Boulder Belt Eco-Farm

 

Good morning,

It is a new month and we have several new members bringing our total up to 8 (I would like to have 20 but we take what we are served. It does looks like we may get to that point the last two months of this food adventure). As we have new members I will get to business matters first. Your shares will be ready to pick up after 4 pm and will be located in the fridge to your right as you walk in the store (it is the only fridge in the front of the store). Your share will be in a bag (or sometimes two bags) with your name on it. We do ask that all members provide a couple of reusable shopping bags if they do not want their stuff in plastic Kroger or Wal-Mart bags. You have between 4pm Wednesday and 6 am Saturday to get your share, after that they go with us to the Oxford farmers Market and will be donated to the Choice Food Pantry in Oxford (they come by the farmers market every Saturday to get donations. Last year we gave over 1000 pounds of food). The store is open pretty much all the time so you can get you share whenever you can if you cannot get here Wednesday afternoon/evening. Month to month members, renewals for August are due July 21-you can leave cash or check with us when you come to pick up your food.

We have a farm tour coming up next week on Tuesday July 13th at 6 pm. This is a great opportunity to see your CSA farm and learn more about Organic farming. I seriously doubt that we will have the time to host a pot luck farm tour so if you want to see the farm in a formal manner this is your chance. on that note please feel free to  walk around the farm, this is one of the perks to being a FSI member. To get to the farm walk between the barn and the store buildings and you will see a silver gate. Open that and walk through (be sure to close it behind you). If you go to your right you will be in the market garden if you go to your left you walk by the pond. While in the market garden be aware of where you are walking and never walk in garden beds as you will injure/kill the crops, even beds that look fallow probably have something planted.

Life on the farm is ever changing, just like the weather (okay, pretty much because of the weather). We have gone from too much rain to no rain at all and it is stressing the plants because their root systems grew shallowly to handle copious amounts of moisture in the soil. You see, plants grow root systems according to the weather. Dry weather means the roots go down deep searching for water but when there is a lot of rain and the water table is high the roots are very shallow. When the water dries up than there are problems because the roots are not where the water is in the ground. All the rain in June, we had over 16 inches here at the farm, meant lots of shallow roots being set. I see a lot of field corn that is incredibly stressed all over SW Ohio. The soy beans are beginning to look bad as well. On our farm things are pretty happy, I suspect, because our soils are full of organic matter (OM) and retain moisture much better than the fields that are fed chemicals and have a low OM percentage. The basis of good Organic Farm management is not avoiding pesticides but rather growing great healthy soil. The soil is the soul of the Organic farm (any farm, really, but the chemically managed farms are definitely lacking in OM and soil life).

And weather changes on a whim around here. In June we were dealing with too much rain and heat which meant weeds that grew fast and could not be hoed or pulled because the soil was simply too wet. this also meant fungal diseases git started. We don't seem to have much of an issue with this other than the tomatoes that once again have some blighty ick attacking them. We will get tomatoes from the plants but not huge amounts, which is fine as we have finally, after 17 years of growing, started cutting back on the number of tomato plants we grow. We have found that there are way too many for sale at farmers markets for us to sell them at a price that makes it worth growing them (and at times we can't give them away, there are so many) so we are down to 385 plants mainly for you, our FSI members and ourselves (I put up many bushels of tomatoes made into juice, sauce and salsa for off season use). At our peak we grew over 1000 tomato plants.

Now it is hot and dry which makes for miserable working conditions-it is no fun to work outside when it is 90F and humid so we try to get to work early in the day and than quit during the heat of the day and get back at it about 2 hours before dusk. I would love to have a whole summer of the weather we had over the 4th of July weekend but that probably ain't happening so we deal with the heat as well as we can.

okay I really need to stop here and get out and harvest stuff for your shares

Recipe

Roasted Garlic

1 or more garlic bulbs
Olive Oil

Preheat your oven to 350?. Cut the top 1/4 inch off of each bulb of garlic. Drizzle with olive oil and put in a covered dish or pan and put in a preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes.
When cool enough to handle separate the cloves and squirt out the roasted garlic onto bread or your favorite dish

What's in the Share this Week
Garlic Scapes-probably the last week for these
Scallions-a bunch of scallions to use as you wish
Basil-a nice big bag (over 1/4 pound) of basil for pesto or whatever
Chioggia Beets-These are an Italian heirloom beet that is AKA the candy stripped beets because of its' pink and white concentric circles. the proper pronunciation according to Martha Stewart is Key-o-gia, though I was taught chi-o-geeia
Zucchini-you will get a large costata romanesque this week. Do not let the size fool you these are tender, small seeded and deelish even when large. these can be used for far more than zucchini bread at this stage
Cucumber-2 or 3 armenian cukes which I recently learned are a melon which is why they are so mild and sweet.
Raspberries-the Latham raspberries are almost at an end for the year but soon enough we will be picking the Heritage raspberries which are in full bloom. You get 1 1/2 pint this week
Onions-around a pound of the heirloom Ailsa Craig sweet onions
Garlic-3 corms of garlic. I should know the type (we grow 5 different hard necked garlics) but alas I don't at this point in the day
Chard-a 1/2 pound bag of bright lights chard, one of my favorite greens. Expect to see this almost every week through fall
Carrots-these are our spring planted carrots which did not get big due to the wet conditions and weed pressures. They do have some carrot fly damage but are over all nice carrots. this will be the only carrots we have until September
Plums-purple plums from our lone plum tree. I find these rather tart bit they do have good flavor. You get a pound

=

Welcome to week 12, the season is rushing by. This is a light week for us as several members will not get their shares this week either because of vacation or the fact they signed up for a 4 week membership and June has 5 Wednesdays in it so this one is a bye week for them.

The weather has improved drastically and the crops are feeling better about life. Cantaloupe and water melons that looked like they would fail are coming back. I would not say they are thriving but they are going in that direction and should give us some production (though I suspect they may do really really well-only time will tell). because it is drying up we are hard at work hoeing and hand weeding as many beds as possible in a day (plus we must harvest raspberries, zucchini, cucumbers, strawberries and black raspberries every day which takes many hours). we are in a race to get this maintenance done before the soils get too dry and resemble concrete. I figure we have around another 2 days before that phenomenon happens and we have a handle on the most of onions, most of the beans, potatoes and some of the winter squash. Tomatoes, melons, peppers and eggplant are all planted on landscape fabric mulch and thus do not need such weeding so that's around 100 beds we don't have to futz with. But that also means there are over 150 beds that do need weeding or tilling (which ain't happening as the tiller is once again out of service and Eugene, being a man wants to investigate every angle before giving up and taking the machine to the shop. So we may be without a tiller for months. but I figure that's his issue-if he wants to farm without this important piece of equipment so be it. We are past the early season of intensive tilling and won't be getting back into that for another couple of months when we start in on serious fall and winter planting)

The rain did have some good aspects to it. It was keeping the insect population down and it filled up the wells around here so when it does dry up and we need to start irrigating we should have enough water to do that and supply ourselves. 3 years ago during that awful drought that killed so many trees in Butler and Hamilton Counties we came close to running our well dry. If that had happened we would have had to drill a new well which is very, very expensive at over $10K. We have one of the deeper wells in the area so we were safe.

But now that the rains have ended we are getting bug pressure. I found and killed hundreds of Colorado potato beetle larvae on the potatoes last night. The cuke beetles are coming out enforce on the cucumbers, squashes and melons and the Japanese beetle population is really ramping up (but from what I hear we are not in the same league with Hamilton County where the JB population sounds down right scary). We are going to try an experiment with the JB's. We have a pond stocked with fish and we have a JB trap. In the next day or two we will figure out how to put said trap on the pond so that it attracts the JB's from the grapes and berries to the trap where they will fall into the pond and be eaten by the fishes. We are well aware that these traps tend to attract JB's from other yards but since we are not in a suburban situation and will put the trap in the center of our farm I don't think we will attract anything but our own population. the other thing we need to do is apply beneficial nematodes which will eat the JB larvae (AKA white grubs in the soil). We have done this in the past and it does work well. But you need damp but not wet conditions for it to work, so maybe in the fall.

The share this week is one of the best this year. Unlike any others this one contains food we did not grow-sweet corn. The corn is non GMO but not Organic and from a farm about 12 minutes west of  us. We have known the young man growing it since he was about 4 years old and growing up on his daddy's Organic farm. Now he is 20 and married and has a farm of his own. And it looks like he is going to get into raising produce and sell it direct. This is his first year growing sweet corn and while it is not the best we have ever had is is very good and a great effort for the first time. This young man, I believe, is going to be a great farmer in another decade. Normally I do not like to buy and resell produce but we don't do corn (not enough room), this is locally grown by a well known, to us, source and will be buying it for the store as it really increases sales for us. So we figured you guys would like to get some as well

The shares will be ready after 4 pm. Remember to return all bags, boxes, pieces of plastic and rubber bands that came in your share-we want to reduce our use of such things and will reuse all

We have a farm tour coming up on July 13th (Tuesday) at 6 pm. This is a great way to be more involved with your FSI farm and see what's going on with the 4 acre market garden.

Recipe

1 cup basil
1 cup Italian parsley
2 or more cloves of garlic
1/2 cup walnuts or toasted pine nuts
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (freshly grated is best)
1/4 cup olive oil
salt to taste

In a food processor put in the peeled whole garlic cloves and pulse a couple of times than add the nuts and cheese and pulse again than add everything else and process until smooth. This can be frozen (without the cheese) for a long time and will last in your fridge in a tightly sealed container about 7 days. Pesto can be used many ways. Mix a tablespoon with a stick of butter and you have pesto butter. Mix a tablespoon with a cup of mayo and you have pesto mayo and of course it is great tossed with hot pasta.

What's in the Share

Chard- 1/2 pound bag. The first of many weeks of wonderful chard. If you have not had chard before it is prepared just like spinach
Zucchini-3 pounds of a mix of zucchini
Cucumber-4 Armenian cucumbers in your share
Ailsa Craig Sweet Onion-either one big onion or two smaller onions. These heirloom onions are very mild and well suited for salads and sandwiches. they are not the best cooking onions.
Potatoes-1 pound of either red or white taters. these are true new potatoes meaning they are freshly dug and not yet cured. Most people think new potatoes are small potatoes but that is not true. Those small potatoes are actually grade B taters and not new at all.
Basil-a big bag of basil, at least 1/4 pound
Sweet Corn-1/2 dozen. A bi-color called Temptation
Scallions- 1 bunch
Red Raspberries-2 1/2 pints
Strawberries-1 pint. We grow day neutral strawberries, meaning these will come in throughout the rest of the season until beyond frost. you won't get them every week as these will not produce every week as they tend to come in waves. But you will get them again and again throughout the season
Parsley-1/4 pound bag
Garlic-2 corms of fresh garlic (actually about 1/4 cured) I do not know what kind you will get this week of the 5 kinds we grow. Incidentally, the garlic is finally all out of the ground (a good 3 weeks early) and drying. It looks like we will lose about 10% of the crop to rot (and if you have gotten some less than good bulbs, I apologize-some of them looked good than a week later were rotten) but that is no where near a crop failure and we will have great garlic well into the next year.
=

 

Welcome to week 11 of the farm share initiative. Like pretty much every week for the past month it's been a wet one and this is not good. While I don't think we will lose enough crops to impact the FSI know that at this point our soils are way too wet and many things are not longer thriving like the melons we planted 3 weeks ago. They were planted direct from seed (which usually works so much better than starting seedlings indoors and transplanting those into the garden) but either the seeds have gotten waterlogged and rotted or the seeds germinate and the seedling gets too wet and starts to die. The garlic we are getting out 2 to 3 weeks early and it is rotting in the soil because it is so waterlogged. We are losing around 10% at this point but every day it stays in the soil means more loss. The good news is we increased what we planted last fall by 33% so we should end up, even in the worse case scenario, with at least 1500 garlic coms to sell, eat and replant (1/3 of our total harvest is replanted in October/November). the shallots seem to be a complete loss. The carrots are not in great shape. We have not yet investigated the potatoes but I do not expect great news.  Wet weather and root crops do not go together at all. This is all very worrying and stressful for us farmers and there is nothing we can do about this. There is no way to divert or stop up to to 2" of rain a day (Ideally we get 1" per WEEK). We keep telling ourselves it could be a lot worse. I have virtual farm friends in the Midwest who are dealing with even more rain plus 70 mph winds daily and baseball sized hail. They are not just losing crops but barns, hoop houses and the houses they live in. And we have not had any tornado activity. So, yeah, it could be far, far worse but this is when farming is not fun at all.

Not everything is bummed about the wet conditions. The tomatoes are growing like weeds, the raspberries (red and black) and strawberries love this weather are producing large, high quality berries. The onions, unlike the garlic seem to be doing okay (at least the beds that have had the weeds whacked backed), Basil loves lots of water as does eggplant (which is already flowering!). The early melons, cucumbers and zucchini are very very happy (I suspect because they were already big by the time the rainy season started). So we take the bad with the good. It looks like there will be plenty to harvest and eat for the rest of the season but it won't be exactly as planned (but than again it never is).

We have a farm tour planned for Tuesday July 13th with the Preble Green Citizens (or something like that) You are invited to join us as we tour the market garden (which has changed dramatically since anyone in the FSI has  last looked at it. The market garden tends to transform itself about every 2 to 3 weeks this time of year) and talk about how we grow food for the locavores in the area. I especially encourage our Eaton members to join us as you will meet other like minded and local souls (and believe me we greenies are few and far between in PC, though that seems to be changing). This will  not include a pot luck dinner as this is not one of our occasional FSI members farm tour/pot luck dinners.

Hey, I know some of you are Facebook members and are Fans/Friends of Boulder Belt Eco-Farm. Please take a look, if you have not already, at the FSI share pictures I post each and every week. There are a couple of reason;1) I tag all the items so if you are unsure as to what is in your share this will guide you and two I think it is becoming a great progression. It was week 2 that I committed to getting a shot a week of the shares and now I am getting into the art of posing produce, getting good angles and putting out as high quality pictures as I can muster. I have to say I am improving drastically as we go through the season-food is very hard to photograph BTW. I am glad I came up with this creative project and I am doing this for you FSI members. here is the URL http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=174404&id=368403976315

Your shares will be ready after 4pm. Please return any and all packaging you get from us-bags, rubber bands, plastic sheets covering berry boxes, etc.. We do not want other people's packaging just ours. We also will take clean used plastic and paper grocery bags. The more of this stuff we reuse the less petroleum that needs to be drilled to make more virgin plastic.

This Week's Recipe

Squash Lyonnaise

2 or 3 medium zucchini sliced into 1/2" slices
1 medium onion sliced
Salt
Oil or butter

In a large saute pan over medium heat add the fat than everything else and cook covered for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. When the squash is soft and fragrant the dish is done. This is one of my all time favorite dishes, I could eat it daily. I learned to cook it when I worked for DiPaolo's restaurant in Oxford back in the early 1990's

What's in the Share

Red Raspberries-I had hoped to include these last week but by  last Wednesday we did not have enough for everyone (6 shares to fill and 4 boxes harvested). What a difference a week makes. You get 2 1/2 pint boxes in your share this week.
Wild Black Raspberries-I don't believe we have ever had enough of these to include in a FSI share but this is one of those things that really likes the weather conditions and so you get a 1/2 pint in your share
Zucchini-2 pounds of zephyr and sunburst patty pan squashes
Snow peas-1 pound. These are ugly but very sweet. I find the uglier and fatter they are the better they are.
Sugar snap peas-1/2 pound
Kale-1/2 pound of rainbow kale
Onions-2 red onions
Garlic-2 corms of Persian Star
Basil-more than last week, probably around 1/4 pound. More than enough to make a nice pesto
Tarragon
Cucumbers-3 tasty cukes
Broccoli- 2 pounds. I discovered 2 beds of broccoli ready to harvest and so I cut about 35 to 40 pounds of heads and put 'em in the fridge last night. This will likely be the last broccoli you will see so enjoy

Lucy Goodman
Boulder Belt Eco-Farm
Eaton, OH
http://boulderbelt.blogspot.com

It's week 10 of the FSI (in case you wonder why we are an FSI and NOT a CSA. This is because around here CSA stands for Confederate States of America, not Community Supported Agriculture).

It's been wet, too wet. Yes farms can and do get too much rain. We are getting, on average, 1/2 inch a day is way too much, ideally we get 1 inch a week. So what is too much rain doing to the farm? We have are beds with standing water, weeds that are growing huge and cannot be hoed out because the ground is way too wet. Nor can they be easily pulled without taking too much soil with them and they don't die after being pulled, even if we remove them and put them in a compost pile. We have crops dying because the water will not drain and the roots are rotting. It's not good. The good news is not all is lost, by any means. Despite the wet conditions, we still have a lot of food growing that is still growing well. Things like squashes and melons love all this water, it causes them to grow quickly. The onions also seem to love these conditions. As do eggplant. I know tomatoes and peppers do not like such wetness but so far they seem to be doing well and if it dries up as is predicted, they will do okay.

And being so wet means there are a lot of things we cannot do like mow the tall grass around the beds, work the soil, do anything other than plant seed by hand (not an issue if you are planting say, 10 seeds. but a big issue when you are planting hundreds or thousands of  seeds.) The good news here is we were able to get everything we wanted in the ground by now except the popcorn and we still have another couple of weeks before it gets too late for that. And, as I mentioned, even hand pulling of weeds is an issue (but won't be if we can get just 36 hours with no rain and a bit of sun). So we have been getting frustrated at not being able to do much more than harvest what is ready to come in and tie tomato plants. But that is farming, you are at the mercy of the weather and there is not much you can do about it except wait for it to change.

Now for some better farm news. the raspberries are beginning to come in. I doubt I will have enough for this week but by next week you certainly will be getting some in your share. the tiller was fixed for under $5. The problem was either a very old and dirty air filter or bad gas in the engine (or both). Eugene dealt with both and now the machine works again.

It is mid month and there are several of you who are not full season members from whom I need to know by this week if you will be continuing into July.

The shares will be ready after 4pm this afternoon

Recipe

Salad Nicoise with cucumber
I made this for lunch using up leftover green beans

1/2 pound cook green beans, chilled
1 cucumber sliced
1 small to medium sweet onion, thinly sliced
feta cheese crumbled
basil and parsley leaves
A nice vinaigrette

In a salad bowl mix everything together, add the dressing and toss. this is best if it can sit an hour or two in the fridge but is also very very good eaten ASAP. takes about 4 minutes to prepare

What's in the Share

Zucchini-around 3 pounds of a mix of zephyr (long yellow and green), sunburst patty pan (round and yellow) and a Costata Romanesque (long green striped). this zucchini has been sublime, the best we have grown in years
Cucumbers-you will get at least 2 armenian cucumbers.
Black Valentine beans-around a pound of beans.
Sugar Snap peas-you will get a pound. These are better than last week
Shelling Peas-you will get around 1/2 pound. The classic peas that you take out of the pod. lots of work but well worth it.
Snow peas-the first of the snow peas for the year. You will get 1/2 pound
Basil-the basil is finally doing well and thus you will get a fairly big bag. it is dirty and it does not do well in storage if washed (it tends to turn black and slimy) so I leave the washing to you. Wash and dry well right before using.
Parsley-a nice big bunch of Italian parsley. like the basil this will need to be washed before use
Beets-a bunch of  beautiful red beets with greens (which are edible and tasty, prepare like spinach)
Kale-you get 1/2 pound of either White Russian or rainbow kale
Garlic scapes-1/2 pound bag of scapes
Garlic-2 cloves of freshly dug garlic. This is used the same as cured garlic but it will appear that there are not skins on the cloves. There are but they are white not the purple or tan they will become later on if allowed to dry. If you leave a corm on the counter for 5+ days the skins will begin to get color. Fresh garlic is the best garlic of all and something you will never find at a store and it's around for just a few short weeks at farmers markets and CSA's

 

Greetings,

Well it's been a much better week. The herbicided plants have, for the most part recovered. I think we will lose some snow peas but not an entire bed and since snow peas tend to over produce this may be a good thing, meaning you won't in a few weeks start getting up to 5 pounds a week of the things in your share. The tiller works again. It had a nasty air filter which needed to be replaced. This is not an easy thing to do as they quit making parts for the engine on our tiller about 10 years ago. But Eugene found a Fram auto filter that was the same thickness at Auto Zone and with scissors and duct tape fashioned a new filter for the tiller for under $4 (I have a feeling the correct filter would run around $30 + shipping as BCS parts tend to be expensive because they are Italian). The tiller being fixed meant yesterday the last 10 potato beds were tilled and trenched this can be done by hand but it takes about 5x more time and is grueling. And frankly, what we do is grueling enough with the aid of some power equipment.

The other good thing is, crop wise, we are steaming into summer. This means a greater and greater variety of crops in your share from here on out. This week we add scallions, two kinds of green beans (these are early, normally beans come in at the end of June), Sugar Snap peas and some of you will get the first of the cukes (if you find kale in your share than don't expect cucumbers-the patch has only produce 4 or 5. By next week there should be plenty for all). These are Alpha Biet cucumbers (AKA Armenian) and a very nice sweet cucumber. First time we have grown them. Later on we will have 3 or 4 other varieties of cukes. Gone for the year are asparagus, lettuce (okay this might reappear if the late bed we planted actually works but if it gets hot again I don't think it will do much)

The bad thing is all this rain. We are beginning to have problems with crops in the badly drained areas (fortunately, most of the top field drains very well). We have lost 1/2 bed of arugula. The good thing is arugula in this kind of weather grows abundantly so a half bed should be more than enough for the FSI, store and farmers market. Still the wet part of that bed was sad, no arugula, no weeds, no nothing. The good thing is it made hoeing it out fairly easy yesterday. We are also losing some early potatoes (but the bulk are doing fantastic) and I see some kale is getting sick, all in the northern most beds. Oh well, soon enough we will probably be in dry conditions. I hope so, as we can always irrigate to keep crops going but when we get too much rain we can do little for crops rotting from being too wet much less be able to hoe or open new ground because you should never ever work wet soil (when dry, it resembles chunks of cement).

Okay, the shares will be ready after 4pm today and will be in the front fridge as usual. Since I felt last week's shares were a bit light expect more this week. If you wish to walk around the farm (yeah, right, in the rain) feel free to do so. Simply walk between the barn and the store and go through the gate on the right (be sure to close after you go in or the dogs could get out on the highway. The dogs are very friendly BTW).

Recipe

Oven Roasted Green Beans

Pre-heat your oven to 450°F

1 pound green beans, stem ends snapped off

1 tablespoon olive oil

Table salt and ground black pepper

Adjust the oven rack to the middle position. Line baking sheet with aluminum foil. Spread beans on baking sheet. Drizzle with oil and use hands to toss green beans to coat the evenly with the oil. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt, toss to coat. Distribute in one even layer. Roast 10 minutes.

Remove baking sheet and redistributed beans. Put back in oven and continue baking 10-12 minutes until the beans are dark golden brown in spots and have started to shrivel.

Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper.

What's in the Share

Sugar Snap Peas-1 pound

Cukes (or kale)-either 1 cuke or 1/2 pound kale

Zucchini-about 1/2 pound of Zephyr zucchini

Radishes-a bag of easter egg or French breakfast radishes

Scallions-a bunch of scallions

Cilantro-a 1/4 pound bag of cilantro. This is good with mexican dishes and is really good with Macaroni and cheese

Red Turnips-1 pound

Garlic scapes-1/2 pound

Broccoli-1/2 pound

Haricot Verts (French Green beans)-1 pound. These are the skinny beans. Cook no more than 10 minutes, if steaming.

Black Valentine beans-1 pound. These are the fatter beans. Steam for 14 minutes

It's been a strange memorial day weekend as we were without phone service from Saturday evening until yesterday after noon because someone took out the pole across the street  that we were connected to. I found out Centurylink is closed on 3 day weekends and if you have a problem you deal with it yourself. No we don't have cell phones here at Boulder Belt. Nor does Eaton have pay phones any longer, thanks to kids using them to call 911 as a prank. I thought being incommunicado would be great and I find not so much.

Than the tiller quit working, likely because it is 17 years old and the carburetor needs an overhaul (though it may be something else. The good news there is we have gotten pretty much all the tilling done and can do whatever else needs to be done with hand tools or the other tiller (which has always had some issues with running but we got it very very cheap at an auction). At some point in the next week or so I suspect we will put the thing into the van and take it up to Arcanum where they have a guy who works on Italian tillers such as ours. Unless, of course, Eugene can figure out what is wrong and fix it on his own.

On top of that a lot of the market garden was herbicided by unknowns over the weekend and we have lost a planting of green beans, peas are effected (but were far enough along that they will be producing by next week, but this will likely shorten their production time) as were raspberries (leaf damage but the berries that are developing look great). Fortunately the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant had not yet been transplanted and were either under shade cloth or glass so were not effected. The damage goes almost to our house and the guy next door sprayed on a low wind day with winds out of the SW so I do not think he is the source. It may be an inversion or it may be we got hit with a flyover by mistake. The good news is most everything that was killed (that would be the beans) has already been replanted and so while we lost a few hundred feet of crops, all that will happen in the long run is the harvest time will be pushed back 10 days (unless this happens again-than I will have to suspect something malicious is going on, as herbicide season should be just about over around here until late July). And this is one of the reason we use a lot of row cover-it keeps the chemicals off the crops. Unfortunately not all the crops will tolerate the covers and beans are one of those crops, which is why they got exposed.

Now, you may be asking about just how organic are these crops I am eating-as organic as possible growing in conventional farming country. Honestly pretty much everything around here (including us and certainly the water we drink unless well filtered) is exposed to farm chemicals. So we organic growers mitigate the damage by growing great soil (soil is the soul of organics, not the avoidance of chemical pesticides, though in order to get great soil you cannot use chemical pesticides and that is why they are avoided like the plague) and keeping things covered up as much as possible.

Oh and Betty has developed a liking for the watering roses on the ends of the watering cans. This morning she ate one and another is missing. Now that she is feeling better she is Hell on wheels.

So not the greatest of weeks here. But it is not all doom and gloom, most things are doing well, we have a volunteer coming out 2 times a week to help us keep things keeping on, we are no where near having failures and we are getting into a bunch of new crops. But as you can see farming is not all fun and sunshine, it's a risky business full of a lot hard work and dealing with a lot of things we have no control over.

So, speaking of tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, we are just about done with transplanting over 800 seedlings into the market garden. I have been impressed with our speed-we can do around 100 seedlings in an hour working together. I think by later this morning all will be in the ground as Eugene is finishing up the last 3 flats (approx 150 plants) of tomatoes. We have also been busy planting water melons, various winter squash (we are doing something like 8 different kinds), melons (cantaloup, galia, charentais and a few others), cucumbers, zucchinis, beans and a few other things that are not coming to mind right now) I would say we are close to being done with the summer planting season. We are not done with planting, though as we will be starting the fall/winter planting season around early July and that will continue until early November. The fun never stops here at Boulder Belt

Reminder, if you have not yet dropped off 4+ largish tote bags for your shares do so or we will continue to pack them in plastic bags. Also we will take back all bags, rubber bands, boxes and anything else our stuff is packed in. We do not want such things from other places, we just want our stuff back. The exception to this is plastic shopping bags-you have a pile of Kroger/Wal-Mart/Jungle Jim's/Meijer bags? We will take them as long as they are clean (we have gotten bags with used litter and rotten food and when that happens we have to throw out the entire lot as we cannot put other people's food into them and have to assume the entire lot is contaminated)

The shares, as always, will be ready after 4pm and in the fridge in the front. I suspect like the past 4+ weeks there will be two bags per share unless you have provided us with a really big bag, than just one. Look for bags with your name on them, they will all be marked.

Recipe

Roasted Garlic Scapes

1 bag (or more) of scapes
Olive oil
Salt

Get a pan that has a cover or you can cover with aluminum foil. Put the whole scapes into the pan, drizzle the oil over top and salt to taste. Cover and put into a 350F preheated oven and roast for about 20 to 30 minutes. When they are tender and smell like roasted garlic they are done. You can also do this on the grill only pack them into aluminum foil with the oil and salt and put on the grill for about 15 to 20 minutes.

What's in the Share

Asparagus-1 pound of mainly green. This is likely the last week for asparagus as the stalks are beginning to get tough even before they start to open.
Broccoli-new this week! Finally the broccoli is ready to harvest, or at least the first planting (we have at least two more younger stands). Fresh well grow broccoli is a delight.
Kale-a big bunch of Rainbow kale this week
Garlic scapes
Green beans-We started these in a hoop house so they are about 4 weeks earlier than normal. That's the good news. The bad news is there are not many and this stand has been infected by rust and may not be harvestable after this week-we will see. But there will be more and more beans over the summer so if this stand bites the dust, it's okay. you will notice that some beans look rusty and/or are misshapened-that's the rust at work. These beans are the heirloom, Black Valentine
Red beets-another early crop from a hoop house, like the beans we usually don't start harvesting these until late June/early July. Unlike the beans these have nothing wrong with them. these still have their greens which are sweet and yummy and this is where all the nutrients are as well-the greens have around 1000x times more vitamins and minerals than the beet root. Cook them as you would spinach or eat them raw.
Zucchini-you will get 2 or 3 small zephyr zucchini. we love to grow unique zukes instead of the flavorless dark green (referred to as black in the business) so we do several heirlooms and this wonderful hybrid. these are small enough to eat raw but grilling them is also a good choice. I suspect by next week you will get more in your share as the plants are loaded with tiny zukes.
Spinach-another week of spinach. Like the asparagus, I suspect this will be the last of the spinach until late fall/early winter. This is a plant that hates heat and dry conditions and thus hates Ohio summers
Cilantro
Savory
Thyme
Basil

 

Good Morning,

It's FSI day again (unless you are picking up later in the week, than the day you pick up your shares will be FSI day for you) and I have a lot of harvesting to do today for you guys and the store which is pretty much out of stock. We have a subtle shift is seasons going on. Because it has gotten hot all the lettuce has decided to get bitter and bolt (meaning it is making flowers and seed and not edible). The spinach is about 14 hours from doing the same thing (though it does not get bitter it just turns into stem and few leaves). So I need to get out and do some harvesting sooner than later this morning as the greens need to come in before the heat hits which is around 9 am. And all the other crops do much better if harvested when it is cool rather than when it is hot and sunny. The gist of this is for the first time you will not see head lettuce in your shares (and while I am listing baby lettuce  for this week that, too may be too bitter to use as well). Also we are beginning to see the first of the early summer things like turnips. In the next few weeks you will get peas of all kinds, zucchinis, Armenian cucumbers (These are suppose to be the long skinny cukes they shrink wrap and sell for $4 each), broccoli, red raspberries, haricot verts and regular green beans (I believe these will be ready next week as I already see beans on the plants), red beets (we also grow chioggia and golden) and onions.

I am pretty excited because we are eating the same stuff you are getting in your shares and frankly I am getting pretty bored with asparagus themed meals. I think we have eaten a pound of asparagus a day for the past 5 or so weeks. If it is true that asparagus is a cleansing food than we ought to as clean as a whistle by now. There are good aspects to having too much asparagus 1) we are making decent money selling it b) I have enough to do some great recipe experimentation and have come up with several good ones. iii) I have had more than enough to put up for winter by both freezing and fermenting (pickling with no vinegar-this is supposed to make the healthiest food we can eat. Last Friday I started 5 pounds of asparagus fermenting and as of last night it got quite lively. In another 2 to 8 weeks it ought to be all done and than I will put it into jars and start another batch of something. I don't really have any idea what I am doing with this but I have a book! Wild fermentation by Sandor Katz, a man with AIDS who claims fermented foods have kept him alive and healthy for the past 25 years he has been living with HIV/AIDS. Now, I am not a complete stranger to fermenting foods as I make my own bread and Eugene makes beer and wine. I guess this is the next step. And you too, can do this sort of thing if you get too much of something in  your share and you don't want to throw it out/compost it (which okay to do, never feel guilty about not being able to use everything in a share as there will be times when for one reason or another will happen).

Okay I will make this short because I must get out and start harvesting

No recipe this week

What's in the share
Asparagus-expect 2 to 3 pounds this week as we have a lot harvested and a lot more coming in all the time
Red Turnips with greens-these are salad turnips and can be eaten raw or you can boil them and mash them, use in soups and stews, etc..
Arugula
Baby lettuce - If I find this is bitter I will not include it in your share.
oregano
Rhubarb
Kale-a pound of rainbow and white russian kale
Basil-there should be more than enough for everyone to get a nice sized bag, perhaps enough for a nice batch of pesto
Parsley-Italian flat leaf parsley, one of my favorite herbs ever
Garlic scapes-These are the long skinny things that some people think look like green beans. these are wonderful roasted-350 oven put the scapes into a pan that can be covered, drizzle some oil over top and salt to taste. Cover and put in the over for 20 to 30 minutes. these will taste like roasted garlic and they look really weird.
Red Giant Mustard-this is sweet and hot like chinese mustard (I suspect the seeds re used for just this purpose). This is good in a stir fry or steamed
Garlic chives

The shares will be ready after 4pm today and will be in the fridge as usual. I suspect like past weeks each share will be two bags. I am pretty surprised that we have so much food so early, usually April and May are pretty thin on food selection and amounts but we have had a good growing season thus far.

 

Good Morning,

It's Farm share day once again-week 6 by my reckoning. It's been a wet and cool week. We did get a nice couple of days at the end of last week which made for a nice farmers market (the first two had bad weather. the first had pouring rain and the second high winds and cold). But the nice weather was fleeting. the good news is the cool weather crops such as lettuce, arugula, spinach, etc., love this weather so they are all of high quality and as long as we don't get a stretch of more than 2 days of 80 degree weather will continue to do well. the bad news is all the crops that like it warmer are not all that happy and growing slowly. Asparagus is one of those crops. Late last week we were harvesting twice a day and this week due to many days of cool damp weather we are harvesting about every 36 hours and the yields are going down. But a day of warm weather will put the asparagus into overdrive again, for another 2 or 3 weeks.

Barb Mackey asked me a good question last week when she picked up her share-what is coming up in the near future? The answer is broccoli in 2 weeks. snow peas, sugar snap peas and shelling peas in 3 weeks. Garlic scapes, the flower tops from our hard necked garlic which will be a new food for most of you, will be harvested next week. If you like garlic you will love these. We also have red salad turnips about ready to go (next week), two kinds of green beans flowering in a hoop house, red beets (also in a hoop house) that should be ready in 2 weeks. Armenian cucumbers and zucchini should be ready in 3 weeks-the zukes have flowers, the cukes do not yet so my guess is the zukes will be harvestable a week before the cukes. Red raspberries will be ready in 3 to 4 weeks. Cabbage in 3 to 4 weeks.

We have not gotten the peppers, eggplant and tomatoes in the ground yet and are getting a bit worried about the weather preventing us from doing this job in a timely manner. if it clears up next week as predicted we will be fine, if not we will be forced to work with wet soil which we want to avoid as doing so is very bad for the soil and leaves long term damage. What we need to do with this job is put down landscape fabric and irrigation tapes on 40 beds than plant around 900 seedlings. Eugene did get all the beds tilled before the wet conditions arrived so at least that is done. we like to get these thing in the ground by June 1st so we can harvest in August through frost. We are growing 16 different heirloom tomatoes, 4 kinds of eggplant and 9 kinds of peppers (mostly sweet but a couple of hots too). After these things are planted in the market garden that it will be time to do the melons (water melon and various cantaloups), more cukes and zukes and the winter squash. These are pretty easy as they are direct seeded and do not need the 5 to 8 weeks of coddling before they go into the ground. Not to mention, planting seeds is a lot simpler than putting in seedlings.

Yeah life here is about to get very busy between doing mass plantings of things, harvesting daily (when the raspberries come in someone will have to spend at least 4 hours every day for 5 to 6 weeks picking. I call it raspberry hell), keeping things mowed (long grass in aisle-ways gives pests like bugs and bunnies a place to hide right next to the crops which is a very bad thing), keeping crops weeded and keeping bugs off of the crops (which we do mainly by using row covers but we also hand pick, vacuum the up and will use botanical insecticides like neem ). the good news is we may just have our first volunteer of the year. A woman has emailed me asking if there is room in the FSI for her and if she can come out once or twice a week to work and learn about sustainable farming. I say may have because she has not yet come out here and in the past we have had many people ask about volunteering but few ever come through for us in any meaningful way. A lot of volunteers turn out to be a lot more work than they are worth. But we have also gotten some wonderful people who were quick learners and great workers so we still will take on such people. And if any of you ever have a hankering to get your hands dirty and learn a lot about sustainable farming in a short time feel free to contact us about coming out and putting a few hours on the farm.

This Sunday, May 23, we have scheduled a pot luck dinner and farm tour starting at 6pm. thus far I have gotten only two RSVP's (and they were regrets). If I don't get any responses by tomorrow I will cancel the event and reschedule for late summer/fall as we are getting too busy to do this easily and it seems not many folks are interested in this sort of thing.

We still have some chickens for sale for $25 a piece for a 4LB (approx) whole frozen bird. Let me know if you want one (or more) either via email before picking up your share or when you show up (someone should be around at least until 7pm). This will be the best chicken you have ever had as very few people raise them they way we do-ranged on pasture from day one of their lives and fed certified organic feed. Unlike most "pastured" chickens ours are extremely active and that makes for better quality

Recipe
Radish Slaw
This is better than cole slaw made with cabbage and a favorite of ours

2 to 3 bunches of radishes, well washed and with both ends cut off
1 small sweet onion
1 medium to large carrot
1 clove garlic or 1 tsp garlic powder (NOT garlic salt)
2 TBL vinegar (I like rice vinegar or balsamic but any will do)
1 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp salt (to taste)
1 TBL sugar
1 TBL olive oil
1/2 cup (or more) Mayonnaise
Optional: 1/2 cup chopped flat leaf parsley. You can also do 1/2 cabbage and 1/2 radish if you like

Grate the radishes, carrot and onion. fastest to use a food processor but a hand grater will also work. Dump the grated vegetables into a larger than you think you will need bowl and than add everything else and mix well, taste and make any adjustments. Put into the fridge for at least an hour before serving. Serve as a side dish

What's in the Share

Spinach-1 pound of spinach
Arugula-1/4 pound
Kale-a big bunch of White Russian kale
Asparagus-Looks like mainly green this week. At least 1 pound
Lettuce-1 pound of mixed lettuce
Tarragon-a big bunch
Broccoli Raab-1/2 pound bag
Garlic Chives-a big bunch of garlic chives AKA Chinese chives
Cincinnati Market Radishes-3 bunches of this beautiful and rare heirloom radish
Spring Mix-a nice sized bag of spring mix
Maybe Basil-The basil is not doing great so i will not make any promises that there will be enough to put into your shares but if it is there it is there

The shares will be ready after 4pm today

Lucy Goodman
Boulder Belt Eco-Farm
Eaton, OH
http://www.boulderbeltfarm.com

 

Greetings FSI members,

It's week 5 of this food adventure and in the past 7 days we have been through 2 frost warnings and several thunder storms and high winds. Spring was replaced by winter (or late fall) for a couple of days, which was a real negative for the farmers market and the asparagus patch. No, the cold doesn't kill it but it does mean the asparagus will not produce for several days and that is what happened over the weekend-very little asparagus to be had. But the up side for all you asparagus lovers is once it gets warm and there is rain it comes back making up for lost time, which it did yesterday (and I supposed today, tomorrow and on and on...)

The other crops are doing well as well. This is because for the first time at this farm (we were at another, rented, farm for 13 years about 15 miles NW of where we are today) we did soil testing and than bought fertilizer (they make certified organic fertilizers and that is what we used) and have been putting that on all the beds and it has made a huge difference in quality and yields. For years we thought that adding compost, crop rotation and doing green manures/cover crops was enough. All these things have done much to improve certain aspects of our soil and we have seen a slow improvement in crop quality and yield (but glacially slow improvements). So this year we decided to try this 10-10-10 fertilizer and all I can say is Wow! It is better than compost and we can fertilize around 25 beds with this stuff in the same time we can fertilize around 5 beds with compost. Now all that said we still make and use compost as well as grow green manures because they feed the soil in ways granulated fertilizers cannot. But we can see now that McGeary Organic fertilizers will be an important part of our fertility program in the future.

We have a request-we still have openings in the farm Share Initiative and one of the best ways to get more members is for our members to talk to their friends and colleagues about us. Frankly, we have far fewer FSI members that we would like (we have 5 members/member groups right now, last year we had 12 at this point in the season) and because we are not made of money (farming is not the best way to get rich as most of us farmers are anything but) we cannot afford much paid advertising (and in the past, when we have gone this route all we have done is wasted money). So we are asking you to talk us up among the people you know.

I should have brought this up earlier in the season. We at Boulder Belt are all about sustainability and one aspect of that is reusing the packaging we send home with you in your shares. We want back all bags, rubber bands and boxes (when the raspberries and strawberries come in you be getting boxes in your share). We also will take all clean plastic and paper shopping bags. But we really don't want soiled bags as we put your (and other people's) food in these.  We  DO NOT want boxes and rubber bands from food other than ours. But if it came from us we want it back and ALL clean plastic and paper shopping bags no matter where they came from. Oh yeah, if you have not yet supplied us with reusable cloth/plasticky bags drop 2 to 4 of them off when you pick up your share today (or you can give them to us at the Saturday farmers market in Oxford). The bigger the bags the better. I can see that soon (perhaps today) I will have to start using two bags for the shares (I should have done last week as it was a tight squeeze to get everything in one bag).

Betty Update-her E-collar came off this morning and she does not seem interested in ripping out her stitches (which we will remove Friday morning) she is full of piss and vinegar. I believe the ordeal is finally over for all of us and soon the farm will be able to go back to normal. This event has meant that for the most part both of us could not work at the same time. That leaving Betty for more than 2 hours was always a bad idea (except between noon and 3pm when she takes her long nap). When we came home from the farmers market Saturday she had torn up a rather large piece of the carpet in the guest room along with putting holes in a few select items of clothing and some catalogs were ripped up. All because the dog had to stay indoors and she was lonely and frustrated. We understand but it has not been fun for any of us, especially her. Now we just need to find another Vet as the one that did this to her does not deserve our business.

The Pot Luck dinner /farm tour will be May 23rd at 6pm. bring a dish to share and something to eat from

Oh yeah, we have, in our freezer, whole pasture raised chicken that we raised last summer. We have too many to eat and need to sell some. If you are interested the birds cost $25 for 4 to 5 pounds of the most sublime chicken you will ever eat. they are professionally processed and shrink wrapped and look just like a bird you would buy at the grocery but that is where the comparison stops. If you want one today be sure to find me or Eugene when you stop for your food and we will get you one (or more). I believe we have around 15 to sell.

See you after 4pm today and before 6am Saturday morning. The food will be in the fridge in the store as per usual.

Recipe

Asparagus Bruschetta

1/2 LB asparagus trimmed and cut into small pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 LB mushrooms slices.
1/2 pound spinach, washed and chopped
1 or more cloves of garlic
any other veggies
Salt
Olive oil or butter
1 loaf of a good French bread (I get mine at the Oxford Farmers Market) sliced, brushed with olive oil and baked on a cookie sheet at 350F for 15 minutes or until it is crunchy enough for you.

In a large saute pan heat the oil/butter than add all the veggies except the spinach. Stir occasionally to keep them from burning and cook about 5 minutes. than add the spinach and cook another 5 minutes. the bread should be baking while the veggies are cooking so that when the veggies are done the bread is done. Put bread slices on a plate and cover with the asparagus bruschetta and eat. Yummy

this recipe was invented Saturday afternoon after the farmers market when faced with a lot of left over asparagus and some spinach. kale, sweet peppers, peas, broccoli, radishes and many other vegetables would also be good in this quick and versatile dish.

What's in the Share

Lettuce-at least 1/2 pound (likely more) of a mix of heirloom lettuces
Spinach-1/2 pound this has been very very good
Asparagus-a couple of pounds of green and purple
Arugula-1/4 LB bag
Leeks-a bundle of tiny leeks which are the last of last year's leeks that we finally dug up freeing up 2 beds for tomatoes later on this month
Rhubarb- 1/2 pound
Thyme-a bunch of thyme
Radishes-A big bunch of a mix of Easter egg (round) and D'Avignon radishes
Chives-these now have flowers which you can make a simple vinegar from simply by snipping them off the stalk and cramming in a small jar and covering with white vinegar. 3 days later you will have a pink oniony vinegar that is wonderful to make dressing with.
Kale-3/4 pound; This week you should see a new kale called rainbow kale (you have been getting White Russian) This is a brand new kale for us so we have no comment on the quality of this. But it sounded so cool in the catalog so we are now trying it. You should get a mix of purple, green and white leaves (really the veins within the leaves)

 

Greenings and Saladations,

Here we are at week 4 for most of you and week one for some. For us this has been a trying week. If you are a faceBook friend or read my blog than you know we have been dealing with a very sick puppy due to a botched spaying job. We took Betty in April 26 to be spayed. We got her back that evening and things went down hill from there. Sunday we shelled out almost $900 to an emergency vet clinic in Dayton to fix her stitches that had all popped and allowed her guts to start to protrude-that was a lot of fun, let me tell you (few things more "uplifting" than being around people and their pets in crisis. I don't think I could handle work at the Veterinary ER for long-way too much death and way too little hope). But she is now well on her way to health. The sutures look good, she is getting energy back and hopefully she will be well in a week and can go back to being a farm dog and do her job of protecting the crops.

But because of all this we have not been able to do nearly as much on the farm as we should because someone has had to stay with Betty pretty much all the time so she doesn't get scared and lonely and than react by tearing apart the living room and her stitches. Now that she is getting better we are able to do more and more while leaving her alone in the house. I call this Betty Jail. And this is where I have been since Sunday while Eugene goes out and plays in the dirt all day.

Other than Betty monopolizing our hearts and minds we do have a farm and it has been getting rain this week. Over the weekend we got 3", which we needed badly. The crops and weeds have responded in kind by growing a lot. Eugene has been harvesting 30+ pounds of asparagus daily since Saturday (so expect a bounty in your share this week), the radishes and greens look fabulous. The share this week and likely next as well, will be heavy on greens as that, other than asparagus and radishes, is what we have growing. I realize for some this can get boring but remember leafy greens are some of the healthiest things we can eat a d the vast majority of Americans do not get nearly enough of such in their diet. I would estimate that around 90% are lacking in leafy greens as most Americans eat only iceberg lettuce as their greens intake and that leafy "green" is worthless in oh so many ways. I find greens give me a lot of energy in a way no other food does. I have been especially high on the broccoli raab-boy, that stuff makes me feel good.

Your shares will be available after 4pm. If you cannot get them today they will remain in the fridge in the store until Saturday morning at 7am and you can get them any time between now and than

=

Broccoli Raab with sausage
1 bag (1/2 LB) broccoli Raab, washed and chopped
2 cooked Italian sausages, cut into slices
1 medium onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic chopped
drizzle of Sesame oil
1TSP olive oil or Butter
Salt to taste
 
In a hot pan heat the fat than add the onions and cook until they turn translucent (about 3 minutes) stirring often. Than add the garlic and cook 30 seconds. Add the greens and sausage and cook 10 minutes on medium heat covered. Right before serving drizzle with sesame oil and toss.

Due to circumstances of the past week I do not know exactly what there is to harvest so this list may change a bit by this afternoon

Asparagus-2 pounds of green and purple in your share
Lettuce-a big bag 3/4 pound of mixed heads
Baby lettuce-1/2 pound bag. This is the lettuce component of the salad mix
Spring Mix-1 6 oz bag
Kale-a big bunch of White Russian kale
Fresh Tarragon-a nice bunch of tarragon
Fresh basil-a small amount of fresh basil, just a taste this week but soon we will have lots and lots.
Chives-this week they have flowers which are quite edible but very oniony
Spinach-the first cutting of the spring spinach.
Broccoli Raab-1/2 pound of raab
Mizuna-one of the greens in the spring mix only this is full sized. We love to cook/grill veggies like asparagus and put them on top of a bed of mizuna, top with a nice vinaigrette dressing and eat.

 

 

Welcome to week 3 of the FSI. This morning we wake up to temps in the mid to low 30's and that means probable frost. The good news is we expect such things to happen until Memorial day so we do not plant things too early and lose them. Yeah, I know the official last frost date is May 15th for this part of the world and I believe for Butler county and southward it really is. But here in northern Preble county we have been hit with light frosts as late as May 29th. the first time that happened to us we were I believe 3 years into market farming, didn't know much and it was a warm spring early and so we put out all the tomatoes and peppers and other heat loving crops in early May and felt pretty darned proud of ourselves for getting the garden in a timely fashion. Than it started getting cold and by Memorial Day weekend the low temps were going below 32F. Tomatoes and peppers will not tolerate such temp unprotected so we spent hours running around the 1 acre market garden (1/5 the size we work today) trying to protect the plants in the ground. And we did succeed in saving most by piling straw over top of each plant (and there were probably 400+ plants to protect. We did not know about using row covers or other techniques for protecting tender crops against cold back than so it was a real potential disaster. In the end, though as I mentioned most the plants were saved but later on we got bad yields because we found chilled pepper plants will pout all season and produce very little and chilled tomatoes will get hit with late blights and other diseases. So now we transplant these crops on or after Memorial day and while our crops come in a few weeks later than everyone else's they are generally in really good shape and productive and from a marketing standpoint we can sell the later tomatoes much more easily than early tomatoes as our main market is in Oxford, OH home to my Alma Mater, Miami, U (and where I was born and raised, as well) because the faculty and students coming back to school do not have home gardens full of tomatoes-in other words if we grow maters to harvest in July and early August we hit a big glut of them and it is very hard to sell them so most tend to go to the food pantry or the FSI members (and this means up to 35 pounds a week, literally. Which I think we all can agree is way too much for most people-I will warn you all if you are in the FSI this summer and fall you will get a lot of tomatoes, like 12 to 15 pounds a week unless we have a bad tomato year, which can and does happen (last year we had a pretty good mater year but most of the eastern US was hit bad by late blight which decreases the yield by around 75% and what you get is not the best quality).

Okay, we do have one crop we are harvesting that these cold mornings does effect and it is really hard to protect. That would be the asparagus. It gets frost damaged pretty easily so what we do is first cut all the tall spears and than cover all the remaining spears with little tents of straw. Most of the time we get very little damage by taking the extra hour to do this work. If the temps go below 28F all bets are off  on the emerging spears but the crowns (aka the roots) will be okay and after going dormant for 18 to 48 hours will resume production again. if it goes below 20F while the asparagus is producing than we are looking at major damage to the crowns themselves and probably losing entire plants. this is a very bad thing as it takes 2 to 3 years to get asparagus established. the good news is it almost never gets so cold around here in the spring and if it did I suppose we would have to go buy 20 bales of straw and get them on the asparagus beds to keep the ground insulated and warm.

Cold weather is something we are good at dealing with, far better than most farmers as a matter of fact. We were watching TV  news last night and they had a piece on the cold effecting crops and interviewed Monin's Fruit farm because they have tender crops that could get nuked by frost. they are now using row covers on their strawberries (after losing them completely 2 of the past 5 years) but mentioned the green beans they are growing will likely get killed or badly damaged by frost. Both Eugene and I laughed at the guy because we too are growing early green beans but we have row cover over them to protect them from frost (and ironically I believe we just took the row covers off of our strawberries because they were getting leggy and diseased, but since they are not in flower yet (and won't be for another 6 weeks because when you establish ever bearing strawberries you have to remove all flowers for the first 8 weeks) the cold will not bother them at all.

As FSI members, know that our knowledge and skill using season extension techniques is a big hedge against the risk we are all sharing and every year we get better and better at it.

Remember pick-up is after 4pm today. Usually I am all done harvesting, cleaning and packing shares by 2pm but today I suspect I will have to wait until 9am to start harvest (I usually start around 7am) so I may be working past 4pm to get things ready.

The shares are in the fridge to the right of the door.

Pot luck this Sunday after 4pm. Several of you have NOT RSVP'ed yet. Please to today, thanks. It only takes a few seconds to do so.

Recipe

This week's recipe is not really a recipe but rather how to deal with kale
You will get kale in your share this week (and likely most weeks through the season). Kale is delicious and very nutritious but a food most of us are not too familiar with or if we are, have only had badly grown kale (the kale from Wal-Mart is inedible for the most part-bitter and gritty. This is true of most industrially farmed kale).

So here is what you do with kale

First wash it than lay a leaf on a cutting board. You will notice a thick central vein, take a paring knife and cut it out, leaving the majority of the leaf and all the smaller veins behind. You cam eat this vein and the reason it is removed is it takes longer to cook than the rest of the leaf. If you want to use this part chop into pieces and toss into the cook water or saute pan about 4 minutes before the leaves are cooked. Now you know how to prep kale. Cooking kale is easy. The most basic thing to do is cook for 5 to 7 minutes in 1" of boiling water. It also is good sauteed in butter or olive oil with some onion and garlic. It also makes a nice omelette-sauté up some kale with onion and other vegetables. When done put aside and than make scrambled eggs. when the eggs are 2/3 done dump the veggies on top and top with cheese and put in a 200F oven for 5+ minutes (until the cheese is melted) and it is ready to eat.

What's in the Share

Lettuce- around a pound of lettuce
Kale-at least 1/2 pound of White russian kale. We grow 4 to 5 different kinds and you see different kales in your share over the season
Radishes-another big bunch of D'avignon radishes
Spring Mix-1/2 pound of salad mix. Remember to wash this and all of our greens.
Arugula-this is a peppery sweet salad green that is also great on pizza (top with arugula after cooking). You will get a 1/4 pound bag
Popcorn-this will be some of the best popcorn you will ever eat. It is an heirloom popcorn that pops up white
Rhubarb-I have no idea how much you will get in your share. I hope 1/2 pound but I have not looked at the rhubarb in several days so I don't really know how much is out there. You may get more than a 1/2 pound or perhaps less (but I seriously doubt that)
Cilantro-you will get a generous baggie of cilantro from our over wintered and volunteers that have sprung up all over the garden. Cilantro has become a weed around here but a harvestable weed
Asparagus-I believe you will get 2 pounds this week, 1/2 green, 1/2 purple (no matter how cold it got you would have gotten you asparagus as it was cut yesterday before the cold)
Garlic Chives-AKA chines chives. Like onion chives but with a garlic flavor.

I may toss a few other items into the shares, I won't know until I finish harvesting

PS as I finish this newsletter the temp is hovering around freezing and frost is forming on the barn roof but we will be A-OK.

Lucy Goodman
Boulder Belt Eco-Farm
Eaton, OH
http://boulderbelt.blogspot.com

It's Wednesday once again and that means it is Farm Share Day!!! It is also the day That the farm store officially opens which really doesn't mean much to you members.

I would like to talk about a couple of things. One there is kitchen equipment you need (if you do not have it already) the most important tool a CSA?FSI member needs is a salad spinner. if you don't own one go to my blog and on the right side bar are several items I am selling via Amazon. On the top line of the Amazon box is the Zyliss Salad spinner. I have owned one for over 10 years and use it almost every day (this time of year, several times a day). This is a big thing about eating whole foods, you have to have the right kitchen equipment to cope, otherwise it can get nightmarish-cut fingers, wet lettuce, etc.. Other things a whole foods kitchen should have
a micro plane-You can get these at any hardware or kitchen supply stores
A food processor. I am a Cuisinart girl but most do the trick.
A good vegetable peeler. For Christmas I got a ceramic peeler and it is the best. It will peel carrots and parsnips with ease and does a great job on the hard skin of Butternut squash (perhaps the best test of any peeler-if it goes through squash it will handle about anything else). Got it at Jungle Jim's along with a ceramic knife (for way too much as I see the same set advertised in the paper for 1/3 what I paid)
A good paring knife-I am in love with ceramic knives but stainless steel is also excellent. Ceramic will keep and edge for years whereas SS needs to be sharpened at least once a month (my SS field knife get sharpened daily, sometimes more often, but than that blade has to go through soil and rocks). BTW, the sharper the knife the safer the knife. At any rate, paring knives come in very very handy, you will use one a lot so perhaps you should get 2 or 3.
A good chef's knife-I used to believe that one needed to buy only the top of the line but an accident at a fraternity house where I cooked between the boys (likely extremely drunk and high) and my $300 chef's knife proved me wrong. They broke my knife and I couple not replace it on their dime with another top of the line knife so I had to get a fad cheaper model and It works well and 17 years later I still use the knife.

I know there are a few other items that are essential but they are not coming to mind right now. But what I listed is what I use, pretty much, daily

Life on the farm is busy-we plant, we harvest, we hoe/weed, we mow grass, Eugene tills beds, we water seedlings in cold frames and hoop houses, time is taken to train Betty on the ways of farm dog life-staying out of beds (which she has good days and bad days), catching critters (she got her first rabbit yesterday. You may think bunnies are cute but not when they eat an entire 50' bed of spinach that was supposed to be harvested for the FSI members. Rabbits, left unchecked, can do an amazing amount of damage to a several acre sized market garden. Add in deer and take away to dogs and in a matter of a week they can destroy around 75% to 85%), being cute (okay, she has that skill sewed up). This week we will get the rest of the onions seedlings planted (this is literally like planting blades of grass), along with cucumber, zucchini and Galia melon seedlings that will go into the last hoop house we erected. This will mean, if all goes right, that we will enjoy cukes, zukes and melons a good 8 weeks before they are in true season around here. When I say "If all goes right" I mean we have had armies of voles invade newly planted hoop houses and eat the heads off of every seedling planted earlier in the day. It is really maddening and depressing to find all the days of work (it takes a minimum of 15 days to get the seeds to grow into seedlings before they go out into the houses) destroyed over night. There are also insects that will kill freshly planted seedlings such as cut worms.

But all is not lost, 1) Betty and Nate (along with our resident snakes) have done some great control of the vole population sine the snows melted back in Feb. B) we will protect the seedlings by popping "Cut worm collars" made from old drip tape lines over them. What we do is take 6" pieces of drip tape split them in half length-wise and put them over the plants so only the tips of the leaves are showing. This thwarts bunnies, voles and cut worms (as well as reuses what other wise would be put into recycling) and ever since we have used this technique we have very low losses of our seedlings. This is one of the many ways we attempt to lower the risk we are all into with this Farming/FSI thing.

I have been thinking about the Pot-luck dinner/Farm tour and I think May 2nd would be a great day to have it. We will provide Chicken from the birds we raised last summer and have stored in the freezer, home brewed beer and home made wine along with salad and salad dressing. You bring a dish that will feed 6 people (ideally made with local ingredients, but this is not a requirement) plus flatware, plates, drinking vessels. last year I had planned on doing this sort of thing monthly but after the first dinner had few to no takers most months so this year I have scrapped the idea of a monthly event. But if you guys want to do a local foods dinner every month I am game. If you think your life will be too busy to swing this sort of thing that is fine too. Let me know if having a monthly dinner would be of interest, otherwise we will likely not do another until late summer/early Fall. I will need you all to RSVP Yes or No before April 30th about this upcoming event.

Recipe

Potato and leek Soup
2 ways
2 pounds of potatoes, scrubbed and cut into smallish cubes
2 leeks cut into slices
1 TBL butter or olive oil
1/2 tsp fresh thyme
1/2 to 1 tsp salt

In a 4 quart (or bigger) pot add the cubed taters and enough water to cover them buy an inch. Put that on the stove, cover and bring just to a boil (about 5 to 7 minutes over medium heat). While that is going on, in a 2 gallon heated pan add the fat and the leeks. Stir the leeks constantly and after a minute of so start smashing the leek rounds so that the layers separate. When the potatoes just start to boil add them AND the water they are in, to the cooking leeks. Add the salt and thyme. Let this simmer for 1/2 hour to an hour. When everything seems cooked enough get out a blender or food processor and put half the soup in and blend it for about 30 seconds until smooth (you will likely have to do this in 2, maybe 3 batches). Add the blended soup back to the soup pot, taste, adjust the seasoning and the soup is ready to serve.

This is vegan style. If you want Decadent Style than start with cut up bacon-put that in a hot pan and cook stirring constantly. When the bacon is crispy, remove and add some butter and the leeks. Continue as above. After you have added the processed leeks and potatoes back to the soup add a cup (or more) of heavy cream, cook on low heat for an additional 10 minutes and serve.

What's in the Share

Lettuce-5 to 6 heads of lettuce in the bag
Spring Mix
Broccoli Raab-this is the first time we have ever grown or eaten this. I asked at the farmers market how to prepare and was told either steam it like other greens (think spinach) or sauté it in olive oil with a bit of onion, garlic. While this is called broccoli Raab it is a much closer relative of the turnip and the greens taste somewhat like turnip greens (not a personal favorite of mine but I rather like this stuff). This is what makes CSA's a wonderful thing-the adventure in food, having to try new things.
Radishes-this week a big bunch of beautiful heirloom D'Avignon radishes
Parsnip
Potatoes-a 3 pound bag of  either Yukon Gold or Kennebec white (there will be a label on the bag. And just because the package looks like what you would find at the grocery store be assured we grew these taters-we simply have invested in packaging supplies)
2 or 3 leeks
Chives-use to top the tater and leek soup or in a salad or a dip
Thyme-for the soup

There may be a few other items stuck in the shares as well, like last week and the acorn and delicata squash.

The shares will be ready any time after 4pm. If you will not be picking up today please let me know by this afternoon so your share is not sitting out in warm conditions for 4+ hours

Lucy Goodman
Boulder Belt Eco-Farm
Eaton, OH
http://www.boulderbeltfarm.com