Category Archives: butterhead lettuce

In the Share: Week 3

broccoli, butterhead lettuce, csa distribution, lifted spirits

STRAWBERRIES F2/P1  We thank our 2015 crew who planted the new patch just in time for the 2007 patch to dwindle out.

BUTTERHEAD LETTUCE F/P  Here is Tom’s yummy recipe for strawberry garlic scape dressing for your butterhead lettuce salad.  Highly recommended.

RED LEAF LETTUCE F

BROCCOLI F/P

TAT SOI F  Tat soi is bok choy’s thinner-stemmed, darker-green cousin.

SPINACH P

KALE F

GARLIC SCAPES F/P  The young flower bud of the hardneck garlic plant.

HERB CHOICE F/P  Cilantro, mint, tarragon.

NEXT WEEK:  Lettuce, swiss chard, strawberries, broccoli, sugarsnap peas and herbs.

FARM REPORT:
With the third week of the field harvest season upon us we are happy with how it is going.  The lettuces continue to be huge and beautiful.  There is nothing quite like a blushed butterhead that is just as heavy as it is delicate.

Expect another few weeks of Spring greens before we transition to the summer fruits and roots.  The weather has given the crops a nice amount of rain and sunshine.  We missed the five inch downpour on Sunday and count ourselves lucky.  Fourteen years of experience plus good weather equals healthy plants and happy farmers.

We are up to 129 CSA members and counting.  We have had a string of new memberships coming in.  I want to welcome all the newbies.  We don’t have as much time to get to know folks this time of year, but I hope you stick with us and we look forward to seeing you out at the farm this season.

The new Crossroads site at Lifted Spirits is working out great.  We are so very grateful to Michael, Darren and Kyle for letting us take over their space for a few hours every week.  Here’s the haul from last week along with the very pretty sign courtesy of distribution coordinator and artist, Stacey Cook.

In the Share: Week 3 extended

butterhead lettuce, deer fence

BUTTERHEAD LETTUCE  The first heads from the many 100s in the fields.

LETTUCE MIX  The last of the high tunnel crop, cut for salad mix

RED RADISHES

SPINACH the last leaves from the high tunnel crop

ASPARAGUS OR GAILAN

BOK CHOY/TAT SOI

SWISS CHARD

GREEN GARLIC  Young garlic plants from the field.

HERB MIX  Cilantro and dill

NEXT WEEK:  lettuce, green onions, spinach, kale, and herbs.

FARM REPORT:
We had a nice stretch of days perfect for those rainy-day jobs that are put off when the fields are good for planting.  A big priority this year has been reinforcing the deer fence.  Much time has been spent replacing some of the fencing material, adding posts and installing new gates.

Overall the fence has held up considerably well since the membership helped us encircle the fields back in 2005.  In 2008 our beloved farm dog, Rocky, joined the team and we had to worry less about openings in the fence.  He even made some himself!  So when we lost Rocky last summer we contemplated getting a new pup to keep up the task of keeping wildlife out of the fields.  Instead we chose to take a season and see if we couldn’t make it on our own.  It is a challenge, for sure, and we are trying to be extra vigilant about closing gates and keeping an eye out for signs.

The fields are growing in well thanks to a good amount of rain and sunshine.  We are one week away from the start of the 24-week season and 70 more families to feed.  Here we go!

In the Share – Week 1

butterhead lettuce, spinach



Season starters

BUTTERHEAD LETTUCE F/P  The queens of the Spring are like nothing else.
RED LEAF LETTUCE F 

ASIAN GREENS F/P A combo or a choice of bok choy and tat soi

KALE OR CHARD F/P  Everything leafy is thriving right now

GREEN ONIONS F/P  From our August 2014 planting

SPINACH F/P  Big, beefy leaves from the field

ARUGULA F  tender leaves to spice up your life

HERBS F/P  Cilantro and/or dill

RADISHES F  They are just starting to bulb out.  There will be more for all next week.

NEXT WEEK:  More lettuces, greens, herbs and radishes.  Hakurei turnips and green garlic.

FARM REPORT:
We can’t remember the farm looking more lush and vibrant. 



Washing the spinach

We have had the perfect weather for leaf growth and hence you are getting many greens this week.  Swiss chard leaves as big as our heads cannot grow forever.  They must be eaten now or never!  Today we harvested and washed the spinach.

It can’t be the case that all is perfect on the farm.  The asparagus crop was a big disappointment this year.  It gave us barely enough to include a few times in the extended season, but now it is done for the year.  We hope that next year will see some improvement.

In the Share: Week 2 Extended Season

butterhead lettuce, peas, rain, sugar snap peas, workshop
BUTTERHEAD LETTUCE  the first of hopefully many more.

RED LEAF OR ROMAINE LETTUCE ditto

RADISHES AND TURNIPS  the first round of pulling these, next week they’ll be bigger.

CARROTS  From our patch that we overwintered growing in the high tunnel.

PEA SHOOTS  Its the first time we have ever grown these.  There is just a small bundle for each share.  Let us know what you think.  See Tom’s post for more info.

BOK CHOY  See Tom’s post for tips on stir-fry

ASPARAGUS OR SPINACH  Sorry to say, the asparagus patch is still not giving us much to work with.  We are hoping for an improvement soon, but in the meantime there is some luscious spinach from the fields and high tunnel.

ARUGULA, KALE OR SWISS CHARD  Eat your greens!

HERBS  Cilantro & dill

GREEN GARLIC  Like a green onion, a green garlic is the whole plant pulled when young. 

NEXT WEEK:  More lettuce, greens, radishes and turnips, green onions, herbs and asparagus.

FARM REPORT:
All of the Spring crops are in the ground and are off to a good start.  Tending to them is our focus this week before we things get busy with the planting of the summer crops. 

The onions we started in the greenhouse back in January have been in the ground for over a month now. 

You can see the organic matter leftover from last summer’s cover crop of sorghum sudan grass and sunhemp still visible on the surface.  Farmers like to call this residue “trash”, as in “the trash gummed up the equipment”.  I can be known to complain about it when I plant the first carrots of the season, however, the plants that feed us do very well thanks to the nutrients that our cover crops provide.  This year’s soil test shows a dramatic increase in the organic matter in our soil which is now between 4 and 5 %, up from 2-3 a few years back.  Doesn’t sound like a lot, but a doubling of organic matter is significant.  Some prairie soils are up around 7%.

The first CSA workers came out last week and joined us in our work.  The harvest goes quick with just 20-30 shares per morning, and we had lots of time for other tasks.  The sugarsnap peas got mulched and fenced in between rain showers on Saturday.

Others made row cover pins in the new workshop. 

 
Tom and I feel incredibly fortunate to have the support from our community.  Our family farm benefits from everyone’s participation in our work.  We hope that our members look forward to their farm shifts as much as we do.  Thank you!


In the Share – Week 29

butterhead lettuce, Garlic, high tunnel, lettuce

BUTTERHEAD LETTUCE 

RED LEAF LETTUCE

SPINACH

YELLOW ONIONS

GREENS CHOICE  Kale, Swiss Chard, Gai lan, or Bok Choy

ROOT MEDLEY  Carrots, beets and Gold Ball turnips

HAKUREI TURNIPS 

RADISHES

CILANTRO OR DILL

NEXT WEEK:  lettuces, greens, garlic, sweet potatoes, cabbage and bulb fennel.

FARM REPORT:

November arrived with a cold snap that has all but ended the outdoor harvest season.  What is left in the fields are hardy crops under heavy cover or in the high tunnel.  High winds have made the row cover a challenge to keep on, but a calm day today allowed us to re-cover the lettuces, fennel and endives that remain in the fields.  The high tunnel provides a much better cover for cold temps. and wind and we should be able to eat well for the next few weeks from inside the bubble. 

This week the spinach, Hakurei turnips, radishes, herbs and many of the greens are coming out of the high tunnel. 

The change in the weather also signals the garlic planting season.  All 4800 cloves are in thanks to many hands.  The fine folks from Milsap Farm in Springfield, MO couldn’t have timed their visit better to get the job done.   If you are ever down in their neck of the woods, tell them we sent you and count yourself lucky if you get there on a Thursday for their weekly wood-fired oven pizza nights.

The next step for the garlic is to mulch the entire planting with a good layer of straw which will protect the cloves over the winter and keep the plants happy through til harvest in June.  This time of year we like to have enough help on CSA mornings to complete the harvest early and have time to get in some mulching.  Last week the strawberries and over-wintering leeks got the treatment.  This week it will hopefully be the garlic’s turn.  If you haven’t completed your shifts for the season, come on out and join in the straw throwing.