Category Archives: mulching

In the Share: Week 4

csa, mulching, potatoes, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, weeding

SUGARSNAP PEAS F/P  It is hard to judge how many will be ripe when we pick them with the CSA tomorrow, but the plants are loaded with fruit.  We will try to get some to everyone on Weds.  By Saturday and next week we should have lots more.

SPECKLED ROMAINE LETTUCE F/P  A lovely tender romaine heirloom that has a tendency to burn out in the heat.  Lucky for us it has headed up nicely for this week’s shares only.

BUTTERHEAD LETTUCE F  Smaller heads this week, the butterhead season is about done.  We have more red leaf lettuce and green romaines that will hopefully keep us in salads through June.

BROCCOLI F/P  Bunches include standard broccoli and it’s cousin, gai lan.  I hear broccoli leaves are the new kale.

SWISS CHARD F

TATSOI OR KALE P

TURNIPS AND RADISHES F/P  The first of the spring roots have taken their time, but they have turned out to be a nice intro to the root harvest.

GREEN ONIONS OR GREEN GARLIC OR GARLIC SCAPES F

HERB MIX F/P  Dill, herb fennel, parsley and cutting celery.  See Tom’s post on herb identification.

BOK CHOY F  Our white-stemmed varieties are growing handsomely.  If you haven’t yet stir-fried, I recommend the finished product.  Tom’s making one with tatsoi and green onions right now.

NEXT WEEK:  Lettuce, peas, turnips, greens, kohlrabi, beets and herbs.

FARM REPORT:

May is a make-or-break month.  If you get the plants in and the weather holds, it sets you up for a good summer.  If it storms and rains and stymies your planting schedule, you are in for a rough ride.  Last year’s 30+ inches of rain in the months of May and June gave us fits.

happy potato plants

This May was actually really great.  We received a nice amount of rain, but not too much.

The CSA crew on Saturday helped us with mulching our other big block of tomatoes and peppers.  It is a messy job, but it pays off in cherry tomatoes so totally worth it.

In the Share: Week 2x

lettuce, mulching, swiss chard, walking onions

WALKING ONIONS  an early perennial, eat as you would any green onion.

BUTTERHEAD LETTUCE

RED LEAF LETTUCE

ASPARAGUS

RADISHES & TURNIPS

BOK CHOY & TAT SOI

FALL CARROTS  Last of the storage carrots.  Sometime in June we should have the first of the fresh crop.

RED RUSSIAN KALE  From out in the field.  We’ll save the rest for the start of the 24-week season in 2 weeks, but the biggest leaves are perfect for picking now.

HERB MIX Cilantro, dill, chive flowers

NEXT WEEK:  lettuce, asparagus, green onions, green garlic, arugula, bok choy, herbs and radishes.

FARM REPORT
With all of the spring crops in, the rains have been appreciated.  You can almost watch the lettuce grow.

Rainy days find us in the greenhouse potting up the summer crops.  The eggplant is ready even if the weather is not quite yet. We will wait as long as we can to make sure that we are past any freezes.

The CSA workers have been a great help in getting in the harvest and tending to the fields.  We like to hay mulch vegetables like the Swiss chard that will stay on in the fields into the summer.

In the Share – Week 30

Garlic, kohlrabi, mulching

KOHLRABI  We ate one today just snacking while we worked and we found it to be crunchy and juicy.

LETTUCE  Mostly red-leaf lettuce this week.  Everyone gets two.
TAT SOI  Bok choy’s dark green cousin. 

CARROTS  Chantennay – type are fat and pointy

RADISHES  High tunnel radishes are so mild and juicy. 

CABBAGE  Small heads just the right size for a cole slaw.  See Tom’s post for several slaw recipes.

CHARD, KALE OR GAI LAN Your choice of greens.

HERB CHOICE  cilantro, dill or dried herbs or dried peppers

NEXT WEEK:  lettuce, sweet potatoes, leeks, spinach, endive and turnips

FARM REPORT: 
The planting of next year’s garlic crop went well this week.  6,000 cloves were planted for the main crop, plus several hundred more for greens. 

The soil hasn’t been the same since the summer deluge and the work was slowed by the need to remove cobbles of soil from the planting row.  We are counting on the winter freeze-thaw activity to soften the soil in time for Spring.  That is if winter ever comes. . .

Yes I am daring winter to come!  It is time for some cold, rainy days to soak the ground and chill the air.  The task of mulching is best performed on a cold day when you can wear layers to protect yourself.  Saturday morning was chilly enough to provide pretty favorable conditions.   

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.

Harvest Starts Next Week

earthworms, fair share farm csa, feed the soil feed the people, low-till, MU Extension, mulching, no-till

The time is fast approaching to start the harvest. The Fair Share Farm CSA Extended Season begins next week. Check your emails for more info if you have signed up (sorry the extended season is sold out.  We do still have openings for the 24-week season, so contact us ASAP if you want to join).

The crops are willing, but the cold wet weather of 2013 is holding them back. Nevertheless, there is plenty to harvest in the high tunnel and we are anticipating a full 9 items in the share for Week 1. Salads, stir-frys, dressings, side dishes and many more menu choices await. We expect the following:
lettuce (2), arugula, green onions, spinach, chard, green garlic, herbs, bok choi.

Farm Report
This time of year we anticipate the life in the soil returning, in the form of earthworms, centipedes and ground beetles. Still warming, it is yet to reach its peak of activity. We are looking forward to the end of this cold start of 2013, so things can kick into gear biologically.

Earthworms disturbed by weeding

The last week or so has been a productive one for the farm crew. Many mornings start in the greenhouse, potting up peppers, tomatoes and eggplant. Mulching the crops and putting up the pea trellising has also kept us warm.



Peppers in the greenhouse
Mulching cabbage
Rocky enjoying a bed of hay

The few days this year it has been dry enough to plant we have geared up and gone at it. Today we planted the last of our seed potatoes using a no-till method. As it is too wet to cut a trench and bury the seed potatoes as we might normally, we searched for an alternative bed. We found some mulched beds that had broccoli in them last Fall, planted them in the hole of the old plant, and covered them back up with hay.

Potatoes, ready to be mulched and mulched again

This planting method is the type of thing that was discussed at the Growing Growers Building and Managing Healthy Soils Workshop last Saturday. I was invited to discuss our growing practices and we later gave a tour of the farm. We want to thank MU and K-State Extension for including us in the lineup and promoting organic agriculture.

Growing Growers class 4/13/13