CSA Harvest - Week # 12

Hello there, 

I have sleepy eyes... am writing down today's harvest list and drinking coffee. Mmmm coffee. 

Can we talk about the fact that this is the last week of August and come Tuesday it will be September? Summer, I request you slow down and hang around for a while, ok? The days already feel so much shorter... Eeek! 

The garden is overflowing with color! Flowers, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, beans, etc... and the harvests are pretty constant at the moment which has us very busy and trying to keep up.


This week we started pulling storage crops. A few onion varieties (Cabernet, Walla Walla and Mill Creek Red) have started to fall and are ready for curing. The Walla Walls are HUGE, I've never grown softball size onions and am pretty pumped. We also harvested the potatoes and are making room for the last seeding of spinach and salad, which we plan to place a small moveable caterpillar tunnel over in October to keep some greens rocking through the cold snowy months to come. Whoop! 

Details on what you'll find in this week's CSA Share:

Salad Greens

Kale

Tomatoes

Green Beans

Zucchini

Radishes

Pepper or Eggplant

Turnips and Cabbage (Thank Mike Nolan/Mountain Roots Produce!)

Scallions
Herbs

Sourdough Flavor of the Week: Seeded (Quinoa, Sunflower, Sesame and Oats)

Have a lovely day! 

CSA Harvest - Week 11

Good morning! 

It feels pretty brisk outside this morning and the thermometer reads 43 degrees. Brr! So I am drinking a little extra coffee and waiting to harvest until the sun comes up. Fabulous week here. Sunshine, heat, harvesting like mad, seeding green beds, and eating the most amazing meals, and a gazillion snacks. I always forget how wonderful this time of the year is... so beautiful and flavorful. Ha, last night I was starving and could not decide what to make for dinner... too many options. What a wonderful problem!

We discovered quite a few tomato horn worms in the greenhouses over the weekend. Aaaaahhh! I knew it was only a matter of time. The little buggers were chomping on tomato and eggplant leaves.

I have exciting news, the beans have started and will be in the shares this week!! We are growing a few varieties this year: Provider, Rattlesnakes and Gold of Bacau, pictured here. Yum! I snack on them raw all day everyday, but I imagine there are great things you can do with them in the kitchen... ?


The tomatoes are rocking and I think my hands are officially stained green for the rest of the season. Whoop! And the peppers and eggplant are starting.

CSA Harvest - Week # 11:

Salad Greens
Kale
Heirloom Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Carrots
Beets (Thank you Mike Nolan/Mountain Roots Produce!)
Scallions
Beans
Zucchini
Basil
Pepper or Eggplant

Sourdough Flavor of the Week: Plain

Recipe! Oh yea. I've been talking about sharing recipe ideas for... 4 years now. Here goes!

Roasted Beet Spread:

Blend together roasted beets, garlic, olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt until smooth and spread on EVERYTHING. So beautiful (about the same color as this zinnia!) and so delicious. We enjoyed it on veggie sandwiches yesterday. 

Have a lovely day folks! 

CSA Harvest - Week #10

Hi there. I hope everybody had an amazing week. Things got a little crazy here on Wednesday after I updated the blog... I had to say goodbye to my puppy dog. He was very sweet, hilarious and spent so many days helping me in the garden. He would charge out the front door with me in the early morning hours and head down to the garden super excited. I'd open the gate and head off to my morning task and he would walk the perimeter of the garden, checking this and that and then lay down near the gate and wait for me to need a break or a snack. When he was a young pup he would steal my shoes and sandals, but he'd only take one and stash it with his toys under a tree in front of the house. Deegs, thank you for hanging out during late harvest evenings, sounding the alarm when bears were in the yard and always being there. You're going to be missed. 

Whew. Ok... 

The garden is looking amazing. We received a couple big storms yesterday that soaked the garden, the forest, me, everything with rain. I think it was the first real Colorado storm I have felt this Summer. The kind that appear out of no where, dump rain, move quickly and then all of sudden the sun is shining again. LOVED IT.  So, it should be a glorious muddy harvest morning.  

Tomatoes are on and they look stunning. Yesterday morning I woke up in a panic... the actual low temperature in Ridgway for the night was supposed to be 55, and in my dream the temperature dropped to 15 degrees. I had a little freak out and was relieved to wake up to a warm August morning and ripe tomatoes to harvest. 

CSA Harvest - Week #10:


Salad Greens or Arugula
Cherry Tomatoes
Heirloom Tomatoes
Basil
Scallions
Carrots
Zucchini
Kale or Chard
Turnip or Radish

Have a beautiful day!

CSA Harvest - Week #9

Good morning. It's Wednesday already... and we're gearing up for harvest, drinking too much coffee and baking sourdough. The weather this week has been lovely so far, cool and rainy on Sunday and the last few days have been warm with off and on clouds. Perfect for planting fall greens. We seeded more arugula yesterday and transplanted kale, bok coy and napa cabbage. Yum. Spinach and head lettuce were on the list but will have to wait until later in the week. 

Flowers are blooming, Pink Beauty radishes are pushing themselves out of the ground and the pole beans are twirling up the fence and starting to set beans. woohoo!

I spotted a katydid hanging out on the calendula last night. We don't see them very often but this one looked big to me. They're funny and move so slowly. As I zoomed in to snap a photo he just slowly sidestepped to the edge of the flower. 

Harvest Details for Week #9:
Salad Greens
Kale or Chard
Squash or Napa Cabbage
Cherry Tomatoes!
Carrots
Turnip or Radish
Basil
Scallions
Herbs (Mint, Oregano or Parsley)

Sourdough Flavor of the Week: Plain