A day in the life of harvesting

We spent this morning harvesting, which we do throughout the week. It’s a great way to jump start our mornings and awaken our sense of farming. Being out in the fields while the sun is starting to peak and the dew is glistening on the plants is just beautiful. These are the days I love farm life!
This morning we all jumped in the back of Andy’s truck and recapped on what’s going on in everyone’s life. We all live very different lives, but as soon as we step onto the farm, we come together. Between jokes and helping hands, we are our own crazy little Sol Flower Family.
Andy drove us down Wiltsie Bridge Road on the back of his truck, letting the wind act as a caffeine boost. We arrived in the fields and unpacked the truck of our harvesting tools. There is usually one person we designate in charge of numbers prior to harvesting. They let us know how many of each vegetable and variety we need to harvest and tell us when we have cut or picked enough. This morning that person was Andy; he seemed the most awake. He yelled out the numbers and we all started picking, first starting with kale and working our way to rainbow chard. We picked leaf after luscious leaf until we each had gorgeous edible bouquets of veggies in our hands.

We filled our buckets and set them aside in the shade, diligently working toward the next variety. We were done in less than an hour. Once we finished, we packed up the truck, said goodbye to the rest of the crops and tried to find room to sit or squat as we drove back to the farm.
It seems a Sol Flower tradition to sing absurd songs loudly and out of tune while washing and packing our freshly harvested yield. Smiles across every face, our morning of harvesting is coming to an end… until tomorrow.
We harvest almost every day of the week. Mondays for the Berkshire Co-op, Tuesday for the midweek CSA, Wednesday for our restaurant orders and Thursday/Friday for the weekend at the store, CSA and farmer’s markets. As the summer rolls on, harvesting will continue to play a priority role and consume more time in our days. Makes sense, right? More crops and varieties, more harvesting. Literally from farm to table! We try to harvest the same day or only one day prior to when our produce is needed to ensure quality control. We’ve been told how vast our veggies are and how long they last. It’s great to hear that since that’s our goal.

So go enjoy that yield!! You know where we’ll be…

The CSA Bounty for this Week

Hello to all of you wonderful CSA members,

This week we have some exciting new additions to the amazing bounty of food that we will be sharing with all our CSA members. In addition to the luscious greens and succulent roots we have been providing in your shares in the couple weeks prior, we will introduce:

Mustard Greens

Scallions

Tatsoi

Baby Bok Choy

Summer Squash (If the weather warms and pushes the squash to harvest size)

As the season presses on and the nights get warmer expect us to introduce new items into your shares almost weekly. When you come to our farm to pick up your share of the bounty this week we have the potential to add FIVE new items for you all to choose from! We are working hard to produce and provide our members with the healthiest and freshest vegetables, fruits and flowers every week, so stay tuned and expect many more exciting items to pop up in your shares and at our markets.

Your Farmers at Sol Flower Farm

CSA Share Information for This Week

Hello All CSA Members!

This week we are diligently planning and preparing all of your excellent CSA Shares for Saturday pick-up. This week we have some delightful new items from last week that we're sure you will enjoy. As the heat rolls through and the sun keeps shining expect to see even more new and exciting items popping up in your CSA shares every week! This week you can expect to find:

Bright Lights Swiss Chard

Red Russian Kale

Green Curly Kale

Boston Lettuce

Romaine Lettuce

Red Leaf Lettuce

Salad Mix

Spinach

Arugula

Turnip

Radish

Have a great rest of your week and we will see you all on Saturday.

Sol Flower Crew