Week 10 from Valley Flora!

In this Week's CSA Share:

Strawberries
Red Cabbage
Walla Walla Sweet Onions
Green Beans
Zucchini
Cucumbers
Carrots
Broccoli Shoots (one last broccoli bonus!)
Head Lettuce - note, this week's variety is a new trial called "Concept." It's a cross between a romaine and a summer crisp and supposed to be great for the heat of summer. We were very excited about it until last week when it began to develop some tip burn at the leaf margins as it finished sizing up. The heads are huge and luscious, but not quite perfect due to this cosmetic issue. We probably won't grow it again next year since widespread tipburn is the kind of thing that will get a variety axed from our lettuce program. Hopefully you can find plenty of good salad in these mondo heads anyway. We have one more planting of it coming up in a few weeks; hopefully that one will perform better than the first.

On Rotation:

Basil

For the Love of Bees

Much of what we grow on the farm would not be possible without bees. Are you excited to see strawberries in your share this week? Without bees, no strawbs. Thrilled to find peaches at the farmstand this week? Without bees, no peaches. Love those plump zucchinis and slicing cukes? Yup, thank the bees. And even the things that aren't fruits - this week's cabbage, broccoli, carrots, onions - would not exist without the help of bees who pollinate seed crops so that we can grow them again next year. There are all kinds of bees and other Hymenoptera at Valley Flora, including the European honeybee, the big, bumbling bumble bee, ground bees, wasps, and mason bees (a big thanks and a shout-out to our longtime, devoted CSA members, Mike and Linda Dobney, who introduced three mason bee colonies to the farm this spring).

We do everything we can to support the bees on the farm, knowing full well that they are working for us around the clock and we couldn't do this without them. The most important and fundamental thing is that we're organic. That means we never spray any insecticides, herbicides or other chemicals on the farm - not even organically-approved ones (because even some of those are neurotoxic to bees). The other important thing: we try to provide something for them to eat year round. In the spring when the whole world - and the orchard - is in bloom, it's easy. In the summer, we grow flowering cover crops like buckwheat and phacelia; we grow cut flowers (our flower patch is in full riotous bloom right now and open for u-pick!); and we leave crops like broccolini and cilantro in the ground long after we're done harvesting them so they can bloom and support the bees. In the winter things are a litte leaner for the bees - and they have fewer opportunities to feed when it's cold and raining - so we let all our overwintered Brassicas (kale, broccoli, cabbage, etc.) bolt and bloom to help provide forage for the bees through the hardest part of the year.

Bees are struggling in many parts of the world due to toxins pervasive in our environment, but we would like to hope that Valley Flora will forever remain a haven for them. Here are a few images of bees at work on the farm, and the fields where they are foraging right now to help bring you your weekly abundance: