Day 33

Ended. 9:00pm is a new kind of late when you start at 8 in the morning. CSA happened. We kind of had enough vegetables. Well, here's what went down...
The plan was to have two bunches of turnips, red and white, only we didn't have enough so it became one bunch, and some not so great quality. We ran out of asparagus so some boxes had two pints of strawberry. Also, there's a swap box for customers, if you don't want a veggie and see something in the box you like more, you swap! Swap Box real time update: no one swapped, the last guy wanted to buy the whole swap box, Cory gave it to him.
Alright Kathy, whatever, how'd you guys pack that many boxes? Good question, we went assembly style and had people at each station. I started the boxes on one end and put in the red cabbage and onions, Jason did the turnips and garlic, Erica the kale and I can't remember, Erica did you only put in kale, geez! <correction Erica put in the herbs too> Cory put in the strawberries, asparagus and lettuce while Daniel closed boxes and put them in the cooler. 
On a sad note, we didn't get any turnips in our CSA box. So we had another pint of strawberries to supplement. Until Chef Andrew came and asked for some...no more second strawberry pint, and to think I wanted to meet him and he stole our strawberries! Cory said next week will be even more scarce so we may have to buy some vegetables from Nicholas, we might end up with a box of lettuce for ours next week.
Erica, Cory and I went to all the drop off points and met the members, explaining what was in the box and how to use it. The box ended up including: Strawberries, Asparagus, Hakurei and Red Queen Turnips, Red Cabbage, Kale, Bulbing Spring Onions (Vidalia), Green Garlic, Red Lettuce, Romaine, Herb Medley of Sage, Mint, and Catmint.

Yes Please!

  I thought I would impart some of my farmgirl knowledge giving you the inside secret's revealed scoop here to help out with your farmer's market visits, so prepare to be impressed ;)

Best Practices for Picking out Organic Fruits and Veggies (Season 1):

• Strawberries- Think Large We put the large ones on top to psyche you out into thinking they all look like that (ahem, variety Cory calls it), but small ones are on bottom kids so make sure at least the top ones are big and check out the rest while you're at it. If they are too ripe they can turn a pink color, Just say no to mush. You want the entire strawberry to be red, the green parts are too hard. Also, Check for bug bites! And always, ALWAYS wash your fruit. We rinse them, but that doesn't get everything and organic isn't like a sterile grocery store. You won't get chemicals and pesticides in your food but you might get some sand with your fruit if they don't get a strawberry bath.

• Asparagus- If these guys are budding up and separating from the stem (flowering), it's too late, we're not here for a show Asparagus, keep it together. The saying is true with these dudes, size matters, bigger the better. The small ones are more fibrous, more chewy and by chewy I mean you can chew on it until 2024. If your asparagus is bendable, it's expendable (who knew I could come up with catch phrases at 10pm, not funny ones, but I'll take it).

• Turnips-  Check the roots for bug damage, if you see any imperfection chances are it's from a bug and shouldn't have made it to you. Size here again, look for larger turnips which signifies a healthy crop and that the farmer could successfully let them mature. At farmer's market not everything is weighed exactly perfect, so get there early and pick out the most bountiful bunch!