Hello everyone and welcome to another bountiful farming season! Included today with your veggies are two more bits of information, one about our chickens, the other is the standard welcome letter. The most important thing the standard letter tells you is to please please please return your boxes so that we can re use them. Quite a few of you have developed a great habit of bringing your own bags and putting the veggies in them so that you don’t even take the boxes away.
We’re off to a great start with 140 CSA shares and room for more.
All of our crops are growing up so nicely in all three of our fields, I can’t wait to share them all with you. We just put cucumber plants in the ground and I’m already thinking about eating them even though I have to wait. It’s looking like a great year for cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers, so hot already. We put in more than the usual amount of those things and look forward to sharing lots of them with you.

Arugula is a very special green that tastes like black pepper and nuts and a little spicy. Most people like to put it in salads, or even make it the whole salad. Tossed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and topped with parmesan cheese, arugula makes a simple delicious dish. The same combination tossed with hot pasta is also good, and the wilting tones down the spice of the arugula some. You can substitute arugula, (or cilantro) in your favorite pesto sauce recipe; normally you would use basil. Arugula is great on a sandwich with goat cheese, the creamy chevre type, or any other type.

Cilantro is fresh and fragrant and transforms plain burritos into extra fancy burritos. It’s one of a kind flavor brightens up many other dishes as a finishing touch.




The first heads of lettuce from the field are small but dense. We started the seeds in the greenhouse February 14 and planted them outside in March, so they have been growing out in all that crazy springtime weather we had. We are lucky to have them at all, I say. We built a temporary deer fence just around the lettuce and carrot area of field two and it’s keeping the deer out very well but seems to have no effect on the tunneling little animals that go under everything. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.


One day we bought some blue cheese from Twin Oaks Dairy at the farmers market, and some bacon from Oakland Bay. We cooked the bacon until crispy, then broke it up into pieces. We broke up the cheese into pieces, too, and put all the bacon pieces and cheese pieces into a big bowl. Then we added a little yogurt, olive oil, salt, and pepper and mixed it up to make a rich, creamy dressing for green butterhead lettuce. I looked at a few recipes for blue cheese dressing and I didn’t have all the right ingredients, but I figured the bacon and the cheese were the most important things, and I didn’t miss whatever it was I didn’t have.

It can be fun to make up your own salad dressings, and adding raisins, apples, or nuts to salads can make them more fun, like a treasure hunt.

Radishes sliced and salted with lime juice is a great side dish for tacos, or just a snack. Some people may find radishes more palatable finely grated into salads.