Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Kale, Garlic Curls, Oregano, Bok Choy and Spinach It seems everyone I run into in town has been asking me how the weather has been affecting the farm with a stern look of concern. The weather has been great, alternating between warm temperatures and soothing rain. The garden is growing wonderfully. The plants seem to get bigger each day. The grass is still soft and green on my bare feet. The cows are happy on pasture. Our last variety of lilacs are still blooming. Every once in a while I get a whiff of sage in the air. Jed gets a break from moving irrigation pipe when we get enough precipitation. All of these delights help us appreciate the rain. As much as we love the rain for the garden, it can be a bit trying on our morale. Hands get really cold harvesting in the rain, and dexterity is important when using knives or shears. It takes a lot of energy just walking in heavy, wet, muddy rain gear. The lush garden soil clings to boots making them feel like 1980's ski boots. (Those were really heavy for those of you who didn't get the chance to rock '80's ski gear beyond Gaper Day) When the soil is really wet we can't weed, but the weeds keep growing! It is nice to have a break from that task, but falling behind is no fun either. The thing about the rough weather, is we just love the pleasant weather that much more when the sun shines upon us. I know last week I spent some time raving about our employees, but I need to do it again. Even with the cold wet weather they were all smiling at lunch on Monday. I love these people. Please send them some gratitude. They work really hard in all kinds of weather to get you your share. So now that you know the garden is growing amazingly and filled with amazing people, you may be wondering what veggies are out there! I can tell you what we planted, but I offer no guarantee as to what comes to fruition. Mother Nature is really the one in charge around here. Some years weather, pests or weeds makes a crop unharvestable. But since I am a lover of hopes and dreams I will share the list of ours for the 2020 year! In the garden this year.... Potatoes, Garlic, Beans, Zucchini, Yellow Squash, Pickling Cucumbers, Cucumbers, Sugar Dumpling Squash, Delicata Squash, Orange Summer Squash, Cosmic Mix, Spicy Mix, Spinach, Arugula, Turnips, Radish, Carrots, Parsnips, Broccoli, Kale, Sunflowers, Sugar Snap Peas, Snow Peas, Fava Beans, Shell Peas, Onions, Shallots, Beets, Kohlrabi, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Napa Cabbage, Bok Choy, Dill, Cilantro, Broccoli Raab, Swiss Chard and Perennial Herbs. The greenhouses are sheltering our Tomatoes and Basil! Wow! That all sounds so good. Reminder....check out our recipe pages if you are not sure how to use something. Hint, hint...garlic curls are awesome!!! Farm lunch this week: Tempeh Stir Fry with Kale, Bok Choy and Garlic Curls. Pesto with Quinoa, Bok Choy and Kale Recipe Idea: Gingered Kale and Bok Choy, Emily's Overnight Kale Salad, Kale and Oregano Pesto, Roasted Garlic Curl Hummus 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!
Beef Available: Tenderloin, New York Steak, Ribeye Steak, Sirloin Steak, Eye of the Round Steak, Round Roast, Sirloin Tip Roast, Liver, Ground Beef, Patties, Stew, Kabobs, Hot Dogs and Bratwurst Pork Available: Chorizo and 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(Starts 7/11) Farm to Fork Festival: October 3rd 11-4 Center for the Arts Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? [email protected]
0 Comments
Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Spicy Mix, Collards, Australe Head Lettuce, Bok Choy, Maybe Radish and/or Basil We hope the first share was well received and you are ready to be back for more! We made a big change on the farm this year and we are excited to share! Drum roll please.... After 22 years of working with crews of volunteers we have switched to an all employee crew. This has been a big leap and we are grateful we went for it. Over the years we have met so many incredible people because they did a "workshare" at the farm. Workshares spent 5 hours per week farming in exchange for a full share, lunch and hands on farming experience. It was a serious commitment and lasted for 6 months. Many workshares have become lifelong friends and we feel blessed. A quick look though the list of 2020 shareholders and I can find 27 people who volunteered on the farm! I am confident there are more who have changed last names or are splitting a share in someone else's name. This constant "crop" of new folks kept Jed and I learning many names each year and coming to love many of the personalities behind the names. We are sad to see this super social part of the farm slip away. We can not emphasize enough how many wonderful people we met through the volunteer program. So why are we moving on? We decided to make this move last fall when Teton County, ID was in the midst of a boom cycle. It gets challenging to get folks to volunteer when staffing at paid jobs is short handed. Employers need our volunteers to come to work at their paying jobs. The great volunteers tend to be the great employees, so they would get pulled away from the farm. We would have days in the fall when an entire volunteer crew would not show up. It was hard to get the harvest in. It was hard to get the farm closed up for the season. Jed and our manager were exhausted from training whoever showed up on a given day how to do a job already explained 90 times before. We were tired of figuring out the logistics with not enough hands to execute a plan. Hiring full time employees started to look awesome. Full time employees who would know where things were in the fields, know what tools to grab to get a job done, show up when they promised us they would and so many other great things we have yet to experience. We were hoping trained employees in the field would really raise the efficiency of our day to day tasks. Of course the only thing holding us back was the payroll. Ugh. Oh darn you reality. We crunched numbers. We talked. We did more math. Finally we just went for it. Covid hit and we received a lot of applications. Now we have a "Field Crew"! They. Are. Awesome. We have 5 full time employees who are planting, weeding, moving row cover, harvesting, taking care of animals, doing market prep and all the other jobs that come up. As much as we miss the extreme socialization with the volunteers, I like seeing the same folks each day. It feels more like family. We will be able to cultivate deeper relationships instead of just more relationships. Who knew when we made this leap, 2020 would be the year of tightening up our social circles?! As of right now, most of the garden is weeded. This is huge for us. It already speaks volumes to the improved efficiency of a trained crew. We are so grateful to each of these folks who has walked into our lives and wants to share the farm with us. Farm lunch this week: Cheese melts with lovage pesto and spinach. Bratwurst and Creamed Collards Recipe Idea: Sweet and Sour Collards, From the Just Picked Cooking show (link at top of page) the Share #1 Bok Choy recipe, grilled! So good! 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!
Beef Available: Tenderloin, New York Steak, Ribeye Steak, Sirloin Steak, Eye of the Round Steak, Round Roast, Sirloin Tip Roast, Flank Roast, Liver, Ground Beef, Patties, Stew, Stir Fry, Kabobs, Hot Dogs and Bratwurst Pork Available: Chorizo and 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(Starts 7/11) Farm to Fork Festival: October 3rd 11-4 Center for the Arts Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? [email protected] Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Spicy Mix, Spinach, Pea Shoots, Sorrel, Lovage and Baby Garlic Hello there!!! Welcome to Cosmic Apple's 2020 Community Supported Agriculture program. We are excited to start getting veggies out to the People of the Tetons!! We truly hope you are looking forward to tasting fresh grown produce again. If this is your first year being a member, we are so grateful you have chosen to join us. Welcome back to our many returning members! We cherish your support over the years. The farm is buzzing with energy as we get the first harvest in. I love the energy of the early leafy greens. They are so light and fresh. They grow quickly. We planted the Spicy Mix, Cosmic Mix and spinach on April 30th. These quick crops are the first things to get us going in the spring. After a winter of heavy food, I feel light and quick again when I eat these treats. Sometimes I can taste the sunshine in the leaves and feel my cells realigning to the abundance of summer and all the garden provides. We want to thank you all for adhering to our covid 19 protocols. I sent out an email with pick up information earlier in the week. Please read and follow. You MUST wear a mask. We ask you to bear with us this first week. I planned to get more tongs locally, but was unable to obtain them. We have 40 pairs on the way and will have them at the next pick up. So many things in the world feel different right now. Some feel uncomfortable, some feel like we are shifting towards positive change. I don't want to ignore these big looming issues. I don't have all the words to even address them right now. But I will. I promise. Right now, we are so wrapped up in the logistics of getting 278 people to the correct spot and having the appropriate amount of veggies to meet them with! Here is a new change that feels embraceable! Lovage. It is a perennial and one of the first things up in the spring. I have been using it in brothy soups with white beans and nettles over rice. Also in salad dressings. It adds a very strong celery and parsley flavor to things. You can also get a lot of miles from great puns like..."I lovage you!" every time you prepare a meal. See our recipe pages (follow the link at the bottom) if you need inspiration for any of the veggies we give out. I have organized them based on the main veggie ingredient. Please send me your favorites as the season goes on. I love updating the recipe bank! Gratefully, some things have stayed the same! The spring work of planting seeds, selling shares, tilling the fields, tending plant starts, hiring employees, weeding, weeding and weeding were all beautiful grounding traditions as we felt shaken by a new reality. Our guiding principle at the farm has remained the same: "To grow the best food possible for the People of the Tetons." Knowing you are depending on us always helps us get through the questionable times. Thank you for trusting us to be your farmers this year. We are here if you ever need to give us feedback. Please just reach out. We love growing food for you. We love growing organically and biodynamically! We believe our vegetables will allow you to taste the difference and we hope we live up to our guiding principle. I also want you to know my prayer for all the seeds we plant, all the veggies we harvest, every share that heads off the farm and every morsel we sell at the markets. This prayer has stayed the same for many years, and still feels relevant : "May this food give people the energy they need to make the world a better place." So here we are...2020 CSA! Bon appetit! Farm lunch this week: Pea shoots over rice with peanut sauce (Peanut sauce is on the Bok Choy page...but it works on almost anything!) Recipe Idea: Lovage and Baby garlic pesto, Spinach Artichoke Dip, Lovage salad dressing for all the greens! 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!
Beef Available: Tenderloin, New York Steak, Ribeye Steak, Sirloin Steak, Eye of the Round Steak, Round Roast, Sirloin Tip Roast, Flank Roast, Liver, Ground Beef, Patties, Stew, Stir Fry, Kabobs, Hot Dogs and Bratwurst Pork Available: Breakfast Sausage, Chorizo and 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(Starts 7/11) Farm to Fork Festival: October 3rd 11-4 Center for the Arts Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? [email protected] |
|