Posts Tagged ‘radish’

Our First CSA!

June 2nd, 2009
Honey in the Heart Farm | Blog

We had our first CSA pick up yesterday which was very exciting and a bit anxiety producing…. But all in all it went really well.  We only have ten members, which feels like the perfect amount at the moment.  Our first box contained little gem romaine lettuce, pac choi, lacinato and red russian kale, easter egg radishes, salad mix, a bundle of bergamont mint, a garden bouquet of daisies and geraniums, and a pair of beeswax candles that we make through the winter.  It was wonderful to have people come out to the farm and know that our produce is feeding their families this week.  These first few weeks definitely feel a bit sparse in terms of what we have to offer, so it will be nice when we hit midsummer and all the boxes will be overflowing.

Besides our first harvest day, the last few weeks have been busy with emptying out the hoophouse and planting peppers, eggplant, winter squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and direct-seeding corn, basil, summer squash, and more root crops.  Things have been pretty overwhelming, and I’m realizing just how tied to the land farming really makes me.  Watering has to be done every day, and an eye kept out for the leaf-miners on the chard and how much flea beatle damage is on the pac choi, and all those daily occurences that cannot be missed.  I’ve never been so knowledgable about one spot of land, the kinds of weeds that grow there, the local snakes and butterflies, where the water pools.  It’s amazing to see it progress as the land dries out and one wildflower replaces another and the grasses begin to turn brown and produce seed.  I’m also realizing that I’m more committed to a place than I’ve ever been.  Even if it is just through the season, as it’s quite hard to grow things through the winter here.


Turnips

March 22nd, 2009
Coyote House Farm | Blog

We’re planting turnips this year, not because they are companion crops or because we love them, but because I read that turnip and radish seed, planted with clover, will boost nitrogen content. We’re already planting some radish as companions to other plants for pest control which will go to seed, so I decided to plant some turnips as well, and let some of them go to seed. We can practice collecting seeds using turnips and radishes as the test subjects, and then follow up that seed-collecting practice/test with the next one, trying out the clover trick to see if there is really a beneficial effect on the soil.

Anyway, bottom line, we’ll have turnips. Incidentally, bio-intensive farming literature lists turnips as one of the “calorie crops,” a wonder food ranking up there with potatoes in terms of food calorie yield per square foot. So, there are lots of reasons to grow turnips, but one problem—we have no idea how to cook them, and so far we’ve both made it to our 40s with the impression that we don’t really like them much. Or at all. We still have a bag of them in the back of the fridge that came in our organics box by mistake, that we’ve been at a loss how to use.

Friday was my night to cook (our family rotates among the four of us) and I decided to find a turnip recipe that I thought we could stomach, to go along with the rest of dinner as a side dish. Here’s the internet recipe that I thought had the best chance of success. After sampling this dish, I think we are now at an “I like turnips” ratio of 2.5:4.0, and there’s a good chance that with a few repetitions we can raise the ratio to 3:4. There’s one stubborn holdout who probably will never try the things.

Dan


August Report

August 3rd, 2008
Four Frog Farm | Blog
After 2 long months of hot weather, it appears that we are in store for more hot weather.  That means, more irrigation, more aphids, more tomatoes, and less salad mix. My season started in February, full on.  I just completed month 6 in the season.  The CSA still has 2 more months, while the markets go for another 3 around here.  If I had more space I would be a little more excited about the fall, but as it is, there isn’t much room for a huge fall thing.  I am making… Read the rest of this article »

Pharm Updayte

May 27th, 2008
Four Frog Farm | Blog
The broccoli has been great and in full effect for the last few weeks.  We are doing heavy pickings from the main heads and side shoots, with lots more coming. The first two plantings of cauliflower have failed, due to (a) gophers (b) freak super-cold snap at the end of april (c) freak super hot spell (100 degrees for 5 straight days) in mid May, which caused the curds to separate and be no good.  The third is looking good and hope to have that. In the future I don’t want to grow… Read the rest of this article »

CSA Week 4

May 27th, 2008
Four Frog Farm | Blog
We are now entering week four (of 24) for the CSA.  Today we had our drop-off/pick-up for our 10 monday members.  We have 23 members in all - 10 on Monday and 13 on Wednesday.  We are going to add members when the summer stuff really picks up, but for now, that is our max. Let’s see what was in the boxes: 1 lb Sugar Snap/Snow Peas Zucchini/Yellow Crookneck Summer Squash Romaine and Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce Heads Broccoli Basil Parsley Radishes Garlic Scapes Lacinato Kale Rainbow Chard… Read the rest of this article »

More CSA

May 12th, 2008
Four Frog Farm | Blog
The first boxes had: Daikon radish, salad radishes, kale, tat soi, baby stir fry mix, lettuce mix, broccoli, rosemary, oregano, dill and baby spinach. Next week it will be very similar, yet much more broccoli.  Carrots are still a couple of weeks away, as are beets, peas, cabbage, cauliflower and chard. We are gearing up for a maha (great) week at the farm, with many hundreds of row feet to be direct seeded.  We are getting 50 yards of compost to bolster the tilth and nutrition of the soil. … Read the rest of this article »

Birds

April 12th, 2008
Four Frog Farm | Blog
I took the day off today.  I went skiing in the back country with my dad, up by Sierra City. It’s part of my sanity reclamation plan, taking days off. Tomorrow is Sunday.  I’ll get there around six (it’s hot this week!), but I’ll knock off early, probably 5. Since I was gone today, I only spent a couple of hours at the farm - watering and generally being anxious about the birds.  I have three really important beds - salad mix/baby spinach, radish, mesclun mix… Read the rest of this article »

Three farms are starting from scratch.

They are turning the dirt and hoping to be successful enough to turn a profit, and to become a valuable part of their communities as suppliers of organically grown food.

Peaceful Valley is giving them a head start by offering them special pricing as part of this Freshman Farmer program.

The Farm Blogs

Freshman:
New Farms Coming Soon!
Sophomores:
Daily Grace Farms
Crescent City, CA
Freestone Family Farm
Vernal, UT
Wise Moon Farm
Redding, CA
Graduates:
Coyote House Farm
Palermo, CA
DeepSeeded Community Farm
Arcata, CA
Driftwood Farm
Fort Bragg, CA
EarthDance Farm
St. Louis, MO
Ellwood Canyon Farms
Goleta, CA
Four Frog Farm
Penn Valley, CA
Hand Sown Homegrown Heritage Farm
Poulsbo, WA
Home Plate Organic Farm
Orleans, CA
Honey in the Heart Farm
Nevada City, CA
Willow Springs Farm
Penn Valley, CA

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About the Farms

Coyote House Farm
Palermo, CA
Daily Grace Farms
Crescent City, CA
DeepSeeded Community Farm
Arcata, CA
Driftwood Farm
Fort Bragg, CA
EarthDance Farm
St. Louis, MO
Ellwood Canyon Farms
Goleta, CA
Four Frog Farm
Penn Valley, CA
Freestone Family Farm
Vernal, UT
Hand Sown Homegrown Heritage Farm
Poulsbo, WA
Home Plate Organic Farm
Orleans, CA
Honey in the Heart Farm
Nevada City, CA
Willow Springs Farm
Penn Valley, CA
Wise Moon Farm
Redding, CA

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