Category Archives: bad seed

In the Share: Week 31

bad seed, KC Food Circle, spinach

SPINACH  Big, dark green leaves have grown back nicely from our picking two weeks ago.

LETTUCE  The last of the lettuce from the high tunnel, mostly red-leaf.

CARROTS AND BEETS  A bag with a bunch of each.

FRISEE ENDIVE  From the high tunnel

CHARD, KALE OR BOK CHOY 

SWEET POTATOES  O’Henry white ones this week.

BABY LEEKS  We had to turn under our leeks this Spring after the deluge left them waist-high in the weeds.  We re-planted but they just didn’t have enough time to size-up. 

GREEN GARLIC  From the high tunnel, some fresh garlic plants.

NEXT WEEK:  You are on your own for the winter.  We invite you to visit us and your local producers at the Bad Seed Market every Friday to get your fill of produce, proteins and ferments.

FARM REPORT:
Here we are in the final week of the 2015 CSA season.  The last of the carrots are out of the ground thanks to the efforts of the Saturday CSA crew.

I would be lying if I said we weren’t happy to see the last of the crops come out of the field and the last CSA shares packed.  2015 was a real doozie that we hope to never see its equal.  According to the old-timers in our area, the amount of rain that came down in early summer was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  We sincerely hope so!

We are incredibly lucky to have such an understanding group of folks who support us.  This past Saturday, the Core Group met and reviewed the results of the member survey.  I will be sending out an email that goes into greater depth on the survey responses, but until then know that your comments and suggestions were taken to heart and will inform our decisions this winter as we plan for 2016 and beyond.

Your farmers don’t hibernate much in winter.  In addition to working on the barn, repairing equipment, planning for next year and caring for the chickens, Tom and I will be selling our fermented foods at the Bad Seed Market most Fridays from now through February.  We not only sell our products there, it is where we shop so that we can eat local year-round.  This Friday is the double-sized pre-Thanksgiving Extravaganza, where you can get everything you need for the big feast.  Hope to see you there!

The next day (Saturday, 11/21), while Tom stays at the farm to welcome the last CSA crew of the year, I will be just down the street from the Bad Seed at the first ever KC Food Circle Holiday Market (1522 Holmes, 9am – 6pm).  It should be a fun event as it is a combination farmers market with KC Food Circle farmers like us plus crafty people and businesses who use sustainable, local materials.  Go local this holiday season!

In the Share – Week 31

bad seed, extended season
 
at the BadSeed Market


SWEET POTATOES:  Your choice of orange or cream-colored sweets.

GARLIC:  Soft-necks types, Artichoke and Silverskin, are good-keepers

CARROTS:  More stubby Chantenays

GAI LAN:  Also known as “Chinese broccoli”, see Tom’s post for cooking ideas.

ARUGULA OR SPINACH:  A 1/2 lb. bag of either. 

RADISHES AND TURNIPS:  A bag of fresh-eating varieties:  Watermelon radishes and Hakurei turnips.

SCALLIONS:  A bunch of dainty green onions out of the high tunnel. 

SWISS CHARD OR BOK CHOY:  Hardy greens for winter stews and braising

DRIED HERBS:  Your choice out of the box of tins.

NEXT WEEK:  No shares until April 2014.  Come see us at the BadSeed Market, 1909 McGee KCMO, 4-8 pm.

FARM REPORT:

Here we are at the final week of our first 31-week CSA season and man, what a year!  The Fair Share Farm CSA turned ten this year and the harvest was a bountiful one.  The season did not start on a good note with freezing temperatures and even snow on Mother’s Day.  It was the first time we had ever needed to delay the start of the CSA season, which we did by one week.  But, the weather warmed and the summer fruits ripened well.  The summer heat kept the irrigation pond pumping, but a few stretches of cooler temperatures allowed good germination of the fall roots.  With the last week of the season pushed into December, the farm’s coolers are full of produce with excess to donate to food pantries and to sell at the winter market.  The time has finally arrived for your farmers to take a deep breath and forget about the farm for a few weeks before we prepare do it all over again.  We look forward to seeing you all on the other side of the calendar!  Until then, happy eating!!

The Fair Share Farm Family: Rebecca, Rocky & Tom
(not in photo:  Mommakitty, Sunny & the chickens)

Fair Share Farm CSA to Start May 9th

bad seed, csa, fair share farm, irrigation, lady beetles, onions, solar power, sustainable agriculture, tomato plants

The time has come to start the harvest. This Spring has been unusually mild and has created an early maturing of most everything on the farm. These conditions have convinced us to start the CSA a week earlier than originally planned. So…the schedule for the first week’s pickup will be:

Wednesday Distribution (Bad Seed or Farm) May 9th
Saturday Distribution (Liberty or Farm) May 12th

For deatils relating to your distribution site please click on the link. If you are a farm pickup, you will have chosen either Wednesday or Saturday, so please take note of which day you are scheduled for.

The farm crew has been busy keeping up with everything the last month. Our 2012 apprentices Dani Hurst and Ryan Stubby started the last week of March and have now been on the job for a month. Peruse the previous blogs and you can see all that we have been up to.

This last week we have been concentrating on our summer crops. On Monday we started up the irrigation system as the plants were becoming quite parched. Our solar irrigation system seems to be working well this season. You can see in the photo the high flow we get on-demand from the panels. We measured this flow at 35 gallons per minute.

Elsewhere in the field crops destined for future shares, such as onions and broccoli are growing well.

The tomato plants are starting to go out. The cherries and caged hybrids are in the ground, and the heirlooms and remaining hybrids are No. 1 on the runway. Squash and cucumbers are germinating in the greenhouse and will be in the field in the next 10 days or so.

We began seeing aphids in the greenhouse on the peppers and eggplants the last few days, so felt it was time to call in the biological hit squad of lady beetles. Rebecca bought some at Family tree nursery and we set 1/3 of them loose last night. This morning they seemed to be quite active. We expcet them to do their job and help keep our transplants as healthy as possible.

Look forward to seeing and feeding all of you soon.