Turkey Hill CSA Newsletter - 2009-8

Turkey Hill CSA Newsletter - Week 8   

Notes From the Farm

Sorry for the delay in getting this newsletter out. Fruit members, this is a break week, we will resume peaches next week. Note smaller boxes this week as summer crops are all just about to come in - cucumbers, beans, corn all in the next week or two, thanks for your patience!

This week the farm is swinging into summer big time. I took a short break to visit my mother in North Carlina with the kids over last weekend, and in the six nights I was gone, things grew like crazy. Its amazing the changes that happen every day on the farm and there is nothing like being away for more than a few days to make me appreciate this.

Valentin ran the show in my absence, making critical decisions like what was ready to be picked for the Tuesday harvest! Thanks to him for keeping the ball rolling (and to the rest of the harvest crew who happily come out every harvest to pick and process).

 

More Notes:

 

The flowers are in full swing this week. We have beautiful snapdragons and statice and offer them in convenient 'bundles' at $10. We don't have the time or labor to make bouquets this year, but the bundles can be easily coaxed into bouquets once you have them. The glads are really kicking in and I really want you to check them out, so this week i'm offering 8 stems (instead of the usual 5) for $10. Regular stems are also on sale: 12 stems for $10.We will have flowers at the farm (friday) and on the truck sunday to purchase, but its best if you order ahead (just email or call). When you get them, cut the bottoms and put them in water asap. change the water and trim the bottoms every day or two and your flowers should last 1-2 weeks.

Upcoming boxes will contain little bags of basil - perfect for a sauce or dressing, but not enough to make pesto. For pesto quantity, please call or email. If you visit the farm, we also offer pick your own basil at a greatly reduced price - its very labor intensive to pick!

 

Questions and Answers

Some of you asked how these compare to the flood of glads hitting city market last week - which are selling for something like $10 for 20 stems. Quite simple, there is NO comparison! our glads are HUGE, thick stemmed and freshly picked. Their grown without chemicals here on our farm, hand weeded and planted with loving care. The flowers at the supermarket are still glads, but they are thinner and smaller, they are grown in chemically intensive monocrop mega farms in places like equador where cheap labor and lax regulations mean easy business conditions. They were picked days and days or a week or more ago and they are probably coated with pesticides. 

Please send me your questions, let me know what you want to know!

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

This Week's Box

Artichokes - we'll have even more of these as the season continues...
Cauliflower - we'll have Orange & Purple cauliflower 1st, and white cauliflower later. The orange cheddar variety is partictularly delicious.
Romanesco - this green, fractal/spiral vegetable is in the same family as cauliflower and cabbage, but has its own unique appearance and flavor. 

Broccoli - a little bit coming in now, the big crop arrives in september.Cabbage - purple and green now coming in.

Beets
-  cylindrical beets this week - the last beets we will have for a while - great for canning, or just store in the fridge.

Chard, Collards or Kale - bunched - always plenty of greens, look for extras this week, take as much as you want from the 'extras'. (I found the collards hiding in the cabbage, that was the mysterious greens some of you got last week!)

Head Lettuce - red curly - this may be the last of the head lettuce, there is one more patch, but they look like they may never size up - going from baby stage to seeding directly in the heat of summer.

Salad Mix - still coming in

Onions - We are picking thru the onions to get the largest ones. We'll have more later in the season.
Garlic
- hard neck variety this week, a little smaller heads than the soft necks, and with a slightly different flavor - can you tell the difference?

Herbs - Cilantro and Dill this week, the last we will have for a while (except dill heads which are available for canning all season by special order).  

 

Fruit

 

None... Fruit break this week! We will have peaches next week (or possibly the week after)

Coming Soon (1-3 weeks)

Carrots - returning intermittently over the few weeks, then the fall crop will kick in and we'll have carrots for the rest of the season.
Cucumbers - we have a huge crop of these coming in over the next few weeks
Squash - More on varieties as i assess the field

Bulb Fennel - sizing up, ready this week or next.

Beans - we have purple, yellow and green beans this year - these are just starting this week, we'll have an abundance in the next few weeks. Great as a side dish sauteed in butter.

Eggplant  -starting to come in from the hoop house

Peppers - hot peppers trickling it now

---

Farm Festival Events

In a few weeks, we will be hosting a day of tours, workshops and eating! The day starts early and CSA members are invited to come camp on the farm the night before so you be here in the morning.  The date for the event is Saturday, August 22; the preliminary schedule of events is:

• 8am-10am  - Early Tour/Harvest - Tour the fields with the farmer (me) and help harvest crops for the day's meals; We'll harvest salad, cucumbers, beans, squash and whatever else is needed for the days meals. Learn how we harvest the veggies and see where and how we wash and process produce from the field. Plan on getting muddy (at least your shoes). $10 suggested donation.
  

• 11am-1pm  - Cooking workshop with Valentin & brunch - We'll prepare the food we harvest and then enjoy a light brunch - we will transform the morning's harvest into lunch and have some pre-prepared dishes as well. $10 suggested donation.
• 1-2pm - I'll lead a tour through the fields and talk about the farm, the season and plans for the future. No charge.
  
• 5pm-8:30pm - Cooking workshop with Valentin & Dinner - We will continue to prepare and process produce from the morning and previous harvests and prepare dishes for the dinner, which will also be accompanied by dishes prepared in advance. $25 suggested donation, or $20 for dinner alone (starts around 7pm).
  

We are still finalizing the menus for the two meals we will be preparing (more info soon), but there will be plenty to eat and drink. The meals will be heavy on the veggies, but we will have some (local, natural) meats and cheeses as well. We'll have iced herbal tea and water to drink, and coffee with dessert after dinner.  We are asking for donations to cover our expenses and pay Valentin for his cooking workshops; I strongly encourage you all make the time to visit during the event, even you can only come for the morning or evening. Its the perfect excuse to come visit the farm at the peak of the harvest. I also need to know in advance how many are coming to the day's events so we can plan the food. The cooking workshops are limited to 12 participants, and the meals are also limited in number. Please email or call if you plan to come.

Turkey Hill Newsletter - 2009-7

 

Turkey Hill CSA Newsletter - Week 7

Notes From the Farm

I took a few more pictures today that I'll post soon. The garden looks beautiful, with the latest round of tilling and mowing clearing things up quite a bit. The beans are just starting to grow, and are loaded with flowers (soon to be beans). The summer squash is flowering and we'll have zucchini and other summer squash starting next week. Unfortunately, the winter and summer squash took a real beating this year; a cool may/june meant slow seed germination and lots of weed competition, then once we had weeded out the baby squash, the squash bugs and grasshoppers decimated a portion of the crop, leaving about 30-40% of my original planting; although a sad loss for the farm, my ambitious attempt to plant two acres total of winter squash means what are left with should still be a reasonable quantity. If certain varieties are missing, I'll shop around for another farm that might be able to supply it.

Speaking of shopping around, I left a little money in the budget to buy (local, organic) veggies from other growers to help fill in weak areas in our season. One upcoming crop is sweet corn. The last few years we've been able to get famous Olathe Sweet corn - organic - usually starting around the beginning of August; We'll have a bit of our own 'Delectable' sweet corn in September. I'm also hoping to buy some tomatoes from my neighbor Mark at Thistle Whistle Farms - he has thousands of georgous, trellised, earlyish tomatoes; our own tomatoes are still weeks away from ripening.

We hilled up the potatoes for the last time this week and a tiny bit so we can offer you a little it for the box (the rest will come in the last 4-5 weeks of the season). The spring carrots are nearly done, the fall carrots are looking great. The beans are just beginning to be ready, and the summer squash is close. Come visit the farm, and don;t forget about Aug. 22 - keep that date open for our soon to be announced farm day.

 

More Notes:

The flowers are now available; we have bundles of flowers for $10; this week I have beautiful Gladioli that last 2 weeks in water (trim the bottoms every few days); I've also got snapdragons and statice available - let me know what colors you want and we'll put a $10 bundle of fresh flowers aside for you (delivered in your tote or at the farm).

Please send me your questions, let me know what you want to know!

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

This Week's Box

NEW:  Onions, fresh washed spring onions - dried onions to come

NEW:  Potatoes - we dug a little up while hilling the patch so you can try them out. lots more coming towards the END of the season

NEW:  Broccoli, cauliflower red cabbage and 'mini' green cabbages, these are just starting, varieties will vary each week.

Peas - some boxes - finishing up, we'll try for more in the fall.

Artichokes - some of you will get these this week more for everyone soon!

Carrots - end of the spring crop, more coming in a few weeks

Beets - the end of the spring beets.

Chard or kale - bunched - lots more greens

Head Lettuce - frilly red & green types. head lettuce will last a few more weeks

Salad Mix - we'll try to have this mix every week

Garlic - still drying, don't put garlic in a plastic bag or it might mold

Spinach  - the last of spring

NEW:  Herbs - Chives, Thyme, Savory (one of the above)

Peppers - little purple hot peppers are ripening up this week (delivery customers - look in the bottom of the bags)

 

Fruit

Last of the bing cherries from First Fruits, Paonia CO

2-3 weeks until peach season begins!

Coming Soon (1-3 weeks)

Beans - green, purple and yellow beans

Collards - email me if you want them, we only have a few plants.

More cilantro and dill

Flowers by the bundle, details soon

Basil for pesto (special order $12/lb - wholesale price!)

Pick your own basil - email

3-5 Weeks

Cucumbers, we'll have a ton

Parsley - flat and curly

summer squash - zucchini 

and beyond...

tomatoes, corn, winter squash, eggplant, etc...

Turkey Hill Newsletter - 2009-7

 

Turkey Hill CSA Newsletter - Week 7

Notes From the Farm

I took a few more pictures today that I'll post soon. The garden looks beautiful, with the latest round of tilling and mowing clearing things up quite a bit. The beans are just starting to grow, and are loaded with flowers (soon to be beans). The summer squash is flowering and we'll have zucchini and other summer squash starting next week. Unfortunately, the winter and summer squash took a real beating this year; a cool may/june meant slow seed germination and lots of weed competition, then once we had weeded out the baby squash, the squash bugs and grasshoppers decimated a portion of the crop, leaving about 30-40% of my original planting; although a sad loss for the farm, my ambitious attempt to plant two acres total of winter squash means what are left with should still be a reasonable quantity. If certain varieties are missing, I'll shop around for another farm that might be able to supply it.

Speaking of shopping around, I left a little money in the budget to buy (local, organic) veggies from other growers to help fill in weak areas in our season. One upcoming crop is sweet corn. The last few years we've been able to get famous Olathe Sweet corn - organic - usually starting around the beginning of August; We'll have a bit of our own 'Delectable' sweet corn in September. I'm also hoping to buy some tomatoes from my neighbor Mark at Thistle Whistle Farms - he has thousands of georgous, trellised, earlyish tomatoes; our own tomatoes are still weeks away from ripening.

We hilled up the potatoes for the last time this week and a tiny bit so we can offer you a little it for the box (the rest will come in the last 4-5 weeks of the season). The spring carrots are nearly done, the fall carrots are looking great. The beans are just beginning to be ready, and the summer squash is close. Come visit the farm, and don;t forget about Aug. 22 - keep that date open for our soon to be announced farm day.

 

More Notes:

The flowers are now available; we have bundles of flowers for $10; this week I have beautiful Gladioli that last 2 weeks in water (trim the bottoms every few days); I've also got snapdragons and statice available - let me know what colors you want and we'll put a $10 bundle of fresh flowers aside for you (delivered in your tote or at the farm).

Please send me your questions, let me know what you want to know!

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

This Week's Box

NEW:  Onions, fresh washed spring onions - dried onions to come

NEW:  Potatoes - we dug a little up while hilling the patch so you can try them out. lots more coming towards the END of the season

NEW:  Broccoli, cauliflower red cabbage and 'mini' green cabbages, these are just starting, varieties will vary each week.

Peas - some boxes - finishing up, we'll try for more in the fall.

Artichokes - some of you will get these this week more for everyone soon!

Carrots - end of the spring crop, more coming in a few weeks

Beets - the end of the spring beets.

Chard or kale - bunched - lots more greens

Head Lettuce - frilly red & green types. head lettuce will last a few more weeks

Salad Mix - we'll try to have this mix every week

Garlic - still drying, don't put garlic in a plastic bag or it might mold

Spinach  - the last of spring

NEW:  Herbs - Chives, Thyme, Savory (one of the above)

Peppers - little purple hot peppers are ripening up this week (delivery customers - look in the bottom of the bags)

 

Fruit

Last of the bing cherries from First Fruits, Paonia CO

2-3 weeks until peach season begins!

Coming Soon (1-3 weeks)

Beans - green, purple and yellow beans

Collards - email me if you want them, we only have a few plants.

More cilantro and dill

Flowers by the bundle, details soon

Basil for pesto (special order $12/lb - wholesale price!)

Pick your own basil - email

3-5 Weeks

Cucumbers, we'll have a ton

Parsley - flat and curly

summer squash - zucchini 

and beyond...

tomatoes, corn, winter squash, eggplant, etc...

Turkey Hill Newsletter - 2009-6

 

Turkey Hill CSA Newsletter - Week 6

Notes From the Farm

The farm has been busy with the transition from spring to summer. We are clearing out the old spring beds - spinach, carrots, beets & replanting some with fall onions, beets and more salad. Lots of tilling down weedy old beds, and lots of mowing with the tractor between the bed sections and around the edges of the fields. This a big job on the tractor, but also onvolves taking apart and then re-assembing a bunch of irrigation pipe.  Its all worth it though - besides making things look great, mowing  and tilling weedy areas are critical to controlling pest damage on the farm! The grasshoppers and rabbits love living in the tall grass sections and then chow on crops at the edge of the beds. We've had some damage this year in the carrots and the chard that was pretty bad. fortunately, once the pests habitat is gone they move out to the surrounding fields where the grass is still tall and they can hide from predators.

Speaking of predators, I've spotted the turkeys again recently, i saw a group this morning with four adults and 25 or more babies, of varying sizes. I hope they will start to make their sweeps through the field hunting bugs!

Also this week, the tomatoes in the hoop house got pruned and tied up. The hoophouse tomatoes will be our first of the season, but they are still weeks away. We did start picking artichokes this week - these are small size, thornless chokes called 'Imperial Star'. The first harvest(s) are especially small, but the are great tasting and you can eat nearly the entire choke. There are NO hairs (yet) in the middle, so you can (after cooking well) just hold the leaf tips and eat off the entire bottom. I don't have enough to give everyone a reasonable amount this week, so I'll dole them out to some of you each week over the next few weeks.

The green onions in this week's boxes are the last of our onion seedlings - these are basically baby onions! We'll have more traditional scallions and possibly pearl onions in a few weeks. The main season onions are sizing up nicely, and a bunch of crops are just a few weeks away. Some boxes will also get spinach this week - this is the last of the spring spinach. We are topping the beets this week, they are all large sized and we'll have beets for a week or two more.

 

More Notes:

 

Valentin and Lizzy are here and helping out tremendously already. If you pick up at the farm, please say hello if you see them hanging out in the harvest area. Also, CB/Gunnison delivery people - you'll see Valentin and Lizzy on one of the upcoming delivery - July 26th - he will be interviewing a people for his CSA research - if you are there to meet the truck when we come!

I'll try to snap more pictures in the next week and email them out. The field looks great, everything is growing nicely!

 

 

Questions and Answers

Q: When are we going to get something other than kale, chard, salad and peas?

A: The short and simple answer: in a few weeks! The details - below under coming soon!

Please send me your questions, let me know what you want to know!

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

This Week's Box

NEW: Green Onions

Peas - We haven't had enough to go around - this wasn't the best pea year, of the usual three plantings only one was successful. 

Kohlrabi - if you didn't get it last week

NEW: Artichokes - some of you will get these this week and next week the rest will get them.

Carrots - lots of the red type this week, more to come; the fall crop is also looking great!

Beets - more varieties - cylindrical beets next week - getting sick of the beets already? can a jar or three, you'll thank yourself this winter! also, if you remove the tops from the beets, they will store for many weeks in a bag in the produce bin in your fridge

Chard or kale - bunched - always plenty of greens, look for extras this week, take as much as you want from the 'extras'.

Head Lettuce - intense red romaine,  more types coming

Salad Mix - we'll try to have this mix every week - new patch next week

Garlic - still drying!  

Radishes - One more wave of radishes maturing in the field!

Spinach (this week or next) - the last of spring

 

Fruit

Lambert Cherries from 90 year old Lambert trees - '90 years in the making' -  cherries from First Fruits, Paonia CO

maybe one more week of cherries, then a short gap before peach season begins!

Coming Soon (1-3 weeks)

Onions - spring onions

Potatoes - all irrigated now, as soon as the hilling is done will dig some new potatoes, next 1-2 weeks;

Peppers - little purple hot peppers are ripening up next week

Collards - if i can find them!

More cilantro and dill

Flowers by the bundle, details soon

Basil for pesto (special order)

3-5 Weeks

Beans - green, purple and yellow beans

Cucumbers, we'll have a ton

Broccoli

Cauliflower 

Cabbage

Parsley - flat and curly

summer squash - zucchini 

and beyond...

tomatoes, corn, winter squash, eggplant, etc...

Turkey Hill Newsletter - 2009-5

 

Turkey Hill CSA Newsletter - Week 5

Notes From the Farm

Artichokes - I usually don't mention the artichokes. Although we grow them every year, its a rare year that we have enough of a crop to offer artichokes for sale or for the csa. This year may be one of the years we do have a good crop. If we have them, artichokes will show up in the late season boxes - september.

Basil - We have a beautiful basil crop that will be ready to start picking in just a few weeks. We'll pick some early leaves in the next week or two, then have basil for the rest of the season.

Beans - We grow green, purple and yellow beans. Only one big planting this year, but beans should last a few weeks once we start harvesting them in 3-5 weeks.

Beets - The beets are coming on strong and we will continue to harvest them for several more weeks. If you want to can some beets, now is a great time to order - we can provide medium or large sized, topped beets by the pound, the cylindrical beets are bred to fill your jars!

Broccoli - The broccoli crop looks great. Still no buds, so harvest is at least four weeks off, but we should have a good succession varieties we will be harvesting through the fall.

Cabbage - We'll have mini-sized cabbages in 4-5 weeks, then start harvest on the larger red & green cabbages in September. I haven't found any napa cabbage in the field, these may have been a casualty of early pest damage.

Carrots - we have a few more weeks of the early carrots, then a large and long main season crop that will start a few weeks later.

Cilantro - almost done for the season, we may have this again in the fall

Collards - this or next week

Chard - The rainbow chard is coming on strong and we'll have it through the summer.

Cauliflower - a good looking crop, should be ready in 5-6 weeks.

Chives - I didn't forget about the chives - we'll have these in the next week or two.

Corn - Our 'Delectable' sweet corn always comes in late, but we will try to purchase some Organic Olathe Sweet corn for the boxes when this becomes available in August.

Cucumbers - we have a great stand of cucumbers that are just starting to take off with the warmer weather. The 1st planting was slow to emerge, but the later planting tooks great and  we will have more cucumbers than we know what to do with when harvest peaks in september. We should have enough cucmbers for the boxes by mid august - 5 or 6 more weeks.

Dill - dinally enough dill (weed) to give everyone some this week; we have dill seed later - the seed heads are great for canning!

Eggplant - growing beautifully in the field hoop house, we should have eggplants by late August.

Fennel, bulb - coming in the next few weeks, a delicious, crunchy & unusual vegetable

Flowers - we will have flower bouquets as well as gladioli by the stem available soon. please email if you are interested in flowers.

Herbs - thyme, savory, parsley  & others - coming later in the summer

Hot peppers - we are starting to pick little hot perppers from the hoop house and hope to have some for the boxes in a few weeks.

Kale - all season long!

Kohlrabi - this week

Leeks - a nice planting for fall, end of september.

Lettuce - I know you all have been getting plenty of lettuce, and we will have more for the next 3-4 weeks - and thats all we will have this season for head lettuce.

Melons - melons are a marginal and tempermental crop in the North Fork, and this spring's cool wet weather didn't help at all. There is still a chance that the field melons will recover, but I wouldn;t coun't on a big melon harvest. We do have a few melon plans in the hoop house that look fantastic, so we will have melon at the farm harvest & feast day, coming up august 24th, details below.

Onions - the summer and fall crops are in the ground, not huge, but plenty to add onions to the boxes every week or two starting in 5 or 6 weeks.

Pepers - the peppers in the hoop house look great. the field crop is crowing very slowly, despite being covered with remay for added warmth. we need some warm weather to bring on the peppers, so expect these late this year.

Potatoes - We have a fantastic potato planting this year. It went in early and has been weeded and hilled twice already. We sampled some of the rows last week and the potatoes were fantastic - creamy and delicious, plus already pretty large. We will start picking new potatoes in around 3-4 weeks, and have them on and off through the fall. The big harvest comes at the end, expect lots of potatoes for the last few weeks this year.

Salad Mix - we'll have this all seasomn with a week or two off here and there. Salad is the one thing I am still planting in the field!

Scallions - a nice but smallish planting, we should have scallions in 3 or 4 weeks, they will last just a week or two.

Spinach - the final bed of spinach is still small, it doesn;t like the heat - so depending on the heat we'll either have no more spinach or a couple more weeks.

Squash, Summer - we have some in the hoop house that will start producing in a few weeks, but the main season crop will be later. the first planting was slow to emerge from the cold wet soil, be plenty of the plants look great now. the squash bugs are out in force this year, so we'll have to fight those off to get a strong crop.

Squash, Winter & pumpkins - these were also slow getting started and had to fight the weeds. Still, we have a great looking planting covering two acres, so I expect a good crop of winter squash this fall. We usually start picking the early squash - delecata types & acorns - by mid september. The rest will come during the last two weeks - early October.

Tomatoes - The cool weather hasn't been great for tomatoes - the field planting is in stasis, but the ones we planted in our hoop house look fantastic. We expect to have some tomatoes for the boxes in about 4 weeks. we'll also try to add more tomatoes than we have by buying some from other local organic growers - if we can find them!

 

 

More Notes:

 

We welcome to the farm this week our past intern, french agricultural student Valentin and his girlfriend lizzie who arrive this week to work on the farm for the next two months. We are planning a special day-long farming/learning/eating event with Valentin on Sat. Aug. 22nd. - mark your calendars! You won't want to miss this day long series of events, harvesting and preparing delicious, fresh, french food from the field. Its a great opportunity to come down to visit the farm, and savor some of the delicious food as local as it gets. The day will include farm tours, harvesting & processing classes as well as french cooking classes and delicious meals (we'll cook and then eat brunch and later dinner) - come to all or part of the event. CSA members get a discounted price for any of the paid events (the tours are free) mark your calendar now - August 22nd - I'll forward more details about the event as we finalize them!

A word on the gap between spring and summer crops

As you can tell from the list above, we have PLENTY of produce coming in this season, but we are experiencing an extended lull this season i feel compelled to explain. our early plantings were earlier than ever - almost a month before we usually get seeds in the ground, and the early carrots and beets were weeks ahead of the usual timing. at the same time, our main season direct seeded crops - summer crops like corn, summer & winter squash, cucumbers and others - were very slow to grow in the coolest, wettest may & june in a long, long time. this means we have to wait a bit longer than usual between the early and main season crops. 

 

Questions and Answers

Q: Why is my Basil/Squash/Garlic Etc... Dirty?

A: Certain crops don't get washed here: basil blackens when wet, squash bruises & nicks very easily, and other crops like onions and garlic are dry brushed, but never washed in water - this tends to reduce their storability. Everything else gets a rinse, or double or triple rinse in filtered city water - but we still suggest a final rinse to remove any dirt we miss!

Please send me your questions, let me know what you want to know!

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

This Week's Box

New: Peas - we had a tiny bit last week, a bit more are coming in now and lots more next week - rotating types -  shelling (you shell them), snow (the flat curved type, perfect for stir fry) & sugar snaps - the fat short ones - eat these whole, delicious raw.

New: Kohlrabi - here is a recipe sheet if you want to know what to do with this!

Carrots - lots of the red type this week, more to come; the fall crop is also looking great!

Beets - more varieties - cylindrical beets next week - getting sick of the beets already? can a jar or three, you'll thank yourself this winter! also, if you remove the tops from the beets, they will store for many weeks in a bag in the produce bin in your fridge

Chard or kale - bunched - always plenty of greens, look for extras this week, take as much as you want from the 'extras'.

Head Lettuce - green romaine, red romaine, more types coming

Salad Mix - we'll try to have this mix every week

Garlic - still drying! We picked ALL the garlic this week & will have fully cured, dried garlic in a few weeks. i'm going to give you a little bit of this not quite dry garlic so you have something to cook with until the garlic is really ready.

Herbs - lots of herbs this week - Dill bunches and a bit of basil & chives for some boxes (everyone will get some soon)

 

Fruit

cherries 'Summerset Bing' (red) and 'Rainier' (yellow) cherries from First Fruits, Paonia CO

just one more week of cherries, then a short gap before peach season begins!

Coming Soon (1-3 weeks)

head lettuce, more varieties

rainbow swiss chard, bunched

kohlrabi

Upcoming

chives

peas - sugar snaps, shelling

scallions

June 2009 Farm Photos

Turkey Hill Newsletter - 2009-4

 

Turkey Hill CSA Newsletter - Week 4

Notes From the Farm

I took some pictures this week - things are looking great. I haven;t had time to add captions and arrange the photos, but i'll get to that soon and email you again. In the last week or so we did a tremendous amount of weeding, plus managed to plant fall onions and broccoli/caulifplower. That means that, other than salad mix, we are done seeding for the year! 

The peas have started to come in and will have some for the boxes this week (full size only), we'll have more in the next two weeks. The beets continue strongly and the carrots are sizing up. We will have more carrots in the next few weeks. The garlic is sizing up and finishing off, we'll pick it next week and let it dry out for a couple of weeks before putting in the boxes. Next week we'll have kohlrabi, an unusual vegetable i'll tell you more about next week... new varieties of lettuce this week include the green butter coming on strong and some green romaine.

More Notes:

 

Meet the truck -  I did the delivery last Sunday and it was fun to meet many of you. I want to encourage you all to come meet the truck: 11 am in Gunnison, 12-12:30 in crested butte. Your produce will be the freshest right when we arrive, and we can take your empty tote. Our timing is usually pretty close, so please come and try to meet the truck!

Your Balance -  I'm emailing out invoices today with your account balance. please pay in full, or at least half by the end of July. All accounts must be paid in full by the end of August, so if you still have a balance then I'll send you another Invoice. With all the expenses of spring and early summer, we really appreciate your prompt payment

The box size -

The boxes may seem a little slimmer for the next few weeks as we shift from spring to summer for the next week or two, please be patient. the box value as based on farm prices has actually been pretty high for this early in the season. Perusing the local farmers market in Crested Butte I saw lots of nice local produce, but putting together a box like ours for the same price would be difficult. The price or value we calculate our boxes with is much lower than the farmers market prices i saw!

Kale Recipies - 

I got a couple in the email this week, thank you so much for sharing. send me more and i will email them to the group! 

here they are:

 

From Betty Bradley
 
3/4 lb Kale (I used my whole bunch) remove ribs and stems
3 garlic cloves, peeled
3/4 c. basil leaves (or a combination of basil and cilantro)
1 lemon or lime, juiced
2 Tb. olive oil, light
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
another 1/2 cup of olive oil
1/2 cup fresh parmesan cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts
 
Wash and stem the kale.  Leaving water on leaves from washing, coarsely chop kale.  Place in a large microwavable bowl and cover.  Microcook on high (100%) for 4 or 5 minutes, stir, rotate, cook another 4 or 5 minutes.  Let stand 3 to 5 minutes.  Remove cover to cool.
 
Drop garlic into the bowl of a food processor with the motor running.  When finely minced, add the basil, cilantro and cooked kale.  Process until uniform.
 
Add juice, 2 Tbsp. olive oil, salt and pepper.  Pulse to combine.  At this point you can freeze and later add to soups and stews.  If you want to eat as a "dip" or toss with pasta you will add the other 1/2 cup olive oil, nuts and cheese.  Pulse these until you have a consistency of a spread.
 
Enjoy!  I think it is even better than pesto made with just basil.

From Natalie Ehmsen

adapted from a Southern Living receipe from 2003.  Enjoy!  -Natalie

Pasta with Sausage and Kale

Ingredients

• lg bunch of kale or chard
• 1  (12-ounce) package bowtie pasta
• 3/4  pound  hot Italian sausage
• 1  medium onion, chopped
• 4  garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4  cup  balsamic vinegar
• 1  (14 1/2-ounce) can chicken broth
• 4  fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced
• 1  tablespoon  chopped fresh or 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4  teaspoon  pepper
• 1/8  teaspoon  salt
• 3  tablespoons  pine nuts, toasted
• 6  ounces  crumbled feta cheese

Preparation

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain and set aside.

Remove and discard casings from sausage. Cook sausage in a Dutch oven over medium heat, stirring until it crumbles and is no longer pink; drain.

Add onion to sausage in Dutch oven, and sauté 5 minutes. Add garlic, and sauté 1 minute. Add vinegar, and cook 3 minutes. Add chicken broth and kale/chard; cook 5 minutes, or until wilted. Stir in basil and next 3 ingredients; cook 1 minute. Stir in pine nuts, pasta, and feta cheese; cook until thoroughly heated. Serve immediately.

Questions and Answers

Please send me your questions, let me know what you want to know!

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

This Week's Box

Carrots - baby sized - more to come

Beets - more varieties

Chard or kale - bunched

Head Lettuce - green leaf, green butter, red butter - extra for full

Salad Mix - we'll try to have this mix every week

Spinach - bunches, still super sweet -  ending

Peas - some boxes (full?)

Fruit

NEW: cherries 'Bing' (red) and 'Queen Anne' (yellow) cherries from First Fruits, Paonia CO

Coming Soon (1-3 weeks)

head lettuce, more varieties

rainbow swiss chard, bunched

kohlrabi

Upcoming

chives

peas - sugar snaps, shelling

scallions