May 19, 2025
Strawberries Starting to Ripen!
by Farmer Dana

Harvest #3 (Week A) should include kale, arugula, salad radishes, hakurei turnips, bok choy, cilantro, dill, komatsuna, green garlic, lettuce mix, head lettuce, and romaine. Some items will be a choice.

U-pick should include strawberries and labeled herbs like sage, lemon balm, oregano, catnip, anise hyssop, and bronze fennel (bring scissors).

May 19, 2025
"Now What?!" Workshop
by Gia Yaccarino

Hosted by longtime member Gia Yaccarino on Saturday 5/31, Sunday 6/1, Saturday 6/7, and Sunday 6/8, all at 11 am.

Maybe you are a new member, maybe you’ve been a member for a while. Either way – this workshop is for you!

In the barn, everything made sense while you were putting your share into your bags to bring home. At home, it suddenly became very overwhelming once you began unpacking! We have all been there; it is part of the CSA learning curve.

Let us help you make the most of your farm share!

Being a member of a CSA opens the door to so many topics! At this workshop we will talk about:

- Resources: books, websites, Anchor Run CSA website (Recipes and Veggies 202 – it has pictures)
- How to keep your veggies as fresh as possible once they are in your refrigerator.
- The pros and cons of different preservation techniques (freezing, fermenting, canning, dehydrating).
- “Tools of the trade”, which I find invaluable.
- Before you compost: radish greens are edible!
- Composting, composting at the farm; what and what not to include in a compost pile, vermicomposting.
- Solar Cooking.

We will share recipes based on farm produce that our families love. And by share – I mean taste and provide copies of the recipes. Pestos - don’t limit yourself to Basil. What to do with all those greens? Veggie Hash! The list goes on! This is a casual, enlightening event that will enhance your experience of the CSA. Hope to see you there!

May 19, 2025
Workshifts this Week (5/19/25)
by Farmer Derek

This week's workshift schedule:

Bring gloves, water, a hat, sturdy shoes, and a pad for kneeling (if necessary for you).

We meet under the large red maple at the end of the barn by the pick up room.

Please be there by the scheduled start time (it might be hard to find us in the fields otherwise).

Workshift Guidelines - Workshift Sign Up Instructions

May 19, 2025
Rain, Rain, Go Away?
by Farmer Derek

I'm thrilled to be sitting here on our porch on a sunny and windy evening after receiving four inches of rain over four sunless days. The fields have dried out just enough before the next rain event arrives Wednesday. Thanks to the prolonged water deficit, the ground seems to have slurped up any excess moisture. We were able to get back in the fields today and cultivate/hoe where needed as well as transplant winter squash, lettuce, scallions, herbs, beans, and edamame.

During last week's soggy situation, we were fortunately able to do inside work when it was too wet outside. In two of our tunnels, greens were fully harvested and we were able to lay fabric and transplant the first of the tomatoes. On Friday morning, before the final waterfall, we transplanted all of the outdoor cherry tomatoes. Tomatillos went in the day before.

Overall the fields tolerated the two rounds of heavy rainfall pretty well. Seven or eight years ago waterways were installed to collect and deflect excess water and keep erosion to a minimum. We've also learned and modified over time to orient our fields so they drain into grassed driving lanes. Flash flood type rain events are common so we've had to develop methods of coping.

Let's hope the rain this week is slow and steady!

May 19, 2025
Greens Galore
by Linda Dansbury

First harvests are marked by tender delicious greens. Here are a few of the ways I enjoyed them this past week. If you want to share with fellow members how you enjoy your harvest or ask questions, please email me at lindadansbury@comcast.net and please put Anchor Run in the title.

Bok choy, green garlic, kale, cilantro - enjoyed the Asian Style Cole Slaw on this site. Love this recipe and make this often using whatever greens are available.

Rutabaga, potatoes, green garlic - made a mixed mash of these 2 root veggies and added a chopped up green garlic to the cooking water for added flavor - yum.

Turnips, radishes, green garlic - I did a quick pickling for these and used it as a side dish for a Vietnamese grilled chicken - they were so good. I might mess with the recipe a bit and then share next week.

May 19, 2025
U-Pick Information
by Farmer Dana

- Check the u-pick board in the hallway for u-pick crops and amounts before picking. Amounts listed are per share.

- Only crops listed on the board are available for u-pick.

- U-pick crops and weekly allotments can be harvested any day of the week, 8am–8pm, Monday through Sunday of your pick up week. So if you can’t do your u-pick on your scheduled pick up day, feel free to come back any other day that week.

- BYO scissors for herbs and flowers.

- We provide half-pint, pint, and quart u-pick baskets for members to measure and harvest into. Please save these and reuse them as much as possible. If you have some that are still in good shape at the end of the season we'll gladly accept them back.