Sloggin’ through the mud and still bringing you amazing vegetables!
This week we hope to bring you:
Regular Share
Green Garlic
Hakurei Turnips
Lettuce
Choice: Pea Shoots OR EE Radish
Choice: RR Kale OR Bok Choi OR Mustard Greens
Choice: Mixed Herb Bunch ORTarragon OR Mint OR Nettles OR Pea Shoots
Large Share Additions
Double Lettuce
Choice of 2: RR Kale OR Bok Choi OR Mustard Greens
Pea Shoots
We work really hard to get our greens (kale, chard, broccoli raab, collards) to you fresh and full of life. Here’s how you can keep them that way.
If you store your greens properly they will stay fresh in your refrigerator for a week. Modern frost free refrigerators have moving air that will dehydrate food uncovered, so you need to keep your greens sealed in a plastic bag, or some sort of sealed container.
When you pick up your CSA share it would be best to put your greens in a plastic bag or container immediately at the pick up. We have bags available if you forget to bring your own. If you don’t want to use plastic you can use a cloth cotton bag. You need to rewet the cloth bag every day or the greens will wilt as soon as the cloth bag dries. You don’t want to pack the greens too tightly in the any bag or squish them either. they need to be stored loosely so some air can move around the leaves.
This is a bunch of kale that was harvested Friday and kept in a plastic bag in my refrigerator for three days. It looks just like it did when it was harvested.
This is a bunch of kale that was kept in my refrigerator unwrapped for 12 hours.
I’m sorry kale. I did it for the good of the blog.
The second bunch of kale is still edible. It is just dehydrated. You could cook it and it would be fine. If I left this bunch of kale much longer uncovered it would start to get slimy. Slime happens when the cell structure breaks down and the kale starts to decompose. When that happens you don’t want to eat it.
So, sealed and wrapped greens store nicely for one week in the refrigerator and unwrapped greens store for less than one day.
We are excited to start our first week of CSA pickups!
This week we hope to bring you:
Regular Share
Egyptian Walking Onions
Hakueri Turnips
Choice: Lettuce OR Spinach OR Braising Mix
Choice: RR Kale OR Broccoli Raab OR Bok Choi
Easter Egg Radishes
Choice: Oregano OR Chives OR Sage OR Tarragon OR Mint OR Nettles
Large Share Additions
Rhubarb
Choose 2: Lettuce OR Spinach OR Braising Mix
Choose 2: RR Kale OR Broccoli Raab OR Bok Choi
Here is a unique opportunity to support our farm and farm workers! I am writing to see if anybody might have affordable housing for rent. I am trying to help out our farm workers.
Our farm workers are looking for anything from a roommate situation to a single family dwelling.
There’s a mix of people who work on our farm. Some are single, some have partners, and some have families. Some are young Americans and others are immigrants (mostly Mexican).
Some have immediate housing needs and others will need housing in the future.
Housing prices in the Denver/Boulder area are soaring and the rental market is becoming increasingly expensive. This year we are hearing more and more that our farm workers can’t afford to rent a place to live in Boulder County. I am reaching out to our community to see if I can help a few of our farm workers find something affordable. You hear a lot about supporting your local farms. Here is another way to support local farm workers!
Let me know if you have any potential rental housing. Thank you so much in advance!
We are happy to say that we are now taking CSA memberships for the 2015 CSA season! Click here to join!
You can find all the details on our website, but here’s a summary of the highlights:
Our CSA season is 23 weeks long from May 18 to October 22. In the past our CSA has been 22 weeks, so we’re excited to add an additional week!
We have four pickup locations operating from 4-7pm:
We offer several sizes for our Veggie Share:
We also offer some additional options for purchase:
We also have two new programs in 2015:
Friends of Red Wagon
Farm Worker Support
Friends of Red Wagon
New in 2015! Our Friends of Red Wagon share is for people who want to go above and beyond in supporting our farm. Let’s face it, there are so many things stacked against small farms. Do you truly value Red Wagon produce and the benefits Red Wagon brings to our community? Are you in a strong financial position? Then the Friends of Red Wagon Share is for you! You will be helping to ensure the long-term viability of Red Wagon.
Here are some of the benefits of being a Friend of Red Wagon:
–You will be allowed to take up to $40 in produce each pickup.
–You will have more flexibility in your pickup location–including being able to pick up at the Boulder farmers’ market on Saturday. Farmers’ market pickup will give you access to the full range of vegetables we harvest each week. (Note: We do not have a farmers’ market pickup option in our CSA signup. Just select a pickup location that might work for you. Once the growing season starts we will contact you to work out your pickup preferences.)
–You will have additional access to our farm and there will be additional farm events for you.
This is your way to give additional financial support to our farm. You will not receive the full dollar amount in vegetables.
Friends of Red Wagon is a new program for us. We would like to hear from you as to what benefits you would like and what you would value. Please contact us directly if you would like to discuss this program more. Send an email to Wyatt@RedWagonOrganicFarm.com.
Farm Worker Support
At Red Wagon we recognize that our farm workers are one of our biggest assets. They are the ones who grow your food and harvest it for you each week. Without our farm workers we would not be able to bring you our amazing produce.
We start our farm workers at $10/hour, which is high for farm worker pay. But realistically, this is not enough for the work they do. It is not easy being a farm worker. The work is incredibly hard, the hours are long, there is no reliable source of income in the off-season, and the list goes on and on. We try to pay our farm workers as much as we can, but the economics of food and small farms currently do not allow us to pay more.
We have had a lot of incredible farm workers over the years, but we have not been able to keep most of them at Red Wagon for more than a season or two. Most people cannot afford to live on a farm worker income. We are asking our community to help us invest in our farm workers to give Red Wagon more long-term stability.
As an example, a contribution of $10/week would increase the pay of one farm worker $230 total over the course of the CSA season. Any amount you can contribute is greatly appreciated. The money you contribute will go directly into farm worker paychecks.
We want to be transparent and accountable in our endeavor to financially support our farm workers. Please contact us if you would like to be on a committee to help monitor our Farm Worker Support program.
For all the details on our 2015 CSA please see our website. We hope you will join us for a delicious season!
What is “good food”?
Is “good food” important? Why?
Where does “good food” come from?
I never make new year’s resolutions. But this year I am making one and it is one I am going to keep. In 2015 I resolve to engage people more in conversations about “good food”.
I am starting out with a series of questions, beginning with the questions above. You can just think about these questions on your own. Or I would love for you to share your thoughts. You can do that by commenting on this blog post. You can also post your thoughts on our Facebook page.
I look forward to hearing your responses and continuing with more questions.
Amy