Central Brooklyn CSA

The News from Windflower Farm

What’s in the share?

• Assorted tomatoes
• Lettuce
• Kale
• Fennel
• Beets
• Cucumbers
• Zucchini and/or summer squash
• Beans
• Yellow onions
• Broccoli and/or Happy Rich
• The fruit share will be blueberries from Yonder Farm.

What’s new on the farm?

Alternaria, a fungal pathogen, has moved into our cantaloupes. It’s a little like having the Gambino crime family move into the neighborhood. Alternaria plays a mean game. Like the mafia’s money laundering, its protection racket, and its hardball sanitation business, Alternaria has a diversified portfolio: the genus Alternaria goes after virtually every crop on the farm. One species causes leaf spot of cantaloupe, watermelon and cucumber, another causes early blight of potato and tomato, and a third causes purple blotch of onion and leek, to name a few. Fittingly, Top Cop, an elemental copper spray, is the organic growers’ go-to Alternaria remedy. Nate will be on the spray rig tomorrow morning, making our neighborhood safe again.

Have a great week, Ted

The News from Windflower Farm

What’s in the share?

• Tomatoes
• Bok Choy
• Lettuce
• Radicchio or Romaine (choice)
• Purple kohlrabi or spring turnips (choice)
• Broccoli or Happy Rich
• Summer squash or zucchini
• Cucumbers
• Green beans

The fruit share will be the last of the sweet cherries from Yonder Farm.

What’s new on the farm?

Sometimes beans need cooking. Victoria gives this week’s beans a seven out of ten: their flavor is good, but their texture is off, and they are a bit pale. I attribute this to the relatively dry weather we’ve had and the extreme heat. It’s the same weather that results in an abundance of tomatoes, cucumbers and squashes so long as water is provided. Excessive heat, of course, is no friend of vegetable plants. It not only makes beans woody, it turns the centers of broccoli yellow, it makes tomatoes soft, it causes lettuce to bolt.  

But these are minor problems in the scheme of things. The politics of the moment are very worrisome. I rediscovered the writings of EB White through his son and grandson, both of whom built sailboats in Brooklin, Maine. This past winter I read or reread most of his New Yorker essays and his stories for children. Today I was reminded by a historian I admire of something he said during another time of political upheaval: “Hold on to your hats, hold onto your hope, and wind your clock, for tomorrow is another day.”

What’s coming from our fields? Tomatoes are ramping up, and eggplants and peppers are starting to yield. Next week, in addition to the usual suspects, we’ll send beets, fennel and cabbage.   

Take care, Ted

The News from Windflower Farm

Our Windflower hats are ready and we will be sending them to your CSA sites this week. If you ordered one, please be sure to pick it up. 

What’s in the share?

• Tomatoes
• Broccoli or Happy Rich Broccolini  Yellow onions
• Summer squash or zucchini
• Cucumbers
• Romaine lettuce
• Arugula
• Mustard mix
• Purple kale or a second lettuce
• Spring turnips or radishes

The fruit share will be sweet cherries from Yonder Farm.

What’s new on the farm?

The farm staff planted and weeded and trellised and generally got caught up on farm projects last week when we made no produce deliveries. The place looks pretty good. We also harvested all the garlic, the early onions, and a bumper crop of cucumbers (most of which were donated to the local food pantry). Nate seeded beans (a third succession), carrots, dill, cilantro, and a variety of greens, including spinach and arugula.

And I worked on some cultivating equipment. The old I&J got a 21^st Century addition: a set of trim cones. Nothing fancy, something like a new feather on a favorite old fedora. They are intended to make weeding the edges of mulched beds less destructive. And then I spent some time on my old boat installing sails for a new season and then cruising with a friend up to Valcour Island, the scene of the American Navy’s very first battle which took place under the leadership of Benedict Arnold. We watched fireworks on the return trip against the backdrop of the Green Mountains.

And now it’s back to the heat of our farm fields. I was asked recently about how we deal with these high summer temperatures. Most of the crew beats the heat by starting early. You can wrap up a 9-hour workday by 3:30 if you start at 6:00 am. Long sleeve shirts, broad brimmed hats, and ready access to water are also key to dealing with these hot days. We tackle any greenhouse work first. I’ve become a fan of the siesta. I’ll start early, rest during the hot part of the day, and then work for a while in the evening. The youngsters, for whom this might be a very first job, work a standard day in the shade of the packing shed, where temperatures are more moderate. When all else fails, ten minutes in the walk-in cooler can really help.    

Hoping you had an enjoyable Fourth of July. 

Cheers, Ted

The News from Windflower Farm

Reminder: there will be no delivery next week. Have a Happy Fourth of July! Keep in mind that when we do resume deliveries, it will be week #6.

What’s in the share?

• Summer squash or zucchini
• Cucumbers
• Radishes
• Romaine lettuce
• Green oakleaf lettuce
• Kale
• Spring turnips
• Broccoli or Happy Rich Broccolini

The fruit share will be sweet cherries from Yonder Farm.

What’s new on the farm?

While people living in the Mid-Atlantic continue to live under a heat advisory, we have seen ours cut short by cloudy, wet weather. A storm, our third in as many days, has produced a power outage, and I’m writing under battery power.

An I&J cultivator could have a place on any small farm, and should have a place on ours, or so their advertising tells us. The tool is a glossy, bright red, which is probably good marketing. And the photos show it in use by some very good farmers producing handsome crops, which is more good marketing. What farmer isn’t looking for that well-designed implement, that bit of engineering magic that will make his crops as healthy and attractive as those in the pictures? The I&J Manufacturing website shows horse farmers using the tool and producing beautiful, weed-free crops, row after row. And if it works well behind a team of horses, just imagine how it would work behind a late model tractor. And so, we bought one.

That was a long time ago. In the intervening years we became distracted by the shiny new objects in organic farming: the European imports said to produce even more beautiful, weed-free crops. And so the I&J became idle. But weeds in vining crops – the sweet potatoes, winter squashes, cucumbers, and melons – continued to outsmart us despite those more recent purchases. So, back to square one, I pulled the I&J out of the weeds.  Its red paint has lost some of its luster, but it still worked as it should. I spent the entire afternoon with the tool behind my work horse, the old John Deere 5425. I took time with wrenches and tape measures and really dialed it in. And then I cultivated the watermelons, cantaloupes, winter squashes, and sweet potatoes. And when I was finished, I was pleased with how the tool performed – those crops are weed-free. There is nothing like the simple joy of a tool that works as it should. The I&J deserves a place a little closer to my barnyard.

Have a great week, Ted

The News from Windflower Farm

Happy summer solstice from the Windflower Farm team. With the official start of summer comes the summer’s first heat wave. We are expecting temperatures in the mid-90s, which is unusual for this time of year. To make your greens last longer in these conditions, rewash them at home in cold water, then gently shake dry and place them in a plastic bag or another air-tight container in the refrigerator.

What’s in the share?

• Summer squash or zucchini
• Cucumbers 
• Kohlrabi
• Romaine lettuce (2 heads)
• Kale
• Spring turnips
• Onions

The fruit share will be strawberries from Yonder Farm. Pete at Yonder Farm told me that it was likely the heavy rains that preceded last week’s berry harvest that produced the spoilage that some of you reported. Our sincere apologies. The current harvest looks much better.

The first maple and grain share distributions are this week. If you ordered maple and/or grain shares, please pick them up. 

What’s new on the farm?

Warm temperatures are the on switch for summer squashes and zucchinis. We had a pretty good haul this week. Cucumbers are getting started, too. With respect to heat, however, there can be too much of a good thing: the temperature threshold above which pollen viability in squashes and cukes begins to decline is 90 degrees. And if pollination is reduced, fruit set and yield will also be reduced.  

Are you wondering what to do with some of these weird spring vegetables? In our kitchen, kohlrabi is used mostly as a salad topper: we grate them and toss them on the top of any garden salad. But they are also good sliced and dipped into hummus, etc. Keep them in your refrigerator’s crisper drawer.

Happy Rich is a mini-headed broccoli that results when a Chinese kale (Gai Lan) is crossed with a broccoli. I find it to be sweeter and more tender than broccoli. The stems are good to eat and the flowers are edible, too. We are trying to figure out how to harvest it. We’ve been told that it can be managed as a cut-and-come-again with a long harvest window. These will begin showing up soon, as will regular broccoli. Store it cold and in a plastic wrap or air-tight container.

The variety of spring or salad turnips that we grow is called ‘Hakurei.’ Slice them like a radish or grate them and add them to any salad – they do not need to be cooked. They are not your grandmother’s turnips – they are milder and sweeter. In my view, their sweet mild flavor comes out best when sautéed with garlic and onions. Last night, I left the stems on, halved the root, and sauteed them on high in grapeseed oil. I then added onions, and, after a few minutes, a handful of Happy Rich florets. Good stuff. Store cold and in an air-tight container.

The week ahead: Having finished trellising the cucumbers and planting the winter squashes, we are now up to our eyeballs in weeds in the onions. And when we’ve finished that task, we’ll be on to another round of tomato trellising.

Next week’s share will likely contain the following: cucumbers, zucchinis, spring turnips, yellow onions, kale or chard, lettuce and possibly more kohlrabi.

Have a great week, Ted