Contest!

The title bar now has Pennsylvania Dutch words on it. If anyone correctly posts what it says, in the comments, you get an extra share of the food of your choice this week! So quick, go ask your grandmother!

PS - For those new to blogs, you can post by clicking on the words "comments" just below.

UPDATE: Shalin won the contest! But she said her friends told her that we were missing an a -- I checked and sure enough, I had left out the a on the front of a word. Whoops! It's fixed now. No more contests on incorrect phrses!

Recipe Tuesday

If you've got any recipes or tips on how to make the foods we've been eating, add them in the comments!

There is a very interesting recipe from Sarah that she posted in the comments last week. Go check it out, it's for BEET BUNDT CAKE. It looks good! Also take note of the other one that uses pea pods and carrots.

Remember the International Food Shortage

While we are happily crunching on our farm-grown lettuce in lush, verdant, Berks County, food prices around the world have been skyrocketing. There are families around the world who live on less than $2 a day and have no margin of savings with which to buy food. Their children will be dying soon...

Let's not forget them.

Read this article for more information. Go here to find lots of ways you can help one of those families. (Or in the comments, add the links for any other good charities.)

Finally, pictures!

You may have noticed that -at last! - we've gotten pictures on our blog, just when I was starting to despair of ever getting Blogger to accept them. For some reason, no matter what I tried, Blogger was not "able" to publish my pictures. Tonight, did the stars change courses perhaps? In any case, Blogger happily and obediently published my pictures.

So. If you take pictures with your camera and they may be post-worthy, please email them to me (Melissa) at plowsharecsa@gmail.com and I will try my best to get them in. Particularly welcome would be any artistic views of the garden, and, of course, people shots!

Picking Peas

Isaiah hard at work!

Happy Birthday Farmer Rako!

Thank you
for your vision,
your leadership,
and most of all the
relentless, ox-hard WORK
you have done
to make this CSA happen.

I adore you!
~Mrs. Rako

Happiness Is

Pulling a sweet, tiny carrot out of the ground, brushing it off, and popping it in your mouth.

Knowing there are no chemicals on it or in it.

Building justice by not eating the carrots picked by an impoverished migrant worker in California.

Recipes

Since we're all eating the same things this week, has anyone stumbled on any favorite ways to use them?

What to do with Mustard Greens

Two ideas so far - feel free to add your own in the comments!

1. Rako's Kickin' Tuna Sandwich
Kind of self-explanatory, right?
Mix tuna and mayo. Add mustard greens in place of lettuce. Put it between bread - Shazam!

2. Curried Mustard Greens with Kidney Beans
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Curried-Mustard-Greens-with-Kidney-Beans/Detail.aspx
Sarah N. sent me this link, and added that it looks gross but all the reviews were great.
Thanks Sarah! Variety is always nice...

Any others?

See you Friday!

Come to the back porch of the house between 11 and 5:30 on 6/13 to pick up the garden's first yields!

(If you haven't been to the Heritage Center before, take Main Street to Luckenbill Road, which lies between KU and the Airport Diner, roughly across from the Napa store. Go down the lane and at the end you'll see the house.)

See you there!

This is Your Garden

And as shareholders, you are invited to come. Our garden has a way of awakening the senses and nourishing the soul. Under the soft sunshine of dawn, or the cool of the evening, amidst the singing birds, rich fragrances, historic buildings, and crowing rooster -- our garden is alive and ready for us.

You can come and pick peas with the kids, you can find a quiet place on the grounds to sit and read or write (we won't bother you), you can come for an evening stroll, you can cultivate the plants or do heavy work with us. But always feel free to come. You joined, you belong. It is your garden.

A Sigh of Gratitude

Last night after getting slammed by the storm, all our little plants were lying flat on the ground. This morning, they're all back upright. A little shaken up from all that ferocious wind and thunder and lightning, but standing. And as I write this, they are warm and drying, happy, well-fed. Going to be just fine.

Welcome!

We'd like to make this blog a gathering place for news, recipes, and updates for our little CSA community. We warmly welcome your contributions: recipes, links, pictures, book recommendations, anything!

You-Pick is Open

Sugar peas are now ready to be harvested. They are best when picked in the morning -- the earlier the better. Rako is there by 6 am or earlier this week. Feel free to come out anytime in the morning, or in the evening if it works better for you.

Please call us or email us if you plan to come. We'd like to show you around a bit - and we'd feel much better to know that you're picking from the right row!

Plants Report

The fields are full now and are growing so eagerly we can almost hear them! Rows and rows of young tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelons, flowers, carrots, lettuce - all sprouting and raising their little planty arms to the sun. Today they are enjoying the heat, sipping from their drip hoses, and soaking up their nutrient-rich organic soil. Not a bad life.

The corn came in a little spotty. A gang of blackbirds was seen lurking in the field pecking seeds. The missing corn has been replanted; unfortunately a couple weeks were lost there. But with forty rows of corn, there should be plenty once it's here.

In the sidebar at the left you'll see the crops we expect to be ready for this Friday. Can't wait to see you there!