This time of year is a real crazy one on the farm–Transplant Days.  Right now we are tasked with harvesting at nearly full capacity, seeding and planting at nearly full capacity, weeding, feeding the plants, as well as transplanting nearly everything we seeded in the spring.  At least this year the watering is being taken care of for us!

One of the biggest adjustments from rural farming to urban farming is trying to get a large harvest out of a really small space.  It requires lots of intensive, successive plantings.  I feel like Molly and I really nailed our spring seeding schedule this year, and will be able to tweak it slightly to get the most spring and summer harvest possible in the next years.  In the beginning of April we seeded the section that would be the tomato, pepper, and eggplant section.  We plants these plants together because they are all in the family solanaceae and are all warm-weather fruiting plants.  The plants we seeded in April are the greens, radishes and lettuces we’ve been giving to you so far.  Now, we are tearing those up just in time to transplant all of the warm-weather fruiting plants.  The next thing we seeded in the spring were the beds that would be for the squash, cucumbers, and melons.  These plants are all in the family cucubritae.  They are all vining, fruiting plants that like warm weather.  We pre-seeded their section in three different classes of vegetable–really quickly growing (radishes, mustards, arugula); quickly growing (lettuce, spinach, bunching greens); and not so quickly growing (carrots, beets, scallions, turnips).  In one of the two beds that are full of really quickly growing things we have already seeded melons and in the other we seeded cuces and zuces.  Cucubrits require a lot of space between each plant, because they eventually sprawl extensively.  So instead of having lots of bare ground between the small, young plants, we will have harvest-able vegetables!

If we were in a rural area we would being using cover-crops instead of early greens, because organic farmers never want bare ground.  Cover crops tend to restore nutrients and give the soil a break; while growing food requires nutrients, and taxes the soil.  Because of our more intensive system, we need to compensate the soil in a few ways.  First, we don’t till or turn the ground between plantings.  Tilling and turning increases the surface area of the soil that is exposed to oxygen, and therefor speeds up the bacteria that break down the soil nutrients into ions that the plants can take up.  We like this bacteria to slowly release these nutrients over the course of our long, intensive season.  Also we try not to pull the old plants out of ground if we can.  Instead, we cut them just below the soil level so that their roots remain in the ground.  Plant roots are a living ecosystem of fungus and bacteria that symbiotically eat the plants’ excretions while also breaking down soil matter into small ions that the plants can take up through their roots.  By not disturbing or killing this ecosystem, it is all ready to support the new plants that we transplant or seed in the same spot.  Finally, we spread compost between every planting to restore the nutrients we harvested and ate.  This season we are trying to put compost directly in holes we are transplanting into.  We hope that this will give the plants the nutrients right where they need them.

Katie (and Molly)

Molly

Welcome to the spring CSA!  As most of you know already, our spring shares are generally composed of different types of greens (arugula, lettuce, mustard mix, spinach), herbs, radishes, scallions, peas, and then the beginnings of the summer treats toward the end.  This week is no different.  You received:

1. Seeds ordered and started!

2. 40 baby chickens brooding in my basement.  They’re moving to the garage tomorrow.

3.  CSA is full for this year, but you can email us if you want to be added to the waiting list.  Put “CSA Waiting List” in the subject please.

4.  Market stand and volunteer days will start on May 8.  They will be every Sunday and Wednesday from Noon – 5.

5.  We applied to a farmer’s market… we’ll try to internet about it if we get in.

6.  We, also, wish it was warmer.

The last week brought us some great melon and tomato weather, with a good amount of rain and heat. We hope to be able to give you guys some of the exciting stuff (i.e. tomatoes) really soon! I’ve been thieving the first little sungolds off of the vines and they are truly delicious. Anyhow, I hope you’ve been able to keep up with all of the greens we’ve been giving you. I know it’s a lot so we’re giving you a break this week. The 5 people who received tomatillos last week will be getting summer squash this week and the summer squash people will get tomatillos. Everyone will be getting cilantro, onions, and jalapenos for salsa making. In addition to that there will be arugula, a head of cabbage, and a surprise item. It’s a surprise because we haven’t decided what it will be yet.

I think the biggest item will be the cabbage this week so here are a couple of recipes to use up all of that wonderful, multi-layered, round vegetable.

Vegan Stuffed Cabbage

Ingredients:

• 2 packages of veggie ground meat subsitute
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• black pepper (to taste)
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup cooked brown rice (I like to cook it in a little vegetable stock for added flavor)
• 1 1/4 teaspoons garlic powder
• 2 cans tomato sauce
• 27 ounces sauerkraut, drained (optional)
• 1 large can diced tomatoes (or use fresh tomatoes from the farmers market!)
• 1 medium head cabbage
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3 cups water

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the veggie ground beef, onion, cooked rice, parsley, salt, pepper, garlic, and 1/2 can of tomato sauce. Core the cabbage and and boil in a pot of water until partly cooked (don’t overcook!), then separate the leaves and trim off the stems. Set aside between 24 and 32 whole leaves. Use the remaining leaves to line the bottom of a large baking pan, roasting pan, or casserole dish. Stuff a small handful of the Smart ground mixture in the center of a cabbage leaf. Fold top part of leaf over mixture, then fold in the sides and roll until mixture is completely encased. Lay rolls on top of the extra cabbage leaves in pan. If you are so inclined, spoon some sauerkraut over rolls, then sprinkle with sugar. Mix chopped tomatoes and sauce with water and pour over rolls. Add additional water as necessary to reach top of cabbage rolls. Bake for about an hour or so until cooked through and hot.

If you have any leftover cabbage you can make sauerkraut with it. There is a good recipe at this link:

http://www.wildfermentation.com/resources.php?page=sauerkraut

This is one of my favorite things to do with cabbage and it takes so little time in the summer. This is a good recipe but you have to adjust the amounts to fit how much cabbage you have. He uses 5 lbs, but you can halve or third the recipe according to what you have. Also, the time-frame he gives may not be correct because the air temperature is so hot right now. If you don’t have a/c then your kraut could be ready in a week. You should just taste a little bit every day until it tastes as sour as you like it.

I hope you are all enjoying the food and getting a chance to hone your cooking skills. Let us know if you think of any good recipes, especially for all of these greens.

Thanks! See you tomorrow at the farm. Don’t forget to pick it up!

Molly

Summer is raging at the farm!  All that rain did a good job of fattening up all the plants and their fruit, and now this sun shine is ripening everything–Molly and I have both been able to snack on a few of the first tomatoes, which means you all will be getting some next couple of weeks!

I hope you all enjoyed your vegetables last week.  We tried to set you up for some tasty salads.  Last week you also all got big bunches of chard, and this week you have gotten more chard and also beet greens (beet greens are delicious and taste a lot like spinach!).  If this heat is keeping you from cooking all of those greens, I would recommend throwing them in the freezer so that you can enjoy delicious, local food in the winter.

What I do to freeze greens is: rinse them, chop them to the size I will want to cook them at when I remove them from the freezer (once they’re frozen there’s no more opportunity to wash or cut), throw them into any old plastic bag (many people insist on using Ziploc freezer storage bags, but I almost always just use regular plastic bags that you get from the grocery store and everywhere else), label the bag with the type of veggie and the date, and throw them into the freezer.  Many people suggest that you blanch greens before freezing them, but I don’t for three reasons:  1. They taste fine without doing the extra work.  2.  If I wanted to turn on my stove to blanch the greens, I’d just eat them now.  3.  You lose the water soluble nutrients to your blanching water.  You could also chop up your beets and rutabagas and throw those in the freezer too, but they should last for a while in your fridge.  Remember to remove the greens from your beets as soon as you can–it will help them stay fresh and crisp.

Also, this week half of you got tomatillos (the other half will get them next week).  To make tomatillos salsa, you don’t even need to roast the tomatillos (keep that oven off!).  Take the husks off the tomatillos, rinse them, chop them and throw them in the blender with some minced cilantro, onions, hot peppers, and water.  I put tomatillo salsa on everything–eggs, sandwiches, salads….

If you didn’t get tomatillos you got a summer squash.  My roommate Elise makes a delicious and easy squash dish by sauteing some garlic salt and pepper in butter and then adding shredded squash to it.  It is great and goes well with eggs in the morning.  It also tastes good cold out of the fridge the next day.

Like I mentioned earlier, you also all received some rutabagas.  If you don’t know how to cook rutabagas these are a few of my suggestions:  Treat them like a potato–boil them and mash them or make a rutabaga/carrot/potato soup, etc. My favorite thing to do with them is to cube them and other root/tuber vegetables (beets, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc); then toss them will olive oil, whole garlic, salt, pepper, and any herbs I love; and then roast them in the oven (350-450 for about an hour or until a nice texture) while I sit on the porch and drink an icy beverage.  I often make a whole bunch of these roasted roots and eat them throughout the week.

We hope you are all enjoying your vegetables and being a part of our CSA.  We are both really glad that we can have a CSA this year!  You all are our first CSA, so please let us know if you can think of ways that we can make the CSA better in the future.  Also, remember that when you come pick up your bag, you are welcome to hang out and check out the garden.  You can also poke around and see if there’s anything else you want us to harvest for you–right now, for example, we have a ton of basil!

Have a good week,
See you next Monday,
Katie Williams

Katie and I are really excited to give you the first ever CSA box from Patchwork Farms. Don’t forget to pick it up Monday between 12 and 8pm. One of us will be there and we’re happy to give you a lil’ tour of the farm if you want one. The plants have recovered really well from the hail and strong winds and the hot weather and rain have been great.  Since it’s been so hot all I’ve wanted to eat are salads so this box is going to be all stocked up for salad making. Some things you can expect to find in your box are:

Lettuce
Arugula
Watermelon Radishes
Beets
Basil and Lemon Basil
Pac Choi

I made a green goddess dressing the other night with some basil from the farm so I wanted to share the “recipe” with you. I say “recipe” in quotes because I kind of made it up and didn’t measure anything but I’ll give you the ingredients and approximate amounts

Basil Green Goddess Dressing

3 cloves of garlic (or garlic scapes if you have them)
Plenty of basil
lemon juice to taste
tamari to taste
a few tablespoons of tahini
a few splashes of apple cider vinegar
plenty of olive oil to make it creamy and liquidy
a couple of tbsp of sunflower seeds

I would just throw everything in the food processor a little bit at a time and keep tasting it until it tastes garlicky and basil-y and delicious.

Also there are 2 spots left for people to join the CSA so if you know anyone who is interested, let me know.

See you soon!

Molly and Katie

The evening will start at 5p with three live bands:

The Kodiak Farm Boys

Al Scorch

The Tillers

After that, we’ll move on to dance calling by T-Claw from Nashville, TN:

Beginners workshop at 7:00pm and dancing shortly thereafter, until around 10:00pm or when demand or energy is expended.

All dances will be taught. Everyone will have fun. No one is required to dance, but everyone is encouraged to try it out. No experience necessary.

There will also be beers from New Belgium Brewing Co.

It (like us) is on facebook – http://www.facebook.com/events/390723127631565/

Basil

Tomatillos

Tomatoes (many varieties)

Kale (4 varieties!)

Okra

Eggplant (small fruiting varieties)

Ground Cherries (very delicious fruit, you should give ‘em a try)

We’re open Wednesdays and Sundays from 2-7 or by appointment.

Molly