Happy Summer! Summer solstice usually marks the time on the farm where our daily to-do list becomes longer than the amount of daylight. Our crew was hard at work this week trying their best to accomplish as much as they could. 

The beginning of the week was spent weeding and hoeing our way through the farm. The crops love when it rains…but so do the weeds which means we have to report for weed removal as soon as we can. This is also a great opportunity to check in on some of our more low maintenance crops such as onions, peas, chard, and leeks. The occasional visit to weed is the only time the crew really sees these crops between the time they’re planted, and the time they’re harvested. We don’t have to keep a close eye on them for pests or common diseases. Janaki on the other hand is always keeping a close eye on them for irrigation needs, less common diseases, and any abnormalities that might arise.  

Wednesday was a big day on the farm. Thanks to a grant we received, the farm purchased a new rinse conveyor. Cue the oohs and aahs because this is a big deal for the farm! The rinse conveyor will serve as a multi purpose machine for both box washing and vegetable washing. Until now, every green top root vegetable (turnips, radishes, greenhouse beets, etc.) has been delicately cleaned by hand. This has added an extra layer of love to the vegetables in your share, but we can’t deny that this is also incredibly time consuming. We used to spray off each vegetable with a garden hose, attempting to use enough pressure to remove the dirt, but not enough pressure to damage the greens. Now do that over and over again for all 249 shares. We were ready for this change! 

The new rinse conveyor is just what the name entails, it’s a giant conveyor belt that rinses things. Boxes or vegetables are placed on the conveyor belt. They then enter the machine where water shoots up from the bottom, while sprayer arms on the top of the machine simultaneously spin and shoot water down, cleaning the boxes or vegetables from all angles. There are multiple sprayer arms, so the items get cleaned and rinsed a few times as they ride the conveyor belt.

A few of the cool features that lead to the farm purchasing this machine:  It allows us to adjust the conveyor speed, we can change the water pressure depending on the item we are trying to clean, the sprayer arms are adjustable allowing for us to use the machine with our largest delivery totes, and it has a sanitizer hook up for an all in one process. This means that  we can adjust the settings to be delicate enough to not damage the greens on your turnips, but we can increase the speeds and pressure to clean all the corners of the CSA boxes, all in one machine. No need for multiple machines or tanks taking up space in our packing shed. 

On Wednesday, the crew got a tutorial on how the machine works, and got to test it out to clean the CSA boxes before Thursday’s delivery. Don’t worry Monday members, your boxes were also cleaned, just using a different system. The new rinse conveyor allows us to continuously load box after box onto the conveyor belt. It then enters the machine where high pressure streams of water hit the box from all angles ensuring a squeaky clean box pops out the other end. When we washed boxes using our old system, it would take about 40 minutes to clean them all. On Wednesday, it took 7 minutes. 7!!!!! That means more time for our crew to complete other tasks on the farm, and so much less water being used. Just another way the farm is striving to be the most efficient and sustainable it can be.   

The rest of the week was spent getting everything secured before the storms on Friday night, and preparing for the heat wave over the weekend. This meant getting the caterpillar tunnel plastic on and secured, stabilizing greenhouse cucumbers, removing lower leaves on greenhouse tomatoes to promote airflow, and removing row cover from the brassicas so as not to cook the vegetables under the fabric. It was a busy but exciting week. This week is going to be spent spreading mulch. I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

In your share this week:

Green-top Beets – Broccoli – Green-top Carrots – Lettuce – Green Onions – Radishes – Turnips

This week we are sending lots of vegetables with the greens still attached. If you didn’t know, we keep them on not just for looks, but because they’re all edible and have very unique flavors. If you don’t know how to cook with them, or if you are just looking for some new ideas that aren’t a pesto, check out this recipe collection by Food 52. They break it down into recipes for beet greens, carrot greens, radish greens, and turnip greens, so keep scrolling until you find a recipe that piques your interest.

The lovely Lynn, who has been a long term Food Farm member, put together a very helpful video on how to wash and store your vegetables when you get them. I just received this and wanted to pass it along right away to all of you. Lynn showcases some different vegetables than you are getting this week, but it is incredibly helpful to give you some basic ideas. Lynn also talks about storing some vegetables you will be getting in the next few weeks and throughout the season, so be sure to bookmark this for future reference. If you’ve already seen it, or feel like you already know what to do, take a look at it just for the cute appearance of Maeve!