Saturday, July 25, 2009

2009 Season, Week Ten

July 25, 2009

This week's harvest:

"Gold of Bacau" yellow beans
Cucumbers
Basil
Tomatoes
Onions
Garlic
Hot peppers
"Patty Pan" squash (medium shares)

This week's farm news:

Thanks so much to all of you that made the journey to the farm last Sunday for the potluck. It was a beautiful day but, surprisingly, almost too cool to go for a swim!

The weather as been fairly incredible for July -- unseasonably cool, rainy, & dark! The tomato crop would actually love more sunshine than they've been getting... They're dragging their feet because of this crazy July darkness!

This week we bought 50 12-week old pullets (immature laying hens) from some friends in the nearby "Plain" community. We hope to increase our egg supply for the fall. We have to slowly integrate the new birds into the old flock of hens as chickens can be nasty when it comes to establishing the "pecking order," so we've got them partitioned off in one of the portable coops so they all can get used to seeing each other but have limited physical access!

As you can see, we harvested lots of beans this week. We'll only have them for a few weeks in the summer but they last for months in the freezer. All you have to do is trim the ends & blanch them for 3 minutes, drain, cool, & then pack into freezer bags. Also, this week's recipe [for Dilly Beans] is an easy way to deal with lots of beans!

In the next few days, we'll be hosting 3 new garden volunteers. We're hoping to utilize all the extra helping hands to get lots of fall garden planting done next week.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

200th Deliveraversary!

2009 Season, Week 9
July 18, 2009

This week's harvest:

Sweet corn
Basil
Cilantro
Green beans
Yellow squash &/or zucchini
Onions
Garlic
Cucumbers
Tomatoes
Hot peppers

This week's farm news:

What unseasonably cool weather we're experiencing right now! It feels more like September than July! We were blessed with some more timely rains this week, too. On Wednesday we hosted over 40 folks on our farm for our annual "C-R-A-F-T" event (Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training). The program is intended to give interns a chance to check out other farms in the area and meet other interns. Our topic of discussion was "bringing forth fertility" -- basically how we intensively managed or ruminants & chickens on a piece of ground for several years in order to increase the fertility enough to then turn the ground & raise a garden without any additional compost. Our scheme has worked out well & the result is a very beautiful, productive garden. We finished up the farm tour and then shared a delicious potluck. Literally as folks were driving away the thunder started rolling in and we had an awesome thunderstorm! What timing! Earlier in the week we had a nice rain just after setting out leek transplants and seeding well over 1000 row feet of carrots for the fall. We're feeling pretty lucky here in Bugtussle!

Monday, July 13, 2009

2009 Season, Week Eight

July 11, 2009

This week's harvest:

Sweet corn
Basil
"Pablo" Batavian lettuce
"Yellow Crookneck" squash/Zucchini
Green beans
Garlic
Onions
And just a few tomatoes (Many more to come soon!)

This week's farm news:

First off, we want to remind all of you that next Sunday, July 19, will be our annual swimming party/potluck picnic at the farm. You can come anytime but we're aiming to eat around 1:00 PM, then go for an afternoon swim, & then on to a farm tour/chores in the evening. We hope to see you there! For directions to the farm, see our website.

So, big surprise to us, you've got more lettuce in your baskets this week. Somehow (?) the heads that were not harvested last week held beautifully for this week. So enjoy it while we've got it!

On the farm this week the crew harvested half of our storage onion crop. We have them laid out to dry on the tables in our greenhouse.

We've also got a good start on our transplants for the fall garden. We've started cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli, lettuce, leeks, more winter squash, etc. It's hard to believe it's time to start fall crops already!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Bugtussle Farm on YouTube

Here's a fun slideshow about the farm, for those of you who may not have seen it already.

2009 Season, Week Seven

July 4, 2009

This week's harvest:

Green beans
"Pablo" Batavian lettuce
"Sweet Valentine" lettuce
"Eight Ball" zucchini
"Yellow Crookneck" squash
"Walla Walla" sweet onions
Garlic
Basil

This week's farm news:

Happy Fourth of July!

You're getting a lot of lettuce in your baskets this week! We don't want to overwhelm you, but it was all starting to bolt, as summer lettuce does, so we figured it would keep far better in your refrigerators than in the garden. So wash it up, put it in a bag in your crisper, and you'll have lettuce to eat for a while.

Swimming/potluck at the farm on Sunday, July 19 around 1:00 PM

Friday, July 3, 2009

2009 Season, Week Six

June 27, 2009

This week's harvest:

"Jericho" lettuce
Basil
"Yellow crookneck" squash
"Eightball" zucchini
Beets
"Walla Walla" sweet onions
Garlic

This week's news:

The summer heat has really kicked in now! Despite the heat, we tackled some big projects this week. Right around the summer solstice each year we pull the garlic crop out of the ground. Harvesting the garlic was top priority this week! We managed to pull it, cut the tops off, and put it up in the barn loft all in the course of one day. Boy, the crew was tired and ready for a swim in the creek after that! During the next few days, the "seed" garlic that we'll be planting in the fall (the really big bulbs) was sorted out and the rest is for eating! And what a treat it is to eat this fresh, juicy garlic right out of the ground! Enjoy!

We also got hot and sticky taking a look inside our beehive this week. Our apprentice from Canada is leaving this weekend and she had a particular interest in checking out the bees. So on Thursday we opened up the hive to take a look. After several stings and a lot of sweat, we all got to have a little taste of the bees' sweet treat. Yummy! A big thank you goes out to Rachel for all of her hard work on the farm during this past month!

And finally, on Friday after harvest, we set a bunch of transplants (melons, squash, and lettuce) and received the blessing of an afternoon thunderstorm! Ahhhhh!

2009 Season, Week Five

June 20, 2009

This week's harvest:

"Pirat" or "Jericho" lettuce
Beets
Garlic scapes
"Eight ball" zucchini
"Yellow crookneck" squash
Cilantro

This week's news:

We had a big crew of helpers on the farm this week -- it was a really fun group! Thanks to all of them, we were able to accomplish some big tasks. We built 800' worth of bean trellis using cane from the creek bottom. We went downstream to a big cane patch, harvested several hundred canes, cut them to size and stripped the leaves off, tied them into big bundles, loaded them onto our 2 kayaks which were tied together and then waded the whole barge back upstream to our farm, and finally hauled them up to the garden! When the interns said they felt like they were in another country...well, Bugtussle is a bit like another country!

The crew also mulched, staked, and caged our main season tomato crop, and it looks awesome! Now the tomatoes can really withstand all of this intense heat because the soil moisture will be preserved under the protective mulch layer.

Now with these tasks complete, the crew picked up the cultivating hoes and got busy cultivating the crops, despite 95 degree weather and high humidity! What devotion!

Beet cooking tips:

  • No need to peel, only scrub clean; trace minerals lie just below the surface of the skin
  • Grate into most any salad, cooked or raw
  • Cube beets into veggie soups or stews
  • Serve steamed beets sliced at room temperature, tossed in olive oil with a dash of salt and pepper, or use a simple vinaigrette
  • To bake: cut off leaves and wash roots. Bake at 350 degrees for 1-2 hours or until easily pierced with a fork. Rub off skins and cut off roots. Serve whole or sliced.
  • Young beet greens can be enjoyed tossed raw into a mixed green salad.
  • Try beet greens steamed or sauteed, or in any dish calling for a mild tender green such as spinach.
  • Beet greens are best used fresh, as their integrity will diminish rapidly, as with other fresh greens.
  • To maintain firmness of beet roots, cut off leaves and stems 1 inch above the root crown. Store in a plastic bag and refrigerate in the hydrator drawer.
  • Stored properly, beets will keep several months.
  • Store greens wrapped in a damp cloth or in a plastic bag in a drawer of the refrigerator.
  • ENJOY THEM!