BGF News - July 9, 2019-Vol. XLII, No.6

BGF News - July 9, 2019-Vol. XLII, No.6

In this week’s box:

Beets: Ace (red), Chioggia (red/white striped) and/or Golden (yellow)
Chard:Bright Lights

Cucumbers: Lemon (round, yellow), Marketmore (English-type) or Suyo Long (long, Asian)
Lettuce: Kiribati (light green) & Cantarix (red oakleaf) or Magenta (burgundy/green summercrisp)

Purslane

Scallions

Summer Squash: 8 Ball (green,round), Golden Glory (bright yellow zucchini),  Patty Pan (scalloped white, green or yellow), Slik Pik (thin, yellow) or Zephyr (green & yellow)

and perhaps one of the following: (please see **NOTE  after "A Little Detail..." below)     

Eggplant: Orient Express (dark purple) and/or Orient Charm( neon lavender)
Okra: Bowling Red (dark red) and Candle Fire (light red)
Snow Peas: Oregon Giant

For those with the Egg option [Full shares only]: one dozen free-range eggs (asst. colors)

For those with the Herb option: Sweet basil, anise hyssop & lovage

Purslane

Featured Recipes:  ** indicates a BGF favorite 

Purslane Salad**

Roasted Parmesan Garlic Zucchini Spears

Roasted Baby Beet Salad

Grilled Swiss Chard and Mozzarella Bundles**
Grilled Greens

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 0.25"

Happy 2nd week of July! We hope you had a festive 4th with good food, friends and family.

Suyo Long cucumbers

We spent most of the past week cultivating. At this point, every crop on the farm (except the indigo, the plant, not the dog) has had at least one session with a hoe or cultivator. This has been a huge task and it isn't done, it never is during the growing season. We're finally ready to lay down some straw mulch in the solanum crops (tomatoes, peppers & eggplant) to help maintain even soil moisture and control additional weeds. We also got another succession of beets and beans sown and the beans are already germinating thanks to the warmth and a bit of rain. At the same time we went through all our winter squash beds and resowed seed wherever there were missing plants. While the squash is behind it's normal growth for this time of year, due to the delayed planting, it is looking really good. We're hoping for a good harvest of a variety of squashes and pumpkins this fall.
Speaking of delayed crops, nearly everything continues to be 2-3 weeks behind in the gardens, but they are coming along. The first of the eggplant is headed into boxes this week as is the first okra. We also sampled the first three ripe cherry tomatoes, delicious! It will take a bit for everyone to see these as they come on slowly to start, but we anticipate everyone getting the chance to enjoy them soon. 

A little detail on your produce this week:

Beets- Cut off greens, leaving an inch of stem. Refrigerate the unwashed greens in a closed plastic bag and use with your chard mix as beets and chard are closely related. Store the beet roots, unwashed, with the rootlets (or “tails”) attached, in a plastic bag in the crisper bin of your refrigerator. They will keep for several weeks, but their sweetness diminishes with time. Just before cooking, scrub beets well and remove any scraggly leaves and rootlets. If your recipe calls for raw beets, peel them with a knife or vegetable peeler, then grate or cut according to your needs baby/young beets usually don't need to be peeled.

Cucumber: Store unwashed cucumbers in a sealed plastic bag in the vegetable crisper bin for about a week. Keep cucumbers tucked far away from tomatoes, apples, and citrus—these give off ethylene gas that accelerates cucumber deterioration. You can do a lot of fancy things to the skin of a cucumber, but when it is young, fresh (and unwaxed), it really only needs to be thoroughly washed. However, if the skin seems tough or bitter you can remove it; if the seeds are bulky, slice the cucumber lengthwise and scoop them out.

Eggplant: Eggplant prefers to be kept at about 50° F, which is warmer than most refrigerators and cooler than most kitchen counters. Wrap unwashed eggplant in a towel (not in plastic) to absorb any moisture and keep it in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator. Used within a week, it should still be fresh and mild.  The shape of an eggplant determines how it is best prepared. Slice a straight, narrow eggplant into rounds for grilling or broiling, and cut a rounded, bulbous eggplant into cubes for stews and stir-fries.

Head Lettuce: We prefer to store heads wrapped in a cotton or linen dish towel, then placed in a plastic bag. This helps maintain a little bit of moisture, while keeping the leaves from touching the plastic to extend their "drawer-life".  Wash lettuce just before using. The inner-most leaves of the head are the sweetest, so save those for salad use and take advantage of the bigger, outside leaves for use on sandwiches or wraps.

Herbs (other than basil): Most herbs keep best in a glass of water in the refrigerator, loosely covered with a plastic bag. You can keep them in a glass or base on your kitchen counter for a couple of days if you change the water daily.

Okra: These lovely, dark red, horn-shaped vegetables are a warm weather treat. Extremely cold sensitive, store in their plastic bag in the warmest part of your fridge, or place the plastic bag in a small paper sack and store in the crisper drawer and use within the week. Traditional southerners will cut into rounds, bread in cornmeal and fry, but our favorite version is our dear friend Annie's method, "All I do is rinse off the pods and lay them in a saucepan with a little water in the bottom. Ten to fifteen minutes is all it takes...twenty if the pods are really big and "woody" feeling. I put salt on them and eat as finger food. It reminds me of young sweet corn."

Peas are best kept in a plastic bag or glass container in your refrigerator. Use within a week.  They are delicious raw on salads or in stir-fries.

Purslane: Considered an invasive weed in many gardens, purslane is a valued green in many parts of the world. The plant is rich in vitamin E, vitamin C and beta carotene, and quite high in protein.  Most noteworthy of all, it is considered a better source of essential omega-3 fatty acids than any other leafy plant.  Enjoy raw or cooked in any recipe calling for greens.   We particularly like it in salads, cooked with eggs and as a lettuce replacement in tacos. Store in a paper towel-lined plastic bag in your crisper drawer and use within a week.

Scallions (green onions)- are best kept upright in a glass with about 1" of water in it, more like flowers than vegetables. Loosely cover the tops with plastic and you will be amazed at how long they will keep. We like to throw a handful of chopped scallions into nearly any savory dish, right near the end of the cooking time.

Summer Squash/Zucchini: Refrigerate unwashed zucchini and summer squash for up to a week and a half in a perforated plastic bag or in a sealed plastic container lined with a kitchen towel. These do not need to be peeled to use, just slice them up and go!

A few other details: All of your GREENS will keep best if stored in a plastic bag, with the top folded over and placed in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.  

** NOTE: You will notice over the course of the season that some box contents listed above say "Perhaps one of the following..."  These are items that we can’t harvest in sufficient quantities for the whole CSA to receive at one time.  We do track who gets what and we will do our best to ensure that everyone eventually receives each item.  On some items this may take several weeks, so please be patient.

Is a weekly newsletter not enough for you and you want to read more about our daily adventures or see pictures of the farm?  Follow us on Facebook at Blue Gate Farm and/or share your recipes, experiences and questions with other BGF members at Blue Gate Farm Community.

That’s about it this week, if you have any questions or comments be sure to let us know. 

Best from the farm,

Jill & Sean (and Luci, Indigo & Sky)

BGF News - July 2, 2019-Vol. XLII, No.5

BGF News - July 2, 2019-Vol. XLII, No.5

In this week’s box:

Basil tips: Genovese, Thai Magic, and/or Lettuce Leaf

Choi or mustard mix (green & purple leaves)
Garlic Scapes

Gooseberries (round, green berries)
Kale: asst. varieties

Lettuce: assorted heads

Summer Squash: 8 Ball (green,round), Golden Glory (bright yellow zucchini),  Slik Pik (thin, yellow) or Zephyr (green & yellow)

and perhaps one of the following: (please see **NOTE  after "A Little Detail..." below)     

Cucumbers: Lemon (round, yellow), Marketmore (English-type) or Suyo Long (long, Asian)

Snow Peas: Oregon Giant

For those with the Egg option [Full and Half shares]: one dozen free-range eggs (asst. colors)

For those with the Herb option: chocolate mint, savory & lemon basil

Featured Recipes:  ** indicates a BGF favorite 

Basil Butter

Flawless Kale Chips

What To Do with Gooseberries

Mom's Gooseberry Pie ** (see below)

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 0.35"

Installing shade cloth

The summer-like temperatures were the big news on the farm this past week. We had just been rolling along happily with our moderate temps and then BAM! Suddenly it was July in all it's glory. The sudden turn to heat pushed us to get the shade cloth installed on the big high tunnel. It's a bit of an undertaking as the fabric is 96' x 30' and has to be laced onto the tunnel. But once done, you could almost hear the crops in the tunnel (and the crew) breath a sigh of relief. It can easily lower the temperatures in the high tunnel by 10° on a sunny day, which everyone appreciates, plants and humans alike. Speaking of the tunnels, the crops there are coming along nicely and you will start to see a couple of them in your boxes this week. We've started harvesting the first of the cucumbers from the big tunnel and the basil from the small one (and the field). The basil is a bit unusual this week as it is the trimmings created when we pinch back the plants to encourage more growth. So today you get a little bag of short sprigs just to whet your pallet for much more basil to come!

The heat also instigated a minor emergency this weekend when (we suspect) it hastened the wheezing death of the air conditioner that runs our walk-in cooler. Luckily we noticed it struggling and were able to remedy the situation early Sunday before there were any food losses, but it certainly caused some elevated blood pressure until then.

Much of the past week was focused on cultivating. We finished hand weeding all the onion crops and started hoeing the tomatoes. The conditions were finally right for some mechanical cultivation, so the walking tractors were tuned up (thanks, Dad!) and in one evening the cultivating was completed on the winter squash, popcorn, field peppers, zinnias and sunflowers.  there's still more to do (there's always more to do) but this took a big bite out of the weeding list! We also got the south irrigation system up and running and even found a few minutes, and an empty bed to plant a few ornamentals. 

Gooseberries!

One task we've been working on over the past couple of weeks has been harvesting gooseberries. For those not familiar with this Iowa native fruit, it is a (very) thorny, woody shrub that grows mostly in the timber. It produces round berries that are very sour when green and slightly less sour when red (fully ripe). Americans seem to prefer the green stage while Europeans (where they are more well known) prefer them red. While our family has traditionally wild harvested these fruits for pies and jam-making. We also have a small domestic patch to supplement our stock. This year the domestic plants went above and beyond. They are so heavily loaded with berries that the branches are weighted down to the ground or simply snapping under the weight. To try and lighten the load, whenever the crew has a few extra minutes we harvest gooseberries. This is a relatively slow and somewhat painful process as it is impossible to avoid all those thorns, but it is a tradition and one that we honestly enjoy. This year for the first time, we have enough gooseberry bounty to share with the CSA! Our family tradition is gooseberry pie topped with vanilla ice cream, but jam, cobbler, crumbles and sauces (savory & sweet) are also great ways to enjoy gooseberries.

Just a reminder, you can request a 12pk of  recycled, regular size canning jar lids . They have been washed and are ready for reuse in your fridge, pantry or craft room. 

A little detail on your produce this week:

Basil hates the cold and will turn black with exposure. Keep long stemmed basil in a glass/vase of water on your counter top (out of direct sunlight). Stems that are too short (trimmings/tops) should be placed in a plastic bag, with a dry paper towel. Then put inside of a paper bag (for insulation) and put in the warmest part of your refrigerator (usually the door) or on the top shelf towards the front.

Choi (a.k.a. - pac choi, bok choy or pok choy) is the large, structural-looking vegetable.  It is a member of the cabbage family and is a traditional Asian stir-fry vegetable.  Both the stems and leaves of choi can be used and are especially tasty in cooked recipes.  If cooking them, separate the leaves and stems, and begin cooking stems first to avoid overcooking the more tender greens. You can also use the leaves like any green-leafy vegetable and the stems like celery.  We tend to use choi leaves as a sandwich wrap, or just roughly chop the whole thing and sauté with garlic and/or onion. Cook until stems are tender and dress with a little seasoned rice vinegar. Store choi loosely wrapped in a plastic bag in your produce drawer.

Cucumber: Store unwashed cucumbers in a sealed plastic bag in the vegetable crisper bin for about a week. Keep cucumbers tucked far away from tomatoes, apples, and citrus—these give off ethylene gas that accelerates cucumber deterioration. You can do a lot of fancy things to the skin of a cucumber, but when it is young, fresh (and unwaxed), it really only needs to be thoroughly washed. However, if the skin seems tough or bitter you can remove it; if the seeds are bulky, slice the cucumber lengthwise and scoop them out.

Garlic Scapes: One of our favorite crops of the year. These curly green things are the emerging flower stalk from a hardneck garlic plant. We remove them to redirect more of the plant's energy into the bulb, but it also provides us with a delightful fresh garlic treat. These keep very well in a plastic bag in your produce drawer and can be used in any recipe calling for garlic. They would be perfect in last week's garlic salt recipe, make a great pesto and can be minced and added to room-temperature butter, which is then stored in log shape, in the freezer for a last minute dollop of goodness for vegetables, breads or meat.

Gooseberries:

 Do not wash gooseberries until ready to eat, as excess moisture during storage will hasten decay. To store, place in a covered container and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks. Berries will continue to ripen & turn pink in storage. To use, you need to "Top & Tail" each berry, removing the stem and brown blossom end. If you aren't ready to use them yet, they freeze beautifully,  (1) Wash berries carefully in cold water, pat dry and place in a single layer on cookie tray in freezer; (2) Once berries are frozen, transfer to airtight containers or heavy-duty freezer bags and return to freezer.

Head Lettuce: We prefer to store heads wrapped in a cotton or linen dish towel, then placed in a plastic bag. This helps maintain a little bit of moisture, while keeping the leaves from touching the plastic to extend their "drawer-life".  Wash lettuce just before using. The inner-most leaves of the head are the sweetest, so save those for salad use and take advantage of the bigger, outside leaves for use on sandwiches or wraps.

Herbs (other than basil): Most herbs keep best in a glass of water in the refrigerator, loosely covered with a plastic bag. You can keep them in a glass or base on your kitchen counter for a couple of days if you change the water daily.

Peas are best kept in a plastic bag or glass container in your refrigerator. Use within a week.  They are delicious raw on salads or in stir-fries.

Summer Squash/Zucchini: Refrigerate unwashed zucchini and summer squash for up to a week and a half in a perforated plastic bag or in a sealed plastic container lined with a kitchen towel. These do not need to be peeled to use, just slice them up and go!

A few other details: All of your GREENS will keep best if stored in a plastic bag, with the top folded over and placed in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.  

** NOTE: You will notice over the course of the season that some box contents listed above say "Perhaps one of the following..."  These are items that we can’t harvest in sufficient quantities for the whole CSA to receive at one time.  We do track who gets what and we will do our best to ensure that everyone eventually receives each item.  On some items this may take several weeks, so please be patient.

Is a weekly newsletter not enough for you and you want to read more about our daily adventures or see pictures of the farm?  Follow us on Facebook at Blue Gate Farm and/or share your recipes, experiences and questions with other BGF members at Blue Gate Farm Community.

That’s about it this week, if you have any questions or comments be sure to let us know. 

Best from the farm,

Jill & Sean (and Luci, Indigo & Sky)

  Mom’s Gooseberry Pie

3 cups fresh gooseberries

2 cups white sugar

3 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie

2 tablespoons milk

1 1/2 tablespoons white sugar

1.         Stem and rinse berries.

2.         Crush 1/2 cup berries in the bottom of a saucepan. Combine sugar, tapioca, and salt; mix with crushed berries. Cook and stir until mixture boils. Cook for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat, and add in remaining whole berries.

3.         Pour fruit filling into pastry. Adjust top crust , cut slits for escape of steam. Brush with milk and sugar.

4.         Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 35 minutes.

BGF News - June 25, 2019-Vol. XLII, No.4

BGF News - June 25, 2019-Vol. XLII, No.4

In this week’s box:

Amaranth: bunched greens with bright green leaves, remove stems to use.
Chard: Bright Lights mix
Green Garlic

Kale: asst. varieties

Lettuce: bouquet or assorted heads

Oregano

Spring Turnips: Hakurei

and perhaps one of the following: (please see **NOTE  after "A Little Detail..." below)     

Snow Peas: Oregon Giant

For those with the Egg option [Full shares only]: one dozen free-range eggs (asst. colors)

For those with the Herb option: Herb share will begin next week

Featured Recipes:  ** indicates a BGF favorite 

Braised Turnips and Greens **

Green Garlic Salt **

Beans and Greens **

Garlic Oregano Butter

What’s up on the farm?

Baby spaghetti squash

Precipitation in the past week: 3.05"

We finally got our rain! Rather a lot of rain, but not so much as some other places so we aren't complaining and the crops and farmers are much relieved! All of the crops we listed as newly seeded last week are now germinating including the first few shoots in our "try-it-again" potato bed.

newly germinated pole bean

We also added some new plantings including more tomatoes in the high tunnels and new transplant sowings of New Zealand spinach, head lettuce and fall cabbages and fennel. We aren't dry enough to do any cultivating yet this week, but we did start hand weeding the shallots, leeks and onion crops that were getting buried in lush green grasses.

Hakurei turnips

You will notice a bounty of greens in your boxes this week, along with our favorite spring turnips. If you haven't enjoyed turnips in the past, we hope you will at least give these a try before giving them away to the neighbors. These aren't your grandma's turnips, which tended to be big and strong-flavored. These are Japanese salad turnips, developed to be enjoyed raw, though they work perfectly in cooked dishes as well. We like them straight out of the field, eaten like an apple.

We promise that there are more crops coming besides greens! It looks likely that the very first summer squashes and cucumbers may be ready next week. They will likely start with a trickle, but we hope to be sending out good, heavy boxes soon! 

Just a reminder, you can request a 12pk of  recycled, regular size canning jar lids . They have been washed and are ready for reuse in your fridge, pantry or craft room. 

A little detail on your produce this week:

Green Garlic: This is freshly harvested garlic that hasn't had time to cure yet. You will notice that the wrappers are soft and the garlic itself is very juicy. You can use it in any recipe calling for garlic. The flavor is so fresh and green that we like to use them in recipes that really highlight the flavor, like pesto or garlic butter.Store loosely wrapped in the refrigerator for best keeping quality.

Head Lettuce

: We prefer to store heads wrapped in a cotton or linen dish towel, then placed in a plastic bag. This helps maintain a little bit of moisture, while keeping the leaves from touching the plastic to extend their "drawer-life".  Wash lettuce just before using. The inner-most leaves of the head are the sweetest, so save those for salad use and take advantage of the bigger, outside leaves for use on sandwiches or wraps.

Peas are best kept in a plastic bag or glass container in your refrigerator. Use within a week.  They are delicious raw on salads or in stir-fries.

Oregano:

Like most other fresh herbs (except basil), oregano keeps best stored upright in a glass of water (keep leaves out of water), loosely covered with a plastic bag in the refrigerator.

Turnips: keep best if separated from their greens.  Greens are stored in a plastic bag and can be cooked like mustard or collard greens (you can add them in with your Braising Greens Mix).  Trimmed roots can go into a lidded container or zip-close bag. These aren't your grandma's turnips. These are a sweet, Japanese salad variety that is particularly tasty for fresh eating. They will still work great in cooked dishes, but we love to eat them raw, often right out of hand, like an apple. One of the farm crew's favorite mid-field snacks.

A few other details: All of your GREENS will keep best if stored in a plastic bag, with the top folded over and placed in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.  

** NOTE: You will notice over the course of the season that some box contents listed above say "Perhaps one of the following..."  These are items that we can’t harvest in sufficient quantities for the whole CSA to receive at one time.  We do track who gets what and we will do our best to ensure that everyone eventually receives each item.  On some items this may take several weeks, so please be patient.

Is a weekly newsletter not enough for you and you want to read more about our daily adventures or see pictures of the farm?  Follow us on Facebook at Blue Gate Farm and/or share your recipes, experiences and questions with other BGF members at Blue Gate Farm Community.

That’s about it this week, if you have any questions or comments be sure to let us know. 

Best from the farm,

Jill & Sean (and Luci, Indigo & Sky)

BGF News - June 18, 2019-Vol. XLII, No.3

BGF News - June 18, 2019-Vol. XLII, No.3

In this week’s box:

Baby Choi: Joi & Shanghai Green
Garlic Scapes (curly green bundles)

Kale: assorted

Lettuce Bouquet: asst baby lettuces

Mountain Mint (small bundle of smooth, green leaves with firm stems)

Strawberries 

and perhaps one of the following: (please see **NOTE  after "A Little Detail..." below)     

Asparagus, the final hurrah!
Snow Peas: Oregon Giant

For those with the Egg option [Full and Half shares]: one dozen free-range eggs (asst. colors)

For those with the Herb option: Herb share will begin in a couple of weeks as herbs mature

Featured Recipes:  ** indicates a BGF favorite 

Minted Simple Syrup

Strawberries with Lemon and Mint

Simple Baby Bok Choy and Snow Peas

Kale with Bacon, White Beans and Garlic Scapes

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 12 drops

There was a lot of rain around the state in the past week. Unfortunately, all we saw at the farm was a very brief sprinkle. While this did give us more opportunity to catch up on our seed sowing, transplanting and cultivating, the crops could sure use a deep drink of water. But since the universe presented us with dry conditions, we took advantage of it. We got the herb bed prepped as well as the new rosemary bed and all the herbs are tucked into their new homes. We transplanted the melons and the last of the field peppers and sowed winter squash and popcorn. We also decided to hedge our bets a bit on the potatoes and planted one more bed with the remaining potatoes we had in storage. While they will be late season potatoes, we hope they will yield well. We have spent a significant amount of time recently in the original potato plot trying to give any potatoes that germinated a fighting chance. The wet conditions that kept us from cultivating earlier were great for germinating weed and grass see in those beds, so it was a real challenge (literally crawling on hands and knees) scouting out the tiny potato plants and hand weeding around them so we could come back and hoe the beds without fear of hitting them. We are nearly through the beds, and continue to find more potato plants alive than we first thought. It will still be a smaller harvest than we planned, but hopefully it will be better than we feared.

We did have a very disappointing discovery late last week. After spending hours transplanting hundreds of very nice cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower, the deer discovered them and overnight ate or destroyed about 90% of them. We are just sick at the amount of lost time and product and having dreams of venison sausage. We do have broccoli and cauliflower in another location that they didn't find, so those should be fine, but they ate pretty much every cabbage on the farm. We are scheduled to start sowing seeds for fall cabbage this week, so there should be heads during the later season deliveries, but it will be a couple of months away. This is a new crop for the deer to bother, so we will have to go to greater efforts to exclude them from the east plot where the cole crops seem to grow the best (in the absence of deer.)

We harvested the final asparagus for the 2019 season this week, even though we thought we had done that last week. We know the boxes are a little thin so we wanted to send out everything we possibly could, including one last sweet celebration of strawberries! So what is coming next? The snow peas are just kitting their stride, so we will continue to send those out. The spring turnips are sizing up and we anticipate those being harvest-able in the next couple of weeks. Baby beets are likely to follow after that. We have lots of beautiful lettuces, kale and chard coming along and the zucchini, summer squash and cucumber plants are all blooming and preparing to fruit as are many of the pepper plants. We have a couple of  nice beds of carrots that are probably 3-4 weeks from harvest and some new greens that we are anxious to introduce to you. So lots of fun things to come!

Just a reminder, you can request a 12pk of  recycled, regular size canning jar lids . They have been washed and are ready for reuse in your fridge, pantry or craft room. 

A little detail on your produce this week:

Asparagus: Keeps best stored upright in a glass with about 1" of water, in the refrigerator. Delicious raw or cooked. 

Garlic Scapes: One of our favorite crops of the year. These curly green things are the emerging flower stalk from a hardneck garlic plant. We remove them to redirect more of the plant's energy into the bulb, but it also provides us with a delightful fresh garlic treat. These keep very well in a plastic bag in your produce drawer and can be used in any recipe calling for garlic. They would be perfect in last week's garlic salt recipe, make a great pesto and can be minced and added to room-temperature butter, which is then stored in log shape, in the freezer for a last minute dollop of goodness for vegetables, breads or meat.

Mountain Mint: not a true member of the mint family, Mountain mint has a softer mint flavor and can be used in any recipe calling for mint. We like it in mint syrup and in fruit salsas or as a refreshing iced tea. Store upright in a glass of water, loosely covered in the refrigerator.

Peas

are best kept in a plastic bag or glass container in your refrigerator. Use within a week.

Strawberries keep best in your refrigerator in a vented container. Use within 3-4 days.

A few other details: All of your GREENS will keep best if stored in a plastic bag, with the top folded over and placed in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.  

** NOTE: You will notice over the course of the season that some box contents listed above say "Perhaps one of the following..."  These are items that we can’t harvest in sufficient quantities for the whole CSA to receive at one time.  We do track who gets what and we will do our best to ensure that everyone eventually receives each item.  On some items this may take several weeks, so please be patient.

Is a weekly newsletter not enough for you and you want to read more about our daily adventures or see pictures of the farm?  Follow us on Facebook at Blue Gate Farm and/or share your recipes, experiences and questions with other BGF members at Blue Gate Farm Community.

That’s about it this week, if you have any questions or comments be sure to let us know. 

Best from the farm,

Jill & Sean (and Luci, Indigo & Sky)