Colvin Family Farm

We had 40 folks out to the farm yesterday for our first CSA shareholder day ever--we did have a list of activities planned, but we spent so much time touring the main field that we didn't have time for the games! Mom did teach interested folks how to do their own sprouts, do a simple stir fry, and how to garden using the simple Square Foot Method that we've used for many years now.
Little kids pulled/ate baby carrots, "picked" (normally known as "gathered") fresh eggs, petted chickens, and just ran around the farm enjoying themselves--adults walked around the farm tasting Kohlrabi, fresh Carrots, Fennel and Dill while picking or packing produce into bags, baskets, buckets, pockets and even hats!
We did try to spend one on one time with everybody answering questions, and just in general showing everybody what our farm is, how it works, and why!
Feedback would be appreciated as we would like to hear what you really liked/might not have liked about the day--what do you think would have made it better etc...anything we hear from you will make next day better for you and any others that come!

I really appreciate everybody coming out, and hope that you had as much fun as I did!

Looking forward to the September Field Day!

Adam Colvin
www.ColvinFamilyFarm.com

Week #9 At Colvin Family Farm



We had a lot of work to try and catch up from last week (the family was gone on vacation) and also to get ready for the Shareholder day! In this picture Dad is using the wheel hoe to clean out a path while little Levi is "helping" with his little hoe.



It's rained off and on pretty much every day over the past week--making for another interesting challenge for catching up with the farm work!



This is a shot of the "current" section of field that is coming on--from the far right you can see several beds of Broccoli/Cabbage, there is also Arugula, Green Onions, Red Mustard, Lettuce, Spinach, Carrots and Radishes visible.



This is a view of the onion patch--it is almost time to harvest the crop--the tops are dieing back, and the bulbs have pretty much reached the size they will stay at.



This is a closeup of how the paper mulch that we used this year has decomposed--we actually had to run through them twice to clean weeds out of them. Next year we think we will try some white plastic to see if that will do a better job of weed control for us.



We also grew Red Onions on paper!



And our leeks are coming right along! We look forward to these coming in--Potato Leek soup!



This is a picture of one of our garlic beds...



...This is a freshly pulled Garlic bulb...


...and here it is laying cleaned on the straw mulch, and in the bed it was harvested from (forgive me for all of the garlic pictures, but it is a new crop for us, and we really have had fun growing it!)



Just one last picture of garlic--this picture was taken when a bunch of it had been cleaned and dumped into a tub--look for fresh garlic in your share tomorrow!



Napa Cabbage--Large shares will have this chinese cabbage this week--it is great sauteed, in stir fries, Kimchi, Sauerkraut, steamed, or in Broccoliws!



We also have broccoli! We are a little disappointed in the variety that we grew this year--it is a fast grower as advertised, but it's heads dispersed pretty quickly in the heat instead of being nice pretty little tight balls of buds.



This flower isn't called "Buterfly Weed" for nothing! this is one of my favorite wildflowers, and I don't even like orange! There's just something about the way that the deep green leaves go with the rich orange--it's pretty!



Another butterfly on some more butterfly weed--but this picture also shows white Yarrow (up front) and wild daisies (in the background)--it is really amazing how many different wildflowers bloom around here!



Like I said--they don't call it Butterflyweed for nothing!



This shot shows some of our new Brussels Sprouts seedlings--we have always had our Brussels Sprouts come in late, so we thought that we'd start them earlier just for an experiment!

CSA Farm Knoxville, CSA Share Knoxville,