CHELSEA MORNING THYMES
... A Seasonal Farm and Life Musings Newsletter ...

Our Chelsea Morning Thymes newsletter is traditionally written during the producing season of the farm and distributed to our CSA members on a weekly basis to inform them on what's in their crate each week, recipes to go along with the crops distributed, information about our farm partners (when we source berries from farming friends for example), specific articles written about things such as our sugarbush season or farm management practices, and general farm and life musings, often referred to as "Notes from Jason and Cree" which detail our experiences, observations and emotions, mostly related to farming, but are also and often simply about our off-farm work and other poignant parts of our life.

PLEASE ENJOY A PEEK INTO OUR FARM AND LIFE BY CLICKING ON THE WEEKLY PDF NEWSLETTER IMAGE.

Week 7 - Chelsea Morning Thymes - August 19, 2017

Preview NOTES FROM JASON AND CREE...As the summer harvest brings forth its early bounty, so too, do hints of fall now creep into our days. Thursday's strong breeze and dark sky dampness produced an undeniable feel of change in the air, which compliments other small signs of the times. Flocks of geese now land in the field for a feeding frenzy, storing up for their migratory flight. The jungle land green of the forest canopy is paling, thinning, the leaf miners have claimed their stake...

Week 6 - Chelsea Morning Thymes - August 12, 2017

Preview NOTES FROM JASON AND CREE...Driving home late Wednesday evening, a sky pitch dark after thunder bursts of storms, I listened with a certain melancholic  delight to my Glen Campbell album. It was a perfect listen at the end of a  perfect day of field work, a tribute to the late great. The album, purchased this past October, a $6 find at a Pennsylvania gas station on our drive home from an epic road trip with puppies to New York City for Ruby’s eye surgery, I sang Galveston (oh Galveston!), Wichita Lineman, and the other fantastic songs of the find...

Week 5 - Chelsea Morning Thymes - August 5, 2017

Preview NOTES FROM JASON AND CREE...The thirty degree drop in temperature from a steamy 84 degrees, dew point pushing the confines of comfort early in the week, to a summertime chill of 54 degrees tonight, has been a dramatic downward shift. After spending the two hottest days of the week in the kitchen, adding more humidity and heat into the sultry air from hot water bath canning of spiced blueberry jam (a labor of love, the work not intended for the hottest days of summer, but that is when time, and a willing mother, presented itself!), we’ve been truly looking forward to the reprieve we knew this cool spell, lasting a couple days, would bring...

Week 4 - Chelsea Morning Thymes - July 29, 2017

Preview HIGHLAND VALLEY FARM BLUEBERRIES - BAYFIELD BLUES...The blueberry season crept up on us this year. It wasn’t until this past week, that blueberries entered into our imaginations, aided by a rugged work hike that left Cree plopped down on a remote rock outcrop graced by hundreds of blueberry bushes just beginning to ripen, eating like a bear, big quick handfuls, regaining energy after the exertion of a hike through thick air, mist falling from the sky despite a lack of clouds, the humidity and heat building to an extreme. During these hot days of hard work in the woods, there is no water or electrolyte drink, no food, that rejuvenates the body quite like wild blueberries can. They are a special treat, a power food that delivers sugar to the soul! Within a few days of Cree’s fevered blueberry feeding frenzy, she began to notice pickers flocking to the woods. A day later, we got the call from Highland Valley Farm of Bayfield Wisconsin - it’s blueberry season again! The timing feels perfect...

Week 3 - Chelsea Morning Thymes - July 22, 2017

Preview NEVER SUMMER SUGARBUSH - OUR SWEET COUNTERPART...This year, the “sugaring” season was thrust upon us. Record breaking temperatures in February marked the beginning of most sugaring seasons throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin.  Our maple trees weren't quite ready to run that early, but the extreme warm up claimed half of our snowpack and set the stage for above average temperatures throughout the sap collection season. Our biggest concern was the warmer than normal nighttime lows. For maple sap to run best, you need freezing at night and thawing during the day. Ideally, and what has been a traditional spring for decades in northern Minnesota, low 40’s during the day and low 20’s at night. Unfortunately, during our sap run, we saw too many nights where it barely froze, if it froze at all, and the trees weren't able to fully ’recharge’ for optimum sap flow. Then, when it simply stopped freezing at night in mid-April, the season ended as abruptly as it started...

Week 2 - Chelsea Morning Thymes - July 15, 2017

Preview NOTES FROM JASON AND CREE...For the consumer of a traditional Midwestern diet, the early summer crops of a farm that is built on cold spring clay along the cool north shore of Minnesota, can at times, challenge the cravings, preparation skills, and interests of the eater. Kale has in recent years become trendy, but for many, it’s still a relatively unknown food. The Mesclun salad greens of last week have a “weird” spicy kick. Mint is a little different, not something most buy at the grocery store despite the masses who drink mint tea and enjoy mint chewing gum. Mei Quing, what is that? And soon, the harvest will bring the mysterious kohlrabi...

Week 1 - Chelsea Morning Thymes - July 8, 2017

Preview NOTES FROM JASON AND CREE...It’s a new CSA season and with it, we’ve experienced a plethora of joys and challenges. While we only begin delivery of shares tomorrow, it is remarkable that really, the farming season hits it’s halfway mark today. Early April is our start, seeds planted in the greenhouse, daily care and transplanting of crops quickly leads to planting the field. With never enough time, we barely catch our breath from the hard work  of June, by far our busiest month, then deliveries begin. In some ways, there is relief for a farmer in this passage of time. All the hard work leads to the opportunity to harvest crops. While the work continues, so too, comes the outcome of the hard work, our CSA crate to you. Each week will bring more food (well, we hope!), more reward, the bounty of the summer and fall crops so beautiful...

For More Information:

Click HERE to submit an email or contact Cree and Jason Bradley at Chelsea Morning Farm
218.834.0846 or [email protected]