Category Archives: asparagus

In the Share – Week 3 Extended Season

Allis Chalmers G, asparagus, cultivating, electric tractor, tomato plants

 ASPARAGUS  An extra big bunch for all.  The hot weather has it growing fast.

LETTUCES (2)  We have plenty of lettuce for everyone to get two of what is left in the high tunnel.  We have butterheads, Forellenschluss, and red leaf lettuce remaining.

HAKUREI TURNIPS  See Tom’s post for a stir-fry that uses the tops and the bottoms, plus bok choy or almost any other green you may have waiting for a recipe. 

RADISHES  More baby bunches from the high tunnel.  Just enough to give your salad a kick.

SPINACH  Probably the last harvest of the spinach in the high tunnel.  It fed us all well since last fall and we are grateful for it. 

TAT SOI  Both the tat soi and the bok choy in the high tunnel have been disappointments this Spring.  Not sure why, perhaps they got too chilled earlier.  You will be receiving baby heads that will fill in nicely in a stir fry or salad with other greens.

CARROTS It is nice to have fresh carrots this time of year.  The ones in the field are still so small. 

CHOICE:  KALE, SWISS CHARD OR GAILAN  We are clearing out the high tunnel so here is an assortment of greens to choose from.

HERB CHOICE:  Cilantro, dill, tarragon

NEXT WEEK:  The first week of the 24-week season!  Lettuces and salad greens.  Asparagus and green onions. 

After last week’s cold spell, the temperature has increased dramatically.  We waited until the frost-danger had passed and now all of the summer fruits:  tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, beans, cucumbers and squash are ready to be planted.  So far, we have 550 tomato plants in the ground, with another 350 to go.

It is also time to cultivate the spring beds.  Weeds are still small in most places and are vulnerable to the cultivator sweeps on the electric tractor.  The onion beds got the treatment yesterday and are looking great.

In the Share – Week One

asparagus, broccoli, packing room, sweetpea

Asparagus

Butterhead LETTUCE (F/P) The May Queen gets here just in time. It’s about time since it is almost June!
Red leaf LETTUCE (F)
ASPARAGUS (F/P)
LEEKS (F/P)
BROCCOLI (F): A much smaller share than we were hoping. In a better Spring, the plants would have waited longer to send up their flower stalk, the broccoli.
BOK CHOY (F/P): Also having some flowering issues. We are harvesting lots this week to nip them in the bud.
GREEN ONIONS (F/P)
RADISHES or ARUGULA (F)  Partial shares get a choice with herbs
HERBS (F): Chives, mint, tarragon

NEXT WEEK: More lettuce, bok choy, radishes, broccoli and herbs. Green garlic, kale, chard and spring turnips.

FARM REPORT: Howdy, this is Rebecca wishing you all a happy start to the 2013 season. I give you what is in the share each week along with a farm report. I apologize in advance for typos, after farming all day one doesn’t always have the mental alertness for the task. We like to keep you all in the loop and we hope that it is helpful.

A few hours ago our trusted produce-delivery vehicle, Sweetpea, returned to the farm from an extended stay with our VW mechanic. She is 42 years young thanks to good engine maintenance and a shiny new paint job. Danny Brown, of Brown’s Automotive, is a good soul and his crew worked some magic removing the rust that was eating her alive.  Thanks guys!

Danny and Sweetpea

It was a perfect afternoon for a drive in the van.  It has been lovely weather all week, especially compared to our neighbors in Oklahoma. The crops appreciated the .75 inch of rain that came with the storms last weekend. It was a perfectly-timed addition of moisture after the farm crew spent a frantic week planting.

The Spring crops are beginning to mature and we are seeing the results of way-below average temperatures in March and April. The broccoli is maturing weeks early because it was stressed early on, but most other crops have fared better.

buttoning broccoli

We have the majority of the summer crops in and over the last few days have managed to tidy up the place in preparation for the first week of the CSA. Everyone likes a clean and tidy workplace, and farmers are no different. Our expanded packing room is quite comfortable and bright.  The new cooler is on and working well.

the packing room

What to Do With Your Share—Week 1

asparagus, community supported agriculture, cover crops, csa, fair share farm, feed the soil feed the people, kansas city, leeks

Welcome to the 2013 season. We are happy to have a diverse share this first week, a reward perhaps for making it through the Spring. The harvest has begun, and it is time to start cooking.

Leeks are one of our favorite vegetables, so we take advantage of times like now. We used a recipe tonight that was in our newsletter 8 years ago…angel hair pasta with leeks and pasta. Our variation included spaghetti and parsley and was so good, we had to recommend it and take a picture of it.

The aspargus you are getting is fresh and tender. Great steamed, grilled, sauted, marinated raw, it is very versatile. To clean asparagus you can wash it and snap off any tough ends, or you can peel it. There is no better demonstration of this craft than by Jaques Pepin. I encourage you to go to the KQED website and click on the video of Episode 208 at the 5:10 mark.

Whatever herb you get, chances are that it will enhance the flavor of any meal you decide to cook. With seasonal eating you get a natural pairing of flavors. Chives, mint or tarragon would have gone well in the leek dish.

Rye and vetch

In the field we are beginning the steps of feeding the Fall crops. A picture perfect stand of rye and vetch has reached it’s full development, and we mowed it all down today in preparation of spading it into the ground. Yummy.

In the Share – Week 2

asparagus, chard, endive, frost, lettuce, radish

LETTUCE (2): One of our favorite French heirloom butterheads and one red looseleaf.

SPINACH: A smaller portion than last week’s big bag from last fall’s planting. The February planting isn’t nearly as lush.

GREEN ONIONS: These are out of the field from an over-wintered patch.

ENDIVE: Also called frisee, it is lovely in mixed salads or lightly sauteed

SWISS CHARD: The plants are enormous and hogging the sunlight, so they gotta go!

SPRING TURNIPS: More Japanese delicacies. We should have planted more of these (next year!).

STIR-FRY GREENS: Many of our brassica family, including the bok choy and Napa cabbage have started bolting. They are still tasty and you get a little pretty flower too!

RADISHES: Wish we had lots more of these babies, everyone will get a few.

HERBS: From the perennial herb beds, tarragon and chives.

NEXT WEEK: More lettuce, spinach, herbs and green onions. Finally Hopefully asparagus!

 FARM REPORT: My goodness, have you all looked at the forecast? Freezing temperatures are on the way, maybe even some snow. This is coming after 2 days in the 80s. We are as prepared as we possibly can be since all the row cover we put out last week is still out there, but row cover only helps so much. We are happy that we have not put out any of the warm weather crops yet. The tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cukes and squashes are safely stored for a hopefully soon transplanting. But even the cool-loving crops don’t like freezing and this see-saw of weather can lead to premature bolting. We are currently experiencing the results of this in the high tunnel with the flowering bok choys and napas.

On a related note, at this point we feel that we will delay the start of the 24-week season by one week. That would make the first week May 22/25. Our plan is to add a week at the end of October to make it up. It is funny because last year we started a week early, which was unusual, and ended earlier in the fall. Anyway, the asparagus is really slow to start and the lettuces and other greens and roots are also slow and won’t be big enough to hand out. We’ll look at it again next week and give you all an update but that’s what we are thinking at the moment.

In the Share – Week 1

asparagus, frost, high tunnel, row cover, wash area
LETTUCE (2)  a butterhead and a red leaf
BOK CHOY   some are green-stemmed, some are white – either way they make the best stir fry.
SPINACH  we are still picking off the fall planting and the leaves are still sweet and getting quite large.
SWISS CHARD see tom’s post for his yummy Cacciatore recipe
GREEN ONIONS AND GARLIC use the green garlic as you would green onions.  
PARSLEY AND DILL both appear to be thriving
ARUGULA  we do not grow baby greens here at Fair Share, so be prepared for big bunches of big-leafed and full-flavored arugula
HAKUREI TURNIPS  some say they taste like they have ice cream in the center, you be the judge.
CARROTS  this was our first winter with the high tunnel and we hope you all are ready for the experiment!  The carrots taste great but are a bit misshapen due to uneven watering, we believe.  We just have enough for everyone to get a 1/2 pound.
NEXT WEEK:  lettuce, leeks, spinach, herbs, endive, radish, turnips, maybe (hopefully!) asparagus
FARM REPORT
What a way to kick off the first week of our new extended season – a brutal cold snap that had us racing across our fields today doubling-up on row cover! We put a second layer on 3800 feet worth of beds doing squats every 20 feet to pin it down. Perhaps we are running on adrenaline, but it went quickly and no frostbite was reported.  

This was after a very pleasant day on Saturday with the first crew of CSA member workers.  With lots of extra hands we cleaned-up the asparagus patch, dug dandelions, painted the picnic tables and filled in the trench for the new drain line from the wash area.

The washing and packing area of the barn got a big retrofit this winter and is ready for business.

And here’s a sneak peak at the crops going in the shares tomorrow before we covered them up too.

We were hoping to have asparagus in the shares this week, but the stalks are barely poking out of the ground and for good reason, they’ll most likely be frozen in the morning.

Forecasts range from mid-20s to 21 degrees in the morning.  We have cancelled the work shifts for tomorrow.  Our farm crew of four will be able to handle the harvest once the crops thaw.  CSA distribution should continue as planned.  We were able to cover our most sensitive crops, but the fruit trees and the direct-seeded crops are uncovered.  We’ll let you know how it turns out.