Powering Human Cells R US

Spoiler Alert: The vegetables we grow on our small, Fairview family farm are not emailing researchers and they are not being turned into nanosheets which can function as a catalyst to help make metal-air batteries and fuel cells more efficient.

Our local, organic, seasonal gourmet vegetables are the key to efficiently powering only your human cells as God intended!!! However, if you are interested in what engineers at MIT have developed (nanotechnology which can be embedded in plants and send back wireless emails to scientist), please visit the following:

https://www.euronews.com/green/2021/02/01/scientists-have-taught-spinach-to-send-emails-and-it-could-warn-us-about-climate-change

The first of our cabbage varieties will be included in your CSA Box this week along with one, huge joi choi, a variety of broccoli, red head lettuce, green kohlrabi, endive, escarole, and kale of either the green or red variety–at least!

Broccoli Bites

Cheesy broccoli bites are a fun and flavorful way to introduce kids to this nutrient-packed veggie. Start by steaming fresh broccoli florets until they are tender. Mash the broccoli and mix it with breadcrumbs, grated cheddar cheese and a beaten egg. Form the mixture into bite-sized balls and bake until they turn golden and crispy. These bite-sized delights are sure to win over even the pickiest eaters. And they can be frozen for later use!

Garden Tour

Oh, what a light misty rain-fall, Oh, what a dark cloud-y day. Would like a bit of sun-shine! Please, please Lord send some our way! I have been singing this in my head all day–perhaps I shall be singing all week?! Gentle rain showers we like with a mix of sunshine to keep the molds and bacteria from presenting problems. And now for a quick tour of our beautiful 2023 garden..

Garden tour with a cup of “green” tea!
Beautiful broccoli in several varieties with subtle differences!
This is our potato “patch” with squash on the far left side.
Head lettuce intermingled with just a few weeds!
Bean fence with healthy plants on both sides.
Tomato plants are all now staked! This is quite a task with no commercial crew!
Our very last wave of joi choi is perfect!!!
Snow peas aka “the farmer’s candy!”

The 2023 Harvest Season is shaping up to be a good one. This is just some of the garden. There are eggplant, cukes, beets, carrots, peppers, summer squash, winter squash, onions . . . and I am sure I am missing some things! Continuous scouting and application of organic inputs at just correct time is keeping the insect population down. Or perhaps it was the heat spell we had earlier? All we know is we have some of the most beautifully perfect greens ever!

Some seasonal cherries tossed into this salad! YUM!!

In the box this week and next you can expect the last joi choi. This will be an exciting surprise for some CSA Members because I thought they were all gone and said as much last week. The crunchy kohlrabi have doubled in size so expect two! You will get perhaps the last of the green and red romaine. This will depend on what the weather does to the last planting. And escarole, endive, lettuce, kale and plenty of broccoli.

Purple and green kohlrabi are great in a salad, as a snack, or sauteed.

A Father’s Day Story From Our Farm

Anyone who gets a box of our family farm, seasonal gourmet vegetables knows that Robert spends a great deal of time in the garden each day. A side benefit is his ability to observe the area wildlife up-close.

There is a beautiful, blue male Indigo Bunting which usually sits on the high corner post of the garden serenading Robert throughout the day which helps to make his task a bit lighter. Saturday morning this melodious companion was not on his usual perch. Sometime later Robert observed the male bird on the ground outside of the deer fence flying up a few feet and then back down to the ground. Only to fly up again and then back down. The Indigo Bunting kept repeating this strange behavior which caused Robert to go closer only to discover a baby Indigo Bunting on the ground and inside the garden fence! It seems the fledgling had inadvertently landed inside the garden on perhaps its maiden voyage into the sky. Baby Indigo Bunting was flying up a few feet and then falling back to the ground apparently unable to clear the seven-foot deer fence!

Daddy continued his persistent behavior encouraging this immature, errant member of his brood to mimic his moves in order to fly over the fence. After many lessons and failed attempts, the greenhorn flyer finally made it up and over the fence and out of the garden. Together they flew into a nearby tree. This father certainly had “his wings full” on Saturday! Our Indigo Buntings will celebrate Father’s Day in the nest as a united family. No doubt the sibling chicks will be told the terrifying story of Junior being “trapped in the Ploeger’s Garden” behind the seven-foot deer fence.

This left side has now all been planted . . . I will get an updated photo up soon!

Happy Father’s Day to all males serving as a “Dad” in this exciting and ever changing world!

Hot And Cold

The weather has been unseasonably cool this last week. However, as you will recall it was unseasonably warm before that; thus, we are coming the end of the Asian Greens. The last of the Joi Choi and Black Summer will be joined by kohlrabi, red and green romaine, escarole, endive, head lettuce, kale and broccoli.

Artwork, indeed!

We grow several varieties of broccoli. With time you will find the long Artwork, heads in different sizes (depending on the variety), and florets. This appears to be a good year for growing broccoli. We are excited because last season, it was so wet we were able to grow very little of this crop! Every year is different and every day is different!!

One of the larger broccoli heads . . .

Cheesy broccoli bites are a fun and flavorful way to introduce kids to this nutrient-packed veggie. Start by steaming fresh broccoli florets until they are tender. Mash the broccoli and mix it with breadcrumbs, grated cheddar cheese and a beaten egg. Form the mixture into bite-sized balls and bake until they turn golden and crispy. These bite-sized delights are sure to win over even the pickiest eaters.

Prepare to “dip into” your fresh, local, seasonal gourmet vegetables as we roll into this season change! We do not think you will get more broccoli than you are able to eat. If you feel you are, check out the Recipes under “F” for Freezing Vegetables. A simple 3-minute blanch and a 3-minute ice water cool down and they will be ready for the appropriate freezer bag. I also recommend a couple more steps on the webpage, but you get the idea. Freezing can be quick and easy!

Plandemic 3 — The Great Awakening

One of the keys to the Plandemic videos’ remarkable successes is producer Mikki Willis’ decision to allow and even encourage people to download the movie files and upload them anywhere they pleased, without restrictions. This decision virtually guaranteed he wouldn’t make any money from the films, but he viewed them as a gift to Humanity. Putting the Truth out there was more important than making a buck.

While many blame the encroaching tyranny on incompetence, the evidence suggests it’s not incompetence at all. “Plandemic Part 3 – The Great Awakening” (Enter your name and email address to enter here) delves into the plan to create a state of dependency, through which the technocratic elite would the control the human population in America and beyond and shows the history behind it and how it has led us to where we are right now. The Great Awakening Documentary (Or, enter here thru Dr. Mercola’s sit without your name and email address) is intended to be a lighthouse to guide the world into a brighter future.

If you prefer reading, Plandemic: Fear is the virus. Truth is the cure. is the 2021 best selling book by Mikki Willis which tells the incredible true story of the most banned documentary in history. The book describes in detail the life experiences that led Willis to risk his career and safety to create the Plandemic series.

Grab some popcorn or some raw veggies and dip open your mind and enjoy! I will tell you about our beautiful garden on the next Blog . . .

New Veggies Of The Week!

The boxes this week will also have endive and escarole. It’s all green and can go into your salad. I also have seen a recipe that puts escarole in white bean soup! It is a hearty and versatile green.

This is the endive!

The romaine comes in both green and red varieties–although, it really looks more purple. You will definitely know which one is the red romaine! And there is the red, head lettuce along with the kohlrabi and kale which are new for the week. Some of the Asian greens are approaching the end as the year moves to another stage of local, seasonal gourmet vegetable eating. Nothing lasts forever!

Blueberries and avocados top this salad. Can you spot the baby, red kale?

My Driveway Is Back!

Since the middle of March we have had plants hardening off in our driveway with a fence around them to keep four-legged pests out of the area. Now all of that is gone! All of the plants are in the garden and I can pull in and back out without worrying about running over a tray of precious plants! In addition to planting these crops, Robert has been direct seeding others. Our cucumbers did not germinate properly on the first planting, so he has replanted those. They will grow quickly and we trust we will have a bountiful supply of the best cukes you have ever tasted.

The first kohlrabi will be in the boxes this week. We are growing both purple and green kohlrabi. You need to peel them first. The beautiful purple will be gone, but the bulb is crisp and crunchy! I prefer them raw in salads or as a snack. They can also be sauteed. The tops are edible as well.

The veggie boxes will contain most all of the crops you have been seeing with the addition of kohlrabi; also, romaine and kale for some CSA Members depending on where you are in the harvest/pickup rotation. The spring greens will not last forever, so enjoy them while you can.

We do have community supported agriculture (CSA) farm shares available. Veggie Adoption Stragglers will be pro-rated into the harvest season.

We believe all food should be local. Thank you for supporting local farmers and agriculture in whatever manner you do because No farmers . . . No food . . . No future is a fact and not just a tag line!

Romaine & Kale Arrive In June

Today is the first of June and romaine and kale join the parade of vegetables you will find in your CSA Boxes this week! Romaine you can trust and how I love romaine!! The kale will be either of the red or green variety depending upon the day’s harvest. Of course, all of the previous Asian greens will continue!

Romaine and tender kale–in both red and green varieties

Robert stapled the deer fencing around the garden every three feet. Still much like Peter Rabbit sneaking into Mr. McGregor’s Garden, Gregory Groundhog did the same this week in order to help himself to our tender broccoli and cauliflower plants. I see another Have A Heart trap purchase in the immediate future. One of the deer made a huge hole in the back of the fence late last week. This is the first time this has ever happened! Robert mended the fence with a Frankenstein stitch and we trust the intrusion was an accident and not intentional. The wildlife in our neighborhood is a continual challenge. We call our property a Wildlife Sanctuary, but we prefer they all remain on the outside of our seven-foot fencing!

Staples hold the fabric and drip lines in place–as well as the deer fencing.

We got enough rain to prevent us from resuming planting, but not so much that the soil could not absorb the moisture. Rain from the Heavens always makes plants grow more quickly it seems. The fabric and drip lines are in place and finishing the greenhouse transplanting is in the plans for the coming weekend.

The second and “wetter” side of the fenced garden.

This is all that remains in the “hardening zone.” You can see the remaining red lettuces and our eggplant, sweet bell peppers, and tomato plants waiting to be transplanted. Of course, many crops were previously direct seeded into the soil such as potatoes, carrots, beets, peas, onions, beans, squash, rutabaga, zucchini, etc. Thus, another stage of the 2023 Harvest Season approaches an end in sight just as the actual harvest gets into full swing!

The last of the greenhouse plants grown from seed.

Farm shares are still available. If you join now, you will have missed our first three weeks of harvest; but there are still plenty of lettuces and spring greens coming in the next couple of weeks!