Well, things can't always be great.  All week I have found myself answering the common greeting of "how are you?" or "how's everything?" with a big fat honest "things are not good".  Everyone in South Florida has noticed that it's been raining a bit more than usual, but what some people haven't truly realized is that we've gotten more rain in one week than we usually get all winter!  Miami averages about six inches of rain December through February but we've already seen upward of eight inches.  The rain gauge at our farm holds 5 inches of water and last Friday, after we got the most rain overnight, I found it overflowing in the morning.  More than 60% of our fields were completely under water that morning.  More rain came the following few days and when the water finally drained it left behind a sad scene of dead earthworms and collapsed crops.  Check out this article in the Miami New Times from Monday morning about the epic flooding at our farm. 

Since we have very little to harvest and we'll have to start most of our fields from scratch, we've decided to pause the CSA next week.  This means you will not be picking up shares on Saturday December 19th, but we'll add an extra pick up date to the end of the season so that you still get 20 weeks of veg.  We've planned to skip the week of Christmas and New Years all along so skipping next week will give us 4 consecutive weeks to get some new crops ready for you in January.  

This week we've put together a beautiful CSA share with produce purchased almost entirely from other local organic farms.  A few local farms were lucky to get less rain and in combination with being on higher ground, their fields are in pretty good shape.  Verde Community Farm and LNB Groves are two of them.  We've also included local rice from central Florida and Roselle from our friends at Sons and Daughters Farm in Lake Worth.

Roselle is a super special treat.  It's a plant in the hibiscus family that produces bright red fleshy calyx' around a seed pod after the flower has withered.  The fleshy calyx is the part to eat or make tea with.  One of it's nick names is Florida Canberry because it makes a tangy red tea which resembles cranberry juice.  In the Caribbean it is used to make a traditional holiday drink with rum; you can look it up by the name Jamaican Sorrel.  The roselle plant grows all summer and blooms to make these pods just in time for the holidays.  We're really lucky to be able to use fresh pods; you'll notice that everywhere on the internet people are using mainly the dry pods. 

Small Shares:

Organic Florida Rice

Curly Kale from Verde Farm

Cilantro from Verde Farm

Asian Eggplant from Verde Farm

Roma Tomatoes from Lady Moon Farm

Dandelion Greens from Lady Moon Farm

Star Fruit aka Carambola from LNB Groves

Roselle from Sons and Daughters Farm

Large Shares:

Organic Florida Rice

Curly Kale from Verde Farm

Cilantro from Verde Farm

Asian Eggplant from Verde Farm

Roma Tomatoes from Lady Moon Farm

Dandelion Greens from Lady Moon Farm

Star Fruit aka Carambola from LNB Groves

Roselle from Sons and Daughters Farm

Green Papaya from Little River Cooperative

Basil from Little River Cooperative

Large shares will be able to make green papaya salad this week!  Check out this recipe, it's the closest thing to my favorite way of making it.  Make a big batch because it's better the second day!  One of my favorite elements is crushed peanuts and chopped basil garnish.  If you make a big batch, add these ingredients to the plate when serving rather than mixing them in so that the flavors pop.