First, a warm welcome to all of our new members! The recent scary news about contaminated lettuce has brought an influx of people to the farmers market, our website, and our CSA. We’re very glad you found us, and we truly appreciate you choosing local food.
A quick reminder: You will receive this newsletter regardless of your pickup schedule or which shares you receive. If you are enrolled in the Summer 2026 CSA (even if it's just flowers), we send you the weekly update so that everyone stays informed about what is happening at the farm and throughout the CSA.
Vacation, Skipped, or Missed Shares
We’ve heard from quite a few people who are unsure about what to do when they need to skip a week, so we’ve included a full explanation of our vacation and skipped-share policy later in this newsletter.
Around the Farm
Things are bursting at the seams around here. We welcomed another employee to the farm this week, bringing our full-time crew to five people, and the timing could not be better. The fields are filling up, harvests are getting bigger, Flower Shares begin this week, and we are still figuring out how best to use our new refrigerated trailer, Carl, as more and more produce starts coming in (and going out).
At the same time, we are reaching the tail end of our major fall planting. Most of the transplants are now in the ground, leaving fall carrots and daikons to be direct-seeded, along with one final round of sunflowers and green beans. The first beans are very close, although we are still waiting to see whether there will be enough for both CSA shares and farmers markets.
Papa Paul with Friday’s beautiful cauliflower harvest. He headed out early to beat the worst of the smoke.
But this upcoming week is all about garlic harvest. More than 10,000 bulbs need to be pulled, gathered, and moved into the curing area (wherever the heck that is!). That sounds like an astonishing amount of garlic, but with the crew working together, the harvest itself should take only a day or two. It is still one of those farm jobs that briefly takes over everything.
Most of Justin and Paul’s time last week was spent keeping water moving: repairing pumps, checking irrigation, and watering everything again and again. The brief stretch of wildfire smoke does not appear to have hurt the crops. Tomatoes and peppers may have lost a little valuable sunlight, but nothing seems to have suffered. The plants kept growing throughout the farm, putting out flowers and fruit. The smoke was much harder on the people working outside than it was on the fields.
I’ll be honest: we felt conflicted about asking everyone to keep working in it, even though the farm still needed watering, harvesting, and care. We adjusted where we could, made masks available, and got through the worst of it together. The plants and weeds don’t stop growing, and skipping even one day of harvest at this time of year can have real consequences, both financially and for crops that need to be picked regularly to keep producing.
It was simply one of those uncomfortable farm decisions with no perfect answer.
This Week's Harvest
Each week, this section of the newsletter will show what we’re harvesting and what you can expect to see in the store.
Items are listed alphabetically-ish in both this section and the store. If you do not customize, you will receive the Farmer’s Choice Share this week, which includes theitems marked with an asterisk (*).
The Farmer’s Choice share is our recommended mix of seasonal vegetables for the week, but you are welcome to customize your box and choose the items that work best for your household. Again, if you choose not to customize, this box is automatically yours.
Remember - every week on the farm is a little different! We do our best to estimate harvests in advance, but weather, crop conditions, and Mother Nature always have the final say. Sometimes you are informed about substitutions, and sometimes we have to make quick decisions, but we try to follow your order as best we can.
Non-Food Items to Know About
More Packaging: select this if you'd like every item that isn't already in a bag to be placed in a separate plastic bag. Most items in the early season (lettuce, cucumbers) are bagged, but some, such as kale, are not.
Donate My Share: select this if you'd rather skip this week of CSA and have your share donated through the Meridian Gleaning program, which offers food to six different food banks through the help of an extensive volunteer network.
Beets without tops - Mixed gold, pink, and red, or just red.
Broccoli - it looks good for the week! We should have an ample supply.
Cabbage*- Green, Red, or Pointy!
Carrots- all without tops, a little over 1 pound per share. Orange and sweet!
Cauliflower*- it's back! White, purple, or cheddar heads are bursting out of the field.
Collard Greens - Stronger in flavor as the heat hits us.
Cucumbers
Salad Large- 1-2 field-grown cucumbers with seeds, depending on supply.
Small Salad aka Pickling Cucumber*- over a pound of small to medium picklers. But they have a nice, thin skin and are easy to eat.
Daikon Radishes (storage)- they're looking rough, but peel the outside, and they're still a tasty bite!
Escarole - A leafy green in the chicory family with broad, tender leaves and a pleasantly bitter flavor.
Fennel Fennel is on break this week as we wait for them to size up a bit more.
Frisée- A delicate, curly green with a pleasantly bitter flavor and crisp texture. Great in salads, especially with rich or creamy dressings, bacon, cheese, fruit, or a warm vinaigrette.
Garlic Scapes*: garlic harvest begins Monday (fingers crossed), so these are on sale this week and next. Stock up for winter now!
Head Lettuce: Farmer's Choice
Either Iceberg, Romaine, Little Gem, or Bibb. There's a little bit of everything in the field, and it's time to get it out.
Herbs: Flat-Leaf Parsley from Monroe Family Organics
Italian Dandelion: A flavorful, slightly bitter green that’s wonderful sautéed with garlic and olive oil or added to soups, pasta, and beans. Not true dandelion, as you find in yards.
Kale
Curly, Scarlet, or Dinosaur
All can really be used *somewhat* interchangeably, but you will find a favorite for each task.
Kohlrabi, Spring- a smaller version of what we offer in the fall/winter. 2 bulbs per share.
Lettuce Mix*- a lovely mix of our favorite Johnny's Selected Seed varieties. Flavor and crunch combined. No weird additions- just lettuce.
Onions, Fresh- we are harvesting these before they fully dry down and cure for storage. They are juicy, mild, and ready to use just like a regular onion. Because they are fresh and uncured, keep them refrigerated and use them within a couple of weeks. You can eat the tops too!
Radicchio -lovely little cabbage-like heads (though some are super tight) that have an intensely bitter flavor.
Rainbow Chard - a wonderful replacement for spinach.
Rutabaga - a hearty veggie that can be used like a potato. From the 2025 harvest.
Scallions / Green Onions - they're massive, but I swear they're tender! Likely the final week.
Turnip Greens*- another hearty green more popular in the American South.
Zucchini & Summer Squash Mix* - green zucchini, cousa, yellow squash, and golden zucchini could be included.
CSA Store Extras
Bulk Garlic Scapes
Bulk Basil (Italian/Green only)
Fresh Eggs
Homemade Jam
Blueberry
Raspberry
Strawberry
Vacations and Missed Shares
We know summer gets busy! If you will be away or unable to pick up your share in a particular week, you have several options for handling that week’s share.
Planning to Miss a Week?
You can:
Have a friend pick up for you. All they need to do is give us your name.
Place a Delivery Hold in your Farmigo account and receive a Makeup Share.
Donate your box for the week through the CSA webstore.
About Delivery Holds
Delivery Holds must be entered before the customization deadline for that pickup. Once the store closes and we begin finalizing our harvest and packing lists, the Delivery Hold option is no longer available for that week.
You do not need to wait until the week of your vacation. Holds can be scheduled several weeks or even months in advance.
Farmigo will ask you to choose a Makeup Share date, which must be within two weeks before or after the missed delivery. Please limit Delivery Holds to three per season. Email us about longer absences.
When you place a share on Delivery Hold, we do not literally hold the box for you. The credits for that week are transferred to another week.
After placing the hold, email us if you would like your Makeup Share before you leave, need it added to a week when you are not normally scheduled, or need another adjustment Farmigo will not allow. We can usually make those changes from our end with at least a few days' notice.
What If I Forget to Place a Hold or Forget to Pick Up?
Once your share has been harvested, packed, labeled, transported, and delivered to your pickup location, it cannot be credited or replaced because it was not picked up.
This is especially important at our member-hosted neighborhood sites, where pickup windows are firm. Hosts do not have proper storage for your vegetables, so unclaimed shares may be kept by the host or donated after the pickup window ends.
If something unexpected happens, contact us as soon as possible. If it's a Titus Farms-run site, we can usually put it back in our walk-in cooler for another day.
However, we cannot guarantee a Makeup Share or credit after the customization deadline or after a share has already been packed.
It's pesto time! Both bulk garlic scapes AND bulk basil are in... so this is the natural next step, right?
Garlic Scape and Basil Pesto
This recipe combines the two into a bright, garlicky pesto that can be used on pasta, pizza, sandwiches, roasted vegetables, grilled meat, or anything else that needs a little extra flavor.
It also freezes beautifully, so you can make a larger batch now and save a little taste of summer for later. (Note: we usually don't add the cheese before we freeze it for winter. Our favorite way to freeze it is in ice cube trays, because we only seem to use a little dab at a time).
