Welcome to week #4!
In Your Share This Week
- Bok Choi
- Broccoli
- Cabbage, Caraflex
- Chard
- Hakurei turnips
- Lettuce
Crop Highlights
Broccoli: My coworkers and I have been consuming an amazing amount of broccoli this past week, and we hope you have also been enjoying it. This week will be the second and final distribution of broccoli. Like bok choi and turnips, it doesn’t do as well in the heat. If you have yet to try the stems, I suggest you do-just remember to peel the outer layer off first.
Cabbage, Caraflex: We started growing these conical cabbages last year, and they are so cool! They are smaller than other cabbages and are often called “green sweetheart,” coming from the French word “Chou” which means both “cabbage” and “sweetheart.” Caraflex have thin, crunchy and sweet leaves, great for wraps, salads, and cooking.
Remember to check out Katherine’s recipe blog for new, delicious cooking tips: http://www.cookwithwhatyouhave.com/sauvie-island-organics-recipes-tips/
I know many of you are itching for carrots, but hang in for one more week! Last year we were able to get carrots to you in June because we seeded them in the greenhouse. This past winter/spring we had mustards growing in our greenhouses until April, so we have been letting the soil sit for a couple months (pictured above). Soon we will be planting cilantro, curly parsley, kale, chard and chicories in our two greenhouses, for harvest in the late fall/winter.
Just across from our greenhouses are several beds of carrots. These (pictured above) were tractor seeded by Brian on May 10th (the ones you’re receiving next week were seeded earlier), and we happily weeded them by hoe and hand last Wednesday and Thursday. It always feels great to have a handful of people working on a project together and seeing it to completion.
Farmer of the Week
Nate joined the SIO crew for a few months in 2014, and then returned as a full-timer in spring 2016. Like Tabitha, he can be called upon to do a lot of activities. He is one of our irrigation guys, and works on Sundays to keep everything in our propagation greenhouse and fields watered and alive. More recently, Nate has become one of our delivery drivers, and drives one of our two restaurant routes on both Wednesdays and Fridays. He is working toward a career in farming, and his favorite part of the job is seeing the seasons change throughout the year.
Nate is one of SIO’s few Oregon-natives. He grew up in Beaverton and graduated from U of O. Outside of work, Nate enjoys spending his time at lakes and rivers, as well as with his cat, Peaches (pictured below). He is also a soccer lover, and currently plays on three indoor teams. I have the pleasure of playing with him at Portland Indoor Soccer, where he also referees a couple of nights a week. He is a busy man and a joy to be around; say hi if you ever happen to see him driving our truck!
