Harmony Valley Farm

I recently had a chance to help the great team at Riverbend Farm in Delano, MN pick and pack their weekly CSA/farmshare harvest (they produce 80 shares each week). Riverbend is a terrific, well-respected farm, which provides foods to many local Twin Cities restaurants, including the Birchwood Cafe, Common Roots, Corner Table, and many others. Here are the photos I took, along with a few notes from the day.

How is it that we ran out of nearly everything this week? I'll admit that the amaranth wilted before we had a chance to try it (entirely our fault), but we enjoyed all sorts of salads, veggie skewers, and other fine meals this week (my wife added chard, breadcrumbs, and locally-raised bacon to our pasta tonight and it was fantastic), even eating our way through our entire fruit share.

In any case, we're thrilled that this week's box of fresh foods comes today, partly because our refrigerator is bare, and partly because my mom and step-dad are in town from Florida, and I've been talking up Harmony Valley's CSA. (I've frozen some rhubarb, and cobbler definitely is on the menu.) Here's what we're getting with a photo, descriptions, and ideas for preparation directly from the good folks at Harmony Valley Farm:

Here are the contents of this week’s box, along with notes, suggestions, and a picture from Harmony Valley Farm. I’m exceedingly happy to be getting sugar snap peas and summer squash this week, and I’m committed to making garlic scape pesto too. Slightly bummed that there’s no fruit share this week, especially since I’ve started squeezing my own orange juice. Oh well, more strawberries!

After all of this blogging about the local, organic Minnesota food we’ve been getting from the Harmony Valley Farm CSA, I’m excited to finally get the chance to visit the place. Harmony Valley has named Sunday, June 21 Strawberry Day, offering farm tours, strawberry picking, and other fun activities for the whole family from noon to 6 pm. Here are the details of the event, straight from the Harmony Valley site:

Has it already been a week? Can you tell from the bigger that the bounty is getting bigger? It's much harder to make our way through an entire box of local, sustainable, organic fresh produce - no matter how wonderful - when we spend part of the week out of town (as we did last week). Lucky for us there's always a line up of family, friends, and neighbors willing to take an extra bag of spinach, green garlic, or bok choy off our hands in a pinch. Why is it so hard to let these treasures go?

Thanks to Good Life Catering, I no longer fear vast quantities of rhubarb. Now that I can make a rhubarb margarita, I say "bring it on!" Thank goodness, because more rhubarb is on the way. Here's a list of what I'll be getting from my Harmony Valley CSA today, along with descriptions and advice straight from the Harmony Valley newsletter:

I've been a CSA member for a whole entire week now. Here's what I've learned:

The waiting is finally over. On my way home from work tonight, I'll be picking up my CSA box from Harmony Valley Farm. Here's what I'm expecting to pick up (direct from Harmony Valley's "What's In The Box" email newsletter):

My friend Doug sent me a great article from Slate the other day, written by Catherine Price.

My friend Jim suggested this post, and I'm glad he did. He's apprehensive about joining a CSA; he seems especially concerned that he'll end up with 200 boxes of radishes. Here's a month-by-month listing (from the Harmony Valley Farm website) that lists the vegetables (and occasional fruits) that will be coming from the Harmony Valley Farm CSA, located in Wisconsin.