Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Radish, Baby Kale, Red Oak Head Lettuce, Oregano and maybe Pea Shoots We are in between spring and early summer crops. The garden always takes a pause during week #3. It feels almost as if the garden is taking a big breath before releasing. With the release comes the abundance. We are on the precipice of the beginning of summer produce in the Tetons. This pause is also welcome, as it gives us some time to weed. It is a fun time to walk in the garden and see how quickly things are growing. I get really excited about all the promise out there. Good things are coming. I think the kale and Swiss chard doubled in size last week. Some tomatoes are getting red. The radishes! WOW! This may be one of the nicest crops of radishes we have ever grown. They are solid the whole way through...no hollow core! The tops have yet to bolt, which can give them a tough center. They really thrived in our the spring weather. We will be harvesting the remainder of them this week before moving onto other goodies. 4th of July on the farm always feels "right". I get my kids off to the parade with friends and then I ride my bike to the farm. (The parade starts at 10:30 and I am in charge of lunch for the crew, so I need to be there cooking by 11.) I get to ride past the whole parade line-up before they start moving because they line up on the farm road! This has become my favorite way to see the parade. Our little town feels festive, loud and bit hectic for me. It is amazing how getting 1 mile out of the downtown feels so different. I like to celebrate the feeling of "freedom". For me, I reminisce about my late teens and young 20s. I really felt it then. I could and did go wherever the wind blew me...with really loud awesome music playing through whatever stereo was available. "Freedom", free from anything or anyone oppressive is a beautiful thing to celebrate and I hope you were able to find that trueness on the 4th. I am not ignoring the fact that there is work to be done, I acknowledge not everyone around the world knows the feeling of freedom. I like to celebrate my vision for a "better" country and world on Independence Day and I hope you are able to also. Nowadays I also think of our veggies. Freedom Veggies!!! I think of the things they are free of...pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, bleach washing and post harvest chorine sprays. I think of how we use the term "free of" to describe the way things are when they are in their natural state. Not being free is onerous, to say the least, for people and veggies! It feels good to be on the farm on the 4th. Growing the best food, with the pure power of the sun, soil and water, free of inputs that harm us and our world feels freeing! Jed, our crew and I have the ability to provide something that helps others. Nutritious food. Now in my late 40's, I know I will never be 100% free until all are free. Until then, seeing others doing well is something that lifts me enough to keep going. Seeing others doing well helps me feel free. We are confident this food will help you be well. We are so grateful to be able to grow food for you, we hope this food helps you to find freedom in whatever way you need. We are happy to report we have revamped our volunteer program. If you (or someone you know!) is curious about high altitude gardening becoming a garden helper may be just right. We are only asking folks to commit to 1 morning a week for one month, that's 20-25 hours a month! It feels really good to have volunteers back on the farm, we missed them!! Lunch is provided! Follow the link below to check it out! Lunch this Week:
Recipe Ideas: Lemon-Garlic-Oregano Dressing, Greek Vinaigrette, French Breakfast Radish (we grew a different variety then French Breakfast Radish, but this recipe would still be yummy) and Emily's overnight Kale salad. The coolers at your site are stocked with Lifeline cheese and a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved for you. I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit! Lifeline Beef Available: Ground Beef, Patties and Stew Meat Pork Available: Grandpa's Sausage, Breakfast Sausage, Pork Chops, Shoulder Roast, Neck Bones (make the real deal Ramen!), Fat, Spare Ribs, Country Ribs, Hock and Tenderloin WASH YOUR VEGGIES!! Bring Bags to pick-ups! If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend! Missed shares are forfeited for the week. Members get 10% off at the Farmer's Markets! The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1 JH Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-12 The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 (NO MARKET 7/13) Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com
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Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Spinach, Spicy Mix, Thyme, Green Onions, Bok Choy, Arugula and Maybe Radish How did that first share taste? Can you feel the difference eating fresh food makes! I can. I ate so many salads last week and I feel lighter and quicker because of it. Now that the heat has arrived, I crave salads. To make them more substantial I add a hard boiled egg, toasted walnuts, feta cheese and olives. YUM!! The garden is growing great. The veggies will take off like crazy now that it has warmed up and the days are so long. We are now harvesting 5 mornings a week and spending the afternoons weeding and tending to required projects such as transplanting, spreading row cover and continued seeding. Summer is here, bring on the heat! What's with the "maybe" in the crop list? We try to make the crop list as accurate as possible. I write the newsletter on Monday afternoons. Many crops are harvested and processed Tuesday mornings after I leave the office. (respectively Wednesday and Thursdays, for the Thursday share folks) When a crop just starts to ripen there is not always enough to feed 120 families, so we send it to just one pick up site. Gratefully, Jed is a master record keeper! He writes down who received what veggies and then works to spread the bounty of each crop evenly as the weeks progress. This is also why you may see items at the market before you see them in your share. For example tomatoes! When we begin to harvest from all 3 greenhouses we may "only" get 10 lbs. total the first few harvests. This can look like a lot on a market table! But it would be less then one tomato per person at only one distribution point! Not enough for anyone to enjoy. We bring these early "teaser" harvests to the markets so they are not wasted. By the way...the tomatoes look great this year! We should all be enjoying them by the end of July. Some words about payment for meat, cheese, eggs and butter. We know many of you want to move to all digital transactions. This is challenging for us. Cash and checks are the easiest form of payment for our volunteers to accept...simply because they can verify them. Venmo is tough because it is all done thru one person's account, and there is no way for our site hosts to confirm payment has been received, because they don't have my phone! We are also not in a position to give everyone access to our account to run credit cards. Please understand these digital conveniences cost small businesses fees, and they take so much time for us to track and figure out how to navigate with volunteers, and volunteer substitutes! As much as we love our helpers...we are not ready to give them access to our bank accounts!! We understand many of you don't even carry cash anymore. So we will be able to accept Venmo if it is your only option. To do so, you will have to fill out a paper log when you make a purchase, I will later have to validate the payment came through. Sometimes these time saving devices really just take me more time! Thank you for understanding. We are happy to report we have revamped our volunteer program. If you (or someone you know!) is curious about high altitude gardening becoming a garden helper may be just right. We are only asking folks to commit to 1 morning a week for one month, that's 20-25 hours a month! It feels really good to have volunteers back on the farm, we missed them!! Lunch is provided! Follow the link below to check it out! Lunch this Week: Ayurvedic Green Soup (recipe on spinach page) and cheese bread
Recipe Ideas: Lemon Thyme Dressing, Veggies and Peanut sauce over rice, with Spinach and Bok Choy (on the Bok choy page), Basic Bok Choy, Grilled green onions The coolers at your site are stocked with Lifeline cheese and a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved for you. I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit! Lifeline Beef Available: Ground Beef, Patties and Stew Meat Pork Available: Grandpa's Sausage, Breakfast Sausage, Pork Chops, Shoulder Roast, Neck Bones (make the real deal Ramen!), Fat, Spare Ribs, Country Ribs, Hock and Tenderloin WASH YOUR VEGGIES!! Bring Bags to pick-ups! If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend! Missed shares are forfeited for the week. Members get 10% off at the Farmer's Markets! The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1 JH Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-12 The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Spinach, Baby Kale, Pea Shoots, Green Onion, Lovage and Chives Welcome! We are so thrilled to begin this season of veggie distribution. We hope the food we grow nourishes you. We hope this food creates meals to share with your loved ones. We hope your body remembers what real flavor is after a long winter! And our favorite...We hope this food gives you the energy to make the world a better place. I ate my first plate of Cosmic Mix on Monday at lunch. Dang, I missed that stuff! It is tender, sweet and tastes alive! This spinach crop is gorgeous and plentiful. Spinach thrives in cool wet weather...and the Tetons provide! Most years by the time we start the CSA the chives are too far gone, but they are perfect right now. The flowers are edible and the purple adds such a fun splash of color to dishes. The green onions, planted last fall, are such a treat in the spring. And baby kale, pea shoots and lovage! What a great first share! This is always a really exciting week on the farm. We love seeing you all again and meeting new CSA members. We love having fresh things to eat again too. Jed and I are remembering all the tasks involved in getting a share out the door. Our employees are being trained on the fly. There is no real warm up to the first share. We just have to jump in and be ready to navigate all this week has to offer. Please reach out if you need to communicate about anything! I will send out a weekly newsletter every morning of your share pick up day. This is my medium for getting important farm info to you, sharing recipes and rambling about farm life. If you are not sure what to do with a particular veggie or need inspiration, follow the link below to our recipe bank. Please send us any recipes you find that you want to share, I'll add them! Below the link are some ideas about how I am using the veggies at the farm each week and some recipes I like to make for our family. Currently I am out of storage space for egg cartons! Please resist the temptation to bring them unless they have our label on them. I will rotate eggs around to each delivery site as we have them. The chickens are laying well right now but they slow down as the summer progresses. WE NEED SOME SITE HOSTS! If you know any friendly folks who want to work with the best customers ever, send them our way. Site host get a half a share in exchange for helping at our distribution points. We are looking for one on Thursdays at the farm in Victor and one in downtown Jackson also on Thursdays. We are happy to report we have revamped our volunteer program! If you (or someone you know!) is curious about high altitude gardening becoming a garden helper may be just right. We are only asking folks to commit to 1 morning a week for one month, that's 20-25 hours a month! It feels really good to have volunteers back on the farm, we missed them!! Lunch is provided! Follow the link below to check it out! Lunch this Week: Burritos with sautéed baby kale and pea shoots and Creamy Lovage dressing
Recipe Ideas: Lovage pesto (I skip the basil in the recipe) this is so yummy on a grilled cheese with wilted baby kale, spinach artichoke dip, Sprinkle minced chives on everything this week, scrambled eggs, sandwiches and dinner! The coolers at your site are stocked with Lifeline cheese and a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved for you. I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit! Lifeline Beef Available: Ground Beef, Patties and Stew Meat Pork Available: Grandpa's Sausage, Breakfast Sausage, Pork Chops, Shoulder Roast, Neck Bones (make the real deal Ramen!), Fat, Spare Ribs, Country Ribs, Hock and Tenderloin WASH YOUR VEGGIES!! Bring Bags to pick-ups! If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend! Missed shares are forfeited for the week. Members get 10% off at the Farmer's Markets! The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1 JH Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-12 The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com Crop List: Carrots, Kale, Potatoes (Huckleberry Gold, Russian Banana Fingerlings, Purple Viking and Yukon Gold), Garlic, Parsley, Leeks, Daikon Radish, Watermelon Radish, Delicata Squash, Maybe Dill, Cilantro, Rainbow Carrots and/or Spaghetti Squash Fare thee well.... This is it. The final week of the 2021 share season. As you can see, this week's share will be heavy! Please bring extra bags! As I type this on Monday afternoon the crew is getting the potatoes in. It looks like it will be an incredible harvest. The spuds look healthy, they are a good size and we received a great yield from each plant. May the potatoes nourish you for the fall and may they help you feel rooted to this magical place we all share. Like every year in farming, somethings were great! Some failed miserably. We were sad (tears may have been shed) to loose the onions, cabbage, broccoli and beets to the weeds. The early season greens suffered from the extreme early heat. The bounty was there though! The summer squash was amazing! It may have been the best sugar snap pea year ever. The mid-season greens (arugula!) were a great surprise, they usually are not that prolific. Best. Leek. Year. Ever! And as stated earlier the potatoes are looking gorgeous. Also on a high note...Our crew. Holy, amazing people. It is the first year in farming that we did not loose one single employee. They each started the season, committed and are still getting it all done. I straight up love these people. We are also coming to close on a special era. Our dear employee (friend-sister-family member would be more appropriate!) Emily will be moving on after 13 years. She has had every single job title we have at the farm and done many jobs there is no title for. She just always pitched in when needed. We are forever grateful. This past year she has been our Market Manager, so wish her well if you go to any markets this week! Her new job title will be 'Mom", and we feel so honored to witness her little one growing up in the Tetons. And of course you, our farm members. Thank you. Thank you for meeting us once a week to get your veggies. We know that is not always easy. Thank you for being open to preparing veggies as nature gives them to us, instead of what is on a grocery store shelf. Thank you for trusting us to be your farmers, even when we are sometimes wondering what the heck we are doing! Thank you for investing in a food system that bucks the status quo and seeks to heal the Earth. Thank you for taking care of yourself and eating well. Thank you for being part of our community. We hope our produce gives you the stamina to make the world a better place. We wish you the absolute best and hope to see you next year! Free Cosmic T-shirt or Hat! We have started our 2022 CSA membership drive! If you sign up for next year's CSA at a pick up location before the season ends, you will receive a free organic cotton t-shirt or hat! Your site host will have sign-up sheets, one is attached to your email or you can get one here: Sign-up sheet Sign up early to get the best prices and to guarantee the pick up location/day you really want...and did I mention the free shirt or hat?! Shirts available in Men's, Women's, Kid's, Toddler and Onesies! Hats are cap style or trucker style. Speaking of Cosmic Merch...I have not mentioned it, BUT we have awesome Organic Hoodies, Mugs and Water bottles too. If you want anything, you can purchase it online and we will happily bring it to your pick up site and refund the shipping cost. (We can't give these out with a share purchase, but they sure are cool!) Link to check out all merch: Merch Here! Lunch this Week: Burritos with carrots, leeks, kale and potatoes and Merav's Carrot Soup
Recipe Ideas: Fermented Ginger Carrots, Baked Carrot Fries, Leek and Potato Gratin and Sautéed Leeks and Carrots The coolers at your site are stocked with Lifeline cheese and a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved for you. I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit! Lifeline Beef Available: Tenderloin, Ribeye, New York, Sirloin Steak, Eye of the Round, Brisket, Ground Beef, Patties, Sirloin Tip Roast, Tongue, Marrow Bones, Heart, Stew, and Kabobs Pork Available: Fat and Breakfast Sausage! WASH YOUR VEGGIES!! Bring Bags to pick-ups! If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend! Missed shares are forfeited for the week. Members get 20% off at the Farmer's Markets! The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1 (Ends 10/1) Farm to Fork Festival, Saturday 10/2 at The Center for the Arts Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com Crop List: Orange Carrots, Rainbow Carrots, Fingerling Potatoes, Yukon Gold Potatoes, Red Curly Kale, Bok Choy, Leeks, Basil, Spaghetti Squash, Garlic, maybe Broccoli and/or Watermelon Radish, So much news... We had a surprise freeze on Friday morning. We thought we had another couple of days...but it's okay! We had already emotionally hit the point of being ready to let go. The beans, peas, squash and other sensitive things are now memories. We have turned our energies to getting everything out of the garden to finish the CSA. As of now we are planning to wrap it up with week #16, but make sure to check in next week for the full story! The Fall Equinox is on Wednesday this week, the first snow is visible, we have been hearing the elk bugling and those leaves, ahh the gorgeous colors on the hills! On Friday (9/17) we pulled all the winter squash out of the field in a frenzied 90 minute harvest. Then we all went to the brew pub for a beer. Jed and I barely ever do this with the crew. They are finishing work for the day and like to go out, but Jed and I usually keep working (farming or shuttling kids or....). We stopped to join them. I can feel a familiar feeling creeping in with the fall, the desire to kick back a bit and celebrate the season. Taking a moment to pause and notice all that has been done, yet knowing the final work is still in front of us. We need to empty and compost the garden, plant the garlic, spread Biodynamic preps and do 100's of other little tasks, but the season is coming to a close and we have so much to be grateful for. I read this last night..."Breath love into every skill this time demands of us; gather the harvest and delight in the work of the year." (Maeanna Welti) What a beautiful reminder. We send these final 2 shares out to you full of love and delight in all that has been accomplished! We have Breakfast Sausage!! We have been waiting a loooonnnggg time for the butcher to catch up and we are finally restocked with some sausage. The only flavor we have right now is the Breakfast. It is seasoned with white pepper and sage and pairs perfectly with a tiny bit of maple syrup drizzled on it. We have it packaged with 4 patties per package, almost a pound on average. If you know you want me to reserve you some, send me an email and I will put some in the cooler for you with your name on it. I will send as much as I can fit in the coolers. Every site sold out last week, so don't be shy about ordering some! If you have not tried our sausage before, give it a try and you'll taste for yourself why folks are so excited we are finally restocked. We are now taking cash, check and Venmo at the pick up sites. Free Cosmic T-shirt or Hat! We are kicking off our 2022 CSA membership drive! If you sign up for next year's CSA at a pick up location before the season ends, you will receive a free organic cotton t-shirt or hat! Your site host will have sign-up sheets, one is attached to your email or you can get one here: Sign-up sheet Sign up early to get the best prices and to guarantee the pick up location/day you really want...and did I mention the free shirt or hat?! Shirts available in Men's, Women's, Kid's, Toddler and Onesies! Hats are cap style or trucker style. Speaking of Cosmic Merch...I have not mentioned it, BUT we have awesome Organic Hoodies, Mugs and Water bottles too. If you want anything, you can purchase it online and we will happily bring it to your pick up site and refund the shipping cost. (We can't give these out with a share purchase, but they sure are cool!) Link to check out all merch: Merch Here! Lunch this Week: Vichyssoise and Sausage Kale Soup #2
Recipe Ideas: Dale's oven Fries, Colcannon. Oven Roasted Carrots and Kale The coolers at your site are stocked with Lifeline cheese and a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved for you. I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit! Lifeline Beef Available: Tenderloin, Ribeye, New York, Sirloin Steak, Eye of the Round, Brisket, Ground Beef, Patties, Sirloin Tip Roast, Tongue, Marrow Bones, Heart, Stew, and Kabobs Pork Available: Fat and Breakfast Sausage! WASH YOUR VEGGIES!! Bring Bags to pick-ups! If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend! Missed shares are forfeited for the week. Members get 20% off at the Farmer's Markets! The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 (Ends 9/22) The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1 (Ends 10/1) Jackson Hole Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-1 (Ends 9/25) Farm to Fork Festival, Saturday 10/2 at The Center for the Arts Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Purple Viking Potatoes, Carrots, Thyme, Bok Choy, Cucumbers, Summer Squash, Leeks, Maybe Sunflowers and/or Tomatoes The garden is still alive and flourishing without a killing frost. The sunflowers have slowed down, just because we plant varieties that bloom before this time of year. Jed mowed the potato vines on Thursday 9/9 so we should have cured spuds by the end of next week. Our fingers are crossed. We are concerned because the greens are not really laying down and dying! They are fighting to keep growing in this mild weather. So in some ways, we are ready for a frost! Speaking of curing, the garlic is almost ready. We have begun sorting and cleaning what was harvested into 2 classes: Seed (the biggest and best) and the "Rest of it". The "rest of it" is what we give out in our CSA and sell at the markets. We save about a third of the crop every year for seed. Garlic should start showing up the end of this week or next. We put the pigs on new pasture yesterday. They are eating our cover crop from a section of garden that is now in the resting phase of our rotation. It was garden for many years and this spring was planted with wheat, winter peas, vetch, rye, oats and barley to rejuvenate the soil and out compete the weeds. We planted a diverse mix of plants so the soil is offed something different from each plant. The pigs will till it in. Next spring it will then be planted to pasture for the cows and chickens to graze for several years. The pasture grass will grow a deep root system to aerate the soil while the cows give it some extra special goodness with their manure. Eventually it will be garden again. If you pick up at the farm, you can see the pig pen directly south of the veggie shed. The pigs will be running around in growth over their heads and creating trails until they have it all munched down. We have Breakfast Sausage!! We have been waiting a loooonnnggg time for the butcher to catch up and we are finally restocked with some sausage. The only flavor we have right now is the Breakfast. It is seasoned with white pepper and sage. It comes in "bulk" (not formed in patties) one pound packages. If you know you want me to reserve you some, send me an email and I will put some in the cooler for you with your name on it. I will send as much as I can fit in the coolers. If you have not tried our sausage before, give it a try and you'll taste for yourself why folks are so excited we are finally restocked. We are now taking cash, check and Venmo at the pick up sites. Lunch this Week: Pad Bai and Tomato, Zucchini Soup with noodles
Recipe Ideas: Potato Leek Soup; Quinoa, Leek, Carrot Patties; Braised Carrot and Fennel The coolers at your site are stocked with Lifeline cheese and a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved for you. I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit! Lifeline Beef Available: Tenderloin, Ribeye, New York, Sirloin Steak, Eye of the Round, Brisket, Ground Beef, Patties, Sirloin Tip Roast, Tongue, Marrow Bones, Heart, Stew, and Kabobs Pork Available: Fat and Breakfast Sausage! WASH YOUR VEGGIES!! Bring Bags to pick-ups! If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend! Missed shares are forfeited for the week. Members get 20% off at the Farmer's Markets! The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 (Ends 9/22) The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1 (Ends 10/1) Jackson Hole Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-1 (Ends 9/25) Farm to Fork Festival, Saturday 10/2 at The Center for the Arts Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Fingerling Potatoes, Fennel, Holy Basil, Dill, Summer Squash, Cucumbers, Maybe Tomatoes, Sunflowers, Green Beans and/or Sugar Snap Peas We had a very light frost at the farm on Saturday (9/4) morning. The cucumbers look pretty sad, but they may bounce back. The summer squash looks a bit better and also may still produce. Any day in September without a killing frost feels like a gift in the Tetons! The garden is still growing wonderfully and there is no more frost in the forecast as I type this. Once September hits folks start asking: How many more weeks of veggies are there? We don't know, Mother Nature is in charge. Our goal every year is to make it 16 weeks. Some years we go longer. At this point I am confident we will make it at least 16 weeks! (In 25 years there was only one year that went 15 weeks, 24 years of shares have been 16 weeks or more!) It really depends on the weather and how fast we can get the garden cleaned out. If the summer squash keeps going, we will keep harvesting it and put off pulling in the carrots and potatoes until we need to. Once we get a killing frost and loose the summer crops we put all our energy into cleaning out the garden. Right now we are just in a holding pattern. Savoring the summer bounty until it's gone and we lean fully into the fall crops. The cold nights do wonders for the carrots. The longer they stay in the ground, the sweeter they will be when you get them! Cold nights stimulate sugar production in veggies...which is why Cosmic carrots are way better then any you will ever get from California! Keep checking the newsletter and I promise to update you about how long the shares will go. We are starting to dig small samplings of the potatoes. What we are distributing now are "new potatoes". The "new" means that they have not cured for storage. The skins are really tender and peel off easily...your fingernail will do the trick. These spuds are meant to be eaten on the quicker side and kept refrigerated until you do so. Getting storage potatoes harvested involves a killing frost! After the above ground green vine part of the potato plant freezes it sends a message to the tubers to "suberize". This process toughens up the skin and is what makes a potato "cured" or storable for the long term. If we don't get a timely frost, we mow the vines to kill them and encourage the beginning of the suberizing process. In non-organic production if the plants do not die naturally from a frost they are desiccated or vine killed with an herbicide. After a field is sprayed the farmer puts up a lovely skull and crossbones sign to keep people from walking in the field. After the vines are sprayed, farmers are instructed to refrain from feeding them to livestock. The earth has been rendered toxic and dangerous...but in 14 days it turns into food for humans! Potatoes are one of the crops on the Dirty Dozen list of the most sprayed fruits and veggies. We put our potato seed in the ground, water and weed them. We treat them with some Biodynamic applications of quartz crystal spray, bison field spray, red tourmaline and horn manure. At some point we may mow them. They are clean real food, and we will never hang a skull and crossbones at the farm...unless we become pirate farmers. Lunch this Week: Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese, Farm Curry (Summer Squash Page)
Recipe Ideas: Fennel Potato Gratin, Fall Fennel and Potato Roast, Dill butter Potatoes, Dill Walnut Sauce. The coolers at your site are stocked with Lifeline cheese and a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved for you. I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit! Lifeline Beef Available: Tenderloin, Ribeye, New York, Sirloin Steak, Eye of the Round, Brisket, Ground Beef, Patties, Sirloin Tip Roast, Tongue, Marrow Bones, Heart, Stew, and Kabobs Pork Available: Fat WASH YOUR VEGGIES!! Bring Bags to pick-ups! If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend! Missed shares are forfeited for the week. Members get 20% off at the Farmer's Markets! The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 (Ends 9/22) The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1 (Ends 10/1) Jackson Hole Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-1 (Ends 9/25) Farm to Fork Festival, Saturday 10/2 at The Center for the Arts Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Spinach, Cilantro, Sugar Snap Peas, Huckleberry Gold Potatoes, Sunflowers Maybe Cucumbers, Summer Squash, Thai Basil, Lemon Basil and/or Tomatoes This week our long time employee (we consider her family!) volunteered to write the newsletter! Many of you know Emily from our markets, she has done every job on the farm and we are so grateful to work with her. Hello all you lovely Cosmic members! This is Emily, a Cosmic Apple employee for over 10 years. I met Dale at an Earth Fair event in Victor in the spring of 2008 and signed on for a workshare that summer. I was put on a waitlist and luckily scored a Friday shift! I have inserted myself into the farm ever since, starting as a full time employee in 2009. Jed and Dale didn’t know what they were getting into, however, and honestly neither did I. I had found my place, my people, my passion. I latched on to their business, their lifestyle and their growing family with intense adoration, curiosity and loyalty. I watched and participated as the farm evolved and grew, as gardens and pastures rotated, animals gave birth and plants died as the winter came around the corner. I watched many volunteers come and go, some who did multiple seasons and became strong workers. I watched three beautiful children being raised on the farm, all of whom I consider my peers. I watched myself grapple with growing pains and personal development. Winter tea time at the family’s home became such an important part of my relationship with the Cosmic Apple as we finally had time to check in with our friendships, our extended families and our personal growth. When my brother suddenly passed away a few years ago and I was so far from my family, it was Jed and Dale and the Cosmic Apple Gardens themselves who provided a safe place to scream, cry, process all of the emotions and eventually find beauty in death. All in all, when Jed and Dale hired me I had no idea how deep my relationship would be with this amazing business and the folks who created it. There are many obvious benefits of eating local, organic and biodynamic food as far as nutrition and personal wellness go. I have witnessed this first hand for the last 13 years in my own body. What I did not expect but have seen blossom over time is the mental, spiritual and emotional benefits. I learned how to grow my own garden and am so honored that our plant sales in the spring and our passion for teaching others to grow their own food is such a big part of this farm. I watch new life bloom in the spring, bountiful harvests in the summer and the letting go in the fall. I have watched and worked with Jed and Dale, two of the most passionate people I have ever met in my life. And you, the Cosmic members, benefit from all of this because we care so deeply about your health. We put our love, our life into your food. It is so beautiful!!! And now I am bringing a new life into this world. I feel so lucky and grateful that this baby has been with me this season, growing inside of me and being nourished with all the goodness that comes with life at the Cosmic Apple. Thank you for making my life’s passion possible by supporting Jed and Dale and their mission to grow food with the highest life force possible. They are truly amazing. And so are all of you! Lunch this Week: Peruvian Quinoa Stew and Burritos with Idaho Salsa
Recipe Ideas: Honey Roasted Potatoes, Sesame Roasted Snap Peas The coolers at your site are stocked with Lifeline cheese and a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved for you. I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit! Lifeline Beef Available: Tenderloin, Ribeye, New York, Sirloin Steak, Eye of the Round, Brisket, Ground Beef, Patties, Sirloin Tip Roast, Tongue, Marrow Bones, Heart, Stew, and Kabobs Pork Available: Fat WASH YOUR VEGGIES!! Bring Bags to pick-ups! If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend! Missed shares are forfeited for the week. Members get 20% off at the Farmer's Markets! The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1 Jackson Hole Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-1 Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Spicy Mix, Arugula, Spinach, Tomatoes, Sugar Snap Peas, Basil, Summer Squash, Cucumbers (Slicer or Picklers), Maybe Sunflowers, Beans and/or Radishes I have toyed over the years with writing this newsletter. I try to keep it positive here...teetering on romantic, but maybe you could hear the exhaustion in my voice last week. So I am going for it. Farming is hard. Really freaking hard. 4 o'clock in the morning trying to save a cow's life hard. Not enough time in the day to play with my kids hard. What are vacations? Type of hard. No one has time to cook dinner with all these amazing veggies hard. Jed works 95 hours a week. Seriously. I just did the math. Not for a week or two, here and there. But sustained for about 6 months. Then he works about half of that in the winter. Outside. I manage to work enough for it to be a full time job, with 3 kids and no childcare...so the kids choose to stay home or join in now that they are older. When they were young they just came with us and it was great...most of the time. We don't do it for the money. The return on farming is a joke. We are lucky enough to live in Teton Valley but can not afford to build a very modest family home at the farm, so we drive back and forth. Our money is not spent on traveling. The last time we were all away from the farm together on "vacation" was for 3 nights in 2019. We have managed to go camping in the summer once for 2 nights and there was that family wedding in August of 2009 when we left for 4 nights. I'm serious, that's it for summer vacations in 20 years. We went on a 2 week family visit in 2013 in February, just so the kids could go to their grandparent's houses. Leaving is darn near impossible with the animals and plants to take care of. If we leave and something gets missed, someone or something can die, which can instantly wipe out years or months of work. Jed and I take turns taking vacations in the winter so we can get some time off, that way one of us can stay to take care of the farm. I think our kids would like us all to be together. For all the love, blood, sweat and literal tears that we put into growing food we still need to make a living. We go to the markets and people complain about the cost of our food. How much do you think we should make an hour? I figure we make about $12.82/hour. Would you work at a job for 25 years if that was your prospect? There are reasons young people are not getting into farming. The ability to make a living is one of them. The weeds. OMG the damn weeds. We need to double our payroll just to take care of them, and that is unaffordable. I am not telling you all this so you send me sweet emails letting me know how much you appreciate what we do. So many of you have already taken the time to do that. We feel the love and gratitude you share, and yes it keeps us going. We want our community to know how hard it is, just like we want to know your hardships, because we are community. We want folks to stop rolling their eyes about the cost of food after they just stood in line at the market talking about the next vacation they are taking or where they just returned from. We know our food costs more. It is not subsidized. We aren't using chemicals to save labor on weeding. We want to pay our employees enough that they can live here. The farming system in this country needs to burn down and be rebuilt. We know this is not your fault. In fact we know you are part of the solution, because you are here. Supporting us. Reading this. Listening. Thank you. So why am I writing this totally depressing newsletter? We just need you to know. We need you to know how hard it is. How messed up it is. How much it needs to change. We need you to set your friends straight when they say food is expensive. Yes, it is. That's what it costs, and it should cost a heck of a lot more, but we don't want our food to be completely inaccessible so we try to find a balanced point. But most folks spend more on their phones per year they they do supporting local farmers. We know lots of you are struggling to make ends meet and to keep your housing. Thanks for making us part of your tight budget. We also know so many folks are in much harder situations then us. But like I said, we just need people to know the reality of what we are doing. We just want you to know. We work more then most, for way less money then most, with more passion and commitment then most. We are dedicated and will keep going and there is still nothing else we would rather do. Thank you for listening and supporting us. Lunch this Week: Summer Saute' and Farm Curry (both on the summer Squash page)
Recipe Ideas: Idaho Salsa (cucumber page), Dale's Basil Vinaigrette, The coolers at your site are stocked with Lifeline cheese and a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved for you. I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit! Lifeline Beef Available: Tenderloin, Ribeye, New York, Sirloin Steak, Eye of the Round, Brisket, Ground Beef, Patties, Sirloin Tip Roast, Tongue, Marrow Bones, Heart, Stew, and Kabobs Pork Available: Fat WASH YOUR VEGGIES!! Bring Bags to pick-ups! If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend! Missed shares are forfeited for the week. Members get 20% off at the Farmer's Markets! The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1 Jackson Hole Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-1 Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Spicy Mix, Spinach, Sugar Snap Peas, Kale, Cucumbers, Summer Squash, Tomatoes and Maybe Radish, Sunflowers, Romaine Lettuce, and/or Bok Choy We may have had a record summer squash harvest. They were heavy and there are a lot of them! Helpful hint...summer squash is the easiest veggie to freeze for the winter. Just grate it in your food processor and then freeze in bags in proportioned sizes. Shredded frozen squash makes great zucchini cakes in the middle of winter. You can also make zucchini bread and easily freeze that! If you need some Reggae inspiration (don't we all!) and a great song about Cucumbers, please check this out! https://youtu.be/lL42O2p1nx8 We are in the "dog days of summer". As farmers we just keep our heads down and keep going. It is exhausting. I never want to wish summer away, but it always easy to see how working at this pace is not sustainable. We have our organic inspection on Wednesday of this week. There is so much going on I am keeping the newsletter short! Lunch this Week: Summer Squash Tomato Stew over Quinoa, Curried Zucchini Soup over Rice
Recipe Ideas: Kale Tomato Brown Rice Bowls, Kale with Bacon The coolers at your site are stocked with Lifeline cheese and a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved for you. I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit! Lifeline Beef Available: Tenderloin, Ribeye, New York, Sirloin Steak, Eye of the Round, Brisket, Ground Beef, Patties, Sirloin Tip Roast, Tongue, Marrow Bones, Heart, Stew, and Kabobs Pork Available: Fat WASH YOUR VEGGIES!! Bring Bags to pick-ups! If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend! Missed shares are forfeited for the week. Members get 20% off at the Farmer's Markets! The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1 Jackson Hole Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-1 Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com |
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