The road ahead this season looks good. It’s crazy that it takes almost the end of June to be able to say that, but that’s farming. If we really looked closely at the just how little effect our planning and skills have on the outcome of a season none of us would probably do this for a living!
With a few warm nights and a solid rainfall under our belt temperamental southern crops like peppers and eggplant are finally in flower and it looks like they are back on schedule. We have been picking strawberries very hard this week and hope all of you enjoy this crop for the time that we have it. If you indulge in the grocery store version of this during the off-season make sure you taste your first local berry with our eyes closed. There is nothing quite like a native strawberry picked in season. Fruit set in this crop is exceptional and we are hoping for at least a couple weeks of abundance. Flowering of most of our fruit bearing crops look really good right now as if these plants came to an agreement that is now safe to pour all of their energy into feeding all of us. Peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and cucumbers are all exploding with new flowers, optimistically showing their hand for the months to good eating to come.
Mushroom Shares
Mushroom shares start this week! Look for them when you come for your share…
Take Me to Your Leader…
The extraterestrial looking Kohlrabi make its first appearance this week. This will excite many of you that we have introduced/converted to this vegetable. Those of you who are new to it, get ready. Sweet and crisp it goes on everything! This of it like a large round carrot and slice, she or julien it onto everything.
Recipes…
Don’t forget about our recipe listing by ingredient on the website. Look in the right hand sidebar. This is a great place to get started with new produce or find a different way to enjoy old favorites.
Make Hay While the Sun Shines
We were able to cut 14 acres of hay this past week in-between the rain showers and deliver it to farms in Brunswick and Harpswell. This hay will feed local cows, sheep and horses on our 
neighbors farms. The first cut of hay fields starts a clock that moves slowly but surely towards the fall. We sell our first cut of hay so that we can cut these same fields later in the summer for our own animals. If we are lucky we can cut some of these fields 3 times and have plenty of forage for our sheep and over-wintered cows. If the fall comes early or September is filled with wet weather we can’t always cut what we need, leaving us in a pickle. This year the gamble is especially risky as we waited intentionally late so as to avoid having to make forage during blueberry season which will monopolize our time the last week of July and the first week of June…
What’s in the Share?
Strawberries
Kohlrabi
Chard/Kale
Lettuce
Beets
Endive/escarole