Category Archives: cabbage

In the Share – Week 9

cabbage, carrots, chicken coop, Garlic

CARROTS F/P  The carrot harvest is not good, but a few have survived the deluge.  Partial shares have a choice of carrots or potatoes

POTATOES F/P  See Tom’s post for a nice recipe with sage.

CABBAGE F  I did an informal survey with the membership last week, and the results were seem to suggest that there will be no mutiny if we give you more cabbage.  Enjoy!

ONIONS F/P  More fresh onions from the patch

ROOTS CHOICE F  A choice of beets, turnips, radishes or kohlrabi.

HERB CHOICE F/P  Basil, summer savory, mint or sage.

TOMATOES OR FINGERLING POTATOES F  Not a fun thing for us to have to do, folks.  There just aren’t enough tomatoes to go around.

SUMMER SQUASH OR CUCUMBERS F  I am hoping to get the partial shares some of these soon.  We’ll see what is in the patch in the morning.

NEXT WEEK:  Potatoes, garlic, carrots, summer squash, tomatoes and herbs.

FARM REPORT:
This summer we are enjoying the company of my 14- yr old niece, Ariel.  She has chosen to join us at the farm for the summer with some breaks for float trips and other fun summer activities with her cousins.  You can see her blonde head cleaning garlic with the CSA last Wednesday morning. 

Another 2.5 inches of rain fell last night after what was a nice little dry spell during which we were able to plant another round of cucumbers, squashes and beans.  We also got the chicken coop moved to a new a new spot. 

We like to move the chickens to fresh ground every three weeks or so.  This time they are on the highest ridge of the farm, but there were still puddles this morning after the rain. 

The first of the fall transplants, the cabbages, are a week or so away from being ready to go in the ground.

 If we can finds some dry ground in which to put them, that is.    The forecasters say it is about to get hot, sunny and dry.  That is exactly what we need to get the fall crops planted and get the summer fruits to ripen.  So, please no complaints if we finally get some summer weather!

In the Share – Week 7

cabbage, hail, potatoes, rain, sweet potatoes

NEW POTATOES F/P  They are tender and young and should be consumed promptly.  Refrigerate to keep them longer.

SUMMER SQUASH F  Just one for each share, mostly zucchini with some Lebanese (light green) and a very few yellow squash.

LETTUCE F/P  May be it for lettuce for awhile.  It has some hail damage yet again.

GREEN RED ONIONS  F/P  They are beginning to make bulbs but still have their green tops.

CHARD OR KALE F  Our hardy greens are growing some nice leaves.
 
CARROTS F/P  The first carrots, small and tender with tops.  To keep them longer, remove the tops.

CABBAGE F  They got knocked around by the hailstorm, but they are still tasty.  See below for more on the Spring 2015 cabbage crop.
 
NEXT WEEK:  Carrots, beets, squash and garlic. 

FARM REPORT:
A beautiful two days of sunshine and heat made us hope that the dreary weather was in retreat.  The rain thought differently and on Sunday we got another 3.6 inches and some more hail.

 
rainfall totals with the farm the star.

This dramatically wet season is taking it’s toll.  A good example would be our Spring cabbage patch.  This winter we decided to grow more cabbage for our fledgling business in kraut and kimchi-making:  a thousand in addition to the several hundred that we grow every Spring for the CSA.  In April and early May they couldn’t have looked better, but the last month of their life was very soggy.  Here’s a psychedelic view of our “supposed to be green” cabbages.

None of these were harvestable, but on the higher ground the plants were green and we got about half of what we planted.  Lucky for us, in a way, we planted way more cabbages than we could have possibly dealt with and so despite the loss, the farm is still flush with cabbage.  I know you all are longing for the sexy vegetables of Summer, but until we get some sunshine and drier weather, cabbage it is.

 Most of our crops do not look like those scary pink cabbages, but they face serious challenges of anaerobic soil – no air equals suffocation of the plants’ roots, lack of sunlight, and competition from weeds.  When it is too wet to use the tractor or even hoes to control weeds, we are left with pulling them by hand.  With all the other work to do on the farm, there just plain isn’t time to get them all. 

sweet potato hills on the highest ground on the farm.

While I could grouse about the weather all day long, I must also mention that we have been cheered by the words of support and encouragement we have received from many of you. 

CSA members removing the pea fences.

Thank you for joining us on this rollercoaster of local eating.  We hope to come out the other end of the season with new strategies for adapting to extreme weather and to the changing climate.

In the Share: Week 6

cabbage, summer squash, sweet potatoes

 CABBAGE F/P  Some are pock-marked from the hailstorm but otherwise perfectly edible. 

LETTUCE F/P  Lettuce season may last one week more – enjoy them while they last

FRISEE F/P  Small frisee hearts for your salads. 

GAI LAN, BROCCOLI SIDESHOOTS OR KOHLRABI F/P

SWISS CHARD, KALE OR BOK CHOY F

BEETS OR TURNIPS F  The turnips were harvested in bulk on Saturday with the CSAs help.  No tops, just bottoms.  The beets will have both.

HERB CHOICE F  Parsley, chives or mint.

NEXT WEEK:  Green onions, lettuce, carrots, squash (hopefully!), kale or chard and potatoes.

FARM REPORT:
Another week, another round of the “dodge-the-rain” game.  If anyone is keeping score out there, add another 2 inches of rain to the tally.  Thankfully farm apprentices, Semra and Megan, were willing to relinquish one of their day’s off on Thursday, the one day that was just dry enough to plant.  We seeded cucumbers, summer squashes and beans and transplanted more tomatoes, herbs, melons and flowers.  At 4 pm the much anticipated box of sweet potato slips arrived via UPS and we immediately hopped on the transplanter to put them in the ground too. 

The work went slowly due to the imperfect nature of the ground that has stayed too wet to prepare properly, but we managed to get all 1200 feet of the sweets in the ground by the end of the day.  By the way, if anyone wants some slips for their garden let us know, we have some extra.

On a rare sunny day we put another coat of “Surround” on the squash plants.  They have been in the ground since early May and are slowly growing and just starting to fruit. 

The spray consists of a fine white clay that coats the leaves and is unappetizing to the dreaded cucumber beetles and squash bugs.  At this point, our problem is not that we haven’t been able to plant, but that the plants that are in the field, like these squashes, are growing very slowly due to the boggy conditions and lack of sunlight.  If the rains could just taper off and we could get some sunshine, we think that the plants would wake up and start growing again.

In the Share – Week 30

cabbage, mulching, raddichio

 RADICCHIO  A first for us.  They are gorgeous little things, some more green, other varieties more traditional red-and-white.  They go well in a salad with most of your share this week: 2 kinds of lettuce, 2 kinds of cabbage, fennel and tat soi.  Just to warn you, they are supposed to be bitter.  If the bitterness is too much for you, try roasting or baking.  (BTW:  Tom is under the weather tonight, so I apologize for the lack of recipe-sharing). 

FRESHLY-DUG CARROTS  The first of the fall harvest – very tender and sweet!

BUTTERHEAD LETTUCE 

ROMAINE LETTUCE

NAPA CABBAGE

TAT SOI

YELLOW ONIONS

SAVOY CABBAGE

BULB FENNEL

NEXT WEEK:  Lettuce, sweet potatoes, beets, turnips, greens, garlic and endive.

FARM REPORT:
Another abrupt change in the weather this year!  It was hard to believe that we needed to prepare for winter when it is 70 deg. F.  But we trusted the forecasters and scurried around the fields getting the last of the harvest in.   Even the hardy cabbage won’t survive 18 deg. F which is the forecast for tonight and more or less for the next week.  So, in came the last of the lettuces, fennel, radicchio, endive, carrots and a truckload of cabbages.   Shorter days mean the harvest continued past sundown. 

The other big task in preparation for freezing temperatures is to mulch the crops that are staying out in the fields.  Think strawberries, garlic, onions and leeks.  With most of the harvest work done, CSA farm shifts consist of some packing and weighing of the share items, but if you are coming out to the farm this week or next prepare to throw lots of straw around.

In the Share – Week 5

cabbage, cats, new barn, rain

CABBAGE F  The first of the spring harvest.  I am looking forward to some cole slaw!

LETTUCE F/P  We lost some heads to the heat and now to the damp, so just one head for all this week:  red leaf and romaine.

SUGAR SNAP or SNOW PEAS F/P  The peas are plump with the rain.

BROCCOLI F/P  The last of the Spring crop.  We’ll be planting more for the fall soon.

STRAWBERRIES F  An early end to the harvest we think is due to the many flowers that froze a few weeks back. Sorry we couldn’t get enough for everyone, but it is slim pickings. 

KALE, SWISS CHARD OR BOK CHOY  It is good green growing weather.

BEETS F/P  It will be a muddy job tomorrow, but I am determined to harvest my favorite vegetable. 

GREEN ONIONS, GREEN GARLIC OR GARLIC SCAPES F/P 

HERB CHOICE F parsley and fennel

NEXT WEEK:  More lettuce, cabbage, greens and herbs.  Turnips, kohlrabi and zucchini.

FARM REPORT:
The weather couldn’t be more different than ten days ago.  We went from just over an inch of rain for the whole month of May with hot weather to 7 inches of rain and a wind from the North. 

In this instance our changing climate is coupled with a pretty drastic change in the weather.  This follows an earlier very drastic change in the weather when we went from a freeze for two nights to 90 degree F temperatures.  It is hard to know what to expect next. 

Meanwhile, the farm is very soggy.  We worry that the roots of the plants will rot if this lasts much longer.  One of our worst tomato crops lived through a prolonged cold/wet spell like this and never fully recovered.  While a drought is never our wish, we are much better equipped to bring water to the fields than to remove it.  Luckily, we grow many different crops and some thrive in wet years.

On top of this dreary weather, we lost of member of the farm team this past Sunday.  Sunny, the cat, was found nine Springs ago by Amy Boussman, our first farm apprentice.  He was huddled under the old apprentice camper in the middle of a thunderstorm.  His mom, Momma kitty, soon joined him and the two have been with us ever since.  Sunny was a good hunter, a sweet Momma’s boy and he is missed. 

There is nothing to do but press on and look to the future.  Groundbreaking began on Monday for the new equipment barn.  We have hired a team to do the work for us since we could never find the time to complete such a large undertaking ourselves.  We are looking forward to having space for our equipment, a functional indoor shop and space to clean out and remodel the old barn.

In the Share – Week 23

cabbage, frost, survey

CABBAGE (F/P)  We are sending in an assortment of types:  Napa, Savoy (with ruffles) or smooth-leaved. 

GREEN PEPPERS (F/P) Ahead of tonight’s forecasted frost, we cleared out the pepper patch.  Expect a bit of color but mostly greens and purples. 

GREEN TOMATOES (F/P)  These are pure green tomatoes that should be cooked.  See Tom’s post for tips. 

LETTUCE (F/P)  One luscious butterhead per share.

SWEET POTATOES (F/P)  After a month of digging we finished the harvest on Monday.  All told, we brought in over 3,400 lbs. – a new record.  This week everyone gets cream-colored O’Henry’s.

BROCCOLI OR CAULIFLOWER (F)  More broccoli side shoots and the beginnings of a second flush of cauliflower.

HERB CHOICE (F)  Cilantro, dill, thyme or sage.

GOLD BALL TURNIPS (F)  We love these roasted with some herbs and olive oil.  Mix with other root vegetables or eat them alone.

LEEKS (F/P) Another round of leeks for all. 

NEXT WEEK:  More sweet potatoes, lettuce, herbs and beets.  Watermelon radishes, carrots and greens.

FARM REPORT:
Fall is here in all its glory.  The sun was shining on us as we dismantled the tomato patch on Monday.  The farm crew spent many an hour walking the rows and its always a little sad to see it go.

Before the season ends, Tom and I wanted to thank you all for your responses to the annual CSA member survey.   We were glad to hear that so many of you enjoyed the 2013 season as much as we did.  The survey is one of our most important tools as CSA farmers and we have been very fortunate for the past several years to have Gary and Jan Glauberman on the CSA Core Group as survey gurus.   We love to hear from you all and we use the information in our planning.  We also admit that when 96% of you say that the quality and quantity of the shares was on target, your farmers do sleep easier at night! 

There were a few comments related to the topic of how we decide what is in the share each week.  Tom and I have a rough idea of how much we want to provide of each vegetable when we plan out the year in January.  We like to have a good variety of greens, roots, and fruits with lots of favorites and a sprinkle of something different.  The herb choice is important to many.  Tomatoes, berries and broccoli always win the survey, but many of you also love beets, okra and turnips.

As the crops begin to mature, we make a list for the week of what is ready for harvest.  Some items like carrots, potatoes, onions and garlic are harvested in bulk and then doled out usually every other week for as long as they last.  Other items are picked the day of distribution and we often don’t know how much we will have until we bring it in. 

By the time we are a week away from the share going out we have a basic list.  By Monday, that list is fleshed out into full and partial columns and other items are added as the harvest begins on Tuesday.  By the time we send out the bulk list Tuesday afternoon we have a pretty solid idea, but nothing is definite until the final box is packed.  

We attempt each week to provide neither too little and too much.  We have some good vegetable eaters in the membership, but there are also many among us with busy schedules that don’t always accommodate time for food preservation.  For that reason, we endeavor to supply a week’s worth of produce and not much more.  Sometimes, like at the peak of the tomato harvest or before frost, we give may you a bigger dose, but usually we are careful not to overload the shares with too much of a good thing. 

We think that the last thing any self-respecting local foodie, organic-minded conservationist wants is to waste food.  The weekly bulk list provides for those of you who want to put up extra and it gives the farm an outlet for the excess. 

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now.  We’ll try to get to more survey responses next week.  Until then, happy frost day!!

In the Share – Week Five

cabbage, cover crops, sweet potatoes
Spring cabbage

BEETS (F) My favorite vegetable is ready for harvest – what could be better? When they are young like these, chop the whole plant – root to leaf – and sautee with some garlic and olive oil. Yumm!

CABBAGE (F/P) Spring cabbages are smaller than those in the fall – perfect for a bowl of cole slaw.

SUGARSNAP PEAS (F/P) Wow, do we have a lot of peas out there. I hope we have lots of pickers this week! Come on out if you need to get in a shift.

LETTUCE (F2/P1) the lettuces are hanging in there, but they’ll be gone soon. Enjoy those salads while you can!

STRAWBERRIES (F/P) A pint for everyone. There are still lots of berries in the patch, but fewer perfect ones for the shares.

SPRING TURNIPS (F) Our second spring planting of turnips is ripe for harvest and they are big beauties!

BROCCOLI (F) The broccoli has continued to produce side shoots, so here’s one more round for the full shares.

ONIONS (P) The onions are starting to bulb up. There will be many more to come.

HERBS (F/P) Mint, herb fennel, Thai basil or a dried herb.

NEXT WEEK: More turnips, lettuce, peas and herbs. Carrots and summer squash.

FARM REPORT: Summer begins on Friday, June 21st and we welcome its arrival. This cool, wet Spring has been a real challenge and we are hoping that Summer brings some warmth and drier weather. Since the first seeds were planted in the fields back in March we have been dodging the rain to get any planting done. Just as the fields begin to dry out rain enters the forecast. Sometimes the ground is still a touch too wet and we plant anyway, slogging through the mud. Other times it is so wet there is no way to work it and we wait. 

If we are lucky we can adjust our planting maps and find a drier piece of ground to plant. Such was the case last week when the area slated for the sweet potatoes remained boggy and full of partially-digested rye/vetch cover crop. We love to grow a massive cover crop before the sweet potatoes and the timing usually works out great. Not so this year as the cool, wet soil slowed decomposition and we had no choice but to look for other ground. We found some space that was empty due to the same wet weather that prevented us from planting a cover crop earlier this Spring.

Lucky for us that field was empty or we would have been stuck with 1,000+ sweet potato slips with nowhere to plant them. Instead we fired up the transplanter and in a period of 24 hours we planted all of the sweet potatoes and 750 melon plants.  Later that night over an inch of rain fell as the farmers slept peacefully.

In the Share – Week 24

cabbage

SAVOY CABBAGE (F) We are very proud of our big, beautiful cabbages.  The savoy type has pretty ruffles and is very sweet. 

LETTUCE (F/P) More tender leaf and butterhead types. Two for the full shares, one for the partials.

SWEET POTATOES (F/P) You will have your choice of either traditional orange or cream-color or a mix of the two.

CARROTS (F/P) The first digging of the fall carrots. They are young and tender good!

BULB FENNEL (F/P) See Tom’s post on fennel. We like to eat it raw in our salads.

BROCCOLI (F/P) HERB CHOICE (F/P) Cilantro, dill or mint

GREENS CHOICE (F) Kale, collards or Broccoli Raab (Rapini)

ALSO THIS WEEK: Parker Farms CSA shares

NEXT WEEK:  If you can’t get enough Fair Share Farm veggies and are sad for the season to end, you can keep the produce coming by signing up for the extended season shares. See your email inbox for all the details. Otherwise, you are on your own kiddos until next Spring rolls around.
 
FARM REPORT: Seeing as how this is the last week of the 2012 CSA “regular” season I should be thanking you all and bidding you a happy winter, but to do so seems inappropriate to the circumstances at hand. It really doesn’t feel like the end of the season on the farm. Despite frosts that killed the summer fruits, the fields are full of produce. Not even counting the crops in the high tunnel, we have enough vegetables to feed many families for many more weeks. We thank those of you who have already signed up for another month of salad greens, fall roots, sweet potatoes and leeks. We still have some spots open, so don’t be shy.

But, really, we must thank you all for your support of Fair Share Farm. The farm exists because you decided to take a chance with us this Spring before any crops were harvested and most hadn’t even been planted. Since then we have had record heat, record drought and record tomatoes all without the use of synthetic chemicals, pesticides and GMO seeds.  We hope that when you look back on the season as a whole, you will know that taking a chance with us pays off.  Every year the harvests get better as we continue to make improvements to our soil, to the farm’s infrastructure, and in our planning.  Together with you we look forward to many more seasons of bountiful harvests for the community.

In the Share – Week 12

cabbage, dry, peppers

TOMATOES (F/P) Hope you all are ready for more tomatoes because we have quite a few yet. If they are piling up on you, pop them in the freezer for a wintery day.

CHERRY TOMATOES (F) Hope you all are enjoying the cherries. Partial shares will get them next week.

POTATOES (F/P) Most likely Desiree, a pink-skinned, yellow-fleshed potato. We will dig them tomorrow morning.

HARDNECK GARLIC (F/P)

SALSA PACK (F) Tomatillos grow well for us ever since we started saving our own seed.

BEETS OR EGGPLANT (F)

BEETS OF SALSA PACK (P)

SWEET PEPPERS (F/P) One benefit of the heat, the sweet peppers are beginning to turn.

HOT PEPPERS OR HERBS (F/P) Basil, summer savory or a choice of peppers: jalapeno, Hungarian wax or Anaheim. Anaheims are the type that is traditionally roasted by the bucket in the Southwest. The Hungarians are a bit hotter but not as hot as the jalapenos. I use a knife to scrape out their seeds and veins under running water to reduce a bit of the bite.

YELLOW WATERMELON (P) Yes, your melon should be yellow inside. Everyone should get at least a cantaloupe or watermelon over the course of the next 2 weeks. Full shares should get theirs next week.  The second planting of red watermelon and more cantaloupe is only now beginning to set their baby fruit, so we’ll see if we can pump enough water to them for a good ripening.

ALSO THIS WEEK: Parker Farms CSA shares

NEXT WEEK: More tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and salsa packs. Carrots and red onions.

FARM REPORT

I had planned to spend more time on this post, but tonight our refrigerator decided it was a good time to give up the fight.

All in all, the farm is in decent shape in spite of the conditions.  We have an amazing farm crew this year that we cannot thank enough.  The cabbage that we planted two weeks ago is growing well.

Yesterday we got a bunch of broccoli and cauliflower planted in the same fashion. Water from the old pond is being pumped continuously  into the new pond replacing the water that we are pumping out to the fields. Even with irrigation, the drought is affecting the fruiting plants, but so far the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, tomatillos and okra are hanging in there. A new planting of cucumbers, squash and beans are just beginning to sprout, so it will be awhile without them.  The harvest should be good for a few more weeks before we hit a lull between the end of summer and the start of fall.  Although isn’t it fall if the leaves are drying up and falling off the trees?

Thanksgiving Share 2011

cabbage, csa, fair share farm, sustainable agricuture, thanksgiving

The late Fall is here. As I sit writing this on Thursday morning it is 21⁰ F outside and there is a heavy layer of frost in the fields. Through the wonders of modern weather forecasting we were able to anticipate this deep freeze, and have harvested all but the sturdiest of the crops for your Thanksgiving share. We are always happy when we can provide food to the CSA so late in the season—14 items this year.

 With such a large selection of produce, the recipe options are endless. To start with, we suggest perusing the 2009 and 2010 Thanksgiving share recipe suggestions.
We also offer the following suggestions:

Leeks and fennel: Treat leeks like onions and fennel like celery for all of you cooking needs. Use these substitutions in your standard bread stuffing recipe to create a flavorful dish.
Watermelon radish, Hakurei turnip, fennel and broccoli: Start your feast off with this fresh and healthy crudité platter. Cut the radish and turnips into rounds or half rounds. Pull the fennel stalks off the bulb like celery. Cut the broccoli into florets. Make a dip of yogurt, sour cream, olive oil, vinegar and herbs.
Lettuce, spinach, fennel, cabbage and grated beets: Make a nice salad of these oh so fresh vegetables for the dinner table. Or better yet, wait until after Thanksgiving and top the salad with leftover turkey and grated cheese for a hearty chef’s salad.

Beets: Add some color to the normally brown, white and orange of a Thanksgiving plate. Cook your beets whole in boiling water for about 20 to 35 minutes (until just starting to get tender),  cool in cold water and peel. Cut into slices and dress cold with oil and vinegar, or warm in a pan and top with butter, salt and dill.

Sweet potatoes: Good as a savory dish by themselves (mashed or roasted) or in a pie, the options are in your family traditions or on the web.

Cabbage: A fresh cole slaw is always good, especially if you are having smoked turkey or other bbq style meats.

Tomatoes: The tomatoes have been off the vine for over a month, so we don’t expect them to be especially tasty in a salad, but will go well cooked in a stew or curry.

Bok Choy:  We have had these Asian greens under wraps in the field for the last month. It was a pleasant surprise to uncover them and find such large, green plants. They will make for a good stir-fry either side of the Thanksgiving meal, when you need to load up on some green vegetables.

We wish everyone a happy and healthy Thanksgiving and hope the you are able to share it with your friends and family.

Tom and Rebecca