CSA Week 5 Update, Cherry Saga, Recipe, and Photos!

I can't believe we're in CSA week number 5 already! I am glad everyone seems to still be enjoying your greens! The 'summer' crops are just going to be later than normal this year with the weather we've had. Sigh. But, we'll keep things going the best we can. Some things to look forward to in the near future are cherries (cross fingers) and apricots! We'll have onions and garlic soon too. And more yummy beets! And carrots. And hopefully the peas will give us a few more before the poor things retire in the heat.

We had an eventful day Monday as we noticed it was do or die time to net one of the cherry trees. Last year the birds ate every single cherry the minute they ripened! We've been determined to not let that happen again this year. The tree itself is about 20 feet tall. Can you imagine trying to wrap a net around something like this? We had a 14x14 net for the top, and a roll of 7x100 netting for the rest of it. Isaac did a lot of climbing around in the tree while I stood on the ground or on the ladder helping. We got about two-thirds of it done and were already patting ourselves on the back for an amazing job done! It was really heating up outside and probably around 90 degrees...when we learned that cherry branches lose some strength when it gets hot (perhaps because they are more dehydrated?). :( Anyway, Isaac was standing on a branch somewhat precariously, thinking "this branch feels spongy," and then, Crack! There it went, the branch with Isaac on it. Somehow he ended up on his back underneath the branch. He jumped right back up though to continue on! I, on the other hand, was a bit too worked up to be very good help! By the next day he said he had "a few random aches and pains" but that was it. Phew, we are lucky! We have at least one more tree (much smaller!) to net, but there will be no more tree climbing around here, at least in the heat! We do really need to get an orchard ladder...saving up our money for that one! Anyway, so the cherries are looking really good, and as long as the birds don't find the gaps in the net, I'm thinking we'll all be munching away on them by next week!

I had an amazing cooking class last saturday at Peaceful Belly farm. I will share one of the appropriate recipes here with you.

One trick I have learned with kale and chard is to just rip the leaves away from the stems with your hands. Fold the leaf in half and pull apart...easy!

Creamed Chard

1 bunch chard, de-stemmed and ribbed, dice up the stems pretty small
1 med. onion
2 cloves garlic
1 pint cream
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

In a large hot skillet, add enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan (so it 'runs' quickly around in there). Add the chard leaves and let them wilt. Remove the chard and place in colander in sink. In the same pan add more oil and the onions, garlic, and chard stems. Cook these until tender and dry (add a pinch or two of salt here to help this). Add the cream and reduce until it reduced by half. Ring out the rest of the liquid from the chard leaves with your hands, give them a quick rough chop, and add them to the cream mixture. Season to taste.

And here's another one we made the other night, sans the seeds and almonds...still good!

2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon minced onion
10 ounces fresh spinach - rinsed, dried and torn into bite-size pieces
1 quart strawberries - cleaned, hulled and sliced
1/4 cup almonds, blanched and slivered


Picking up our new commercial cooler from Morning Owl Farm. Thank you Sean, Seth, DC, and Rob!
In a medium bowl, whisk together the sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sugar, olive oil, vinegar, paprika, Worcestershire sauce and onion. Cover, and chill for one hour.
In a large bowl, combine the spinach, strawberries and almonds. Pour dressing over salad, and toss. Refrigerate 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

Beautiful beautiful lettuce!

New Wash Station we built with materials from our dismantled greenhouse.

The Cherry Tree

Yum!

Yep, he's going to fall out.

So beautiful and tempting!

Solstice

So, I can't believe the Solstice already came and went! And that I haven't posted since May 10. Well, I guess I've been busy! The wet spring has really helped out our greens. I have never so much enjoyed rain! There have been the days where it's been frustrating to not be able to get out and plant the summer crops, but the rainy days have been lovely in many ways. No worrying about the greens wilting when we pick them! A lovely temperature to work in. Just nice, and mellow. I am usually one of those folks longing for the 80 degree weather, but not anymore!

Summer appears to be here now. We had probably our first day above 80 yesterday and it was 94!! I tell you what, even when it's only 85, kneeling on that bare soil is HOT! Last night we had one of the most incredible lightning storms ever... we just sat outside and watched it like a fireworks show. I'm sure the crops enjoyed that extra nitrogen! Today the peas finally popped out to a picking size...and the weeds really popped out too.

As for Lea, she is enjoying picking the few strawberries we have (perhaps a rabbit is getting the rest?), and running around naked or half naked peeing in the grass, etc. Oh the life of a three year old!

Also, she 'misplaced' our camera and we have yet to find it, otherwise I'd post some pics. Here's to hoping we find it soon!

Happy Summer to All!!

Working Open Farm this weekend: You're Invited!

Hello CSA Members!
I hope you are doing well and enjoying our (somewhat) lovely spring!

You may be wondering what is going on here with your food... The seedlings are coming up, and so are the weeds! Most things seem to be really exploding in growth right now.

It's a big-push sort of time, and of course the weather hasn't been super cooperative, so we are a bit backed up on work. Now is your opportunity to come out and help out *if you'd like*. (And if you'd like to do more later, let us know!) And you'll get to see how things are coming along so far! It looks good!

WHEN: Any time this weekend, just let us know about when you'd like to drop in. Sat. or Sun. any time between *10 a.m. and Sunset.*

WHERE: Our farm... 3439 Shadow Hills Dr., Eagle. From Boise, take State St. to Hwy 55 towards McCall. Take a Left at the Chevron Station / Beacon Light Rd. Take a Right at the next 4 way stop, Eagle Rd. Take the next Left on Valli-Hi (Lillypad farm on corner). Then the next Left on Shadow Hills. Second driveway on the Right.

WHAT: Working Open Farm Weekend. We'll be shoveling, making new rows/beds in light weight / sandy soil that's been tilled. Then raking it. Planting lots of stuff! Corn, beans, carrots, herbs, greenhouse starts, maybe even tomatoes. Also need to hoe out weeds in already-planted beds and do some thinning. You can take home / eat thinnings if there's anything good. You could probably run the weed eater or mower if you really want to...there is plenty to do!

BRING: shovels, rakes, and hoes!! (let me know what you can bring here)

Thanks and hope to see you there! RSVP to this email... To be clear, this is totally optional, for folks who'd like to be a little more involved with the production of their food. Children are welcome, we have a netted-in trampoline, sand box, and play structure. There are some hazards around, so some sort of supervision will be necessary...we can talk about this.

Thanks again!

May already! And Carrots...

So...we're just getting more greenhouse plants into the ground, in between storms as usual. Today's a good windy wet soil cold day for computer work. In the last couple of weeks, we planted about 70 asparagus plants...sorry, they won't be producing for a couple of years! Then I got some carrot seeds into the ground...now that is quite a job! My 250-dollar 'precision seeder' isn't really working out because our ground is too full of chunks, rocks, and such for now. I honestly haven't done a great job at growing beautiful, straight carrots in the past, and this year I am determined to do it!! And that means spacing the seeds out properly. So...that means I've been on my hands and knees planting carrot seeds out of a dial seeder, one by one...very time consumingly, but lovingly. I also waited until our 'new' area was ready for planting because it is nice and sandy...great for growing straight carrots, I hope! (last year they were in clay and not thinned enough, so were fat, stubby, twisted, and forked).

April Update

April 6, 7, and 8 (and some more days after that) we put a lot of crops in the ground, and now several have popped up! We've planted peas, potatoes, lots of green leafy things, summer turnips, beets, onions, and some other stuff I'm forgetting at the moment. It's so hard to put my little baby greenhouse plants outside into the dirt! I'm just scared they won't make it after all the work I put into them...but, so far, so good! We have an area we're trying to plant that is quite rocky unfortunately...and our precision seeder (for the smallest seeds) sure doesn't like it! So, so much for 'precision seeding.' I'll be out there hand-thinning all that stuff pretty soon.

We got our 50 baby chickies (red cornish broilers) a week ago! I know, I need to post photos! But, that often goes by the wayside when we are busy. Plus, one of our daughter's favorite toys is the camera, so we never quite know where it's at! They little guys started escaping their brooder tub on day 4, at 5 days old! So, we had to scramble around and make a new one for them out of some junk we found lying around here. It's actually pretty sweet. They're pretty happy now, and running *fast* all over their place, and growing wing feathers already. It's hard to catch them! Of course Lea likes to hold them as much as she can, and put them in a basket for Easter. Pretty cute!

*Will* try to post pics soon!*

First crops are in the ground!

So excited! It's been a rough spring with all this rain...most folks think "rain is good for the crops and farming," but this is not so this time of year when we are trying to work the soil and plant. You can't work in it when it's wet or you will compact it and do some long term damage. In between the storms, we finally did the final tilling on one of the fields and got some snow peas and snap peas in the ground, just before the next storm... with more to go in, but at least it's something!! And, probably my favorite spring crop, hence it's priority!

Greenhouse Blues & Goats

So, we're brand spankin' new at this whole greenhouse thing. Now, don't worry about your produce, we can always buy starts if we need to as a back up. :) That said, here is the story. Isaac built a greenhouse. The pluses are: it's made mostly of 'junk' we found around here for free, and, it works, most of the time. The minuses: it doesn't have a way to ventilate in the heat. So, yesterday, I cut some of it open because it was 70 degrees out. Let's just say I provided a way to close it back up, but it wasn't very wind-proof. So, being Idaho in spring, it had to get super cold, wet and windy today. We looked out and saw the greenhouse practically blowing away! Well, the bones of it are sturdy, but the plastic was flapping all over and the ... other solid parts ... were falling over too. We had a fine episode out there trying to fix it in the wind and rain, while our newly 3-year-old daughter was inside potentially destroying our house with her new exploring abilities! It was enough to keep the plants happy for the day, but when I saw the temp dip to 37 at 9:00 tonight, I went out to rescue them. We do have a heated cold frame and our house as a back up for such emergencies, luckily. And, all of the plants out there are cold-types anyway, except the tomatillos, which do seem pretty hardy too. ... Tomorrow, we rebuild!

We also fenced the goats into a smaller area 'temporarily' while we rip down fences in order to bring in large trucks of compost and such. Well, they've figured out a way to get out. Today we came driving in from a birthday party and noticed they weren't there, but they came to us right away in the driveway. Luckily, they seem to want to get back to their new little home. But, we've got to do something about this before we set our precious little veggie plants out!

Also...3 days til chick time!!