06 Oct Thu 2011
What a wonderful week. Greens are finally here!!!
Greetings shareholders,
This Saturday, we'll have tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, potatoes, onions, radishes, another spaghetti squash, butternut squash, parsley and cilantro, kale and collards, arugula, edamames, beet tops and/or swiss chard, and several kinds of braising / stir fry greens, including a couple of kinds of bok choi, yukina tatsoi (dark green, mild flavor, you loved it last fall), purple and green mustards, Asian mustards like Ho Mi Z, and baby Red Russian kale. The lettuce is still a little too small to cut, but I'll bet we'll have it next week, along with daikon radishes.
Remember that Saturday pickup times are 10:00 until 2:00. If it's absolutely impossible for you to make it during those times, let me know in advance and maybe we can figure something out to make sure you get your vegetables this week. Better yet, bribe one of you neighbors to come for you in exchange for something leafy and green.
I can't believe we have edamames in October!!!! Incredible good luck. Not so much luck on the tomatoes. They just refuse to ripen, and the little frost last weekend made about 10 million of them fall on the ground. Unfortunately, nobody offered me a dollar for every green tomato out here, so I guess I'll be farming again next year.
Not sure about the quality of the butternuts this week. I haven't tried one yet. I think they could ripen considerably more, so eat other things this week and let those squash sit around and get sweeter a while longer. The squash must have taken ripening advice from the tomatoes.
The sweet peppers are SOOOO beautiful. I sure didn't expect them to turn out so nicely this fall. Remember back in July when they had so much mold on them that they looked like snowballs? Somehow, they hung on through it. I think the best thing for this farm was the inch and a half of rain that we got over Labor Day weekend. It sure pulled victory from the jaws of death!!
Of course, we could use some rain any time now to keep the leafy things in good condition. I'm beginning to tire of irrigating. The sunny dry weather really made things grow this week and also made my farmer neighbors who are combining soybeans and corn very, very happy. Made me so happy that my hair curled!
My friend from McGregor, Dan Specht, now has grass-fed beef available for sale in halves and quarters. He brought some hamburger to the field day in August and it was marvelous. Here's what one shareholder from Abbe Hills has to say about it. "We purchased 1/4 share of a grass-fed cow from Dan Specht earlier this summer. The beef was outstanding. It makes fabulous hamburgers and we have had many delicious stews using the beef bones. Best of all, I know when I am feeding my children they are getting NO artificial growth hormones, NO pesticides, NO herbicides, and NO antibiotics from cow feed. It does NOT come in a grocery store package that says "injected with a 12% solution" and you have to WONDER just what is in the solution. We loved the beef so much we just ordered our next 1/4 cow. Looking forward to more of the best beef around. Yours in healthy eating, Kelly Schoen". If you want to learn more about his prices and how to buy meat directly from a farmer, contact Dan. His contact info is Dan Specht, 12082 Iris Ave., McGregor IA 52157, 563-873-3873, 563 516-1007 cell, danspech@neitel.net.
This Saturday is the Tour de Coop in Cedar Rapids. It's a chicken house tour! Sounds like fun, and if you're interested in having your own laying flock, in town or outside, it might give you some inspiration.
Finally, here's a wonderful 4-minute video by Sesame Street about child hunger in the US. This is the time of year when we think most about hunger. This Sunday is the Mt. Vernon / Lisbon CropWalk. Next week will be the celebration of the World Food Prize, and next Sunday, October 16, is World Food Day.
See you Saturday,
Laura
Laura_1
08:41 AM CDT
28 Sep Wed 2011
still waiting for the sun
Greetings shareholders,
This Saturday, we'll have tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, radishes, arugula and other spicy greens for salad, little head lettuces, kale and collards, parsley, cilantro, eggplant, and spaghetti squash. Pickup time is 10:00 until 2:00.
Well, I'm losing confidence in my buddy Schnackenberg. He promised - finally - a nice warm week this week, but instead I think we've had some combination of cloudy and/or drizzle and/or cold pretty much continuously since the last time I saw you. Altogether, it's amounted to about 1/2 inch of rain, which we needed, but we need normal temperatures more. Sun and warm would ripen the tomatoes, grow the lettuce, and dry down the corn and soybeans. Nothing we can do to make it get here any faster. But it's still aggravating.
We've got lots of ripe sweet peppers and hot peppers, fabulously happy parsley, but not so many tomatoes or good sized eggplants. The lettuces this week will come from the hoophouse of my friend Susan at Local Harvest CSA in Solon. The hoophouse has kept things a little warmer so her lettuce has jumped ahead of what I am growing for you in the field. We've got small greens that you can mix with the lettuce to make spicy salads. I'll make a sign to let you know exactly which greens are in the mix. Not sure right now which ones we will cut. It depends on who grows the most between now and Saturday morning. I also might be able to cut some beet greens for you this weekend if they grow just a little bit more in the next day or two.
We're going to cut the spaghetti squash on Friday. I'm not convinced that it is fully ripe, but it's at risk of being damaged if it sits in the field too much longer. I'd recommend keeping it for a couple of weeks to let it sweeten up some more. Unless you see a ding on the skin, then eat it. Spaghettis don't store well if they are damaged. There aren't going to be the mountains of squash like we've had in the past. I had trouble with everything in that plant family this year, something you've already figured out weeks ago. Who ever heard of a summer without zucchini? Or a fall without watermelons? I'm fairly embarrassed by this big hole in our production this year, but haven't been able to solve it. Wait until next year. I'm going to knock you over with zukes and squash.
There was a little miscommunication in the household involved in the cornmeal grinding operation (like that ever happens). One person thought there was time for another batch; the other person was wiping down the machine and putting it away. So, sorry, no cornmeal this year. They'll notify us sooner next year. They're going to love us - there were a lot of you who wanted to get some.
Don't forget about the Mt Vernon/ Lisbon CropWalk on Oct 9. I'll leave my donation envelope on the sign-in table, in case you want to contribute. Much of your donation will support our local food pantry, and the rest supports the work of Church World Service, a very well regarded development agency.
If you want to take a field trip to see the fall gardens, please feel welcome to walk up to the fields behind my house. The fall crops are always so beautiful. A little shrimpy right now, but still pretty. The hens are up there, too. Just follow the driveway and the trail around the house; you'll figure it out when you get there. Remember that you are always welcome to see what's going on around here.
See you Saturday,
Laura
Laura_1
10:01 PM CDT
18 Sep Sun 2011
we need some sun and warm. schedule changes next week
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we will have potatoes, onions, garlic for the last time, tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, kale and collards, green beans, and parsley. The last planting of summer squash made it through the frost last week, so it's possible that the Thursday people will get some squash. Monday people will get some small cucumbers left from last week.
We need some rain and some sunshine and some heat. It's too cold, and we've only managed to get about two tenths of an inch of rain from a week of dreary weather. We're still irrigating the fall crops nonstop. They, and everyone else in the garden, will benefit a lot from a week of normal temperatures. If we get enough heat, I think we'll have more edamames next time, possibly okra. Cilantro will be big enough to cut next week. Hopefully, the wonderful greens I'm growing for you for fall will have a giant growth spurt, too. They really really really need it!
I wish I had a dollar for every fat green tomato that is sitting in the garden. I'd quit farming and live off the interest. The frost didn't hurt the tomatoes or peppers much. Heat will help them ripen and change color. Tomatoes this week will likely be skimpy since I picked every single one that had any red on it on Wednesday last week, getting ready for the frost. But I'm quite sure there will be lots more next week.
The green beans continue to live and make beans. Unbelievable. They are getting a little fatter and a little tougher, but they taste marvelous (because of the cool nights), so we're going to keep picking them. Cook them a little longer to soften them up. Should have beans for another week from this crop. And I've got 14 (AGHHH) rows of late planted beans that might make a crop (once again, if they can get some warm weather!) before frost finishes them off.
IMPORTANT REMINDER: Hope you are still reading. This is week 16 and the LAST WEEK FOR PICKUP ON MONDAY AND THURSDAY AFTERNOONS. Pick up on your normal night this week, but for the next four weeks after that, EVERYBODY PICKS UP ON SATURDAYS, 10:00 UNTIL 2:00. So, the final five pickups of the season are September 19/22 (4:30 until 7:00), October 1 (10:00 until 2:00), Oct 8 (10:00 until 2:00), Oct 15 (10:00 until 2:00), and Oct 22 (10:00 until 2:00). Please put these dates on your calendar.
Three more things:
This Saturday, September 24, is the Moving Planet Bike Ride Cedar Rapids. It's part of a global event to demand action from world leaders to get moving on climate change. I've farmed for 23 years, and every year, the weather is more unpredictable and problematic. You know - you read about it every week in this newsletter and you experience the consequences when you carry your vegetables home. I'm not the only farmer who is alarmed - farmers all over the world are reporting similar experiences. This event is a very small way to take action locally and call attention to the growing climate crisis. The event starts at Prairiewoods.
Saturday, October 9, is the Mt. Vernon and Lisbon CROP Hunger Walk. I'll be walking and will be happy to take your contributions. I'll leave my contribution envelope at the sign-in table. I hate it when 4th graders have more donations than I do! Please don't let me be embarrassed! CROP is a project of Church World Service to help hungry people at home and around the world. A significant portion of your donations will be given to our Southeast Linn Community Center to support the food pantry.
Also, this Saturday, September 24, is the Lincoln Highway Arts Festival. It's a great time. Stop by and see the art before you go to Moving Planet.
See you this week,
Laura
Laura_1
11:58 PM CDT
11 Sep Sun 2011
It's not fall yet!!!! good beans and tomatoes
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we have tomatoes, green beans, a few puny peppers, hot peppers, parsley and basil, eggplant, Russet potatoes, onions, garlic, and a little kale. Maybe cucumbers if we can find enough. Seems like the okra might be on vacation right now, waiting for another good rain.
Russet potatoes are the brown ones we usually think of as bakers. They are smaller than the ones from the store, but WAAAAAY better tasting. There are no pesticides on them, so you can eat the skins. I just washed them off and baked for a short time. They are like eating marshmallows! We'll only have them for one week, so enjoy.
The tomato plants are unbelievably healthy right now, very leafy with little disease and lots of green fruit. There are a least 100 late-planted plants that we've not picked anything from yet that I'm eager to harvest. We're getting lots of tomatoes, and they've been tasting very good, but a little rain and a few more warm days would help a lot more very handsome ones mature. I think these might be the nicest tomatoes I've grown in several years.
Peppers, on the other hand, are still a mess. The fruits are small, sunburned, and thin walled and don't seem to be getting any better. We'll give you as many as we can get, but it's sure not what I had planned. I thought I'd be burying you in ripe peppers by now. Some of the chili peppers are bearing more, so we'll give you a few more this week. The eggplant plants seem to be starting to bear fruit, also, so I think we can find enough to give one to everybody. Once again, we should be up to our eyeballs in eggplant right now. Usually people are mad at me by this time of year because there are so many eggplant.
The kale is happy with the cooler temperatures. The leaves are smaller than they are in the spring, but nice. We'll pick some this week. Not sure we can give you armloads of it, but there will be some. Collards are looking better, too. We'll start picking them again in the next couple of weeks.
We could use another inch of rain, but my buddy Schnackenberg isn't too optimistic. I've started irrigating again to help us have some leafy greens in October. But nothing I can do is as good as a real rain. That, and some nice warm days, would really help both the fall greens and the last plantings of squash, beans, cilantro, and cucumbers. There's still hope of warmth after we get through this week. It's not fall yet!
We had about 20 wonderful Cornell volunteers on Saturday morning who helped with potato digging. In less than two hours, they picked up more than a ton of spuds. THANKS. Only about one more ton to get before the end of the season.
See you this week,
Laura
Laura_1
10:24 PM CDT
05 Sep Mon 2011
beautiful weather, beans and tomatoes for a while
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we'll have green beans, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, sweet peppers, hot peppers, edamames, cucumbers, and herbs. There might be a little okra starting on Monday, just enough for those few of you who are extremely okra-needy. When it warms up, there will be more, enough to give a little bit to everybody who wants some.
The tomatoes continue to look marvelous. I think there is less leaf disease in the tomatoes this year than I have seen in years, and they seem to be making lots of fruit. We've got about 100 plants in our second planting that we expect to start picking next week. They should hold up until frost.
Peppers, chilies, and eggplants are not so nice. I'm not sure why, but they just are not setting any fruit. We have about 1000 eggplant plants, which means we should have about 10,000 eggplants over the course of the season. We've been having trouble just getting 200 fruits per week. Same thing with the chilies - 200 plants, taller than my waist, yet almost no chilies. The stressful summer weather must have turned off some switch in them. The 2000 sweet pepper plants have plenty of fruit, but it's all pretty puny. I'm holding back giving you green peppers in hopes that they will fatten up and ripen pretty soon. I want you to have big piles of sweet and tasty red, yellow, and orange peppers instead of shrimpy green ones.
The onions this week will be a variety called "Candy". You can eat them now or they should be fine if you want to store them for a couple of months into the fall.
The green beans are from the 5th planting of the season. Although we had a few beans earlier in the summer, they weren't very nice and the plants were sick or weird and we abandoned every planting before we expected to. This crop is fantastic. Huge plants, healthy leaves, lots of beans. Planting number 6 looks good, too. I'm hoping that we will have beans until frost with the two final crops.
The rain last week was very helpful. We had .6", then 1.5" on Saturday. I've turned off the irrigation for a while. The rain on Saturday messed up a pretty good plan to have 35 new Cornell students dig potatoes for their service project, but we needed it so badly, I couldn't be too disappointed. However, there are still many thousands of pounds of potatoes in the ground. If you and your kids want to help get them out, there will be plenty of chances to join us this fall. The students were able to get the hoophouse cleaned out for me, a daunting task that I was avoiding, and I am VERY thankful for their help. It was a great day, even with the lightening and rain.
The sunshine this week is going to be wonderful. All we need now is to get the temperature up around eighty degrees where it is supposed to be this time of year. Warmer days and nights will help blooming things to make fruits, small things to get bigger, and green things to ripen.
This Saturday, September 10, the Southeast Linn Community Center is hosting a spaghetti dinner to benefit the youth programs of the Mt. Vernon and Lisbon Parks and Recreation Departments. Every year, the cities help the Center by giving us swimming pool passes to hand out to families who need them. This event is to add to that fund. Spaghetti is $5, serving is from 4:00 until 8:00 pm at the Lisbon High School Cafeteria. I hope you can attend.
Some families still owe me some money on their share. I've been going through my records trying to sort it all out and will be sending you a note pretty soon. But if you know who you are, maybe we could talk about it this week and come up with a plan. Thanks.
See you this week,
Laura
Laura_1
07:11 AM CDT
28 Aug Sun 2011
sweet corn ends, tomatoes getting good, we had a nice rain
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we'll have potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, the last of the carrots, a few cucumbers, edamame soybeans, eggplant, chilies, peppers, and herbs. The Monday people will get the last of the sweet corn. The Thursday people might also get a few green beans and some okra if they are ready, or we'll have those things starting next Monday. I'm giving you a week off from onions so you can work your way through the summer sweets.
I expect there will be extra sweet corn Tuesday morning. If you'd like some for the freezer, let me know before 9:00 Monday night so I can save some for you. It's $4 per dozen. If you don't claim it by then, volunteers from Cedar Rapids are coming Tuesday to get everything else out of the field for distribution at Metro High School, a soup kitchen, and a couple of food pantries. I'm so happy that none of the corn has been wasted this season. Almost every ear that was decent has found a home in somebody's belly. Not so good for the hens, but nice for people who don't often get fresh sweet corn.
The thing that was eating tomatoes went away. I still don't know what it was, but it apparently got full, so it left. We picked scads of tomatoes this afternoon and they are amazingly nice. Not perfect, but not bad. I think you'll like them much better than the stinkers we've been having.
We are picking cucumber crop #5 for the first time this week. I've been so disappointed with the cucumbers, as well as nearly everything else in that plant family this summer. Cucumber crops numbers 1 through 4 had issues because of ground squirrels (#1), cucumber beetles (# 2 and #4), and weeds (#2 and #3). Number 5 is healthy so far and #6 is about 2 weeks away from harvest and looking good. Remember back in the good old days when I used to bring in 10 or 15 buckets of cucumbers and squash two times a week? Maybe they'll return next year.
Edamames are soybeans that you eat while they are still green. There are about 3 beans per pod, and about 10 pods per stem. I'm going to cut the stems and give you a handful with the pods still attached. Picking the pods off is a good job for the kids. Blanch the whole pods, cool quickly, dress with salt or soy sauce, then squish the little beans out of the pods and into your mouth. Don't eat the pods. They are hairy and tough. The beans are a great snack. A lot of trouble, but great. Luckily, you can buy them by the bag in the frozen section of the grocery store when the ones we have here run out.
We had a very good rain on Tuesday morning, about 2.2 inches. It really was a gift. We started irrigating the gardens about 10 days ago and really haven't stopped except for the day it rained. It's still quite dry and I'd be happy to have another 2 inches this week, although my buddy Schnackenberg doesn't think it is likely. One good thing about the dry is that we'll be able to dig the rest of the potatoes this upcoming weekend. Cornell is sending me about 30 volunteers and hopefully, if everything goes as planned, they'll be able to get the last 4 tons or so of potatoes out of the ground and into bags in the shed. Most will be for us and for Local Harvest CSA, but some will go to the food pantries at the end of the season.
Bring plenty of bags this week. See you later,
Laura
Laura_1
11:30 PM CDT
22 Aug Mon 2011
We'll take an inch of rain. Moderate temperatures sure are nice.
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we'll have potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, squash, maybe some cucumbers, chiles, tomatoes, sweet peppers, basil, dill, and cilantro. This is the last week that I'll give you ugly onions. We had two varieties that were too sweet to be stored too long, and two varieties that just had a hard time. As soon as they are gone, maybe we'll take a week off onions to give you a chance to reduce your stash some, then switch to the nice onions that should be storable for quite a while. There are a lot of them and they look pretty good so far.
We're still trying to rescue garlic from the field. It should have been dug in early July, but the ground was so hard and dry that we couldn't get to it. It's that way again, and now the garlic is doing what it does naturally - falling apart, so it's going to look awful and probably not store too well. Use it up. Luckily, we kept the first garlic that we dug for seed for next year. Every year, I get smarter about garlic. About the time I retire, I should be able to grow and harvest it successfully.
No corn for the Monday people, but perhaps for the Thursdays. We've got one more patch of Bodacious and it's just not quite ripe enough to harvest tomorrow. Depending on the weather, it might be ready on Thursday, but for sure next week barring some disaster.
There's nothing wrong with this farm that about an inch of rain wouldn't cure. In June it wouldn't stop and we had trouble getting into the fields. In July, we got more than 7 inches on the 22nd, but that's all. We haven't had enough to be useful since then, and it's starting to matter. If I hope to have anything to give you in October, it's important to get things moving in the right direction right away, so we pulled out the irrigation Friday of last week. I haven't used it since 2007, and I remember why. I HATE IRRIGATING! It's too much trouble. Since we don't have enough pump or equipment or peoplepower to do the whole garden, I'm just concentrating on the things we love in the fall. In the mean time, the tomatoes, peppers, chiles, beans, edamames, squash, cukes, winter squash, and kale are all just waiting for a drink. We've got 1000's of plants, and 1000's of little fruits on those plants, so when it finally does rain, vegetables are going to be crazy abundant. Until then, we eat potato salad, onions, and sweet corn.
Something is eating the tomatoes. About half of the red ones have a big bite, or bites, removed. Of course, only the nice big pretty ones. I can't figure out if the tomatoes are red because they have been munched, or if they we chosen for eating because they are red. Either way, I've got it narrowed down to deer, rabbits, mice, voles, birds, big worms, grasshoppers, or crickets. Whatever it is, it's got a big mouth with big teeth and it eats a LOT. If you have an idea about what I should do about this problem, please let me know. I'd be happy to kill something to make it stop. The tomatoes this week are less ugly, bigger, and more numerous than last week. Still not a lot, but we're heading in the right direction. Someday soon there are going to be an awful lot of them.
As far as I know, there's still a detour at Mt. Vernon Road and Highway 13. Sorry for the inconvenience.
See you this week,
Laura
Laura_1
12:04 AM CDT
14 Aug Sun 2011
Better weather, quitting kale for a while, detour
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we have red and yellow potatoes, Incredible sweet corn, yellow and white onions, little bit of ugly (but yummy) garlic, the first tomatoes, eggplant, chili peppers, carrots, cilantro, basil, and summer squash.
We're opening a new patch of "Incredible" sweet corn this week, but the Monday people will also have some Bodacious from last week's patch if they want it. I had some tonight for dinner, and it is a bit more mature but still quite good. Please zap me a note if you want to buy corn (in addition to what you'll get in your share) for the freezer. I believe I'll have extra out of this patch. I'll let you know what I have as soon as we get all the shareholders accommodated - perhaps mid-week, but more likely the weekend. It will be $4 per dozen.
This week is the 11th week of the season, and the first week for several new shareholder families. I'm so so so glad that the temperatures have become more normal and moderate. It's not that much fun growing or harvesting or cooking vegetables when everything is melting. We had a nice rain last Monday, .6", but we are ready for more this week. Vegetables, unlike corn and soybeans, have rather shallow root systems. Plus, we do a lot of surface tillage that quickly dries out the soil at the top. I'd be very happy to have about 1" of rain per week, but we can live with less than that if I am careful. We've planted quite a lot of fall garden and plan to have most of the rest of it in the ground for the rain that's supposed to come on Tuesday night. We need it soon in order to get the fall crops mature before the frost, which is now only 46 days away.
Here is a link to an article comparing and contrasting the droughts in the US and in East Africa, and explaining how ag and food policy can make farmers and eaters more secure during tough times. It's from Oxfam, a well-respected international organization that works to alleviate hunger, poverty, and injustice.
We're going to stop picking kale and collards for a couple of weeks. The heat really beat them up, and they are now suffering from some fungal disease and Japanese beetles. A little cool weather and some bug treatment should cure all that's wrong with it so we'll have both kale and collards until the end of the season. All you kale crazies, sorry to cut you off cold turkey, but it's not for long.
You probably noticed carrots on the list. How can this be???? Laura can't grow carrots!!!! Well, I don't know what happened or how I did it, but there are carrots. Enjoy them because this may never happen again. With renewed confidence in my gardening abilities, I've planted some "Sweet Baby Jane" carrots in the fall garden. But really, I have no expectation that they will survive. So if they do, we'll all be pleased and surprised.
We started picking tomatoes late last week. You're going to get the first ones this week. They're not big, and they're not pretty, but they are a taste of what's to come. I made a big bad mistake this year and planted twice as many tomatoes as I wanted. This mistake may work out in your favor if they yield well. They look a little wimpy now, but they made it through the bad heat, and with a little rain and more normal temperatures, we should have gobs of tomatoes within a couple of weeks.
Last Sunday afternoon was the farm open house and field day. It was a nice event with about 30 people from as far away as Des Moines and Decorah. A friend of mine brought grass fed hamburger, then built a grill like they use in New Zealand using cement blocks and a cattle crossing guard, and provided everybody with samples. It was fantastic. He'll have beef to sell this fall and as butchering time gets closer, I'll send you more information. It's expensive, but excellent quality. Here is a link to some more information about the benefits of grass fed beef.
The big news last Thursday was the detour. I never leave home, so I haven't seen it, but I guess the intersection of Mt. Vernon Road and Highway 13 is closed for a while. If you are coming from Cedar Rapids, there are two other good ways to get here. You can take Highway 30 east towards Mt. Vernon, then turn left (north) on Irish Lane, which is the last gravel road before Mt. Vernon. Go north, cross Mt Vernon Road and Abbe Creek, then take a quick right on Museum Road, then right (east) on Abbe Hills. You'll be able to see the farm from the corner. Or, you can take the Marion Bypass east across Highway 13. It's yhen called Seacrist Road. Go east to the end of the road, then right (south) on X20, also called Springville Road. Go south about 4 (?) miles and you'll see Abbe Hills Road before you get to Mt. Vernon. Turn right (west) and go about a mile to the farm. Or, Googlemap me at 825 Abbe Hills Road. We're not that hard to find.
See you this week,
Laura
Laura_1
11:29 PM CDT
07 Aug Sun 2011
We love the cooler weather, and so do the plants
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we'll have potatoes, onions, fresh garlic, sweet corn, summer squash, cucumbers, cabbage, kale and collards, basil, cilantro, and dill. We're digging potatoes as fast as we can right now, trying to get as much done as possible before my workers go back to college. This week, we have Red Norland, Dark Red Norland, Yukon Gold, and Keuka Gold types. They are all really good as far as I can tell. Maybe you'll have one you really like.
I still have a few Ailsa Craig onions left. They are the light yellow, teardrop shaped ones that are so mild and sweet. Because they are so sweet, they can't be stored. Use them as fast as you can and keep them in the frig. We'll have some combination of white, purple, and Ailsa Craigs for you this week. We've still got about four more racks of onions to pull and cure, plus many many rows of garlic still in the ground. These two crops should have been harvested in mid-July, but it was so dry and the ground was so hard, we couldn't dig them. Then it rained and got hot. The onions are holding up well, but the garlic is a mess. When we dig it, it falls out of its skin and we end up with a handful of peeled cloves. I think they are fine, just not in the package we usually expect of garlic. Since we have to save the very best garlic for seed for next year's crop, I'm going to encourage you to take the peeled cloves this week. You can keep them in the frig in a sealed container for quite a while, or roast them in oil and keep longer in the frig in a jar with the oil. Roasted garlic is very mild and sweet, kind of buttery in texture. I like it much better than raw garlic.
The sweet corn on Monday (and I hope still fit to eat on Thursday) will be Bodacious. Small ears, but very sweet. The cooler weather is going to slow down the maturing of the corn, and help the cucumbers, squash, eggplants, peppers, and tomatoes hang on to their fruits better. All those things should become more abundant, especially if we can get some rain. We're quite dry again. Although we had more than 7 inches two weeks ago, it's not enough to keep the top part of the soil, where the vegetable roots are, adequately moist. We need about 1 inch per week to keep me happy and keep my griping about the weather to a minimum. A little rain would also get the fall crops to germinate so they can be fully mature before the frost gets here in 54 days.
This is the last week for cabbage until October, if the new seeding has enough time to make heads by then.
I have plenty of raffle tickets for the Southeast Linn Community Center raffle on August 13 at Sauerkraut Days. I'd sure like to sell them to you.
I have a challenge and I know one of you is going to be able to step up to it. I need 5-gallon buckets. The buckets I have are old and they are falling apart faster than I can scavenge replacements. I know that somewhere around here, some food manufacturer is throwing them away. So I want to help them turn a liability into an asset. The buckets need to have the metal handles if possible (we break the plastic handles pretty fast), be tall enough to hold 5 gallons, be food-safe, and be free. They don't need lids. If you can get them for me, I need 50. If they have that many, then I'll take 100 and give half of them to Local Harvest CSA. We harvest potatoes and sweet corn together, both crops that require a lot of buckets, and we could really do better if we had some better ones than those we use now. Go for it - all you recycling maniacs.
See you this week,
Laura
Laura_1
11:02 PM CDT
31 Jul Sun 2011
it's too hot to grow food. Buy raffle tickets to support the community center.
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we'll have potatoes, onions, garlic, the never-ending-but-oh-so-delicious cabbage, kale, collards, basil, and cilantro. I think we have enough eggplant for Monday people to each have one, and probably summer squash for everybody this week. We found some cucumbers, too. Monday people will get sweet corn.
That's the simple version of the week's story. It's quite a bit more complicated. We had a tough week last week and I think this upcoming one is going to be a stinker, too. The consequences of the heat are apparent everywhere, and it's having a huge impact on our crops. Most of the summer crops, even though many of them are basically tropical in origin, don't do well with very hot days, and really don't do well with hot nights. One outcome of excessive heat is that the flowers abort before they have a chance to make fruits. That's why we still don't have any eggplants, squash, cucumbers, peppers, chilies, tomatoes, and so few beans. If they had fruits set before it got hot, they sat there on the plants, waiting, waiting, and when the rain came last week, they quickly grew big enough to harvest. Thus, something to harvest this week. But no new fruits have set since the heat came. Thus, not enough of anything. We have 1000's of plants, but they just don't have anything to pick. When it finally straightens out and cools off a little, especially at night, we won't be able to keep up, but right now, there's just not much there.
The other thing about hot nights is that they are humid. And that is perfect for disease causing organisms like bacteria and fungus. We're going to have to pick 100% of the bell peppers that had set on about 2500 plants and throw them on the ground this week because they are all infected with a white fungus. Last week when it hit, it looked like the fruits had snow on them! I tilled all the green bean plants on the farm this weekend because they were full of disease and yielding poorly and poor quality beans. Might as well get rid of them and use the space for something else for fall. But that means no beans for a while.
Then there's the sweet corn. Remember the 3000 broccoli's that all got ready on the same day. Well, the same thing happened in the sweet corn. The crop we harvested for the Thursday people last week was Bodacious, and was a little under-ripe. It should have been fine for tomorrow (Monday), and then we would start on a new patch of Incredible on Thursday of this week, finishing it next Monday. Instead, we're picking the Incredible tomorrow and hoping it's not too far gone. It's the heat. It sped up the ripening by ten days. Theoretically, I have three more sweet corn crops that should last three more weeks. Hope it works out that way.
It is possible that we might be able to harvest the last of the Incredible on Tuesday for a special pick-up by the Thursday people and people who want it for the freezer (rather than letting it get completely away from us). If it's still fit to eat, and if we are physically able to get it picked, I will let you know BEFORE NOON ON TUESDAY if you will need to come pick it up Tuesday night. If you don't hear from me, then we lost it and we'll have to wait for the next patch.
The heat this upcoming week is going to be challenging for my workers. I try not to let them work past noon on the very hot days. But it's going to rain Tuesday afternoon and one of the most important things we have to do before then is to plant fall garden. It should have been started last week, but it was too muddy. Now the soil is in good condition, so we're going to plant like maniacs. It might reduce the time we have available for potato digging, so there could be a short-term potato shortage this week, too. I'm sorry for the inconvenience this causes you. We're working really hard to give you the best CSA experience we can, but this summer is turning out to be a tough one. I'm sure it will straighten out for fall - it always does - but that doesn't make getting there any more fun!
I hope you can come to the farm open house and field day next Sunday, August 7, 4:00 until 7:00. It's kind of a big deal. Unfortunately, we've got lots of weeds and disease to show off to our visitors. But it's a good chance for consumers and young people interested in vegetable farming to see what it's really like, warts and all.
I'll have raffle tickets for the Southeast Linn Community Center drawing on Aug 13 with me this week. Please support the Center and buy a few.
Well, it's mostly bad news this week. Sorry. Focus on the cabbage. It will make you feel better. The stuff is a miracle as far as I'm concerned!
See you this week,
Laura
Laura_1
11:25 PM CDT
24 Jul Sun 2011
rain just in time. Look at the prairie flowers in the ditches when you come to the farm this week. They are fabulous.
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we'll have potatoes, onions, garlic, beans, cabbage, kale, collards, dill, basil, and cilantro. The Monday people will get the last of the broccoli. The Thursday people will get the first of the sweet corn. YIPPEE!!! We also might have the beginning of the zucchinis, cucumbers, and eggplants this week. Perhaps green peppers by next week.
The rain came just in time. We were very very very dry - so dry that we couldn't get the digging tools in the ground to dig any more garlic, so dry that I couldn't get the tillage equipment in the ground to get the beds ready to plant for the fall crops, so dry that the summer crops weren't making any fruit, and so dry that the late summer crops weren't growing. Well, all of that changed pretty quickly. We had about 5 inches of rain Friday night, and our running total is a little more than 7 inches by this afternoon. THAT'S ENOUGH!!! Luckily, there are enough weeds in the fields that we didn't suffer too much erosion, and the moisture was needed so badly that a huge proportion soaked into the ground. The plants that have been sitting around waiting for the last three weeks grew like crazy over the weekend. Now we just have to keep up. This week and next are going to be crazy.
The sweet corn for Thursday of this week and Monday of next week will be Bodacious. The ears are small, but have excellent flavor. We should have more than we need for our CSA and for Local Harvest CSA, so I likely will have extra to sell on Saturday. I'll let you know by email as soon as I know, and I'll also post it on the first page of the website.
The annual farm field day is in two weeks, on Sunday, August 7, 4:00 until 7:00. We'll take a garden tour, look at some conservation and water quality practices, and talk about the sustainability of local food . It is sponsored by a great group to which I belong, Practical Farmers of Iowa, so I expect there will be guests from all over eastern Iowa. My friend Dan Specht will be here with samples of his grass-fed beef for you to try. He's hoping to sell it to you when his cattle are butchered this fall. We'll end the tour with a sweet corn picnic. Everyone is welcome to attend the field day, especially people who are interested in learning more about the practice of sustainable agriculture. I'd like to show you the farm. I hope you can come.
I'm again selling raffle tickets for the Southeast Linn Community Center raffle to be held at Sauerkraut Days on August 13. Your donation supports to work of our community center, a place that provides lots of services for families, children, and seniors in our area, especially those in need. And right now, there is A LOT of need. Please buy as many tickets as you can afford. Your donation will be put to very good use. And you might win the grill!
See you this week,
Laura
Laura_1
11:39 PM CDT
17 Jul Sun 2011
irrationally exuberant last week, hot and dry now
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we'll have Chinese (nappa) cabbage, kale/collards, more cabbages, little bits of broccoli, regular and Italian green beans, dill, cilantro, basil, new potatoes, garlic, and onions.
Well, I was irrationally exuberant last Monday morning when it appeared it had rained. Actually, all we had was a lot of wind and the tiniest bit of rain. Luckily, we got about .4" more on Tuesday. We needed it badly, and need more now - to make the "fruits" (cukes, zukes, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, beans) you like grow big enough to harvest, to soften the soil so we can plant the fall crops, and to give the late planted summer crops (watermelons, squash, okra) the boost they need to make good yield before it frosts (only 74 days away now).
I hope you like cabbage. The 2000 cabbages we planted over 5 weeks in the spring, so that we could harvest them over 5 weeks now, are all ready at the same time - a consequence of the cold and delayed spring. Similarly, the 3000 broccolis were all ready last week. They are supposed to make little "broccoliettes" off where we cut the main head, so if we get a little moisture before the plants die, we should have a bit more broccoli.
We're digging potatoes now every week. The kinds we have this week and "Red Norland" and "Dark Red Norland". It appears that the yields should be quite good, so I'll give you lots of them. When potatoes are first dug and the skins are still soft and tender, they are called "new potatoes". At the grocery store, they use "new" when what they really mean is "little" (so little that they were rejected from the main potato packing line, rebranded and sold for a higher price!). The skins on new potatoes are usually quite tasty. And since we didn't use any pesticides on the potatoes, they are perfectly safe to feed the kids. As we dig more potatoes than you can use, we will cure them in a dark, dry space. That will make the skins get a little tougher and resistant to drying out so the potatoes will store longer. So eat your new potatoes now as fast as you can while they are great. The potatoes with longer shelf life will come later.
We're also digging garlic now. This is the only crop we have where you're not going to get the best thing we've got. The very best heads have to be saved for seed for next year's crop. We'll cure the second best heads so we can give them to you up until October. Right now, you're going to get the third best. They won't be cured, they might have a ding, and they might not be real big, but the flavor of fresh garlic is fantastic, so use them as fast as you can. When I have too much, I roast it in a moderate oven, with oil, covered with foil, then store the roasted heads in the frig in oil. They last a long time and the flavor of roasted garlic is very mild and yummy.
We're still giving you fresh onions because the main crop just won't die. As soon as they do, we'll pull all the onions (and there are A LOT), cure them, and then parcel them out until October. Again, don't try to save the ones you are getting now. Just enjoy them now. The keeper varieties will come later.
Some of you have noticed that we've had no summer squash or cucumbers yet. Sorry about that. I lost crops numbers 1 and 2 to bugs, ground squirrels, and weeds. Crop number three looks like it's going to survive (although a little rain wouldn't hurt) and we should have those things in two weeks for sure. We also had problems with chard and beets - I put them in a deer-proof place only to figure out when they came up that it was too weedy for them to make it. So, as soon as we can get the ground loosened up a little, we'll plants loads of beets and chard. Hope to have lots of them for fall.
It looks like we'll be harvesting sweet corn, chilies, eggplants, peppers within the next two weeks. Can't hardly wait.
We're going to quit work at noon every day this week, no matter if we have our work done or not. It might limit the amount of produce are able to harvest for you this week. I know you'll understand. Probably you won't feel like eating too much anyway, if it is as hot as they say it's going to be. I'm looking forward to having a couple of hours each afternoon to open the mail, pay the bills, answer the email, and sort through all the check-in sheets, lists, checks, and notes that you've given me since mid-June, the last time I really opened my mail!!!
See you this week,
Laura
Laura_1
10:16 PM CDT
11 Jul Mon 2011
big storm last night, finally got some rain
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we have broccoli, kale and collards, a small pile of new potatoes, cilantro and basil, the last kohlrabi, onions, fresh garlic, cabbage, small beets with tops (I think). Monday people, the workers are picking green beans for you right now; Thursday people, I think we'll finally have some very nice peas for you and maybe beans also.
ISN'T THIS A GREAT DAY!!!! We needed the rain so so so badly, I'm so happy it finally got here. Since I live in an underground house, I missed the whole thing, but I guess it must have been pretty severe because almost every stem of corn - sweet and field - on this farm is laying on its side. That's not so great, but not much I can change by worrying about it. And there's too much other stuff to do to waste the energy. As soon as the top dries out a little, maybe tomorrow, we'll start planting again now that we'll have a decent seedbed. There are still loads of late summer and fall crops to get in the ground. We'll also start digging potatoes seriously this week, and hope to have all the garlic out of the ground this week or next.
There are likely worms in the broccoli since we didn't do any spraying to control them. They are not too bad, at least not yet. If you don't like finding them floating in your broccoli soup, soak the broccoli heads in a little salt water for 10 or 15 minutes before you cook it. The worms don't like the salt and they'll crawl out to get away from it. You can pick them out of the water.
Two stripey kittens are still looking for a home.
Sorry this newsletter is so late. Too much party this weekend, and no electricity this morning until about an hour ago. Wear your mud shoes and pants this afternoon; it's going to be hot and gooey. And if another storm boils up, please stay away until it clears out. You don't want to be in the shed during a big one.
See you this week,
Laura
Laura_1
11:11 AM CDT
03 Jul Sun 2011
A week without rain, broccoli has begun
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we'll have lettuce, spring daikon radish, onions, the last of the garlic scapes, shell peas and snap peas, broccoli, cabbage (maybe), kale and collards, the last kohlrabi, and a little bit of cilantro. Monday people, you pick up Monday afternoon, regular time, 4:30 until 7:00. (I've heard of summer holidays, just never really experienced one.)
This is the last week for lettuce until it comes back again in October. I was going to try to grow it for you all summer, but we just couldn't get the beds ready as fast as we needed to, so we'll have to make our salads out of something else for a couple of months. Daikon radish are the big white ones. The spring daikon are neither as big nor as mild as the fall daikon. You might like them chopped up in a salad, stir fried, or marinated in a little vinegar and sugar. They'll probably be more mild if you peel them. Pretty soon, we'll start digging the real garlic, just as soon as the tops dry down a little more. Maybe next week. The second planting of peas will be with us for just a week, I think. Peas change fast when it's so hot. And we have a very short row of cilantro that we planted early, so everybody can have a small taste this week. But it's so much better than that tasteless HyVee cilantro, it only takes a little bit to satisfy the cilantro lovers for a week.
Good news! Next week, we'll have new potatoes.
We got a lot of planting and weeding done last week, I think maybe the second longest dry stretch we've had all season. Saturday we put in the last 165 tomato plants, plus watermelons and okra. It's pretty late for those crops, but if they get started growing this week, and if we have a normal frost, we should be OK with them. But what we need now is a little rain. I hate to say anything since the last time I asked for rain, it didn't stop for three weeks. My buddy Schnackenberg says our best chance is Tuesday night. I hope he's right. We could use as much as an inch.
Remember movie night is this Wednesday night. Garden tour at 7:30, movie about 9:00. It's not going to be too hot - a great night to take a walk around the gardens and check out what we do here. And there's about nothing more goofy than sitting on the ground watching a movie on the side of a shed. You should come just for the experience.
Mark Bittman had a great column about the importance of cooking in Saturday's New York Times. You can read it by clicking here.
See you this week,
Laura
Laura_1
10:52 PM CDT
27 Jun Mon 2011
kohlrabii, hot vegetables, a sunny week ahead
Greetings shareholders,
This week, we'll have more small white onions (getting bigger every week), field grown lettuce, the end of the radishes, the last garlic scapes, another stir fry kit, kale and collards, kohlrabi, arugula, and a little bit of broccoli.
Most years, the spring vegetables would be finished up by now. They generally don't do well in heat because they tend to bolt, become tough, or develop more hot flavors. All that was delayed this spring because it was so cold for so long, but it's happening now. Expect the lettuce, radishes, stir fry vegetables, arugula, and maybe even the lettuce to be more mature. I haven't tried the radishes we'll pull this week, but I'll bet they are pretty hot. Cooking generally reduces the hot taste, so try sauteing the radishes, or using them for a little zip in a mixed salad. The stir fry vegetables will be different than the ones we had last week (they've already passed their prime), mostly leaves again, excellent when stir fried with a little meat or tofu and dressed with soy sauce. The arugula is hot enough to pop your eyes out. Small bits of it can be good in a salad, or you arugula crazies can eat it straight. We'll have all the spring vegetables again in the fall. They'll be completely different then - sweet and mild. Since the days are getting cooler in the fall, these kinds of vegetables just keep getting better and better until they finally freeze beyond recovery.
I noticed that some people slipped out without their kohlrabi last week. Shame! It's a GREAT vegetable, and absolutely at the perfect stage of growth right now. And all ready at the same time. The thousands of kohlrabies that we planted over a 4-week period in the hoophouse so we could have them for 4 weeks from the garden - they're all ready to harvest now - so enjoy them. Peel them and eat them raw, dipped in something like hummus, lightly sauteed with the stir fry vegetables, grated into a lettuce salad, or dressed with a little sugar and vinegar to make a fresh, crunchy salad. They taste a little like mild cabbage.
Next week, I'll bet we'll have the first cabbages, plus broccoli, I think.
You'll notice holes in the leaves of some leafy vegetables, especially the kale, collards, and cabbages. Those are the evidence of hail storms earlier in the spring. Look terrible, taste fine.
We had some wonderful help last week from a group from Iowa City called "Summer of Solutions". Ten people came on Friday and helped us with weeding lots of things that got away from us last week, and also with setting out a few hundred zucchini plants that weren't going to survive the hoophouse another minute. They were great workers, very interesting and thoughtful young people, and really did us a HUGE favor. Thanks.
Yesterday was another perfect summer day in Iowa, wonderfully bright and cool and not too humid. We were able to get most of the winter squash planted over the weekend (finally!!!) and to get some fields nearly completely prepared so we can plant some watermelons and the last 150 tomato plants this week when it dries out a little. It's very late to be doing these crops, but we just couldn't get fields ready most of the month of June because they never really dried out enough to handle the tillage equipment. One of the worst things you can do to soil is to work it or drive on it or walk on it when it is full of water. It squishes all the air out of the soil and compacts it so that it may not recover for the whole growing season, sometimes for several years. Planting crops in a wet season is a balancing act between getting the seeds out there and treating the soil with respect and care. We're looking forward to a dry week when we can get the rest of the planting and a big chunk of weeding accomplished.
I've posted a photo at the website of me at the Temple Hill church in rural Jones County so you can see a beautiful old country church. I went there yesterday evening for a church picnic and fair. When I got there, they had 10 roasters going! They roasted 92 fresh hams and must have served hundreds of people. It was great fun, a good way to enjoy a lovely summer afternoon.
Monday people, we will have regular veggie pickup on July 4th, regular times (4:30 until 7:00). Everybody, remember the garden walk-around and movie night on Wed, July 6. More details later.
See you this week,
Laura
Laura_1
06:47 AM CDT