Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Rainbow Carrots, Purple Potatoes, Tomatoes, Basil, Red Kale, maybe Slicing Cucumber and/or Summer Squash The garden received a frost on early Saturday morning. It got to 31 degrees for about an hour. The summer squash and cucumbers are done. We harvested on Friday afternoon in an attempt to save some things, the squash and cucumbers in your share are from those efforts. Everything else is still looking good. The carrots will now get sweeter. The cold weather shocks the plants into producing more sugars as the threat of freezing stimulates their desire to survive. We wish the potato plants would have frozen a bit more! When the tops of the plants die, the potatoes (safely tucked underground) grow tougher skins. The tougher skins make harvesting easier on us and they also store better. If they don't freeze soon we will mow the tops to encourage the spuds to toughen up! I admit it...I was not quite ready for the frost this year. I could have used one more week. The cucumbers just got going and they are one of my favorite garden treats. Some years it is very easy to step into fall, other years I try to hang on a bit longer. I guess it's one of those hanging on years. I know in my core hanging on is futile and just creates strife. It's time to let go of the summer days, swimming, wide open windows, and grazing in the garden. I'll welcome fall...eventually. The rain and cooler temps this week will have me looking for my slippers I haven't seen since June, making more tea and wanting to cook dishes that need time in the oven. I will get excited about tasting the garden delights that have needed all season to be ready for us. I am already looking forward to a bit of cooler temperatures. And hiking! This is my favorite time of year to get out in the woods. Okay, thanks for listening. Newsletter therapy is really helpful. We do still have lots of goodies growing in the garden for you. We are now in "empty the garden mode"! Volunteer! Here's the big secret. September is the best month to volunteer. It is the month of some of the biggest shares. Help us wrap up the harvest and receive lots of veggies!! 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 10-15 hours left this month! It feels really good to have volunteers back on the farm, we missed them!! Lunch and veggies are provided! Follow the link below to check it out! Lunch this Week: Farm Curry (On the summer squash page. This week with carrots, kale, potatoes and tomatoes)
Recipe Ideas: Carrots, Potatoes roasted w/ Onions and garlic; Scallop Potatoes and Carrots; Panzanella Salad (kale page). Lifeline Cheese Update: We have cheese again!!!! The coolers at your site are stocked with 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, Neck Bones (make the real deal Ramen!), Fat, Country Ribs, and Hock 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 (ends 9/30) JH Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-12 (ends 9/24) The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 (ends 9/21) Farm To Fork Festival: Saturday, October 1st; 1-4 at the Center for the Arts Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com
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Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Swiss Chard, Chives, Yukon Gold Potatoes, Head Lettuce, Summer Squash, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, maybe Beans and/or Sugar Snap Peas The cucumbers decided to join the party this week. We have been coaxing them along all summer, and they have arrived. Enjoy them, they are extremely frost sensitive and may not last long. We grow 2 types of cukes. Pickling and slicing. BUT! Refrain from feeling limited by their names. You can use pickling cucumbers just like slicing ones. Our household prefers the picklers for all uses. They have a much more tender and less bitter skin then the larger slicers. We eat them like apples. It is one of our favorite snacks on a hot day. Usually the picklers come in earlier and are more prolific all season which is why we grow both. The slicing cucumbers are larger and more traditional. All bets are off this year about timing and abundance of cucumbers...they have grown differently this year then other years. This week the slicers were way more prolific! We have begun harvesting small amounts of potatoes. These early season spuds are called "new potatoes" because the skin is still tender. They will not store for a long time like the ones you will get later in the season. Consider these new potatoes a warm up for your spud skills! We have lots more coming as the season progresses....would you expect anything less from an Idaho farm? It is still summer on the farm with temps reaching the high 80's everyday and warm nights. The hills are green with no real hint of leaf color change yet. The grasses at the farm have gone to seed and turned a beautiful beige and some bird species have begun moving through on their journey south. Fall feels imminent, but just out of reach. I am savoring the heat, soaking up as much sun as I can on my skin to store the warmth for the winter! Volunteer! Here's the big secret. September is the best month to volunteer. It is the month of some of the biggest shares. Help us wrap up the harvest and receive lots of veggies!! 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 15-20 hours left this month! It feels really good to have volunteers back on the farm, we missed them!! Lunch and veggies are provided! Follow the link below to check it out! Lunch this Week: Burritos with Idaho Salsa and Summer Sauté
Recipe Ideas: French Chive Dressing, Honey Roasted Potatoes, Summer Squash Boats Lifeline Cheese Update: We have cheese again!!!! The coolers at your site are stocked with 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, Country Ribs, and Hock 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 (ends 9/30) JH Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-12 (ends 9/24) The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 (ends 9/21) Farm To Fork Festival: Saturday, October 1st; 1-4 at the Center for the Arts Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Tomatoes, Kale, Carrots, Basil, Summer Squash, maybe Sugar Snap Peas and/or Cucumbers September is coming in HOT! The forecast is calling for lots of heat in the next week with no chance of frost. Any frost free day in September always feels like a gift. We will keep harvesting the summer squash and cucumbers until they freeze. The cucumbers had a rough start and are just getting going. The tomatoes and basil are tucked in the greenhouses, so thanks to plastic and propane, they will keep producing even after we frost. The fall crops are shaping up nicely and it looks like it will be a promising harvest. Once September arrives, folks start asking when the shares will end. Truthfully...we don't know. It is weather dependent. Our goal is to put out 16 shares. Some years it takes us longer to clean out the garden, other years we get it done quicker. After we freeze, it depends on how many hands we have to help get the thousands of pounds of produce out of the ground. It also depends on the weather. If it is cold and wet it slows us (and everyone else!) down. I promise to keep you posted on the fall progression, but like I said Mama Nature is in charge!! Volunteer! Here's the big secret. September is the best month to volunteer. It is the month of some of the biggest shares. Help us wrap up the harvest and receive lots of veggies!! 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 and veggies are provided! Follow the link below to check it out! Lunch this Week: Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese and Peruvian Quinoa Stew (tomato page)
Recipe Ideas: Oven Roasted Carrots and Kale; Creamy Carrot Tomato Soup; Tomato, Garlic and Summer Squash Lifeline Cheese Update: We have cheese again!!!! The coolers at your site are stocked with 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, Country Ribs, and Hock 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 (ends 9/30) JH Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-12 (ends 9/24) The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 (ends 9/21) Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Summer Squash, Swiss Chard, Tomatoes, Fennel, maybe Sugar Snap Peas, Beans, Basil and/or Parsley In last week's newsletter I touched on the cover crops we have been planting. The truth is...we went big with cover crops this year. A cover crop is planted to "cover" the soil so it is not bare, which leaves it susceptible to erosion and available for weed seeds to grow in. Cover crops also improve the microbial life in the soil, which I spoke of last week. We have multi species cover crops in 3 places. In the garden we alternated the veggie rows with rye and vetch. In the greenhouses and in the garden paths we planted plantain, clover and grasses. The "pasture to be" is the big one, it now grows grasses, legumes, radish, turnips, collards, oats, barley, wheat, flax and chicory! It is a mix of perennials and annuals and the cows are gonna love it! The grasses need a couple of years to establish themselves but the annuals will be food for the cows this fall. The pig yard has oats, barley, wheat and winter peas in it. Our 4th cover crop is where the garlic was harvested from. It is only winter peas, since they were the only seeds we could get this time of year. We now have more soil covered then before. I think of the forest in relation to cover crops...there is never bare soil in the natural world, you always have to dig down to find it. This is how the farm should be mostly. Most of the veggie crops are the exception, they need to have some space around them for harvesting and so the plants have enough room to grow with limited competition. But we have started to make sure the paths between garden beds have cover crops growing. At Cosmic Apple the cover crops feed the soil and suppress weeds. Luckily for us, erosion is not a big deal because of our location (wind deposits soil, instead of taking it), and flat topography (water does not move soil). With cover crops interplanted as paths and alternating garden beds we are feeding the soil at the same time we are harvesting from it. During our yearly organic inspection a hole was dug in a cover cropped path. The soil was moist, rich, full of worms and crumbly. It had good moisture retention and had become a soil microbe reservoir! A hole was dug in an old path that had not been cover cropped. The soil was compacted and dry...Jed said "it was not pretty." We recently learned that soil microbes proliferate when 4 or more plant species are growing together...again the forest floor! Most farms in the US are mono-cropped. And now to get completely geeky about soil.... Plant roots release this stuff called root exudates. The exudates come out of the roots and improve the microbial life and resist harmful microbes. Weeds (the ones that are prolific at the farm) only put 20% of their energy into the soil through root exudates. The veggies and cover crops put about 60-70% of their energy into root exudates. SOOOO what does this mean and why does it matter? Guess what else root exudates do? They sequester carbon! It's all a very complex process and I don't really understand it... people are getting Doctorates trying to explain it all kinds of papers right now! Once again...it feels like we are on the right path trying to grow the best food. The practices that make sense to us to help get rid of the weeds are good for the earth. And as usual diversity wins. Volunteer! Here's the big secret. September is the best month to volunteer. It is the month of some of the biggest shares. Help us wrap up the harvest and receive lots of veggies!! 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 and veggies are provided! Follow the link below to check it out! Lunch this Week: Curried Summer Squash Soup (I added fennel, peas and tomatoes)
Recipe Ideas: Lifeline Cheese Update: We are sad to report Lifeline has put shipping cheese on hold. They are too short-staffed and are having difficulty getting shipping supplies. When they are able to ship again, the prices will reflect the increase in shipping fees. Lifeline has been a staple in our lives for 20+ years and we are anxious for its return. The coolers at your site are stocked with 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, Country Ribs, and Hock Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Red Kale, Tomatoes, Maybe Shell Peas, Sugar Snap Peas, Summer Squash and/or Baby Carrots Holy amazing rain. We were on a bit of an irrigation roller coaster at the end of July. The night before we left for our trip, we found out the water was being shut off before we returned. Ugh. I did not want to come back to a brown and dead garden. Then halfway through our vacation we found out we had another week of water. (giving us to August 9th) Woohooo! I was so relieved. I told Jed and he was so even keeled about the whole thing it was puzzling to me. He just laughed and said he got used to the idea of not needing to move pipe when he returned. Vacation suited him well. Then the rain started. Big soaking downpours. Only a tiny bit of hail! The garden is now so well hydrated we have not been moving pipe. We have not heard anything about the state of our irrigation...but because of really complicated water laws, we are feeling pretty secure about the garden staying green for the duration of the summer. I asked the crew what I should write about today. Answers were: Kids eating veggies, garlic harvest, cooking and the big picture of the farm. How to get kids to eat veggies. Oh my. I don't have a magic answer. The closest thing I have to sorcery is butter. Cook veggies in butter. I swear it helps and kids need healthy fats to grow their brains. Yummy sauces for dipping. Hummus, yogurt dill, "the ultimate dressing", yogurt-cuke-mint. Let them free range eat. Put out a snack so they can munch and play. Let them help prepare the food. I think my kids were always more willing to eat things they helped to make. Bring them to the farm. Making the connection between food growing in the garden and then seeing it on their plate is huge. Our farm members are welcome to walk around any time. The teenage pigs are near the parking area...and will definitely provide some entertainment. If we know you are coming I can sometimes get my daughter to give you a tour. I'll even pay her to say she likes veggies! Garlic Harvest! It's happening...happened! As I type the last two rows are being pulled. It looks large and healthy. Some of it went out in last week's share. The rest of it is now curing in our storage shed, waiting to be distributed to you in the fall or planted for next year's crop in October. I have written all about garlic's unique lifecycle on the "Garlic" page in the recipes. Check it out!! Speaking of recipes...if you are not sure how to use a specific veggie, check out each corresponding page on our recipe link. There are also storage and cooking tips on each page. And finally...the "big picture of the farm"? Our goal is to "Grow the best food for the People of the Tetons". Every single thing we do comes back to that little sentence. It all starts with the soil. It is our most precious resource and preserving its health is our greatest job. The soil is alive. This following fact is mind boggling: *There are more living organisms in 1 teaspoon of healthy topsoil then there are people in the world.* That is a lot of life to protect and preserve. There is more life below our feet then above it. It makes me want to hover over the soil in constant amazement and gratitude. All this life is literally holding us up and the irony is we are walking around on it not noticing our foundation! Our caretaking of the soil involves many layers. We use Biodynamic preparations to enhance the microbial life in the soil. We don't use sprays that kill things. We are currently experimenting with cover crops to feed the soil and to promote diversity. The water we irrigate with is Teton snowmelt so nothing creepy is being added to the farm when we water. We strive to keep the soil "covered". We don't have large sections of unplanted garden for long. The soil needs plants to protect it and hold it in place. The compost pile from our animals is an integral part of the farm. Our cows make manure all winter which is put into a pile in the spring. The compost pile cooks all summer long and is spread in the fall to replenish the nutrients we harvested as vegetable matter. The microbes in the living soil break down the compost further to create more humus. The compost also improves the soil structure. We have been farming at the same location for 20 years now. In the time we have been here, a tangible difference in the soil is evident. The soil has grown darker since we started farming here. The structure is better...more aeration occurs. And honestly...the farm soil is just gorgeous. It is a rich brown and feels amazing when I hold it. The smell alone seems to nourish me. Walking barefoot in the garden (in the thistle free zones!) is one of my favorite sensations ever, I can feel the life beneath my feet, holding me up, taking care of me. I hope in return, we take care of the soil in the way it needs us too so we can continue to grow the best food possible! Volunteer! Here's the big secret. September is the best month to volunteer. It is the month of some of the biggest shares. Help us wrap up the harvest and receive lots of veggies!! 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 and veggies are provided! Follow the link below to check it out! Lunch this Week: Zucchini Cakes with Tomato Balsamic Sauce
Recipe Ideas: Carrot ginger dressing; Holly Pratt's recipe on the carrot page uses kale and summer squash (I mistakenly didn't title it); One pan summer eggs (summer squash page). Lifeline Cheese Update: We are sad to report Lifeline has put shipping cheese on hold. They are too short-staffed and are having difficulty getting shipping supplies. When they are able to ship again, the prices will reflect the increase in shipping fees. Lifeline has been a staple in our lives for 20+ years and we are anxious for its return. The coolers at your site are stocked with 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, Country Ribs, and Hock Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Collards, Tomatoes, Garlic, Head Lettuce, Bok Choy maybe Basil, Sugar Snap Peas, Shell Peas and/or Summer Squash Tuesday the 2nd of August was Lammas, the day half way between Summer Solstice and Fall Equinox. It is considered the beginning of the harvest and the season of fire...not just the forest type. The sun burns brightly above us, tempers flare and a feeling of scarcity of summer days creeps in for some. The urge to pack it all in is upon us. At the farm this translates to getting the harvest in. There is so much to do. We planted a lot and now we must reap it! In August I like to wear a necklace I have with a bee on it. Bees amaze me. Everything they do is for the hive. The necklace reminds me to keep going "for the hive". The season of rest will be upon us soon, until then the eating is still so good!!!! I was unable to write about Lammas last week because the farm family took our first ever summer vacation. We did it!!! My parents were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and we wanted to be there. We went to the beach. In the summer. Our whole family! It was great. I feel refreshed and even more committed to growing great food. Getting out of the farm bubble makes it easy to see how hard it is to access really good food. Although the kids were really happy about all the options on the boardwalk! I ate as much corn on the cob with Cosmic butter as I possibly could. Traveling in the middle of summer made me so incredibly grateful for the thriving local food scene in the Tetons. We managed to find some fresh, locally grown items that were not organic. And we managed to find one natural food store that had some non-local organic produce. They only had 1 farmer's market that we did not attend because the timing did not work. But...wow...3 cheers for all the growers around here supplying the stores and the 3 different regional markets. Good food is way more accessible here. A huge part of that is the work local consumers are willing to do to access it. So thanks for putting the time in to keep the local food scene thriving. We need you! We could not have pulled our vacation off without the help of our employees. We sincerely knew the farm was in good hands and we were genuinely able to relax. Some employees worked extra hours so we could go. Everyone had extra tasks to get done. They all pulled together and did it. So once again...and never enough....YAY FARM CREW! Volunteer! 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 and veggies are provided! Follow the link below to check it out! Lunch this Week: Oven baked polenta with Collards and Summer Squash with a tomato-balsamic sauce.
Recipe Ideas: Easy Greens (use Collards and we have hock! Just let me know if you want some!); Perfect peas w/ butter and salt; Tomato, Garlic and Summer Squash 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, Country Ribs, and Hock Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Tomatoes, Bok Choy, Lacinato Kale, New Red Fire Head Lettuce, maybe Sugar Snap Peas, Shell Peas and/or Parsley Guest Newsletter author this week! Emily has been working with us for 13 years and is now a fulltime mama. Gratefully our lives are still intertwined and she offered to write the newsletter this week.... I wanted to reach out to you all with some insights I have gained now that I am not a part of the day-to-day activities that go into growing our food. The word empowered has been on my mind and in my heart for a while now. For the last 13 years my sense of empowerment came from helping grow food for my community. More recently empowerment came from research and making my own choices about my personal health and welfare. Empowerment also came in the form of a healthy pregnancy on my terms and an unexpected free birth with my husband and now 6 month old. Now that I am a mother, I sometimes feel lost. Where did that gal go that was always doing things and going places and sleeping through the night? I have had to dig deep to find empowerment these days. (I know being a mother is empowering but it doesn’t always feel that way!) And of course, where is one of the places I rediscovered my sense of self? Where did I find some solid ground that I could control? My farm share!! The world out there is bonkers right now and there feels like so much that is out of our control. Yet I keep going back to food, water, shelter. It all pretty much starts with those things and it all starts with food! When my mind starts racing, when I am exhausted, when my mom guilt is taking over, I come back to my veggies. I truly believe that we are what we eat. If we eat animals that have been tortured, we will feel tortured. If we eat veggies grown with poison, we will be poisoned. I am not saying you will see me eating all the right things all of the time. I wish it were possible. But I will find empowerment in trying to eat my entire share each week, in reaching for yet another salad when the bag of chips is so much easier. We are so distracted these days and separated from one another in so many ways but when we all eat veggies grown in soil where we all live, grown by people who live here, we become one. We become nourished, we support the nourishment of the earth and we become empowered. So grab that bok choi, butter up some radishes, check out the meat and cheese coolers and get to eatin’. Volunteer! 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 and veggies are provided! Follow the link below to check it out! Lunch this Week: Stir Fried Veggies over rice with Peanut Sauce.
Recipe Ideas: Stir Fried Bok Choy with Mushrooms and Cashews, Bok Choy Peanut Noodle Salad, Creamy Kale Salad, Kale Tomato Brown Rice Bowl. 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, Country Ribs, and Hock Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Swiss Chard, Turnips, Mirlo Head Lettuce, Tomatoes, maybe Sugar Snap Peas, Basil and/or Bok Choy It felt like just last week we were striving to round out the crop list with more variety. The garden has tipped. Now it is all about how fast we can get it harvested. The farm is growing great! The plants are thriving in all this heat. On Monday we freed the squash! Our winter squash (pumpkins, delicata) and summer squash (zuchinni, yellow crookneck, cucumbers) were all planted on IRT mulch which helps to heat the soil for sensitive crops in the Tetons. We also cover them with the white row cover. The row cover is placed on top of hoops so the rows are like mini greenhouses. When the plants begin to flower we remove the row cover so the insects can get in there and pollinate. The plants are just starting to show signs of flowering and we had some time so the row cover has been removed! The squash is now free to grow as big as it wants! Last year we had squash by share #6 and then proceeded to have one of our biggest squash years ever. The cucurbita family is so cool. It grows so fast. It feels as close to a jungle plant as we can get here. My best guess is the summer squash will start to make a small appearances in about 2 weeks. Generally we plant this section of the garden at the very beginning of June. Mama Nature had other plans this year, and we were asked to wait until late June. We listened, if we would have planted the seeds in the cool, wet early June the seeds would have just rotted on us. This family of veggies likes it warm and we are always kind of coaxing them in the Tetons. As Emma called it..."The Great Pig Migration" is happening. Our sow had 10 piglets in April. They are more than ready to be separated from mama. We have a mobile pig shed that they will call home. The electric fencing is set up around wherever we choose to park it to keep the pigs in. The pigs till the soil for us with their noses as they root around for yummy plants, chomping weeds as they also fertilize the soil. We give them a lot of space. Usually our pig posse does not even till all the ground we'd like them too. Which is great because it means they have enough fresh forage and they are not desperate for more. Our pigs follow the garden in our rotation. After an area has been in garden for several years we put the pigs on it. They forage, till and fertilize. When they are done we plant the area to pasture. The pasture replenishes the soil. Nitrogen is fixed, long grass roots aerate, weeds are choked out by more competitive plants. It takes the fresh grass and lots of other plants about 4 months to get established. Our cows and chickens are then put on the pasture. They also continue to fertilize while dining. When we are ready to move the cows and chickens over, the land then becomes garden again. The whole rotation takes about 7 years and is really important to the longevity of the farm. If we didn't rotate the garden/pigs/pasture the soil becomes depleted. We need the animals to replenish what is coming out of the soil in the form of vegetable matter. My favorite Rudolf Steiner (Founder of Biodynamic Agriculture) quote is: "So long as one feeds on food from unhealthy soil, the spirit will lack the stamina to free itself from the prison of the body." We know our most important job as farmers is to care for the soil. The soil is where our true nourishment comes from. If we are eating soil that lacks real nutrition we will not have enough energy to pursue the great endeavors of our lives. Moving pigs does not always seem like a big deal but The Great Pig Migration is just a little part of the big picture! We need a few more volunteers for August! 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 and veggies are provided! Follow the link below to check it out! Lunch this Week: Quinoa, turnips, Swiss Chard, and sugar snaps with Mint Vinegrette
Recipe Ideas: Salmon with Turnips and Swiss Chard; Chard Patties; Grilled Steak, Balsamic reduction and Chard; Roasted tomato, basil pesto; Tomato salsa with sugar 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: 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, Country Ribs, and Hock Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Bok Choy, Radish, Garlic Curls, Kale, Arugula, Roxy Head Lettuce and maybe Tomatoes We are on a weeding mission. July is the month we strive to get as much weeding done as possible. By mid-August, almost all of our time is turned towards harvesting so July is kind of "make or break" with the weeding to-do list. We are getting through it. Diligently and slowly, but rows are getting crossed off on the white board! The chard and kale was recently weeded and looks gorgeous. It is all growing together and the colors are phenomenal. Green chard leaves with veins of red and white contrasting with dark purplish kale and grey-green lacinato kale. I happened by the rows at sunset right after it was watered...and my mouth started watering! Kale this week and the chard will be ready really soon! We have been taking some time and doing employee evaluations. Getting ready for the evaluations is kind of boring this year. Jed and I don't need to take time to figure out how to word things to say it in the right way to inspire folks to do better and not hurt any feelings. We don't have to take the time to figure out what issues we should focus on and what we can live with. Our co-workers this year are amazing and we are extremely grateful. No drama. Everyone shows up on time with a light attitude and good humor. When we give feedback it is used constructively and instantly. The crew wants to grow food and get it to the people. Everyone gets along. They work hard in all weather (including biting fly season!) and have never brought the whine! Each and every person. The field crew, wash station manager, truck driver, tomato caretaker, weekend chore person, market peeps, and site hosts. We need them, and they are there for us. They are keeping this big farm moving. There are so many parts to tend to and the care used in tending is seen and appreciated. The energy and love brought by each employee to their day job is one of the things that affects the quality of produce we put out. Each employee could be making double the money doing landscaping or waiting tables. We are incredibly grateful they decided to try farming. Even for them, it is a labor of love, not financial gain or fame...hopefully this newsletter will help with the local fame! If you are lucky enough to know one of our employees, a high five is in order. We need a few more volunteers for July! At this point...only a 10 hour commitment! 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 and veggies are provided! Follow the link below to check it out! Lunch this Week: Butter (LOTS of butter) pasta with Bok choy, garlic curls, kale and basil. Chili Mint Stir Fry with Bok Choy, Radish, kale, garlic curls and Cosmic Beef over rice.
Recipe Ideas: Garlic Scape and Bok Choy. Bok Choy with Gingery Butter Sauce, Bok Choy. Italian Arugula Salad. 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, and Hock Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Turnips, Bok Choy, Garlic Curls, Roxy Head Lettuce and Basil Share #4! A month in and it feels like we have a routine going. The daily rhythm is becoming normal for our employees and us. Everyday on the farm is a bit different, but there is a flow. We meet at 7 am and talk about who will do what, first thing each morning. Max moves off to care for the cows, pigs, chickens and calves. He rejoins the crew when he is done, around 9. Jed heads out into the field with the crew (Jenevive, Charlotte, Jacy, Emma and 2 volunteers) to harvest Cosmic Mix (every Monday and Thursday). Tuesdays and Thursdays we get the other items for the shares out of the fields. Jacy eventually ventures off to move irrigation pipe, which takes about 45 minutes each morning. We harvest until the coveted coffee break around 9:30. Our wash station manager, Becky, has begun inventorying veggies that returned from a CSA pick up or market and divvying up "the extras" before she begins post harvest handling of items coming out of the fields. Deb arrives to tend to the greenhouses. The tomatoes need trellising and harvested on Mondays and Thursdays. After coffee break, there is more harvesting. When the harvest is done, we move onto getting the mud off of crops, weighing and dividing. The greens are dunked in tubs of water to cool them and get any big clumps of soil off. The root crops are sprayed down, to help keep most of the soil at the farm. Each item is either weighed or counted. The total number or weight is then divided by the number of CSA members picking up each day...this is how we determine a share. We strive to have all the produce in the wash station before lunch, at 12:15 each day. By 1 we are back at moving forward with veggie distribution. Becky is doing serious math in the wash station to determine where the veggies will be going. There are 3 pickup points happening simultaneously on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and we need the right number of bok choys at each location for the number of members expecting bok choy! The concentration in the wash station becomes palpable on some days. The dry erase boards with your share weights are written. Our truck driver, Roberta, arrives at 3 to load the truck and hits the road at 3:30. After dropping a pallet and supplies in Wilson, she heads to downtown Jackson to get the veggies to the people!! This is the flow of the CSA harvest. Outside of this, there is also prep for 3 markets happening, weeding, projects and all the other good things to keep the whole farm wheel turning! We need a couple more volunteers for July! At this point...only a 3 week commitment! 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 and veggies are provided! Follow the link below to check it out! Lunch this Week: Burritos with "Dale's Burrito Sauce" and sandwiches with roasted garlic curl hummus. Both recipes are on the garlic page.
Recipe Ideas: Grilled Garlic Curls 2 Ways, Dale's Basil Vinaigrette, Honey Basil Dressing. Grilled Bok Choy (go to the "Just Picked, A CSA Cooking Show on our website. The recipe is from Share #1) and Lemon Butter Basil Turnips. 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, and Hock 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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