T minus 6

Well, we are getting closer to our first delivery next week.  I am getting very excited to eat well, and am already clearing out the veggie drawers in my fridge. 

A couple of notes:

• First delivery is Tuesday June 8th.  Pick up is from 12:00 pm - 7:45 pm.
• Here is what we can expect for the first delivery:

1-2 lettuce heads

Sweet onions with their green edible tops

Oriental Green bunches (red mustard, toyko bekana, torazorah)

Sunflower sprouts

Oregano

Garlic Greens

Chard ??? Farmer Rich is not sure if it will be ready for delivery.  

There may be another item or two depending upon his rounds through the fields and what might be ready.

• Each share must volunteer for at least one shift during the season.  You are more than welcome to volunteer more often.  We currently have 40% of the slots filled; please sign up as soon as possible for a shift. 
• Procedures for working the shifts are now available on the google group forum.  Please review them, as they provide a lot of good detail on how things should be executed during the volunteer shifts, and what to expect work wise.  
• We ordered eco grocery bags, which are corn based and break down after 45 days. Rabbi Scheinberg is going to pay for the bags through his discretionary fund. We then need to reimburse him for the funds. He will then take the funds we pay back, and donate them to a charity of his choice. Thanks Rabbi for this thoughtful offer. Each share owes $5. You can either pay cash or check when you see us on Tuesday (leave the money with Laura in the office), or send funds to my paypal account (you can locate it using jdsteinberg@optonline.net).
  

Finally, here is a little something from Soni Basi, CSA member:

I wanted to recommend a book for people who are new to this (like me) - a book I was introduced to last weekend by a friend:

http://www.amazon.com/Asparagus-Community-Supported-Agriculture-Coalition/dp/061523013X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275533158&sr=8-1

It was put together by another CSA group, and is available on Amazon for a pretty decent price.  It goes through most of the veggies, alphabetically, gives a little bit of information about it, talks about storage options, and also provides recipes.  It doesn't have all the "exotics", but it does have the major veggies covered.

Another great one is Farmer John's Dirt on Vegetables - that was similar to the above, but I thought it had fewer thoughts on freezing than did the one by the CSA group.  Neither had photos of cooked food :)