Lloyd Craft Farms Fresh Produce, Locally Grown

Garden is growing and going…zucchini, true to form, is the first and we are seeing little tiny, itzy-bitzy Zephyr and zucchini fruits.  Early potatoes are blooming and probably making some new potatoes in the darkness of the soil.  Green onions will be ready then, as will be the Salanova.  Bok Choi should be full size for the first share, though the leaves look like lace because of the flea beetles.  Swiss chard, kale, and salad turnips….maybe some baby carrots…will be part of the first offerings from the garden.  Set aside July 14th for the first trip to the farm for your share–stay tuned for more information.

FYI–Membership is closed at around 120 members:  90 in our local communities and 30 in Casper.  I hope to get the confirmation letters with details in the mail next week. 

Gotta go!  Time has slipped by– The Farmer’s Wife

We are checking inventory tomorrow morning and restocking the cooler for sale on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday @ BEE HEALTHY!

Spinach– 5 oz bags………..$3.25

Salanova Lettuce– Lots of Crunch!– 1 to 2 heads per bag……$2.50

Kale— bags of small to medium leaves– Green and Red Mix……….$1.50 per bag

More Peas-– 1# bag….picking Tuesday morning……..$5.25

Maybe Radishes—fresh tops, red round, slightly hot (heat)….$1.50 bundle

Come and check it out!– Only for the month of June–

The Farmer’s Wife

Fresh Salanova, Spinach, and 13 bags of Snap Peas!  Now stocked at Bee Healthy–  We will be adding Bagged Baby Kale for $1.50 later today.

Salanova this week is mostly full heads of Red Crisp, a couple of the bags of Red and Green Crisp, and one bag Green Butter and Red Butter.

Fresh lettuce should be washed in cold, cold water–let it sit for 3-5 minutes to ‘clear the juices’…this moves the white milk out of the stem and leaves and should remove any bitterness.  We harvest in the morning when the juices are in the roots–BUT all lettuce can be bitter depending on variety, time of harvest, and heat.

Once washed (and cut apart for easier cleaning) then spin dry, and bag.  Store in refrigerator.  Fresh lettuce will keep a week to ten days at the coldest temperatures without freezing.   

We will be restocking on Wednesday’s and supplying greens only for the month of June–   The Farmer’s Wife

This is the story of lettuce—according to the CDC (US Center for Disease Control) as told by Huffington Post—

SUPERFOOD #7 Leaf Lettuce- 

Nutrition Score: 70.73

The nutritional Clark Kent of the salad bar, this common and unsuspecting leafy green is ready to take its place among the superfoods. Two generous cups of lettuce provides 100 percent of your daily vitamin K requirement for strong, healthy bones. A report from the Nurses’ Health Study suggests that women who eat a serving of lettuce every day cut the risk of hip fracture by 30 percent than when compared with eating just one serving a week.

20 more bags of Salanova Wednesday at Bee Healthy–full heads this week, instead of the smaller green and red duo.  **Salanova is a variety of lettuce developed by Johnny’s Select Seed.  I love it because it holds its crunch and is easy to rinse, separate leaves, and bag.  In the garden it grows in nice compact heads that we can plant denser.  It is an aphid magnet and we are taking all steps to cover it with an insect netting…so far, so good…a little early in the season for aphids, but the heat next week may change that!**

More Spinach–not as much, the heat slows spinach down–and some bags of Baby Scarlet Kale.  Kale is #15 according to the CDC, and Spinach #5…  we are also set to harvest Snap Peas–should have several bags for $5/bag!    🙂

The Farmer’s Wife

We are winding down with planting the garden…and WINDING UP with weeding and thinning and watering!  At the end of next week the second waive of transplants will be in–celery and celeriac, mid-season cabbages, broccoli, and cauliflower…

Planting is going well with one setback–We had to cancel the Sweet Potato order that was placed in March.  Virginia had rains that delayed their production of slips (sweet potato starts).  Sweet Potatoes are a tropical and need 100-120 days to mature.  We missed the window of opportunity to plant so they could mature before the first frost!

Not to be totally sad though…we ordered 96 slips from another producer…they are en route via Fed Ex to be delivered next Tuesday.  Who knows what they will look like when they get here–either a slimy ball or a bundle of stems with hair roots and a couple of baby leaves on top??  But if good and they mature, they are Japanese Murasaki–purple skin and light flesh.  If they make, these will go exclusively to the CSA.  If we get them cured right, they will store into the winter and be available for Buyer’s Group.  

Hope to get receipts and vouchers mailed to all the CSA Members.  I haven’t officially closed the CSA and have been accepting last minute members as I wait for down-payments from a block of prospective members.  I will close the membership on June 10th, so if you know someone that is interested but hasn’t got off the fence, let them know now is the time to make that leap into the world of fresh, locally grown produce!  (Sounds kinda corny, but then sometimes I am–!)  

The Farmer’s Wife