Saturday, October 23, 2010

2010 Fall Share, Week Four

October 23, 2010 newsletter

This week's harvest:

Kale
Chinese Cabbage
Sweet Red & Yellow Peppers
Hot Peppers
Eggplant
Salad Turnips
Green Tomatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Butternut Squash
Peanuts!

This week's farm news:

Today is a special day for our family... We are celebrating Olivia Fern's first birthday as well as our 11th wedding anniversary! To celebrate we're planning a short camping trip. Since our family size has increased over the years, our two-person backpacking tent is no longer adequate for all of us. So, we splurged and purchased a family sized tent and are going to spend a few days next week camping with the kiddos. It should be an adventure.

We're excited to be giving you peanuts in your baskets again this year! We gave them for the first time two years ago but last year the rodents and deer managed to eat all of them. (How thoughtful.) Fortunately, we managed to save enough of last year's crop to continue our seed supply. We originally started with just a handful of seed peanuts, an heirloom variety called "Tennessee Red Valencia," several years ago and have been building our seed supply ever since. Now they're back and we hope you really enjoy this special treat!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

2010 Fall Share, Week Three

October 16, 2010 newsletter

This week's harvest:

Butternut Squash
Sweet Potatoes
Onions
Tomatoes
Peppers - Yellow & Red
Eggplant
Okra
"Ruby Streaks" Mustard
Cut Lettuce
Salad Turnips
Tatsoi
Arugula

This week's farm news:

OK - big exciting news - the high tunnel is planted! Yeah! Finally, after nearly three years of slowly chipping away at the construction of the thing we have actual plants growing in the actual ground under the protection of the greenhouse plastic. Now for the first time ever we should be able to eat (& offer to you!) greens throughout the winter! Earlier in the week when we installed the irrigation system into the tunnel we realized that the project was really happening. Then the crew got right on to setting the transplants. We transplanted several different varieties of lettuce and kale, Swiss chard & spinach. We direct seeded salad turnips, radishes, & carrots. The structure is 30' wide by 96' long so there's not a tremendous amount of space but what a huge leap forward nonetheless. I can't tell you how happy we are to finally have it rolling! Our long-time goal of having fresh greens to compliment our offerings of storage crops throughout the winter is coming to fruition! What a good feeling!

The weather this week was dry, only a trace of rain, but absolutely gorgeous. The trees have really been dropping their jewel-colored leaves all over the ground...so lovely.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

2010 Fall Share, Week Two

October 9, 2010 newsletter

This week's farm harvest:

Sweet Potatoes
Butternut Squash
Sweet Peppers - Red & Yellow
Eggplant
Tomatoes
Hot Peppers
Boc Choi
Salad Turnips (& Greens!)
Arugula
Okra
Onions

This week's farm news:

Well, the first frosts of the season danced through our gardens and pastures two mornings this week. The low temperature we saw on our front porch was 34 degrees, so that means the open fields were a few degrees lower than that... Even though it was not a killing frost, the summer crops definitely got the message that their time of glory is ending. The basket this week will very likely see the final tomato harvest. Unless we get more frosts this week, which we are not supposed to, we should be able to get at least one more picking of peppers and eggplant. Now we're really moving back into the cooler season of greens, and this is fine by me!!

This week the crew busted out this year's garlic planting. We had to first "pop" all the bulbs we had the saved for seed into their cloves for planting. It was about 1,000 bulbs altogether. On chilly mornings we would find a nice warm sunny spot to sit and do the popping. Aside from getting sore thumbs from prying open all that garlic, this was very enjoyable work. Then the crew really went for it and pushed all those cloves into the ground in a matter of hours and successfully planted about 1/4 acre of garden space. This should result in about 6,000 bulbs next June come harvest time. Aside from the garlic, the only planting project remaining for the year is the high tunnel!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

2010 Fall Share, Week One

October 2, 2010 newsletter

This week's farm harvest:

Arugula
Swiss Chard
Salad Turnips
Red & Yellow Sweet Peppers
Hot Peppers
Tomatoes
Eggplant
Butternut Squash
Onions
Okra
Thelma Sanders &/or Sweet Dumpling Winter Squash

This week's farm news:

The week's weather was gorgeous - crisp, dry, & cooler but still pleasantly warm in the sun. Perfect autumn weather to herald the beginning of this season's fall share. The crew had a super productive week. They dug all of the sweet potatoes (about 130 baskets), sorted them, hauled them out of the field, & packed them into the greenhouse for curing. (Curing is what makes a sweet potato sweet!) This year's harvest was so speedy & efficient! Especially compared to last year when the rain wouldn't stop & the soil got wetter & wetter & we eventually had to give up on waiting for the perfect conditions & hand dig for them in the mud... Every year is a different story!!

This weekend is the annual Biodynamic Farming Conference at Long Hungry Creek Farm (home of the barefoot farmer Jeff Poppen) that we participate in every year. On Sunday afternoon any interested conference attendees can make the short trek to Bugtussle for a tour of our farm. This gives visitors to this region a chance to see more of this beautiful KY/TN landscape!

2010 Season, Week Twenty

Yay!! Thanks to a dear friend, I got a copy!

September 25, 2010 newsletter

This week's harvest:

Arugula
Cut Lettuce Mix
Cilantro
Green Beans
Sweet Peppers (Yellow & Red)
Tomatoes
Hot Peppers
Okra
Butternuts
Onions
Garlic

This week's farm news:

Well, we made it safely home from our vacation to Gulf Shores. We had a great & relaxing trip even though we chose to be slightly psycho & do most of our driving in the wee hours to avoid all of the "when-will-we-be-there's" from the kiddos. Upon our return we found the farm running like a well-oiled machine thanks to Beth, Ben, & Jesse! I think the crew had a good time (even though they didn't throw any major parties) & their confidence grew about being able to care for a farm on their own. It was an especially empowering time since each intern aspires to have their own farm operation one day. (Even after spending a season here they still want to do it on their own!) How wonderful that we all mutually benefited from our family's time away!

So, remarkably, today ends the main season vegetables share! This season went by so quickly! We thank everyone who participated & hope that you enjoyed it! If you're not participating in the fall share, have a great fall & winter and we hope to see you again next spring! If you have signed up for a fall share, we'll see you next Saturday (October 2) for fall share basket number one!! We still have shares available, also, so spread the word! Thank you!