Turkey Hill Newsletter, March 2009

Spring is a lovely time on the farm! The air is crisp and cool, and the days are warm. Spring winds have been whipping up, and today a new storm is bringing snow to the mountains.

In the field work progresses preparing for the season. The moisture was good, so I was able to disc the entire field. I planted a variety of cover crops on around four acres - mustards, vetch & other green manure mixes. Some of these will get tilled in late spring for planting, others will stay in cover crop all season, getting mowed so they won't go to seed. We'll till these in next spring. Cover crops help build soil, adding organic matter and sometimes fixing nitrogen. In our climate, its a bit difficult to get a cover crop in because the season is quick! fortunately our field is expansive enough that we can devote a part of the field to cover crop while the veggies get planted in other sections.

This week we nearly completed the hoop house setup project. Our 200' x 20' hoop house has been in use for six years, but last year we took it apart to relocate it and never managed to finish putting it back together. This year we got an early start and the hoop house is nearly ready for planting. It will still be a few weeks before we can really get crops planted in there, but its great to have it ready to go! The hoop house adds night time heat that brings crops in weeks ahead of outdoor planting. This means a wider variety of crops early in the season.

We've already begun our early plantings in the greenhouse. I'm frequently asked about why we start certain crops in the greenhouse and some directly in the field. There are a variety of reasons, here are a few. Earliness - many crops need a jump start on the season to reach maturity in one summer in our climate - Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and some herbs and flowers. Taproots - root crops don't transplant well and do best when grown from seed in the field: carrots, beets, radish. Expense - some seeds we use are very expensive (for example orange cauliflower 'cheddar' costs around five cents per seed! planting in the field requires that we drill a line of plants, then thin to the proper spacing, wasting lots of seeds along the way. Starting seeds in the greenhouse insures that nearly every seed winds up reaching maturity.

Spring is a great time to visit the farm! We love having visitors, especially CSA members. Plan a visit this spring to see what's going on up here. We'll walk the fields, tour the greenhouse and  answer any questions. Just call ahead to let us know you are coming. If you would like to come the farm for a few hours of work, plan on later in the spring when we need more help weeding - usually after mid may.

Until next time...

Turkey Hill CSA Spring 2009

A little bit of snow is rolling into the valley today, so winter is still here, but the last week of sunny, warm weather got the farm thawing out. Spring is right around the corner and projects are sprouting like weeds. Several tractor implements need work, and we're building a new chicken coop down at the farm this spring. We're re-locating the hoop house which was unused last year, and doing all the usual spring tasks: clearing rocks, spreading manure, discing, spading, planting cover crops.

This year the hoop house will get planted with an assortment of early favorites for the CSA:
tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash as well as a few peppers, eggplants and melons. This should help insure a good supply of early crops. This year we are continuing to focus on the CSA and providing the best supply of veggies. We are extending our season by starting CSA harvest two weeks earlier, and collaborating with a few other local organic/natural producers to fill in possible weak areas.

Another reason we are able to extend our season this year is that for the first time we are going to have early water. Usually our irrigation season begins April 15th, when Fire Mountain Canal is turned on, and we can't count on rain to keep early plantings wet, severely limiting what we can plant early.

This year our neighbor developed his very old water right that provides a huge amount of spring runoff water from Jay Creek. He reestablished the old ditch a few years ago, and this winter he buried a 15" pipe nearly one mile from his property up the his diversion out of the creek. Before installing the pipe, most of his water seeped, overflowed or evaporated before reaching his property, now he'll actually get all his water. This ditch and now pipe also flow directly across our farm property directly beside our large irrigation pond and the new pipes will fill the pond soon after the snow begins to melt. This means we'll be planting early peas, lettuce, spinach, scallions, kale, chois and more some 4-6 weeks earlier than we usually do. I'm pretty excited about the prospect of starting harvest earlier than usual.

If you are interested in joining the CSA this year, we are now offering memberships. The 2009 sign up for is available at the website (turkeyhillcsa.com) and includes all the details, including slightly updated prices. Other than the earlier start and longer harvest season, a few other changes are in store. This year we are offering half share members a new half fruit share. Also new this year we are using re-usable plastic totes for our delivery customers, a $35 refundable deposit is required for two totes. Farm pickup customers can purchase totes if they want to use them or just bring their own containers.

Happy spring, please call if you have any questions.

Turkey Hill CSA Newsletter - 2008,

Last of the Season

Farm Survey

We want to hear from you! please email or call with your comments, or take a few minutes and complete our quick and easy 10 question online survey.

On the farm

We have two  weeks of CSA left.  The last pickup at the farm will be Fri. Oct. 10th. The last delivery to Crested Butte will be Sunday, October 12th.

This week we picked the ornamental corn (we'll process it for you by next week), the leeks, and more broccoli and cauliflower and kale.  Amazingly it still hasn't frozen and some of the tomato plants have decided to make ripe tomatoes. I'll dole those out as I can.

We picked the last of the cabbage this week, you'll all get that one more time. We are leaving the last of the carrots for next week - expect some huge storage carrots in the final box.

Cucumbers and squash are done, and we are still letting the butternut and other winter squash ripen, with no freeze to kick them into ripening they are just growing and mostly sitting there. I did pick some acorn squash this week, but it and all the other winter squash deserve a little ripening before you eat them. let the acorn, delacata and next weeks winter squash sit on a kitchen or cupboard for at least a week before you eat them!

We keep digging onions, as they size up, and we dug ALL the potatoes (there weren't that many unfortunately, it wasn't a great crop this year. You should get potatoes in the last two boxes, and plenty of onions.

This week's box (probable box)

Broccoli - still coming,
Cauliflower - orange ('cheddar') or purple ('graffiti') - still a bit more
Kale - chard is nearly spent!
Carrots - still more
Onions -  white, yellow & red onions
Garlic - keep saving this up!
Cabbage - green, red & savoy
Sweet Corn - Delectable bi-color, the peak for our corn - chop the end 1" off before shucking if you feel a wormy tip.


Fruit Share
 
Apples - Galas
Pears - Red Bartlett
 
This is the last week on fruit, hope you enjoyed the Santa Rosa plums from Ela Family Orchards last week, what a treat!
 

Turkey Hill CSA Newsletter - 2008, Week 12+

On the farm

This week marks the slow wind down of the farm. I'm getting this out late again, and my remaining newsletters will be sporadic as we wind down the season.

We have just a few more weeks of CSA left, I wanted to tell you what to expect for the rest of season. The last pickup at the farm will be Fri. Oct. 10th. The last delivery to Crested Butte will be Sunday, October 12th.

Next week we'll take a salad break, but we should have greens again for a few more weeks after that. The broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower should last a few more weeks (we'll give you a break on the cabbage this week!), as well as the kale (unless we get a fall aphid infestation which we sometimes see in). We'll have chard one or two more times and its done!

Carrots are still coming in and we have a few more weeks to go before they run out. Carrots store very well, so (take the tops off and) pack them in a bag in your produce bin to keep them from drying out and they should last a while.

I hope you enjoyed the corn, if all goes well we will have the bi-color one more week, then switch to a later white variety. We also have some ornamental corn as well as gourds you may see in the last few boxes.

Cucumbers and squash are starting to show signs of decline, and will stop in their tracks at the first freeze which could be any moment now. Winter squash on the other hand will get picked the moment it freezes (or in early october if it still hasn't frozen): we'll have a good supply of acorn and delacata squash, and pumpkins. Not sure about butternut, spaghetti, hubbard, buttercup or other types yet - depends on the exact freeze date.

I have some peppers coming in, but tomatoes are still in short supply. I tried to buy them from a neighbor who grows a lot, but his just aren't ripening up for him. Next year I'm planning to work in more of a budget for buying crops from other growers, this helps support other growers, helps assure a more reliable harvest for the CSA members and makes our load a little less. For now hit your local farmers market or stand and snatch up a bunch of tomatoes before they are gone!

We'll have a steady supply of onions: reds store really well, yellows, whites (also storage, coming later), also shallots and leeks for the last few weeks. The shallots have a fine, sweet flavor that is fantastic - they look more like a garlic bulb if they bulb out properly. We grow ours from seed each year, and they take a long time to mature, so I'm waiting until the very end to pick them. We also have more garlic to keep lining the boxes: it was a good crop this year. I'm guessing you have some stocked up by now, but let us know soon if you want more onions, garlic, extra winter squash etc (for purchase at a reasonable price) for storage.

We'll dig the potatoes in a few weeks and there should be enough to give everyone some, perhaps a good bit, but the early harvest survey was a bit disappointing. The potatoes were in the furthest field this year, an area previously used as a corral and the rockiest section of the farm. they struggled mightily out there against the encroaching grasshoppers - one the outside row was leaf chewed almost entirely. so we won't have much extra, but the potatoes we do have should be great.

On the fruit front we should have plums this coming week, as well as different apple varieties: honey crisp, galas, akame, golden and red delicious etc. apples store very well, so just pack them in your fridge if you get too many.

I hope you have all enjoyed the season. I'll be emailing out a short (10 question) survey you can fill out online sometime in the next week. please help us by filling this out, or feel free to call or email your comments. We are already thinking about next year, so this is a great time to give us your input. you can also call or email your comments.

This week's box (probable box)

Salad Mix - last of the mid-season crop, more in 1-2 weeks!
Broccoli - still coming, side
Cauliflower - white, orange ('cheddar') or purple ('grafitti') - still a bit more
Kale - chard is nearly spent!
Summer Squash - Zucchini & Patty pan - slowing down
Cucumbers - slowing down
Carrots - still more
Basil - a plant  - keep it alive - cut back and put in a pot, or just use all the leaves.
Onions -  more yellow & red onions
Garlic - keep saving this up!
Cabbage - green, red & savoy
Sweet Corn - Delectable bi-color, the peak for our corn - chop the end 1" off before shucking if you feel a wormy tip.

Crested Butte: look for extra boxes! some 1/2 shares got 2 boxes this week, and squash & basil were outside the boxes. please pick up on time, and look around for boxes that contain extra veggies or veggies for you to take.


Fruit Share
 
Peaches -   from First Fruits Paonia & delicious orchards
White Peaches - from Paonia, unusual flavor and color.

Early Akame apples, from First Fruits Paonia
Green Bartlett Pears, from First Fruits Paonia

Peaches end soon, more apples & pear varieties over the remaining weeks. Hope to get some plums next week.

Call or email to special order fruit for canning or freezing.
 

Turkey Hill CSA Newsletter - 2008, Week 11

On the farm

This week, fall has really set in. The early mornings when I get out to the field are cold! A few mornings have even felt like frost, but its not that cold here yet. The harvest is clearly slowing as the cold and shorter days approach.

We picked a huge haul of cauliflower and cabbage this week. everyone should get a red or crinkly green cabbage this week, and a couple/few heads of cauliflower. The broccoli has diminished a bit, but should keep producing for a few more weeks.

The cucumbers are slowing down a bit, and the squash can't be farm behind - these crops sense the cold and just stop growing. The tomatoes and peppers are showing some signs of ripening, if the fall lasts a bit longer i'll have some for the boxes.

The sweet corn is just starting. we are including a few ears in this week's box, but next week we'll really pick the corn and you will get more - it just isn't quite ready. I think you will taste the difference when you get the corn next week. We should have corn for at least a few weeks.

We tried to start picking the potatoes this week, but the size is still a bit small. I got enough for everyone to have some this week, but I'm going to give the plants a few weeks or a month to size up before I really harvest the beds.

The onions are really sizing up now! Don't worry if you can't eat all the onions we will be putting in the box for the next six weeks - just put them in a cool dark place and they will store for a long time. Use the yellow onions first, the red and white onions last longer in storage.

The chard is finally slowing down and this may be the last week, the kale still looks great so we should be able to harvest kale for a bit longer.

The carrots are really producing now, but we may take a break on harvesting them to let the longer ones size up. If you can't eat them all, just top them and store ina bag in the fridge. From time to time you may want to rinse them, but they should last for quite a while in the produce bin.

The winter squash is sizing up nicely, with a good crop of delacatas and acorns (the earliest) already ripened. We need a few more weeks of frost free weather to get a good crop of the rest.

This week's box (probable box)

Salad Mix - yum!
Broccoli - still coming
Cauliflower - white, orange ('cheddar') or purple ('grafitti') -
Chard or Kale
Summer Squash - Zucchini & Patty pan - lots
Cucumbers
Carrots - they just keep coming
Basil - use fresh or dry it
Onions - reds this week
Garlic - keep saving this up!
Cabbage - red & savoy
Sweet Corn - Delectable bicolor, chop the end 1" off before shucking if you feel a wormy tip.


Fruit Share

Peaches - Delicious peaches, from First Fruits Paonia
Early Akame apples, from First Fruits Paonia
Green Bartlett Pears, from First Fruits Paonia

Peaches end soon, more apples & pears over the remaining weeks. Hope to get some plums next week.

Note: I hope you enjoyed the nectarines for the last two weeks. The flavor was really good, but they were a bit ugly - they were 2nds - sorry about the appearance of the fruit - small sizes, marked up - the 1sts were in very limited supply.

Turkey Hill CSA Newsletter - 2008, Week 10

On the farm

I'm getting this newsletter out a little late this week. Things are shifting to fall on the farm and I can't seem to catch up with everything!

Oh the cauliflower - this week we picked the 1st fluch of yellow (cheddar), purple (graffiti) and white. I thing everyone got some of the cheddar, more of the purple and white to come in the next few weeks.

The corn looks fantastic, fully tassled, big beautiful ears just aren't quite ready. I'm giving them one last watering and they will be sweet and ready some time next week. After that, we'll have a few (3-4) solid weeks of corn.

The tomatoes are slowly starting to ripen, and i may have some for you from the farm by next week or the week after. The peppers started getting picked this week - tey are just starting to come in. Summer squash is peaking, and the squash bugs are making headway in some of the squash beds. Miraculously, on of the squash beds remains squash bug free! Its making big, beautiful green zucchinis.

The ditch has come back and we are watering like mad. A few more weeks until fall sets in for real, but the mornings and evenings are already cool.

Crested Butte share - note that I forgot to bring the extras last week, sorry there was no kale or chard, it was with the extras. I will send extras with the delivery this week.

Tomatoes last week from a nearby farm, ours are slowly ripening.

A quick note on all the plastic bags in the CB boxes - we bag everything to keep it fresh (produce must stay moist and cold), but we can't reuse the ones you send back - please reuse them in your own house or community.

This week's box (probable box)

Salad Mix - the new bed is coming in, tender salad continues!
Broccoli - tons coming in now
Cauliflower - white, orange ('cheddar') or purple ('grafitti') - more to come
Chard or Kale - now in the extras area
Summer Squash - Zucchini & Patty pan
Cucumbers - really coming in now
Carrots - they just keep coming
Chives
Onions - yellows this week, reds next week
Garlic - keep saving this up!
Cabbage - green (red coming soon)


Fruit Share

Peaches
Apricots

Turkey Hill CSA Newsletter - 2008, Week 9

On the farm

Fall has arrived on the farm early this year. The mornings are cool, even cold, but it heats up quickly. The crops are ripening at a steady pace and i've begun my cleanup rounds, tilling or mowing down old beds that are weedy and threaten to spread weed seeds that will cost us next year (and for years beyond).

A few weeks ago I took a little photo shoot walk and took some shots of the maturing field from the ditch - follow this link to view the slide show, complete with captions.

Our intern Valentin is gone, returned to his family in France. A couple more weeks of summer and he is back to school. We already miss him and send him fond wishes, someday Valentin plans to run a CSA (and more) in France.

The canal is off again! We got a good week of watering in and mostly refilled the pond, but a leak below the recent break site forced the ditch company to shut the ditch off again. This canal irrigates 40,000 acres in the North Fork Valley, so a lot of farmers are upset by the outages. I feel fortunate we have the pond and can still irrigate enough to keep the crops from stressing from the lack of water. more info at www.firemountaincanal.com.

Don't miss your chance to visit the farm - the fields are at perhaps their peask of beaty. If you are a farm pickup shareholder, take the time to go for a walk - straight out to the fields, just keep walking and walking until to the potatoes or get tired. If you are a Crested Butte pickup shareholder, please plan a trip over in the next few weeks to visit the farm. Once we get our first fall freeze there is a lot less to see. If you haven't made it over by the end of September, consider coming for the super fun Mountain Harvest Festival - Sept. 26,27,28 - this weekend long event in Paonia (just 10 miles from us) is a blast: check out the details of this year's event: mountainharvestfestival.com. Please call to let us know you are coming and we will plan to give you a tour.

With the coming of week 9 we are more than half way thru the summer harvest season (8 more weeks if we go to the usual 17). Please email me with your comments: how is it going? are you sick of chard or beans? are you dying for a melon or tomato (notes below)? let me know!

The lost vegetables: One more word on what is still to come: The tomatoes are still struggling along, with some fruit set, but not much ripening. If we have a late season, some should ripen, but an early freeze would erase the crop. We are planning to cover these and a few other crops with row cover which affords them a few degrees of protection, and helps keep them warmer for fruit ripening. Peppers and eggplant are similarly just beginning to set fruit, so the harvest depends on the weather at this point. I do hope to purchase some tomatoes and peppers from other local organic/natural growers for the boxes. Please visit your local farm stand or market to fill your tomatoe cravings!

The sweet corn looks fantastic: the early variety should begin to ripen next week - look for an abundance of corn for the next few weeks as we harvest the different varieties. The onions are finally sizing up - look for some nice yellow onions for the next few weeks (sweet walla wallas), then white and red onions for the last month of the CSA season. Some recent scouting in the onion beds revealed a nice stand of shallots that will be ready in another month, and more leeks that will be ready at the end of the year.

The potatoes have been quitly growing away in the furthest field... They are so far away that I almost never get out to visit them, but they are looking good. I plan to start digging up the first bed to give you a new potatoe sampling within the next week or two. The real potatoe harvest is still a few weeks off.

The melons actually look great, but will never make it to ripening without a long fall - which is still possible. even if i cover the plants with row cover they will stop crowing if the weather turns cold. Watch this space for updates.

The winter squash and pumpkins look great and are finally setting fruit. These are still a month off and will round out the final boxes. The cauliflower is looking great, but just starting to be ready.

Did I miss anything? Is there something you wamnt to have that we haven't included?

Don't forget flowers! beautiful glads and sunflowers still available, a real deal at 6 for $10. call or email your order.

Important Crested Butte pickup note:
Certain items may begin to appear outside your box - this week the summer squash and cucumbers will be outside the box for example- one reason is that we pack the boxes friday, but pick more squash saturday, another is the boxes are crammed and some items won't fit, a final reason is that some items don't like being stored in our coolers inside the box - they prefer a warmer storage temperature!

Look for the ALL SHAREHOLDERS box(es): When you pick up, look for a box or boxes labeled 'ALL SHAREHOLDERS' -then take what the label says: for example it might read Cucumers, Half - 1, Full - 2. This means half shares take 1 cucumber, full shares take 2.

This week's box (probable box)

Salad Mix - the new bed is coming in, salad continues!
Broccoli - tons coming in now, lots for full shares
Chard or Kale - now in the extras area
Summer Squash & Patty pan
Cucumbers - really coming in now
Carrots
Parsley
Onions
Squash
Beans
Garlic - keep saving this up!


Fruit Share
We are excied to finally get some great PAONIA peaches from First Fruits, check these out. Also this week, the first of the nectarines which should last around two weeks. Apples, plums & pears soon.

Coming Soon
I think I covered everything above. As we head into fall, the rest of the crops you haven't had yet will be coming in. Stock up by ordering case quantities and spending a little time in the kitchen. Freezing or canning some of the summers bounty is a great way to extend the season!