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Crop List: Beets, Carrots, Kale, Huckleberry Gold Potatoes, Wild Purple Potatoes, Garlic, Basil, Leeks, Tomatoes, Maybe Daikon Radish, Watermelon Radish, Onions, Shallots and/or Winter Squash This is our last share for the 2023 growing season. Thank you for joining us for this amazing season. It was an incredible growing year. This will be a year to remember with fondness, as a year that just "worked". The weather seemed to cooperate everyday in a way that helped the plants thrive. We missed the late June, mid-July and early August frost this year! Hail was noticeably absent. Rain arrived at convenient times to take a break from irrigating, and we were never stressed about loosing our water either. Our crew this year! Oh our dear crew. We were blessed to have wonderful employees and site hosts to work with this year. Low drama (yes! it can happen!). I wish we had a stage so they could collectively take a bow for all the hard work they did this season. They deserve a standing ovation. They did it. They grew tons (yes, literally) of food for our community and we are all better because of their commitment to getting the produce to the People! Thank you crew. Jed and I sincerely appreciate each of you. The Highs and Lows of 2023 I love sharing secrets with you...last year I had to work to balance the highs and lows. 2022 was a tough growing year, and it was tempting to lament more then reaching to find the good. This year is so different. When Jed and I were reviewing the season we both kept getting excited about the bounty! I am confident you can come up with your own list, but this is ours. The Lows: Carrots, Cabbage and Winter Squash. The carrots are on us. We just could not get them weeded this year. The timing never worked out with people, irrigation or 10 other reasons. I mentioned a couple newsletters back, when we did make it out there to weed, the carrots were extremely tedious. The tops were tiny and the weeds were HUGE. It was hard to find the carrots we needed to protect and they wanted to come up with the weeds. The carrots we have been enjoying still taste incredible. We just wish they were a bit bigger and there were more. I heard our manager telling any employees who return next year that they are to remind us about the need to get the carrots weeded in a timely manner! Cabbage. We have been trying some different varieties to figure out what works best. We haven't figured it out yet. We also think the soil is not as good where the cabbage was planted this year as the rest of the garden. There was some Cosmic Mix and Bok Choy in the same area that was not very happy. We also went for a closer spacing so it would be less footage to weed, but it seemed to make the cabbage unhappy. The winter squash didn't do so well this year. We don't know why. The summer squash was abundant. They are all next to each other and were treated the same. The winter squash we did get are lovely, but it would have been nice to see the plants set more fruits. The Highs: Summer Squash, The Onion family, Tomatoes, Sugar Snap Peas, Basil, Swiss Chard, Kale, Garlic, Beets, Sunflowers, Turnips and Potatoes. The summer squash was abundant for a nice long time. Some serious weight came out of those rows this summer. Onions! And Leeks! And Shallots! This feels like a big win this year. I was at a potluck on Sunday and another gardener was rejoicing because she grew onions from seed this year for the first time ever. I could hear in her voice her joy and reminded myself that yes, onions are tricky to grow here and we did it too! Fist bumps all around. Tomatoes. I don't ever remember giving out as many tomatoes as we did this year. They started out a bit slow and one of the greenhouses was really struggling. We gave it some extra TLC and when they were ready, the red things were pouring out of them! Actually, our Tomato Queen was working really hard carrying hundreds of pounds from the greenhouses to the wash station...but I like the image of tomatoes self pouring from the greenhouses. The basil did great this year too. We better managed the cover crop this year and the basil seemed to benefit greatly. The sugar snaps were large and consistent when they were being harvested. Swiss Chard! I also don't remember a year that we had such large leaves on the chard. It was huge, and not damaged by hail. It looked like a tropical plant in the garden, the bright reds, yellows and whites surrounded by green were stunning. The Kale was prolific like the Chard. They grew together in the garden, so maybe they were cheering each other on? Beets! They got weeded this year! The beet lovers amongst you have been commenting on how happy they are to see beets again. Me too! Garlic...we tend to do well with garlic. It loves our climate and is a steady crop for us. This crop looks good this year, it cured well and will hopefully last you for a few weeks depending on how fast you go through it. Potatoes. Ummm, Idaho rules. Our license plates don't say "Famous Potatoes" for no reason. The potato digger is out and in full swing. The crop coming in looks great. We won't really know how they did until we get to the end of the week and can tally the weight, but the plants have been healthy and doing well all summer. The ones we have dug so far have been consistent and abundant. Turnips...Whether you love them, dread them or are somewhere in the middle, they loved us this year! We planted the same amount as last year, crazy right? Sunflowers. We didn't get any of these last year due to an experiment that didn't go well. They made up for it this year. The blooms were all nice and big. We will always be food farmers first and foremost, but it sure is fun to have something so beautiful on the table during a meal. They bring me a lot of joy and I hope you too. 2024 Remember to sign up for 2024 this week and you will get an Organic Cotton hat or t-shirt. Also, please consider a donation to help purchase shares for the Teton Valley Food Pantry. Any amount helps. You can just add it to your payment. And THANK YOU!! Special Orders? Do you want to stock up on some meat or cheese before we stop seeing each other every week? Just send me an email with what you would like and I am happy to put an order together for you to make sure you get what you want. Even if it is only one item...or more! I am happy to do it. Fare thee well... From our whole hearts we hope this season nourished you. We hope you were able to delight in the highs of the season, and understand the lows. We hope you were able to share meals with those you love in this magical place we all call home. We hope eating food from our farm helped you feel connected to our beautiful community and drew your roots to this place a little bit deeper. We wish you the absolute best winter. May you breathe fresh air and feel the sun on your face. May the dark time of year embrace you and provide you solitude and rest. May you continue to feel nourished. Until we see you again, thank you for trusting us to grow your food. With love and gratitude, Dale and Jed Lunch this Week: Vichyssoise; Pasta with butter, garlic, tomatoes and parsley
Recipe Ideas: Ginger Miso Soup w/ daikon, collards and carrots (use Kale instead of collards); Carrot and Daikon Salad; Kale & Sausage Soup #2; Oven Roasted Carrots & Kale; Wilted Greens and Basil; Roasted Beets and Kale; Colcannon #2; Dale’s Oven Fries; Butter Lake Root Bake! 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 (Last one 9/29) JH Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-12 (Last one 9/30) The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 (Last one 9/27) Farm To Fork Festival: October 7th, Center for the Arts 1-4 pm Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? [email protected]
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Victor, ID 83455 |