DESIREE POTATOES F/P Pink on the outside, creamy yellow in the inside.
EGGPLANT P The eggplants and pepper plants are doing well in an area where the chickens were last fall. Thanks, chickens!
SUMMER SQUASH OR SALSA PACK F
SWEET PEPPERS F
HERBS F/P Basil or summer savory
HOT PEPPERS F/P A couple of jalapenos or hot wax peppers to spice up your week.
GARLIC F/P
NEXT WEEK: Tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, salsa pack, peppers, herbs and onions.
FARM REPORT: We had already started declaring 2015 the worst year ever before the dog died.
Our dear boy, Rocky, left us on Friday, the victim of cancer. Born in October of 2007, he came to the farm as a pup in January 2008.
Rocky’s first day on the farm
He grew into a 120 lb. sweetheart that was always game for a head scratch from a stranger. Each CSA morning that day’s crew would have to go through what we dubbed “the security check”, which consisted of a friendly sniffing then he’d find some sucker to pet him down while the safety talk went on. He was a Great Pyrenees/Anatolian shepherd mix, both breeds are meant to guard livestock from predators, in our case he guarded our crops and chickens.
Tom and I were very attached to our gentle giant. He was an important member of the farm crew and he will be sorely missed. A memorial to our lost pal has taken up a blank chalkboard in the packing room so that we can remember him as we work.
TOMATOES F/P The hot weather has finally kicked the tomatoes into ripening. Everyone will get a few heirlooms and hybrids this week. The heirlooms come in a rainbow of colors, even green when ripe. Their flavors are as diverse as their colors, shapes and sizes. We grow Cherokee Purple, Rose, Goldie, Aunt Ruby’s German Green, Black Krim, Green Zebra, Amana Orange to name a few. The hybrids we grow are red and a bit thicker-skinned than the heirlooms, which is a good quality during a wet weather pattern. We are trying a new orange hybrid variety, Sunkist, thanks to my mom’s advice. Let us know what tomato is your favorite!
RED ONIONS F/P Not as big and beautiful as last year’s crop, but they did survive the wet unlike some other crops I hate to mention (carrots)
PURPLE VIKING POTATOES F We are very grateful for the good potato harvest that continues to feed us as we recover from the deluge of the last two months. And they are high in Vitamin C.
SQUASH OR CUCUMBERS P The cucurbit family is struggling in the fields. Last year at this time we were swimming in zucchini and cucumbers. Same number of plants in the ground, same fertility program, very different result. Only variable: weather.
GENOVESE BASIL F/P A nice bunch for pesto-making.
SWEET PEPPERS, EGGPLANT OR SALSA PACK F The first of these three with many more to come. The salsa packs are in limited quantities this week. See Tom’s post for the rundown on this member favorite.
GARLIC F/P There is nothing like fresh, juicy garlic in the summertime.
CHERRY TOMATOES F We grow cherry tomatoes in every color of the rainbow too. Some are heirloom, some hybrid. Tomatoes are ripe when they are brightly colored and fleshy to the touch.
NEXT WEEK: Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, salsa packs, squash, cucumbers, garlic, herbs, onions and potatoes.
FARM REPORT: Yes, the spring carrot crop is a big bust. Rot set in like we have never seen before. Our second planting has succumbed as well as most of the first. That’s 1800 ft. of carrots gone. But no time to linger on that sad note, the fall planting get going. So far we have planted cauliflower, cabbage, carrots and beets. Tomorrow we hope to plant broccoli, turnips and radishes. The rain has held off just enough to work the soil and plant.
While the humans dart across the fields at the farm, we are missing one of our crew. Rocky, our canine companion and co-worker, has been boarded at the vet these past two nights. He either stepped on a thorn or has a spider bite on his paw. The medication has been unpalatable to him and we had to resort to kenneling him at our vet in Lawson, MO to manage to get him to take the pills. We hope to pick him up just as soon as we can. Not only do we miss him but the crops are unguarded without him. Already some critter is going after the tomatoes in the field. Yesterday morning we found many half-eaten tomatoes on the ground likely the leftovers of a possum or raccoon party the night before. We cleared the plants of ripening fruit, but what we really need is our Rocky back on patrol.
Hello 2015 farming season. We are back on-line here at the farm, enjoying the ever lengthening days and warm January temperatures. This year should prove to be exciting, if nothing else, as we continue our plans to venture into the fermented foods business.
As always, our CSA comes first, and we have begun accepting deposits for the coming year. Act quick to sign up, as the enthusiasm for local farm products and CSA membership continues to grow in the KC area.
Chickens enjoying fresh straw in a cleaned-out coop
Sunrise is finding us feeding the chickens, ordering seeds and equipment, managing memberships, planning for our certified kitchen construction, interviewing apprentices and waiting for the sun to warm the farm. Afternoons have been a delight lately, with sunshine and warmth providing assistance to what could be frigid winter work.
Taking soil samples today to evaluate our progress and needs
As the sun sets we get to enjoy a walk around the farm with Rocky while waiting for the chickens to roost for the night. A good start to the year, and dreams of a one-of-a-kind season.
ROOT MEDLEY Carrots, Gold Ball turnips, and Watermelon radishes.
NEXT WEEK: You’re on your own ’til Springtime. We recommend stocking up at the BadSeed Farmers Market this Friday (1909 McGee 4-9 pm) and throughout the winter, every Friday 4-8 pm.
FARM REPORT Another growing season is drawing to a close with this the last week of the extended CSA season. Overall, it was a successful year with full shares through Spring, Summer and Fall. Potatoes and onions did very well. The lettuces, zucchini, cucumbers and broccoli also enjoyed the cooler temperatures and plentiful rain.
Winter came early this year with a low of 10 deg. F this morning. We breathed a sigh of relief when we took the double layers off of the high tunnel beds today and all looked undamaged. These cold snaps remind us that winter growing is a gamble. So, while we can we are clearing out the high tunnel for the last week of the CSA and for the Bad Seed Farmers Market on Friday. If you haven’t made it down before or if you are a die-hard regular, there is nothing like this market to get you in the mood for Thanksgiving. Hope to see you all there!
GARLIC F/P soft-neck artichoke type is a good keeper
FINGERLING POTATOES F/P Austrian crescent and French fingerling varieties.
LETTUCE F2/P1 This week only and then we will have to wait a few more weeks for more. Summer crisp variety.
KOHLRABI F The first of the fall crop. Partial shares have a choice with the greens choice.
SWEET PEPPER F/P Just one for everyone. These cold nights do not ripen peppers.
TOMATO F ditto on the tomatoes, but we don’t have enough for everyone this week, only the fulls.
HERB CHOICE F/P mint, rosemary, thyme, chives or dried.
NEXT WEEK: More greens and peppers. Carrots and onions and perhaps the first of the broccoli, radishes and turnips. Finally some rapini (broccoli raab).
FARM REPORT:
Saturday morning we awoke to frost. At first light we ventured to the fields to see the crops dusted with frozen dew.
Officially the thermometer said 35 deg. F. and once the sun melted the frost we could see little damage. Now three days later it is safe to say that we survived unscathed. Only the leaves of the sweet potatoes were damaged in any way.
Sunday night we celebrated with 100+ of the CSA membership. Our community sure knows how to cook and eat! The weather was perfect and due to popular demand there were four hayrides. When not eating or riding around the farm, many enjoyed the view from atop the big round straw bales. Since I managed to forget almost everything that I meant to say at the dinner, let me say now how deeply indebted we feel towards everyone who has played a role in the re-building of our family farm over the past 11 seasons. Our farm apprentices, employees, friends and family and the CSA membership have built something together out here that we hope will remain for many years to come.
POTATOES F/P Desiree pink-skinned potatoes. See Tom’s post for combining with the garlic chive flowers.
TOMATOES F/P A few of our late-season Bella Rosa hybrid reds are ripening now along with a few of the heirlooms. Give them a few days on the counter to ripen completely.
GARLIC F2/P1 Artichoke type
GREENS CHOICE F/P We are hoping it stays dry tonight so that we can get the greens out in the morning. We’ll have the first harvest of the fall arugula, kale and turnip greens to choose from.
CHERRY TOMATOES F
GREEN BEANS F The last of the bush beans and more Rattlesnake pole beans.
SALSA PACK/EGGPLANT/GROUND CHERRY CHOICE F/P Full shares get a choice of salsa or eggplant, while the partial shares get their chance at the ground cherries. See Tom’s post from last week for more info. on them.
SWEET PEPPERS F
HOT PEPPERS F/P
GARLIC CHIVE FLOWERS F/P Pretty and garlicky flowers to garnish any dish.
NEXT WEEK: More tomatoes, peppers, beans, salsa packs, and eggplant. Carrots and onions return.
FARM REPORT: Damp weather has returned to the farm. The three inches of rain in the last week led to a few very foggy mornings.
On Thursday we hosted a small tour of farmers to show off our SARE trial. It is a two-year study and still very much a work in progress. Tom did get to show off the NTPA (no-till planting aid) he built. It worked like a charm. Now we just need to find a spot on the farm without bindweed! For more details on the project, read this.
We wanted to thank all of you who have been showing up at the farm to pick beans. We couldn’t have gotten the harvest in without you. Thank you. And do you see what I see in the photo of our bean pickers?
See it? That’s the heart of the farm, right there! … although there is one in the foggy Rocky photo too! What is going on at this groovy farm of ours? Hearts everywhere!
STRAWBERRIES F/P A quart for everyone this first week with hopefully much more to come.
LETTUCE F2/P1 More butterheads and red leaf varieties.
FRISEE ENDIVE F/P Great just in a salad, but see Tom’s post for more info.
CHOICE OF GREENS F/P Bok choy, kale or Swiss chard.
GREEN GARLIC OR GREEN ONIONS F Soon both will begin to bulb up and give us the real deal, but for a bit longer we have the young ones.
HERBS OR ARUGULA F This may be it for the arugula offerings this Spring.
RADISHES F/P Red beauties with quite the kick. Roast or sautee them to remove the heat.
BROCCOLI F/P One of our better Spring broccoli harvest is underway. No crazy hot-pink heads this time!
NEXT WEEK: More lettuce, greens, herbs, broccoli and strawberries. Kohrabi and spring turnips.
FARM REPORT: We are happy to say that things are much improved here since our last report. The tomatoes and potatoes are green and growing back quickly. We have loads of ripening berries in the strawberry patch although in most clusters there are several dead flowers (see above). It seems like the freeze was a long time ago. This week our worries have moved on to the lack of rain. The irrigation pond is full and every row of crop is getting a line as it is planted. We have barely had any rain as the stormy weather surrounds us. The sky darkens but refuses to let loose over our heads.
The last few days have felt like a real Midwestern summer – hot and sticky with no rain to clear the air. On days like today in the farm truck’s passenger seat rides a big cooler of ice water. The workers and animals alike keep hydrated as we race around the fields. With his full winter coat still on, Rocky is sticking to the shade during the day to keep cool.
TOMATOES (F/P) A good share this week, mostly reds and pinks with a few greens and purples. Wash them before you eat them as we don’t wash them at the farm. Also, they are much, much better if they are never refrigerated. LETTUCE (F/P) One small, crisp summer lettuce head for everyone. GREEN BEANS (F/P) The first round of beans did not fare very well. We have more planted and are hopeful for a good crop later in the summer. CUCUMBERS (F/P) The beetles are winning out there and it is only a matter of time before the squash and cukes bite the dust. Another round of plants are on their way, but it will be a few weeks before they start producing. SUMMER SQUASH (F) BEETS OR CABBAGE (F/P) The last of both until fall. HERBS (F) Basil, hot peppers or summer savory. EGGPLANT OR PEPPERS (F/P) The eggplant meatballs in Tom’s post this week is super yummy. CHERRY TOMATOES (F) We grow cherry tomatoes that are red, pink, yellow, orange and purple. Try them all and let us know which is your favorite.
NEXT WEEK: More tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and cucumbers. Maybe potatoes and garlic.
FARM REPORT:
It is a perk of the job to participate in the harvest of the summer fruits. The heirloom tomatoes are prized in large part for their thin skins and soft flesh, making it a delicate job getting them off the vine, out of the field, through the packing house and to distribution without bruising. The extra care is worth the effort once you have tasted a real tomato. We grow plenty of classic reds, but when your farmers go for a tomato it is more often a purple or a pink.
The fall plants are getting planted in the field, with much more on the way. The fall transplants are seeded outside and they grow inside the shade structure until they are ready for the field. This week we planted the first round of the fall broccoli and cauliflower. Soon we’ll transplant these little lettuces.
Our big polar bear of a dog is ready for fall already. Rocky’s heavy coat keeps him chilled out on the concrete floor of the barn during the day. He has the night shift to patrol the fields in the evening cool.
LETTUCE (2): Two of our favorite heirloom butterheads. The shares are less hefty this week. We are clearing the high tunnel out of all that it contains, and taking what we can out of the slowly-growing fields.
ASPARAGUS: No need for a soil thermometer, when the asparagus can tell you how cold it is. We hope to have a nice bunch for all this week.
GREENS CHOICE: There will be lots of choices of what is left in the high tunnel: arugula, spinach, kale, bok choy, and endive. Please lettuce know what greens you have liked best during this first extended spring season. We grew a bunch of different things in the high tunnel and are looking to hone in on the favorites for next year.
ROOTS MIX: We will definitely be growing more roots next year for the extended season, but we have some baby carrots and the rest of the radishes and turnips for a mixed bunch.
GREEN GARLIC: Last year’s garlic patch is sprouting some nice clumps of young garlic, lucky for us!
GREEN ONIONS: Some of these will be coming from the farm house’s walking onion patch. Several years ago I received a clump from an elderly neighbor of my mom’s and they walked themselves into a thick patch. They are one of the earliest plants in the spring and are self-perpetuating.
HERBS: cilantro and garlic chives
FARM REPORT: Wow! I know we talk about the weather incessantly, but really this past week has been pretty crazy. On Thursday, the farm was blanketed in two layers of row cover and at least an inch of snow.
It is very rare to snow in May, although it sometimes frosts this late. Even our mountain dog, Rocky, was cold. His favorite spot was atop the steaming compost pile and he was covered in black gold for days. We did manage to share greenhouse space with him while we got some seeding done.
Five days later the snow is just a memory and we finally got some beautiful springtime weather. We spent the last couple of days uncovering the plants. It is the first time we have seen them in a while and most of them seem to have survived.
In 2008 we met our 5-year goal of being a 100% CSA farm. No more standing around at market hoping the customers would come to buy, instead we were able to stay focused on farming, knowing that all of our produce was already sold.
Morning light in winter
As we plotted our future we realized that one thing we were not doing was getting the most out of the land we were cultivating. It seemed friends with home gardens were growing more in small areas than we were in long beds of crops. We decided to expand our operation by contracting – growing less plants and paying more attention to them.
We had been asked that January to coordinate a CSA Workshop at the Great Plains Vegetable Growers Conference in St. Joe. We immediately contacted Liz Henderson from Peacework Organic Farm to join us on the panel. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to show her our progress since those days in 2001 at her farm.
Rebecca and Elizabeth Henderson in January
We also took time to visit friend Liz Elmore who was working at The Land Institute in Salina, KS. This group of folks, headed by Wes Jackson, are working in a field they call natural systems farming. In what they state is at least a 100-year project, they are breeding perennial grains that can be grown in a prairie-like system. We suggest you visit their website to learn more, and to support their efforts.
Board at The Land Institute explaining some of their work
February was busy as we converted the Allis Chalmers G tractor from gas to electric. With volunteer apprentice Lorne Carroll’s help and John Graff’s welding ability we performed the operation lickety split. We had just started our blog and documented the progress there.
Lorne assembling new motor parts, old G gas engine at top of photo
Then there was Rocky. We knew that we needed help keeping the critters out of our fields and off of our crops, but were not sure what type of dog would do the trick. Livestock guarding breeds seemed to be the best choice – big and intimidating to a critter, but calm and sweet with people. So when Tom Parker told us a local farmer had Great Pyrennes/Anatolian Shepherd cross puppies for sale we jumped at the opportunity. We brought Rocky home on February 5th. He was tough to resist.
Rocky and his brother Bandit
2007 volunteer apprentice Jen Baughman joined us for the year. Her sweet spirit and positivity kept us smiling during a difficult year.
Jen and Rebecca potting up fall crops
The fields in 2008 were drenched on numerous occasions. The potatoes were a total loss, as the trenches we cut to plant them in filled like irrigation ditches in April. The tomatoes did OK, but were diseased and dying by Labor Day. In September another gullywasher set back the Fall plantings.
Attempting to bail out the potato beds in mid-April
Effect of 3 inch rain in September
Typical 2008 harvest morning with CSA troopers
On the bright side, the strawberries loved the rain, as did the beans, greens, carrots, garlic, lettuce, sweet potatoes and cover crops. We harvested 587 quarts of strawberries that year. The Honeoye variety was a good choice…easy to pick, juicy, flavorful, not too sweet, and red all the way through.
Our first harvest off the new patch
Fresh Tropea onions
Just dug carrots
Weeding crew at the strawberries
A colorful share
Kid Rocky
Though we did not necessarily need it, our solar powered irrigation system was installed in May. Missouri contractor Henry Rentz set things up and we took it from there. It came in handy in August, the only month without a downpour.
Our new solar panels and irrigation pump
The wetness of the year gave pause, as we realized that our farming methods were vulnerable to excess rain. Problems could occur with only 2 to 3 inches of precipitation, something we knew to expect in the future. So we worked on several strategies to address excess moisture.
Step 1: Take low spots in the fields out of production. Being so dry when we started farming in 2003, we did not know just how wet some areas could get.
Step 2: Mulch as much as we can. A canopy of hay or straw over the surface of our silt/clay soils does wonders to keep the plants and soil life from suffocating after a downpour. Hay also provides food for worms and eventually the crops. As we like to say, we have grass-fed vegetables.
Jen mulching with hay over a buckwheat cover crop
Step 3: Use the electric G to gutter our beds, keeping the crops raised and reducing the chance of flooding out the plant.
Step 4: Continue with our cover cropping and biological farming methods. It is a proven fact that organically-farmed soils handle water better in wet conditions, and provide drought tolerance during dry times.
Rocky enjoying a nice stand of buckwheat
And so we entered another winter on the farm. Back to the remodel. This time it was the kitchen and dining room. We do alot of cooking and canning, so a functioning kitchen was a huge improvement to the homestead.
Stripped down and ready to go
So what did 2009 hold in store…best season yet, bees, sheep and double the apprentices.
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