News from the Farm, June 13, 2000
The sad news from the farm this week is that our strawberry harvest will be low or nonexistent this year. We are even looking at cancelling the strawberry social.
This is hard news. All of us here at the farm heartily anticipate berry season. We know you do too, and are sorry to disappoint you with liitle or no berries and the cancelling of a party!
We covered our patch with remay ( a protective row cover) during the last few late frosts in May, but it got so cold that the flowers were damaged anyway. We anticipated some crop loss early on, but didn't realize the extent of the damage until last week. Jack and Rhys estimate we've lost about 85% of the fruit.
We try to convey to subscribers that there are no guarantees in the CSA program. Our best intentions were to give you berries this June, and fickle Nature has treated our plans with recklessness, and there's nothing we can do about it.
Being the bullheaded farmers that we are, however, we sure do keep trying! While we obviously cannot prevent a frost, hailstorm, or drought, we have worked very hard to mitigate the effects of these weatherings on our farm and customers.
For instance, our irrigation system provided us with valuable water this spring, when it was dry for two months. Had we not had it in place, we would have been devastated because our seeds wouldn't have germinated, and our transplants would have withered in the dust.
With your early investment in the farm, you literally saved the crops because we used your money to replace fittings on old irrigation and to buy new drip tape to reach more rows.
Our diverse crop plan also eases some of the frustrations and losses we experience throughout a season, or couple of years of farming. Our strawberries suffered this spring, but we still have raspberries to look forward to this fall. Last year our eggplants didn't make it, but we had weeks of gorgeous, tasty tomatoes.
As a CSA subscriber, you have agreed (hopefully not unwittingly) to share our unpredictable and pragmatical way of life by letting go of strawberries or eggplants and trusting that something else will be provided to tempt you.
As we work to provide you with those tempting items this season we thank you again for reorienting your way of eating away from the grocery store and toward the providence of the farm.
Keep your fingers crossed for a luscious crop of raspberries this fall, and enjoy your spring greens!---Jenni

This Week's Vegetables
Snap Peas: Last year we tried a different variety for the first time, Sugar Lode, and it was a poor substitute for our favorite: Welcome back, Sugar Ann! Snap peas can be eaten raw, lightly steamed, or stir-fried.

Mizuna--Here is what Johnna Albi and Catherine Walthers have to say about mizuna in their book, Greens Glorious Greens,

Mizuna is a Japanese green with a mild mustard taste. One of the most striking-looking salad greens, mizuna adds character as well as flavor to salads of all kinds. Use it in other vegetable or pasta salads, such as potato salad and sesame noodle salad, or as a base for grilled fish or chicken.

This week's mizuna is also ideal for cooking in a soup or a stir fry. You can try last week's recipe with mizuna or see the recipe below (also from Greens, Glorious Greens). It's ginger and sesame flavored again, but this time in a cold noodle salad. Storage: Keep mizuna in a plastic bag in the fridge.

Green Garlic: This is the last of the season. Enjoy, and look forward to heads in the fall!

Salad mix: this week's delivery contains a new crop of lettuce, tat soi, mizuna, and arugula. You'll see spinach again in the fall--it's a cool weather crop.

Radishes: Enjoy the last of this spring's Purple Plum and Easter Egg radishes. They're still snappy eating. You'll see radishes again in the fall.

Recipes
Sesame Pasta Salad with Mizuna


2 cups mizuna leaves, washed and stemmed
1carrot
1 red pepper [optional-out of season] cored and seeded
1/4 cups scallions, thinly sliced
1 8-oz package udon noodles
2 tablespoons light sesame oil
1 teaspoon fresh ginger juice (optional)
2 tablespoons tamari
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

Chop mizuna into pieces about 1 inch long. Shred carrot. Slice the scallions on a diagonal. Thinly slice red pepper.
Boil large pot of water and cook udon noodles according to package directions. Drain pasta and rinse under cold water until totally cooled. Drain again.
Place pasta in a large mixing bowl and toss with vegetables. Mix in oils, ginger juice, soy sauce, and sesame seeds.
Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve.

Two week forecast:
broccoli, beets, kohlrabi

Nothing happens in living nature that is not in relation to the whole
--Goethe

Who's Who in the Crew
Patty Zanski has been working with plants for about five years now. She started out by planting a garden in her backyard and working for a greenhouse and landscaping service in Northern Wisconsin.
Now Patty works for Featherstone three days a week and continues to improve her garden. She uses the biointensive system which relies on healthy, organic soil and close plant spacing to produce abundant crops. As Patty wrote to us when looking to work on a farm two years ago, "I am excited about this work and feel a calling to being in the dirt."
Patty's "dirty work" this year includes managing the small greenhouse where all of our transplants are started and attending Rochester market every other week. As the senior crew member, she often finds that new crew members look to her for answers about daily tasks on the farm. Patty says this is somewhat stressful because she feels pretty new at farming herself, but also says it's good for her because it pushes her in new directions.
We are very grateful for Patty's presence at Featherstone. She has given the farm a great deal in her time here. She and her partner, John, have just bought a house in LaCrosse, so she may not be farming on her own anytime soon. But if she decides to walk that path, she'll do a great job.