We received a lovely comment on the blog recently from a CSA member.

“Loved the Chinese Cabbage from week 3!
It made a delicious ‘Caldo Gallego’ that brought back sweet memories from my father’s homeland in Galicia, Spain. This soup is a staple there. A simple boil of cabbage, potatoes, and smoked bacon.
Wish I could post a photo here, it looks just delicious! Thanks Thiessen Family”

Here is the picture …

We always love to hear how our vegetables are used, and welcome pictures and recipes. It is even more special when the crops we grow can bring back happy memories for our friends.

Another member was excited for the kohlrabi as his mother made soup with them when he was a boy. Actually kohlrabi is the vegetable that seems to bring back the most memories for people – both CSA & market customers – as it was common in many parts of Europe & eastern Europe years ago. Seems a shame it is not more well known & liked here.

What’s in the box?

Kohlrabi, zucchini, beets, garlic scapes, salad greens, arugula,

bok choy, green onions, mini romaine.

Broccoli – Tuesday only

Kohlrabi was new to many of our CSA members last week. Did you like it? Check last weeks newsletter for suggestions on how to prepare it. We have been planting kohlrabi every few weeks since spring so it should be part of the box often. We’re pretty excited to be picking some beautiful kohlrabi this year after last year’s disappointing harvest.

Zucchini season has started with a bang – lots & lots of delicious, tender, summer squash in green & yellow, zucchini & patty pan and even some marrow. (We mostly grow the marrow for our British friend at market who ask for it because it reminds them of home.) We have been enjoying our zucchini raw so far – who even feels like cooking these hot days?

The recent rains have really helped the beets to grow and mature. There will be another bunch in your share this week.

We planted a lot of garlic last fall which means there are a lot of garlic scapes ready now. If you are making pesto and need an extra bunch, please ask Lorie when you grab your box.

And the same as every week, expect a bag or two of some kind of salad greens in your share – either our lettuce mix or spicy salad mix, baby kale, spinach … There will be a separate bag of arugula (in case you want it for pizza topping!), and probably bok choy too. Also mini romaine and green onions.

The hot weather has finished the broccoli in a hurry. We picked the last of it today – there should be enough for the Tuesday boxes.

We will be cleaning up the beds of salad turnips & Chinese cabbage this week and there could some available as well.

_______________________________________________

Around the farm this week …

But it is not all work around the farm. We still find time to play …

… and swim on a hot day (in the neighbour’s irrigation pond!)

It’s all about the wild areas of the farm this week.

Killdeer nests – we have not 1, not 2, but 3 nests with eggs in our fields right now. While the nests themselves are difficult to spot, the killdeer parents make a hug fuss when we are in the vicinity. Their cry is shrill & piercing – not at all pleasant to be working nearby. When we find a nest we mark it with a bright flag so as to not accidently drive over it. The eggs hatch quite quickly and the birds are gone in a few weeks it seems.

We continue to try and control the weeds where we can but we will also mow them on the paths between our vegetable beds. Mulching with straw is our main way of keeping down the weeds and still covering the soil – like this row of zucchini.

But sometimes we admit defeat – harvest what we can and walk away from a field.

We have been fortunate this season to have several volunteers who come every week or so and spend a few hours weeding. They are fearless in tackling some of the overgrown areas and bringing order out of chaos. They are much appreciated! I see weeding onions in their future …

What’s in the box?

Broccoli, Chinese broccoli, garlic scapes, kohlrabi,

salad greens, mini romaine lettuce, green onions …

I mentioned the other week that our spring broccoli seed was late in arriving and we used fall broccoli for our earliest planting instead, not knowing how it would turn out. Well it turned out great! Some of you got a taste of it last week when we ran out of beets and substituted broccoli. This week we have broccoli for everyone. Enjoy!

We also have Chinese broccoli. While Chinese broccoli has a similar taste, it looks very different from our usual broccoli. It has thinner stems, large flat leaves and tiny florets. The entire plant is edible. It is best after a quick steam, saute or stir-fry – maybe with oyster sauce & garlic (or garlic scapes!).

First it was green garlic. Now there are garlic scapes. Scapes grow out of the top of the garlic plant and curl around in a loose coil. If we left them they would eventually flower and go to seed. But we prefer that the plant uses its energy to form large garlic bulbs underground instead, so we remove the scapes. They are delicious! Use them wherever garlic bulbs are used – raw or cooked. Their flavour is a bit milder. They are also great on the BBQ. Coat the whole garlic scape with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt & pepper. Grill for a few minutes on each side until well charred & tender.  Garlic scape pesto is also a good way to use the scapes. Here’s a link to an interesting article, “10 things to do with garlic scapes, the best veg you’re not cooking yet”.  https://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/ingredients/article/garlic-scapes.

Kohlrabi is a strange-looking vegetable – sort of like a cross between a little cabbage and a turnip. It is usually considered a root vegetable, though the edible round globe grows above ground. Kohlrabi is usually eaten raw – just peeled & sliced. The taste & texture resembles fresh, crunchy broccoli stems, with a bit of radish thrown in. Use on raw vegetable platters and serve with a creamy dip. Grated kohlrabi can be added to slaws. We like to spiralize our kohlrabi and use it instead of pasta. Kohlrabi can also be steamed or boiled but don’t peel until after they are cooked. When the bulbs are tender, peel skin, and season with butter, salt, and pepper, a cheese sauce, or just enjoy plain. They are good for mashing with other vegetables – parsnips, carrots or potatoes. Kohlrabi absorbs the flavour of other ingredients making it ideal to add to soup, stew and stir-fries. The bulbs should be stored, unwashed, in a plastic bag in the fridge. They will hold for a week. Our favourite way to cook kohlrabi is to sautée it in butter & garlic for just a few minutes. Then add just a dash of nutmeg. Delicious!

It is still salad season. No shortage of fresh, delicious, crunchy greens here! As usual your box will contain several kinds of greens – perhaps lettuce mix, salad mix (lettuce plus any of mizuna, tatsoi, mustards, endive, or arugula), spinach, bok choy, baby kale … There will also be mini romaine lettuce & green onions.

***Remember to check out recipes for all the vegetables in your CSA box at http://www.cookwithwhatyouhave.com. A subscription to this website is included in your CSA membership. Please email if you have forgotten your access key.

_________________________________

Around the farm this week …

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 …

___________________________________________

There were puddles on the farm last week.

While they didn’t last long it sure was good – for us and especially the vegetables! We had 2 decent rains over the last week totaling just over 30mm, enough to benefit the crops immensely.

The precipitation was followed by heat & humidity – great growing weather, and then strong, drying winds – not so beneficial for the crops or us!

What’s in the box?

Salad greens … green onions, salad turnips, baby broccoli,

(and snow peas by Thursday or Friday?)

Salad greens – there are lots of different kinds this week. Your share could include any of the following – lettuce mix, salad blend, spinach (yup, we saved some from the leaf miners!), mustard, mizuna, arugula, bok choy, baby kale … Everything is freshly picked the morning of your pick up and everything is delicious! Enjoy these abundant spring salads!

The green onions are small & tender – we have so many planted there’s no reason to wait for them to get larger. Let’s eat them now!

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.

Broccoli is a crop that is very sensitive to the weather – especially heat. There are specific varieties to grow in early spring when the weather is cooler, and some for later that can handle the heat of late spring/early summer. Fall broccoli grows best when the days get shorter and the nights cooler. Unfortunately our spring broccoli seed did not arrive on time. (While there is no shortage of seed generally this year, the seed companies were overwhelmed with orders during the winter & early spring. Much seed is on back order & some of our seed – especially broccoli & peppers – arrived too late to plant or never arrived at all.) So we used what we had on hand which was fall broccoli. It is still several weeks away from harvest – if it gives a crop at all during this hot weather!

But we do have baby broccoli or mini broccoli. Same taste (maybe better!) but instead of big heads it forms lots of shoots with tiny little heads. This is great for food prep as they are already the right size for eating, but they are a lot of work to pick. There will be some in your box this week – maybe not a large amount but enough to try. Enjoy them raw or lightly steamed or stir-fried.

The snow peas are just about ready to harvest. Expect them in the box on Thursday or Friday. CSA members who pick up on Tuesday will have to wait until next week to enjoy these delicious peas.

Around the farm this week …

We hope you enjoyed your 1st CSA share last week.

Please remember to return your box this week, and exchange it for another –

filled with more delicious, healthy, fresh vegetables.

Here’s a shot of our compost pile today – perhaps a strange picture to start off our CSA season!

The greens strewn on top are spinach & chard leaves, and a few tomato plants.

The spinach was for the CSA shares this week – beautiful, lush, green, delicious spinach – until it was attacked by bugs (leafminers) and changed to this …

On the underside of the leaves are rows of tiny white eggs waiting to hatch and cause more damage. So we pulled the whole patch. Swiss chard too. And now they’re in the beets.

A bunch of our tomato plants in the field are dying too. We haven’t figured out the cause yet. And the weekend winds possibly ruined the cucumbers (waiting to see if they pull through).

A difficult start to the week!

But stuff happens sometimes!

And now the good news …

There is lots more spinach already growing and we continue to seed weekly. (We spent a few hours this morning covering our next plantings with insect cover to hopefully protect them. Fingers crossed that spinach will be in your CSA box within a week or two.) We’ll seed more chard as well. And we have plenty of tomato plants for replacements.

Most vegetables are looking good! A wonderful, soaking-in rain on Friday provided much needed moisture to the crops. Sunshine is forecast for much of this week, so things will really grow.

What’s in the box?

Lettuce mix, radishes, bok choy, arugula, green garlic, rhubarb.

All our lettuce & various greens are rinsed once to remove field dirt. You may want to wash them again. Stored in a plastic bag in the fridge, they should last at least 1 week.

Our lettuce mix is a delicious blend of different kinds of red & green lettuces. It makes a beautiful salad!

The radishes this week are called French Breakfast radishes. Long and pink with a white tip, they have a similar taste & bite to the more common round red radish. In France they prefer them very small, barely as thick as your baby finger, but I think they taste just fine at this size too.

Bok choy is one of my favourite green vegetables. It can be added to your salads, but most often is sautéed or stir fried. We like to cook some garlic or onion in a bit of oil (olive or sesame) for a couple of minutes, then add the bok choy and continue cooking until it is wilted & still bright green – around 5 minutes or less. Season with salt & pepper to taste. We usually grow several kinds of bok choy – white & green, small & mini, tight heads or looser heads. Some prefer hot weather while others like it cooler. This ensures we always get a harvest.

Arugula is delicious – a bit spicy & nutty. Use it in salads, on pizza. If you find the taste a bit strong on its own, combine it with our lettuce mix for an amazing salad.

Green garlic is a fresh garlic plant. At this time of year the bulb has not yet formed below ground, and the green top is still tender enough to eat, like a scallion or green onion. Green garlic is milder than fall garlic bulbs. Use them raw (eg. sliced into salads or mashed with goat cheese for a spread) or cooked (sautéed with scrambled eggs maybe) anywhere you would use garlic. They are also delicious coated with olive oil & tossed whole on the barbecue. Store green garlic in the fridge.

Rhubarb is a perennial crop which means it grows every year. It’s not a lot of work but yields an abundant crop. Because we have more CSA members this year, there will be less rhubarb in your share. But there should be enough to make a small pie, or – almost as good and way easier & faster – make a rhubarb crisp or crumble. We also enjoy stewed rhubarb. Chop rhubarb and cook in a saucepan with a bit of water until tender. Add sweetener (sugar, honey, maple syrup) to taste. We sometimes add apples or other fruit to cut the tartness of the rhubarb. Delicious on it’s own or poured over ice cream, pudding or custard.

Here is our go-to recipe for fruit crisp. It is quick & easy and great with our rhubarb!

Aunt Elvira’s Fruit Crisp

Cut up rhubarb (or your choice of fruit) and put in a pie plate.

Mix together:

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup flour

¼  cup rolled oats

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons butter

Sprinkle on top of the fruit.

Bake for 12 minutes in the microwave, or 20-25 minutes in the oven or toaster oven @ 350F. (while the oven takes longer than the microwave, the top will carmelize nicely and get a lovely brown colour)

*** As a member of our CSA you have access to http://www.cookwithwhatyouhave.com. This website has 900+ recipes, templates, storage and preserving tips, pantry stocking suggestions and vegetable prep videos, organized by vegetable and created using CSA Produce. Log in using the access key you received at sign up or ask us to send it to you again.

Around the farm this week …

Flynn & Sage encouraging us to keep our heads up, even on a difficult Monday.

Looking forward to seeing all our returning CSA friends and new CSA members this week.

Georgetown Farmers’ Market also starts this week, Saturday June 5. We’re excited to return for our 29th season!

Spring has exploded in a riot of colour here on the farm.

Out in the fields the colour is green …

We have so many vegetables planted out already – more than 2 miles of rows!

Along with all the spring crops – radishes, salad turnips, spinach, pak choy, broccoli, onions, snow peas … the first of the heat-loving vegetables are in. We planted tomatoes this week, the earliest they’ve gone out to the field in quite a few years.

The blackberries are leafing out and growing well. While they are not old, our blackberries do have some disease issues so we set out 2 new rows – about 100 plants – this spring. In about 3 years they will be in production and we will remove these older ones.

Around the farmyard the colours are amazing …

Spring is certainly a most beautiful time of the year!

It has been 6 weeks since my last posting. Though I have made several attempts at writing, I was stymied each time and never completed a post.

And now I don’t know where to start – it’s April and things are changing so rapidly on the farm that pictures even from a few days ago already seem out of date.

Even yesterday’s pictures …

Or our garlic patch …

Garlic is one of the first crops to make an appearance in spring, so it gets a lot of attention from us. The snow has barely melted when we’re already trying to spy the first spears poking through the straw.

Lots of growth is happening around the farm now …

________________________________

Around the farm recently – before today’s snow changed everything!

There is a pile of plastic bins stacked up against the desk in our workshop.

These bins contain all of our hopes, our goals, our plans for 2021.

These bins contain all of our seeds!

There are seeds for more than 500 varieties of 41 different vegetables along with 30+  flowers and a few handfuls of herbs. (I explain in a previous post why we grow so many different things. See https://thiessenfarms.com/2020/02/17/csa-2020/)

There are too many seeds to count – but from these seeds we expect to grow enough plants to fill more than 4 acres of our farm, plus a few thousand extra plants to sell & donate.

All these plants should (potentially) produce enough vegetables, herbs & flowers to stuff 150 CSA boxes every week this summer, feed a lot of hungry customers at our farmers’ market and fill an occasional restaurant order.

No pressure – on us or the seeds!

Of course seeds just want to grow. Our job as farmers is to provide them with the right conditions for growing – especially warmth & moisture. We seed in trays which are placed into this germination chamber. It’s just a styrofoam box that is heated with a slow cooker that is plugged into a temperature controller which turns it on & off as required to maintain the proper temperature. The slow cooker is filled with water which provides not only the heat but also humidity. It works great!

Once the seeds have sprouted they are moved to a small greenhouse attached to the shop where they can grow & flourish. Our first peppers, tomatoes, eggplant & onions are up!

From now until the middle of September (approx. 29 weeks) we will be seeding something every few days.

And we never lose our wonder at the miracle of a tiny seed sprouting, growing and yielding an abundant harvest.

________________________________

Another new beginning this spring – Thiessen Farms has a new owner!

Amy has purchased the farm from her parents. She is now the 3rd generation to farm this land. Of course Ron & Lorie are not going anywhere (yet). It’s basically business as usual here, but we are all quite excited about this! Please wish Amy well when you see her.

________________________________

Around the farm …

The cover crops have mostly died down through the winter and this patch will be ready for planting later in spring.

This will be one of our main growing fields this season. In 2020 it rested from vegetable crops and grew a cover crop all year. Then we spread manure, leaves & compost in fall. We will lightly work it and grow vegetables here this summer.

We will begin pruning blackberries anytime now.

We have enjoyed some lovely sunshine recently.

This fox wandered through our backyard last week.

The Flynns are so done with winter & cold weather! They are getting a little testy with each other at times.

But after some time apart …

They hang out together again.

Sage on the other hand is mourning the end of winter & her beloved snow & cold.

We are still accepting applications for our CSA this summer.

Please sign up soon!

It happens every year around this time.

Maybe it starts with a bright, sunny day after a week of gloomy Ontario winter weather … or a box of seeds arriving in the mail … or a craving for a juicy, sun-ripened, fresh tomato …

And suddenly I’m ready for the new season!

I want to feel the soil in my fingers … push some seeds into the ground … inhale the warm, humid air of the greenhouse … see the bright, vibrant green of the emerging seedlings …

In my mind I see the farm looking like this again.

With a harvest like this.

I confess I am always relieved when I feel this way in mid-winter. It means that I’m still loving what I do and not ready yet for a change – like retirement (sorry Lorie).

Perhaps it takes a little longer than it used to for my energy & enthusiasm to return after the busy season, and perhaps I put off completing the list of winter chores until it’s almost spring, and perhaps I really, really enjoy staying in bed until the sun comes up, but here we are in early February and my excitement is back!

Our seeds are ordered, the farm plan is (mostly) mapped out, the planting schedule is being finalized and the greenhouse will be cleaned & readied this week.

CSA 2021 is a go and the response has been amazing. Applications are arriving in our mailbox and our inbox daily. It is both exciting & humbling that people want our produce and are willing to pay upfront & commit to 18 weeks of vegetable boxes.

Let the season begin!

Around the farm this week …

The compost piles doing their thing under the snow.

The Flynns seem to spend an awful lot of time relaxing & sleeping – always in a sheltered, sunny spot.

Sage had an encounter with a coyote this week. Turns out it wasn’t quite the friend she hoped it would be – so now she’s sulking inside.

We are now accepting applications for our CSA program for summer 2021.

Details above, or email thefarm@thiessenfarms.com for information.

We’ve been eating a lot of salads lately.

The lettuce & spinach are freshly picked … from our farm … harvested from the field … not the greenhouse.

And it’s January!

This bed of lettuce, spinach, kale, arugula & bok choy was the last to be set out in 2020 – transplanted around the middle of September. The greens weren’t yet big enough to harvest for our last farmers’ market in October and I almost mowed them down with the rest of the farm. But I spared them, thinking we might get a salad or two if the fall weather was mild enough to allow them to grow. Indeed the fall was mild and the lettuce & spinach especially flourished. (The kale never amounted to much and the arugula & bok choy succumbed to the frost earlier.)

Now, the spinach is still sweet & delicious. The lettuce leaves are slightly tough, but both make amazing salads!

This morning was frosty, but hopefully the greens recover again and continue to feed us. Harvesting in January – thanks to a mild winter!

We are also eating vegetables that we harvested in fall and stored.

Chinese cabbage (so good in coleslaw or stir-fry), and garlic, onions & winter squash. We will miss them when they are gone!

_____________________

Around the farm …

Everyone’s enjoying the quieter pace of our off-season!