In the Box and On the Farm

I love the sight of all those greens! Every week when my CSA box arrives, I plan on posting a picture and a list of the goodies that come inside and yet I have not had the time to stop and post. The unique thing about my CSA this year is the fact that I am receiving it by workshare. So this past Saturday I spent four hours down on the farm working the fields. Again, planning to post my activities, but time got away from me. So here goes. I think it's time to make Thursday's "In the Box and On the Farm" day. I will dedicate one day each week to all the activities involved in my CSA. So this week....
Red and Green Lettuce
Bagged mixed lettuce
Bagged spinach
Rainbow swiss chard
Salad Turnips (I love these!)
Fennel
Green onions

Saturday morning I woke up to beautiful weather. The sun shining and the temps. in the 70's. I could not have asked for better weather to start my first day working on the farm. I headed off to the farm to start work at 8am. Each week will be filled with different duties as needed, so on this day it was work in the fields. It was interesting to learn that the farmland there is actually split into several different small farms. With spring coming to a close, it was time to harvest the spring greens. We tackled the spinach beds first, Cutting along the ground line allows each individual leaf to be ready for washing and packaging. Then off to harvest the salad greens for bagging. Again, cutting along the ground line allows for a quick wash and bag. The nice thing about the salad beds was that cutting them this way will allow the plant to send up one more batch of lettuce for cutting. And to think all this time I just picked individual leaves. Then off to the radishes. Unfortunately, radishes are pretty touchy, and so most of them had already bolted. No more radishes in my CSA box to fall. I quick break and a shady spot for the harvested crops and then it was off to the hoop houses. There we harvested the full heads of lettuce. With a full truck load of produce we headed back to the farm to the washing station where we dropped everything to be washed. My field work was done and it was time to head on out. While I know that in the middle of summer when the sun is pounding or in the middle of a rainy day this may not prove to be so enjoyable, I did actually relish this time. There is nothing like the sound of birds and breeze. Working in the fresh air, listening to the nearby chickens and great conversation with like minded individuals was just what this momma needed. Learning the aspects of what it takes to run a farm is also rather interesting. Even though I only keep a small backyard garden, I'm sure some of the tips will carry over. It also made opening my CSA box this week all the more meaningful. When I opened my box I saw things that I had worked to harvest.