CSA Newsletter-Week #1
Welcome to the 2022 CSA Season!
We are set for pick-up Tuesday, June 28th or Thursday anytime after 3pm! We have two different pick up days and you’ve been assigned to a specific day. If you are not sure which day is your pick up day, please get ahold of us and we’ll let you know!
If you’re new, please plan on stopping by between 3-5:30pm so we can meet you and show you how our pick up works! You will receive a bag to take. We ask that you bring it back next week and we’ll use it the following week!
We are super excited to finally be kicking off CSAs! Whew, it’s been a challenging spring. We’ve had to replant so many things because of the cold and wet weather! But we think we are past it and we are pleased with the progress of the fields. Granted they are about 3 weeks bending, but things are picking up and Mother Nature always has a way of making up for lost time.
I say this every year but especially this year…the first couple of weeks of the CSA program kind of stress me out… LOL! We love sending you home with bags full of fresh produce. And I promise that will happen but the first couple of weeks are always a little leaner than the final weeks. So as you go home is first couple of weeks and look at a your bags, please know that it will truly balance out over the course of the season!
Let’s do a brief introduction for those who are new and maybe for those who don’t know much about Turner Farms! In 2006, we had just built our house and moved our young family of three boys out to Stallion Lane in the Orchard Homes neighborhood where Erin had grown up. We had always grown much of our own food and now that we had some land we expanded our garden. But that particular year being overzealous in our planting we grew enough to feed a small country. Upon hearing us questioning what to do with all the produce from our harvest, our two oldest boys (who were 3 & 5 yrs old) suggested selling the produce on the side of the road to raise money for their much wanted bunkbeds. Wanting to support their entrepreneurial spirit, we helped set up a table in our driveway and notified family, friends and neighbors. Fast forward to the end of the season and those boys raised enough money selling vegetables to buy their bunkbeds completely on their own.
Aside from the profitability, Jon and I realized how valuable it was for us to have family time, teach good work ethic, and all lessons learned through working in the garden. So it was then when Turner Farms was born. Each year as the boys grew, our farm grew. We began adding animals, land and equipment. Today the farm looks much different than it did from our humble beginnings in 2006 and so do our grown up boys! . We now have 38 acres, multiple tractors, raise cattle, goats, pigs, sheep, ducks, geese, peacocks, and an alpaca!
Our sons, Ethan, Logan and Gus, continue to be a vital part of our farm. We are excited and proud to be adding Ethan As our farm manager. He recently graduated from MSU in Bozeman with a degree in agricultural business. As our new farm manager, he will be growing the farm in some new and exciting ways. He currently is running our youth summer farm camp and doing an amazing job with all those kids!
This week’s Bag for Tuesday and Thursday members:
Garlic Scapes: we absolutely love this seasonal delights! They only happen at this time of the year, so enjoy them now! We make a pesto with them and spread that on our sandwich bread, put into baked potatoes, on top of pasta and pretty much any other food that needs a little garlic pizzazz!
Lettuce: Romaine is what we are harvesting today along with a bit of curly leaf lettuce for the Full shares. This is our first harvest of the season! They are beautiful heads.
Herbs: Oregano is the harvest of the day. You can use it fresh or dry and use it later! Imagine fresh oregano, chopped and sprinkled on top of homemade pizza?! Mmmmm! Full shares also received a few springs of dill. Again, use it fresh in salads, stir-fry’s or dry and use later.
Onion: Believe it or not, these are the last of our storage onions which we harvested last fall! We are a few weeks out from starting to harvest the 2022 onion crop.
Radishes: Nothing says early summer like a radish! Ethan slices these super thin and puts them on pizzas and in tacos. The crunch and zippy flavor are incredible!
Chive Flowers: Oh, how we love these! If you enjoy onions, you’ll love these too! So flavorful and beautiful! A perfect addition to salads! Chop them or put them in whole! The color just gets us every time!
Broccoli: we harvested broccoli the other day and the interns soaked the heads maybe a little too long in the cold water so they are a little softer than normal. But they should still taste fabulous. I highly recommend taking them out of the bag before putting in the refrigerator!
Full Share members also are receiving a 1/2 dozen duck eggs today. These are creamier and little larger than chicken eggs. P,us, their shell is a little more firm so be prepared to hit them pretty hard to crack them! Our family loves the duck eggs! I actually love baking with them. They give my baked goods a wonderful boost of texture which I don’t get with chicken eggs.
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