In the CSA Share this Week:

• Broccolini
• Spinach
• Baby Arugula
• Kohlrabi - Purple and Green
• Head Lettuce
• Red Onions
• Strawberries
• Cilantro

On Rotation: these items rotate among pickup locations; if you don't receive it this week, you'll get it in your share in a future week

• Chard
• Kale

It's been a busy handful of days, not only because the Summer Solstice stirs an explosion of plant growth, but also because we had a baby minature donkey come into our world last Friday!

My daughter, Cleo, has been trying to manifest a donkey foal since she first took an interest in them at age 10. After fours years of owning various donkeys and learning a lot about donkey breeding, the long-awaited day finally arrived - on Friday the 13th. Little "Mazzy" was born early in the morning and all seemed to be going well until that evening, at which point we started to become concerned that she wasn't nursing effectively. Soon after, her mother, Dolly, started violently rejecting her. We spent half the night trying various tactics to re-bond them, with a growing concern that Mazzy was running out of steam after so many hours without mother's milk. After a middle-of-the-night consult with a vet in South Africa(!) through an emergency tele-vet consult service we made the call to load up and head for OSU Vet Hospital in Corvallis. We put Dolly in the trailer and settled sleepy little Mazzy on Cleo's lap up front (definitely a first to look over and see a baby donkey riding shotgun in my pickup!). We were rubbing honey into Mazzy's gums every hour to try to keep her glucose levels up, grateful for the empty roads so we could make good time. By the time we got to Florence there was light in the sky - a big help for staying awake at the wheel - but by the time we got to Monroe there were only fumes in the tank (no diesel service stations open between here and there in the middle of the night, ugh!). We were saved by a Sinclair station on 99W, where we put 20 gallons of diesel into a tank that I thought only held 17 gallons! Phew.

We made it to OSU by 6:30 and delivered the donkeys into incredibly capable hands. They quickly got Mazzy intubated so they could stomach feed her, and they sedated Dolly so they could milk her out. Mazzy's vitals were solid, fortunately, but Dolly was still rejecting her, and dangerously. Over the course of the weekend the vet team adminstered rounds of oxytocin to Dolly - the "love drug" - to help facilitate a new bond. The first attempt failed, but since Sunday it's been working and the pair have been doing well. Their dynamic was stable enough that we were able to bring them home on Monday night, armed with six more doses of oxytocin to help smooth the transition back home. For now, they're thriving - and putting all of us into paroxysms of giddy delight as we watch Mazzy romp and explore the big wide world of her barn and pasture with attentive Dolly-Mama close on her heels. We'll give Dolly her final dose of oxytocin tomorrow morning and cross our fingers that their practiced bond - and Dolly's natural oxytocin production - will be enough to keep them together. If not, plan B is to raise Mazzy as a "bottle baby" without the bottle (they recommend bucket-feeding with a mare's milk replacement because baby equines are prone to aspirating milk into their lungs when fed with a bottle, which can lead to pneumonia). Either way we are so grateful this little creature is here, putting huge smiles on all our faces. The cuteness factor is extreme, like none other. 

Also "cute" this week: kohlrabi! Ok, maybe more weird-looking than cute, but delicious! I like this collection of recipes if you need inspiration or guidance on how to use it.

And of course, strawberries. I don't need to say anything about those, except maybe to save one or two for the folks you share your basket with each week :).....