Well here we are – halfway through the CSA season! It was, as expected, a challenging start to the season as new parents, but I think it went better than we feared it might, so that’s pretty sweet. The garden is definitely wilder and weedier and less productive than last year, but there haven’t been any outright disasters, and really it’s been kind of fun learning to work around our new limitations and challenges.

This week saw a changing of the guard among our helpers – Jeff and Madeline moved on (yet may still return, it seems!), and three new gals joined us – Michigan Emily, Lacrosse Mercedes, and Maine Tristan.

They have been enjoying foraging for the wild berries that we make into preserves to sell at market, helping clean out the chicken coop, shoveling compost piles from place to place, and of course killing potato beetles and picking produce.

In rodent news, we discovered that the feared rat infestation beneath the chicken yard was just moles after all, which was great news. The bear hunters are rolling past with their truckloads of baying hounds. We did a whole bunch of foraging, and sold the fruits of our labors at the St Croix Falls Farmer’s Market pretty successfully, in spite of the steady Saturday rain. We actually got two inches of much-needed rain on Wednesday in an epic night of lightning and hail and wind and general weather awesomeness.

It was a good week. Life is interesting, fulfilling, and fun …. here’s hoping we all appreciate our many lucky blessings in these days to come!

the Week 9 Box

• Zucchini
• Cucumbers
• Eggplant
• Broccoli & Baby Broccoli 
• Beans
• New Potatoes (Yukon Gold, Norland Red, & All Blue) –  thin skins on these babies, so eat em up soon!

• Tomatoes –  untold variety of varieties!
• Peppers (green pepper & jalapeño)
• Basil
• Shallots –  much smaller than last year although we grew the sam variety – the power of having the weeds under tight control last year was impressive!