Harvest #1 (Week A) should include kale, lettuce mix, arugula, chard, salad radishes, hakurei turnips, bok choy, daikon radishes, watermelon radishes, garlic chives, and green garlic. Some items will be a choice. No u-pick yet.

FYI we do our best to predict the harvest but we don't always get it 100% right.

Officially this is our earliest start to a harvest season. Except for this past week, overall it's been a warm and dry spring. Every season is markedly different, sometimes to the benefit of the farmers and the plants and sometimes not. We were plowing the fields in February, a first. We planted tunnel crops on March 23rd and direct seeded carrots on March 22nd, the earliest for both. This year we devoted four tunnels to early spring crops instead of setting aside two of them for the first round of tomatoes. Our goal was to harvest earlier this season and the weather has helped make that possible. Besides allowing for earlier harvests, the tunnel crops, particularly the brassica family ones (arugula, kale, choy, radishes, turnips) look the best they ever have in the spring. Covered production can make a huge difference and inspires us to erect more tunnels in the future.

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.

- Pick up days are Tuesdays 1-8pm, Thursdays 1-8pm, and Saturdays 10am–12pm. You're assigned a permanent pick up day but you may temporarily switch to a different day or week.

- If you need to temporarily switch your pick up day and/or week, please email us by 5pm the Sunday prior to the week of the change.

- After each pick up we'll look at the sign in sheets and if your name is not checked off we will contact you to see if you did miss pick up and want to reschedule.

- We sent an email earlier last weekend reminding you of your designated pick up day and week. Please email us if you did not receive it. It was sent to the primary account holder's email address. If you did not receive it in your inbox, check spam or another folder. It's a good idea to make sure our emails end up in a place you'll notice them since this is how we communicate farm information, events, etc.

- You can log in and view your information on your members page, including share size, pick up day, work history, and balance.

- BYO baskets/bags/boxes to bring your harvest home. Sometimes we have donated shopping bags on hand to pack your shares in, but sometimes we don’t! (Also, our produce is not packaged in any way, so bringing your own bags is important if you want produce kept separate within a larger container. This is a small way we can reduce farm plastic waste. One member last year let us know that their plastic waste is reduced by half when they are picking up shares from the farm - great news!)

- Check off your name on the sign-in sheet before collecting your share from the barn. Organized by share size and alphabetically by last name.

- Follow harvest amounts written on the chalk boards labeled with your share size (full, half, medium).

- If you need help with anything please feel free to ask a Farm Staffer in the barn for help at anytime!

- Parking is available in the large stone lot at the end of the driveway. Parking next to the barn is available for people with physical challenges and for cars with sleeping kids.

- 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.

Early spring veggies are sweet, tender and delicious - not to mention nutritious. Here are a few tips on using and storing your veggies.

Greens will go bad quickly if they are sitting in water in the fridge so I don't store them in the plastic bags I use in the pick up room. I have a couple of large plastic containers in which I have placed a paper towel on the bottom. It works equally well for washed and unwashed greens. The greens will stay fresh in it for up to a couple of weeks. I usually separate the harvest into salad greens and cooking greens and keep them in separate containers - this makes it easy to reach for what you want.

Red Russian kale - this is a flexible variety of kale, equally yummy sautéed or baked into Kale Chips (click to go to recipe). Save the thick stems and veins you cut off, place in large bag to use later in veggie stock.

Bok Choy, Swiss Chard, spinach - I list these three together for now because they can be used in so many ways and can be used as alternatives to other greens. I often use chard and/or choy instead of cabbage in recipes. Swiss chard and spinach are great replacements for each other and chard comes with the bonus of delicious crunchy stems - I love to saute onions along with the chard stems until a bit tender, adding red pepper flakes or a chopped up chili pepper if you like a little heat. When these are almost tender, add chopped or sliced garlic, let cook for about 30 seconds (until you can smell it, but be careful not to burn it), then add the chopped chard leaves and saute until wilted but still bright green. You can enjoy like this, or add a bit of sesame oil or soy sauce for added flavor. Bok choy can be enjoyed the same way or chopped up and added to salads for a texture contrast to the lettuce.

Green garlic - what a treat for early in the season! Use as you would any garlic in recipes, but please store this one in the fridge. The entire plant is edible at this stage.

Radishes, turnips - these can be eaten raw, sliced and added to salads or used with your favorite dips. They are both also delicious roasted in the oven with a bit of olive oil, garlic and/or some fresh or dry thyme. Don't toss the tops - they are wonderful sautéed - in combo with chard or bok choy if desired; or save them and add to the bag with the kale stems to add to a pot for veggie stock.

Arugula - another amazing green best eaten raw in salads in it's own salad, or mixed with other greens. When eating on its own, I like to add salt and pepper, lemon juice and olive oil. Cherry tomatoes, sliced mushrooms are delicious additions.

Lettuce mix - check out this site for many salad dressing recipes. At the top of the website page, scroll to "For Members". Then click on Recipes. There is a search bar to type what you are looking for. If you type in "Salad dressing" there will be a long list of Salad recipes - this can give you great ideas for kale, lettuce, etc. If you type Vinaigrette - the list becomes more defined. Check it out!

Over the years many members have asked what the best way to store farm veggies is. Ours is probably not the best storage method but it works just super for us. We hang on to plastic bags that we acquire through other purchases and repurpose them, rinsing and drying them between uses. Big bags (like 2 gallon zip lock bags) work the best. In general we group similar items in the bags with each other. For example with this harvest I put lettuces together, kale and bok choy together, the roots and green garlic together, and the swiss chard all by its little lonesome. Then store in the refrigerator, not in the very back or on the top, or wherever is susceptible to freezing in your fridge. Easy peasy.