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!
Monday, July 13, 2009
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
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!
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:
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!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
2009 Season, Week Four
June 13, 2009
This week's harvest:
carrots
beets (eat the greens, too!)
swiss chard
shelling peas
anise hyssop &/or lemon balm
This week's news:
We started out the week by working on setting up the deer fence around the new acre garden. The task is almost complete aside from getting it hooked up to the solar electric charger & baiting it with apples & peanut butter to give the curious deer a little shock in the nose & keep them from venturing into the garden. Next we cultivated nearly all of the young crops in the garden -- and there's a lot right now! The plants always seem so happy & the gardens look so good after cultivation! We did a little more planting this week, too. We set out about 100 more late season tomato plants & about 150 eggplant. We also transplanted some melons & cucumbers. We direct seeded peanuts & a bed of parsnips, & we started our fall leeks in soil blocks. We have so much growing in the gardens right now but this week's harvest doesn't really reflect that unfortunately! There's just not a lot of diversity. Plan as we might, that's just the way timing sometimes works out! The summer crops are on their way & next week you should see the beginnings of squash & zucchini, some more beautiful lettuce, & maybe even some basil.
We had a few smaller rains early in the week & a big windy thunderstorm on Thursday morning & again on Thursday evening. The consistent moisture has been great for keeping our gardens growing, that's for sure! Thanks for going on this seasonal roller-coaster ride with us!!
This week's harvest:
carrots
beets (eat the greens, too!)
swiss chard
shelling peas
anise hyssop &/or lemon balm
This week's news:
We started out the week by working on setting up the deer fence around the new acre garden. The task is almost complete aside from getting it hooked up to the solar electric charger & baiting it with apples & peanut butter to give the curious deer a little shock in the nose & keep them from venturing into the garden. Next we cultivated nearly all of the young crops in the garden -- and there's a lot right now! The plants always seem so happy & the gardens look so good after cultivation! We did a little more planting this week, too. We set out about 100 more late season tomato plants & about 150 eggplant. We also transplanted some melons & cucumbers. We direct seeded peanuts & a bed of parsnips, & we started our fall leeks in soil blocks. We have so much growing in the gardens right now but this week's harvest doesn't really reflect that unfortunately! There's just not a lot of diversity. Plan as we might, that's just the way timing sometimes works out! The summer crops are on their way & next week you should see the beginnings of squash & zucchini, some more beautiful lettuce, & maybe even some basil.
We had a few smaller rains early in the week & a big windy thunderstorm on Thursday morning & again on Thursday evening. The consistent moisture has been great for keeping our gardens growing, that's for sure! Thanks for going on this seasonal roller-coaster ride with us!!
2009 Season, Week Three
June 6, 2009 newsletter
This week's harvest:
shelling peas
lettuce -- "Deer Tongue," "Little Gem," &/or "Tom Thumb"
carrots
beet greens w/occasional beet
garlic "pigtails"
orach -- "Mountain Spinach"
oregano
This week's news:
It was another full week on the farm. We started off the week acclimating the baby turkeys to life on our farm... Life on the grass instead of in a brooder in a barn. We had a few die in the first couple of days but the rest seem to have adjusted & now they all seem happy & cheeping!
In the garden we transplanted tomatillos & the remainder of our sweet & hot peppers. We also planted a bunh of sweet potato slips (plants) which totaled over 2000 row feet of garden space. It was a scorching hot day, as it always seems to be when we're planting sweet potatoes, followed by another hot day before we got some rain on Wednesday... So we're probably going to need to replace some plants next week! And since a mouse was fixated on removing every single watermelon seed from our soil blocks in the green house (twice!) we wound up direct-seeding our watermelons into the garden & they are coming up nicely now! All this planting has quickly filled up the entire acre of our "new garden" so now we really need to put up a fence before the deer get a taste of all the goodies we've got planted. (Cart before horse?) We also welcomed three baby pigs to the farm scene this week! Needless to say our days have been full!
This week's harvest:
shelling peas
lettuce -- "Deer Tongue," "Little Gem," &/or "Tom Thumb"
carrots
beet greens w/occasional beet
garlic "pigtails"
orach -- "Mountain Spinach"
oregano
This week's news:
It was another full week on the farm. We started off the week acclimating the baby turkeys to life on our farm... Life on the grass instead of in a brooder in a barn. We had a few die in the first couple of days but the rest seem to have adjusted & now they all seem happy & cheeping!
In the garden we transplanted tomatillos & the remainder of our sweet & hot peppers. We also planted a bunh of sweet potato slips (plants) which totaled over 2000 row feet of garden space. It was a scorching hot day, as it always seems to be when we're planting sweet potatoes, followed by another hot day before we got some rain on Wednesday... So we're probably going to need to replace some plants next week! And since a mouse was fixated on removing every single watermelon seed from our soil blocks in the green house (twice!) we wound up direct-seeding our watermelons into the garden & they are coming up nicely now! All this planting has quickly filled up the entire acre of our "new garden" so now we really need to put up a fence before the deer get a taste of all the goodies we've got planted. (Cart before horse?) We also welcomed three baby pigs to the farm scene this week! Needless to say our days have been full!
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