Week 9
Apparently we are the kind of friends who show up at your party just as you are about to finally have a chance to relax after all the people have left! Our friends decided to have a weekend party at their farm that started on Friday evening and ended with breakfast on Sunday. Lots of people swung by to hang out for a bit and many people camped by the creek. At least that is what I heard...we arrived a little late. I felt sheepish showing up midmorning on Sunday, but after we finished putting everything away after market on Saturday evening, we just didn't have it in us to drive down to Boisfort. We decided to get up extra early this morning to harvest, deliver and head south. In usual fashion, it took a little longer than we thought it would! Our friend Galilee, who some of you know from when she lived and farmed on Libby Road, was very gracious and welcoming and let us scavenge the breakfast left overs. Her place, which serves to both feed her family and is a small working farm that specializes in melons, is incredible. It has a creek running through it with a brightly painted row boat, rope swings, several foot bridges and little alcove sitting areas. It is such a beautiful combination of whimsy and perfectly straight weed free rows of veggies. I find inspiration in so many people's gardens. I think some people feel a little self conscious showing us their vegetable gardens, but really they shouldn't. I love all gardens and admire people who dedicate time to growing their own food. Anyway, I was glad we managed to squeeze in a visit, even a late one.
Galilee's melons look good and so do ours. It isn't really time to test one just yet, but I doubt we will be able to resist much longer. Besides, the weather this week looks like it might put the melons on fast forward. Hopefully nothing on the farm fast forwards to death!
All the garlic got pulled and hung last week. It is always a relief to have that done. Last fall we invested in a lifter bar for the tractor to assist in digging parsnips. It came in handy for the garlic as well. Usually we spend quite a bit of time hand forking it. It isn't much more than a welded steel rectangle with angled blade on the bottom. It attaches to the three point hitch on the back of the tractor. It is a simple tool that caused a giggle fit the first time we used it on parsnips because it made the job so easy!
Hope you all stay cool this week.
Lettuce
Carrots
Purple Bell Pepper
Cherry Tomatoes
Japanese Cucumber
Collards or Kale - There will be a choice until we run out of one or the other. This is the first picking off a new planting. These guys have lived a sheltered life under row cover and will be very tender. They will wilt in an instant so get them in the fridge quick!
Garlic
Cauliflower - Large Only
A CSA member shared this great hot weather recipe with me. It calls for swiss chard but I think it would be excellent with the collards.
Peanut Chicken Wraps
Sunday, July 30, 2017
Sunday, July 23, 2017
Week 8
When the farm is weedy it is a lot like having a messy house for me. As long as we aren't loosing crops to weed pressure and the weeds aren't going to seed it doesn't really matter, just like the pile of clothes next to the bed doesn't really matter. However, the messy garden and the messy house both make me feel unorganized and a little anxious. This weekend Kelly is freeing up some brain space for me! He mowed and disked a bunch of fields that we were done harvesting out of and were just filled with waist high pig weed and lambs quarters. It just feels better. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but I feel like I can think better when things are tidy.
Which brings me to your boxes last week. We forgot the cucumber in all of Wednesday's small share boxes so you will have a cucumber this week. My apologies.
We did some other good stuff for our brains this week. We went to Portland for a wedding Friday afternoon. We spent about as much time in the car as at the ceremony but it was relaxing, fun and oddly I was in bed a little earlier on Friday night than on a usual work day.
Anyway, we should be pretty sharp this week! No mistakes. Feel free to insert a snarky overconfidence quote here! Ha.
I have been meaning to mention that f there is something you want that you don't see on the table you should always feel free to ask. Typically greens and herbs just turn to mush so quickly in the afternoon I don't bother putting them out. However, we often have some in the walk-in.
Carrots
Potatoes - Anushka, yellow skin and yellow flesh.
Zucchini/Summer Squash
Garlic
Bunched Onions - either a sweet red Italian torpedo onion or some smaller pearl size onions.
Garlic - Inchelium Red, a soft neck variety re-discovered on the Colville Reservation in Inchelium Washington.
Arugula - maybe
Snow Peas - last peas of the season
Salad Mix - Large Only
Japanese Cucumber - Large Only
Have a great week.
When the farm is weedy it is a lot like having a messy house for me. As long as we aren't loosing crops to weed pressure and the weeds aren't going to seed it doesn't really matter, just like the pile of clothes next to the bed doesn't really matter. However, the messy garden and the messy house both make me feel unorganized and a little anxious. This weekend Kelly is freeing up some brain space for me! He mowed and disked a bunch of fields that we were done harvesting out of and were just filled with waist high pig weed and lambs quarters. It just feels better. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but I feel like I can think better when things are tidy.
Which brings me to your boxes last week. We forgot the cucumber in all of Wednesday's small share boxes so you will have a cucumber this week. My apologies.
We did some other good stuff for our brains this week. We went to Portland for a wedding Friday afternoon. We spent about as much time in the car as at the ceremony but it was relaxing, fun and oddly I was in bed a little earlier on Friday night than on a usual work day.
Anyway, we should be pretty sharp this week! No mistakes. Feel free to insert a snarky overconfidence quote here! Ha.
I have been meaning to mention that f there is something you want that you don't see on the table you should always feel free to ask. Typically greens and herbs just turn to mush so quickly in the afternoon I don't bother putting them out. However, we often have some in the walk-in.
Carrots
Potatoes - Anushka, yellow skin and yellow flesh.
Zucchini/Summer Squash
Garlic
Bunched Onions - either a sweet red Italian torpedo onion or some smaller pearl size onions.
Garlic - Inchelium Red, a soft neck variety re-discovered on the Colville Reservation in Inchelium Washington.
Arugula - maybe
Snow Peas - last peas of the season
Salad Mix - Large Only
Japanese Cucumber - Large Only
Have a great week.
Sunday, July 16, 2017
Week 7
I think we all tend to cook food we know how to make when we are busy. For one, it is easy and besides there is something comforting about familiar food. However, there are finally a lot of vegetables around and while it can be difficult to find time to cook new stuff, I feel obligated to try some new things. Loving to cook and eat is one of the things that led me to farming. It is still a motivator and a source of satisfaction. Alternatively, not taking time to cook new food can start to feel frustrating. Last week I managed to try something new and get in a rut. A little over a week ago I had a salad with raw beets in it. To be honest, I was a little skeptical because I am not crazy about raw beets. However, the salad was great and when I found out it was from a cookbook I own (Jerusalem), I decided to make it myself the next night when we were having company for dinner. I made it again last night for a potluck/house warming party we went to. The same dish, three times in a week. The recipe is really flexible and I just used it as a guide. I will include a link below if you are looking for something different to do with your beets. It is almost as easy as making a dish you prepare regularly from memory.
Lettuce
Carrots
Cauliflower - These will not be the biggest heads of cauliflower you receive from us (those come in the fall) but they are delicious.
Beets
Green Beans
Cherry Tomato or Raspberry - your choice until we run out of one or the other
Cucumber
Green Bells - Large Only
I adapted this recipe to what I had available to me and you should feel free to do the same. I skipped the celery root both times because it is not in season. I used turnips one time and kohlrabi the other. I used all the herbs the first night but only had parsley handy last night. One night I topped it with Labneh, one night I didn't. Each time it came out great. Many of you have Chioggia beets in your box. These are particularly beautiful raw with their candy cane stripes. As a bonus they don't bleed and are easy to deal with when raw or cooked. They are a little milder than the dark red beets.
Sunday, July 9, 2017
Week 6
The wettest spring ever is a distant memory. I am happy to put it behind us, but we are still feeling its repercussions. Kelly is the mastermind of what goes where when it comes to the farm. He can look at a field and remember what was planted in it every year that we have farmed. I, if I am holding up my end of the bargain, tell him what needs to be seeded and transplanted and he figures out where it is going. This spring there was ground too wet to work or not enough time to get everything worked during the very brief dry spells. That forced us to just plant stuff where there were beds made. It felt a little less planned out and it still feels a bit scattered. On top of that I haven't been doing the best job of communicating. On July 4th I mentioned we were suppose to seed rutabagas on the 5th...not real helpful! But don't worry, the rutabagas got seeded. Kelly jokes that we spend hours and hours on a production plan and writing down how we want things to be done and then at the end of June we toss it all aside and just work. There is some truth to that, but for the most part we do a pretty good job remembering stuff without looking at spread sheets. There are of course exceptions - like the rutabagas. This week marked the end of our last big seeding for transplants. We will continue to seed salad and lettuce weekly, but most of the transplanted crops have been seeded. Our big fall carrot planting date is this week and a large fall beet planting is the following week. Garlic harvest is just around the corner. Our days are becoming more dominated by harvest, often only leaving a couple hours in the afternoon for weeding and seeding. It feels like summer in terms of the patterns on the farm and your boxes will reflect that more and more.
Head Lettuce
Carrot
New Potatoes - I suspect I tell you every year what I like to do with new potatoes but it never gets old for me so here we go. Regardless of their size (we grade them so while not everyone gets the same size the ones you get are of similar size to each other) I slice them in half and steam them until barely tender. I pull them out of the steamer to dry while I heat a cast iron pan or some sort of pan that they won't stick to and add olive oil to generously (an understatement) cover the bottom. I then pan fry them cut side down without touching them until I can see the edges are turning color. Once they are all nicely browned I place them on a plate crispy side up. I then toss a bunch of garlic in the pan, adding more oil if necessary stir for 20 seconds, add a hand full of chopped parley, stir just to mix them together and then spoon the mix over the crispy potatoes. We are having these tonight with some roast chicken and broccoli. True new potatoes are also excellent steamed and tossed with butter and herbs.
Zucchini - We had some of these grilled on a charcoal grill last night. Delicious.
Cabbage
Herb Choice
Snap Peas - Large Only
The wettest spring ever is a distant memory. I am happy to put it behind us, but we are still feeling its repercussions. Kelly is the mastermind of what goes where when it comes to the farm. He can look at a field and remember what was planted in it every year that we have farmed. I, if I am holding up my end of the bargain, tell him what needs to be seeded and transplanted and he figures out where it is going. This spring there was ground too wet to work or not enough time to get everything worked during the very brief dry spells. That forced us to just plant stuff where there were beds made. It felt a little less planned out and it still feels a bit scattered. On top of that I haven't been doing the best job of communicating. On July 4th I mentioned we were suppose to seed rutabagas on the 5th...not real helpful! But don't worry, the rutabagas got seeded. Kelly jokes that we spend hours and hours on a production plan and writing down how we want things to be done and then at the end of June we toss it all aside and just work. There is some truth to that, but for the most part we do a pretty good job remembering stuff without looking at spread sheets. There are of course exceptions - like the rutabagas. This week marked the end of our last big seeding for transplants. We will continue to seed salad and lettuce weekly, but most of the transplanted crops have been seeded. Our big fall carrot planting date is this week and a large fall beet planting is the following week. Garlic harvest is just around the corner. Our days are becoming more dominated by harvest, often only leaving a couple hours in the afternoon for weeding and seeding. It feels like summer in terms of the patterns on the farm and your boxes will reflect that more and more.
Head Lettuce
Carrot
New Potatoes - I suspect I tell you every year what I like to do with new potatoes but it never gets old for me so here we go. Regardless of their size (we grade them so while not everyone gets the same size the ones you get are of similar size to each other) I slice them in half and steam them until barely tender. I pull them out of the steamer to dry while I heat a cast iron pan or some sort of pan that they won't stick to and add olive oil to generously (an understatement) cover the bottom. I then pan fry them cut side down without touching them until I can see the edges are turning color. Once they are all nicely browned I place them on a plate crispy side up. I then toss a bunch of garlic in the pan, adding more oil if necessary stir for 20 seconds, add a hand full of chopped parley, stir just to mix them together and then spoon the mix over the crispy potatoes. We are having these tonight with some roast chicken and broccoli. True new potatoes are also excellent steamed and tossed with butter and herbs.
Zucchini - We had some of these grilled on a charcoal grill last night. Delicious.
Cabbage
Herb Choice
Snap Peas - Large Only
Sunday, July 2, 2017
Week 5
I hope you all have a chance to relax a little on Independence Day and enjoy a nice summer meal. We usually try to put potatoes in the 4th of July box, but they aren't quite ready. Hopefully next week. I can't wait.
We started picking field cukes this week. The ones in the hoop house(what you have been getting) have slowed down quite a bit, but it is still pretty amazing how many cukes can come from such a small area. During our best week we harvested 370 pounds out of a small 20 by 30 space. This week it will probably dip down to about 75 pounds, but the timing couldn't be better. The field cukes never look as perfect as the trellised hoop house cukes, but in general I think they are tastier. We still have one cucumber variety to make its CSA debut, Tasty Jade, a Japanese style cucumber, which to some is the tastiest of them all. If there are any available for picking tomorrow I will try to cut some samples for side by side comparison. The truth is that there are many factors that contribute to a cucumbers flavor. We could have a side by side comparison tomorrow and again every few weeks and you might have different preference each time. It is a good reminder for me not to get to stuck on a particular variety.
Have a great week.
Carrots
Head Lettuce - Mixed varieties. If you have a preference when you pick up you box let us know.
Cucumber -
Bunched Turnip - Small Only
Snap Pea
Garlic
Broccoli -
Snow Pea - Large Only
Collards or Chard - Large Only
The pictures below are from the hoop house at our house that we refer to as the Ho Ho, short for House House. Giving things stupid names makes it easier for us to refer to them and it also gives me great pleasure! However, what really gets me excited is that we are starting to pick cherry tomatoes. There aren't many but you will find a few pints at the farm stand when you pick up your box - unless someone has already snagged them.
I hope you all have a chance to relax a little on Independence Day and enjoy a nice summer meal. We usually try to put potatoes in the 4th of July box, but they aren't quite ready. Hopefully next week. I can't wait.
We started picking field cukes this week. The ones in the hoop house(what you have been getting) have slowed down quite a bit, but it is still pretty amazing how many cukes can come from such a small area. During our best week we harvested 370 pounds out of a small 20 by 30 space. This week it will probably dip down to about 75 pounds, but the timing couldn't be better. The field cukes never look as perfect as the trellised hoop house cukes, but in general I think they are tastier. We still have one cucumber variety to make its CSA debut, Tasty Jade, a Japanese style cucumber, which to some is the tastiest of them all. If there are any available for picking tomorrow I will try to cut some samples for side by side comparison. The truth is that there are many factors that contribute to a cucumbers flavor. We could have a side by side comparison tomorrow and again every few weeks and you might have different preference each time. It is a good reminder for me not to get to stuck on a particular variety.
Have a great week.
Carrots
Head Lettuce - Mixed varieties. If you have a preference when you pick up you box let us know.
Cucumber -
Bunched Turnip - Small Only
Snap Pea
Garlic
Broccoli -
Snow Pea - Large Only
Collards or Chard - Large Only
The pictures below are from the hoop house at our house that we refer to as the Ho Ho, short for House House. Giving things stupid names makes it easier for us to refer to them and it also gives me great pleasure! However, what really gets me excited is that we are starting to pick cherry tomatoes. There aren't many but you will find a few pints at the farm stand when you pick up your box - unless someone has already snagged them.
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