Sorry to lead with the cats again, but they so capture the mood of the day!

Flynn here is enjoying a beautiful, sunny, & mild Monday – something we all appreciated very much!

There were 5 of us working on the farm today and we got a lot accomplished …

The tomatoes are all staked now, and we’ve begun to prune & tie them for the first time – a huge job & an important one. Some of the plants already have little tomatoes!

Eggplant & sweet peppers were finally planted last week & the students are mulching them. Spreading all that straw is time well spent as it saves weeding throughout the season. Some we planted on ground cloth – a polypropylene fabric that prevents weed growth but allows air & water through. And because it’s black, the soil is kept warmer – something the peppers will love!

We weeded a lot of vegetables …

… and we transplanted a lot of vegetables into the field.

What’s in the box?

Salad turnips, parsley, collards, lettuce, spinach, green onions.

• Salad turnips are small, round, white turnips that resemble radishes, but without the bite (usually)! 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.
• Parsley loves cool weather and we’ve had plenty of that – so we have plenty of parsley too! It’s great in your salads, omelets, or sandwiches (egg salad, tuna salad …).
• Who knows what collard greens are? Not a common vegetable for most people,  (we have not grown them or eaten them even, for a few years!) they are in the same family as cabbage & broccoli with a taste & texture that is similar to kale. They are always cooked and not eaten raw. Rather than post recipes, here are links to 2 very different recipes that also give much additional, useful information on collards.

1. https://braziliankitchenabroad.com/brazilian-style-collard-greens/
2. https://cooktoria.com/vegetarian-collard-greens/

• Lettuce mix, spinach & green onions round out your CSA share this week.

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We’ve been working around a killdeer nest for several weeks now – hidden in the weeds in the middle of the field.

They don’t build much of a nest. This one contained 3 eggs only.

The eggs finally hatched on the weekend & already the little ones are running around the field.

Killdeer are fun birds to watch, but so incredibly noisy. It’s nice when they arrive in spring – and nice when they leave again!