Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Summer Squash, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Basil, Swiss Chard, Maybe Sunflower and/or Radishes We are now in the limbo season between summer and fall. We will keep harvesting the summer squash and cucumbers until we get a frost. Some years we have had a frost by now. I can remember one year we made it all the way to the end of September before we had a killing frost! There is nothing indicative in the forecast of colder weather so we will keep enjoying the summer goods while the fall crops have extra time to keep growing. The sunflowers are on the way out. We may get some smaller side shoots to enjoy as the season progresses. Cosmic Mix is back and looking good! The tomatoes and basil are in the greenhouses protected by the power of propane and plastic so even if we get a frost, they will keep producing. The farm is tucked up against the foothills of the Tetons on the East side of Teton Valley. The morning sun is hitting the farm later each day. We start work at 7 and now have about a half an hour before the sun begins to warm the fields in the mornings. This is probably the most noticeable shift we feel. Other then later morning sun, the days still feel like summer. Newsletter idea for next week!! Send me your questions! I want to do a Q&A. Ask us about why we do things a certain way (pick up times?) or things we don't do (cook your dinner for you! ha!), what tidbit have you pondered about the farm. Do you want to know the name of the parent pigs or the truck? How many tractors we have or what variety of squash we grow? Anything! Ask your kids, they always have the BEST questions. I will keep your questions anonymous. Fire off the first question that comes to your mind, send me meticulously crafted list or anything in between. The more questions I get, the more interesting the newsletter will be. I would love to write about what you are wondering about. If it has crossed your mind, I bet someone else has wondered too! Volunteer Special! Have you wanted to try a day on the farm, but can't commit to one day a week? Let us know if you want to work for one morning. 7am-12:15. Monday-Thursday. We'll feed you lunch and give you a half share. You'll get to see where your veggies come from and what it takes to get them on the truck for share distribution. Please send me an email so we can plan for extra hands. 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 for one 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; Cosmic Curry
Recipe Ideas: Summer Squash Ribbons; Curried Zucchini & Swiss Chard; Scalloped Tomatoes with Basil; Swiss Chard with Pine Nuts, Parmesan and Basil The coolers at your site are stocked with a selection of the 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! Hunters and Huntresses: We have pork fat for your wild game sausage making. Let me know if you want to order any and I can send it to your pick up location. Pork Available: Grandpa's Sausage, Breakfast Sausage, Pork Chops, Shoulder Roast, Spare Ribs, Neck Bones (make the real deal Ramen!) 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 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 Farm To Fork Festival: October 7th, Center for the Arts 1-4 pm Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? [email protected]
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Crop List: Magenta Head Lettuce, Collards, Cilantro, Summer Squash, Bok Choy, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Radish, Sunflowers and maybe Beans Garlic update! We got the final load into the shed to dry on Monday afternoon (8/21). The crew has been pulling, shaking soil off, piling, moving piles to the trailer and moving garlic into the shed with every rare "spare" moment since last week. Garlic is a crop that involves more handling then most crops. But 2023's harvest is in the books! Thanks Crew!! Way back in Share #3's newsletter I wrote a bit about nutrients in the soil and how most farmland is depleted in the minerals we need to thrive. I wrote about what we are doing to take care of our soil and boost the nutrient content through cover crops, rotational grazing and rest periods. These are all incredibly important but something else is happening too! Our cows are also rebalancing the soil's mineral content. We built them a free choice mineral feeder. It is a long trough built from wood that has 12 small cubbies in it. We put a different mineral in each one. The cows lick the one they want whenever the feeling strikes them. Animals tend to naturally eat what they need to be healthy when healthy choices are in front of them. Whatever the grasses growing at the farm are not providing mineral wise, they are able to add to their diet as they choose from our mineral feeder. It is fascinating to watch the herd and the mineral cravings ebb and flow. They crave different minerals in the winter then in the summer. They won't touch one for a while, and then it is gone! We have had soil tests over the years and know we are deficient in Sulfur. The cows love the sulfur in the free choice feeder and it one of the ones we need to refill on a most regular basis. As they digest these minerals they are deficient in, they are walking around and, um, pooping. Traces of the minerals our soils are depleted in are being added as needed by the cows. The cows leave deposits the plants can readily take up. This of course is all taking place in the pastures during the summer. Our pastures are rotated with our gardens every 5 years or so. In the winter the cows are in the area by the sheds. (They could leave for snow covered pasture, but cows don't like post holing through the snow and stay hunkered down.) We scrape up the cow yard every spring and turn the manure into compost. This compost is then spread all over the garden. Re-mineralizing the soil with exactly what it needs as decided by the cows intuition. Biodynamic Agriculture seeks to heal the Earth. This is one of the goals of that drew Jed and I to farming. It felt like a way to make things better. We are doing what we can to constantly improve the soil. Improved soil, means healthier plants. Healthier plants mean more nutrient dense produce. More nutrient dense produce means healthier you. Healthier you means you will have more stamina to also make the world a better place. Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Biodynamic Agriculture said “So long as one feeds on foods from unhealthy soil, the spirit will lack the stamina to free itself from the prison of the body.” Volunteer Special! Have you wanted to try a day on the farm, but can't commit to one day a week? Let us know if you want to work for one morning. 7am-12:15. Monday-Thursday. We'll feed you lunch and give you a half share. You'll get to see where your veggies come from and what it takes to get them on the truck for share distribution. Please send me an email so we can plan for extra hands. 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 for one 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 cooked squash and Idaho Salsa (Cucumber page); Summer Sauté' over pasta
Recipe Ideas: Summer Squash Boats, Greek Stewed Zucchini, and Speedy Tomato-Cilantro Sauce 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! Beef Available: Ground Beef Pork Available: Grandpa's Sausage, Breakfast Sausage, Pork Chops, Shoulder Roast, Spare Ribs, Neck Bones (make the real deal Ramen!) 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 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? [email protected] Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Summer Squash, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Dill, Kale, Fresh Garlic, Sunflowers, Maybe Beans and/or Shell Peas Here we are! Smack dab in the middle of August. High summer on the farm. After a brief slowdown from all the cool rainy weather 2 weeks ago, the garden is back in action. The cucumbers are on! We use all the cucumbers (pickling and slicing) interchangeably. My kids prefer the picklers since the skin is more delicate and less bitter. We eat them like apples, and find they are the best adventure snack to take into the forest. Cucumbers actually hydrate you! The peas seem to be on the way out, and the beans are coming in. The garlic harvest started Monday afternoon. We have 10 rows to undercut with the tractor, pull by hand while removing most of the soil, stack on the trailer and finally move to the drying shed. The crop consists of 13,000 garlic plants to harvest by hand. It will take several dedicated afternoons to get it all in. The garlic we are giving out this week is fresh garlic. It is not cured for long term storage. Keep it in your fridge and use it before you use any that is dried down. Notice how moist the paper surrounding it is, and how juicy it is compared to what you will receive later. Jed and I are both relieved that the organic inspection is done for the year. Friday was crazy. Our dear sweet Annie cow calved about 20 minutes before the inspector arrived. A few hours into the inspection she started having some after birth complications and we had to pause the inspection to tend to her. She seemed fine, and at 1:30 am I went to check and found her relapsing. Jed had to come help and we finally got her back on her feet and healed up around 4:45 am...with just enough time for Jed to get ready and leave for the Saturday market. The required after-market nap was well earned this week! Jed is a rock star farmer. He views the crop list like a set list. His heart and soul are in every piece of produce you receive. The farm is his vision and his first baby. The baby still demands sleepless nights and hours that somedays are just too long, but he keeps going because it is his calling. I have never met anyone in my life so dedicated to growing the best food possible for so many people. The farm has so many moving parts, literally and figuratively, and Jed keeps them all going in the right direction. If you see him at a veggie pick up or at the market, just start talking veggies and you are guaranteed a smile. Volunteer Special! Have you wanted to try a day on the farm, but can't commit to one day a week? Let us know if you want to work for one morning. 7am-12:15. Monday-Thursday. We'll feed you lunch and give you a half share. You'll get to see where your veggies come from and what it takes to get them on the truck for share distribution. Please send me an email so we can plan for extra hands. 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 for one 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: Squash Tomato Stew and Polenta with veggies and tomatoes
Recipe Ideas: Yogurt Dill Dressing; Dill Cucumber Salad, Dilled Green Bean Salad; Easy Zucchini, Butter and Dill 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! Beef Available: Ground Beef Pork Available: Grandpa's Sausage, Breakfast Sausage, Pork Chops, Shoulder Roast, Spare Ribs, Neck Bones (make the real deal Ramen!) 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 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? [email protected] Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Swiss Chard, Tomatoes, Summer Squash, Napa Cabbage, Fennel, Basil, Sugar Snaps and maybe Cucumbers, Shell Peas, Sunflowers The garden is ready to explode with growth after all this rain! Jed is getting a break from moving irrigation pipe, which is welcome. Our crew has been amazing working in downpours and mud. I am thrilled about how green our world is at a time we are usually surrounded by beige and pale green. The garden is well watered and with the returning heat, the plants will grow very rapidly. We had another calf smoothly enter the world on Tuesday morning of last week as we were getting the CSA harvest in. Healthy mom, healthy calf. It is time for us to get the garlic in, but the moisture is making it tricky. Dry conditions are needed for garlic so it can "dry down". The paper that wraps each clove is very moist right now and if harvested when it is too wet, it can mold before we are able to distribute it. We are watching and waiting for the proper window to harvest it. When the time is right, it will be all hands on deck until it is in our shed drying. I think garlic is one of the crops that other places can't grow as well as we can here. It needs cold winters and dryness at harvest time. Two offerings the Tetons usually provide! We have our annual Organic/ Biodynamic Inspection on Friday this week. Jed and I need to gather all of our important scraps of paper the inspector might ask to see. Getting ourselves organized is always the biggest hurdle for this event. The quicker we are, the less of a bill for the inspector's time we receive! It is important to us to have a 3rd party look at our farming system to ensure you are getting the organic/Biodynamic goods we are claiming to grow. The inspector will walk around the farm looking at the soil and noticing what it going on. Then we will head to the office and show receipts for all inputs, harvest and distribution records. The inspector will be looking for any holes in the farm story. For instance she will ask to see our livestock records and determine if the number of animals we reported as being born match the butcher receipts for what was processed as organic. She will follow a seed receipt the entire way from purchase, to planting, to transplanting to harvest to our CSA records. Making sure the original seed we purchased was organic (if that was an option), and that we kept it organic the entire time. We have been at this long enough that we are confident about our growing practices...but the paper trail is an important part...and not my strong suit! Thank goodness Jed is a great record keeper. We have been having a tremendous year for peas! The shell and sugar snaps have been prolific and tasty. Besides being pretty they are sooooo sweet! The tomatoes are coming in at a steady pace now. The garden is also starting to yield some late summer treats like Napa cabbage and fennel. I was really tempted to go dig a potato plant on Monday to see what is happening in the underworld but I am going to hold out a bit longer! Good things are coming! Volunteer Special! Have you wanted to try a day on the farm, but can't commit to one day a week? Let us know if you want to work for one morning. 7am-12:15. Monday-Thursday. We'll feed you lunch and give you a half share. You'll get to see where your veggies come from and what it takes to get them on the truck for share distribution. Please send me an email so we can plan for extra hands. 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 for one 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 Zucchini Soup (with sugar snaps, shelling peas and tomatoes too!)
Recipe Ideas: Roasted Tomato Basil Pesto, Mangiatutto al Pomodoro (Basil Page), Napa Cabbage Salad, Summer Squash Fennel Soup, Chard Fennel Sauté, 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! Beef Available: Ground Beef Pork Available: Grandpa's Sausage, Breakfast Sausage, Pork Chops, Shoulder Roast, Tenderloin, Spare Ribs, Neck Bones (make the real deal Ramen!) 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 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? [email protected] |
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