We are excited to offer you a wide variety of certified, seasonal organic produce for the next 16 weeks. Get ready to eat healthy and be a little creative. Eating lots of produce is a skill (one we all should have since eating lots of fruits and vegetables and getting exercise is the only straightforward recommendation everyone can agree on to improve and maintain health). We do our very best to grow healthy produce our customers love, and go above and beyond to ensure crops that are very popular succeed.

That said, when you participate in a CSA, you are subscribing to reality. I don't control the weather and I don't control nature, so occasionally, for various reasons, there is crop loss. Also, I can't change the seasonality of local produce, so if you tell me you want spinach in July, well, it's just not in spinach's nature to grow when temps regularly go above 75 degrees. Summer is a time for swiss chard and kale. I won't make you take kale - but you should figure out how to eat a bunch of greens each week - it's really good for you!

Our summer shares start out very green. It's the nature of plant growth: all plants need leaves to photosynthesize so they grow those first. It takes more energy, produced by leaves, to create the edible stems (scallions, leeks, kohlrabi), roots (radish, beets, carrots, turnips), flowers (broccoli and cauliflower) and fruits (tomato, cucumber, zucchini, beans, pepper, eggplant, winter squash) and tubers (potatoes and sweet potatoes) that we love.

(See below from left to right, shots taken this morning at 12:00 on my way out of the field: carrots, broccoli and potatoes - all coming along but not quite ready!)

You'll see the first early roots and fruits this week: cucumbers from our high tunnel and radish, beets and salad turnip, all fast growing roots. Carrots are soon to follow, along with tomatoes in 3-4 weeks. Broccoli and zucchini are hopefully on the way for next week (maybe the week after). Peas will be delayed this season since the wild turkeys ate my whole first planting, and the second planting was stifled by the long dry spell we experienced before that glorious 2 inches of rain last week.

Well, to be fair, the turkeys at all but 20 plants from the 10 lbs of seeds I planted . . .

It's a really tough one, to lose a crop that everyone loves. Pea, carrots, tomatoes, lettuce . . . these are crops we grow a lot of because we know they are very popular. But we also grow about 60 other crop varieties because we also know that a wide variety of produce is very healthy for you, AND it makes sense to plant a diversity of crops, because we know even if we lose one or two we will still have plenty (and we always lose one or two, no matter how many years I do this - loss is simply a part of the reality of farming).

I try very hard to offer as much choice as possible within our CSA, but sometimes we just need to clear out a bed of something and we'd rather get it into your kitchen than put it in the compost, or turn it in without harvesting it. I encourage all of you to read the recipe suggestions each week, to have an open mind, and even if you have a choice to take something familiar, get adventurous and try something new. One of my favorite things to hear from a CSA member is something like, "I finally tried the bok choy and I love it!"

Thank you for being with us this season. This is year seven for Upswing Farm as a business, and year two in our new location in Pepperell, MA. We hope you enjoy your produce!

1 head lettuce

1/2 lb spinach

1/2 lb garlic scapes don't be afraid! read the article and enjoy this seasonal delicacy!

1 bunch scallions

1 head bok choy

choose 1: arugula, lettuce mix, micro greens

choose 2 : radish, kale, chard, frisee, collard, dandelion, beets, turnips

Cucumbers . . .probably about two, the harvest is just getting started!

Welcome to the Summer Share! Jess Girotti here. I'm including a handful of recipes here that should give you some ideas for how to use your share. We also have recipe pages on the Upswing website. It's categorized by veggie type and each page includes a photo (for easy identification as well as a brief description, storage tips and a bunch more recipe links!

This is my go-to spinach recipe. It's quick, easy, uses up a ton of spinach and everyone loves it! (Do they get better than that??) I usually use whole wheat tortillas but either is delicious.

My daughter and I went strawberry picking at Tangerini's this weekend (highly recommend if you haven't been) and I made this salad. I had used up all of my spinach so I just used regular lettuce - frisee or arugula would work too, or a combo. She said it was the best salad she'd ever had. So yah.

Chicken, Bok choy, scallions and carrots sauteed with a honey-soy-ginger sauce. Stir-fries are a great way to use up multiple ingredients from your share in one dish.

When I see beets in the share, I usually cook them up that night (see the beet page of our website for 4 cooking methods) and keep them on hand for adding to salads or as a quick snack (chopped up and mixed with crumbled goat cheese). This salad also calls for arugula so another great way to use a few items for your share together.

This would be a great salad to have with whatever you're grilling for Father's Day this weekend. Your radishes and cucumbers will keep longer than some of the greens so I try to save them for later in the week.

Pick Up Details:

34 Rogers Rd, Holliston

Tuesday, 1pm-6pm

Park beyond the farm stand (up the hill, past the yellow house)

65 Brookline St, Pepperell (parking is more like 50 Brookline on maps)

Tuesday/Wednesday 2-6pm or Thursday 2pm-6pm

Park in the lot near the greenhouses with the white 'Upswing Farm' sign

93 E Main St Hopkinton (but don't pull into the main entrance!, see parking info below)

Thursday, 1pm-6pm

Just west of the nursery is a traffic light. Turn up the hill onto Legacy Farm Rd North and then take your first right into the back gravel parking lot to park. You will see our truck and tents from the street.

Call 508-215-8378 with questions. If you text, please make sure to include your first and last name in the text.

Email brittany@upswingfarm.com with any planned schedule changes

Greens: In a plastic bag in the fridge, not near the freezer. (Ideally between 34 and 40 degrees with 98% humidity.) If they don't come in a bag, undo the twist tie when you get them home and put them in a bag. They will wilt without one.

Root veggies: All roots (even most potatoes) want to be in the fridge. Fresh onions will also want to go in the fridge. The whole green stalk is edible and delicious. You should twist roots like radishes, beets, turnips and carrots off of their greens before storing. The greens are all edible - so you can store them separately if you plan to eat them.

Herbs and scallions: Unless you are drying them, they can go in a plastic bag in the fridge.

Tomatoes: Don't like the fridge! Store on the counter at room temp.

Cucumber, zucchini, eggplant, peppers, beans: In a plastic bag in the fridge.