SP24 (W6): The Weeds are Waking Up…

Apr 8

*after, courtesy of 100% pure farmer elbow grease*

Dear Farm Community -

These beautiful warm days are waking up a lot more than birds, frogs, and farmers - the weeds have returned in full force! This past week the whole crew devoted lots of time combatting the increasing weed pressure that comes with the warmer weather. Lots of time on our knees hand-weeding between plants, and our summer muscles are coming in as we scuffle-hoe and wheel-hoe to keep grasses in check. (Take a look at the before and after of our Bellflower bed below!!) Our resident irrigation whiz Anna worked on some irrigation projects and the whole team pitched in moving some silage tarps (did y’all notice the insane wind this week?? Our silage tarps sure did). Our fields are lookin’ a little more tidy and we’re ramping up for good things to come!

CSA members, you have an absolute trove of good things in your shares this week. Carrots! Asparagus! Strawberries! Arugula and more! It’s almost too good to be true! This Strawberry-Arugula Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette can easily serve as a light main course, or take a more savory approach with this Tuscan Tuna Salad with Arugula & White Beans. Arugula can also be wilted and eaten as a savory hot side - try this recipe and make use of your green garlic by slicing it thinly and subbing it in for the garlic cloves. The texture of the green garlic really elevates it to restaurant-level!

Of course strawberries are one of the most fun items we have to play around with, the possibilities truly endless! With our strawberry plants absolutely exploding with berries right now and weeks of sweetness on the horizon, we’d love to celebrate Strawberry Madness in a sweet little way. If you have a favorite or dear-to-your-heart strawberry-centric recipe, reply to this email (photos of your creations encouraged!) and we’ll include them in next week’s newsletter. Hopefully this will be a fun and delicious way to connect over something so sweet!

Happy Eating :)
Diamond Hill Farmers

P.S. This week’s frog count: 5 !!

Find out what’s so sweet about CSA: