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.:)