Category Archives: peppers

In the Share: Week 17

lettuce, peppers, rain, rainbow, row cover

SWEET PEPPERS F/P

CARROTS F/P baby orange ones from the summer harvest.

TOMATOES F/P

SUMMER SQUASH F yellow squash or zucchini

YELLOW ONIONS F/P

EGGPLANT OR OKRA F

CUCUMBERS F/P

HERBS F/P  See Tom’s post for more on our interesting assortment of herbs this week that includes basil, fresh fennel seeds and garlic chive flowers.

NEXT WEEK:  peppers, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, potatoes and garlic.

FARM REPORT:
The farm received nine inches of rain within a span of three days. Most of it fell Friday night when all of the creeks rose and lots of folks found water in their basements.  It was what some folks around here call a real gully washer.  We’ve done the good work of sowing the farm’s gullies down in permanent sod, so instead the soil washed right over our newly-planted lettuce beds.  Once it dries out enough to attempt it, we’ll need a shovel to unearth what lies beneath.

Most of the crops weren’t buried like the lettuce, and not even most of the lettuce got the full treatment, but there’s other damage that is hard to see at first.  When we get a big rain event like we had this week, water pools below ground long after the surface water has receded.  Plant roots swimming in muck leads to root rot.  Root rot leads to leaves wilting and yellowing.  Not every crop is in this situation, but many are.  If we get the weather that is forecasted for the next week, dry and sunny, we should see some recovery.  If instead we get another slew of rain then it might be time to start wishing on rainbows.

In the Share: Week 15

disease, peppers, pests, weeding

SWEET PEPPERS F/P  We love our new yellow horn-shaped variety, it goes so well with our favorite sweet pepper ever, the lovely-in-red Carmen.  Throw our orange Islanders, and we just harvested edible sunshine.

TOMATOES F/P  Some big boys are coming in now from the new planting.  If you don’t get one this week, than you will by next week.

RED ONIONS F/P  it was a good onion crop this year and we are sharing the bounty.

SUMMER SQUASH F  Either zucchini or yellow squash or a bit of both.

EGGPLANT F  We are picking them young to keep them tender.

CARROTS F/P  Everyone gets white and yellow varieties from storage this week.  They are big and sweet, perfect for roasting.

DESIREE POTATOES F  Light pink skin covers a creamy yellow flesh.  Delicious!  We’ll share more of this lovely potato next week.

HERB CHOICE F/P  Basil or summer savory

NEXT WEEK:  Peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, eggplant, squash, herbs and perhaps some cucumbers.

FARM REPORT:
It was the week that the farm made it over the hump of the growing season.  Most of the fall crops are planted.  The tomato crop is mostly in.  The days are noticeably shortening. The farmer sighs with relief.

The drier air today is incredible after a long, hot, humid summer.  Humidity is not just hard on workers in the fields, but on our organic crops.  Here’s a typical foggy morning from this week.

Humidity breeds fungus which attacks many of the summer fruits.  Fungicides are very prevalent on non-organic farms and on non-organic tomatoes, peppers, squash, etc.  Not ours.  You will see some spot on our fruits this week, but they don’t have the hidden spots of pesticide residue that you can’t see.

Not that we never spray anything on the crops.  When all else fails, we use products that are allowed under the National Organic Program.  This week we uncovered a legion of blister beetles out in the fields devouring the fall beets.  The best time to catch the quick little buggers is at night, when they cluster on the tops of the plants. With the truck lights lighting our path, Tom and I did what we could.

We used Pyganic, a natural form of pyrethrin from the chrysanthemum flower, which seemed to not to do much to reduce the population of blister beetles.

Let’s see now… I have covered two of the three enemies of the farmer:  disease and pests, now for the third:  weeds.  We are moving on many fronts to combat the weeds that have thrived during the tropical summer.  We have alot more to do including 3 of the 7 rows in the strawberry patch.  With cooler temperatures we hope to again see a big crowd on Wednesday and Saturday mornings so that we can catch up on the weeding.  Love your CSA strawberries?  Come on out and help us clean up the patch.

In the Share: Week 10

peppers, SARE, walla walla onions

SWEET PEPPERS F/P  We love our Italian frying peppers.  When green they are sweet, never bitter.  Another few weeks of hot weather and they should start to ripen.

TOMATOES F/P  Everyone is getting around a pound this week of colorful heirlooms and red and gold hybrid varieties.

CUCUMBERS F/P  It is time for a cucumber salad!

WALLA WALLA ONIONS (F): These onions got as big as the ones from Washington State this year. A benchmark and sweet harvest.

SALSA PACK OR EGGPLANT F  If you are new to the CSA, the salsa pack is everything you need for fresh or roasted salsa.  See Tom’s post for the full recipe.

SUMMER SQUASH F  Zucchini or yellow squash.

PURPLE VIKING POTATOES F/P  The last of this purple variety

GARLIC F/P  more hardneck bulbs.

HERB CHOICE F/P  Basil, summer savory or cutting celery.

NEXT WEEK:  Tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, squash, eggplant and salsa packs.

FARM REPORT:

On Sunday, we had a great group of organic farmers visit us for our field day.

We always learn as much as we share at these types of events.  I’m showing off the electric tractor before I cultivate out some weeds.  If you want to learn more about our SARE project, check out our 2014 blog post:  2014 SARE post  In 2015 we were unable to complete the project due to the rainy weather.  We’ll post something once we have results for 2016.

Some liken what we do for a living to a marathon.  If so, then we have reached the half-way point of the race.  The summer harvest is underway, the weeds are growing, and the critical time for planting the fall crops has arrived.  Yesterday, after doing a double-take at the forecast, we realized a long list needed to be completed before the approaching rain.  The crew pulled the remainder of the Walla Walla onions out of the field and set them up in the barn for curing.  The crop looks great, with very few culls and lots of big bulbs.

In the afternoon and on into the evening, we seeded cover crops and carrots, beets, turnips and beans.  Sure enough, two inches of rain fell early this morning.  Seven inches of rain in the last two weeks is pretty rainy for mid-July.  So far it’s not been much of a problem and on the bright side, the irrigation pond is full of water for when it dries out!

In the Share – Week 24

csa, outstanding in the field, peppers

SWEET PEPPERS F/P  Everyone gets a bag from the last haul out of the fields.

LETTUCE F/P  butterhead or red leaf

ESCAROLE F  See Tom’s post about it and it’s starring role in the Outstanding in the Field dinner.

GREENS CHOICE F/P  Gai lan or bok choy.  The choice for the partial shares include escarole.

ROOT MIX F  A bag of beets, carrots, turnips and whatever else we can glean from the fields tomorrow.

HERB CHOICE F/P  hot peppers, chives, thyme, sage or dill.

GARLIC F  We had more garlic than we thought, so here’s an extra dose.  It should keep well into winter if kept cool and dry.

TOMATOES F  A mixture of ripe, ripening and green tomatoes.  The last of the season.

BROCCOLI P  We have a small harvest this week, just enough for the partial shares.

SWEET POTATOES F/P   choice of white or orange.

NEXT WEEK:  The fall extended season begins with harvests from the high tunnel: lettuce, greens and roots plus some items held over like potatoes and onions.

FARM REPORT:
This week your farmers got a off-farm break for the first time since March.  The Outstanding in the Field dinner started the fun on Wednesday. 

Linda Hezel, from Prairie Birthday farm, began with a toast.

By Saturday afternoon, we were driving south to Fort Scott, one of our nation’s military outposts on  “the permanent Indian frontier” as it was considered to be back in 1842.

Heading home on Monday we hiked through the tallgrass prairie at the Mine Creek Civil War battle site near Pleasanton, Kansas. 

Now here it is Tuesday and we are faced with the last week of the 24-week CSA season.  For many this is goodbye for the year.  A hearty hug of appreciation is sent to all of you who weathered 2015 with us!  Community Supported Agriculture kept our farm afloat through pretty tough weather conditions this year and we cannot thank you all enough.

Despite a year’s worth of rain in two months and then no rain for two months, we have somehow managed to continue to find crops to harvest each week.  From our varied crop list (about 40 in total) we lost many but were surprised by others that survived and even thrived.  The carrots rotted but we had one of our best harvests of white potatoes ever – over a ton in total.  The peppers, eggplant and okra rebounded from the rains and produced a bounty of fruits.

A special thanks go to Megan McQueen and Semra Fetahovic who apprenticed at the farm this season.  They started back at the end of March and seven months later, 44 hours a week, they have successfully completed a job well done.  Best wishes to them both!

And thank you to all who participated in the success of another season.  To steal a phrase, it takes a community to raise a farm!!!

Saturday morning CSA members dismantling the cherry tomatoes

In the Share – Week 17

beans, cover crops, flowers, peppers

SWEET PEPPERS F/P  Our sweet yellow bells and red horn peppers are ripening nicely in the heat.

PURPLE VIKING POTATOES F/P  Last of these fluffy ones.  They aren’t as brilliantly pretty purple as when we first dug them, but they still make the best mashed potatoes.

GARLIC F/P  Add some garlic to those fluffy taters!

GREEN BEANS F  We are going to give the full shares a bigger share and get the partials next week since we were able to give everyone a taste last week.

TOMATOES F/P  The late planting of hybrids and Romas are keeping us in tomatoes in September.

SALSA PACK OR OKRA F/P  Most of this choice will be salsa packs, with hopefully enough of the other for the okra-lovers.

EGGPLANT F  I hope you all enjoy your eggplant.  I didn’t grow up eating it much, but I am completely hooked. 

HERBS, HOT PEPPERS OR RADISHES F  A choice of spicy options.

NEXT WEEK:  Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, salsa packs, potatoes, beans, radishes and onions. 

FARM REPORT: 
September is one of my favorite months of the year, closely followed by October, November and December.  Yes, I am fully in love with fall and I think I am not alone amongst farmers. The weather is pleasant, the crops are all planted and the weeds are less threatening.  It has definitely been nice weather for the bean-pickers. 

The past several CSA mornings, we have heard the comment, “I lucked out picking a day in August to come to the farm.”  And, its true.  If you came in June, you likely got pretty wet and muddy.  It all goes to show you just can’t ever tell with Missouri weather.

After waiting for many weeks/months for the ground to settle after all that mud, we managed to plant quite a few cover crops.  They are all coming up nicely.  Buckwheat is growing where many of the Spring crops were.  We planted a few beds with oats and mung beans which is a new combination for us.

If you come out to join in the bean picking, you have the opportunity to pick yourself a free bouquet from the zinnia patch.

In the Share – Week 28

extended season, peppers

SWEET PEPPERS

CAULIFLOWER 

LETTUCE (2)

ARUGULA 

CILANTRO 
BULB FENNEL

GAI LAN OR TAT SOI

BROCCOLI

NEXT WEEK:  More lettuce and herbs.  Leeks, carrots, cabbages, spinach, garlic and bok choy.

FARM REPORT:
Another blog night finds us watching the World Series and writing the blog during the commercials.  During the day our work in the fields is sped along by conversations about baseball.  Between games, Tom, Rocky and I took a long walk around the Graff farm on Sunday.  The native grasses that were sowed in 2012 are beginning to spread in the old grain fields. 

In the Share – Week 16

okra, peppers

SWEET PEPPERS (F/P) Ripe sweet peppers are a real treat.  The fruit stays green for months before finally turning to their brilliant shades of yellow and red in late summer.  Finally the wait is over and we have loads of them coming in.  We also have a good selection of 2nds with small blemishes on the bulk list for those of you who would like to freeze some.

TOMATOES (F/P)  More heirlooms and hybrids of all shades and sizes

CARROTS (F/P)  More orange ones this week.

GREEN BEANS (F/P)  The bush beans are done, but the Rattlesnake pole beans continue on.

SALSA PACK OR OKRA (F/P)  We picked 30 lbs. of okra today from some very healthy plants.  Expect to see it in the shares for the next month. 

TURNIP GREENS (F)  Normally we would thin the turnips when they were much younger than they are now.  The plus side of the delay is that they are at a very tasty size for sharing.  Tom’s working on a recipe as I write this so check with his post.

RADISHES (F)  More pink ones.  The greens are edible as I was reminded recently.  A light cooking removes the prickles.

CHERRY TOMATOES (F/P)  A quart for the full shares, a pint for the partials.

GARLIC & BASIL (F/P)  A bit of both:  one sprig of basil and one garlic head for each share.

NEXT WEEK:  More tomatoes, peppers, beans, salsa packs, okra and cherry tomatoes.  Maybe lettuce.  Onions and potatoes if we can find the time.

FARM REPORT:

The 1.2 inches of rain on Sunday brought relief to the heat-stressed plants and people.  When you have more tomatoes to pick than hours in the day, it is a lot nicer to be in this pleasant weather than last week’s oven.

The baking heat was appreciated by the okra plants.  They are reaching for the sky and are loaded with fruit.  Speaking of loads of fruit,  a bumper crop of tomatoes is a lot of work but has a great payoff.  What other occupation do you get to eat your prized accomplishments?  I need to stop writing so that I can do just that…  happy eating!

In the Share -Week Six

carrots, peppers, wildlife

BASIL (F/P) Welcome summer in with the flavor of the season.

CARROTS (F/P) This first week we give them to you freshly-pulled with their tops. Cut off the tops, leaving an inch green stub if you want to store them for later use.

LETTUCE (F) Summer lettuces are smaller and crunchier, that’s how they survive the heat.

KOHLRABI (F/P) Peel it well, steam lightly and season with fresh herbs, salt and oil. Yum!

SUGARSNAP PEAS (F/P) Last week of these babies. They are less sweet now and hold up well to a little cooking.

SUMMER SQUASH (F) It is the first harvest and we just have one or two for the full shares. There will be much more to come.

SWEET PEPPERS (F/P) There is an assortment of colors to choose from but they are all green, i.e. unripe, peppers. It is good for the plants to be pruned of some of their fruit when they are young. This encourages the plant to grow bigger with more leaves to shade the fruit.

CHARD OR KALE (F/P) May be the last time we will have it for awhile, so enjoy its many benefits.

BUNCHING ONIONS (F) Tiny bugs called thrips have been nibbling our onions, hence their pale color.

NEXT WEEK: More squash, beets and cabbage. Cucumbers hopefully and maybe the first little tomatoes.

FARM REPORT: As of tonight we are still trying to decide what row of carrots to harvest. We grow several varieties in the Spring, some of which sweeten in storage. We may pick some of the smaller carrots that are more tender. Here’s a photo we took over a week ago of our choices.

 A family of barn swallows has lived in the shed across the road since Tom and I returned to the farm ten years ago. They used to live in our barn, but we must have scared them off with the commotion of the clean-up efforts. Our nearest neighbors, the swallows were close by enough to continue to hunt bugs in our fields on summer evenings. They are especially drawn to the sound of the tractor and will swoop and dive around Tom’s head as he mows the fields – picking up bugs as they scatter out of the tractor’s path. I counted eight swallows today perched together waiting to do another run.

I think I’d rather by a barn swallow and make my nest (1,000 mouthfuls of mud, according to our Birds of Missouri book) under a roof rather than the bird that made her nest directly on the ground in the squash patch. We rarely see a good result from a nest on the ground in our fields, but it sure is sweet.

In the Share – Week 15

carrots, hakurei turnip, late summer, lettuce, peppers

colorful carrots

TOMATOES (F/P) Everyone will either get a few slicers or a quart of cherry tomatoes. The slicers are ripening slowly so give them a few days on your counter before attempting to eat them.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH (F/P) Yes, it is a bit out of season but we have no choice. The pests killed off the plants before the fruit fully ripened. They are still good, but they won’t keep long. See Tom’s post for a recipe.

COLORFUL CARROTS (F/P) We finished the harvest of the spring plantings. The carrots are quite crisp and tender despite the arid weather.  We  are looking forward to having them in the shares for several weeks now.

RED ONIONS (F/P)  everyone gets a quart.

SWEET PEPPERS (F) I like to eat the small ones for a snack. The red-horn shaped ones are especially sweet.

HOT PEPPERS, OKRA OR SALSA PACK (F) Take your pick. We are hopeful that the okra will kick in as it usually does in August. So far it has been shy about giving up its fruit.

HERB CHOICE (F/P) Basil, sage or a dried herb.

NEXT WEEK: More tomatoes, carrots, peppers and okra. Potatoes, garlic and beets return.

FARM REPORT:

In a little under 48 hours the air shifted from sultry heat to cool and almost coastal. The farm crew had to dig to the bottom of their closets to find long pants and sweatshirts for the dewy mornings. Despite almost constant clouds, only a few drizzles have fallen since the “hallelujah” rain of 0.8 inch rain last week (see Tom’s post from then for the beautiful weather that brought the rain to us). With the doubling of our so lar power last year (thank you, federal stimulus!) the panels generate about 400 watts of energy with full cl oud cover. That is at half-strength, but still enough to water a big block of crops. We are already seeing the response of the plants to the decrease in temperatures. Finally after many weeks of worrying over the pole beans, they are beginning to set fruit. Young, green fruit cover many of the pepper and tomato plants.

More fall crops went in the ground this week: lettuce, bulb fennel and more cauliflower.

 We have also been seeding all of the fall roots and greens. Many are up and looking good.

We expect the shares to be light for a few weeks, until the fall roots and greens are ready. We have some room for a light week or two thanks to a warm spring that allowed us to sta rt the CSA season a week early. So, we hope you enjoy the offerings from the tough-as-nails plants that survived Summer 2012. We figure by the middle of September we will be reaping the harvest in the form of lettuce salads and freshly dug turnips.

In the Share – Week 14

dry, peppers
the rainbow of sweet peppers ripening at the farm

TOMATOES (F/P) The main crop is on a bit of a break now. The plants are setting new green fruit so hopefully we will have a nice late season flush. In the meantime, the late planting of “heat-setting” types is coming in.

CHERRY TOMATOES (F) More snack-sized fruit for your enjoyment.

POTATOES (F) I can’t remember the last time we had weather like they have in Ireland or the mountains of Peru, the home of the potato. So it should come as no surprise that the potato crop did poorly this year. Partial shares will hopefully get some next round.

MELONS (F/P) The last of the melons, cantaloupe and more yellow watermelon.

SWEET PEPPERS (F/P) Peppers love the heat for sure, but they also love a lot of water. We’re doing our best to keep them watered but as quickly as we can pour it on, the ground sucks it up.

EGGPLANT (P) The “plant” is going to take its usual mid-summer hiatus a bit earlier this year than usual.  With a little luck in the form of rain it should make a nice resurgence in the early fall.

GARLIC (F/P) Tom can tell you more about the garlic, but the prognosis is not good. Everyone gets one head this week while we assess the damage.

HERB CHOICE (F/P) parsley, basil, summer savory, thyme or a dried herb

HOT PEPPERS, SALSA PACK OR OKRA (P) If anything is thriving right now on the farm it is the hot peppers.  If you can’t stand the heat, try one of the other options or get out of the kitchen … or field in our case!

ALSO THIS WEEK: Parker Farms CSA shares

NEXT WEEK: More tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and okra. Carrots, beets and onions return

FARM REPORT:

The farm is beginning to enter a period of smaller harvests due to the extreme drought and heat. We continue to draw water from the pond constantly. We have mulched each and every crop with a thick layer of hay. Even these efforts are not enough to keep the plants thriving. While we keep the summer plants alive, our attention increasingly is focused on the newly planted fall crops. The cabbages, broccolis and cauliflowers have been in the ground for several weeks. Kale, kohlrabi and lettuces are in too. This week we began seeding the roots: carrots, beets, turnips and radishes. We are gambling on the forecast of cooler temperatures and perhaps even a bit of rain. We need a break from the heat and drought for these crops to do well and are hoping that the forecasts are correct and some relief is on the way.