In the FIRST SUMMER CSA SHARE this week!

• Artichokes
• Lacinato Kale
• Bunched Spinach
• Baby Arugula
• Hearts of Romaine and Butterhead Lettuce
• Yellow Spring Onions
• Pac Choi
• Radishes
• Pea Shoots
• A SunOrange Cherry Tomato Plant

On Rotation:

• Broccolini
• Gold Zucchini

Hello and Welcome 2025 CSA Members!

We are very excited to be bringing you an especially FULL first Harvest Basket this week (honestly, I don't think the first share has ever been so stuffed to the gills in all the 17 years of offering our CSA)! It is a bit of a joke around here - our (er, my) absolute inability to rein in the quantity of produce we put in the CSA share each week - and this one tops 'em all. I announced yesterday in the barn as we were trying to close the lid on the first CSA tote that I officially need a manager - as in, someone to manage me so that the Harvest Basket doesn't get out of control every week. I'm hopeless! You can't deny though, it's a pretty fun entrée to the season: this week you'll be eating piles of salad, cooking with those greens, fiber-ing up your smoothies, and hopefully reveling in this leafy part of the season. Honestly, after such a challenging spring (the big March flood wreaked some historic havoc for us that we've only just finished rebuilding from), I am nothing but grateful that we have such an abundance to share with you this week.

If you're a returning member you're familiar with the long arc of a Valley Flora season: it starts pretty leafy and little by little transitions into the heavy and dense (think potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, sweet corn, winter squash, broccoli, cauliflower, celeriac, and so much more). We're so glad you're along for the adventure - whether as a longtime VF devotee or a CSA neophyte. Have fun playing with your new produce in the kitchen and don't be shy about leaning into cookbooks, food blogs, online recipes, and our own "Recipe Wizard" on the VF website: https://www.valleyflorafarm.com/content/recipe-searcher. I'll share some favorite recipes here and there but at this point it's hard to outshine the sheer abundance of online cooking resources we have at our fingertips.

I often forget to make this plug at the start of the season, but I encourage everyone to read up on the history of community supported agriculture. It's both a food systems model and a social/environmental movement with an interesting genesis:

The Radical Roots of Community Supported Agriculture

We often get so absorbed in our day to day that we forget about the larger philosophy and impact of CSA (both "we" the farmers and "we" the eaters). Reading the article above will remind you that we're all doing something here that is not the norm, and that's a beautiful, world-changing thing. I'm proud to be part of it alongside you.

Changing the world does take some organization and discipline though, which is why - once more - I'm reminding everyone to brush up on the details of their pickup location (time, day, address, what do do if you miss your pickup, etc), here:

Valley Flora CSA Pickup Information

As I mentioned in my email earlier this week, the Achilles heel of CSA pickups is usually the Salad Shares: people who aren't signed up for salad take a bag anyway, or someone takes the wrong size bag, etc etc etc. SO, please take extra care to read all the signage and take home the right stuff each week! That'll save some tears here in the office and ensure that everyone gets their food according to plan. I have a half day in the office on Wednesdays dedicated to managing the CSA, writing the newsletter and taking care of all the other aspects of the business, which is not enough time. The rest of the hours I'm in the field (that's the dawn-to-dusk reality of running a diversified organic farm with lean margins). For this reason we hope our members will do their part to make CSA pickup run smoothly - so that we can farm to our fullest on your behalf (instead of untangling mixups in the office all day). Interestingly, and as a slight aside, many CSA models in Europe leave all the admin and distribution details to the members themselves so that the farmer can just focusing on farming. Sounds kinda dreamy....:)

FYI, the checksheets on the clipboard at your pickup site are temporary. Once the dust settles on everything we'll re-print and laminate them for the rest of the season - in a couple weeks.

Finally, one last detail if you're going to be out of town and can't make it to your CSA pickup on a given week, AND you don't have someone else who can pick it up for you: If you email me with at least one week lead time, I can arrange to hold your CSA share in our walk-in cooler at the farm instead of delivering it to your pickup site. You can then pick it up from our cooler the following week. I usually can't arrange for this last-minute but am happy to do it if you give me advance warning. 

OK, enough words for the first week! Enjoy all the chewing and look for our next dispatch next Wednesday for Week 2!