Weekly Update: August 26th

Friday Farm Stand

This Friday, August 26th, from 3pm until 7pm, we'll be open to the public. We'll have our full farmers' market offering setup at the entrance to our garden field. Any and all are welcome to stop by to get some fresh produce, take a look at the garden, and meet the team :).

Turkey's Grazing

Bok Choy

Bak Choy in the garden

For the first time this season this week's CSA shares will include Bok Choy. Bok Choy is a member of the brassicas and on our farm that means they're enjoyed by flea beetles as well as humans. We start the plants indoors and transplant them outside under insect netting after about 4 weeks. They spend another 4-5 weeks in the ground until they're ready for harvest.

Bok Choy can be eaten raw, incorporated it into salads, or used it in stir fry or pot cooking in general. When cooked the leaves wilt into a very deep and vibrant green. Bok Choy is high in Vitamin C, A, and K, and a respectable source of Calcium.

Storing Celery

This week's CSA shares will include celery. We harvest individual stalks from our celery plants to allow the plant to continue to grow more, allowing us to harvest more continually and over a longer period than if we took whole plants. We also keep the leaves on our celery bunches and encourage you to make use of them in stews, soups, and whatever else :).

Celery is quick to go limp but you can restore its crunchy firmness and keep it for much longer if you store it properly. First remove the greens and wash the celery. Place the stalks in a container of cold water (literally in the water) and put the container in the fridge. That's it!

Ongoing Food Drive

As you may know, each week we donate fresh produce to the Kawartha Lakes Food Source in Lindsay. They then distribute it to food banks all throughout the Kawartha Lakes.

The Food Source has reported that the volume of non-perishable donations they receive has fallen, while demand has risen. The type of donations most needed are non-perishable items that can be stored and distributed more flexibly than perishable items like fresh produce.

In an effort to help Food Source explore new donation sources, we are trialling an ongoing food drive. If you have the means and are interested, each week when you pick-up your share or receive your delivery, we'll be ready and happy to receive non-perishable items to deliver to the Food Source. We're already going there every week, so it will certainly save time and gas if we all coordinate.

Our communities don't suffer from the same type of food insecurity as some parts of the world, but there are still serious problems with lasting effects that we can make meaningful progress towards solving.

If you have any questions or comments about this effort, don't hesitate to reach out to us :).

Let us know how we're doing

If you ever have an issue, question, concern, or comment that you'd like to tell us about, our feedback form is available and anonymous :).

Follow the link below to share your feedback with us!

CSA Feedback

This Week's CSA Share

• Head Lettuce

• Pak Choy

• Beets

• Celery

• Yellow Onion

• Zucchini

• Cherry Tomatoes

• Garlic

• Sage

Food Bank Donations

So far this season we've donated nearly 2,000 pounds of fresh produce to our local food banks. Most of our donated produce goes to Kawartha Lakes Food Source, a fantastic charitable organization that distributes to many food banks within Kawartha Lakes.

A big thank you to all of our CSA customers who support our operation and make this possible!