All posts by Farmer Rebecca

In the Share – Week 24

csa, outstanding in the field, peppers

SWEET PEPPERS F/P  Everyone gets a bag from the last haul out of the fields.

LETTUCE F/P  butterhead or red leaf

ESCAROLE F  See Tom’s post about it and it’s starring role in the Outstanding in the Field dinner.

GREENS CHOICE F/P  Gai lan or bok choy.  The choice for the partial shares include escarole.

ROOT MIX F  A bag of beets, carrots, turnips and whatever else we can glean from the fields tomorrow.

HERB CHOICE F/P  hot peppers, chives, thyme, sage or dill.

GARLIC F  We had more garlic than we thought, so here’s an extra dose.  It should keep well into winter if kept cool and dry.

TOMATOES F  A mixture of ripe, ripening and green tomatoes.  The last of the season.

BROCCOLI P  We have a small harvest this week, just enough for the partial shares.

SWEET POTATOES F/P   choice of white or orange.

NEXT WEEK:  The fall extended season begins with harvests from the high tunnel: lettuce, greens and roots plus some items held over like potatoes and onions.

FARM REPORT:
This week your farmers got a off-farm break for the first time since March.  The Outstanding in the Field dinner started the fun on Wednesday. 

Linda Hezel, from Prairie Birthday farm, began with a toast.

By Saturday afternoon, we were driving south to Fort Scott, one of our nation’s military outposts on  “the permanent Indian frontier” as it was considered to be back in 1842.

Heading home on Monday we hiked through the tallgrass prairie at the Mine Creek Civil War battle site near Pleasanton, Kansas. 

Now here it is Tuesday and we are faced with the last week of the 24-week CSA season.  For many this is goodbye for the year.  A hearty hug of appreciation is sent to all of you who weathered 2015 with us!  Community Supported Agriculture kept our farm afloat through pretty tough weather conditions this year and we cannot thank you all enough.

Despite a year’s worth of rain in two months and then no rain for two months, we have somehow managed to continue to find crops to harvest each week.  From our varied crop list (about 40 in total) we lost many but were surprised by others that survived and even thrived.  The carrots rotted but we had one of our best harvests of white potatoes ever – over a ton in total.  The peppers, eggplant and okra rebounded from the rains and produced a bounty of fruits.

A special thanks go to Megan McQueen and Semra Fetahovic who apprenticed at the farm this season.  They started back at the end of March and seven months later, 44 hours a week, they have successfully completed a job well done.  Best wishes to them both!

And thank you to all who participated in the success of another season.  To steal a phrase, it takes a community to raise a farm!!!

Saturday morning CSA members dismantling the cherry tomatoes

What to Do With Your Share—Week 24

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Here it is, the last week of the regular season. Thanks for having the farm and its partner vendors be one of the main sources of  your food this year. We do what we do because we know that the nutritional value of food is fundamentally important. We appreciate the opportunity to live and work in the middle of it all.

The sweet potatoes are being used up fast, and we want to make sure the membership gets all we have left. So this week you will be seeing some No. 2’s in the share. Trimmed up from damage in the field, we let these tubers cure and heal over. Enjoy this resilient and tasty vegetable.

Another thing with the sweet potatoes is that some of them are jumbos. They look intimidating, but if you just think of them as a winter squash you can find plenty of uses for them.

The escarole has grown as good as anything lately, and is a hearty part of a good salad. Chef Ted Habiger and his crew from Room 39 featured these greens in the first course at last week’s Outstanding in the Field dinner. Poached FSF eggs were a nice touch.

Our day off the farm at Ft. Scott, Kansas was a quite enjoyable one. Learning more about our area’s flora, fauna, food and history is always fun. The poor eating habits of the US Army in the 1840’s was news to me, but shows the real effect of vitamin deficiency. The reconstructed dragoon barrack’s kitchen showed the past dependency on barrels, crocks and sacks. It is a beautiful room reminiscent of a Shaker building.

 

In the Share – Week 23

carrots, chicks

CARROTS F/P  Finally we have carrots to harvest after an unusually long hiatus throughout the summer. Most of the spring crop rotted in the ground, making these darling roots really a pleasant sight.

SWEET POTATOES F/P  Orange ones this week.

TOMATO F  Just a few left.  Frost may come on Saturday.

BROCCOLI P The last of the crop except a few side shoots

SWEET PEPPERS F/P  Mostly green peppers for you as we prepare to bring them all in before frost.

EGGPLANT F Just one small one for the full shares.

LETTUCE F/P  Butterhead or red leaf

GREENS CHOICE F  Bok choy, Swiss chard or Gai lan.

HERB CHOICE F/P  Cilantro, dill, rosemary, thyme or hot peppers

FENNEL OR KOHLRABI F Anise or broccoli flavored bulbs

GARLIC F/P  The last garlic for the 24-week CSA shares.

NEXT WEEK:  Sweet potatoes, greens, peppers, green tomatoes, carrots and beets

FARM REPORT:
The weather has turned exceptionally dry these past weeks.  No rain is good for the Outstanding in the Field dinner tomorrow night and good for the farm crew.  The irrigation pond has plenty of water so we continue to irrigate the few crops that remain in the fields. 

The 2-month old chicks are enjoying the warm weather and their expanded area in which to forage.  On Monday, we took away their “run” that had confined them to a chicken wire-enclosed area and set them free in the yard surrounded by electro-netting. As soon as the door opened they started exploring their new range and learning about electrified fencing. 

 
 
Each chick in turn would walk through the fence with a jolt and then rush back in a few seconds later.  This was a moment where we benefited from not having a dog around while each of the 60 chicks had an educational moment.  Two days later they seem to have learned the limits of their new space and are happily hunting for bugs and chasing each other, wings flapping.

What to Do With Your Share—Week 23

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As the harvest season winds down we enjoy the mix of vegetables the fall brings us. We have been eating up the sweet potatoes like candy. We are lucky to be able to enjoy the small ones that are too tiny to put in the shares that roast up as little sweet potato fingers. Looking at our Facebook page, it appears that sweet potato fries are happening in many of our CSA member households. Hopefully we will see the recipe mentioned for sweet potato chips in a future post.

The brassicas are a nice compliment to the roots in the shares. We love to stir fry this time of year—greens, broccoli, gai lan, peppers, hot peppers, turnips, they all bring so much flavor to a meal. Take member Emily Akins advice and try some bok choy soup. Her many efforts and local food experiences landed her on the radio last week talking about how our CSA and local farming in general is one of the steps we can all take to shape a more sustainable future.

And as the frost potential heightens, we look to emptying the fields of the hot peppers. They remain on the bulk list and we suggest getting them while you can. It is so simple to broil them for 15 minutes or so (turning once) and enjoy them whole. The Hungarian hot wax and jalapenos pack some punch while the NuMex are a bit milder. Their flavor is great.

In the Share – Week 22

broccoli, high tunnel

O’HENRY SWEET POTATOES F/P  We love these sweet buttery beauties.

BROCCOLI F  A short harvest this time around.  We will get some to the partials next week. 

LETTUCE P  So, we had a little break-in with a deer last week, hence the paltry supply of lettuce.  We have the area they didn’t find well-covered now and hope to have more lettuce for you all before the end of the season. 

SMALL CABBAGE F  Read all about our stellar fall cabbage crop below.

BOK CHOY  F  I recommend stir-fry with the hakureis.

SWEET PEPPER F/P  Cooler temperatures means less ripening, so expect more green and purple ones from now on.

EGGPLANT or BEETS F/P The first of the fall beets (no tops, just roots) and nearing the end of the eggplant.

HAKUREI TURNIPS F/P  Salad turnips that we rarely cook and instead prefer straight out of the field.  Exception:  stir-fry with bok choy.

TOMATOES F/P The end of tomato season is coming soon, but here’s a few more.

HERB CHOICE F Sage, cilantro, dill or hot peppers

NEXT WEEK:  Sweet potatoes, carrots (finally!), tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, garlic, broccoli, lettuce, greens and herbs.

FARM REPORT:

The small cabbages that are in the full shares this week are the best of the fall crop.  Our favorite fall vegetable, the one we hope to depend on for income in our old age, failed.  At the time that we planted them we knew we were taking a risk.  We had waited as long as we could before preparing the soil for planting.  After the seemingly never-ending rain, we didn’t know if we would have another chance.  We ended up with cloddy soil, but we were able to get the plants in and thought the transplants would be able to handle it.  Two months later it is clear that no such handling took place.  A good half-acre of crop including cauliflower, broccoli, turnips and radishes- is a bust.  Luckily we planted in other areas after the soil conditions had improved so that we have enough of other crops to get us through the end of the CSA season. 

On a brighter note, we put the roof back on the high tunnel this week.  It was a team effort and a success.  See Tom’s post for a view from the top. 

What to Do With Your Share—Week 22

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It’s been a nice start to sweet potato season. The orange Beauregard’s are out of the ground and hit the shares last week. This week we hand out the cream-colored O’Henry’s. They are one of the three varieties of organic sweet potato starts that Kansas State grows each year for sale. They are truly delicious baked, mashed or fried. A favorite of mine is white sweet potato soup.

I got a chance to have an elevated view of the home field this week while attaching plastic to the high tunnel peak. We are glad to be able to see a view with cover crops and chickens in it. These areas are getting prepped for the coming year and revived after a tough season.

In the Share – Week 21

cover crops, high tunnel, outstanding in the field

KOHLRABI P

SWEET POTATOES F/P

SWEET PEPPERS F/P

TOMATOES F/P

EGGPLANT F/P

HERB CHOICE F  Sage, cilantro or dill

GREENS CHOICE F  Swiss chard, kale, gai lan, or bok choy

LETTUCE and/or FRISEE F/P  The frisee makes a nice little salad.

GARLIC F/P  Partial shares get a choice of garlic or herbs.

ROMA GREEN BEANS F  The last week of these guys.

NEXT WEEK:  Peppers, eggplant, greens, turnips, beets, green tomatoes and sweet potatoes

FARM REPORT:
Autumn is here and we welcome its arrival.  After an especially eventful growing season, your farmers are looking forward to a winter rest.  But, we are not there yet!  Much lovely fall crops must be harvested, brought in for storage or protected outdoors.  The high tunnel is ready for its hat to go back on for the wintertime.  We planted it full of greens back in early September.  It is nice to keep the plastic off of its top and ends for as long as possible to avoid overheating the plants inside, but it needs to be buttoned up before the first frost.

Out in the fields have a nice blanket of various cover crops that Tom sowed in late July.  Sorghum Sudan grass, cowpeas, mung beans and oats cover the Spring fields.  These plants growing now are next year’s fertility.

 
Speaking of out in the fields, “Outstanding in the Field” is returning to our farm on October 14th.  Chef Ted Habiger from Room 39 in KCMO will be feeding us multiple courses of local delights from our farm and others in the region.  Event details and tickets are here.

What to Do With Your Share—Week 21

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What an enjoyable time the weather has been the last few weeks. We have been fortunate that the last 70 days have been so much better than the previous. At one point we did not know if we would even have any peppers or eggplant, but things turned around. It was great to see such resiliency in the plants and are further refining the varieties we grow based on what did well.

Another sign that it became a warm summer are sweet potatoes. We have harvested about half of them, and they will be in the shares starting this week. My go-to recipe for these nutritious tubers is as spiced wedges. Sweet potatoes are quite savory if you let them be.

Sage is in prime condition right now, and it is perfectly matched to the sweet potatoes. It is another example of the savory nature they have. Our post from September 2011 talks about this and many other facts about sweet potatoes.

In the Share – Week 20

chicken coop, chickens, chicks, gai lan

GAI LAN AND BOK CHOY F/P  Bunches for stir-fry

TOMATOES F/P  The last good week of tomatoes is upon us.

ROMA BEANS F/P  Tom has a recipe for green beans and tomatoes in his post.

SWEET PEPPERS F/P  More sweet bells and horn-shaped sweeties.

EGGPLANT F

KOHLRABI F  The first of the fall crop.  Peel well and enjoy raw or lightly cooked.

CILANTRO, DILL OR ARUGULA F/P

NEXT WEEK:  Peppers, greens, eggplant, sweet potatoes, lettuce and kohlrabi. 

FARM REPORT:
First, an update from week 16 regarding our flock of 60 chicks.  They are over a month old now and have moved to a coop in the fields.  They are very energetic and healthy little girls.  They stay in a protected run when they are outside to keep them safe from hawks, etc.  Every few days we pull the coop down the bed so that they get fresh grass.  The love to eat anything green that we can throw at them.  Today they got some bok choy leaves that didn’t make the cut for the CSA. 

Meanwhile the 2-yr. old flock got a new patch of weeds to work on today.  They are happily stripping off the seeds of the annual grasses that are such a nuisance for us. 

What to Do With Your Share—Week 20

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There have been some glorious days over the past week. The weather has included lots of sunshine and fair conditions. Riding the weather through the year has its good days, and they are a real treat to experience.

Last week we enjoyed a wonderful dish I found on my FB feed from Seeds from Italy. It led to a recipe for Italian Flat Beans and Fresh Tomatoes. Beans, tomatoes, garlic, oil and salt are all that you need. We put them over rice we had melted some Goatsbeard cheese into. As good as it sounds.

Most of the braising greens bunches this week have some gai lan in the mix. Remember from our post of May 26 this year that you can chop the whole thing…leaves, buds and stems. We hope to learn more every year about how to grow and harvest this great vegetable. It has a lot of potential.