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Rising River Farm CSA Newsletter
Box 3 *** July 5th 2006
13208 201st AVE SW -Rochester, WA 98579
(360) 273-5368
risingirverfarm@yahoo.com www.risingriverfarm.com
Potluck and FarmTour-Mark your calendars!
Every year we like to host a potluck/farm tour so that members
can come out and see where their food is grown and who is
growing it. It is also a way for you to meet your fellow CSA
members. Some of you live right down the street from one another
and may not even know it! We ask that you bring a potluck
dish to share, eating utensils, and appropriate clothes/shoes.
We’ll set up lawn games (bocci, badminton, and the like.).
If it is hot, come early and we’ll point you down to
the river for a swim. You are welcome to invite friends along.
The more the merrier.
When: Saturday, July 29th from 4-7p.m.
Where: Here at the farm of course!
*I’ll post a carpool sign up sheet at each pick-up site.
Write your name, phone #, how many in your group and whether
you are willing to drive or if you are in need of a ride.
______________________________________________________________________________
Hello,
“Bbbbrrrrrrrrrr!” I say to myself as I sit here
at 6:45 this morning with a scarf around my neck and hot coffee
in hand. The crew has been out there since 6:00 picking the
last of the peas and carrots for today’s box. My goodness
there is a lot of peas!
This time of year is perhaps the busiest. The sun comes up
around 4:30 and it doesn’t get dark until 10-ish. Getting
the kids in bed at a reasonable hour seems impossible these
days. Time escapes me and we often don’t have our dinner
until 7:30 or 8:00! The fieldwork is in full swing. We are
starting to harvest a greater number of crops and each week
new ones are added to the list. The peas alone take hours-with
all hands on deck. With the days so long, weeds have a lot
of time to grow and keeping on top of them takes vigilance.
Many of the crops we grow require succession plantings so
each week until early August there is still planting and transplanting
to do. Throw in CSA and 4 days at market and you have a bunch
of busy people! Our “typical” workweek looks something
like this:
Tuesday: The crew harvests all day for CSA and Thursday/Friday
market. This is the day I do my weekly planting.
Wednesday: More harvest and then packing for CSA. After lunch
the delivery trucks go out and the remaining crew works on
weeding/trellising projects.
Thursday: Morning harvest, transplanting if need be, and lots
of weeding. I go to market.
Friday: Leanne is at market and the rest of us stay here and
harvest, harvest, harvest!
Saturday: Morning harvest, me at market, and Jim stays behind
to weed, transplant, and do other farm projects with the crew.
Sunday: Jim gets up early all by himself (he deserves a lot
of positive karmic payback for this!) to harvest a few items
and then goes to market. The rest of the crew has the day
off.
Monday: Day off for all, though we usually still have to run
a set or two of irrigation.
Mixed throughout all of these days is irrigation, greenhouse
watering and transplanting, equipment to fix and tinker with,
barns to keep organized, ground to prep, old crops to till
in, trellising…. Sometimes it feels overwhelming and
at other times completely satisfying. The diversity in the
work from day to day throughout the seasons keeps it interesting.
We certainly never get bored. Sometimes farming feels like
jumping into a fast moving river. It is beautiful, exciting
and at times scary. All we can do is keep our head above water
and respond to the challenges that we come against. I compare
it to a moving river because once we are in we can’t
get out until the season is done. We can’t stop and
rest or change our mind about starting the season. We just
go with it and it is ALWAYS an amazing ride that we look forward
to year after year.
We are very excited about our crew this year. They are all
great workers and a lot of fun to be around. Good company
makes all the difference when you are picking peas or thinning
carrots for hours on end in the hot sun or shivery cool mornings.
Rigo and Rita are back for their 6th season. Needless to say,
they totally know what they are doing by now. We can send
them out on any job and know that it will be done quickly
and correctly. They are good role models for the new folks.
Greg is back form Thailand and we are happy he joined us for
another season. He works in the field, helps at market and
does the Oly CSA delivery. Lydia is new this year and lives
here on the farm. She started in May and deserves high praise
for all the hours she worked in the fields alone in the wet
rains of May and June before the rest of the crew started.
She clearly has a strong work ethic. Brad, Christine, and
Faridha are also new. They carpool in together from Olympia.
They are all quick learners and good workers. Aliza hangs
out with the kids 6 days a week until early afternoon so I
can get a big chunk of work done before I come in to read
and play! Leanne works at market on Fridays. She worked with
us sporadically last year and we are happy to have her back.
The farm crew can make or break a season. I have good feelings
and high hopes for this bunch of folks!
THIS WEEK’S BOX:
*Sugar snap peas are just coming on. Some of you will see
them this week and some next. They look just like the shell
peas, but smoother skinned. You can eat them pod and all.
I think they ar best raw. One bite will tell you if you’ve
bitten a shell pea or sugar snap! The plan is to put the newsletter
in the shell peas bag.
*Swiss Chard: We like to alternate beets and chard in the
box. Very few people want both things each week. So half of
you will get chard this week and the rest get beets. Chard
and beet greens are very similar in flavor. In fact they are
cousins of sorts in the plant family. One was bred for big
leaves and the other for big roots. You can cook chard like
spinach-steam it, sauté it, or put it in soups and
casseroles. It goes well with feta cheese and/or herbed breadcrumbs.
Chopped fine and diluted with lettuce and other greens it
is also good in salads.
If ever you have questions about what is in your box or when
you can expect to see a certain crop, don’t hesitate
to call!
Enjoy!
Jennifer
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