Week 14 CSA - Last Time

Hi Everyone!
This will be our last CSA basket of the season.  Thank you for being such great customers.  We really appreciate the support and ability to do what we love...garden.  We hope you can grow your own or find good veggies to buy next summer.
What's in your basket this week:

• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Onions
• Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Squash (if it's ready...I'm going to try some today)
• Gourds
• Pumpkins (if there are enough)

Week 12 CSA

What you'll find in your basket this week:

• Onions
• Potatoes (White, Red, Blue...The flesh is blue)
• Sweet Corn
• Carrots
• Peppers
• Tomatoes
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Sweet Pumpkin (for pie)

Our last pick up will be the week of September 10th (Bismarck) & 12th (New Salem).  The grasshoppers have basically devastated our crops.  It's like a horror movie walking through the garden.  The kids don't even realize when the grasshoppers land on them anymore.  We will be giving extra these next 2 weeks, since we will be cutting the season a little short.  Thanks again for your support this year!

Week 11 CSA pick up

What you'll find in  your basket this week:

• Cucumbers
• Onions
• Beets
• Carrots
• Zucchini
• Potatoes
• Peppers
• Cauliflower
• Tomatoes

Extras (email me by 6pm the day before pick up):

• Pickling Cucumbers
• Parsley
• Kale
• Oregano

Week 10 CSA Pick up

Here's what you'll find in your basket this week:

• Cucumbers
• Beans
• Onions
• Beets
• Carrots
• Zucchini
• Potatoes
• Peppers
• Cauliflower

Extras (email me by 6pm the day before your pick up if you are interested):

• Pickling Cucumbers
• Dill
• Parsley
• Kale
• Oregano

The sweet corn is almost ready.  We walked through the pumpkin patch today, and they are growing well.  The sugar pumpkins are already starting to turn orange.  The tomatoes are slowly ripening.  We pick about 1 cherry tomato a day.  We were at my parent's this last weekend.  They already have enough tomatoes to start canning.  I think ours will be starting to ripen soon too.

Week 9 CSA pick up

Here's what you'll find in your baskets this week:

• Beans
• Cucumbers
• Peppers
• Zucchini
• Onions
• Beets
• Carrots
• Potatoes

Extras (please e-mail me by 6pm the day before your pickup if you want any of these):

• Dill
• Parsley
• Pickling Cucumbers (I have limited number this week, so first ask first recieve)
• Large Bag of Beets
• Kale

We started picking cucumbers this weekend.  They are just starting.  We are excited.  They are one of our favorites.  Hope you enjoy them too!

Week 8 CSA Pick up

What you'll find in your basket this week.

• Zucchini
• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Cabbage
• Beets
• Onions
• Beans

Extras this week (Please email by 6pm the day before your pick up if you would like any of these):

• Dill
• Parsley
• Kale
• Beets - large bag for canning, freezing, or making jelly

Typically the broccoli, after forming the first main head, sends out little shoots of new broccoli flowerets.  This year it isn't doing that very well, so I think we're done with the broccoli unless it starts producing more.  Josh isn't sad (it's not his favorite), but Johnny is.  He loves having frozen broccoli in the winter.

 

The gardens are looking good.  We're starting to water again.  It's just crazy how the weather can go.  It was so wet this spring, but now it is so dry!

We have white butterflies now.  They lay eggs that hatch into those little green worms that eat cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli.  Hopefully you haven't found any.  Josh has an organic spray he uses to control them.  He just sprayed last Friday, so hopefully it'll control them for now.

News...We have some exciting news (and sad too).  We will be moving to Valley City after the CSA season.  Josh has accepted a job with KLJ, an engineering firm.  We are very excited to be moving closer to family.  My parents will only be 30 minutes away and Josh will be working with Jake, one of his brothers, everyday at KLJ.  We will miss working with you, our CSA and chicken customers.  We plan to buy a house "in town", so that will be an adjustment for us, but hopefully a good one.  We are looking forward to spending more time just playing with the kids.  We plan to eventually build a house on a my parents farm, so we will be in the country again.  We do really enjoy gardening and raising chickens, and we hope we've inspired you with the fresh food.  We'd love to encourage you to plant your own garden next summer.  Please let us know if you have any questions about gardening next year.  We're thinking about using the "square foot" gardening technique at our house in town.  (supplemented by gardening with my parents on the farm).  Maybe I'll try to post about our square foot garden to give you some ideas.

Week 7 CSA pickup

What you'll find in your basket this week:

• Zucchini
• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Cabbage
• Beets
• Sugar Snap Peas
• Broccoli
• Onions

Extra Options (available upon request by 6pm day before your pick up)

• Dill - you can freeze the heads for making dill pickles when the cucumbers are ripe
• Parsley
• Turnip
• Kale
• Beets - large bag for canning, freezing, or making jelly

I was complaining to Josh about picking peas last week.  He consoled me in the fact that there weren't any more peas to pick and that the other two veggies that we have to pick like that (picking everything every 2-3 days) are beans and cucumbers and they won't be ready for another couple of weeks.  That lightened my mood til today when we went to look through the garden...I picked enough beans to fill a small bag, so the bean picking began today.  The peas are done though.  Tuesday pick up people will get the last of the sugar snaps, but I don't think Thursday pick up people will get any.  But there will probably be enough beans for you to get them on Thursday.  There will definitely be enough beans for everyone next week.

The gardens are looking great.  We got about a half inch of rain yesterday.  It'll make everything grow so much better than irrigation water.

We finished butchering chickens this week.  We'll have more time to work in the gardens.  We're excited about that.:)

Week 6 CSA Pick up

This is what you'll find in your basket this week:

• celeriac
• peas
• sugar snap peas
• cabbage
• broccoli
• onions
• beets
• carrots
• head lettuce
• beet jelly

Upon request (by 6pm the night before your pickup):

• Kale
• Leaf lettuce

The gardens are looking good.  We've been doing a lot of watering, since it's been a long time since we've had any sizable rain.  Our lawn is starting to dry out.  We plan to butcher chickens this Thursday and Friday, so we'll be contacting you sometime this week about when to pick them up if you ordered any from this batch.

These pictures are two weeks old.  Josh and I were so amazed at how the kohlrabi did this year.  It was the best it ever looked!

Josh is covering the cabbage and kohlrabi with the row cover after picking.  The row cover protects from the white butterflies laying their eggs in the cabbage.

I'll see if I get the chance to go around and take pictures of the gardens this week.  We've been busy painting our small buildings the last couple of weeks.  We thought we could get it done in one weekend, but when you have old buildings, it seems like they need little fixing here and there before you can get to the actual painting, so we only have 2 of the 4 done, but they look really nice.  We plan to have a pumpkin picking open house this fall, so hopefully you'll get to see our paint job then.

Week 5 CSA pick up

What you'll find in your baskets this week:

• Turnips
• Peas
• Kohlrabi
• Onions
• Beets
• Leaf Lettuce
• Head Lettuce

Extras (upon request...please e-mail me before 6pm the day before pick up)

• Kale
• Fennel
• Radishes?...there are just a few left

Please remember to return your boxes and bags.  Thanks for everyone who has been.

Between the birds and a disease called leather rot, we won't have strawberries again this year.  I'm beginning to think that maybe we should stop trying to grow them....Oh well.

Grasshoppers

GRASSHOPPESRS

Do not be alarmed if you find a weed, straw, or small grasshopper in your lettuce.  We raise our vegetables organically, so it's a little tricky keeping them free of pests.  I found a grasshopper in my lettuce bag last night when making supper.  I found one in a bag this morning when I was picking for New Salem...Some lucky winner won't have a grasshopper this week.;)

Josh has called the NDSU extension service about controlling the grasshoppers.  They were so bad last year that we couldn't even find the white potato plants in the fall when we were digging them.  We only found the potatoes underground.  Grasshoppers eat the leaves of plants.  So if you see little wholes in your lettuce leaves, that's what it's from.  They are still okay to eat.

I'm going to contact an organic seed producer, Prairie Road Organic, to see if they have any suggestions.  They've been gardening organically a lot longer than we have, in fact longer than we've been alive (since 1974).  They are family friends.  I grew up with their kids.  If you do any of your own gardening, consider buying seed from them.  Here's their website:  http://www.prairieroadorganic.co/Prairie_Road_Organic_Seed/Welcome.html

BIRDS...

The robins are devouring the strawberries.  We've got to figure out something, because they are good at sharing with each other and not us.  Everyday there are more in the patch.  Seems like they keep telling their friends.  We're going to try covering some of the rows with row cover to protect the berries for our use.

RHUBARB

By the way, we didn't have rhubarb this week.  After taking a second look, it's getting to the point that we should let it rest for the rest of the summer.  Hope you enjoyed it while it lasted!  We sure did.:)

Week 4 CSA pick up

Thank you to everyone that came to the open house!  We enjoyed showing you around.  We plan to have another open house in the fall when the pumpkins are ripe, so you can come pick out your own pumpkin.

This week New Salem will have pick up on Wednesday.  Bismarck pick up will be the same as usual, on Tuesday.  Please remember to return your boxes and bags each week.-Thanks

What you'll find in your basket this week:

• Kohlrabi
• Baby Beets
• Green Onions
• Leaf Lettuce
• Head Lettuce
• Kale
• Fennel
• Radishes
• Rhubarb

The gardens are looking good.  We have everything mulched.  Now we get to go through and weed again (just in the rows this time).  That weeding seems to be an endless process.  We've been watering lately and love to have the drip irrigation.  It was definitely worth it.  The peas are almost ready.  The strawberries are ripening, slowly.  Josh pulled up a potato, and they are just starting to form spuds....Lots of things to look forward to!:)

CSA Open House

We are having an open house this Saturday, June 29th 2-4pm.  Come out and look at the gardens and chickens.  The strawberries are slowly ripening, so you can take a stroll through to see if you can find a few to eat.

Directions:
Our address is 1005 Birch Ave, New Salem.  If you're coming off the Interstate from Bismarck, take a left to head South towards New Salem.  Drive South until you get to the stop sign.  Turn left/East onto Ash Ave.  Turn right/South on 5th St.  Drive straight through the stop sign on Main and across the RR tracks.  The first street after the tracks is Birch Ave, take a right to drive west.  Our house is gray with red trim, right after the road turns to gravel.  We are the last house in town on Birch Ave, so if you drive by the chicken coop, turn around and come back:).

Please RSVP. - Thanks!

Week 3 CSA pick up

What you'll find in your basket this week:

• Rhubarb
• Green Onions
• Lettuce (leaf & head)
• Kale
• Radishes

Don't forget to return or boxes and bags when you come to pick up your produce.  Thanks!

This weekend we got most of the gardens weeded and mulched....Whew!  What a big job.  We just have the small house garden left.  The strawberries are just starting to ripen.  We each found one red enough to eat today.

We're planning to have an open house next Saturday, June 29th in the afternoon (I'll send out an e-mail with more details).

Let us know if you are getting enough lettuce in your baskets.  We have a lot right now, but we're not sure how much to give...Don't want to lettuce you out.

Everything is growing well.  The gardens look so nice weeded, with the fresh mulch.  I took a few pictures today to share with you.  The peas are blooming now.  I'm excited.  I think they are one of my favorites.

Lettuce in Paddock Garden

Pasture Gardens...Look at the beautiful sky we had today!

Potato Garden

Weedy house garden

Herb Boxes

Paddock Garden

Lettuce

Carrots

Popcorn in Pasture Garden

Beets

Green Beans

Tomato...They are huge and some are starting to flower already!

Peas

Pea blossoms

Potatoes, Soup beans, and Cucumbers in the Pasture Garden

Vine Garden

Pumpkins

Strawberries

Strawberry Bed

Week 2 CSA Baskets

Here's what you'll find in your basket this week and how we've been eating it.

• Rhubarb
• rhubarb crisp-dice up rhubarb into a 9x13 pan and cover with apple crisp topping
• Green Onions
• chicken salad sandwiches-add to the chicken salad instead of regualar onions
• Spinach
• Salad-covered in a vinegrette dressing
• Lettuce
• Salad...we eat a lot of salads this time of year
• Oregano
• Dry and save for when the tomatoes are ripe
• Kale
• Steamed and tossed with olive oil and Parmesan cheese

Hope you enjoy the veggies as much as we do.

The strawberries are starting to set berries and the birds are noisily singing in the neighbor's trees.  We're excited for the strawberries and hope the birds don't affect them too much.

How the gardens grow

We went around and took some pictures of the gardens this morning.  I hope you enjoy them.  We plan to do an open house some time in June, so you can come out to our farm and see the gardens yourself.  We'll keep you posted as to which day we plan to do this.

Paddock Garden

Sweet Corn

White Potatoes

Garlic and Lettuce/spinach

Radish

Lettuce...Needs to be weeded.  The light green lettuce is what you should be getting next week.

Fennel

Kale

Johnny and Lu Lu next to their blooming pansies

John and Lu's garden

Pasture Garden

Popcorn

Strawberries in bloom

Strawberry bed

Beets

Peppers.
Mini grasshoppers are eating holes in the leaves.
Josh said last night, "If it's not a drought, it's the pests!"

Here is a bean seedling that was damaged by the seed corn maggot

Healthy bean plant.  Thankfully they weren't all lost

Cauliflower under the rowcover

Tomato

 So we had some issues with our tomato plants before we transplanted them.  The seed starter that we used to cover the seeds couldn't support the tomato stems, so they kept falling over.  We kept transplanting them as they fell over.  (Once transplanted, they did fine.)  Anyway, it was always a discovery as we were sitting down to a meal (since our 'greenhouse' is in the dining room) and a quick fix was required.  We didn't label the tomatoes when we transplanted them, so it should be interesting picking them this fall.  I think we at least kept all of the cherry tomatoes together.

Broccoli

Vine Garden (pumpkins, gourds, squash)

squash that germinated before the seed corn maggots infested

cabbage

cabbage

peas

potatoes in front, then soup beans

asparagus patch, hopefully we'll be able to pick some next spring

Farm Funny's

(I wish I had a video to go along with my story, but Josh and I butchered chickens by ourselves this weekend.  I didn't have the time to get the camera.)

So Josh and I butchered our first batch of chickens this past weekend.  Last year we had help doing both batches (which was very necessary since I was 9 months pregnant during the first butchering and 2 weeks post c-section during the second one).  So it's been two years since I had to chop chicken heads (my least favorite job).  But the kids helped make it more comical.  Josh and I work together to get about half the chickens heads chopped and bled out, feathers scalded and plucked, and tails, feet, and wing tips cut off.  Then Josh starts to gut (once they've had enough time to cool).  I am then left by myself to do the first job on the rest of the chickens.  My goal is always to keep up, so he doesn't have to stop gutting to help be chop heads again.

Anyway...Josh was gutting and I was chopping heads while the kids (John and Olue) were watching.  Josh's job is boring to watch.  I have the live chickens next to me...They're more interesting.  I would catch a chicken, put it head first into the killing cones (they look like upside down caution cones) and cut off the head.  This way they can bleed out without jumping around.  They usually kick a lot.  So the kids are watching, I grab the next chicken to scald and am dipping it in the hot water.  The kids are creeping closer and closer to the chicken I just chopped because it's not kicking (like all the other ones have).  "I wouldn't get too close, Johnny."  (Lu Lu is a step behind him, like a good little sister.)  "This one's not kicking, Mom."  As soon has he said it, the chicken's legs started kicking like crazy and those two almost jumped out of their skin.  It made me laugh.  It still makes me laugh.:)

Don't worry....The kids still eat chicken (at least John does, Lu has never liked meat much...more of a veggie girl).

I thought I had posted one year the whole process of our chicken butchering.  I can't find it now.  I'll have to do that sometime.  We have a pretty nice set up and we're pretty time efficient.  Maybe I'll get the chance to take some pictures next time.  Josh's brother, Jared, and his new wife (come Saturday...we're pretty excited for the wedding), Stacie, plan to help us, so maybe I'll have a little time to wash up and take pics when we're in the middle of "chopping heads";)