Category Archives: broccoli

In the Share – Week 20

broccoli, high tunnel

BROCCOLI (F/P)  The broccoli packs a flavor punch this week.  We are blaming those hot days in our recent past.  Steamed with some butter and lemon is all the help it needs.

TOMATOES (F/P)  The harvest is about over, so enjoy them while they last.

CABBAGE (F/P)  Choice of Chinese (Napa) or standard cabbage.  See Tom’s post for some helpful hints for making slaw.

SWEET PEPPERS (F)  Ripening is slowing down considerably.  Expect green ones soon.

SWEET POTATOES (F/P)  O’Henry are creamy yellow sweet potatoes.  These are the first of many yellow and orange sweet potatoes out in the field waiting to be dug.  If you still need to punch in your hours, come out on a harvest day and more likely than not we will be digging the sweets! 

BROCCOLI OR CAULIFLOWER (F)  Full shares get a choice of either more broccoli, or a cauliflower.

ARUGULA (F/P)  Our second planting is coming on well and the lettuce isn’t quite ready, so enjoy an arugula salad this week.

RADISHES (F/P)  If the heat of the radish is too much for you, try lightly steaming or dressing with a honey vinaigrette.

HERB CHOICE (F/P)  Sage, cilantro and basil

GARLIC (F/P)

NEXT WEEK:  More peppers, broccoli and cauliflower.  Leeks, carrots, beets and lettuce return.

FARM REPORT:

What a whirlwind of a week it has been.  Thursday we replaced the plastic on our 30 x 96 ft. high tunnel.  It was quite the job for six of us and luckily we didn’t rip it in two, but we sure tried!  It went better than our first attempt a year ago and we have new ideas for improvements in 2014.  Today we put the ends and doors back on so she’s ready to be buttoned up when frost threatens. 

This week we also began to break new ground in the far field below the grapes.  In 2012, sheep on loan from the Parkers grazed.  This summer the chickens ran through.  Now it is our turn.  Tom took out Grandpa, the family’s 1962 International 504 bought used by John Graff, Sr. in late sixties. The discs are of a similar vintage. After several passes the ground is chopped up a bit and ready for spading.

Add in the regular harvest routine and then, by some miracle, Tom and I escaped the farm for a full 48 hours.   Between the Saturday rain (very nice!) and Monday afternoon we lounged at a B & B in St. Joseph, Missouri.  It was a welcome rest after the normal rollercoaster of a season we get here on the edge of the prairie.  Besides napping and eating too much pizza, we also managed a walk along the river, 3 antique malls, and several museums.

In the Share – Week Four

broccoli, peas, strawberries
Broccoli side-shoots

SUGARSNAP PEAS (F/P) These are edible-podded peas. Just snap the top, pull any strings that may come with it and pop it in your mouth.

KOHLRABI (F/P) Introducing the kohlrabi – We have enough for everyone to get one. More are on their way.   Peel it well and eat raw or cook lightly.

LETTUCE (F2/P1) Too much lettuce in your fridge? Check Tom’s recipe for wilted lettuce salad. 

STRAWBERRIES (F/P) A quart for all. What a great crop this year! We are glad so many of you came out for u-pick and ordered bulk. Who can say n”No” to a fresh, local, no-spray strawberry? Non-organic berries, as a picker on Saturday said, are “chemical sponges”.

GARLIC SCAPES (F/P) The hardneck garlic’s flower stalk. Very edible and tasty. Great with the creamy garlic dressing we make at the farm with our fresh eggs. A different version than last week’s yogurt-based recipe, Tom’s got a link this week.

BROCCOLI (P) We are happy to get the partial shares their “fair share” of broccoli. It has been a disappointing harvest and this is the last of it.  Luckily the plants made one last dash and made lots of side-shoots after the main head was picked.

HERB CHOICE (F) Rosemary, taragon, garlic chives or a dried herb

SPRING ONIONS (F)  A bit of a bulb on these, but still with fresh tops.

KALE OR CHARD (F) The greens love all of this moisture. Expect more in the weeks to come.

NEXT WEEK: More peas, lettuce, strawberries and kohlrabi. Cabbage and spring turnips.

FARM REPORT: The fields were filled this past weekend thanks to an amazing strawberry harvest. The weather was perfectly pleasant and lots of you came out with family and friends in tow.

u-pickers

As the berry harvest winds down, our CSA harvest mornings will be given over to the pea patch, which is looking great. Peas have a short season here in the southern Midwest, but our healthy plants this year remind me of our beginnings back at Peacework Organic Farm in Newark, New York. Tom and I met in the spring on the farm.  Western New York has beautiful farmland, well-drained soil and good people.  Congrats to all the farmers there and the Genessee Valley CSA – 25 years and still going strong: www.gvocsa.org  .

pea patch

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

2011—Our Eighth Season

broccoli, community supported agriculture, cover crops, csa, electric tractor, fair share farm, farm aprentice, greenhouse, jonathan justus, justus drugstore, kansas city, outstanding in the field, tomatoes
Impression of Rocky

By 2011 we had experienced eight years of farming in the same spot and seen how the land responds to just about every weather condition.  We continued to work on systems that could keep our farm resilient and sustainable for the future.

We were helped along by a principle promoted by Dr. W. Edwards Deming to “improve constantly and forever”… something I had learned in engineering and Rebecca knew inherently. It is an axiom that is in concert with the idea of sustainablility. We felt that we had a firm foundation to now build for the long-term future of Fair Share Farm.

The first couple months of the year were as busy as ever. We had one last area of the house to gut, insulate, re-wire, re-wall, re-window and re-door. We got it mostly done before things got too hectic and are enjoying the fruits of this labor to this day.

Only a memory now

The previous November, Lucas Knutter joined the farm team, house-sitting the apprentice house for the winter and joining us as a full-time apprentice in March. He had just finished a 27-month stint in the Peace Corp working with farmers in Senegal, and returned ready to start a farm of his own.  He went straight to work in January, joining us to repair some problem spots on the greenhouse.

 

It was a great year for the soil. Our Spring plantings went as smooth as ever after a quick cultivating pass with the G.


 
The Summer cover crop of sudan grass and cow peas grew 7 feet tall and was our best yet. Between the top growth and an extensive root system, the soil was given a feast.
Mowing down the cover crops before turning them under

Weather played its usual good guy/bad guy role, threatening tornados in the Spring, baking us silly in the Summer, and providing for a robust harvest in the Fall.  Kim Conrads joined us for the summer right after high school graduation and spent one of her first hours at the farm in our root cellar with the farm crew of CSA members, workers, farmers, a dog and two cats. Luckily no funnel stopped by.

Safe in the root cellar
August 2, a record high.

Among the standouts that year were our record snap pea (400+ lb), tomato (5,600+ lbs) and sweet potato (2,100+ lb) harvests . Other crops did excellent too, as the almost 2.7 lb head of broccoli pictured below can attest.

The tomato share during Week 11
CSA morning in the packing room

Colorful carrots
Head-sized broccoli
Fall share

July 25 was a unique day for us as we hosted Justus Drugstore and Outstanding in the Field for an al fresco dinner on the farm. It is tough to describe in one paragraph what a wonderful event it was. The food was unique and satisfying, the crowd happy and boisterous, and the presentation professional and artful. The whole story is in our July 26 blog.

The long table on a hot Missouri day

By August, Kim had headed to college and we had a new apprentice in Dani Hurst. She was ready to put the homesteading and farming skills she had learned about as a writer for Natural Home magazine into practice.  Her energy and good nature was appreciated for the next 1-1/2 years she spent with us.

Dani mulching leeks


Another group that has helped out over the years is my family. The road Rebecca and I took to where we are right now was not a normal one. While no doubt skeptical at first, their love and support for us over the years has been true and real. My brother and five sisters have all done a stint or two at the farm, visited during unique events like OITF, and otherwise used their talents to help us out. It has been a fun family affair.

My brother Bill juicing pears with our great-grandfather’s press

Autumn 2011 was warm and the crops thrived into early winter.  The fields were plentiful past the end of our CSA season and for our annual night at the Bad Seed pre-Thanksgiving Market.

October

A rarity for us, the hustle and bustle of running a market table on a busy night is a lot of fun. So is catching up and bartering with all the other vendors, seeing our big city friends and enjoying the festive atmosphere.

Fall bounty

Next up…one year ago and a new high tunnel, more record harvests, the drought, OITF II, and back to the present.