First Box Notes

Our first deliveries were this week and I was for the most part happy with what we came up with for all your boxes. I hope everyone found their boxes, if you had problems please call or e-mail me.

What to do with your empty box
Keep your box at your house (if you have space issues they actually break down quite nicely) and bring it with you next week when you come to pick up again. The co-ops will hold them for me and I’ll be reusing them. Please be nice to your boxes they each cost $1.58 and it is my hope that they will last us all season.

Arugula not up to snuff
I have to say that I’m pretty disappointed with the arugula, I had no idea flea beetles could be that hungry. Even though it does still have decent flavor, the texture is all wrong, probably due to the billions of holes eaten in the leaves. Usually I harvest arugula several times, but I’m going to till the rest of this batch down and we’ll take a shot at growing a fall crop of arugula. It is true that I could spray the plants, I do have organic pest spray, but I’m reluctant to spray salad greens since they are a little trickier to wash and even though it would be an organic spray, you’re still not suppose to eat it.

Unwashed
Speaking of washing, I will be rinsing your lettuce and other greens but I will not be washing much else. One reason for this is that many types of produce actually keep longer and retain their flavor better if they are left unwashed. A second reason is that I strive to pick your produce and get it to your drop-off spot as soon as possible and washing would take up quite a bit of time meaning your boxes would sit longer than I’d like them to.

Another word on comfrey
If you planted your comfrey plant and it wilted I can pretty much guarantee that it’s not going to die. I sold many, many comfrey plants at the farmers market last year and at the end of each market, I would dump any plants that didn’t get sold into the woods. Many times these plants would perk up and start growing for awhile until they realized that they were never actually planted and weren’t living in any dirt.

The drought
I’m sure you are wondering about the severe drought that is currently affecting the metro area. We are not as bad off as the Twin Cities. Our area has been classified as in a moderate drought. So even though I would love some rain, we are not in such a bad way yet. We did receive about ¼ of an inch of rain last week, Menomonie (a town about 25 miles from us) got an inch.