CSA Harvest - Week #5

Good morning. Feeling a little groggy here... I fell asleep last night to the sweet sound of raindrops falling and slept so wonderfully. The ground outside feels soaked and we're gearing up for a beautiful harvest morning!  

My dreams for rain came true on Friday afternoon. We were at the Ridgway Farmer's Market selling veggies and arrived home late in the day to find the garden watered and green as could be. Yes!!! I feel like the plants were all letting out a big 'aaaahhhhh' sigh of relief from the intense sun and heat. The Brussels Sprouts, pictured above, have been looking exceptionally happy with the cooler wet weather. Keep it coming :)


A couple years ago we accidentally did an experiment. We mulched a bed of leeks with leaves... but ran out half way through. Come Fall, the leeks that were mulched were twice as big as those that hadn't been. So... we mulched the leeks recently and it feels good to see them protected with a lovely leaf blanket and hopefully ready to fatten up over the next couple months. And we seeded the next round of salad, spinach, arugula and turnips yesterday. A few more things need to go in before I will feel temporarily caught up.

Exciting news!!! A couple Sungolds are starting to blush and should be ready for snacking in the coming days. Which has me dancing around and it means many many more should start to follow. We're hoping tomato harvests start in the next few weeks! So pumped. 

CSA Harvest - Week #5
Salad Greens
Head Lettuce
Kale of Chard
Arugula or Spinach
Radish or Turnip
Garlic Scapes
Herbs
Rhubarb
Green Coriander?

Sourdough Flavor of the Week: Seeded (Oats, Millet, Sesame and Pumpkin Seed)

Have a great day!! 

July!!!!!

Good morning!

We woke up to gusty wind, dancing trees and a little sprinkling rain this morning. And now the sun is rising over the mountains and lighting up the sky with so many shades of pink, purple and blue. Mmmmm I think it's going to be a good day. 

This week flew by fast! It has been hootttt and this girl is ready for some afternoon clouds and rain to cool things off a bit! Yep. I'm anxious for those heavy Colorado downpours. Come on!

So... we've been sweating, weeding, harvesting, seeding, etc... and one of my best friends, Kelsey Bennett, whom I grew up with in beautiful Ridgway is in town for several weeks. She's amazing and is helping out in the garden a couple days a week! We cranked out some projects on Tuesday... flipped beds, seeded trays of fall greens and did some weeding. It's amazing how much faster projects go with help and good conversation! Thank you Kelsey!! 

Exciting garden bits. The bread poppies just started to bloom and are gorgeous! I got lost in these yesterday when I was supposed to be harvesting. The basil tripled in size this week, zucchini are growing fast, and the tomatoes are all racing to see who can reach the top of the hoophouse first. I cheer them on and like to think they're competing with each other... who's going to win!? Right now Soldacki is in the lead... and blooming like mad to boot.  Mmm Hmm. 

Ok. I should get moving. Details for CSA Harvest - Week # 4 are as follows:

Salad Greens

Arugula

Kale or Chard

Mustard Greens

Bok Choy or Napa Cabbage

Garlic Scapes

Basil! 

Herbs (Oregano, Lemon Balm or Mint)

Have a lovely day!

Summer!

It feels like Summer arrived with a bang this weekend. Sunshine, heat and glorious starry skies. Mmmm, yes! It's on. 

The garden is rocking... so much to do!! We have been pruning and trellising maters in the early morning hours before the heat arrives. They're flowering like crazy and starting to set a lot of fruit.  And we are seeding, transplanting and trying to figure out where to sneak in herbs and the many flowers we started! Hmm, I'm feeling a little bit behind... but when am I not?! 

A few more melons and a bed of dry beans went in the ground yesterday... and we're thinking about seeding the next succession of greens over the weekend. Oh yes! 

Keep an eye out for sassy garlic scapes this week! They're grrrreat for making pesto. And a friend shared her clever way to use radishes... try grilling them and serve with a mint vinaigrette. I would love to hear how you're using the produce, and if you have a favorite recipe please share.

CSA Harvest Week #3 should look like this:
Salad Greens
Head Lettuce
Bok Choy
Braising Mix
Kale, Chard or Mustard Greens
Garlic Scapes
Herbs (Mint, Lemon Balm or...)
Radishes or Turnips

Sourdough Flavor of the Week: Plain

Yay! Hope everyone has a beautiful day! I better get harvesting...

CSA Harvest - Week 2

Good morning! 

Summer Solstice is only a few days away... mmmmm! The days are long, warm and beautiful as ever. Everything in the garden is growing like wild now that the soil is warm and the sun is shining. 

We finished planting out the winter squash at Blue Grama Farm yesterday. We spent the day laughing, experimenting, doing tractor work, prepping beds and finally transplanting as the heat of the day had passed. The melons are going in tomorrow! 

Our tomatoes are suddenly ready to be pruned and trellised. They/re setting fruit and look amazing. I'm always a little paranoid about the tomatoes... worried that they could get funky (aka diseased). They're looking great minus a few leaves that flea beetles are chomping on. We loaded the greenhouses with basil over the weekend! Mmmm, pesto dreams. 

Flowers, cucumbers and the next succession of greens are all ready and need to be planted this week. Beans and zucchini are germinating, ground cherries and tomatillos are ready to go in the ground. And and and...

But, today we're harvesting! Focus. This week's share will be green heavy and look something like this:



Salad Greens
Mustard Greens
Head Lettuce
Bok Choy
Braising Greens
Green Garlic
Radishes or Broccoli
Herbs
Edible Flowers

Sourdough Flavor of the Week: Plain

Have a  beautiful Day!! 

May Showers bring...

Wowza. We asked and danced for moisture all Winter and throughout the first few weeks of Spring. And it finally arrived a few weeks ago and has not stopped. Dark clouds.  howling winds, fatty snowflakes, light rains, pounding hail, rumbling thunder. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain... MUD. Puddles. Oh yes. 

So, it's the end of May and it has been very cool and wet, and surprisingly humid. We've been sloshing around in mud boots for weeks and I must say, I'm so excited to head outside today and work in the sunshine! It looks like a warm up is coming and I'm pumped. Things have been growing, but so so slooooowly. Hopefully everything will pop with a little heat. 

Harvests are scheduled to start next week... stay tuned for details early next week.  

We're waiting for the soil to dry up a bit so we can seed and plant... EVERYTHING. Hopefully all the dark and stormy weather made us rest enough that we're ready for the planting push that's going to happen over the next few weeks.  

We're building a small caterpillar tunnel, wash station and... what would May be without a couple building projects? Hoping to get this house wrapped up and covered with plastic tomorrow! Then filled with more tomatoes, peppers and eggplant over the weekend. Whoop! 

The first of many winter squash are hardening off and will be going into the ground soon. We knocked down a few beds of beautiful cover crop growing at Blue Grama Farm on Wednesday and will be transplanting in the coming days!


Have a lovely day!! 

Rain and Snow!!

Happy to report May has brought quite the line up of spring storms that have delivered a decent amount of rain and snow in the gardens and the beautiful mountains surrounding us. Wahoo!!! Large, fatty flakes are falling from the sky at this very moment. The moisture feels AMAZING and I think the garden is in agreement as so many things have greened up over the past couple weeks.

Planting frenzy is in full swing here! Well, it's actually postponed a bit as this farmer has a cold! Grrr. So it should be in full swing but it's snowing and I'm coughing... so we're getting a little behind schedule. Hopefully we'll be back to transplanting and seeding in the coming days. 

The first round of tomatoes went into the greenhouses about 10 days ago, they're adjusting and starting to grow like wild in their new space. I noticed yesterday that a family of red ants has decided to relocate to one of the tomato beds and I need to find a clever way to help them change their mind and move elsewhere. Any ideas?! The next planting may go in this weekend... 

Leeks, shallots and scallions have all been transplanted outside and are getting snowed in... onions are up next! 

Last fall we planted a couple beds in a rye, vetch and pea mix and they grew beautifully and are ready to be chopped and turned into the soil. Here are some  nitrogen fixing vetch roots! Oooo ooo ooo! Magic. 

We have been busy building new beds and a small caterpillar tunnel, pulling greens out of the hoophouse, repotting peppers and eggplant, transplanting... etc. First CSA Harvest is only 2 1/2 weeks away! Wowza. I'm excited and I hope you are too! 

More updates and photos to follow soon... Stay warm and have a beautiful weekend!! 

Clouds!!

Woo hoo! It was exciting to see clouds, fog and snow last week! The cold air felt good and had me all bundled up in the garden. I was waffling on Saturday afternoon as it snowed.... transplant greens or wait. Transplant or wait? I was anxious to plant and went for it. So the first round of spring kale, bok choy, mustards and more are in the ground! Oooo oooo oooo. Here we go! 

The garden is coming together... spinach and salad greens are up and the carrots, beets and turnips should follow in the coming days. We chopped up the rye and peas that grew in the greenhouse beds all winter and tilled everything in to feed the soil. So those beds are prepped and ready for tomatoes and peppers in a couple weeks.  I may have seeded tomatoes a bit early (per usual), as they're HUGE and ready to go in the ground today. Lets hope they can wait a week or two?!  

The onions, leeks and shallots that we seeded back in February are starting to bulk up and are looking great. They're almost ready to move outside... Almost. 

The sweet honeybees are busy as always and weather depending we plan to open up the hives this week to see what they're up to and harvest some overwintered honey. Hmm, I'm curious to see if they send off a swarm this season... 

More updates and photos coming soon!

Have a lovely week!