Category Archives: barn

In the Share – Week 12

barn, fall planting, sweetpea, tomatoes, tranplanting

TOMATOES F/P  Along with a lot of reds and pinks, the yellow and green heirlooms are ripening.  A new variety for us this year, the Aunt Ruby’s German Green stays green when ripe. 

CARROTS F/P  Freshly dug from the summer patch.  They are smaller than our storage types, but sweet.

WALLA WALLA ONIONS F/P  More sweet onions.  It is a bumper crop this year so we are sharing the overage… and we need to make room for the storage onions to come in to the barn from the field.

CUCUMBERS F/P  We have had a good run of cucumbers, but finally the patch is beginning to wind down.  Lately I have been making a quick cucumber salad at night:  cucumbers, onions, vinegar, honey, salt and pepper.  It is even better the next day for lunch and dinner too. 

SALSA PACK or SUMMER SQUASH F/P

CHERRY TOMATOES F/P

CABBAGE F  The last of the spring harvest.

EGGPLANT OR BEETS F

HERBS F

NEXT WEEK:  More tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, onions, eggplant and salsa packs.  Potatoes and garlic return.  Perhaps the first of the green beans.

FARM REPORT:
In the last 7 days the walk-in cooler needed repair, the exhaust pipe and one of the shocks fell off of the truck, the power supply for our computer went out, the refrigerator at the apprentice house died, and the van needed a tow.

Sweetpea (the name of our VW van since long before we became her owners) delivers the produce to the city twice a week and we are happy to have her back in good working order.  Thanks to the diligent work at the mechanics (and, of course, a decrease in the bank account) the van is running again and most of the other items on the list are fixed or on their way to that end. 

Meanwhile the crops pay no attention to our mechanical difficulties.  They are ready for harvest or to be planted.  They need water and weeding.   This week we transplanted cauliflower, broccoli and kale.

The new barn waits expectantly to be filled with our tools, equipment and workshop.  It looks so beautiful but at this point the only things in it are racks of onions drying.

In the Share – Week 22

barn, broccoli, sweet potatoes

BROCCOLI (F/P) We have picked most of the first heads and now are picking the side shoots.  Full shares get broccoli and a choice of more broccoli or cauliflower.

SWEET POTATOES (F/P)  big, beautiful orange-fleshed Beauregards

LETTUCE (F/P)  A mix of varieties from the field.

BULB FENNEL (F/P)  Whoa there, the fennel has grown fast and large.  See Tom’s post for some culinary suggestions.

CHOICE OF GREENS (F) Bok choy, tat soi, kale or arugula

BEETS OR SWEET PEPPERS (F/P) 

KOHLRABI (F)  These are the larger, fall season varieties.  Don’t let their size scare you, they are tender and juicy.

GARLIC (F/P)  We are saving all of the rest of the garlic for planting later this month. 

TOMATOES (F)  We picked green tomatoes today.  Expect them in your share next week.  Until then enjoy the last of the ripe ones.

WATERMELON RADISH (F/P)  See Tom’s post for more on this vivid fall treat.

HERB CHOICE (F/P) Cilantro, dill, thyme, or rosemary

NEXT WEEK:  Broccoli, green peppers, green tomatoes, fingerling potatoes, sweet potatoes, cabbage, carrots, lettuce and leeks.

FARM REPORT:

The farm crew gave up a day off last week to take advantage of the beautiful weather for re-siding the back of the barn.  Thanks to a good platform designed by my dad, we had a sturdy work area.  The old lumber came off quickly in the morning and the boards went up in the afternoon.   

The end result looks pretty nice if we do say so ourselves.

With frost coming any day now, we have been very focused on harvesting the tender crops.  The sweet potato harvest continues with 400 feet left to dig.

In the Share – Week 21

barn, lettuce, sweet potatoes
romaine lettuces

LETTUCE (F/P) Our best guess is that last hot spell gave the lettuce a fright because almost half of our varieties are going into premature bolt, including some precious heads in the high tunnel.  Crud!  Others are holding on strong and everybody will get one of those until they run out.  Some may also get some baby heads that had to be cut before they get their full bolt on.

TOMATOES (F/P)  The harvest is dwindling, but the plants continue to slowly ripen fruit.  We barely missed a frost this weekend so we’ll have them for at least another week.

LEEKS (F/P)  The first digging of the fall leeks.  Can’t wait!

BROCCOLI (F/P)  The broccoli is starting to settle down a bit and cold nights make it sweet.

CAULIFLOWER (P)  Partial shares get a choice of cauliflower or more broccoli.

SWEET PEPPERS (F/P)  The ripe ones are getting scarcer but these warm days help. 

CARROTS (F)  Orange sweeties from our recent digging.  There’s another bed out there that we are looking forward to eating all winter.

BOK CHOI (F) We planted whatever seed we had left including red ones, white-stemmed and green-stemmed varieties.

HERB CHOICE (F)  Cilantro, dill or basil.

NEXT WEEK:  More peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, sweet potatoes and beets.  Bulb fennel debuts.

FARM REPORT:

Fall is easily our favorite time of year.  The air is clean and crisp.  Snuggled in our hoodies and jackets we are greeted by the morning sunrise a little later every day.  With nothing left to plant, we focus on the harvest.

fall morning radish pull

In any extra time we have on CSA mornings, we tackle the sweet potato harvest which is breaking all previous records.  Last week we dug a whopping 680 lbs. out of a 200 ft. row.  With several more rows to dig, we encourage anyone who still owes hours to get on out here. 

Luke and Lorne leading the way

When the planting ends, work on the infrastructure begins.  First on the list, the back of the barn.  Some of you may remember when we re-faced the front of the barn two years ago.  Some of you even helped us on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year.  Luckily we stayed injury-free and the barn is much improved.  This time around because of the lay of the land we are fifteen feet up off the ground for the entire project.  For this reason, we are sticking with the “professionals” on this job.  The farm crew plus an extra hand here or there should be able to get the job done. 

back of the barn (before)


In the Share – Week 9

barn

TOMATOES (F/P) The heat is bringing on the favorite fruits of summer. This week Nyagous, a velvety brown heirloom is coming in nicely along with our early reds.
CHERRRY TOMATOES (F) Try one of the pink ones, it’s a new variety for us. Let us know what you think.
POTATOES (F/P) We’ll be digging the Caribe and the Kennebecs this week. Both are have a mealy texture great for mashing.
BEETS (F/P) Last of the spring beets go in the shares this week plus a few available on the bulk list.
CUCUMBERS (F) The cucumbers grew fast in this heat, which is perfect weather for a cold bowl of gazpacho.
SUMMER SQUASH (F) Lots of round zucchini and pattypan squash. So cute and they won’t slide off the grill like the long ones.
GREEN BEANS (F/P) Whoa, we went from no beans, to loads of beans. With few pickers on the schedule we can’t pick them all. Everyone gets a good amount this week, but if you want more you’ll have to come pick ‘em yourself.
EGGPLANT AND GREEN PEPPERS (F) Soon we will let the peppers ripen and stop picking their green fruit. In the meantime, enjoy!
GARLIC (F/P) Partial shares get a choice of garlic or herb. The garlic is not quite cured, so use soon or refrigerate.
HERBS, HOT PEPPERS OR SALSA PACK (F) Basil, thai basil, dried herbs, jalapenos, Numex anaheims, or salsa pack. It’s a hodge podge of good things to complement your vegetables. Read Tom’s post for more info.
ALSO THIS WEEK: Bread of Life Bakery shares
NEXT WEEK: More beans, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, cucumbers and squash. Onions and carrots.

FARM REPORT
To state the obvious, it has been blazing hot this week. As luck would have it, back in May we chose this weekend for a volunteer day at the farm. I am happy to report that the weekend was injury-free and that we got a lot of work done despite the heat. A big thank you goes out to all the folks that braved the heat with us: John Graff, Kelly Parker, Rick Robson, Mark Flynn, Tiffany Coleman, Trish Berrong, Chris Riebenslager, Lucas Knutter, Keith and Nancy Stubblefield. We know there could have been many more comfortable ways to spend your weekend, instead you slogged it out with your farmers who are forever grateful.

The barn at the farm has seen alot over the century that it has stood. Originally built to dry tobacco, it once held a dairy operation before its current life as our vegetable farm’s only barn. It serves us as a packing house, storage and tool shed, garlic and onion drying house and equipment shed and workshop.

On Saturday the tearout of the old siding began.

By Sunday morning all the siding was off and the new, wider doorway was framed in.

The new siding went up as the sun beat down.


Almost finished and no one passed out from the heat. Hooray!