The storm arrived quickly, lasted only a brief time, and then moved on, thunder rumbling into the distance. But it dumped about 15mm of rain and several minutes worth of hail – around the size of small gravel – on the farm yesterday afternoon.

While a farmer’s preference is always a slow, steady rain, during the night (with clearing by morning so as to not interfere with the day’s work) with climate change we seem more likely to get severe storms, and so we learn to accept & adapt. Regardless, while the rain was welcomed the hail was not!

It caused some damage – mostly tears & rips in the leaves of eggplant, beans, & zucchini etc. Not every leaf was hit nor every plant (hail is usually sporadic) and the vegetables should recover just fine. The concern is more about mold and disease entering the plant and causing long-term problems especially on full season vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant … that cannot be replanted or replaced. The tomato stems have some wounds but we will spray a weak fertilizer solution on the plants to give them a boost and hopefully overcome any issues.

What’s in the box?

Mini romaine lettuce, salad greens, green onions, salad turnips, Chinese cabbage, beets, snow peas (Tuesday only).

We have grown mini romaine lettuce for a few years now and it is very popular amongst both our CSA members and our farmers’ market customers. People seem to prefer a smaller romaine that can be eaten in 1 or 2 meals – and it tastes great! We offer both a green & a dark red mini romaine.

There is no shortage of salad greens at this time of year. Once again your share will contain a varied selection of our spring greens – lettuce mix, salad blend, mustard, mizuna, arugula, bok choy, baby kale …

There will be green onions & salad turnips to add to your salads. (There were supposed to be radishes too, but the hot weather ruined their texture and made them so spicy that we decided not to include them.)

Chinese cabbage is one of my favourite vegetables. Crisp, tender, and mild – it is delicious used fresh in a salad instead of lettuce. Or use the large leaves as wraps, make it into coleslaw, kimchi or stir-fry it. While the outer leaves are a lovely green colour, the inside is often creamy white. Chinese cabbage can be a heavy, solid, tight head or sometimes more like a head of romaine lettuce – loose & leafy, or something in between. It prefers cooler weather and does best in fall so we’re quite pleased to have some nice Chinese cabbage in June. Stored in a plastic bag in the fridge Chinese cabbage will keep for a long time – so no rush to finish it!

The first beets are ready! Small, sweet, earthy & tender, these delicious vegetables can be enjoyed raw in your salad, or lightly cooked (no need to peel them – they are that tender!).

*** CSA members who pick up on Tuesday will get snow peas this week. Everyone else received theirs last week. “Vegetable candy” one member called them & they are that amazing – but you only get them once.

Around the farm this week …

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