Keep updated on all that is happening around Thiessen Farms!

CSA 2014 – Week 3

2 Comments

What’s in the box?

Salad turnips, lettuce mix, radishes, spinach (probably!).

  • Salad turnips are small, round, white turnips that resemble radishes – but without the bite. Mild in flavour, crisp, and quite tender, they are best eaten raw – simply wash, cut off the tops and enjoy! They can also be stir fried, sautéed, or steamed – both the turnips & the green tops.
  • The lettuce & radishes continue – thay are loving this cooler weather & all the moisture. Remember that the lettuce has been rinsed once to remove some of the field soil. You will want to wash it again.
  • The first spinach patch is about finished. There should be spinach in Tuesday’s box. The next spinach planting is coming slowly. There may be some ready for Friday’s box, or maybe not.

Long-time shareholders are looking for snow peas, broccoli, even raspberries. Often we are picking these vegetables and berries by now – but not this year.

The snow peas are finally blooming – all 3 plantings! That means peas in a couple of weeks – lots of peas. We try to space the 3 plantings out so they mature in sequence and provide a longer harvest. But this year Mother Nature has fooled us & they are blooming together. The result may be lots of snow peas all at once – we’ll find out shortly.

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The broccoli is growing daily – but so far no sign of heads.

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Raspberries are forming – we’re anxiously waiting for the first signs of pink!

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Here’s an update on some of our other vegetable crops … (we’ll provide a fruit update next week).

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So far we’re (almost) keeping up with the weeding!

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Zucchini

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Most of the tomatoes are mulched, staked & tied now.

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Garlic – expect green garlic & scapes in your CSA box soon.

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 The recent downpours have left the eggplant & peppers dirty. We’ll cultivate them a few times to encourage quicker growth, then mulch them.

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Some amazingly colourful (and hopefully tasty) lettuces are almost ready to pick!

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… and our mystery crop – growing well too!

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2 thoughts on “CSA 2014 – Week 3

  1. What do you mean when you say cultivate the peppers a few times to help them grow?

    • We cultivate – work the ground using the tractor & cultivator or just a hoe – to loosen up the soil around the plants. This adds oxygen to the soil, brings moisture up to the surface and stimulates the roots. All this makes the plant – any plant – grow better & faster. It is especially important these days when so many heavy downpours pack the soil around the vegetable plants. Cultivating really causes a burst of growth!

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