Turkey Hill CSA Newsletter - Week 5

From the Farm

The field is at its peak of growth, with many crops starting to or about to start coming in. This week we have the first baby carrots - thinnings and the largest selection from the first of three carrot bed plantings. The carrots sweeten up over the next few weeks, and we grow several varieties over several plantings to extend the harvest over 6 weeks or more. The beets this week (full share) are full sized and will continue coming in for a few more weeks. Eat your beets! The leeks this week are also new and are probably the only leeks we have this year. Enjoy their sweet flavor sauteed (the green part is good as well as the white part - cut in half and clean carefully). We also have shallots and red, white and yellow onions you can look forward to starting in a few weeks.

The beans are all going gonzo - they are absolutely loaded with beans that will all start to be ready by the beginning of next week. We grow green beans, yellow beans, and purple beans. perfect for salads or cooked, these are also great to freeze for winter (see below)

Special Orders - Call or email by Thursday night.

Flowers - We have beautiful gladioli coming in - these are huge, gorgeous flowers that open over a couple of weeks, they come in many colors. CSA price is $2/stem or 6 for $10. We also have 'field bouquets' of long lasting cut flowers - zinnias, snapdragons, statice and more - a huge amount of color for $10.

Basil for pesto - we are starting to pick the basil and you will get a little bag in your share at least a few times this season - perfect for a pasta dish or sauce, but if you want enough for a batch of pesto (usually 4-cups for a recipe) you need to special order. Process a larger batch and freeze some for this winter! we offer the ready to go leaf ($20/lb) or later in the season we offer whole plants ($2/bunch) and you do the work of picking of the leaves. We also offer pick your own at a discount, so come on down and pick some basil!

Fruit for freezing - Cherries, peaches and apricots are all great for freezing, jams and other processing projects. Get into the spirit of abundance and order a box of fruit from the farm, then put something up - you'll thank yourself many times over later, or better yet, make some small jam jars for gifts, save these for the holidays and your recipients will remember the fruits of summer. I can usually get #2 quality at a steep discount: for example: #2 cherries are $1.50/lb, #1 cherries are $3.50/lb. by the box. call or email for pricing and availability.

Questions and Answers

Q: I can't use all my veggies, what should i do?
As we get into the thick of the harvest season over the next few weeks, you may find yourself picking up your box with a fridge still loaded with the last week's produce. Here are a few suggestions: first - toss anything that's looking old - start a compost pile, or get a worm composter so your waste becomes food. Freeze things: many veggies can easily be frozen. Usually its best to clean, slice and blanch them first - a 3-min steaming or boiling is plenty. This works great for carrots, peas or beans and even a cup of chopped carrots or beans in a zip-lock bag in your freezer will feel like a special treat in the middle of winter, and even if frozen veggies aren't as good as fresh, its great knowing your still eating veggies from your local farm.

Send me your questions! Need a recipe? We have a recipe page on the website. Want to know when a certain vegetable is coming in? confused about something in your box? email me!

This Week's Box

Kale - bunched, three types
Carrots, Baby - many more to come
Head Lettuce - red butters, green romaine & more - ending soon!
Salad Mix - yum - beautiful red color mix this week.
Chives or parsley or basil - herbs are coming in slowly, expect a rotation for the next few weeks
Leeks - a fantastic, mild onion flavor for soups or stir fry, you can use the green as well as the white parts
Peas - really coming in this week, another week or two on these
Garlic - nearly dried, trimmed and cleaned; will continue to dry and flavor will deepen over time.

Full Share

Extra heads lettuce

Chard - bunched or bagged

Beets - still more to come

Extra Garlic

Fruit

Apricots - two varieties - store refrigerated, then let these sit out for a day or two before eating.

Lambert Cherries - 90 years in the making - these delicious, deep red cherries are from a stand of 90 year old Lambert trees managed organically by the Kropp brothers in Paonia.

Both from First Fruits of Paonia

Coming Soon (1-3 weeks)

Peaches
Basil - delicious in sauces, summer is a leaf
Carrots, more, larger, sweeter
Beans - Green, Yellow & Purple - starts next week, a ton of these are nearly ready
Summer Squash - starts soon, they are flowering now
Bulb Fennel
Broccoli - almost ready
Early onions
Cucumbers - flowering now
Olathe Organic Sweet Corn (of we can get it)

3 or more Weeks

Cauliflower

Cabbage - Red, Green & Savoy

Onions

Shallots

Potatoes

Winter Squash

Pumpkins

Turkey Hill CSA Newsletter - Week 4

From the Farm

Its mid-July and the farm is looking great! The beds have all been weeded at least once, and we are passing through the field weeding for nearly the last time. The planting is all but over, with just a few salad mix blocks and some cover crop to get in the ground. Harvest is in full swing, and the crops are outgrowing the cricket damage. This week I put together a little captioned photo slide show. I've tried to embed the slide show into the email, but if that doesn't work, or for a full screen version of the slide slow - follow this link to the July 2008 Round Earth Farm Tour slideshow.

Questions and Answers

Q: Why didn't I get Oregano/Thyme last week?
A: The list you read in the newsletter is my best guess at what will be in your box that week, but we occasionally run out of a crop, or decide to hold of on a harvest to let the crop mature completely. We'll do our best to replace the missed items the following week, but please email if you missed a specific crop.

Q: When will the beans, corn and tomatoes be ready?
A: This is a late season, most crops are 2-3 weeks behind their usual schedule, and we are on week 4 of approximately 17, so many crops aren't quite ready. Beans are flowering now and will be ready in two weeks. The sweet corn looks great and will be ready in September, but I hope to buy some Organic Olathe sweet corn to add to the boxes for a few weeks in August. Tomatoes are also late this year, but I may be able to find another local grower willing to spare some early tomatoes for your boxes. Stay tuned for more updates, or email if you have a specific vegetable in mind.

Q: What am I supposed to do with all these GREENS!?
A: Some people love cooked greens and can eat them every day, others can't figure out how to eat all the chard, kale, lettuce and salad the early CSA boxes contain! If you fall into the latter group, see if you can find a friend or neighbor who might want them! In a few weeks, as the boxes fill out with other vegetables, we will lighten up on the greens, and offer these in the (soon to appear in CB) "extras" area.

Send me your questions! Need a recipe? We have a recipe page on the website. Want to know when a certain vegetable is coming in? confused about something in your box? email me!

This Week's Box

Chard - bunched
Beets - still more to come
Head Lettuce - this is the peak season for head lettuce - green & red romaines, green butters, red butter next week.
Salad Mix - i keep planting these greens nearly every week, and we water them every day to try to keep them tender. watch for a changing mix of lettuce types.
Dill - fine leafed for now, dill seed later in the season
Scallions (green onions) - a special treat at our farm, this crop takes a lot of attention and many years we have little or no scallions or pearl onions. this year we have one really nice stand so everyone can get some! Delicious in a soup, you can add at the very end so the scallions are barely cooked - they are very sweet.
Peas (unless we run out again, the rabbits really decimated the 1st batch of shelling peas. the second batch is a week away and is rabbit free)
Radishes - spicy, try these thinly sliced on salad
Kohlrabi - These round brassicas are similar to broccoli stem. Peel off the hard shell, then steam or fry the inside. Usually harvested a bit larger, we are harvesting these at a smaller size while they are still looking good.

Full Share

Extra heads lettuce

Kale - bunched or bagged

Fruit

Yellow Reinier Bing Cherries & Bing Cherries from First Fruits of Paonia (transitional organic this week) - YUM - enjoy these delicious fruits

Next Week

garlic - we picked all the garlic this week and it looks great, we'll start giving everyone garlic after it dries a bit, next week.
more peas
parsley
more head lettuce varieties

Apricots (fruit share)

Coming Soon (1-3 weeks)

Peaches
Chives
Carrots, Baby
Garlic, dried
Beans - Green, Yellow & Purple
Summer Squash
Bulb Fennel

3 or more Weeks

Broccoli
Cauliflower

Cabbage - Red, Green & Savoy

Cucumbers

Carrots

Onions

Potatoes

Winter Squash

Pumpkins

Flowers - Gladioli, Zinnias, Snapdragons, Bouquets - i'll have these for special order (CB) and for sale at the farm

everything else!

Turkey Hill CSA Newsletter - Week 3

From the Farm

Its transition time (again!) at the farm - the last of the weeding is nearly done - thank goodness! (we still have to do a few more weeding passes, but only on crops that are in the ground for a long time or are sensitive to weeds. Also, the planting is done (except for a few more plantings of salad mix over the next few weeks), and the irrigation system is set out and working reliably (with a little effort required to move the water around and keep things wet in the incredible heat of summer). The main work on the farm has become HARVEST. I promise to get some current pictures on the website soon, but I can tell you the fields are looking great! Everything is sizing up nicely, and we're slowly catching up to the regular season timing.

We've had a few pests worth mentioning this summer: first the rabbits, who last week decided to eat all the shelling peas. they neatly removed the peas from the shells leaving the plants bare! The left us a few snow peas and sugar snaps, but ate nearly all the shelling peas! We fought back last weekend by covering the entire pea bed with a sheet of 'floating row cover' - a thin, breathable fabric that will keep the rabbits off while the shelling peas recover. We also have another, even larger, second planting of peas that the rabbits don't know about, so we still plan to have lots of peas. This week, only the full shares are getting peas, and only a small amount.

Another pest that we have every summer is the flea beetle. This tiny, shiny black bug hops like a flea when you get near it. Some growers use this trait to trap these pests on a sticky trap moved over the crop beds. The flea beetles love to eat soft leafed brassicas - mustards, chois, arugula and the like. For this reason we always cover the 'spicy' portion of our salad mix with the same floating row cover that is keeping the rabbits out of the peas. the wave is fine enough to keep the flea beetles off the spicy mix. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to cover our bak choi crop and for this reason you can expect to see some holes in the leaves of the bok chois in your box this week. If the holes are bad, just cut the green leaf part off and use the stems of the chois which are crunchy, watery and sweet.

The garlic is finally ready - a few weeks later than usual like everything else this year. We pulled a few this week for the boxes, and will harvest the main crop next week. After we get the garlic washed, we set it in the greenhouse to dry, which takes a few weeks.So you can expect some more fresh garlic for now, and the dried, cured garlic you are used to in around three or four weeks. The onions look beautiful, but are still very small - i try to hold off on harvesting these until they have a chance to size up - probably anopther 4-5 weeks. We also have leeks that look nice, chives that are slowly coming in, scallions that are nearly ready and seed grown shallots that are great for storage and come in at the end of the year.

The spinach in this week's share was harvested with some effort from the weeds. The spinach never got weeded because it never really came up very well (both plantings - something was either wrong with the seed or more likely my seeder setting) and it didn't seem worth weeding. Still, some spinach managed to out compete the weeds, and we managed to harvest enough of that for the box this week. Because spinach is a cool weather crop, the only spinach you will see for the rest of the summer is the baby spinach leaves that are often in the salad mix.

Questions and Answers

Q: My box is stuffed!
A: Last week's full boxes were crammed, sorry. We are ordering larger boxes and trying to source good, reusable plastic totes for the CSA. For now, full shares will get TWO BOXES - please get both your boxes at the pickup if you are in Crested Butte and have a full share.
Q: I didn't get fruit!
A: (Crested Butte) Sometimes the fruit won't fit in your share box(es), instead its bagged and in a box that reads 'Fruit share, take 1 bag' - don't forget to grab your fruit. If someone else picks up your share, remind them to get the fruit if you have a fruit share (or not to if you don't). At the farm, fruit is usually in the main cooler with the veggies.
Q: Can my friend still sign up?
A: Yes, we are still open to new members for the summer, fees are slightly reduced based on the late start, call the farm for details: 970-872-4413.

Send me your questions! Need a recipe? We have a recipe page on the website. Want to know when a certain vegetable is coming in? confused about something in your box? email me!

This Week's Box

Chard or Kale - still bagged, bunched next week
Chois - green or purple bok chois (sorry about the holes, try the stems!)
Beets - sweet and delicious boiled, three types are coming in - chioggia striped, red
Spinach - spinach had a hard time this year, enjoy this while we have it.
Head Lettuce - this is the peak season for head lettuce - green & red romaines, green butters starting, red frilly types make a beautiful garnish. Full shares get three heads.
Salad Mix - i keep planting these greens nearly every week, and we water them every day to try to keep them tender. watch for a changing mix of lettuce types.
Garlic - a couple more heads, more next week.
Dill - fine leafed for now, dill seed later in the season
Thyme & Oregano - a bit that overwintered, this year's crop was frozen before we could plant it

Full Share

Extra heads lettuce (2)

Peas (not enough for the half shares, everyone will get some next week)

extra chard or kale

Fruit

NEW: Yellow Reinier Bing Cherries & Bing Cherries from First Fruits of Paonia (transitional organic this week) - YUM - enjoy these delicious fruits

Next Week

more peas
more head lettuce varieties
bunched chard, kale -three types

Coming Soon (1-3 weeks)

Scallions
kohlrabi
Chives, parsley
Carrots, Baby
Garlic, dried
Beans - Green, Yellow & Purple
Summer Squash

3 or more Weeks

Summer squash

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Cabbage - Red, Green & Savoy

Cucumbers

Carrots

Onions

Potatoes

Winter Squash

Pumpkins

Flowers - Gladioli, Zinnias, Snapdragons, Bouquets - i'll have these for special order (CB) and for sale at the farm

everything else!

Turkey Hill CSA Newsletter - Week 2

From the Farm

Solstice was just a week ago, and that means the longest days of the year. Growth in the garden this time of year is nothing short of amazing. Everything is growing including the weeds! We are keeping busy with weeding, thinning and now harvest has begun. The field looks great (I'll try to post some updated photos soon), and we have a great succession of three plantings in the field, meaning an extended harvest for crops like beans, peas, beets and carrots. A good crew has formed to handle the harvest with some old and some new faces.

We encourage visitors and offer tours of the farm. If you pick up at the farm, walk out past the harvest area and just keep walking straight. I try to stay in sight of the harvest area on Friday afternoons if you want a tour or have questions. For those of you getting a box delivery into crested butte, we strongly encourage you to plan at least one visit to the farm - any time in the next three months is probably fine, but call a week ahead so we can plan to be here.

A word about the appearance of your produce: We take a lot of time and care each harvest making sure the produce we bring in from the field is carefully cleaned and processed. We carefully wash everything in domestic water, sometimes double or triple washing to get all the dirt off. You may see some damage to crops that is normal in organic production: holes in the leaves of the radishes for example, or the corn ear worms in the tips of the sweet corn (later in the season), but we try hard to make the produce you receive looks better than the produce you see on a grocery store shelf. Produce is very sensitive to temperature and moisture. If your produce becomes wilted at any point, it can usually be revived be wetting, then placing in a bag in the refrigerator. Please email or call with any concerns!

Questions and Answers

Q: Why didn't I get Braising Mix (or carrots, or peas)?
A: Each week as I type out this email, I make a best guess at what will be available for the box harvest later in the week. Sometimes what we actually harvest might be a little different than my list, or there might be a shortage of one crop and an abundance of another. As we pack the boxes each week, we try to ensure everyone gets the exact same box, but sometimes (usually as a particular crop is just beginning to ripen) there isn't enough for everyone. In this case, we substitute another crop, so if you didn't get carrots you got beets, or if you didn't get braising mix you got extra baby chard. We also watch the overall dollar value of the box each week to insure you get a great deal for your share fee. Since the first few weeks are slim this year, that means extra big boxes later in the season.

Send me your questions! Need a recipe? We have a recipe page on the website. Want to know when a certain vegetable is coming in? email me!

This Week's Box

NEW: Beets, baby - a mix of pink (chioggias are striped when cut sideways), red round and red long (cylindrical) beets, mostly the pinkish ones this week because they are sizing up first. Delicious boiled until soft and topped with a little salt.
NEW: Head Lettuce - a rotating mix of Romaine, Green & Red Leaf, butters and summer crisp heads. Head lettuce will last for a month or six weeks, then disappear because it can't take the heat and 'bolts', turning bitter.
NEW: Baby Kale - We will be bunching chard and kale starting next week. Recipes on the website - see cooking greens
Salad Mix - Starting slow, we should have this all season
Cilantro - Enjoy it while we have it, cilantro can't take the heat of summer and lasts just a few weeks

NEW: Sage - great in beans or meat (lots of info on the web of course )

NEW: Dill - great on fish, in a dressing or dry and use later.

Full Share

Extra head lettuce

radishes

extra chard or kale

Fruit

NEW: Sweet Bing Cherries (for fruit shares) - these are the 1st of the season for our area and come out of established orchards in Domingez canyon, between Delta and Grand Junction. These are '2nd year transitional' meaning they have been under organic cultivation for two years. The Paonia cherries should start in the next week or two and cherries will last a month or more, when the peach harvest begins!

Next Week

Shelling peas
more head lettuce varieties
bunched chard
bunched or bagged spinach

Coming Soon (1-3 weeks)

Bunched Kale & Chard

Sugar Snap Peas
Scallions
Carrots, Baby
Garlic, dried
Chois (Bak Choi and other types)
Summer Squash

3-5 Weeks
Tons of Peas and Beans