Week 9

Radicchio is in the share this week and ideally oiled and grilled for optimum flavor. We've started harvesting the soft neck garlic that you'll need to keep refrigerated. The rest will arrive dry and cured in about a month but we couldn't resist sampling some early. Braiding is so much fun and looks beautiful hanging in the kitchen. A garlic butter makes a great addition to leafy greens, casserole crusts and baked potatoes. You'll also find some of the regulars this week like Pablo lettuce, Nasturtium Flowers, Radishes, Kale and Mustard Greens. There is also some Royal Burgundy Bush Beans that change from purple to green when you cook them. Finally, you'll find a bag of True Arugula. The previous seed packs were mystifying me as I kept getting mustard greens. Rest assured you're eating Arugula this week! Tomatoes are in the forecast next week with Squash Blossoms.

Happy Huckleberry Days

Week 6

broccoli forest

This weeks share includes Oregon Sugar Snow Peas, Watham Broccoli, 2 Bags of Lettuce Mix with Borage Flowers, 2 bundles of Northern Lights and 5 Color Silver beet Chard, 1 bag of Spinach, 1 Bundle of Lacinato and Red Russian Kale, some Southern Frill Mustard Greens, Strawberries and Garlic snakes.

learning the letter B

We love Raw Kale Salad which is surprisingly delicious. Simply strip and rub the leaves with olive oil and toss with shredded beets, broccoli, sunflower seeds, sliced strawberries and a little tarmari soy sauce. We like to add roasted cashews glazed in maple syrup and lemon juice (baked at 375 till bronzed).

"that's our rooster"

Over the weekend we put in what may be the last round of outdoor fall garden beds with less than 50 days till our first frost-hard to believe. So, we are developing a couple of low riding tunnels to experiment with extending some succession started cabbage, chard, cilantro, turnips and late season lettuce as the high tunnel is maxed out and we only use the greenhouse for potted plants and starts.

3 year old representational butterfly

We also discovered that digging trenches for greenhouses are best done on the south side first in the morning instead of starting on the north side and working around. The irrigation on the flower garden was somewhat of a respite from Saturday's swelter in Montana. We started filling in the back-up foundation with wash rock today as my idea of bottle caps and pulverized glass, although resourceful, doesn't provide the necessary "zero compaction base" required in stable structures. Still, I had one victory in my hopes of using as little cement as possible by dry stacking the rock foundation to fill in around the concrete piers. Just a small investment in some really cool rock chiseling tools.

We're also still looking for clay/silt subsoil for our natural plaster wall over the straw bales. So if anyone runs across some in the valley give us a whistle so we can start the "community building" project.

Week 5 Farm Share

We found this metamorphosis bug hiding in the lettuce during a slug slashing adventure the other night. Not sure what it is? It wiggled it's tail when you held the shell. I had every intention of watching the contents emerge in a glass jar this week. However, quick little hands investigating the insect pressed slightly too hard in a rush of excitement. So our newly discovered insect species will go undocumented.

This weeks share includes some loose lettuce mix of Pablo and Slo-bolt(wavy green) with a splash of color, a Zeno Fino Fennel (all parts edible), one bunch dinosaur kale, one bunch Red Russian Kale, 2 bunches of Chard, 1 bag of the first Mammoth Melting Snow Peas, 1 bag of early and everbearing strawberries. The size of the berries vary to the littlest harvested from the 100 new plants this year and the large from established plants over the years. The small ones are really the sweetest to me. Talus snags most of them throughout the week as he's foraging in the garden but I managed to swipe a few before he reached them. Finally, there's 2 types of Romaine Lettuce heads-Red Valentine and Jericho and 1 head of Oak leaf Lettuce as well as, 1 bunch of Garlic Snakes.

Looking ahead the broccoli is shaping up and more flowers are emerging on the snap and sugar peas. If the weather doesn't get too hot they should keep producing. Already some of the Sugar Snap peas have crested over my head. We also transplanted more Blacktail Watermelon (an Idaho heirloom), Eden's Gem Melon, Potimarron(a French winter squash), Spaghetti and and an assortment of other curcubitas. The burgandy okra has the first fruits although this southern wonder may need more heat than Montana has to offer. We'll see.

Since last week the sounds and sights of the garden are full of the first grasshoppers and dragonflies. The grasshopper leg violin serenades may actually be more a tragic tune if they do more damage than the slugs. A good once over along the perimeter of all the beds with the mower was in store this week.

Our rooster and chickens were moved over to the mixed fruit orchard. They are still quite timid to venture out of their beloved tractor. Thankfully, the roosters' resounding call in the early morning has yet to solicit any complaints. He's really a beautiful guy and I think keeps the flock safer and balanced so we hope we can keep him.

To dangling toes in glacier lakes while the garden grows

Week 4 Squash Blossom Food Share

Snakes are back on the garlic. We like to call garlic scapes-garlic snakes as the resemblance is too similar from their emergence to development when they harden off and shoot straight up. The share this week includes three bundles of it which makes a great raw pesto or as an addition to any vegetable or pasta dish. These "snakes" are from our Music and Bogatyr hard necks selected from our harvest the year before. Most of the garlic was planted by moonlight expect these 12 rows of hard necks that our little guy helped plant in the ground. Not surprisingly the only watermelon seeds that sprouted this year was from his magic touch. I've been unsuccessful germinating seeds of watermelon since I was 6 and am now convinced it requires the attention of young people to sprout.

This week your getting a Share and a Half to fill in the gap of starting a couple weeks later this year and to fend off early freezes later on in the season. There will be 3 other "share-and a halfs" during pepper and tomato season too. So this week includes 3 heads of Northern Lights or Five Color Silverbeet Chard, 3 heads of Pablo lettuce (vibrant purple), 2 Heads of Grandpa's Admire's lettuce, 2 Bags of Baby Bok Choy Greens and 1 Bag of Southern Frill Mustard Greens mixed with some medium size Bok Choy Plants.

We took a break from the garden this past weekend to make a trip to the east side. Our hard working Talus attempted his first 10 mile adventure up to Cobalt Lake. Although we came just shy of the destination as the avalanche banks were precariously waiting to slide, it was dramatic just the same. You can see how far he walked if you look for Two Medicine Lake in the background of the vista shot. The snow was still 6-8 feet thick past Russell Falls and lots of fun to penguin slide down on the journey back.

Week 3 Squash Blossom Food Share

This weeks share includes 2 Heads of Lettuce(Pablo is the red-Grandpa's Admires the Green), 3 Bunches of Early Garlic, 1 Bag Spicy Greens, 1 Head of Northern lights Chard and 2 Bunches of Chives. Next week will likely be the last week of chives. So, if you don't devour this weekly they dry down easily in a dehydrator or laid flat and thinly on brown bags suspended on a cookie rack. This way you'll have optimum air flow over and under the chives.

Sicilia our Buttercup with the Rooster making his rounds

Try the chard with any kind of meat including fish-it likes to be cooked with fatty foods. We ate ours with Salmon Cakes this week and it was delicious. We tried the suggestion by one of our share holders of grilling the garlic whole and nibbled on like they do in Spain and found it absolutely delicious. Thanks for the great grilling idea.

Talus's perspective of the Blue Andalusian

The broccoli got a fresh round of compost today and we started mulching the "straw"berries. The straw serves several purposes of retaining moisture and smothering grass germination. The ground seems warm enough to start doing this most everywhere in the garden. So, the purple Adirondack Potatoes and French Fingerlings were mulched with fresh cut organic hay from our jungle and should add some extra nitrogen for some leaf growth.

I found the first curls in the garlic today! so look for the Garlic scapes next week. Besides adding them to stir fry or making pesto, they make great wrist bands to keep the mosquitoes at bay. Happy 4th!

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

True Signs of Spring with Some Created

The very beginnings of the steel rainbow high tunnel. We're putting up our 20ftx48ft High Tunnel this weekend. This is the first of 13 steel arcs I built yesterday. The metals been patiently waiting to go up since last fall when winter snuck in early and all material was covered with tarps.

We're really looking forward to about a 1000 sqft. of additional growing space. This is where the Heirloom Tomatoes, Peppers and Squashes will be living this summer.

Oohs and Aahs for the little garlic shoots pushing up. We have 500 plants of organic soft and hardneck garlic growing!

Sort of - "volunteer" - 5 sprouting garlic from bulbs we left in during our bulbil trial

Shallots!

And are mostly bantam chickens are in too. Depending on the mystery bag of roosters to hens we should have some organic eggs in early fall for those interested in supplementing their vegetables this season-and probably a rooster or two to give away for those looking to expand their fowl production. Their new residence will be the newly planted heirloom fruit tree orchard. Jobs description includes eating some grasshoppers, egg production and absolutely loving slugs (the slimy's seems unlikely)