Category Archives: sweetpea

In the Share – Week 15

Allis Chalmers G, Garlic, sweetpea

GARLIC F/P  Musik hardneck

TOMATOES  F/P  We ended up with a lot of green-when-ripe heirloom tomatoes this year – Green Zebra, Aunt Ruby’s German Green and Emerald Evergreen have all done well.

DESIREE POTATOES F/P  They look like they are blushing.

SALSA PACK F/P  Partial shares get a choice with eggplant.

GREEN BEANS F/P  We will pick the Roma, flat-podded, beans tomorrow.  They’ll be a choice with the usual ones.

HERBS OR HOT PEPPERS F  Parsley, hot peppers or dried herbs.  See Tom’s post for more on the hot peppers.

CHERRY TOMATOES F 

SWEET PEPPERS F/P  We are looking forward to several more weeks of these pretty ladies. 

CUCUMBERS OR SUMMER SQUASH F  Perhaps the last week for these two.

NEXT WEEK:  More tomatoes, beans, peppers, eggplant and tomatillos.  Carrots and onions.

FARM REPORT
Whitey, the newest member of the farm team, was put straight to work delivering the Saturday shares.  Sweetpea, the VW, is taking a break until we can get her to the mechanic.  The new van is a completely different reality – bland perhaps, with an automatic transmission, power steering, a/c and even a radio (!) doing deliveries has become a pretty cush gig.  Thanks to Lawson Bank for loaning us the money to buy a good used solution to what had become a serious problem for the farm.

For the first time in weeks, the soil has dried enough to cultivate.  Monday we tackled the fall crops with machinery, hand tools and hands.  By the end of the day we had the tidied-up many rows of cabbage, broccoli, kale, cauliflower, kohlrabi, turnips, radishes and greens.

In the Share – Week 12

barn, fall planting, sweetpea, tomatoes, tranplanting

TOMATOES F/P  Along with a lot of reds and pinks, the yellow and green heirlooms are ripening.  A new variety for us this year, the Aunt Ruby’s German Green stays green when ripe. 

CARROTS F/P  Freshly dug from the summer patch.  They are smaller than our storage types, but sweet.

WALLA WALLA ONIONS F/P  More sweet onions.  It is a bumper crop this year so we are sharing the overage… and we need to make room for the storage onions to come in to the barn from the field.

CUCUMBERS F/P  We have had a good run of cucumbers, but finally the patch is beginning to wind down.  Lately I have been making a quick cucumber salad at night:  cucumbers, onions, vinegar, honey, salt and pepper.  It is even better the next day for lunch and dinner too. 

SALSA PACK or SUMMER SQUASH F/P

CHERRY TOMATOES F/P

CABBAGE F  The last of the spring harvest.

EGGPLANT OR BEETS F

HERBS F

NEXT WEEK:  More tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, onions, eggplant and salsa packs.  Potatoes and garlic return.  Perhaps the first of the green beans.

FARM REPORT:
In the last 7 days the walk-in cooler needed repair, the exhaust pipe and one of the shocks fell off of the truck, the power supply for our computer went out, the refrigerator at the apprentice house died, and the van needed a tow.

Sweetpea (the name of our VW van since long before we became her owners) delivers the produce to the city twice a week and we are happy to have her back in good working order.  Thanks to the diligent work at the mechanics (and, of course, a decrease in the bank account) the van is running again and most of the other items on the list are fixed or on their way to that end. 

Meanwhile the crops pay no attention to our mechanical difficulties.  They are ready for harvest or to be planted.  They need water and weeding.   This week we transplanted cauliflower, broccoli and kale.

The new barn waits expectantly to be filled with our tools, equipment and workshop.  It looks so beautiful but at this point the only things in it are racks of onions drying.

In the Share – Week One

asparagus, broccoli, packing room, sweetpea

Asparagus

Butterhead LETTUCE (F/P) The May Queen gets here just in time. It’s about time since it is almost June!
Red leaf LETTUCE (F)
ASPARAGUS (F/P)
LEEKS (F/P)
BROCCOLI (F): A much smaller share than we were hoping. In a better Spring, the plants would have waited longer to send up their flower stalk, the broccoli.
BOK CHOY (F/P): Also having some flowering issues. We are harvesting lots this week to nip them in the bud.
GREEN ONIONS (F/P)
RADISHES or ARUGULA (F)  Partial shares get a choice with herbs
HERBS (F): Chives, mint, tarragon

NEXT WEEK: More lettuce, bok choy, radishes, broccoli and herbs. Green garlic, kale, chard and spring turnips.

FARM REPORT: Howdy, this is Rebecca wishing you all a happy start to the 2013 season. I give you what is in the share each week along with a farm report. I apologize in advance for typos, after farming all day one doesn’t always have the mental alertness for the task. We like to keep you all in the loop and we hope that it is helpful.

A few hours ago our trusted produce-delivery vehicle, Sweetpea, returned to the farm from an extended stay with our VW mechanic. She is 42 years young thanks to good engine maintenance and a shiny new paint job. Danny Brown, of Brown’s Automotive, is a good soul and his crew worked some magic removing the rust that was eating her alive.  Thanks guys!

Danny and Sweetpea

It was a perfect afternoon for a drive in the van.  It has been lovely weather all week, especially compared to our neighbors in Oklahoma. The crops appreciated the .75 inch of rain that came with the storms last weekend. It was a perfectly-timed addition of moisture after the farm crew spent a frantic week planting.

The Spring crops are beginning to mature and we are seeing the results of way-below average temperatures in March and April. The broccoli is maturing weeks early because it was stressed early on, but most other crops have fared better.

buttoning broccoli

We have the majority of the summer crops in and over the last few days have managed to tidy up the place in preparation for the first week of the CSA. Everyone likes a clean and tidy workplace, and farmers are no different. Our expanded packing room is quite comfortable and bright.  The new cooler is on and working well.

the packing room