Time to reap what we sowed.  After many months of planning, at least two months of actual planting and weeks of watching, weeding and debugging, the first big harvest is finally ready.  We've been very lucky this Fall with the weather.  Early in October one day the humidity dropped and the night time temperatures dropped to the 70's.  Pretty much ever since that day the weather has been surprisingly consistent, without any strong rain storms (not even Hurricane Matthew) or spikes in day time temperatures.  For a farm that means lowered pest pressure, increased growth rate and much more comfortable working conditions for the humans.  Needless to say we are thrilled and excited to finally start sharing the bounty with you.

Many of our members have been a part of our CSA in previous seasons, but some of you are new so we'd like to take a moment to point out a couple of things. 

Every week on Wednesday we'll be writing a post here about the upcoming share with a list of the crops we expect to harvest.  Notice that most of the items on the list are links; they are linked to a page on our website with information about that specific crop, including a description, info about what parts to eat and how it is traditionally eaten as well as ideas for incorporating that veg into your meals.  Those crop pages are always a work in progress and we add new bits here and there when we find interesting information.  It's a good idea to check them out, especially if there is a veg you aren't very familiar with.  *Please note that until the last minute before harvesting we can never be 100% certain about the exact contents of the CSA share.  Sometimes during harvest we might decide the quality of a particular crop isn't up to par, sometimes a pest issue arises overnight and ruins a crop, sometimes we get less yield than we estimated.  For whatever reason, if we can't fulfill a particular item for the CSA, we will do our best to replace it with something of equal value, but be prepared for a surprise every once in a while!

You'll also notice that next to each item on the list we specify which farm grew it.  Our farm is too small to grow everything for the CSA, especially certain crops which require a lot of space and time in the field like broccoli, tomatoes, carrots and squash.  In order to round out the CSA we turn to a handful of small organic farms in South Florida that share our ethics and quality standards.  We love working with them because each farm is better at growing different crops, in some cases because the farmer has a knack for it, but more often because the soil type and particular micro climate on the farm lends itself to certain crops.  We work super close with Chris French of French Farms; you'll see him sharing a farmers market booth with us on Saturday mornings.  He is farming an acre of land in Homestead and a small urban plot west of Wynwood in Miami.  Chris will be growing most of your lettuce, squash and cucumbers, but also a bunch of other stuff.  Follow him on instagram for progress photos @frenchfarm.  Chuck at Verde Farm does an amazing job with a very diverse list of crops and he's cultivating over 10 acres.  This season he's growing all of the carrots and broccoli for our CSA, but we'll also be sourcing scallions, kale, eggplant a few other crops throughout the season. 

For this week's share we are harvesting the following crops:

Small Shares:
Hakurei turnips with tops from our frields
Baby salad greens from our fields
Pickling cucumbers from French Farms
Young summer squash from French Farms
Lacionato kale from Verde Farm
Dill from Verde Farm

Large Shares:
Hakurei turnips with tops from our frields
Baby salad greens from our fields
Pickling cucumbers from French Farms
Young summer squash from French Farms
Lacionato kale from Verde Farm
Dill from Verde Farm
Baby bok choi from our fields
Dandelion greens from our fields