Share #4 June 30th & July 2nd

Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Spinach, Kale, Pea Shoots, Turnips, Thyme and Garlic Curls

The first order of business this week is a moment of incredible gratitude for our crew and volunteers on Monday. It was cold and wet. The "feels like temperature" was 30 degrees. They spent the entire morning (4.5 hours!) in the mud, on their knees harvesting greens. It kept raining. Moving in heavy rain gear takes so much more energy. Did I mention it was cold?
They did it though. They got the harvest in! Monday morning's conditions were the type they try to emulate in ninja races and TV reality shows. Whatever. Our crew works in all weather to feed people real food. No hype. No camera crews. No drama. No medals. Just a serious commitment to getting real food to the People of the Tetons...in all kinds of weather.
So, take a deep breath and say it with me:
THANK YOU CREW!!!

 Last fall I posed the question "what do you want me to write about in the newsletters". The biggest response was folks wanting to know how the farm works, how we harvest things and/or what the day to day farming operations look like. 
I can do that!

How does that Cosmic Mix get to your plate?
Jed seeds Cosmic Mix directly into the garden about every 14 days. It is covered with row cover to keep nibbling bugs out and help with cool nights. It takes about 4-6 weeks of growth to be ready to harvest.
Every Monday and Wednesday morning is Cosmic Mix harvest. First thing in the morning, before the temps rise and wind picks up. 
Our crew meets and is ready to begin every day at 7 am. Our crew manager, Jacy, loads a garden cart with yellow crates, 5 gallon buckets, shears, harvest bags and a tarp. 
When the crew reaches the row to be harvested each person gets a bucket, a bag and shears. The "harvest bag" is actually just a mesh laundry bag! The kind you can buy at Target for delicates. We line the bucket with the bag. The shears are sheep shears for cutting fleece from sheep. We've been using them for 30 years and they are the best tool we've found for the job. They are like big industrial scissors.
The row cover is lifted off the tender greens. Each person kneels in front of the greens and begins cutting handfuls of greens and putting them in their bucket/bag. We leapfrog each other down the bed filling the bags in our buckets, picking out weeds as we go. When a bag is full it is walked back to the garden cart, stacked in a yellow crate and the tarp is thrown over the whole cart to protect from sun and wind.
Each of our beds is 500' long. We cut the whole bed. Our goal is to finish and have the greens in the wash station by 9:30 am (aka coffee break!). We don't break until the greens are in!
The full cart is brought into Nat, our wash station manager. She then pulls each full bag from the crate and dunks it in cold water. We have two 100 gallon stock tanks (that have never seen livestock!) for processing greens. A bag goes into the first tank and is swished around and dunked. It is then carefully lifted and drained...Nat has to be careful to not grab and crush tender handfuls of greens at this stage. The bag goes into the second tub. This process gets rid of some of the mud clumps and most importantly cools the greens coming out of the field which preserves them longer for you!
Here's the fun part! When the bag is lifted and drained from the second tub it goes into an old top loading washer. We put 2 bags in for each "load" and just use the spin cycle. It's our giant salad spinner! Old washers are simple, generally free, easy to fix and they get the job done!
After the Cosmic Mix is spun dry, Nat dumps the bags onto our tables. She then goes through and "mixes" the mix by hand to make sure we achieve the true Cosmic Mix, breaking up any clumps of greens, spreading it all out so you get a beautiful representation of what grew that week.
The final step is figuring out how much we harvested! The mix is placed into clean yellow crates. Every single crate is weighed to seven pounds exactly, and gets a cool, wet towel on top. We count the total number of crates and do the math. Some days (later in the fall and some super hot spells in the summer) we don't get as much as we wanted. A small harvest is around 50#. We try to bring in around 75# per harvest. We think our largest harvest ever was 180#! 
We divide the total weight by the number of CSA shares going out and that's how we decide what to write on the white boards for you to weigh.
We use this exact process for spinach, arugula, spicy mix, most herbs, sorrel, baby kale and all the little leafy green things.

Recipe Ideas: Roasted Garlic Curl Hummus; Grilled Garlic Curls (2 ways!); Garlicky Greens (use garlic curls instead of cloves) or ​Kale Turnip & Turkey Sausage Soup

Recipes

30th Anniversary Party Details

We have lots of extra goodies available at your pick up. Dinner just got easier!
The coolers at your site are stocked with a selection of Lifeline Cheese, Cosmic Apple Eggs, Pork and Beef (availability listed below).  If you want something specific, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved just for you. I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit, but I love putting together special orders!

​Pork Available: Grandpa’s Sausage, Breakfast Sausage, Bacon, Boneless Chops, Shoulder Roast, Spare Ribs, Boneless Pork Loin, Neck Bones, Back Fat, Leaf Fat, Hock, Liver, Heart and Kidney

Beef Available: Tenderloin, New York Steak, Rib Eye Steak, Sirloin Steak, Eye of the Round Steak, Skirt Steak, Tri-tip, Patties, Stew Meat, Heart, Ground Beef, Short Ribs, Brisket, Round Roast, Sirloin Tip Roast, Liver, Kidney, Marrow Bones, Knuckle Bones, Fat and Tongue


WASH YOUR VEGGIES!!
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Bring Bags to pick-ups!

If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend!
Missed shares are forfeited for the week. 
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Members get 10% off at the Farmer's Markets!
The People's Market: Wednesdays, 4-7 Center for the Arts
The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1, Driggs City Center
Jackson Hole Farmer's Market: NO MARKET 7/4! Saturdays 8-12, Jackson Town Square

Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? [email protected]