Blog

We have been busy! All of the tomato plants have been transplanted to the garden. A fat, male rabbit found them last week and ate about fifteen of them to the nub one day. Robert relocated Peter Rabbit via “Have-A-Heart” trap to another property because he was doing some SERIOUS damage! From whatever reason, Peter did not care to sample the bell peppers and eggplant starts which were located nearby. He simply ate his way down a row of tomatoes! And just like in the children’s fairy tale, Peter was NOT HAPPY about being caught in a trap. He created more of a ruckus than a groundhog four times his weight. FYI we used an apple for bait!

The greenhouse is empty and we have our driveway back again! The summer and winter squash have been planted. The okra seeds are up and the potatoes are looking beautiful. The last TWO years have been very bad for potato production, so we are particularly excited to see the potatoes looking as good as they do this season.

My son took some drone footage last week to give you a bird’s eye view of our Fairview family farming enterprise!

Half of our CSA Members have received their second “box” of veggies. The content has changed. In addition to the Asian greens, we have added Romaine lettuce, onions, escarole, and last Friday, heads of red/purple lettuce! This coming week will also see kohlrabi in the box. As some veggies fade away, others will be added. This is seasonal eating!

Kohlrabi is one of those veggies many people are not familiar with yet; however, we trust you will explore its varied uses and become a fan. Check out the website for our suggestions on peeling this usual vegetable and how to enjoy it. Just scroll down the page until you see the photo of this unique veggie.

We have CSA Farm Shares available and are happy to add members at this time.

Recipes F – L

In the box today you have two Joi Choi, two Ching Chang, two Black Summer, at least two Tatsoi, a romaine, a bag of red kale and green kale, a bag of baby collards, and endive! We like to harvest our collards small as you can see in this photo. These are tender, baby collards which you can eat raw in a salad or braise as you desire. Regardless, now is the time you might want to implement your chiffonade style of cutting.

I try to sort out the really damaged items. By damaged, I mean anything with excessive bug bites! But we are organic farmers, so you should expect to see some insect damage. We always say, “If the insects will not eat, we probably should not eat it either!”

We do not have any grass on our “lawn.” We have perennial flowers and annual flowers and butterfly bushes and strawberry plants every where! The strawberries started out in a small six-foot circle, but soon took over the front. They are the ever-bearing berry variety. Our problem has been the wildlife. You might recall me saying that Robert was “ubering” the squirrels to another property far enough from here that they will not make their way back. His efforts this spring seem to have paid off because we are getting some berries in an amount to be impressive for the first time!

We got a much needed, lovely rain this afternoon which will give the drip irrigation wells a break for at least one day. We have been in “drought” conditions. We are not looking forward to high 80 degree temps this week. The spring crops prefer it to be a bit cooler . . . but what can one do? Prepare to SALAD ON! Your veggie boxes next week will be very much like the one today. And remember to go back and read previous Blog entries, if you have not done so.

We are entering the second week of first CSA Boxes. By now every CSA Member should have received their RSVP Email. We attempt to be in different areas of the county on different days of the week in order to make veggie box pickup convenient for our members. We cannot be all things to all people–there are just the two of us; but we do try!

During the first four to six weeks of harvest (that’s 2 – 3 veggie boxes) we will be doing a “salad parade.” I will refer anyone reading this Blog back to the previous Blog for details. It is always a good idea to read back a couple of Blogs if you are not subscribed and receiving them on a regular basis. You can subscribe (and unsubscribe) on the Blog page!

There will always be additions and changes in the boxes from week to week. For example, this second week will see the addition of the Asian green Tatsoi. I will appear to be a spinach bouquet and may be treated as spinach. It can be eaten raw in salads. However, my favorite way is to put it into a quiche with feta cheese! I am a “this and that” type of cook who does not follow instructions well, but I did my best to re-create my ever changing recipe. My experience is that when one begins with fresh veggies, it is difficult to go wrong!

There may be other additions this week or next week . . . the baby collards are about ready and the spring onions! Most of the recipes for the Asian greens we grow will be on our website under either “C” for “Choi” or “G” for “Greens” or “T” for “Tatsoi.” I guess I am a “this and that” type of recipe organizer, too!

We are starting the CSA! Remember it will take two weeks to get the entire CSA up and running. Each member will get an email from us indicating their first pickup day, so keep an eye on your Inbox! And if you have been waiting to join, now is the time!! We do have farm shares available.

Here is a preview of what will likely be in your first CSA Box. There may be other veggies, too, but this gives you an idea of what to expect. When you open the bag, use your senses. I want you to SMELL the freshness of these greens! Harvested in the morning, packed at noon, and delivered to you around 2:00 p.m.! This is about as fresh as one can get short of growing and harvesting them yourself. Welcome to our “Farm to Table” seasonal eating adventure!

The above greens are all in the Bok Choy/Choi family. We do not want you to be overwhelmed when you receive your first CSA Box of veggies. I recommend putting on your favorite music. Then, here are your prep steps: First cut off the bottoms of the chois. They are grown in soil, so the majority of the soil will be concentrated at the bottom. The bottoms of the stems are “spoon shaped” and will retain soil. I like to cut these off over one side of the sink while washing off the majority of the soil in this first sink. After this, immediately place the cut leaves into another sink filled with cold water. Doing this may cut down on the number of wash cycles you need. Gently soak and swish the leaves, replacing the water until you get the grit level down to your preference. Then place the washed leaves onto a clean tray.

You do the same with the kale. Kale grows in a different manner, so it will require less washing. You can get creative and use the same wash water for both chois and kale before refilling the sink in an attempt to use less water. We do wash off the first layer of soil right after harvest. Soil is expensive in Fairview. We like to keep as much of it here on the farm as possible! The black fabric we use helps to keep some of the soil off the vegetables. However, if it has been raining, you can expect more washing to be required.

I wash everything at once and place the veggies into bags. This prep is what takes time. Once this is done, chopping for a salad or stir-fry goes much quicker which speeds up meal time preparation. We are big salad eaters in our house. If you need a reason to eat a daily salad, consider the 2017 study by Rush University Medical Center which shows that one serving of leafy greens a day is associated with slower cognitive decline! I am willing to bet these salad bowls hold more than one serving!

Get creative with your salads! Blackberries, strawberries, chopped apples, oranges, and pears, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, walnuts, pecans, carrots, spring onions, Craisins, grapes are just a start! Sometimes we add various cheeses. These greens are hearty and will stand up grilled chicken breasts or beef tips tossed in. So enjoy your salads! One day, believe or not, they will be gone. This is what seasonal eating is all about! And when this day comes, we trust we will have cabbages to fill your salad bowls! Check out Recipes F- L for dressings and more ideas for the first of your seasonal gourmet vegetables from our Fairview family farm!

I want to suggest buying some jumbo bags for storing your veggies in the refrigerator. I usually go ahead and wash the greens before shaking off the excess water and placing them into the bags. This way when I am ready to prepare a meal, all I need do is remove the leaves and start chopping for salads or stir-fry. This particular brand is easy to open and close and is large enough to hold anything we send your way!

Please remember it takes two weeks to get the CSA up and running because we operate on an every other week basis. Shortly, I will be sending out the first start up emails with an RSVP requested. This is to ensure I know that YOU know when your first box of veggies is being harvested. From your first day forward, just go down the calendar every other week until you get an email from us saying that the CSA is closing down for the season. And if you are going out of town, please let us know in advance. We will make arrangements for you to get that box on another day! We do expect you to purchase each box, and we are willing to work with you to make this possible.

Robert and I believe the season is getting off to an excellent start! The Spring Garden looks beautiful. Get ready for those first nutritious, green salads! We are big salad eaters in this household and quite anxious for the season to begin. Of course, if you prefer, any of these first greens can also be sauteed or made into a quiche, etc. See the recipes on the website or internet for ideas!

Today is windy! I half expect to look out the window and see Robert flying through the air on the end of a strip of black fabric which is supposed to be lying on the ground in the garden! The wind has its purpose of spreading the pollen far and wide and it helps to dry out the gardens. The planting is still going on at full speed. We can see the first potatoes starting to push up through the soil which is a good sign! The spring onions are growing. The carrots are planted, the snow peas are planted—these are direct seeded into the soil, of course. The poles for the deer fence are in the ground . . . small steps!

We had NO azalea blooms this year which is a good reminder that we don’t always get what we want from Nature! I miss the azaleas; therefore, I am going to attach a photo of our front yard from a GOOD azalea season! Happy Mother’s Day!!

We have not decided a starting date for the CSA yet. We are waiting until the spring crops are a bit larger to begin. Do not worry! I will contact all CSA Members in due time! Farm shares are still available for the 2021 Harvest Season.

I want to write about the black fabric which we use in our gardens. This fabric helps retain moisture and keeps the soil warm. The fabric also helps keep down the weeds. We do not spray herbicides. We pull what weeds we can, but are unable to keep up with all of them which explains why our gardens look like such a “mess” come the end of July! I always say our gardens are the prettiest in June and start going downhill after that. The gardens still produce nutritious veggies, of course; but the gardens will not be winners of Home and Garden Awards. Weeds are not all bad since weeds can provide habitat for beneficial insects! Currently, however, we could still win some beautiful garden awards!

Today we did not need to irrigate thanks to the Tuesday rainfall. When we do need to water our gardens, we use an underground, drip irrigation system to conserve the water obtained from our wells. Drip tapes carrying the water run along the side or under the black fabric. In turn, the moisture helps the decomposition of organic matter (weeds), which releases nutrients for plants to take in. The idea is to flow with Nature! Fighting Nature all of the time simply takes too much of our resources. Robert and I need our energy for operating our CSA Farming business.

Across the ditch from Phase I is Phase II of the Spring Garden. The fabric has been laid in place, but that is all at the moment. Eventually a seven-foot deer fence will surround both Phase I and Phase II. You will see some fields along Cane Creek Road and elsewhere with mounded black plastic in them laid by specialized equipment which is how the commercial tomato farmers do it. Sigh . . . but not us. Once the gardens are tilled, all work is done by manual labor.

It might not look as if any plants have left this staging area, but trust me, more than half of the 15,000 plants started in our greenhouse have moved through this stage and been relocated to the garden soils!

I am finishing up the last of the lettuces and eggplant in the greenhouse this week. There will still be some more planting to do in there since we start cucumbers and squash plants inside as well–think a ‘head start” for the Summer Gardens!

Robert and I are happy with how the season is progressing. We do have CSA Farm Shares available for the upcoming season which we trust will be a bountiful one starting in two or three more weeks! We attempt to balance the daily harvests for the sake of the gardens. We will continue to add shares throughout the season as the production allows.

I know people are wondering how we fared during the recent cold temperatures. It usually takes a while to see the end results. (Isn’t there patience required in most things?!) However, it appears we had only a slight amount of damage in our Spring Garden. Some of the outer leaves were “burned,” but all in all we will survive! For the most part, the center leaves are green and alive which means the plants will continue to grow. I wish the same could be said for our apple trees, blueberry bushes, and my white azaleas.

Saturday’s rain meant we were unable to do any planting outside, but there is still plenty of what needs to be accomplished on our small, family farm. We continue to work toward being to fill our CSA Boxes for our farm share members–sometime in May!

No photos today . . . please read my last post for recent farm photos!

The daffodils are long gone. The Redbuds are in full bloom. The dogwoods and azaleas will be next as Spring 2021 marches forward. Some people might be unhappy that the weather turned cooler, but for your CSA Farmers this is a perfect and proper April for growing our Spring Garden! As Plant Parents, we move into high gear preparing for a whirlwind season!

The gardens have all been tilled and some of the fabric laid and part of the drip irrigation system put into place. That is the thing with gardening . . . everything must be taken down in the fall and then reassembled in the Spring; but we are well on our way! Multi-tasking and an abundance of energy are a must.

Thousands of plants have been staged out of the climate-controlled greenhouse over the last couple of weeks so they can slowly acclimate to the real world of direct sunshine, wind, rain, and varying temperatures.

At the same time, thousands of plants have been already transplanted into the gardens. We are seeing strong root systems and the weather is perfect which means the plants will grow quickly into all those greens which make the first salads! We are hoping that the freezing temperatures do not last long tonight–for the sake of the apple trees and the blueberry bushes! The wind is blowing which will help to keep the frost at bay and our garden is located in a valley. Also, the black fabric will retain some of today’s sun heat which will also help our plants to stay warm (we trust).

We are not finished with the greenhouse seedbeds either. There are still thousands of seeds awaiting planting and transplanting into their individual pots, however, at least the end of this work is now in sight. Most recently I worked on eggplant and bell peppers; but if you look at the Harvest Calendar, you will see these crops are destined to be part of our August vegetables. Growing a serious garden takes planning, preparation, labor, and time!

Robert and I have been quite busy in April which one might gather by my lack of posting! We trust that in four or five weeks we will have fresh, local, organic veggies to begin filling our CSA Boxes! I will send a direct email to each CSA Member when it is time to start vegetable pickups/deliveries. And once the CSA begins, I will post every week so that our CSA Members have an idea of what to expect in their veggie box.

I am always happy to speak with perspective CSA Members! We do have farm shares available for the 2021 Harvest Season of mid-May through October. We would love to have your family join us! Sign up now for what we trust will be spectacular, healthy seasonal eating in 2021.

For Robert and I houseplants have always been a thing. We have one plant that is over forty years old. We do not know its exact age. Apparently 2020 was the year many more people became Plant Parents.  Unfortunately, most people don’t consider the needs of plants when they make their purchase.  Someone calculated that 67% of millennials say that plant care is harder than they figured it would be. Don’t we know it!  We now have over 13,000 babies in our greenhouse and more are on the way. One might assume that we are “professionals” when it comes to growing plants (and gardening), but nothing could be further from the truth.  Every year we learn something new! And every year we are given some new challenge in dealing with our Plant Children!

I did learn from the above mentioned survey that more than 50% of gardeners talk to their plants.  We do talk to our plants and I play music for them, too.  Apparently, talking to one’s plants helps to lower stress levels (of the parents for sure, but perhaps for the plants as well).  I think music aids in the plant’s growth and thus play a wide range of music genres.  The survey said 43% of plant people have named their plants; but with our large and growing “family,” we do not assign names.  Although, we did gift an avocado plant to our son and his family named it “The Little Professor.” Two-thirds of the people in this survey were growing some edible plants.  Now this is something I understand!

Speaking of always learning something new . . . do you see the silver trays in the photo? This year Robert came up with the idea of using these trays at our workstations to help contain the soil spillage. I cannot believe it took us twenty-eight years to come up with this idea! It really does work. Anything that makes “clean up” and “keeping clean” easier is something I am in favor of implementing.

Here is an interesting factoid. More than half of the fruit and nearly one-third of the vegetables consumed by Americans are imported! I find this to be a distressing thought. If you want to support local farms and local food, join a CSA. Any CSA! Or get to the nearest tailgate market. We need to keep as much food as possible LOCAL.

We do have shares available for the 2021 Harvest Season. Here is the link to sign up!