are perfect with some mustard greens and turnips.
- Red and Green Mustard Greens: These greens do pack quite a punch if eaten raw. That's not to say you can't or shouldn't, but that's my disclaimer for all milder food eaters :) For us spicy eaters, chopped raw into a salad, these are excellent. Cooking them takes the spice out. Think, low and slow just like collard greens. Great pickled too!
- Rainbow Swiss Chard: After we harvest the chard once for baby leaf, we thin our rows and bunch it for sautéing. Great in soups, stews or cooked with onions and garlic. The beautiful stems are also great!
- Sweet Mokum Carrots: The last of our storage carrots. Delayed spring = delayed spring carrots. Enjoy these until you have time to visit us at a farmers market!
- Cilantro: Garnish all of your favorite foods! I've been enjoying cilantro pesto spread on sandwiches or burritos!
- Dill: I love just adding fresh dill to my salad greens and dressing them with some fresh squeezed lemon juice and olive oil, salt and pepper. Great in any salad dressing or yogurt sauce. Yum!
- Red Russian Kale: Wonderful in a smoothie or dressed into a kale salad, Red Russian might be the most versatile!