Fall Has Arrived...

It is apparent all around us; the leaves are changing, the nights are cooler and the farm is changing quickly!  We got our first frost last week which means the end to some of the veggies outside.  we yanked all the cucumbers, beans and squash.

The big garden looks pretty empty

In the hoop houses the tomatoes are still doing alright.  You can see that are starting to get blight and really slowing down.  We also yanked the eggplants in the other hoop house.

Even though summer is ending, we still have SOUP!  We have already had some really nice soup weather and I am very anxious for more to come. The CSA will be receiving lots of ingredients for some hearty soups this week.  So make sure you make some and put it in the freezer for February when you really need some hot soup. I made a great Chicken tortilla soup last night.

 

 

A Fun Weekend for Amelia

Labeling the Jam

 Amelia is Dianes adorable granddaughter and she got to spend some time up north with her Grandma.  She spent some time on the farm and then helped Diane in the kitchen; here are some pictures of her adventure.

Stirring the zucchini cake

Tasting the zucchini cake

Picking apples

Tasting apples

Seasonal Eating!

One of the best parts of my job is getting to cook all the stuff we grow.  We are lucky to be able eat such delicious organic produce all summer long.  I wanted to show you some of the things I have been making with the veggies I get from the farm.  It may inspire you to try some new things...

Stuffed summer squash and cucumber salad

Tomato basil soup and bacon cheddar grilled cheese

Kale, beans,bacon and chicken alfredo

Morning scramble with sausage, tomatoes, peppers, and onions

Tomatoes

This is a little blurb that Christy wrote about the tomatoes we grow on the two farms...

We grow mostly heirloom tomatoes, which are old-fashioned open-pollinated types that people have passed down through their families.  You will be getting tomatoes that when ripe are white, light yellow, dark yellow, orange, green, red, dark pink, and striped and bi-colored.  Some are big slicers, others little cherries, some for salads and some for sauce and salsa. The variety is enormous.  Many of these will be odd shaped (compared to commercial varieties) and some will have green shoulders.  The green part is edible—it’s just a characteristic of that type of tomato.

You will sometimes get tomatoes that have unripened patches inside.  That happens when the temperature during ripening gets above about 85 degrees.  There is nothing we can do about that unless we install ac in our tunnels!  Any unripe areas are certainly edible and as the season cools down you will see less of this in your tomatoes.

Never, no never, store your tomatoes in the refrigerator.  It’s way too cold and it will change both the flavor and texture—and not for the better.  Leave them on the counter and eat while they are room temperature for the best flavor.

When you eat an heirloom tomato you are tasting a bit of history: Mortgage Lifter, Boxcar Willie, Aunt Ruby’s German Green, Amish paste, Omar’s Red…..they tell the story of America.  Enjoy tomato season!

 

Were Are Really Making Vegetables Now

Sorry about the huge gap in blog posts...I have been to busy scratching myself in front of the air conditioner.  Between the massive swarms of mosquitoes and the scorching heat and humidity, I have been counting down the days til fall.  Just the other day my boyfriend asked me if I wanted to go fishing and I told him "sure, I will go fishing when you put the ice house out". 
Even though the skeeters are bad and the heat is hot...the farm continues to make delicious veggies.  The rain at the beginning of the month slowed things down but as we move towards the end of July they are making a come back. Here are a few shots of things around the farm.

Kale and Cabbage

Cucumber/Parsley/Gladiolas

The Tomatoes are getting ripe...

and very tall!

Beans are doing great

And the summer squash is getting big.

This summer we are so happy to welcome two new interns.  That is four more hands picking and weeding...AWESOME.  Megan and Tim are not just hands, they are a lot of fun to have around.  You can see Megan picking squash in the photo above; but I will be sure to get a nice photo of both of them to share with you all.

Ya Win Some, Ya Lose Some

Today Lissa had to pull a huge pile of baby bibb lettuce.  It was a rough day at King Gardens!  The lettuce looked beautiful, it was growing steadily and was just about perfect for the picking...then we tasted it. 

The lettuce was bitter and almost chewy.  The last few days have been so warm; the intense heat as well as our soil being fairly nitrogen rich ruined the lettuce. Not to worry we planted a lot more lettuce and the other varieties have done a lot better.  We will chalk this one up to a lesson learned and live to farm another day.
I did read that if you have bitter lettuce you can cut it, wash it and store it in the fridge for a few days and most of the bitter flavor will go away...might have to try that. I will let you know if it works.

Everything is growing

On a day like today it is hard to even imagine that just a few months ago it was winter.  The sun shining and bees buzzing, everything is getting green and veggies are everywhere.
The tomato house is really coming along; John spent a lot of time last week carefully tying them up.  It takes a lot of time at the beginning of the season but it more than pays off at the end of the summer.  It is amazing to think that by the end of the summer most of these plants will be towering over me.  Nature is AMAZING!

The beans are up and all I can think about is the hours and hours and hours bent over picking them this summer.  It doesn't really sound like that much fun...but I could be sitting in a cubicle pushing papers around.  I count my blessings every time I feel the sun on my back.

The peas have really shot up; they are just starting to really start pumping out peas.  Last week the plants were covered (and I mean covered) in blossoms, so it is nice to see them all turn into peas.  The broccoli and cauliflower is cruising too! The broccoli is just starting to head so I think it will be another couple of weeks before we have full heads of broccoli.  Cauliflower went in about a week later so it is a little further behind but still looking really good.
Potatoes, turnips and beets are all looking good as well.  Those were the first things we planted outside; the rain last month and all the sun this month has treated them well.  I anticipate an excellent summer with lots and lots of veggies.

CSA is starting this week!!!

For all of our CSA members out there...don't forget to pick up your veggies!  Make sure and check the "Weekly CSA Produce" tab to find out what you will be getting each week as well as the "Recipes" tab for some fun ways to use your produce.
As a reminder...
PICK-UP WILL BE ON THURSDAY MORNINGS FROM 10:00AM – NOON AT EITHER KING GARDENS OR THE NEIGHBORHOOD GARDENER VEGETABLE STAND.  THE LONGVILLE SITE IS AT RON'S HARDWARE WHERE YOU CAN PICK UP YOUR CONTAINER FROM 10AM-4:30PM.  THE WALKER SITE IS THE GREEN SCENE WHERE YOU CAN PICK UP FROM 9AM TO 5PM.

I am very excited for another great year!

Tomato plants are in the ground!

We have been taking very good care of all the tomato plants and it is now time to get them in the ground.  It took a little bit of time to figure out exactly what we wanted to plant.  We started 52 different kinds of tomatoes, we made decisions based on last years favorites as well as planted a few new varieties we wanted to try.  We planted almost 300 plants so our CSA members can anticipate some very tasty new varieties this summer. 

Nice and tall and ready to be planted

Holes are dug and strings are hung

Snug in its hole

A little compost tea to get it started

...and done

Who Would Have Thought Planting Lettuce Could Be So Hard

Lissa and I were brainstorming some different places to plant some more lettuce crops when a genius idea struck her...
We have been using our small greenhouse for storage; we decided to clean it out and build some troughs to plant more greens.  The space is enclosed so therefore protected, we ca

Once the trench was dug and we laid the wire down, we covered it back up and started the frames for the lettuce beds.

Then  we laid plastic down and filled them with dirt.  Lettuce should be ready to cut in about 4 weeks. 

Getting a Little "Leggy"

John tells me that "leggy" is a technical term referring to plants that grow taller looking for light.  The tomato plats we started were doing just that..."gettin' leggy"!  We had been doing our best to rotate them under the grow lights that we already had; but everything was growing so quickly it was hard to keep up.  You can see in the picture on the right how the plants are getting really tall but not leafing out. 
The simple fix is get the plants more light, so we did.  John built some lights boxes that we could set right on top of the tables. 

Full Steam Ahead

Just four short weeks ago we planted the hoop house. I still can't believe how much has grown, I just don't get sick of watching stuff come up...

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Week Four

The very first tulip of the year...How exciting that we will have some for Easter this year.
The Forsythia is also blooming and that is six weeks earlier than it did last year.

I spent the other day weeding the second hoop house; yesterday, John tilled it and laid the drip tape. It will be another week or two before we start putting the tomatoes in the house but I did plant some carrots.  This year we are going to grow Cosmic Purple, Scarlet Nantes, Astro Red, and Lunar White carrots; this will give us an excellent and delicious variety...and our CSA members can look forward to snacking on all these pretty colors.