This week you'll be getting:
- Salad Mix
- Spinach
- Garlic Scapes
- Radishes
- Kale
A new recipe that I've read on several blogs lately is something called Kale Chips. Basically it's seasoned kale cooked in the oven until crisp. A healthy alternative to the potato chip. It sounds interesting and I want to try it.
I also posted a new recipe for Garlic Ginger Colcannon, provided by a CSA member. The ingredient list includes spinach and garlic scapes, which are both in your share this week.
If you are new to our CSA, you may not be familiar with garlic scapes. I've written about them several times on this blog in years past: in 2008 and 2007. We have more explanations and several recipes here.
This past week we finally got the chicken tractor fixed up and put into use.
Shain explains the benefits of using a chicken tractor in an article he wrote last year entitled Soil Fertility (scroll down to the subject line "Management Intensive Grazing".)
One of our handy CSA members built this for us last year. But it ended up being a too large and heavy for us to move around very easily. So it was parked near the chicken coup and there it stayed. Until now. This weekend this chicken tractor got revamped and put into use. Here, the tractor is situated above an old row of salad greens. Each day it gets moved down one length to a new section of greens. The chickens then eat the greens, weeds and bugs in that area. All the while they are fertilizing the soil with their droppings. It is difficult to see in the photo, but to the left of the tractor is the section of greens they have already demolished. To the right, is the salad bed we've already harvested from for a few weeks which is now too big and bitter for our liking. In 24 hours the chickens will eat everthing inside their movable coup down to a stubble.
We have another version of a chicken tractor being made for us this week. It will be smaller and lighter to move around. If this new design works, we'll have several more made. We'll also have some very happy chickens and incredible tasting eggs.
Shain taught me something new this week that I thought I'd pass on to you. Are you aware of the affect lightning has on the growth of plants? We all know how well outdoor plants grow after a good rain, but it's the lightning storms that can really make the plants grow. Here's your lesson for the day: (I took much of this information from the internet so I could explain it to you accurately.)
1. Plants need nitrogen to grow well. In fact, it is a primary nutrient for all green plants.
2. Nitrogen is the most abundant element in the air around us. However, it is in a form plants can't use, it must be modified to be made readily usable to most living systems.
3. Lightning changes nitrogen in the air into a form plants can use.
4.. The enormous energy of lightning breaks nitrogen molecules and enables their atoms to combine with oxygen in the air forming nitogen oxides. These dissolve in the rain, forming nitrates, which are then carried down to the earth. This process is called atmospheric nitrogen fixation.
Interesting. At least is was to me. And now you can say you learned something new today.
Have a great week and enjoy your veggies.
Tara
Comments