CSA Week 8: Nai Nai Season
Farm Share Newsletter - July 21, 2023
Housekeeping
We're going out of town this weekend, and will return on Monday, which is why you're receiving this early. We won't have any cell phone service, so we'll respond to any emails or texts after we return. Elizabeth's sister Katie and our friend Sophie will be working the Ballard market tent for us on Sunday. They'll also be handing out your CSAs. Say hi to them and maybe address them by their first names without any context and report back if they're freaked out.
We'll be back for Wednesday's drop-offs.
Also, I'm writing this in a ferry line on a personal hot spot, so this newsletter will be condensed.
CSA Week 8
Parsley
Carrots
Garlic
Head lettuce
Amaranth
Cucumber
Komatsuna
How We Came to Grow More Amaranth Than We Ever Imagined
Every year at Columbia City Farmers Market, sometime in July or early August, there comes a day when we suddenly get mobbed by Asian elders. I do not use this term hyperbolically. They rummage through our produce before the market bell rings. They walk around our display table and open our totes. They ask for our prices and then look insulted when we respond.
I love it so much.
We've come to refer to this pre-market mass of seniors as the "Nai Nais" (奶奶), meaning "grandmothers" in Mandarin. The Nai Nais are able to shop at the farmers market thanks to a program administered by WIC (Women, Infants, Children), called the Farmers Markets Nutrition Program. I believe that each qualifying household is allotted $40 for the season.
I'll write more about the Nai Nais one day, but suffice it to say that their presence at our stand is one of the biggest joys we get to experience during the market season. I bring up the Nai Nais because they are the reason we grow as much Amaranth as we do. We cannot bring enough to meed their demand. Last week, a chef who regularly buys amaranth from us reported that he was chased by a nai nai that tried to buy his amaranth after we were sold out. I'm not sure what he does with it, but we like to stir-fry it with garlic, which you're receiving in a cured state for the first time. Or mostly, cured, anyhow. You could use it now or wait a week. Some Vietnamese nai nais told us that amaranth is also a great soup veg.
Our new succession of carrots looks better than the last. I wish I remembered what variety we're giving you this week. Parsley is in the same family as carrots and your bundles should be much bigger than the ones you received last time.
Lettuces hate the heat we've been getting, but this red variety seems to be holding up all right. Last week we gave you large cucumbers. This week they'll be smaller. Hopefully sweeter too. Let us know what you think.
That's all for now.
'Til next week,
Steven