Week 2

This Week’s Share:

Lettuce: Ermosa, Cherokee, Red Saladbowl

Sugar Snap Peas: Sugar Sprint

Strawberries: Seascape

Kale: Dinosaur, True Siberian

Dill: Hercules

Basil: Nufar

Scallions: White Spear

Beets: Red Ace

Sneak Peak for Next Week:

More New Potatoes

Salad Mix…

Shooting

STAR

CSA

June 11^th, 2009 (Week 2)

CERTIFIED ORGANIC!

As of June 4, 2009, Shooting Star CSA is officially Certified Organic! We now have two CCOF bumper stickers and a certificate to wave around during parties. Our inspector told us that we have the first certified organic row crops in the Suisun Valley. Being certified organic means that all our plants are clean of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, GMO free, and that we have a healthy plan for taking care of our crops and the soil. Many farms choose not to be certified even though they grow organically because it is a costly and bureaucratic process (we will have spent over $1,000 on certification for the year when it is all said and done), but as a new farm we feel that being certified will help us reach more people and establish credibility. Neither of us had ever gone through the certification process before and it turned out to be not as bad as we thought, although it was a giant stack of paperwork to fill out. One if the requirements is that you have to keep good records of everything that is planted, fertilized, harvested and sold. Sometimes this can be a pain in the butt, but it is helping us to record things that we are doing this year so that we can figure out how to farm better next year.

Lily and I are working hard and loving it. We started farmers markets last week (we are doing four!) so that is taking up a lot of our time. The surprisingly cool weather has been good for the broccoli and cabbage we have in the ground. The fog stops a few miles short of the farm so our tomatoes, melons and eggplants get plenty of sun here. Thank you all for a great first week, we really appreciated all of the enthusiastic vegetable fan mail!

Crop Notes

Beets: These are the first beets of the season. We are planting them every 2 ½ weeks so we can harvest them all season long. The greens can be eaten just like chard, they are actually the same species, one has just been developed for its root and the other for its leaves. I usually boil them and eat them in salads, or grate them into salads raw. See the recipe below.

Basil: We didn’t expect to have basil this early in the season but we sure do have a lot of it! We hope you will make some pesto with it. Storage tip: basil does not like to be refrigerated. The best way that I know to store it is to put it in a plastic bag and seal it to make a “bubble.” Basil will store for over a week on your counter in its bubble!

Strawberries: First of the season! They are so good.

Recipes:

Pesto:

There are so many different recipes for pesto, and everyone has their own special way to make it. I am going to give a few suggestions and let you be creative. I like to freeze what I don’t use.

Ingredients:

Basil leaves

Olive oil

Lemon juice- don’t be shy!

Nuts- traditionally pine nuts are used but any nut can be substituted. I like walnuts, and roasted sunflower seeds are especially good.

Parmesan cheese- if you want to try something new, leave out the cheese. The basil has a much stronger flavor without it.

Garlic

Salt- if you are leaving out the cheese be sure to put in enough salt.

Roasted Beets with honey and dill

1 bunch beets

olive oil

1-2 Tbs honey

2 Tbs balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper

fresh Dill, chopped

Preheat oven to 425. Chop beets into pieces, toss with olive oil, honey, vinegar, salt and pepper. Roast until beets are tender, at least ½ hour. After removing from the oven, stir in fresh dill.

Shooting Star CSA PO Box 3087 Fairfield, CA 94533 shootingstarcsa@gmail.com