Maple Spring Garden CSA

For years John and I have been talking about joining a CSA. For those of you that are not familiar with the term, it stands for Community Supported Agriculture. We go to the Durham farmers market each Saturday to buy produce, but sometimes we (and by we, I mean John) have a hard time getting up on Saturday morning to get to the market before all the good produce is sold. We sometimes find ourselves busy on a Saturday morning and cannot make it to the market and a CSA gives us an option for fresh, local produce even no matter our Saturday plans. We will continue to make regular trips to the market to support our  favorite farmers like Piedmont Biofarm, Maple Spring Garden Gardens, Tiny Farm, Four Leaf Farm, and Wild Scallions.  


CSA's and the Durham farmers market appealing to us because all of the farms that sell must have their farm within 75 miles of the market. Therefore, truly selling local food. For the past six years, we have made it a point to purchase as much produce as we can locally. We want to support the local economy, reduce our impact on the environment, know where our food comes, and to be part of our local community. We only purchase from farmers that refrain from selling meat and engage in farming practices that are healthful to the environment (for example, none of the farmers we buy from use pesticides). 


After the advice from friends, we decided to go with Maple Spring Garden CSA. They run a traditional CSA where you can purchase a small or large share and you pick up your order at a specified location each week. We decided to go with a CSA that picked the produce for us. We are not picky when it comes to produce, so we appreciate the surprise each week. It has now been four weeks and we have been impressed with our boxes. We have received broccoli, asparagus, strawberries, turnips, Bibb lettuce, romaine lettuce, red leaf lettuce, kale, spinach, Swiss chard, arugula, spring mix, leeks, and onions. All of which we have used throughout the week in our meals. 

Our box this week: spring mix, red leaf lettuce, Swiss chard, strawberries, and broccoli

 You don't have to be vegan to enjoy a CSA, it is for anyone. No matter who you are, I recommend you check out a local CSA. Beware though, there are companies that say that they are CSA's, but they provide produce from far away. Stick with those that provide only local produce, preferably from their own farm. I like to know where my produce is coming from and with Maple Spring Garden, I know that they follow organic practices, even though they are not certified as organic. 

Our box last week: turnips, Bibb lettuce, spring mix, arugula, and strawberries

Enjoy your fruits and vegetables! Happy Spring!

Our Small, Abundant Garden

It is summer here (well, not officially) and everything is growing fast! By May, we were hitting temperatures in the 90's. This could have caused drought conditions, but we have received an abundance of rain. Our little garden couldn't be happier and we have a large supply of rainwater waiting in our rain barrels.

Since I have taken these pictures, the lettuce has begun to bolt. Those of you not familiar with lettuce, that means that they have shot up several inches and are preparing to seed. This is our first year growing lettuce so I can't miss the opportunity to collect the seeds and save them for next spring. While it is preparing to seed, we can still eat it, but it is beginning to get bitter.

I am so anxious for our tomato and pepper plants to begin bearing fruit. Since this picture was taken, the stalks have grown about 5 inches. We have one cayenne pepper and the rest are bell peppers. This is our first year growing tomatoes in the ground and we forgot to take note of the variety of tomatoes. Luckily, we like all varieties of tomatoes.

When we start the garden next year, we plan to do some things differently:

• Start earlier. This depends on the weather, but seeds can be germinated indoors.
  
• Take note of all of the varieties of fruits/veggies that we plant.
• Eat our lettuce before it starts getting so hot out.
• Group our tomato and pepper plants together. I tried to do this, but I did not do so well. :)
• Label the name and location of each row of seeds. It is hard for us to determine the weeds, since we did not make clear, distinct rows.
  

All in all, I think this was an awesome first attempt! We have used organic soil and mostly organic seeds. I am pleased with the results.

We Have Sprouts!

We bought our first home late last May. By the time we moved in, unpacked, and got back to normal life, it was too hot to plant. Besides, we had a whole list of projects that had to come first (staining the deck, putting up shelves, painting, etc).

Since last summer, we have been talking about planting a garden. We designated a place in our yard, but decided to wait until the weather warmed up. We finally got around to it this year on a warm, sunny, Saturday. We found an area in the back yard and created a bed that is about two feet wide and ten feet long. On the right side of the bed, I planted three different type of already sprouted lettuce (red leaf, green lead, and romaine). I bought these beauties at the Durham Farmer's Market for $3. They will produce about $25 worth of lettuce. This was a good deal! On the left side of the bed we planted tomato and pepper seeds. They have not sprouted yet, but I have high hopes.


In addition to our yard, we also planted many things on the deck in pots. For the past couple of years our oregano, chives, thyme, and mint that have come back. We also added new plants that we purchased from the farmers market. We got basil plants, Italian parsley, and kale. I planted the parsley and in a couple of days, it exploded into more green!


Lastly, and most excitedly, I planted basil seeds. I planted three different types of seeds and within a week, they have ALL started to sprout! Since taking this picture they have doubled in size and in amount of sprouts.

Watching the seeds grow is like watching a small miracle. They started from a seed and now that are little sprouts that will soon be large plants.

Happy Spring!