Spring—The First Stop On Our Seasonal Eating Adventure!

By Andrea Yoder

Richard de Wilde, Our Founding Farmer

Welcome to the start of the 31^st Harmony Valley Farm CSA season! My name is Andrea, and I am one of the owners of Harmony Valley Farm along with Richard de Wilde and Rafael Morales Peralta. For those of you who may be new to our farm, let’s start with a brief introduction.  Richard is our founding farmer and is often described as a “pioneer in organic farming.”  He has been farming since the early 70’s, even before organic certification was an option!  Over the years he has continued to push the envelope of possibility and continues to implement new strategies and systems to adapt, grow and respond to changes in the marketplace and climate changes while continuing to evolve our farm to become stronger and more resilient. He envisions the continuation of Harmony Valley Farm well into the future, hence his decision to create a path to ownership for others. And that’s where Rafael and I come into the picture!

Andrea Yoder, Co-Owner

This will be my 17^th growing season at Harmony Valley Farm. I originally came to the farm as the seasonal farm chef shortly after graduating from The Culinary Institute of America. Prior to pursuing a career in culinary arts, I trained and worked as a dietitian at the University of Virginia. I am fortunate to be able to blend my interests in nutrition and culinary arts here at the farm as we strive to grow vegetables that are nutrient dense and taste great! Every week my mission is to provide you with resources to guide you along the way and help you to find success with every box! I create and share recipes and cooking ideas with the intention that you will find the inspiration you need to create delicious, nourishing meals! Rafael has been working with us for over ten years.  He loves operating tractors and machines, figuring out ways to kill pests and weeds, and is innovative in coming up with ways to upgrade our farming systems for greater efficiency, productivity and resilience.  He is quickly downloading Richard's

Rafael Morales Peralta, Co-Owner

forty-plus years of farming expertise, which is no small task! Introductions would not be complete without mentioning our talented farm crew of nearly fifty individuals.  Each person at Harmony Valley Farm brings their own unique skills and talents to the table and contributes in their own way toward our collective success. Most of our crew members have been working with us for 10-20 years and we could not do what we do without them! 

We often describe the experience of eating out of a CSA box as “A Seasonal Eating Adventure,” which is exactly what it is! It’s a different way of eating in which we let nature guide us, partaking of the gifts each season brings forth.  Spring can be a challenging time of year to eat a seasonal midwestern diet, especially in some years such as we’re experiencing right now!  Over the past month, we’ve had nice, warm, sunny days along with cold, blustery days with snow and rain, including 10 inches of heavy, wet snow just a few weeks ago!  Overall, we’re running about two weeks or so behind where we’d like to be, and yet we know that Mother Nature will continue to provide for us.  Spring is a season of creativity where we have to think outside the box.  It’s too early for carrots, tomatoes, sweet corn, green beans and broccoli, so what are we going to eat?  Thankfully, we have perennial spring crops such as chives, sorrel, asparagus, and rhubarb. We also rely on wild-harvested vegetables such as ramps, nettles, and watercress. Over the years Richard has learned some useful strategies for how to overwinter some crops in the field including overwintered spinach, sunchokes and parsnips. We plant them in the fall, store them in the field over the winter and harvest them in the spring. So while these may be less common vegetables, if you’re willing to commit to eating seasonally I guarantee you’re going to be fueling your body with just what it needs for this time of the year in our climate. 

Green Garlic

While we are getting creative with the crop line-up, you have an opportunity to get creative in the kitchen as well! This may be a good time to remind you, “Never Be Intimidated by a Vegetable!”  If you encounter a vegetable along the way that is new or less familiar to you, don’t worry.  Use the resources we provide you each week to guide you and apply knowledge you have about other vegetables that may be similar. Some vegetables may require a little more preparation than others, but you may be surprised by how many vegetables actually qualify as nature’s fast food and require very little preparation.

Asparagus just starting to poke through!

Once the season starts and the vegetables start coming in, the offerings will change week to week. Asparagus spears are already starting to emerge in our current fields as we invest in planting a new field that we hope to start harvesting in 2-3 years. Richard just brought a few pieces of green garlic in from the field and it’s clear they’ll be ready for boxes very soon as well!  Rhubarb, sorrel, radishes, baby arugula are all very near on the horizon.  When you take a moment to list everything coming our way, it’s clear that spring is bountiful in its own right!

We are sincerely grateful that you’ve committed to supporting our farm through your membership in our CSA program this year and we will do our best to reciprocate the support back to you in each box we pack.  Together we will make this journey through the seasons, and I know we will both be stronger, more connected, and more deeply nourished in body, mind, and soul at the end of the season. Enjoy the ride!