Category Archives: spinach

In the Share: Week 5 extended

chickens, high tunnel, spinach

SPINACH   The leaves are large and in charge.

SWEET PEPPERS  The weather has forgotten that it is November and so we still have sweet peppers ripening in the fields.

HAKUREI TURNIPS  The leafy growth and warm weather has attracted some aphids in the high tunnel.  You might want to wash your greens extra carefully if you don’t want extra protein.

LETTUCE  We continue to try to make the lettuce last.  Huge heads of red leaf had to be picked on Friday.  A salad a day keeps the doctor away.

LETTUCE OR ARUGULA  A choice of a second head of lettuce or arugula.

BROCCOLI/GAI LAN  We are down to side shoots of broccoli which are much like the gai lan.

SWEET POTATOES  Orange type this week.

RADISHES  red globes from the fields and high tunnel.

HERB CHOICE  Cilantro, parsley or dill.

NEXT WEEK:  Greens, turnips, garlic, bok choy, lettuce, sweet potatoes, kale, bulb fennel.

FARM REPORT:
With us now in November a killing frost is surely not too far away although there is no sign of it in the 10-day forecast.  It has happened that it waits until practically December.  It has been very dry as well as warm and so we have fired up the irrigation pump to keep the peppers and the field greens going.  We gave the strawberry patch a good drink as well so that they will be healthy and strong while they are dormant.  The high tunnel is the opposite of dormant right now.  We continue to struggle to keep up with it’s leafy growth.

Pretty fantastic looking, really!  Makes a farmer proud.  All this leafy-ness is not all fabulous, however.  We plant beneficial alyssum to draw in predators like brachnid wasps, but we still have aphids especially on the radish tops.  Which if you have to pick a leaf for an aphid to go after, it could be worse.

On Saturday we completed the tomato teardown and expanded the chicken yard into it.  They really enjoyed the old hay that we use to mulch the tomatoes and quickly put their heads down into it hunting bugs and seeds.

In the Share: Week 31

bad seed, KC Food Circle, spinach

SPINACH  Big, dark green leaves have grown back nicely from our picking two weeks ago.

LETTUCE  The last of the lettuce from the high tunnel, mostly red-leaf.

CARROTS AND BEETS  A bag with a bunch of each.

FRISEE ENDIVE  From the high tunnel

CHARD, KALE OR BOK CHOY 

SWEET POTATOES  O’Henry white ones this week.

BABY LEEKS  We had to turn under our leeks this Spring after the deluge left them waist-high in the weeds.  We re-planted but they just didn’t have enough time to size-up. 

GREEN GARLIC  From the high tunnel, some fresh garlic plants.

NEXT WEEK:  You are on your own for the winter.  We invite you to visit us and your local producers at the Bad Seed Market every Friday to get your fill of produce, proteins and ferments.

FARM REPORT:
Here we are in the final week of the 2015 CSA season.  The last of the carrots are out of the ground thanks to the efforts of the Saturday CSA crew.

I would be lying if I said we weren’t happy to see the last of the crops come out of the field and the last CSA shares packed.  2015 was a real doozie that we hope to never see its equal.  According to the old-timers in our area, the amount of rain that came down in early summer was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  We sincerely hope so!

We are incredibly lucky to have such an understanding group of folks who support us.  This past Saturday, the Core Group met and reviewed the results of the member survey.  I will be sending out an email that goes into greater depth on the survey responses, but until then know that your comments and suggestions were taken to heart and will inform our decisions this winter as we plan for 2016 and beyond.

Your farmers don’t hibernate much in winter.  In addition to working on the barn, repairing equipment, planning for next year and caring for the chickens, Tom and I will be selling our fermented foods at the Bad Seed Market most Fridays from now through February.  We not only sell our products there, it is where we shop so that we can eat local year-round.  This Friday is the double-sized pre-Thanksgiving Extravaganza, where you can get everything you need for the big feast.  Hope to see you there!

The next day (Saturday, 11/21), while Tom stays at the farm to welcome the last CSA crew of the year, I will be just down the street from the Bad Seed at the first ever KC Food Circle Holiday Market (1522 Holmes, 9am – 6pm).  It should be a fun event as it is a combination farmers market with KC Food Circle farmers like us plus crafty people and businesses who use sustainable, local materials.  Go local this holiday season!

In the Share – Week 2

hail, radish, spinach, wash area

RADISHES F/P  Red and crisp.  My favorite way to eat radishes is lightly cooked in a stir-fry.

HAKUREI TURNIPS F/P  The “eat ’em like an apple” turnips are especially big and juicy now.

BUTTERHEAD LETTUCE F/P  Lovely and delicious

STRAWBERRIES F/P  We are hoping we can pick enough berries tomorrow AM (rain permitting!) to get all the Wednesday folks a pint or thereabouts.  By Saturday and next week we should have plenty!

FORELLENSCHLUSS ROMAINE F  They are supposed to be charmingly splotchy.

GREEN GARLIC F/P  Use like green onions.  See Tom for some thoughts.

ASIAN GREENS F/P  Bok choy and tat soi

KALE OR CHARD F  See Tom’s post for a kale salad recipe.

BROCCOLI & GAI LAN P  Gai lan is broccoli’s smaller, but tender cousin.  There is a bit of both in each bunch this week.  We hope to have enough for all by next week. 

HERBS F tarragon, garlic chives or arugula

NEXT WEEK:  More lettuces, greens, turnips, broccoli and strawberries.

FARM REPORT:

The farm received 4 inches of rain Saturday night along with lots of wind and some small hail.  Water from our rolling hills flows into Clear Creek and the Fishing River before making its way to the Missouri.  Both Clear Creek and Fishing River overflowed their banks sending out first reponders in boats to rescue some folks.  Here on higher ground we saw some damage from the hail.  You may notice that the tender greens have been roughed up a bit.  The spinach suffered the worst of it.

It has rained every Saturday morning of the CSA season so far and it looks like this Saturday will be no exception.  We share our muck boots with whoever shows up and we keep busy bringing in the harvest.  Greens coming in from the fields need a good rinse before being packed and its a good job for the whole family.  

tat soi rinse
 

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 28

chickens, spinach

SPINACH:  the first harvest out of the high tunnel with lots of huge leaves.

LETTUCE:  green romaine from under row cover in the fields

HAKUREI TURNIPS:  nice bunches from the high tunnel

BROCCOLI OR CAULIFLOWER:  your choice of a pound of broccoli or a cauliflower head.

SWISS CHARD:  big leaves from the high tunnel

LEEKS:  we will be pulling these from the muddy soil tomorrow.  Wish us luck!

KOHLRABI:  sweet storage types.  The outside looks a bit rough, but once peeled they are very tasty.

BOK CHOY:  green and purple varieties from the high tunnel.

FINGERLING POTATOES:  roast these whole for a treat.

NEXT WEEK:  sweet potatoes, garlic, carrots, beets, fennel, herbs, red cabbage, arugula and lettuce.

FARM REPORT:
Week 28!  Can you believe it?  The extended season threw our old numbering system for a loop and now we are getting back on track.  Last week was week 24 of the 24-week season.  For those in the extended season, however, it was week 27 if you count the 3 weeks of the extended season in the Spring.  So, here we are in week 28.  By the end of it all we should clock in at 31 weeks of continuous produce.  Whew!

November arrived with more beautiful fall weather.  These mild, sun-filled days won’t last and so we are packing a lot in to the time we have.  We have been burning through bales of straw and hay, mulching the plants that will over-winter.   

We spent a good part of Monday morning graduating the chickens to the next level of free-ranging.   At two months old, they are big enough that they can’t walk through the netted fencing that surrounds their yard.  So out went the chicken-wire covered “run” that they had been confined to when outside. 

They are now tall enough that we can hang up their feeder, keeping it off of the ground keeps it cleaner.  Before they got their freedom, we clipped one side of their wings so that they can’t fly over and out of the fencing.  It doesn’t hurt any more than a fingernail clipping and it saves them from becoming a dog treat if they were to land outside the fence.