Tomorrow will be ther first official CSA delivery week of 2012, hoorah! I have lots of information for all of you, including important details pertaining to your delivery scheduling, so bear with this long email (especially half share members)  : )

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Half Share Delivery Week Details

Like last year, I will be splitting up the half share members into Delivery Week A and Week B. Members who have half shares will be assigned a specific week that they will recieve veggies, since those deliveries are every other week. Here is the breakdown of who will get their half shares when:

Delivery Week A (beginning this Thursday May 17th)

• "In The Flats" Home Deliveries
• Avenues Pickup
• Mountain Valley Seed Pickup
• Wasatch Cohousing Pickup
• East Downtown/ 1300 E 700 S Pickup
• LDS Hospital Pickup
• 17th & 17th Pickup

Delivery Week B (beginning NEXT Thursday May 24th)

• "Up The Hill" Home Deliveries
• Shiva Centre Pickup
• 1800 E 2700 S Pickup
• University:Bright Horizons Pickup

So, I am sorry for the late notice, but hopefully this will be good news to all of you! After monitoring the explosive growth in many of our greens and radish crops over the past couple of weeks, we have decided that to insure harvesting at their tastiest and prime moment, we need to harvest some of our crops earlier than our projected May 17th Start Date. This isn't equivalent of a full share, but we thought it was enough to warrant an early tasty treat delivery : ) We are planning on doing an extra-early BONUS CSA DELIVERY THIS THURSDAY, MAY 10th! All members wether full or half shares will recieve a delivery this week. Since this is a bonus week, there will be no Add-on Shares available with this delivery. Lets move on to the details on how to get your CSA shares, etc. I'll start with what will we will be harvesting for you this Thursday:

Early Bonus Share Pick List:

• 1 bunch French Breakfast Radishes
• 1 bag Baby Brassica Mix (mustards, mizuna, tatsoi, pac choi, arugula, kale, etc)
• 1 bag Arugula

French Breakfast Radishes

Arugula

Baby Brassica Mix

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Home Delivery Members Read This

For those of you with Home Delivery, you will need to have a cooler with some sort of ice or cooler pack in it so your veggies stay nice and fresh. Please place your cooler outside your front door or in a convenient place for us to deliver to. If you have any questions or issues with this system, please email or call me at 801-718-7478. If you forget to put out your cooler on Thursday morning, we will leave the veggies in the coolest shadiest spot we can find and give you a call. We will begin our deliveries around 8am, and will eventually have a routine, but we can't guarantee we will be there  by any certain time, but hopefully you will get your veggies before mid-afternoon.

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Pickup Members Read This

For pickup members, I will be sending out a separate email with specific addresses and instructions pertaining to your pickup spot. For all of you, at your pickup site, there will be coolers with your veggies, a sign in sheet with your names and phone #'s on it, and a pick list with what you should take from the coolers. This week to start, we will not pre-portion out your shares, you will need to PICK ONE of each item wther in a bag or bunch. Please don't trade out things, since we only pick one portion of each item for each of you. I will try my best to label things so you wont get confused : ) We will begin delivering at 8am on Thursday, so you can expect the shares to arrive at the pickup location between 8am and no later than 2pm. After a couple of weeks of running the deliveries, we can give you more of a specific time we will arrive at your pickup spot. Since pickup spots are self serve, you can come by at your convenience anytime on Thursday until Dark unless otherwise noted in your separate pickup email. When you pick up your veggies, please check your name off the sign in sheet so the pick up host knows who still needs to come. If you are running late or cannot pick up until Friday, please give me a call. Also come prepared with some bag/cooler to take your veggies home with you. Again, if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email or call me (Sharon) at 801-718-7478.

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Non-Members Who Want Veggies Read This

For those of you who haven't signed up for a CSA share, but would like some of these veggies, we have extras of the following available at our pickup sites for these prices:

Baby Brassica Mix-$7/lb

French Breakfast Radishes-$3/big bunch or 2 for $5

If you are interested in purchasing any of these items, please Email me (Sharon) at bugfarms@gmail.com and I will have your order labeled and bagged separately. Please place your cash or check(made out to Sharon Leopardi) in an envelope taped to the inside of the cooler.

Here are the pickup spots available:

Wasatch Cohousing Mail Room: 1411 S Utah St. #22

Mountain Valley Seed Co.: 455 W 1700 S

Shiva Centre: 2065 E 2100 S

We are also still accepting new CSA members, so please considering joining if you can!

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Fun Stuff!

Whew! I think that covers the most important parts of logistics, now lets get into the fun stuff- veggie profiles and recipe ideas!

Baby Brassica Mix: There are over 15 different types of greens in this mix, I call it a Brassica Mix because most all of the greens come from the Brassica Plant family. Some of the greens include: Red Mustard, Giant Curled Southern Mustard, Red Streaks Mustard, Pac Choi, Tatsoi, Mizuna, Arugula, Lacinato Kale, and a bunch of other asian greens that I can't remember the name of : ) This mix has some spiciness, but is tender enough to eat raw in a salad, or lightly steam or saute, or add it to a frittata or quiche, or try adding it to a green smoothie.

Arugula: So tasty! This first harvest is super sweet and mild, and I feel would be best enjoyed mixed with the Brassica Mix and Radishes in a salad with a little bit of apple cider vinegar and a good olive oil, maybe with some sesame seeds/flax seeds/sunflower seeds/chia seeds, and maybe some dried fruit and goat cheese if you like that. Yummy and quick. Or you can try your hand at a quick arugula pesto and toss it with some pasta.

Here is a recipe adapted from the book "Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables" by Farmer John Peterson and Angelic Organics. This makes good use of everything you will get in your Extra Early Bonus CSA Share!

Serves 4

2 tbsp butter (or olive oil)
1/2 lb radishes, quartered
2 cups radish greens or arugula or Baby Brassica Mix
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Melt the butter or olive oil in a large skillet over med. heat. Add the radishes; cook, stirring constantly, until tender but still crisp, about 5 min. depending on size. Transfer to a bowl to cool. Return the skillet to stove.

Put the greens or arugula in skillet with the wash water still clinging to the leaves. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, just until wilting, 2-3 min. Turn off the heat. Add the lemon juice and radishes to the skillet; stir until well combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

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Well, I am excited and grateful for such a warm and bountiful spring so far, and I hope you all get to taste that gratefulness and love in your Bonus Share this week. Thanks so much for being a part of our small experiment in conscious, community-oriented, loving food production!

Best,

Sharon Leopardi

To Sign Up for the 2012 CSA Program, Click Here!

For a customer-written overview of our CSA Program, click on this link:  http://www.examiner.com/food-in-salt-lake-city/b-u-g-farms-is-the-new-kid-on-the-block-community-supported-agriculture-review

To Learn Details About Our CSA Program, Read On........

What is a CSA?

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture is a partnership between us, BUG Farmers, and you, the locavore consumer! CSA's are a business model that allows you as a consumer and us as farmers share the risks and benefits involved in growing your food in an urban, grassroots, and community-based way. You purchase a subscription to the farm (a "share") and become a member.Our CSA program gives an opportunity for families and individuals to directly access urban farm fresh produce throughout the growing season while directly supporting small scale, sustainable, grassroots community agriculture. Your upfront payment is indispensible in covering start-up farm expenses and also providing living wages for the folks who are growing your food. Without your support, we would not be able to continue growing good food for our Salt Lake Community. We hope you will consider becoming a member of the BUG Farms CSA Program.

What Are My Share Options?

There are 2 basic option types: The Full Share, and the Half Share. Both provide the same amount of produce in each delivery, but the Full Share comes every week, and the Half Share comes every other week during the growing season. If you buy a Half Share, based on your delivery or pickup location, you will be assigned to either Week A or Week B distribution. Pricing for shares are outlined below:

How Long Is The Season?

We will plan to have our 2012 harvest season, weather permitting,  from mid-May to the end of October, give or take a week or two depending good graces of Mother Earth : ) The total season should last between 22-25 weeks. Last year (2011) we started late (First week of June) because of the long cold wet spring, but our last delivery was into the first week of November.

How Will I Get My Veggie Share?

There are 2 ways of getting your veggies each week: HOME/OFFICE DELIVERY or CSA PICKUP LOCATIONS.

HOME/OFFICE DELIVERY: One of the many unique things about our CSA program is our delivery service. For a small additional fee, if you live within Salt Lake City, there is no need to remember to pick up your CSA share, we deliver it directly to your house or office! The one time delivery fee is $50 for a Half Share and $100 for a Full Share. This helps us cover our costs in fuel and extra labor.

If you are getting a Home/Office Delivery, we need to make sure you have a way of keeping your veggies cool and fresh until they get inside your fridge. Therefore, please make sure you have a cooler with a cold freezer pack outside your front door of hour house/apartment, or have some way of storing your produce in your office, either in an office fridge or cooler, before taking it home with you. 

CSA PICKUP LOCATIONS: If you don't mind coming to a pickup location for your veggies and are on a tighter budget, the Pickup Share may be the way to go for you. Here is a list of our dropoff Locations*:

• Wasatch Cohousing: 1411 S. Utah St (1605 West)
• 455 W 1700 S-Mountain Valley Seed
• AVENUES-approx. 5th Ave & B St
• SUGARHOUSE- aprox. 2700 S 1800 E
• EAST DOWNTOWN- approx 1300 E 700 S
• UNIVERSITY RESEARCH PARK- Bright Horizons Day Care Center
• EAST SUGARHOUSE: SHIVA CENTRE- 2165 E 2100 S

We are currently finding our exact locations for many of our pickup spots, if you are interested in becoming a pickup location host for the 2012, you will recieve an additional $100 discount from your full share. We are currently looking for locations in the Avenues, Sugarhouse, East Bench/University, and Liberty Wells Neighborhoods. Hosts must also sign up to recieve a full share and need to have a secure, protected area that is accessible by the members to pick up their shares. If you are interested, send us an email at bugfarms@gmail.com and we will give you more details!

How Much Food Will I Get In My Delivery?

Understand that even with our best planning and farming efforts, mother earth is the real decider on what grows and what doesn't! Each delivery should contain between 5-9 different veggie/greens/herb items. The exact quantity and variety will change each week depending on the harvest for that time of the season. For example, if the slugs and snails decide to eat up a certain bed of spinach, then you may not have spinach for that week.   Generally, one delivery should last 2-4 people cooking at home a weeks worth of veggies. If you are single, think about teaming up with a friend and splitting a Full Share, or try a Half Share where you will have 2 weeks to eat your produce before getting another delivery.

June deliveries could look like this:
4 oz microgreens
6 oz lettuce mix
6 oz baby spinach
1 bunch Rainbow chard
1 bunch Red Russian kale
1 bunch French Breakfast radish
1 bunch Parisienne carrots
1 bunch cilantro
2 medium summer squash
 
August deliveries could look like this:
8 oz mixed heirloom cherry tomatoes
1 bunch rainbow carrots
1 bunch rainbow beets
1 large eggplant
1/3 lb green beans
1-3 sweet pepper
2-4 hot peppers
1 bunch/bag basil
1 bunch chard
4 oz sunflower sprouts
 
October deliveries could look like this:
2 lb potatoes
2 acorn squash or 1 larger winter squash
2-3 storage onions
6 oz. spinach
1 bunch chard
4 oz microgreens
1 bunch pea shoots
6 oz lettuce mix



Exact quantities and varieties can vary a bit, and some weeks you may recieve more different veggies than others.
To see some of what we gave in 2011, peruse some of 2011's weekly CSA newsletters in the blog section here
 

Don't Forget the Add-On Shares!

Fruit Share-From Riley Orchards down in Payson. Chris Riley and his brother Jordan Riley are young farmers who are taking over the reigns of their family's orchard down in Payson. They are trying to keep their land in orchard instead of selling out for development, which is a sadly increasing trend as urban sprawl spreads to the best and only fruit growing regions along the Wasatch Front. I felt like it would be a good fit to partner with them to offer their lovely fruit with our CSA Deliveries each week. Expect about 20 weeks of fruit beginning the First week of July until the end of October with types changing each week. Each delivery will include either a 2 lb bag of cherries or 5 lb mixed bag of peaches and/or apples depending on what is available for harvest that week. Full Shares: $120 Half Shares $65

Heirloom Dry Bean Share- I LOVE Dry Beans! I have been eating them all winter and savoring in the many delicious heirloom varieties. One small company in South Central Idaho called Zursun Beans works with local farmers to provide an extensive variety of beans and lentils. I spent a long time picking out the most unique and tasty varieties to offer in the CSA Share. Full Shares $120 Half Shares $65

Organic Grain Share- We are excited to be working with Holy Grains, a small milling company that focuses on small batches of the freshest milled organic grains here in Salt Lake! It is the only small mill I have heard of in our City, and I am looking forward to collaborating with them more as we grow our first batch of grains this season. They offer a huge variety of organic grains including lots of tasty milled products ranging from Quinoa Flour, Kamut Pancake Mix, to Polenta as well as organic whole grains. Half shares will have only milled products and full shares will have milled products and whole grains. Everything comes in 1.5lbs, except for bread flour which comes in a 4lb bag. Full Shares $120 Half Shares $65

What If I Am Out Of Town?

We are hoping to provide veggies for up to 90 members this year, which makes member management a very BIG JOB. Based on my experience last year, it became increasingly pain-staking and tedious to keep track of who was skipping weeks when. So to streamline the member management, and reduce errors, if you know you are going to be out of town, there will be a couple of options: Coordinate a friend who will pick up your share at your delivery location and eat it or keep it for you for that week. We won't be able to deliver it to a different address though. Another option for Half Share members is to switch your delivery to your "off week". The bottome line is to please LET US KNOW AT LEAST A WEEK AHEAD OF YOUR ABSENCE and we can figure out something for you : )

How Do I Pay For My CSA Membership?

Currently, we can only accept a check in the mail, or cash in person for CSA payment. Due to the difficulty of setting up online credit card payment, and the extra fees associated, we will not be offering that option right now. Hopefully that wont be a huge problem for you. We understand that paying for the whole season at once may be challenging for some of you. If that is keeping you from joining, send us an email and we will try to work with you in splitting up your payments. But, if you have the ability to pay all at once, that would be really helpful on this end and lots of good and tankful vibes will be going your way : ) We really want to offer our tasty veggies to as many folks as possible in our community, and offer as low of a price as we can, while still being able to function sustainably as an urban farming business. We aren't in this for the money, but we do need money to be able go grow food and pay the rent for ourselves : )

Well, our spring growing season is off to a lovely start. Our greens, radishes, and root crops are in the ground and growing, and we are gearing up for our big warm season crop plantings in the next few weeks. We also have our new chicken pasturing system implemented, and are looking forward for our teenage chicks to start laying in about 8 weeks. I also wanted to give you all a heads up about updates for our 2012 CSA program.

First CSA Delivery: Thursday May, 17 2012!

Thats right, our first delivery week this year will be about 3 weeks ahead of last season, hooray! Spring time is Greens Season, and it looks like the first couple of weeks will include lots of them, including (hopefully): Arugula, Red Stemmed and Bloomsdale Spinach, Braising Brassica Mix, French Breakfast Radishes, Lovage, Pea Shoots, Radish Microgreens, Broccoli Raab, Lettuce Mix, and potentially some baby Japanese Turnips and Fava Bean Shoots! Don't worry, I will include a bunch of recipes to help inspire kitchen creativity, although most of these items are so good made into simple salads, or included in green smoothies.

For those of you who are still thinking about buying a share this year, We are still accepting new and returning Members! We still have plenty of shares available, so please spread the word so we can make this year a bountiful and successful one. Without the support of CSA members, our farms is not possible, so please consider joining if you haven't yet or let anyone else know about our program who you think might be interested.

Don't Forget About the Add-On Shares!

Just a reminder that this year we are working with 3 other producers to offer Grain, Fruit, and Dry Beans to our veggie deliveries. If you would like to include any of these in your CSA deliveries, you can add it to your membership online or send me an email and I can do it for you. Here is a bit of info about each of them:

Fruit Share-From Riley Orchards down in Payson. Chris Riley and his brother Jordan Riley are young farmers who are taking over the reigns of their family's orchard down in Payson. They are trying to keep their land in orchard instead of selling out for development, which is a sadly increasing trend as urban sprawl spreads to the best and only fruit growing regions along the Wasatch Front. I felt like it would be a good fit to partner with them to offer their lovely fruit with our CSA Deliveries each week. Expect about 20 weeks of fruit beginning the First week of July until the end of October with types changing each week. Each delivery will include either a 2 lb bag of cherries or 5 lb mixed bag of peaches and/or apples depending on what is available for harvest that week. Full Shares: $120 Half Shares $65

Heirloom Dry Bean Share- I LOVE Dry Beans! I have been eating them all winter and savoring in the many delicious heirloom varieties. One small company in South Central Idaho called Zursun Beans works with local farmers to provide an extensive variety of beans and lentils. I spent a long time picking out the most unique and tasty varieties to offer in the CSA Share. Full Shares $120 Half Shares $65

Organic Grain Share- We are excited to be working with Holy Grains, a small milling company that focuses on small batches of the freshest milled organic grains here in Salt Lake! It is the only small mill I have heard of in our City, and I am looking forward to collaborating with them more as we grow our first batch of grains this season. They offer a huge variety of organic grains including lots of tasty milled products ranging from Quinoa Flour, Kamut Pancake Mix, to Polenta as well as organic whole grains. Half shares will have only milled products and full shares will have milled products and whole grains. Everything comes in 1.5lbs, except for bread flour which comes in a 4lb bag. Full Shares $120 Half Shares $65

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Well, thats about it for now. I will leave you with some lovely photos I took over the weekend:

Some of the earliest greens from Daya's Plot

12 Week Old Teenage Polish Chickens

Looking forward to the Season,

Sharon

As the Spring Equinox approaches, and the days get longer, we here are BUG Farms are excited to be gearing up for the start of our 2012 growing season. I have lots of updates and new information about our CSA program as well!

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2012 CSA Updates

As many of you may know, we are actively seeking new and returning members for our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program for the season. The sooner you sign up, the easier it is for us to plan our space accordingly as well as purchase the many early season inputs that are needed before anything gets growing outside. Youe early commitment is dearly appreciated!

TO GO TO THE SIGN UP PAGE ON THE WEBSITE CLICK HERE

Our Home Delivery Range is still the same as last season, but we are planning on making many of our deliveris via Bicycle- Jesse just got a brand new Extracycle and our friend, CSA member, and expert builder of things Chris Gleason is building us a heavy duty bike trailer to carry loads of coolers full of veggies. We plan on splitting up the deliveries based on those that are "Up The Hill" which I will take in the truck, and those that are "In The Flats" for Jesse to take on the bike.

We also have an expanded number if pickup locations for those folks who don't want to pay the extra delivery fee. Here is the updated Pickup Location List:

• 455 W 1700 S-Mountain Valley Seed
• AVENUES-approx. 5th Ave & B St
• SUGARHOUSE- aprox. 2700 S 1800 E
• EAST DOWNTOWN- approx 1300 E 700 S
• UNIVERSITY RESEARCH PARK- Bright Horizons Day Care Center
• GLENDALE-Wasatch Cohousing- 1411 S. Utah St (1605 West)

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New CSA Add Ons!

Over the past couple of months we have also been collaborating with other food providing folks in our area so that we can have a larger proportion of your food coming from honest, community-oriented sources. So far we are excited to offer 3 new add-ons to our Veggie Share:

Fruit Share-From Riley Orchards down in Payson. Chris Riley and his brother Jordan Riley are young farmers who are taking over the reigns of their family's orchard down in Payson. They are trying to keep their land in orchard instead of selling out for development, which is a sadly increasing trend as urban sprawl spreads to the best and only fruit growing regions along the Wasatch Front. I felt like it would be a good fit to partner with them to offer their lovely fruit with our CSA Deliveries each week. Full Shares: $120 Half Shares $65

Heirloom Dry Bean Share- I LOVE Dry Beans! I have been eating them all winter and savoring in the many delicious heirloom varieties. One small company in South Central Idaho called Zursun Beans works with local farmers to provide an extensive variety of beans and lentils. I spent a long time picking out the most unique and tasty varieties to offer in the CSA Share. Full Shares $120 Half Shares $65

Organic Grain Share- We are excited to be working with Holy Grains, a small milling company that focuses on small batches of the freshest milled organic grains here in Salt Lake! It is the only small mill I have heard of in our City, and I am looking forward to collaborating with them more as we grow our first batch of grains this season. In the meantime, they source organic grains from as nearby as possible and freshly mill up lovely flours and mixes from a large variety of different grains. Pricing TBA

If you have already signed up and would like to include an add-on to your share, send me and email at bugfarms@gmail.com and I will add it on for you. Otherwise, you can easily add these options when you go through the CSA Sign Up process on our website here!

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Help Us Spread The Good Word (And Get a Share Discount)!

For Home Delivery members,we are specifically hoping to get "clusters" of members in the same area, it makes our delivery runs more efficient. In order to promote that, we are offering a $50 discount on your share for each new member you can recruit within a block of your house. So if you recruit 2 of your neighbors to sign up, you will recieve a $100 discount on your CSA share. You will also be promoting neighborliness with other folks who live near you, what could be wrong with that? Send us an email for CSA Flyers that can help you in our neighborhood CSA Member Recruiting!

We would also greatly appreciate any help you can provide in spreading the word about our CSA Program, this is a community endeavor, and we hope you are as excited about our urban farming project as we are. Feel free to pass this email on to anyone you think might be interested in the CSA this year.

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Lastly, I wanted to share my gratitude for the many of you who donated to make Grain School a reality for Jesse and I this winter. We made so many good connections with other farmers and small scale grain experts from across the country. We also had our minds blown by the variety of grains and the depth of skill it takes to pull off a sustainable grain crop rotation. Although our plans are still coalescing, we are excited to be starting our experimentation on urban grain growing this season.

Here are some of the heirloom grains we learned about in Grain School at Native Seed/SEARCH in Tucson, AZ!

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Whew! That was a lot packed into one email. I hope you are all doing well, and look forward to updates about the farm as the weather warms and we get to planting your lovely CSA Crops.

Until then,

Farmer Sharon

Now that the growing season is over, and have had a nice holiday break, we are rolling into the planning and transition stage of the season. Every day the sun stays in the sky a little bit longer, and we are gathering our energy and wits to make the 2012 season the best harvest season yet! I am currently spending a few weeks in Arizona with family here, and then heading to Tucson to attend Native Seed/SEARCH's Grain School in the hopes to be growing backyard plots of grains for this coming season and beyond.

With all of this planning and transition going on, I wanted to remind those of you thinking about joining our CSA program for 2012 of our Early Bird Discount which will end in a few short days on December 31, 2011. Those of you who sign up by the end of the year will recieve $100 off the Full Share Price and $50 off the Half Share Price.

To Sign Up For Early Bird CSA Pricing, Click Here!

http://www.backyardurbangardens.com/members

Another note about changes for the 2012 Season is that we are increasing the price of Home/Office Delivery Shares to reflect the extra time and/or fuel it takes to make these deliveries, so make sure you choose the type that suits your needs and budget. We have increased the delivery price so that the delivery charge is only an extra $4 per week to get your veggies taken straight to your door.

But for those of you wanting the Pickup Option, we have locked in 3 Pickup Locations so far including:

• University/East Bench Area: Bright Horizons at U of U Research Park
• East Downtown Area: Home near 1300 E 700 S
• Mountain Valley Seed Co.: 455 W 1700 S (Near Costco)

Also we are looking for Pickup Hosts in these SLC Neighborhoods:

• Sugarhouse
• Avenues
• Downtown/Liberty Wells

*If you become a pickup host, you will recieve an additional $100 off your full share price. Contact me (Sharon) for more details about becoming a Pickup Host at bugfarms@gmail.com.

To learn more about what our CSA Program offers, check out our CSA description page here:

http://www.backyardurbangardens.com/content/8993

I hope some of you take the leap to join our CSA Program, it does a lot to support the transformation of urban land into productive food growing space. Not to mention all of the tasty, fresh, and grown with love veggies you will recieve all season : )

Until Next Time,

Sharon

Happy Final Veggie Delivery Greetings!

Well, it certainly feels like winter is quickly approaching! It got down to 22 degrees last night out here in Glendale. We had to wait until 10:30 this morning for the frost to melt off the greens so we could pick them. The microgreens suprised us by not even germinating in time this week, even though we planted them earlier than we ever had before! Today we had 10 hours and 22 minutes of daylight, only 23 minutes away from minimum amount of sunlight needed for plants to keep on growing (which is 10 hours). Despite all of these frosty days, we are still giving you a lovely final share this week! We have some pretty heirloom winter squash for you, as well as some tasty potatoes to send you off into the winter with!

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2011 In Review!

Since this is the last CSA email, I thought it would be nice to write an overview of what we grew this season. After crunching some harvest numbers in a spreadsheet, here are some of our harvest totals for the 2011 Season.

BUG Farms in 2011 Grew:

• 500 Pounds Summer Squash
• 800 Pounds Heirloom Tomatoes
• 717 Pounds of Radish Microgreens
• 700 Pounds Greens (Spinach, arugula, mustards, lettuce, etc)
• 1,000 Pounds Bunching Greens (Chard, Kale, Collards)
• 1.120 Pounds Carrots
• 2,120 Pounds Beets (Including Greens)
• 11,275 Pounds Total Food in 2011! (Over 5.5 Tonnes)

That means that each full share recieved about 150 lbs of food over the season! We ended up having 110 CSA Members this year, with 37 members having Full shares, and 73 members having Half Shares.We had 21,000 square feet of growing space, which is just over 1/2 acre spread over 7 backyards.

This season had a lot of weather related challenges, we had the wettest two months EVER in Salt Lake in April and May, which put many of our crops behind. The temps didn't warm up and soil didn't dry out until June, and all of our long season crops were outplanted about 3 weeks behind schedule. We did have a very mild summer, with only one day reaching over 100 degrees! The fall overall has been quite stable with fairly average temperatures allowing for a nice late harvest.

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New Delivery Changes For The 2012 CSA

We are really looking forward to next season, lot of exciting changes coming our way. As I have been writing about, we will be relocating all of our farming activities from Sugarhouse to backyards out in Glendale. I am settling into my new house in Wasatch Commons quite nicely, and look forward to walking out to my backyard farms, walk-in cooler, and chicken coops instead of having to drive to them all! We had to drive an average of 35 miles everyday to get around between our plots, and next year we hope to only have to drive for some of our CSA deliveries.

Speaking of CSA Deliveries, we are seriously looking at minimizing our driving miles next year, and have a couple of awesome, heavy duty bike trailers lined up to do many of our deliveries via bike. We can probably only do the flat land deliveries this way (biking a 500 lb load up the Wasatch Fault would be tricky to say the least) so we will be using the truck to do "Up The Hill" deliveries. So, when you sign up for your share for next season, just choose either "Up The Hill" or "In the Flats" to delineate your delivery neighborhood. Also, because of the time/fuel it takes to do home deliveries, we are planning on adding a delivery fee ($100 extra for  Full Share, $50 extra for 1/2 Share) for those who are choosing that option. BUT if you are a returning member, and you sign up and give us a $100 downpayment before the end of the year (December 31, 2011) your delivery fee will be waived, as well as recieving the early bird discount (another $100 for full shares and $50 for half shares), making the 2012 Full Shares $500, and Half Shares $300 for early bird returning members. To recieve the delivery fee waiver, please send me an email so I can take the discount off of your membership : ) We just finished the sign up page on the website, so feel free to sign up for 2012 online here before the end of the year to get the Early Bird Pricing as well!

Become a CSA Pickup Host!

Because some folks might not be able to afford an additional delivery fee, we are planning on expanding the pickup options for next year. So, if you are interested in becoming a pickup location for other folks next year, you will recieve another $100 discount from your full share. We are looking for locations in the Avenues, Sugarhouse, East Bench/University, and Liberty Wells Neighborhoods. If you are interested, send me an email and I will give you more details!

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Thanks for your Support for Grain School!

Because of all of your generous donations, we were able to raise $700 towards tuition for attending Grain School at Native Seed/SEARCH this winter! Jesse and I will be splitting your donations to cover each of our $600 tuition, and we will hopefully be able to recieve a working scholarship for the remaining portion. We are excited to bring back small scale grain growing knowledge to start a couple of 1/2 acre fields of quinoa, wheat, and tepary beans for the 2012 season. We will keep you updated as to our plans of the grain vein : ) Oh, and to those of you who donated, we will be bringing you some tasty homemade jam in your deliveries this week!

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I know this is a looong email, but there are lots of juicy end of season tidbits to share. I will be making a quick CSA survey so you can all voice your thought/opinions on your share this year that we will incorporate into our crop/farm plan for next year. We have learned a lot and hope to only improve with each passing year. We truly, deeply thank you for your wonderful gastronomic support this year, and hope to see you all back with the CSA next season! All right, here are the final week CSA details and recipes, enjoy!

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Week 23 (A&B) Share
 
1 bunch Kale or Collards
1 bunch Carrots or Beets
1 bunch Swiss Chard
1 bag lettuce mix or Asian/Mustard/Arugula Mix
1 bunch Sorrel
1 bag potatoes (mixed varieties)

Winter Squash! (mixed heirloom varieties)

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Recipes

Sorrel and Potato Soup

Adapted from "Vegetable Every Day" by Jack Bishop. Thanks to CSA Member Sandra Hatch for giving me a copy!

2 Tblsps olive oil

2 leeks, or green onions, halved and sliced crosswise into thin strips

1 lb potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

4 c veggie stock

4 c sorrel, washed and chopped

Salt and Pepper

1. Heat oil in large saucepan. Add leeks/onions and saute over med heat until completely softened.
2. Add potatoes, stock, and salt and pepper to taste and bring to boil. Reduce heat, partially cover, and simmer until potatoes are extremely tender, about 30 minutes
3. Stir in sorrel and continue cooking until sorrel has wilted, 2-3 min. Adjust the seasonings. Serve hot or cool slightly, puree in a blender or with a hand blender, chill, then serve ice cold.

Baked Squash Casserole with Indian Flavors

Also from "Vegetables Every Day", add some rice and a salad and everyone will be satisfied.

2 1/2 lbs winter squash

2 Tblsp oil

2 medium onions, halved and sliced thin

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp curry powder

2 tsp minced fresh cilantro

salt

1 c coconut milk

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Use a spoon to scoop out and discard strings and seeds. Cut squash into pieces about the size of your hand. Remove the skin and a layer or two of flexh? you want to remove any whitish or green flesh right beneath the skin) with a vegetable peeler or paring knife. Cut the peeled squash into 2 inch chunks.
3. Heat oil in large skillet. Add onions nd saute over med heat until godlen, about 8 min. Add garlic and curry powder and saute until fragrant. Add squash pieces and toss just long enough to coat with the onions and curry. Season with cilantro and salt to taste. Scrape mixture into 13X9-inch bakind dish. Drizzle with coconut milk over squash.
4. Bake until squash is tender and lightly browned, about 1 hour. Let settle for several minutes and then serve

   Spaghetti Squash with Pine Nuts, Sage, and Romano

• 1 spaghetti squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
• 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
• 1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
• 2 teaspoons butter, melted
• salt and pepper to taste
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  2. Place the squash, cut side down, in a large baking dish.
  3. Bake the squash in the preheated oven for 50 minutes.
  4. Scrape flesh of squash from the rind using a fork and place in a bowl. Add the pine nuts, cheese, sage, butter, salt, and pepper; toss to combine. Serve immediately.

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There you go! Well, this is the last offical CSA Newsletter, but I will periodically be sending out emails with updates on BUG Farms. Also look out for the End of Season Survey email in the coming weeks.

Thank you for your support of BUG Farms!

Sharon

Halloweenish and Samhainesque Greetings to all of you!

Well, were on the home stretch here with the BUG Farms deliveries, and the weather is turning wintersome these days. We had a lovely time planting our first BUG Farms garlic crop last friday on a lovely sunny day. We bought 5 lbs of seed stock garlic from your farmer friend Dave Baldwin who farms down in Sandy. He gave us the variety Incheillium Red, which is the longest storing hardneck variety out there. We are starting small because seed is quite expensive, we spent close to $100 for the seed stock. Garlic is a long term crop that you continually build up year after year by selecting your fattest cloves to save for seed each season. Garlic takes 9 months from planting to maturity(like a baby!) so we will be sharing with you the first of our garlic next July. Some good things to look forward to : )

As for this week, we have the last of our hot peppers and pepperoncini's to pass out to you all. There will be radishes for everyone, I will include an adapted recipe based on what chef Ethan Lappe of Caffe Niche had us try last week when we delivered some of our radishes to them. He had them sliced paper thin on a lightly toasted piece of french style bread served with warm butter and sprinkled with Hawaiian black salt. It was the tastiest radish dish I've ever had! Our beet bunches are a bit smaller this week, the beds are starting to get thinned out, and the fall crop is still filling out.

Next week, November 2, will be the LAST CSA DELIVERY for the season. We will be delivering to everyone, to BOTH A and B half shares. We will (hopefully) go out with a bang divvying all of the long storage crops as well as the root veggies and greens. Park City deliveries are included, you will still get your delivery on Friday November 3 : ) I will also try to compile a season summary in next week's email, so stay tuned for that too!

Now here's your share this week:

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Week 22 (B) Share
 
1 bag Microgreens
1 bunch Beets
1 bunch Swiss Chard
1 bag Baby Red Russian Kale (tender enough for a salad)
1 bunch Radishes (Purple Plum, Pink Beauty, or French Breakfast)
Pepers (Serrano, Jalapeno, Anaheim, or Pepperoncini

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Caffe Niche-esque Radish Toasty Heaven (adapted from a what Ethan Lappe made at Caffe Niche for me last week!)

For 4 slices of toast

• 1-2 medium radishes, sliced paper thin
• 1 Tbsp butter, melted
• 4 slices of good french-style bread, something crusty but soft with a good crumb, toasted lightly
• 1/2 tsp Hawaiian Black Salt, or another fancy salt

Sharon's Tasty Baby Kale Salad (I made this tonight for dinner!)

• 1 Bag Baby Kale
• 1 handful microgreens
• 1 small beet, grated raw
• Sunflower seeds or other nuts, toasted
• 2 oz crumbled Feta(Drake Farms has a tasty goat feta that I used)

Shake together in mason jar for dressing:

• 1-2 Tbsp good Olive Oil
• 1-2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
• 1 tsp granulated kelp
• 1 tsp flax oil
• 1 tsp Bragg's Organic Sprinkle Herb mix
• Salt to taste

This luxurious pizza is topped with tender caramelized onions spread over a creamy mixture of ricotta, Parmesan cheese and chopped Swiss chard

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 1/4 pounds onions, sliced

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves

2 garlic cloves, minced

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1/2 pound chard, stemmed, leaves washed

1 14-inch pizza crust (1/2 batch pizza dough)

3/4 cup ricotta (6 ounces)

2 ounces Parmesan, grated (1/2 cup, tightly packed)

1 egg yolk

1. Thirty minutes before baking the pizza, preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large, heavy skillet. Add the onions. Cook, stirring often, until tender and just beginning to color, about 10 minutes. Add the thyme, garlic and a generous pinch of salt. Turn the heat to low, cover and cook another 10 to 20 minutes, stirring often, until the onions are golden brown and very sweet and soft. Remove from the heat.

2. While the onions are cooking, stem and wash the chard leaves, and bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Fill a medium bowl with ice water. When the water comes to a boil, salt generously and add the chard. Blanch for one to two minutes, just until the leaves are tender, and transfer to the ice water. Drain and squeeze out excess water. Alternatively, steam the chard for two to three minutes until wilted, and rinse with cold water. Chop the chard medium-fine.

3. Roll out the dough, oil a 14-inch pizza pan and dust with cornmeal or semolina. Place the dough on the pan.

4. In a medium bowl, combine the ricotta, egg yolk, Parmesan and chard. Spread over the pizza dough in an even layer, leaving a 1-inch border around the rim. Spread the onions over the ricotta mixture.

5. Place in the hot oven, and bake 10 to 15 minutes until the crust and bits of the onion are nicely browned. Remove from the heat, and serve hot or warm.

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Well, until next (and last!) week,

Sharon