| What's Growing This Week | |
Asparagus #
Spinach
Carrots
Pistachios
Cauliflower
Sweet Potatoes *
Walnuts (M,L)
Fennel (M,L)
Collards (M,L)
Navel Oranges (M,L) %
Spring Onions (M,L)
Strawberries (S)
Green Garlic (L)
Broccoli (L)
Tangelos (L)
Items are subject to substitution without notice.
# Asparagus comes from two different farms this week: Jim and Deborah Durst in Esparto; and Riverdog Farm in Guinda. Both are is CCOF certified organic. * Sweet Potatoes are fromAV Thomas Farms in Atwater. They are certified organic by CCOF. % Navel Oranges this week come from Homegrown Organics in Porterville. They are certified organic by QAI. |
|
|
For Grapefruit Lovers only
There aren't many things we have in abundance right now, but Ruby Red Grapefruit is one exception. We don't put tons of it in your boxes because not everyone loves it. But for those who do, we are now offering 10 lb. bulk boxes for $12. You can buy one box, or sign up to get a weekly delivery for the next month. To order, email us at csa@terrafirmafarm.com.
|
Contact Us:
| terrafirmafarm.com
csa@terrafirmafarm.com
|
|
| CSA Rates 2011 | Boxes are charged on Monday for the week's deliveries at:
$14 Small
$24 Medium
$32 Large
For a payment of $300, get a 3% bonus. Your account balance will be $309.
For a payment of$850, get a 5% bonus. Your account will be posted as $892.00
For a payment of $1,400, get a 7% bonus. Your payment will be posted as $1,498.
Vacations are charged weekly when notice is given as a fee, no charges occur during the vacation week.
$4 Small
$8 Medium
$11 Large
|
|
Payments, Billing, and Changes
| Schedule vacations, change box sizes, make payments or sign up for autopay by logging in to your subscriber account at terrafirmafarm.com
|
|
|
|
News From Terra Firma Farm
Community Supported Agriculture
|
|
Greetings!
You may have noticed that some weeks the Large (or the Medium, or the Small) boxes get an item that the Medium (or the Large/and or the Small) and/or Small (and/or the Large) boxes don't get. Confused yet? Welcome to our world.
Sometimes these decisions are deliberate, active choices on our part -- an effort to alternate items, for example. Large boxes get more cooking greens, so they might contain both chard and kale for two weeks in a row. Meanwhile, Medium boxes will get one or the other.
Just as often, though, the vegetables make the decisions for us. Cauliflower and Broccoli are good examples. Despite our efforts to plant them at regular intervals, the amount of crop they produce in a given week is determined by the weather. A half acre of broccoli (a standard size planting for us) produces roughly 9000 heads over a three week period. Ideally, this would translate into 3000 heads a week for three weeks. The reality is usually something more like this:
Week 1: 500 heads
Week 2: 7000 heads
Week 3: 2500 heads
With crops like these, we really don't know until the day of harvest exactly how much we are going to get.
Terra Firma currently delivers about 1400 CSA boxes each week, spread over 3 days. Roughly 50% are Medium boxes, 30% are Small, and 20% Large. Continuing with the broccoli example, we need at least 250 heads to do just the Large boxes. If we have 500 heads, we can put it in just the Small boxes. Once we have 1400 heads we can put a head in all the boxes. If we get more than that in a single week, we can start to increase the amount in one or the other boxes: 2 heads in the Small and Medium, and 3 in the Large, for example (for a grand total of 3000 heads). Sometimes we have enough extra that we have to sell it through another channel.
We always plan on growing enough of each crop to be able to put it in all the boxes. It just doesn't always work out that we have enough for all the boxes the same week. Which is why sometimes you might notice that you -- a Medium box subscriber -- didn't get an item that you want, but the Small (or Large) boxes did. Or Vice versa.
If it is any consolation to you this week (as you check the list and see that you didn't get a basket of Strawberries this week but that subscribers of a different size box did), please believe that we at Terra Firma do not enjoy the nerve-wracking process of determining how much produce we have and then distributing it among the different box sizes. It drives us nuts! It is always our goal to match demand with supply and keep everyone as happy as possible. But in the end, we are growing fresh produce, not producing Iphones.
Thanks,
Pablito |
|
In your boxes
In case you skipped the newsletter opening essay or somehow glossed over the details: Small boxes got the first pick
of TFF's Strawberry field this week simply by the luck of the numbers. We had fully planned on putting them in Medium and Large boxes as well, but those subscribers will have to wait until next week. We apologize for any disappointment. The berries are taking their sweet, sweet time to ripen this year. The plants are loaded with green fruit, which means we should have a bumper crop and we will share it with you all as soon as possible.
We did put a consolation prize in the Medium and Large boxes, though: a bag of Walnuts. We don't expect this to be a substitute for the berries, but quite frankly, we didn't have anything else to take their place.
Good news for Asparagus fans: If you find the single bunch of stalks you've been receiving from us to be an inadequate amount, you're in luck this week. With harvest hitting its stride, we were able to put two bunches in the Medium and Large boxes this week. Enjoy.
We don't normally harvest Collard greens as whole plants, preferring to pick the biggest leaves off each plant and make bunches. Unfortunately, the ones we planted in January are already going to seed. So the bunch of juvenile collards in your box today will be the one and only harvest of spring. Next week: Green Kale.
Fennel -- it's the vegetable that keeps on giving...We planted the field in late August, and harvested it all back in December. But the roots all sent up new bulbs, which is what we harvested a few weeks back and again this week. It's not the prettiest fennel ever, but the bulbs are sweet, with thick sheaths.
Spring Onions are growing fast now, putting on some girth. The leaves are now reaching a size that makes them stronger flavored and tougher, so you may want to cut them off and discard them.
Our final planting of overwintered Cauliflower is making a big push right now, and there is enough for everyone this week. Next week production will begin to tail off, and then the season will probably be over until late next fall. You may notice a slightly pinkish hue to the curds -- this is a result of a slight nutrient deficiency that resulted from the heavy rains in March.
|
Recipe -- Spring White Bean Soup Thinly sliced fennel cooked with onions adds another layer of flavor.
Rinse and soak 2 C. cannellini beans for 3 hours or overnight. Drain the beans then fill the pot with fresh water, add salt, bring to a boil and then simmer.
Trim the fronds off 1 fennel bulb. Toss the fronds into the cooking beans.
Separate the fennel sheaths(discard the tough core), rinse, and slice thinly.
Thinly slice 2 spring onions.
Saute the onions and fennel in 2 T. olive oil over medium heat for 15-20 minutes, until they are completely caramelized. Deglaze the pan with a splash of white wine, then add the contents of the pan to the soup pot.
Remove the stems from 1 bunch of collard greens, chop roughly and add to the soup.
Trim 1 bunch of asparagus, then toss with 1 t. olive oil and salt. Place on a baking sheet and roast in the oven until tender. Toss with 3 T. minced green garlic and 2 T. lemon juice. Return to the oven and roast until lightly browned.
Season the soup with salt and pepper and serve topped with asparagus.
|
|
Additional reading materials Composting is good, right? Well, not if you're an air quality regulator. EPA air pollution rules have prevented Grimmway Farm, a large organic grower in Kern County, from opening a large facility to compost locally produced dairy manure. Instead, the farm will purchase all its compost from a facility in Riverside County, hauling it by trucks that will emit far more air pollution. To read more about how bureaucratic red tape shut down an innovative win-win environmental solution, click here.
|
|
|
