Harvest #4 (Week B) should include kale, lettuce mix, chard, salad radishes, hakurei turnips, bok choy, head lettuce, cilantro, dill, escarole, and green garlic. Some items may be a choice. U-pick should include herbs and strawberries (see below for additional u-pick information).

- Check the u-pick board in the hallway for u-pick crops and amounts before picking. Amounts listed are per share (so if you split a share, you also split the u-pick allotment).

- Check the map in the hallway for the location of listed crops and follow the signs pointing you in the correct direction.

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

- U-pick crops and weekly allotments can be harvested any day of your pick up week, 8am–8pm Monday through Sunday. 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.

What we're thinking about most right now is the lack of rain. What we're doing with much of our time is setting up, connecting, and running irrigation. It appears that we'll get through May with just over half an inch of rain, making it our driest month in 15 years of farming here. I don't feel panicked about it just yet. Everything around me still looks lush and green. Setting up irrigation, though time consuming and something I'd rather avoid doing, always happens at some point during the growing season. So getting it up and running now is fine. With no rain in the forecast we'll cycle through the fields on a 5-7 day rotation. Thirstier crops in high production, like the peas and strawberries, will get a drink at shorter intervals. Our well supplies a finite amount of water at a given time but we can irrigate our current footprint, maybe 5 or 6 acres, in a given week. Right now we're exclusively using drip tape and currently have irrigation on all crops except potatoes and carrots. As our footprint expands to our mid-July maximum, without rain, we'll continue to add tubes and tape where needed.

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.

Workshift Guidelines - Workshift Sign Up Instructions

After this week, the harvest will start changing more rapidly, transitioning from greens to summer veggies. Here are a couple of possible new items for the next few weeks:

Escarole - seems that people either love it or hate it. I love it! It is one of the greens that can be enjoyed in salads, sautéed with garlic, onions, red pepper flakes, or added to soups and stews. It pairs especially well with white beans, as in the traditional Italian Pasta e Fagioli and Italian Wedding Soup. It is nutritious and like other greens, does not like to be stored sitting in water. For more ideas on enjoying this and other greens from the farm check out Sauteed Mixed Greens Plus 3 Uses for Them.

Peas - a favorite U Pick veggie, to probably begin in Week 5, maybe late in Week 4! We will start with Snow Peas, and then move to Sugar Snaps. They are more or less interchangeable in recipes and contain a lot of Vitamin C and even some Iron. When cooking, be careful to only cook them slightly so they stay crispy. They are delicious raw of course as well. Store them in a plastic container or bag in the crisper of the fridge and they should stay fresh for at least a week, if they last that long!

I hope everyone is enjoying your harvests! Let members know how you are enjoying yours by emailing me at lindadansbury@comcast.net and please put Anchor Run in subject line so I can find your message.

Green Garlic - I told Farmer Derek this week I forget year to year how much I like this product (FYI he's been enjoying it chopped in his salads). It is less strong than mature garlic, and it can be sautéed, baked or grilled without getting bitter. A few things I have done with mine: made garlic bread, mixing chopped green garlic, parsley and olive oil and brushed onto bread. Baked until slightly brown. The garlic, even though a few bits were brown, was delicious; chopped up and added to marinades for grilled chicken and added to guacamole (again, a wonderful garlic flavor without being overpowering).

Bok choy, salad radishes, green garlic, chard, cilantro - made the Asian Style Cole Slaw from this site. This is a go to recipe for me for this time of the year. Try it!!

Kale - I made a Kale Caesar Salad and I also added chopped up kale to a Minestrone Soup I had in the freezer.

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!

- 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!