CSA Newsletter, June 27, 2020

“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”

    - Margaret Atwood

Remember that sweet white doggie princess from last week's newsletter?

Greetings from the Farm Crew and Critters! It has been a good growing week on the farm, although a little more rain wouldn't hurt. See what y'all can do about that! (We got some on Friday - thanks!)

HERE IS THE BOX FOR THIS WEEK:

Green Bibb

LETTUCE X 2     You will get two heads from these varieties

Green Leaf

Red Leaf

Romaine

SCALLIONS - SPRING GREEN ONIONS

Bright onion flavor for salads and stir-fries

GARLIC SCAPES -  garlic-flavored greens for stir-fry, salad and soup

Harvesting these garlic seed-sprouts helps make bigger cloves

KALE - CURLY OR TUSCAN

Firm leaves for stir-fry, soups, kale chips!

Also called "dinosaur kale" 

CABBAGE - first tender cabbage harvest!

the lowly cabbage - so versatile and nutritious!

SNOW PEAS - edible pods popular in salads and Asian cuisine

A fleeting spring treat 

BULB FENNEL - unique anise-flavored flattened bulb

Popular in French and Italian cuisine

CILANTRO - an acquired taste or acquired addiction!

STORAGE SUGGESTIONS:

Everything will do best with a quick dunk, then drain, place in plastic or veggie-keeper bag, and store in fridge. 

RECIPE SUGGESTIONS:

This week we roasted the garlic scapes until almost charred and crispy - very tasty!

 We also enjoyed our first feast from neighbor Maan Abdul-Baki, who occasionally provides the crew with authentic Lebanese fare. You can find the recipe for Lebanese Lentil + Chard Soup on p. 60 of  the Frog Holler Recipe book and see the actual soup AND the soup-maker here:

Using cilantro, scallions and chard or kale!

I told him to smile! :-)

Bulb Fennel! Not familiar? Try this Shaved Fennel Citrus Salad with Orange Vinaigrette, and make a new friend!


NOTES FROM THE FARM: MEET INTERN MILAN!

Milan (pronounced like the city in Italy, not the town in Michigan!) Anderson is our only residential intern this year, joining us at an uncertain time in late April, but agreeably quarantining for her first two weeks so that she and we felt comfortable together.

Milan graduated from the University of Michigan, majoring in Applied Movement in the School of Kinesiology, with a Minor in Spanish.  She followed graduation with pre-med courses at Oakland University until taking a break and heading to some farms for a change of pace. After working at farms in the midwest, Milan taught science in two different Chicago schools. She continued her interest in growing and working with plants at an urban farming initiative in Chicago called Urban Canopy. After volunteering at farms in Puerto Rico this winter,  Milan returned to the area where she grew up (Detroit northern 'burbs) and looked for farm work relatively nearby. Enter Frog Holler!

Milan continues her interest in health and healing, but at present is exploring the healing aspects of  herbs and wild plants. At the farm she has been harvesting and preserving wild medicinal plants for eventual salves and tinctures. Milan's ongoing interest in herbalism has led to the launch this week of the Fresh-Picked Medicinal Herbs section of our Produce ordering web site! You can see it here: https://froghollerfarm.square.site/ (scroll down) and learn more about the traditional uses of these humble "wild plants" that grow so generously and offer so much.

Milan harvesting elder flowers

Thanks Milan for sharing your skills and interests!

Nature's wild bounty

Nature's garden bounty

Have a great week everyone and thanks for returning your boxes!

CSA Newsletter - June 20, 2020

Solstice greetings! What says summer like dogs and roses?

Cinder and Freya smelling the roses - and probably a lot of other things!

WHAT IS IN THIS WEEK'S BOX:

LETTUCE X 2 - you'll receive two heads from this beautiful patchwork quilt of lettuce

KALE - CURLY OR TUSCAN

Milan, Keegen and Edwin harvesting in the kale patch

RADISHES - NEW PATCH!

Keegen and Milan harvesting in the radish patch

We couldn't have photographers follow Keegen and Milan around all day :-) but, along with the rest of the crew, they also harvested:

SCALLIONS - SPRING ONIONS 

In salad and stir-fry. Use some of the tender green part as well

GARLIC SCAPES - twisty, curly bonus harvest from the garlic plants. Use in salad and stir-fry. Tender with mild garlic flavor.

Harvesting these "scapes" gives the garlic more energy to make nice cloves!

BROCCOLI - high in Vitamins C and K.

Spring broccoli is so tender!

ARUGULA - NEW PATCH! We have to share early arugula with the flea beetles, who are mighty little jumpers as they nibble from leaf to leaf, but they don't bother the plants that much and definitely don't affect the classic, nutty/peppery arugula flavor!

Arugula, sometimes called "Rocket" or "Roquette"

SWEET BASIL - Genovese variety 

What tastes like summer more than basil?

And finally, those of you who are getting your first share  - Frog Holler Farm Recipe Book!

RECIPES: At Frog Holler, we grow what we eat; we eat what we cook; we cook what we grow. Our little recipe book is chock full of original ideas for creating delicious plant-based meals - recipes that have evolved over years of growing, cooking and eating at the farm!. We also believe that recipes are "jumping off points", so be inspired to add your own creativity to these plant-iful ideas!

Recipe Book suggestions for cool salads in a hot week: Massaged Kale Salad, p.28 - using kale, of course, with add-ons and dressing of your choice.

Sesame "Snoodle" Noodles, p. 63 - using broccoli, scallions/scapes

At the farm this week we had Roasted Rad-nips, p.72. We also had Original Arugula Rice, p. 51and a simple rice salad with chopped garlic scapes, chopped scallions, sliced radishes, and a bit of chopped basil. A vinaigrette dressing finished off a satisfying simple salad supper!

STORING YOUR PRODUCE: Most of your veggies keep best in a plastic bag in the fridge, with these exceptions: Radishes keep best with the greens removed, and then put in a plastic bag. What to do with the greens? Lots of possibilities (besides compost) and the greens, as in most root vegetables, are tons more nutritious than the roots themselves! Store the radish greens as you would other greens.

Basil does not like to be refrigerated; it shows that by the leaves turning brown or black. We pick basil Friday afternoon, then dip it, pack it in a box, and store covered wth a wet cloth overnight, out of the cooler. At home, try putting your bunch, stems down, in a glass of water out of the fridge. Bet you'll use it up before you have to think about long-term storage!

NOTES FROM THE FARM: WEEDING!

Keegan, Cale, Ashleh, Milan weeding in the onion patch

Some wag once said, "Plant a garden with your spouse, weed a garden by yourself." Well, our farm crew did not have to weed alone, and with good humor they took on a rather daunting task in the onion patch. You can see what they were facing in the foreground of the photo, and what they had accomplished behind them. 

We realize that ... a weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows! (Doug Larson) We do keep lots of land where the wild plants can grow unfettered and contribute to the ecosystem in their unique and varied ways, but onions like rows and those weeds must go! 

Onions do require a full season of growing before they yield those beautiful pungent storage globes, so truth be told, we just may be revisiting this task during the season. One author (Richard Powers) described a character in a story who was "...as eager and generous as weeds." We appreciate our "eager and generous" weeding crew who give us their time and energy to bring the harvest home. Watch for onions in your share boxes come September.

Have a great week everyone!

Frog Holler Farm CSA - Share #1!

Crew member Keegan with beautiful head of Red Leaf Lettuce

Introducing our first share of the 2020 season - ta dah! It seems like it was a long strange winter but Mother Nature knew what she was doing and brought us our spring greens when the time was right.

What's in the box:

LETTUCE X 2 - Red Leaf and Green Bibb

Green Bibb - Red Leaf above

SCALLIONS - spring green onions

GARLIC SCAPES - Thin, curly, vibrantly green stalks with a mild and sweet flavor all the way through. The garlic counterpart to scallions. Chop fresh into salads, or roast or stir-fry.

RADISHES - red outside, white/pink inside

SWISS CHARD - we grow "Rainbow Chard", beautiful jewel-tone stems and veins

KOHLRABI - a crisp and tender spring root crop. Use fresh as a "dipper", roasted or in stir-fry.

ARUGULA/CHIVES Flavor Booster Bunch - nutty/peppery arugula plus garlic chives

RECIPES FROM THE HOLLER! - each member gets a copy of the Frog Holler recipe book, full of farm and festival favorites. Let this be a helpful resource as you cook from your share box this summer!

Here are some suggestions from Recipes from the Holler for this week's share:

Roasted Rad-Nips, p. 72 - Radishes are not just for slicing into salad!

Radical Radish Sandwich, p. 45 - Radishes are also for slicing into a sandwich!

Original Arugula Rice, p.51 - AND Arugula is not just for chopping into salad!

Frog Holler Salad Mix, p. 25 - you have some of the fixings for our famed salad mix: two different varieties of lettuce, Rainbow Chard, and the Flavor Booster bunch.

FROG HOLLER FARM - a little history
This is an excerpt from our first CSA newsletter of 2010. Although it was ten years ago, the history of the farm - and the beauty of the pond - remain the same. However, in light of the present urgency for justice for all and the increasing uncertainty for the health of our planet, we remain ever more dedicated to the ideals and inclusiveness that the former stewards of the land lived by and inspired in us and many others. 

Our farm pond - the heart of the Holler!

Drive 45 minutes west and slightly south of Ann Arbor and you will find yourself among many lakes and gently rolling hills – an area of southeast Michigan dubbed the “Irish Hills”. There you will also find Frog Holler Farm, with 120 acres of those rolling hills, along with many wooded sections and a large pond at the center. It’s a pretty piece of land.

From the 1940’s to 1972, the land was owned by Dr. Robert and Cora Lees Gesell. Dr. Gesell was a professor of physiology and Chairman of the Physiology Dept. at U-M Medical School in the 40’s and 50’s. Mrs.Gesell was an ardent conservationist and when she decided to sell Frog Holler after the death of Dr. Gesell, asked that the new owners continue to care for the land and animals and to “forever call the land Frog Holler”. This was the Gesells’ pet name for the land, no doubt inspired by the frog chorus that emanates from the “hollers” between the hills (or perhaps by the frogs that holler!).

Dr. Gesell shocked his colleagues in 1952 when he delivered a paper calling for the humane treatment of animals in laboratories and the cessation of vivisection in the name of scientific research. He also enlisted his daughter, Christine Stevens, to “do something for the plight of animals in laboratories”. Christine did more than “something”; she was known as the “Mother of the Animal Protection Movement” and was instrumental in passage of the

Christine Stevens at the Ann Arbor Humane Society in the early '50s

Animal Welfare Act, The Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Humane Slaughter Act, the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act and the Wild Bird Conservation Act. Christine, who passed away in 2002, was also founder of the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and the Society for Animal Protective Legislation (SAPL).

Although we never met any of these extraordinary individuals, we continue to draw inspiration from their dedication to fairness and justice for the land and all its inhabitants.

By gardening organically, we do our best to respect the land and the complex interweaving of plants, insects, birds, animals and people that creates a healthy ecosystem. And of course we call the land Frog Holler!


Thanks everyone - enjoy your veggies!