Dear friends!!

We sincerely hope that you are all enjoying your CSA! At the pick up the other day many of you told us about your delicious dishes that you made. One of the members had the idea to have a hashtag on instagram and Facebook that you can use to post photos of your dishes and add a recipe if you want. So we're planning on using #sugarcampfarmtn as there are other Sugar Camp Farms and #sugarcampfarm brings up pictures of folks showing off their hunted turkeys in addition to our farm photos. So yeah! Use #sugarcampfarmtn to show off your dishes so they can be shared with other members. Also, we are very active on instagram. You can follow us @sugarcampfarm.

In other news we had a wonderful time at the Tallahassee May Day Farmhouse Show! Dan Blakeslee, the touring act, arrived around 2:30pm and by 3pm we were screen printing Sugar Camp Farm tote bags!!! He sent us many hand screenprinted posters. I asked him if he could help remind me how to screenprint onto fabric. And he said, I'll show you right now!! So our first batch of 50 hand screenprinted tote bags is finished and ready for sale! We'll have them for sale at the farmers market and at the CSA pick-ups. We're selling them for $12 but our CSA members get a deal! $8 for totes for CSA!

Ok. Back on track. Everyone else arrived around 4pm. We had tables with flowers set under the oaks in our yard across from the rams. Food was spread across one table and blankets on the ground and chairs spaced out under the trees for sitting. After a tour of the farm we gathered and ate our meal. Tallahassee May's father brought his clarinet and asked if it would be okay if he played. Unfortunately/fortunately, our May Day maypole band was missing their fiddle player and Tally's dad and her son joined Jeremy of Turnip the Beet for what was the best maypole improv jam ever to be witnessed!

Many folks took off after the maypole. But those of us who stuck around got a special treat and we heard Dan Blakeslee play a beautiful set of his thoughtful alt-country songs under a sweet old white oak tree.

After Dan's lovely set we all went inside and ate Las Paletas! Brought by our amazing friend Vanessa. In fact, most of us ate two. And some ate three. We still have a bunch left and every paleta makes us grateful for sweet and generous friends. Jesse took a post-paleta party to the barn where our friend Caleb worked his magic and got the electricity running in our cooler. Yippee! While I made a fire. We were then serenaded next to the fire pit by our friend Emma Berkey, whose songwriting prowess is utterly impressive! She can be found at High Garden Tea Shop when she's not singing sweet and sultry songs at our campfire. All in all it was such a good event and we even collected funds for Tally, whose barn burned down last week. If any one is interested in donating to her let me know and I will send you the online fundraiser being put together when it's done.

In other news we have two new WWOOFers, Julia and Audrey on break from college. They are super inquisitive, eager to learn and have been a great help.

We've also had lots of lambs in the past two days. None were born for several days. Then yesterday we had 2 sets of twins or one set of triplets and 1 single. We're not sure. There's one lamb that was not well cleaned off and seems to be hanging out with a mom with two babies. Could be triplets or it could be that it was actually a twin and the one with a single rejected it and the one with twins accepted it. Who knows! This morning Jesse came in to wake me up with, "We have a black sheep!" I jumped out of bed and we headed down to tag the sheep. It turns out we had three sets of twins born last night or this morning and one is soooo dark brown it looks almost black. But we'll take it as an almost black sheep. That brings us to 24 lambs so far this year! 3 more ewes need to lamb for the season to be officially over.

We have no upcoming events but if you want to play at our farm, teach a workshop, or just come and see us for a tour or to volunteer don't hesitate to contact us.

And now without further ado I give you Week 3 CSA:

Radishes or Turnips, Sage, Kale, Green onions, Carrots, Beet greens, Lettuce or spinach, Chard or collards, cilantro with flowers.

When I saw or it means you could get either and we'll try to switch it up next time so you get the other next week.

RECIPES

CARROTS

Carrots are amazing. i love them! They're mostly great in a salad or just as a snack. Here's a great recipe from Edible Nashville that also utilizes the vitamin C rich tops.

Carrot Top Pesto

BEET GREENS

are super nutritious and can be sauteed or put in a salad or used like any other greens. They'd also be great in a smoothie.

Sauteed Beet Greens with Garlic and Olive Oil

Beet Greens and Feta Pasta

RAINBOW CHARD

I'm going to tell you a secret about the stems of big leafed greens. They can be very tasty, add crunch to dishes, and have a lot of fiber! Jesse taught me how to sautee Chard and kale stems. You chop them up and then sautee them with the garlic or onions before you put the greens in. The few minutes of extra cooking softens them up. I am also a big fan of using chard stems in particular as a celery substitute. It's a little more earthy tasting but it adds crunch and most of all color to a leafy salad, potato salad, a slaw, and may other raw dishes.

Martha Stewart Chard Recipe Ideas! (Lots of good stuff)

COLLARDS

I grew up on Collard Greens so I always go to a southern recipe. I've included a Paula Dean recipe and some more alternative recipes for those northerners in the group (or southerners who want to try something new!)

Collard Greens (Paula Deen)

11 recipes to get you excited about collard greens!

GREENS!

This is a great looking recipe from Jill Melton at Edible Nashville. I hope to make it myself some time soon!

Spring Greens Phyllo Pie

CILANTRO WITH FLOWERS

Treat like normal cilantro! Maybe make a cocktail! I like to add cilantro to my margaritas.

Well I leave you with this one last image of sunset and a rainbow on our farm.