Welcome to the 2006 Serenbe Farms CSA! We’re happy to have you on board. This season is sure to be a success, we’ve already harvested over 600lbs of food! While the CSA has just begun, the Serenbe Farms’ team has been busy for months. This process started early December when I began strategically planning the season, from planting dates, fertility issues, crop rotations, to learning about bugs, finding apprentices, and so on. Around the middle of March, two amazing folks started their apprenticeships here. We now have a great Serenbe Farms team that is full of energy and ready to create a beautiful farm environment and bountiful harvests.

I’m the new farm manager this season at Serenbe Farms. Farmer D (farmer at Serenbe last season) hired me on late last fall. Previous to this farming operation, I successfully managed a large (200+) member CSA in the Hudson Valley Region of New York.

I fell in love with farming after spending a summer in the Northwest and stumbling on a small organic farm. I immediately couldn’t picture anything I’d rather be doing. The rewards of being a farmer are great! After initially getting my hands dirty, I went back to Clemson University and studied more and more about organic agriculture. Here I worked on the student run organic farm for two seasons, and after graduating with a Biosystems Engineering degree, I found an apprenticeship to further my knowledge. And a couple of years later, here I am, happily planting seeds in Georgia.

While we’re on the topic of introductions, I’d like to mention the other two hands in our farming operation. Both Coby and Turtle have been incredible apprentices and with all of our hard work, we’re turning some red Georgia clay into some great ground for veggies!

More about Turtle: Heather “Turtle” Brooks has lived in Atlanta for 14 years now. She started out regularly volunteering at Serenbe farms once a week, but loved it so much and worked so hard that we invited her to become an intern. “I'm really excited about working on the farm. Everyday I learn something new about the food we are growing and about myself.” As if farming doesn’t keep her busy enough, she also works as the merchandiser for the Indigo Girls when they tour.

I hope you all enjoy your shares this week. This amazing cool spell has kept the greens and lettuces tender; we sure hope that it continues for a while! Please don’t be afraid of the unusual names of the Asian greens that we are now distributing; some are spicy, it’s true, but all of them are full of great flavor and can be prepared very simply. All of our greens can be eaten raw or lightly steamed or sautéed.

Also, I’d like to discuss our produce washing. We take pride in giving you the best produce possible. We like our distributions to shine, so we wash much of what we give you, but sometimes our greens are unwashed. We choose not to wash greens because we know that they will last much longer in your fridge if we don’t get them wet. Most greens that you buy in the grocery store have been washed in a dilute bleach solution to inhibit decay. Our priority is your health, and we don’t feel that this is a healthy solution.

We will be giving out garlic scapes for the next couple of weeks. They are the young shoots of hardneck garlic plants that would eventually form a flower stalk. We break them off to encourage larger bulb development. Chop them finely and use them as a substitute for garlic. They are a little milder, so use a bit more. Try steaming any of our greens and tossing them with a little olive oil and garlic scapes, simple, organic, farm fresh!

We have a new flock of 40 laying hens. They hatched Wednesday, May 3rd and arrived to us the same day. They’re getting bigger every minute! We purchased six different breeds that all have distinct patterns. Soon they’ll be scratching around the farm in their movable coop and laying us scrumptious organic eggs!