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
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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? [email protected] 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? [email protected] 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? [email protected] 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? [email protected] 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? [email protected] |
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