This week, there are two pounds of Farmer Paul, JenEhr broccoli in your share.  Over the course of the past 17 years of doing CSA, we hear two things about our broccoli:

  1. More
  2. WOW!!!

Not spoofing you about how good the broccoli tastes.  And why? you might ask.  As all things here at JenEhr, it starts with the soil.  It seems that the prairie soil on this farm is perfect for growing broccoli.  Then, Farmer Paul adds the love.  There is no other vegetable that Paul loves to grow as much as broccoli.  When the harvest finally starts, he bounds out of bed before even the sun, hurriedly brewing his first cup of coffee before striding out to the packshed, gathering up his yellow waterproof apron, loading the bins into the “mule”, and heading out to the field, knife and sharpener at hand.  Every other morning during harvest, Farmer Paul will start the cutting of hundreds of pounds of that delicious broccoli, destined for your CSA share, our farmers market stands and the store shelves at Willy St. Coop in Madison and the four Outpost stores in Milwaukee

 

One of the buyers at our customer stores emailed – “Please send us more of that crazy beautiful broccoli.”  There is that much excitement around the farm when broccoli starts. This unusually cool July helps grow such beautiful and tasty broccoli.

 

The tomatoes on the other hand are hanging out in the hoophouses and haygroves, just waiting for the warm days promised the beginning of this week.  Son Isaac has a book called “Click Clack Moo”, where the cows, chickens and ducks, with the aid of a typewriter, demand electric blankets and a diving board.  Instead of the book’s ransomed “No milk, No eggs, Farmer Brown was furious”  I hear the click clack of the tomatoes typing – more heat, PLEASE.  We’re all hoping that hot temperatures this week will cause the tomatoes to pop, bringing on an abundance in your weekly share.  From past seasons, I can only remind you that it is well worth the wait.

 

Radish – OR????  Is featured in the what’s in your share this week list.  That OR could be French breakfast radishes, OR summer squash  OR cucumbers.  There aren’t enough of each item to offer up to everyone, so we’ll mix it up this week, providing a little bit of a surprise in your share.

 

Vegetable Art

Hello Kay,

I've enjoyed the JenEhr newsletter for some time, especially the recent one that gave mention to Madison's Art Fair on the Square and drew attention to the beautiful colors, shapes and textures to be found in organic produce.

I myself am a painter and also have a newsletter, which in the past couple of issues has featured spring still lifes of JenEhr's beautiful produce. I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the paintings both in the newsletter forwarded below and at my website (http://www.bethstoddard.com/still-life.html).  Thanks for inspiring good eating as well as fine art!

Cheers,

Beth