the CSA begins!

All the hustle and bustle of farm life and the start of the CSA has left me a bit delinquent in writing about everything we're doing. So much is happening I hardly know where to start.

First I think I'll start with the CSA. We doubled our small CSA from last year to a not so small, not too big CSA. So we have quite a few new members this year. Now that the CSA has started and Adam and I have met most of you I can say it's great to put faces to all of the people I've been having e-conversations with! With all of the correspondence and anticipation of the first day of shares it almost feels as though our first meeting is like a first date - and we have 19 more.

The weather has been mostly favorable. A bit warm at times for early spring, but as you know that hasn't stopped the salad greens from growing. We've been coming to the farmer's markets for the last three weeks heavily loaded down with delicious (I must say) and tender salad mix. I don't mean to brag - oh yes I do - but I really think we have some of the best salad mix around!

Things are growing wonderfully, we picked our first cucumber of the season Saturday afternoon and Adam, found and ate a sungold tomato. Telling you this is a bit of a tease though, both actually have a ways to go before they're producing enough for the markets and CSA.

This week it looks like it's going to be broccoli raab-o-rama. We have quite a bit of it ready for harvest. Here on the farm, we're having it for dinner tonight and tomorrow night and the next night.... you get the drift. It will be my muse this week. My inspiration for finding a new recipe. In case ya didn't know, Broccoli Rabe is known by several other names, those being, Rapini, Broccoletti, Broccoli di Rape, Cime di Rapa, Rappi, and Friarielli (in Naples), it's a common vegetable in Sicilian, Chinese, Italian, and Portuguese cuisine. Broccoli Rabe is a highly nutritious dark green vegetable with a slightly bitter, spicy taste. It's classified as a brassicca and is a distant relative of the turnip. It is believed to have originated in the Mediterranean and/or China.

The beehive is also worth a mention. I went into the hive about 2 weeks ago after Adam told me he thought he may have seen a swarm, but he wasn't positive. I did this because I needed find the queen. This will indicate weather or not they swarmed. When they leave the hive in a swarm the bees take the queen with them. With the bees left behind without a queen trouble for those bees may not be far behind. If they're a small and weak hive then it's possible that they could be wiped out by robber bees from another hive. These bees will fight their way into the weak hive and steal all of the honey, and as it turns out this hive had lots of honey. After going into the hive I discovered that sure enough, they did swarm. When a hive is going to swarm they'll start making a new queen. I looked and looked for a queen, but never found her. I pretty much knew I wouldn't find her, I did however find two queen cells and very few brood cells. This was the confirmation I needed, the swarm Adam saw was from this hive. The good thing I discovered is that they were working hard fashioning honey out of pollen - amazing! They had filled so much of the hive with honey that they ran out out space and were forced to leave. Bees don't like to be crowded. Boy, I've got to tell you, I was surprised to see so much honey so soon. I underestimated how quickly they wold fill up the frames in the boxes, so I added another box. This way they'll they have the space they need when the future queen gets to work making more brood. I went back into the hive today, it looked good. I didn't have time to look for the new queen or to see if they were even successful making one. I'm going to spend more time in the hive next Sunday, I'll keep you up date!

This week we'll be harvesting -
Salad mix, Head Lettuce, Garlic Scapes, Squash, Japanese Turnips or Purple Top Turnips, Broccoli Rabe, Mustard Greens, Arugula, Yukina Savoi (tatsoi) Spring Onions, Kale, Swiss chard

The CSA shares will be a combination of some of these vegetables.