CSA share basket number one, check.

Yesterday was our first CSA share pick-up! We spent the early morning harvesting, then tucked into the shade in the afternoon for washing and sorting and packing. This year we are doing only 11 shares, and in further efforts to keep things simple we are doing only full shares. Our CSA season will run for 18 weeks. We are trying our best to make each week’s share full and diverse, with enough vegetables for a family or a primarily vegetarian couple for a week. This week was certainly a light spring/early summer basket, with special spring delicacies, garlic scapes and peas. We’re really looking forward to seeing how each weekly basket changes over the season.

We are also putting together a weekly newsletter to go along with the CSA shares, and will post them online. The newsletter has a list of what’s in each basket and ideas on how to prepare them, just in case you’re stumped.

Here are a few photos of the CSA shares.. the exploded basket includes all the incredible tasty treats, minus the four heads of lettuce.. tisk. Possibly the most beautiful, blushing, sweet lettuce in the whole wide world, and I forgot to put them in the share photo. Ah well. I had taken a photo of them all lined up in the field before harvest – here there are. Grandpa Admires.

The shares are available for pick-up at the farm between 4-7 PM on Thursday. It was a lot of fun meeting and catching up with our CSA members yesterday. Some members even came to the farm to pick up their share by bicycle – little kiddo in tow!! YES! It was also good to have some downtime in the afternoon, away from weeding and irrigating.. we even pulled out the watercolors.

It’s pretty much the coolest feeling to be growing food for our community.  To now be providing delicious, healthy food to people who invested in this land and two farmers, way back on a snowy day in February, it’s awesome.  A CSA is a remarkable thing, and we feel so grateful and excited to be a part of it.  We hope that everyone is enjoying their Cycle Farm produce!

…and on an unrelated note, our hop vines have begun climbing. Thank you, Malcolm.