A day at the CSA

I belong to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture for those of you not in the know) and one of the requirements for membership is to spend a work-day on the farm. So yesterday, my husband and I rolled out of bed to be on the road by 7:15, get to the farm by 8, and begin our work-day.

DH was in charge of getting directions to the farm. He did not write them down, so we got lost on the way there, natch. Maybe we’ll work on that one later.

Arrived at the farm, were greeted by their puppy who is in training to protect the plants from raccoons. Right now, he’s good at lying on top of the plants and protecting them from the farmer.

We started the day harvesting lettuce. The farmers handed out kitchen knives and reusable plastic crates and instructed us to cut off the head of lettuce, under the dirt, to get the whole head in one piece. 108 heads of lettuce later, we continued with Asian greens. We harvested thirty-some heads of bok choi and tat soi. Then a few of the group went to pick sorrel, while the rest of us went on to alliums. The farmer mentioned that they hadn’t had much luck with leeks this year. We took pitchforks and scissors (and more plastic crates) out to the leek patch, which had been planted about a year and a half ago. We dug up leeks, trimmed the leaves into an attractive fan shape, and loaded them into the bins. He was right about having bad luck – about every third leek was rotten. As leek trimmer, my job was to make the salvageable leeks look their best, trimming off yellow leaves at the base but making the most of the green ones. I can now empathize with hair stylists who cut hair for unattractive people, doing their best to accentuate the good features and chop off the flaws. Well, maybe not quite the same.

After the leeks, we dug green garlic, in a similar manner, and shared recipes as we worked. A great way to use leeks, green garlic, and walking onions (which I’ll get to later) is to cut off the green parts, toss them in a stock pot with a quart or two of water, boil for about 30 minutes to get a nice stock. Meanwhile, thinnly slice the white parts, and saute in olive oil or butter until tender. Strain the stock, compost the greens, and add the sauted whites to the stock. Serve the soup with a slice of cheese on top – if your bowls are oven proof, you can toast the cheese in the broiler.

We headed back to the barn where part of our group split off to wash the lettuce, Asian greens, leeks, garlic, and sorrel in a bathtub that was rigged up at waist level. The farmer said they wash the vegetables, not to remove dirt (that’s secondary) but to take out the heat from the field. The vegetables keep fresh longer if you submerse them in cold water immediately after they’re picked.

The rest of us went out to the walking onion patch. These walking onions, also known as Egyptian onions, were from the farmer’s mother’s neighbor’s yard, and this neighbor had them in her yard all the way back to the 1940’s so these may have even been first planted as part of a victory garden. We dug onions, cleaned them, bundled them, and packed them in the plastic crates. After picking the required amount of onions for that day’s shares, we continued to dig up the rest of the patch, and pack them in straw lined crates. The farmer said he was moving the rest of the onions to a new location, and the straw would keep the plants cool until he had them planted. He also said that anyone who wanted to take a few walking onions to plant in their yard was welcome to do so, so I now have a small patch of onions growing.

Done harvesting for the day, we went to another onion patch, this time sweet onions and walla walla onions, and did some weeding. The farmer passed around a bucket of weeding tools, which were some of the most basic tools you could think of, but worked amazingly well. We weeded both sides of two whole rows, probably 200 feet long, and then called it a day.

The benefit of all this back breaking work in the hot sun? Well, every week for the rest of the summer, we get to pick up a bag of fresh, organic vegetables, harvested by someone else working in the hot sun.

-- -Jerrica --Kansas City, MO --zone 5