Ice in the Air

Week 15

Heirloom Tomatoes

A little of Everything Pepper Mix

  Bulgarian Carrot Peppers

  Cajun Belle Peppers

  Hungarian Hot Wax

  Beaver Dam Peppers

  Black Hungarian Peppers

Basil

Swiss Chard

Garlic Bulbs

Garlic Pearls for Soup

Fennel

Onions

I'm so happy with the peppers this year. The greenhouse providing this vitality. I love the Bulgarian Carrots living up to their name and the Beaver Dams are a color of their own. There really starting to accelerate with sun the lower in the sky keeping the greenhouse so comfortable and inviting for heat lovers.  

Week 16

3.5 lbs Zucchini and Yellow Squash

Garlic

2 lb Tomatoes

Southern Frill

Fordhook Chard

Basil

Fennel Herb

Chives

this week we're experiencing a consistent freeze warning and are doing everything we can to extend the season using row covers and a double tunnel system. still it's a real challenge since we can buffer only about 8 degrees at the most and it will be in the 20's again tonight. the double tunnel system is working well during this transition seasons. fall being easier to manage with warmer soil radiating at night. at this point with even lower temps we're hoping for the best. the tomatoes have a prominent place in the tunnel being double covered. they seemed to make more direct strides toward the land of red today but i'll be watching gauge for a late night harvest.

2012 Summer Food Share

The Song Sparrows started singing last week and the Robins arrived around Flathead Lake which means spring is on the way. We are up to our usual antics on the farm and have onions, herbs, flowers and an early round of peppers sprouting. After much dilly dallying we've decided to heat the greenhouse, during the transition into spring, with a a small woodstove. We've been playing with our thermal mass barrels which work quite well during the evenings of a sunny day. However, most days cloud cover abounds in the our pocket of the Northwest. Both my other ideas of a solar panel and small wind turbine to power a heater or the original plan of building a pocket rocket failed. One seemingly capable of burning down our sacred 200 square feet greenhouse while the other just didn't have the juice. So, we're saving the steel drum for the outside rump warmer around the Earth Oven and firing away in the woodstove instead. They'll be an opportunity to join us this summer for another community building project of a Cob Oven and Rocket Bench with our hands and feet so stay tuned.


We hope you enjoyed your Farm Share last summer and really appreciate your support during our first season. This summer's shares will run about 20 weeks. If you miss securing your spot by March 15th we have some late spring sign up options to choose from. For those of you who love greens, are turning over a new leaf in your nutrition or curious what Asian Greens are we have an Asian Greens Share that runs 20 weeks. We also have an Heirloom Tomato Share that gives you our bounty of Siberian and European Tomatoes in 10 weeks. Or perhaps you're in the mood for for a weekly Cupcake Card for yourself or someone sweet to your heart that can be purchased all season long. And if you're planning an occasion that requires some vibrancy we're offering event and wedding flowers by the stem or prearranged Mid August through September.
The Full Shares will start late May to early June depending on how warm spring and fall is and run into October. You can find a general idea of what we'll be offering week to week by reading some of last summers Weekly Share Blogs.

Full Share $500 (20 weeks)

Asian Greens Share $70 (20 weeks)

Heirloom Tomato Share $100 (10 weeks)

Cupcake Card $10 

Event and Wedding Flowers by request

Send us an email or letter by pony express when you're ready to reserve your space or purchase today via Pay Pal

Food Share Choices

Full Share $500.00 USD Cupcake Card $10.00 USD Asian Greens Share $70.00 USD Heirloom Tomato Share $100.00 USD

Discover this great recipe for enticing leprechauns. They can't resist the temptation.

Week 12 Garlic Braids and Potatoes

Our purple stripe soft neck garlic braids are hanging in a prominent place in our kitchen and we hope they'll be happy in yours too. We washed the french fingerlings and blue adirondack potatoes so keep them refrigerated. And the heirloom tomatoes are starting to show their true colors. We thought we'd have to pull all of them Saturday before the freeze. The weather changed it's forecast thursday to no chance of freeze and not even frost to an abrupt turn this evening for clear starry skies - perfect for meteors dropping into the big dipper, a clear view of a northeast southwest oriented milky way and.....frosty temps. So down to the garden we go to harvest flowers, tender herbs, ripe tomatoes, mustard greens and chard. Hoping the cold doesn't settle to hard "down" in the garden. The cold air likes to ride right over our hillside and settle in the garden. In fall I've watched, with hose in hand, frost clouds start pumping to the edge of our only slightly elevated sight compared to the wetland.

The beauty in all these weather patterns taking ups and really low downs is the flower arrangements in the house. There's not much we can do other than cut the blooms and enjoy the fragrant sweet peas inside and prepare to start watering before dawn.

Next week, we'll get back into mixing in some greens, hopefully a cucumber or two and more tomatoes. If you want extra garlic or tomatoes let us know and we can add them to your remaining weeks. There is just 6 more extra large shares that might downsize to 4 even larger shares if the weather dives down too much in the evenings.

Week 2 Squash Blossom CSA

The garden is shaping up with this much needed warmer weather. This week, I replanted spinach, beets and radishes as the previous crop did not emerge during the soggy bout.boo hoo.

The radish mix should be quite colorful and varied with Easter egg mixes, belles and german giants. We also transplanted the remaining broccoli, kale, bok choy and lettuce seeded some kohlrabi and fennel to the rows and scattered more daikon.

Daikon is a Japanese Radish that seems a totem in Macrobiotic Cooking. It forms a stout white root with a strong spicy flavor. It's also a great soil aerator providing organic matter if left in as a cover crop or serves an easy guide for successive plantings of other food crops. You'll find it scattered about in most of our garden.

We also ventured into the world of Purple Asparagus earlier in the spring. The extra compost I added this week will give them a boost when we pull our first harvest next year. It's making very teeny tiny small shoots right now that are more enjoyable to admire than to ponder eating.

In the berry world the strawberries are looking great with plenty of flowers and the first berries forming. We also have trial run of Northern Blackberries that we're hoping will actually produce early this fall and our Raspberries show signs of fruit too.

After we finish off the arugula this week and work through more of the bok choy we'll be transitioning that row into our peppers and moving some more warmer weather crops into the high tunnel. The squashes, eggplants, okra and peppers have been quite happy in the greenhouse. We'll leave a handful of peppers and okra in the greenhouse to see if they produce more prolifically than growing in the high tunnel.

So this week the share consists of a couple roseates of tatsoi which has a dark green quality that we like to eat fresh like spinach. A few heads of Grandpa's Admires lettuce. This heirloom lettuce was introduced to Seed Saver's in the 1970's and carries an interesting story like all heirlooms. Some more chives and marjoram and a few heads of bok choy. I saw our first bee buzzing in the chive blossom yesterday.

Also, the bok choy will be peppered with some holes as we do have persistent little critters out there. We strongly believe in a chemical free, organic and sustainable methods so we eat our greens with holes from time to time. However, nightly we do collect and occasionally toss slugs to the furthest distance possible in the evenings. Even with the cosmetic drawbacks, the bok choy is absolutely delicious chopped up and stir fried. It also freezes well if you pre-chop and bag in zip locks.

You'll also find "early" garlic. Finely slice the white ends and use like regular cloves. These clusters we're from our trial on leaving the flowers intact to determine if the garlic stored longer without losing bulb size. We found it did so far but plan on testing this annually. The garlic has 2 other seasons coming-fresh scapes and the grand finale of bulbs.

The recipe this week was located in Roz Denny and Christine Ingram's Vegetarian Cookbook.

Bok Choy With Lime Dressing

1/2 a bunch of chives

1 bok choy head

dried red chillies

2 garlics

1 tblsp ground cashews(we use a coffee grinder)

Dressing

2 tblsp fish or mushroom sauce

2 tblsp lime juice

1 cup coconut milk

Blend mushroom sauce, lime juice and coconut milk.

Stir fry red chilies in olive oil for 2-3 minutes set aside on plate

Stir fry sliced garlic and chopped chives for 30-60 seconds and add to chilies

Finely shred bok choy then toss in salted boiling water for 10 seconds-drain and transfer to large bowl

Pour Lime dressing over the bok choy and sprinkle with ground cashews and chili mixture

Bluebirds and Beginnings

Here's what we've started so far this season

Heirloom and High Altitude Tomatoes

Aurora-Prairie Fire-Silver Fir-Sasha's Altai-Sub Arctic Plenty-Mikarda Sweet-Polish Linguisa-Soldaki-Hungarian Heart-Odessa

Peppers

Napolean Sweet-Feher Ozon Paprika-King of the North-Hungarian Yellow Wax-Buran-Black Hungarian

Greens

Pak Choi-Kan Tsai-Pablo-Grandpa's Admire-Jericho-Tatsoi-Arugula-Radicchio-Emerald Oak

We're also trying Turkish Orange and Pingtung Long Eggplants, Dr. Whyche's Tomatillo and Watham Broccoli.

The onions are overflowing with Alisa Craig and Red Marble mixed in with King Henry Leeks and Red Celery.

Yesterday we placed our barn wood bluebird box up just in time for the arrival of our Western Bluebird pair. It took them exactly 3 minutes to investigate a possible new home for this years brood or two.

We're also raking in our cover crops in certain beds to amend the soil and change the structure a bit. We'll be experimenting with turning it over into the bed after it's grown a cycle and using what's called green manures.

Green manures integrate cover crops with seasonal food crops and serve as a mulch and replenisher simultaneously. This in theory should cut down on "weeding" and provide habitat for beneficial insects.

Mmm...coffee bags filled with straw and bean shells. It's starting to smell like fresh coffee in the greenhouse

Squash Blossom Farm CSA

Sharing the Harvest

This season we have some infrastructure projects to fine tune and build. Our hoop houses need some mending and strengthening from the beating they've sustained since 2007. The wind can be severe but will be useful for our turbine. We also have a reclaimed glass/strawbale greenhouse we're building and fence to finish.

We're really close to completing the fence. The 73rd and last fence post was set on Sunday! We have a few gates to make and wire to tack up and the half acre is enclosed. I have never been one for play pens but this one rocks. Our farm is machine free so all our post were hand dug and set by Salty over the last few seasons with some assistance by J-Bird and Papa P. I of course provided the morale boosting and beverage support, which did include some homemade hot cocoa, plus I did swing a hammer and marked out the property to get things going.

Even though we're not selling this year- we're still working the rows and testing out some more heirloom and short season vegetables while providing enough food for us. Our plan is to offer a CSA next season and will then have a strong structure support to make it easier.

The CSA will be a mix of about six Shares for 20 weeks and options include

Traditional Veggie Share-$25 per week

Veggie/Spelt Bread Share-$30 per week

Harvest Shares-sponsored

The handful of Harvest Shares is for families limited on fresh food purchases that is growing in the Flathead Valley. The number of shares we can support is dependent on donations and our growing space. We hope several small contributions even as little as 1$ will add up to share food with 3 to 5 families for the 2011 season. The families will pay what they can afford and in return receive seasonal harvests for 20 weeks.

We have been exploring this option over the past year in an attempt to really open the fresh market to a diverse mix of age groups. Especially children who constitute the majority of Food Stamp recipients and are dramatically affected by their early food choices.

As of March 2010 Flathead county currently supplements 11,744 people with their Food Stamp Program. I found this to be a substantial increase from previous years

2009 ::8383 people

2008 :: 6007 people

2007 :: 5581 people

Based on information I found in the US Census Quick Facts and Montana Department of Health- I calculated the number of people on Food Stamps in the Flathead Valley was at an alarming 10.69% in 2009. I then compared the March Statistics for the number of families in the county on Food Stamps from 2007-2010.

This year was up by over 3361 people compared to 2009 and you'll notice from 2007-2010 the number of people more than doubled. The economy is faltering and it shows in the number of people requiring food assistance. More than likely this number is higher as some families try to go it alone without government help.

We believe in "Feeding All Regardless of Means" which was coined by my sustainable agriculture mentor, Christof den Biggelaar. Besides guiding me on companion planting, crop rotation and cultivation he really emphasized food that is community supported and based. His recent project on the "FARM Cafe" provides meals exclusively from locally grown food donations and without a price tag. Individuals pay what they can afford or trade their skills for food. This is what our Harvest Shares are about on a Community Supported Agriculture Scale where the Farm Gives Back to the Community.

So spread the word as your garden grows and if you have families in mind for our Traditional or Harvest Shares let us know.