Week 12 Shares

Beets are back this week, and based on multiple request, we have included the beet greens as well. We have clipped and bundled them separately as they wilt very quickly if left attached to the beet. If you haven't used them before, the following recipe is simple and good: cooked-beat-greens.html

The chicken's new pasture this week is a field that I planted a clover mix cover crop into this spring, the clover is now about 18" tall and the chickens have been feeding on it like crazy, they have actually left food in the feed trough during the day in favor of the clover!

This will be the last week for the McIntosh apples, but the red and golden delicious should be ready to start this weekend. It looks like we will have many extra bushels of the goldens and some of the reds, if anyone is interest in purchasing extra quantities please let me know. Pricing is $12 per bushel for shareholders and $15 per bushel for non-shareholders.

This weeks shares will include:

Green Beans
Onions - White
Beets
Beet Greens
Kale
Tomatoes
Jalapeno Peppers
Cayenne Peppers
Apples - McIntosh

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Week 11 Shares

Finally some decent size leeks this year! For shareholders that have been with us for the past couple of years, you will remember leeks that many times looked more like green onions, however this year with the combination of weed suppression, heat, and moisture, the crop sized up much better. While they are a pain to harvest (dig, trim leaves & roots, wash, bundle), they have many favorable qualities. One is that they make great potato and leek soup. http://dfo-recipes.weebly.com/roasted-leek-and-potato-soup.html. The other is that they are excellent practical joke props. Simply place a leek anywhere there is a water pipe (under the sink, in the basement, in the laundry room, etc) and shout in a distressed voice: "there's a leak in the (fill the blank)"

The chickens are starting to fill out, they just completed week #4, so they are about at the half way point. We have a couple of hawks that cruise past once and a while and everyone heads for cover under the coop. One had just flow past and nobody wanted to come out for a picture...

We started harvesting onions this week, which like the leeks, are significantly larger than in the last couple of seasons. They take about a week to dry and cure, so they should start appearing in shares next week.

As some of the fall crops begin, some of the summer ones are coming to an end. This week will mark the last appearance of zucchini, summer squash, potatoes, and cucumbers

Another great shareholder provided recipe that uses green beans, cherry tomatoes and basil. We made this on Monday and everyone approved. http://dfo-recipes.weebly.com/green-beans-and-tomatoes.html

This week's shares will contain:

Leeks
Green Beans
Potatoes
Cucumber
Zucchini or Summer Squash
Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Bell Peppers
Jalapeno Peppers
Apples - McIntosh

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Week 10 Shares

Welcome to September, hope everyone had an enjoyable Labor Day weekend! We did spend some time grilling and hanging around a bon fire, but we also spent part of Monday picking apples! The kids were "thrilled" to spend part of their last day of summer vacation at the orchard :)

We also got the chickens moved out onto pasture on Monday, they are enjoying the extra space and wider variety of menu options other than just starter feed!

Cabbage harvest this morning! A lot easier this year with the 100 gallon "harvest bin" and the new loader forks for the tractor, less carrying and lifting!!

This weeks' shares will include:

Potatoes
Basil
Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Cabbage
Green Beans
Jalapeno Peppers
Cayenne Peppers
Apples - McIntosh

One of our shareholders shared the following pickled green bean recipe and included a couple of sample jars for us. They were awesome and both jars were gone within a week. http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/06/spicy-dilly-beans-recipe.html

Depending on your preference for heat, I'm sure you could could swap jalapenos and/or the cayennes for the red pepper flakes

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Week 9 Shares

A short update this week, we've spent a ton of time trying to catch up on the latest flush of weeds that emerged with all of the rain over the past two weeks and had started to take over almost all of the fields. Due to the large amounts of rain, more than half our cherry tomato crop has split so we are back to pints for this week, hopefully we dry out and the next picking holds up better. Crops liking all the rain: green beans and green peppers, lots of them this week! The orange tomatoes this week are Valencia, an heirloom variety that has great flavor!