{"id":1860,"date":"2019-05-29T01:48:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T01:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fairsharefarm.com\/wp2\/fair-share-farm-csa-week-4\/"},"modified":"2025-04-21T05:45:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:45:25","slug":"fair-share-farm-csa-week-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fairsharefarm.com\/wp2\/fair-share-farm-csa-week-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Fair Share Farm CSA—Week 4"},"content":{"rendered":"
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STRAWBERRIES (1 QT): As good as it gets, you might get a State Fair award winner in your quart as the first berries this year are just about perfect.<\/span><\/div>\n
STRAWBERRIES (1 PT): The benefits of a bounty, a pint to snack on while you work on a recipe for the quart!<\/span><\/div>\n
RED LEAF LETTUCE: Trying to size up after a rough May, our mainstay variety called New Red Fire is coming through. <\/span><\/div>\n
ROMAINE LETTUCE: This speckled variety (Flashy Trout Back) gets its name for an obvious reason. This crunchy lettuce is great on a sandwich or in a Caesar salad. <\/span><\/div>\n
GARLIC SCAPES: The hardneck garlic is growing on schedule, putting out their scapes just as the strawberries are ripening. They are a great combination, especially in a creamy dressing<\/a> .<\/span><\/div>\n
GREENS CHOICE: Sprouting broccoli, kale or chard. <\/span><\/div>\n
HERBS: Cilantro, dill or a mixed bunch.<\/span><\/div>\n
FARM REPORT:<\/span><\/div>\n
I could easily fill another farm report with complaints about the weather, but I will try to restrain myself.  <\/span>In brief, we\u2019ve had way too much rain and many of the crops are feeling the effects.  <\/span>The bok choi have bolted, the radishes and turnips have rotted and the cabbage crop is half-dead.  <\/span>However, it could be worse.  <\/span>Right now the news is of a huge tornado barreling across eastern Kansas flipping cars over in its wake.  <\/span>Hopefully everyone is okay and the storm loses strength by the time it gets to us.  <\/span>We have battened down the hatches, covered the strawberry patch and we have gotten by with no damage other than more rain. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Now on to what your farmers have been up to, plus if you make it to the end, a little Graff family history.  <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Between rain storms we got more plants in the ground, including several hundred summer crisp lettuces.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Mulching continues to be a top priority.  <\/span>Without it our topsoil would be heading downhill, but with a good layer of hay mulch it is staying put.<\/span><\/div>\n
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<\/span>The hens are really enjoying their home in the high tunnel.  <\/span>Under the cover, the girls have the driest spot on the farm.  <\/span>They are happily eating the remains of the winter crops and having lots of their favorite dust baths.  <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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<\/span>Okay, you made it to the bit about my family history.  <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
My grandparents, John and Allene Graff, grew up in and around Excelsior Springs, Missouri.  <\/span>They were farmers, but also had various enterprises over the years.  <\/span>In the 1930s they lived on a farm just outside of town with sheep, cattle, poultry and a large vegetable garden.  <\/span>Some of their farm products made it to the grocery store in town that my grandpa and his brother had at the time. <\/span><\/div>\n

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<\/span>That\u2019s Uncle Bill on the left and my grandpa, John, on the right.  <\/span>As you can see the grocery was tiny by today\u2019s standards, a small store-front with lots of cans and boxes of shelf-stable foods.  <\/span>The perishables were brought in as needed and were by necessity local.  <\/span>The only snippet of family lore about the store that has made it to my generation is that Grandpa would call the farm and say, \u201cAllene, go butcher a dozen chickens and bring them to the store.\u201d  <\/span>I\u2019m not sure what to make of that.  <\/span>I would like to know what Allene (my namesake, Rebecca Allene Graff) thought of this directive.  <\/span>If I could go back in time, I would quiz my deceased grandparents about the store, the farm and their experiences surviving the Great Depression.  <\/span>Instead, I am left to imagine a lost world where local food was the norm.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STRAWBERRIES (1 QT): As good as it gets, you might get a State Fair award winner in your quart as the first berries this year are just about perfect. STRAWBERRIES (1 PT): The benefits of a bounty, a pint to snack on while you work on a recipe for the quart! RED LEAF LETTUCE: Trying … Continue reading Fair Share Farm CSA—Week 4<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fairsharefarm.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fairsharefarm.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fairsharefarm.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fairsharefarm.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fairsharefarm.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fairsharefarm.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2746,"href":"https:\/\/fairsharefarm.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860\/revisions\/2746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fairsharefarm.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fairsharefarm.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fairsharefarm.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}