Farm Talk: The Great One Minute Pea Race

Hello Farm Folk,

Farm Update:
Last week was another great one on the farm. Harvesting remains our primary focus, taking up much of our days. We spent well over 150 human hours in the Snow Pea and Snap Pea patch alone last week! A relentless job, but with peas in season for only a couple weeks a year, we want to harvest every last pea we can to provide an abundance to our 350+ CSA member families, as well as for our 2 Farmers Markets. We’re absolutely thrilled by the quality of the produce coming out of our field: the luscious lettuce, gorgeous carrots, mouthwatering kale. Everybody has their personal favourite crops to harvest. Intern Erica likes Radishes, Green Onions, and Green Garlic. Farmer Paul is currently digging the Carrot harvest. For me, it’s the peas right now. Last week we invented “The Great One Minute Pea Race” in which we time how many peas we can pick in 1 minute. I set my personal standard at 46 peas/minute early in the week, and then bested it at 50/minute by the end of the week. Of course, CSA Manager Kirsten, who is on the farm minimally, shamed us all by setting the farm record of 52/minute! I’m not sure if the invention of “The Great One Minute Pea Race” can be attributed to delirium from the heat, or too many hours in the pea patch. But as we harvest our hearts out, while trying to keep up with weeding, planting, and caring for our plants, we’re clearly having a great time. Won’t you join us?

Volunteers Welcome:
Each week we welcome volunteers to the farm from Sunday-Friday, 7:15am-4pm. If you are interested in helping on the farm this week or next, please rsvp to catherine.j@thecuttingveg.com and let her know what day you want to come, and if you need directions to the farm, or a lift (leaving at 6am from Bloor & Christie area). Hope to see you on the farm soon!

Produce this week:
This week CSA members can expect to see the following items at the pick-up: Beets, Apples, Snap Peas, Swiss Chard, Snow Peas, Garlic Scapes, Green Onions, Asian Greens, Arugula. The Beets and Apples were outsourced from other local, organic farms.

Recipe: Pea Hummus (from www.thecuttingveg.com/recipes)
1½ cups peas, cooked
2 garlic scapes, chopped
¼ cup lemon juice
4 Tbsp tahini paste
¼ cup oil
Pinch of salt

Throw all the ingredients in a food processor and puree until smooth.  Serve chilled with vegetable sticks, or with baked pita crisps

That’s all the news from the farm for now. Until next time, Keep Livin’ on the Veg!

The Cutting Veg Farm Team