Category Archives: wildlife

In the Share: Week 22

lettuce, rainbow, wildlife

LETTUCE F2/P1  The last of the lettuce, mainly red leaf.  We have some in the high tunnel for the extended season, but that’s it for the lettuce outdoors.

BONITA SWEET POTATOES F/P  See Tom’s post on these camotes muy bonitas.

SWEET PEPPERS F  More ripe ones thanks to a warm week.

ONIONS OR POTATOES P  Last of both for the season.

TOMATOES F  Dwindling amounts of these.

GREENS CHOICE P  Kale, chard or gailan.

GARLIC F/P  Silverskin softneck

BEANS OR BROCCOLI F  More roma beans or broccoli.

CILANTRO OR THYME F/P

NEXT WEEK:  Leeks, sweet potatoes, eggplant, greens, peppers.

FARM REPORT:
On the same day that our commercial kitchen was approved (See Tom’s post for more on that) we were greeted by a rainbow shining in our fields.  Happy day!

The chicken coop seems to be located at the end of the rainbow.  Perhaps our pot of gold is in the form of golden orange egg yolks from our free-ranging flock.

Another natural beauty visited us at the wash area this week.  This praying mantis hung around for several days on the underside of the drain table and here on our water cooler.

In the Share: Week 14

chickens, tomatoes, wildlife

TOMATOES F/P  The paste (aka roma, aka sauce-making types) are producing well.  The first round of red tomatoes is on its way out, with another planting about ready to kick in.  The heirlooms keep coming in all their rainbow of colors.  We’ve had a nice flush of green-when-ripe heirlooms and I’m separating them for you so that you know that you can eat them even though they are green.

EGGPLANT F  Tom has several suggestions for enjoying your eggplant. 

RED POTATOES F/P

GARLIC F/P

SWEET PEPPERS F  Just one or two this week.  We are waiting to pick them until they are ripe, so expect one or two for the next month or so.

SUMMER SQUASH P  A choice of yellow squash or zucchini varieties.

SALSA PACK P

RED ONIONS F

HERB CHOICE F  Basil, dried herbs or hot peppers.

NEXT WEEK:  Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, summer squash, red onions and carrots.

FARM REPORT:

A couple of cooler days and a bit of rain made good conditions for transplanting more broccoli and cabbage.

If you saw my post from two weeks ago (week 12 blog) then you know their is a little nest in one of our tomato plants.  Well, the eggs have hatched.

On Monday momma (or daddy?) bird was annoyed at our presence as we picked the tomatoes.  She could be seen flitting around the patch with a bug in her mouth impatiently waiting for us to go away so that she could feed her new babies.  I still am not completely sure what species of bird, but the babies (I count two but there may be more under all the downy fluff.)

They aren’t the only birds on the farm that appreciate tomato plants.  Our hens have been happily snacking on a few spoiled tomatoes.  On this particular day it looked like the chickens like salsa as much as we humans.

In the Share: Week 12

cherry tomatoes, CSA delivery, fall planting, wildlife

TOMATOES F/P  The cherries are plentiful as are the heirloom and hybrid slicers.

GARLIC F/P more of our hardneck variety.

CUCUMBERS F  The last of the cucumbers from the first planting.  In a couple of weeks the second planting should be fruiting.

EGGPLANT F/P  I was lucky to have some of that eggplant cheesecake that Merri posted on the Facebook group.  If you are not in our closed group, you are missing out on a bunch of recipes.  See Tom’s post for the link.

SALSA PACK F/P

COLORADO ROSE POTATOES F/P  A new variety for us, let us know what you think.

SWEET PEPPERS F  Just one ripe one this week.  There are many more coming.

HERBS F/P Basil, including lemon and Italian varieties.

NEXT WEEK:  Tomatoes, carrots, onions, eggplant, salsa packs and peppers.

FARM REPORT:

The first round of the fall broccolis, cabbages and cauliflower are in the fields, each row with a line of irrigation tape alongside it.

With plenty of water and fertile soil they should be feeding us well by the end of September and up until we get a hard freeze.

mmm… a crisp Autumn day sounds so nice.  But, not so fast!  We still have August to sweat through and lots of delicious summer crops to eat.  Speaking of yummy summer food, I was in the tomato patch this morning and spied a little bird’s nest in one of the plants.  I’m not sure what bird it is, maybe a wren?

And finally, we wanted to give a special shout-out to the members who have been delivering the shares to Liberty this year.  When we decided to move the Brookside distribution from Saturdays to Mondays, we were worried that we would now have three deliveries to make each week instead of two.  Thankfully most Saturdays there have been members willing to schlep the produce for us after four hours of sweating in the fields.  That’s going above and beyond, folks and we truly are so grateful.  This allows us all to stay on the farm and get more work done.  Here’s a typical vehicle leaving the farm on a Saturday.

In the Share – Week 18

chicks, monarch, wildlife

 Okra season

TOMATOES F/P

YELLOW ONIONS F/P

SWEET PEPPERS F/P

GREEN BEANS F/P  By Saturday we should have some Roma (flat-pod) beans, but there are still some nice “normal” beans to pick tomorrow. 

DESIREE POTATOES F  Cream of flesh and rose of skin.

SALSA PACK, EGGPLANT OR OKRA F The stars of the late summer.

EGGPLANT P

HOT PEPPERS, DRIED HERBS, OR RADISHES F

NEXT WEEK:  tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, salsa packs, roma beans, garlic, and the first of the fall greens.

FARM REPORT:
It has been a whirlwind of a week here.  The summer harvest continues, we have begun to plant the high tunnel, the barn remodel is in full swing, and we are attempting to tidy up the farm before 100+ guests arrive on Sunday.  Along with the crabgrass and the foxtail, there are many crops to see.  The Sunday hayride will bring you past our half acre of brassica family (broccoli, cabbage, kale, etc.).

 
You may also meet some our resident wildlife.  Remember those friendly butterflies from two weeks ago?  Here’s another one, by itself this time drinking nectar from a zinnia.
 
 
 
 
The monarch larvae can be found all over our farm on their favorite plant, the vining milkweed.  We started the practice of leaving this “weed” wherever we find it.  Even climbing up a tomato plant it does no harm to our crops that it uses as a trellis.  The monarch eggs will be laid on it and larvae will hatch and quickly devour every leaf.  That’s what I call a win-win situation.  The butterflies eat our weeds and we in turn leave them their only food source. 
 
 
Thanks to the stellar killing power of our nation’s favorite herbicide, milkweed is declining.  Keep an eye out for the vining milkweed in your gardens and protect it.  It is pretty common and is easily mistaken for it other vining cousins.  The stem is thick and upright with heart-shaped leaves.
 

In the Share – Week 20

lettuce, wildlife

LETTUCE F  I wish we had more of these crunchy heads, but we’ll have to wait for the butterheads and leaf lettuces to mature a bit longer.

CARROTS F/P  These are the perfect snacking size.

RED ONIONS F/P

LEEKS F/P  The first digging of the fall leeks. It looks to be a good crop.

CABBAGE F  Tendersweet lives up to its name.

BROCCOLI P  We have just enough heads for the partial shares this week, but full shares will get some next week and hopefully for many weeks to come.

TURNIPS AND RADISHES F  Just a few of each.  The trick with eating them raw is to never cut them in advance and then leave them dry.  Eat it right away or dress it with vinegar, oil or salt.

TOMATO/CHERRY TOMATO F/P  Just a bit for everyone and make sure to let them ripen on your countertop.

PEPPERS AND EGGPLANT F

GREENS CHOICE F/P  Bok choy, arugula, rapini

NEXT WEEK:  More greens, broccoli, cabbage, eggplant and peppers.  Potatoes, garlic and kohlrabi return.

FARM REPORT:

equinox sunrise

The fall equinox marks the moment when our days and our nights are equal.  After that, fall begins the lengthening of the nighttime.  Days getting shorter means the plants grow slower and many people assume that this means farmers get some time off.  Well, we do… but in December.  Right now we are as busy as ever.  We are pushing through these gorgeous days to get the fall crops in order.  The high tunnel is filling and the fields are weeded and watered.  Out in the cabbage patch we caught a visitor that is usually too quick for the camera.

The dew has been heavy lately and she was surely to wet to fly away.  It is amazing to think how far this little, delicate creature has to go from here.  We hope her time in our fields were a benefit and that she finds her way home safely.

In the Share – Week 14

beans, wildlife

GREEN BEANS F/P  We should have these for several weeks now.  We have another planting about to start and the first one still going.

TOMATOES F/P  It is getting harder to find fruit free of blemishes with all these damp, cool weather but the flip side is you aren’t eating fungicides!

CARROTS F/P  Sweet and crisp roots from cold storage. 

EGGPLANT F 

SWEET PEPPER F/P  Another one for all.  They are ripening slowly in these cool temps.

RED ONIONS F/P  These are an assortment of Rossa di Milano (big shouldered), Tropea (torpedo) and Cabernet (round and wine-colored).

SALSA PACK F 

CUCUMBERS F  We will have a break in cucumbers for a while now that the pickling cucumbers are dwindling.

SUMMER SQUASH F  Mostly Zephyr, our yellow and green nutty squash.

CHERRY TOMATOES P 

NEXT WEEK:  More tomatoes, beans, squash, eggplant and peppers.  Potatoes and garlic return.

FARM REPORT:
The first week of the bean harvest went well with well over 200 lbs. picked.  Together the farm crew and the CSA members got the patch picked and bagged for the shares in good time.  Bean picking is pretty repetitive as you methodically frisk each plant and pull off its fruit, but every once in a while your focus comes across something else entirely, like this tree frog. 

These little guys are all over the fields at the moment.  They are about the size of your thumb but exhibit human-like agility when they climb up the foliage.  Watching them reminds me of how closely related, how much DNA we share with our fellow creatures on this planet.  Frogs are sensitive to chemicals in the environment due to their porous skin and you just don’t see them in places that are sprayed for weeds and bugs.  When did we decide that it was better to not have mosquitos and dandelions than to have these beautiful creatures? 

In the Share – Week 15

beans, cantaloupe, chickens, csa harvest, wildlife
cantaloupe

GREEN BEANS (F/P)  Choices this week:  standard, Roma or Rattlesnake (purple-streaked pole bean).

TOMATOES (F/P)  Lots more tomatoes are coming to you this week.  Heirlooms, Amana Orange and Hungarian Heart, are especially lovely plus there are lots of red hybrids.

RADISHES (F/P)  Tender, pink radishes for something different.

ARUGULA (F/P)  Bagged baby leaves from the first of our mid-summer plantings.

SWEET PEPPERS (F)  Ripe reds and yellows this week.

MELONS (F/P)  Full shares get the cantaloupes this time, partial shares get the watermelon.  There are 2 types of cantaloupe in the shares this week.  One we love and plan to grow more of, the other not so much.  If your cantaloupe lacks sweetness, consider making a Liquado.  Blend crushed ice, milk, honey and melon for a real treat.

CHERRY TOMATOES (F/P)  at least a pint for all.

SUMMER SQUASH (P)  Squash bugs have devastated the plants, so this is it.

OKRA OR SALSA PACK (F)  The okra is loving this hot weather.  Get it while it is at its peak.

NEXT WEEK:  More tomatoes, peppers, beans, okra and salsa packs.  We hope to have time to pack the carrots and onions that we have been meaning to get out but haven’t had the time for.

FARM REPORT:  The late summer harvest has been particularly bountiful this year.  The tomatoes have continued their steady onslaught of fruits.  The peppers are loaded and ripening in increasing speed.  The melons have given us a respectable harvest, despite the heavy pest pressure usual for the Cucurbitae family.  And then there are the beans…  The farm crew of five is spending most of its time with the harvest and barely keeping up even with a full crew of CSA workers on Weds. and Sat. mornings. 

 
Saturday bean harvest

And we added some new items to the harvest list this week:  a taste of spice to go with the summer fruits.  We usually bunch the arugula, but we are experimenting with bagging it instead. The farm crew of five made the first run at it today.

arugula cut

You never know what you will find when you are elbow deep in the plants.  Tom found this beautiful monarch chrysalis in the bush beans.  You would think someone had come along with their bedazzler, but no they manufacture the gold accents themselves.

monarch chrysalis
 
Oh, and how could I forget the baby chicks!?  One-day-old Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rocks arrived in the mail Thursday morning.  All 50 are now settled in their brooding box in the upper barn.  In six months time if all goes well (right!?) they should start laying eggs. 
 
 
First moments at the farm

In the Share – Week 13

csa harvest, pond, tomatoes, wildlife

TOMATOES X 2 (F/P) The harvest is on and everyone will be getting a nice amount of tomatoes this week. The heirlooms are prone to cracking when the weather fluctuates as it has this year. Pick out the ugliest tomato you can find and see if it isn’t the tastiest.

CARROTS (F/P) We grew some big carrots this Spring and they are sweetening up nicely in the cooler. The fall carrots are growing, so we hope for a continuous supply through the end of the year.

GARLIC (F/P) I once ate at a restaurant called the Stinking Rose, where garlic is prominent in every dish.  

SALSA PACK OR OKRA (F) Its the first week with okra as a choice in the shares. We will try to spread it around as the harvest increases. No one that doesn’t want it should need to take it, but the okra-lovers will get their chance at some.

SWEET PEPPERS (F/P) Someone on Saturday mentioned making stuffed peppers, sounds good to me!

EGGPLANT (F/P)

CUCUMBERS (F) last of these until our last little planting matures.

HERB CHOICE (F/P) Lots of basil this week, also garlic chives and hot peppers.

NEXT WEEK: More tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. Melons (we think), potatoes and onions.

FARM REPORT:

Wow! What beautiful weather we are having. Tom and I feel fortunate to be able to make a living doing what we do every day, but when the days are this perfect we really cannot complain about anything.

Another reason to feel fortunate: with less than 24 hours-notice, the Saturday crew grew by 10 workers and we easily completed the CSA harvest. Thank you to all who made the trek through traffic and spent the morning picking cherry tomatoes and digging potatoes. It was a great example of the power of the CSA in action.

 And finally, how lucky are we that we were able to see one of our feathered neighbors so close up. We think it is a Great Horned owl.  We hear them often, but we usually only catch a glimpse as they fly by in the gathering dark.  This guy/gal seemed quite calm perched on our clothesline for quite some time before it silently flew away.

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.