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On Saturday, June 22 we had a close lightning strike.  I heard the shaking of every window in the house. I headed for the car as I thought Robert was in the garden where he has been known to weather some storms. In the garage I met him coming in. Turns out he was in the driveway putting away a garden hose when he experienced a bright flash “in the trees” immediately followed by a loud crack of thunder. I figured out a couple of hours later that our modem had been blown. It took a few days for us and AT&T to determine the transformer had been hit–at least it was not a person! So if you got an abbreviated message from me in the last week, you know why.

We are having a season change in our local eating journey! We have sent out snow peas and the first of the broccoli. We are getting a few cauliflower heads and the first green and yellow zucchini and patty pan squash. I have seen three varieties of squash thus far. Unfortunately, we were unable to find the seed of our favorite variety–the yellow and green spaceships. Very interesting; but we trust we will have plenty of the others. The beans are flowering, the sweet potatoes are growing, and we shall have the first new, red potatoes soon! This photo was taken about three weeks ago. Now the leaves of each row  are touching one another! I guess it is time for a new photo!

In you box this week expect to find baby kale, kohlrabi, onions, red lettuce, red romaine–perhaps some green romaine and green lettuce. There might be a head of endive or escarole here and there, but mostly these greens are gone for the season along with the choi and tatsoi. We will also have plenty of broccoli. There will be cauliflower as heads become available and perhaps more peas as they are flowering again.

There have been sightings of the hen turkey followed by her babies. She is teaching them to scurry off the road and into the woods when a vehicle approaches. Actually, there may be two families. The numbers are not as large as some years. No doubt the extreme rainfall when they were just hatched is why. Life in Nature!

I hesitate to say this, but we are attempting to grow sweet corn this season. Our foray into corn has never been very successful. So far it looks great and is about waist high–the best ever. The corn is located inside the deer fence because the deer love the corn, too. They will respect the fence, but we don’t know about the raccoons. Fingers crossed we can keep them all out this year!

It is going to get hot this week. We have started the drip irrigation again. As soon as the puddles dry up, we must irrigate

The rains last week caused all veggies to experience a growth spurt. The potatoes are blooming. The broccoli and cabbage heads are forming. The squash will soon be large enough to start blooming. The garden looks good in other words for our farm to table eating!

Here is a photo of my big, fat, grilled, Greek, tatsoi sandwich. Excellent hot and very good cold, too.  See the link in my previous Blog entry.

A few chois remain in the garden and will be put into the CSA Boxes. The last of the tatsoi are much smaller than what you have been seeing—which will make you either happy or sad. We will have kale, kohlrabi, onions, escarole, two types of endive, and red lettuce, red romaine and snow peas! It is still salad time, but the ingredients are changing!

The gardens are the prettiest in June to very early July.  Email me (Glenda) if you want to set up a visit.

Kohlrabi is a delightful vegetable which looks in the garden like a fleet of ships just arrived from outer space! It can be peeled like an apple, sliced, and eaten raw–or added to a salad or sauteed and serve.  Yes, you can even eat the leaves, but you will need to sauté these leaves a bit longer. With all of the delightful greens to enjoy right now, don’t feel wasteful if you just toss the kohlrabi leaves.

The kohrabi may be new for some CSA Members. As you can see above the kohlrabi sits on top of the soil. We grow both green and purple varieties. To store kohlrabi, cut off the edible leaves about one inch ABOVE the top because when stored in the refrigerator the leafy greens will draw the moisture from the root greatly reducing the flavor and, eventually, causing the veggie to which they are attached to become rubbery.  Of course, it is much better to eat than to store your CSA veggies! Read more about the unique kohlrabi in the Recipes.  You will need to scroll down past the beets to find it.

I had the television on while packing today’s CSA Boxes and discovered another way to eat that delicious tatsoi.  https://www.dianekochilas.com/spanakopita-grilled-cheese-2/  These spring greens are rather like the Cadbury Easter Eggs, meaning they won’t be around forever, so enjoy them while you have the opportunity!

The box this week will have three types of choi, tatsoi, two varieties of endive, escarole, spring onions, red and green kale, red/purple lettuce heads, and green and purple kohlrabi.  Use the Vegetable Identification pages on the website if you need more help identifying any of these vegetables. And do not be intimidated by the unique look of the kohlrabi.  It is a delightful veggie which will be “landing” in your CSA Box!

We have a saying around here that goes–If the bugs will not eat it, perhaps we should not eat it. In my opinion, no bug bites should at least give one pause to consider what chemicals must have been sprayed to keep all of nature away in a natural environment. In my 26 years of selling veggies, I have only ran across one person who absolutely refused to eat any item with a single bug bite on it. Unfortunately, we had to send this person to the grocery store to purchase the desired  flawless vegetables. As the season progress, one should expect to possibly find the critter doing the damage. We try to use our organic products arsenal at the proper time, but insects can slip through the cracks!

We are harvesting just as fast as we can.  What to do with that tatsoi? I can say it is not spinach, but most people seem to think it is. I suppose tatsoi is an Asian spinach type of veggie. This is my absolute favorite tatsoi dish. One can find the recipe on the T – Z page. I have been known to push more greens than the recipe calls for into my dishes, too.

Sauteing the tatsoi will use up a lot of it because it shrinks so much in the pan. Recently, I have switched from olive oil to coconut oil and then add a dash of organic Coconut Aminos as a seasoning. All of these recipes can be frozen, too!

Yesterday I made a pie using tatsoi. I did not follow a recipe at all, but use rather like a quiche base with some frozen mixed veggies added for extra texture and color. Google a recipe for Spinach Pie as just substitute tatsoi to get started!

Of course, tatsoi is also good in a salad mix! That’s fancy grade, organic Coconut Flakes on top of my salad. Just let your imagination run wild when it comes to salads!

One last thing. This time of year I never purchase celery. The stalks of the chois are my substitute. Add a few raisins and you have “ants on a log” for the kidos!

The boxes next week will be similar to first one you received as far as the contents are concerned. Read the last Blog post if you have forgotten what was in it. Tokyo Becanna was added the second week. And Endive and Escarole will be added this third week. All salad makings.  Chew, chew, chew!

 

By Thursday, May 30 all current CSA Members will have received their first box of veggies. The crops have grown in the last week! At the same time, the plants are under the stress of heat. We are irrigating, but the heat will cause some things to bolt. Also, the heat will prevent other things from even growing. The mustard and turnip greens and collards, in particular are cool weather crops–and the weather has not been cool recently in WNC! This makes me sad because I so love baby collard greens!

These first boxes are containing Joi Choi, Bok Choy, Ching Chang, Spring Onions, Tatsoi, and red and green kale. In week two we also added Tokyo Becanna–which looks like lettuce on a stalk (see below).

CSA Farm Shares are available still for anyone interested!

 

I took this photo looking through the wildlife fence around the spring gardens.  If I had not focused right in on it, you would not even know it was there!  Can you tell how much the veggies have grown in the last two weeks?  Go back and look at the first photo I posted and you will see!

We are going to start the CSA on Monday, May 20. Every CSA Member who is getting a box next week has been notified. If you did not get an email from me, that means your first box will come in week two. I WILL SEND YOU AN EMAIL. Most of our CSA Families get an every-other-week box.  For this reason, it takes a full two weeks to get our CSA up and running. Robert tries to balance out the harvest and I attempt to have pickup locations in different areas of Buncombe County from week to week in order to make it as convenient as possible for everyone.

The first veggies will be the smallest in size. Don’t worry they will get larger as time passes and they have had more time to grow in the great out of doors. Everything mixed together makes for wonderful, fresh salads! If the Asian greens are bitter tasting to you, toss a few sweet Craisins into your salad for sweetness. Or add a drizzle of honey.

Robert will rinse the first layer of soil off most veggies before I pack them into your CSA Boxes. I usually wash my greens when they come up from the fields. Then I put them into these Jumbo Hefty bags and into the refrigerator. This makes salad prep for a meal a quick job of chopping before serving. You can find these bags at most grocery stores.

This was one day’s harvest of asparagus! You can see why it will not be included in the CSA Boxes–there simply are not enough to mess with. Robert and I have attempted to grow asparagus for 26 years and have been successful by most standards. Thousands of crowns have been planted and replanted at great cost in both money and physical labor.

After much contemplation, we have come to the conclusion the WNC winters do not get cold enough to make for the best asparagus growing environment. Additionally, the many drought years were devastating to the crowns. We have reached acceptance and relinquishment when it comes to growing asparagus. A farmer or a gardener must be comfortable with uncertainty in the garden. Sometimes proper planning and preparation simply is not enough when working in Nature with Nature.

Speaking of Nature, can you see the black “shadow” in this photo? We call him “Baby Bear” and he was looking through the strawberry fence and contemplating going in for a sweet bite when I snapped this photo from the front door!

 

Happy Mother’s Day! Many years we have veggie boxes going out the door by now; however, 2019 is going to be a late start thanks to the Good Friday rains.  Do not worry! I have not forgotten anyone! Each Farm Share Member will get an email before their first CSA Box is prepared!

I always recommend CSA Members read the previous Blog. With most families getting every-other-week CSA Boxes, whatever is said the week before is usually still relevant. And in some cases my Blog Title will only make sense that way!

Thousands of plants have gone into the gardens in the last two weeks! Still not big enough to harvest, but well on their way.

Direct seeds gardens are also being planted, drip irrigation tape laid and fabric being rolled out. In the distance you can see the white poles which hold up the invisible fencing which keeps the wildlife out of the spring garden. A person can be standing three feet from it and not see the seven-foot high fence, but the deer can. It has been a life saver for our crops.

Then there are the repairs to the drip irrigation tape which must be made when the leaks appear. The is always something demanding the Farmer’s attention in the garden.

Meanwhile back in the front yard, we have installed a fence around our strawberries. We don’t know for sure this will work. However, in the past, the chipmunks have been getting more berries that I have, so it is worth a try!

We still do not know our CSA Start Date. Each CSA Member will get a direct email from me when we begin. Keep in mind that we operate on an every-other-week delivery schedule. Thus, it will take two weeks to get the entire CSA up and running once we begin!

What a difference one week can make! Last weekend I was too depressed to even write a blog. Everywhere we looked there was water. It is impossible to plant a soil garden in water. The wonderful news to report is that all of the plants we have been starting in our greenhouse were still in the safety of the greenhouse last weekend! Robert just had a feeling he should wait one more week before planting anything in the gardens. Turns out his intuition was RIGHT ON. It was a tough decision. Weeks before he had turned over the soil and it was light and fluffy–just the way one likes to see it at planting time. Then the devastating rains came. After nearly thirty years in this business, he just had a “farmer’s feeling” that he should wait. Of course, this will make the starting of our CSA box delivery a couple of weeks later this season. Please bare with us and Nature.

This week excellent progress is being made in the planting department. Onions, potatoes, peas, sweet turnips, kale, carrots, and beets have been direct seeded into the soil. The first of our many plants are now freed from their tiny, seedbed transplant pots. Once they get into the out-of-doors, they grow in leaps and bounds.

And, yes, we are drip irrigating them into the ground! I know it is difficult to believe this is necessary considering the past couple of weeks. The joy of using water conserving, underground, drip irrigation is that we can put as much moisture as we want exactly where we want it.

The plants might not look like much at the moment; but in about one month, we trust we shall have beautiful lettuce, greens, choi, ching chang, and tatsoi for those first spring salads. And the broccoli, kohlrabi, and cabbage plants will be preparing to form heads!

At planting time, we measure success by the number of empty trays! Each tray holds fifty plants which Robert lovingly plants into the gardens. This is an extremely busy but exciting time of the year. Everywhere we look there is something to do. The blueberry bushes are beautiful. However, blueberries do not go into the CSA Boxes. Our CSA Members are welcomed to come to the farm by appointment and harvest their own. These are late varieties–late August to early September.

We are so glad you have decided to come along on our farm share food journey in 2019! And if you have not yet made the decision to join our band of adventurous veggie eaters, now is the time to make the commitment.  Healthier eating of sustainable, locally grown veggies which are thousands of miles fresher awaits!

Robert and I have attempted to grow asparagus for 26 years. We actually started our first seeds during the Blizzard of 1993! We have grown white, green, and purple asparagus. We have been successful by most standards; however, our success came with great cost. Thousands of crowns have been replanted over the years which involved thousands of hours of back-breaking labor. After much contemplation, we have come to the conclusion the WNC winters do not get cold enough to make for the best asparagus growing environment. Also, the many drought years were devastating to the crowns. And, there is the damage done by the wily asparagus beetles–who were thrilled to find asparagus growing on our farm. From where did they arrive?! Is there an app for that?

We have reached acceptance and relinquishment when it comes to growing asparagus. Now we are letting go . . . as a wise man once said attachment is suffering! If you want to try and grow asparagus, we wish you the best of luck. We are not experts and have no secrets to offer. What we have learned is some crops are best left to the farmers in the far north states. Also, one must be comfortable with uncertainty in the garden. Sometimes proper planning and preparation simply is not enough when working in Nature with Nature.

Yes, “asparagus” is in our family farm business name and it will remain as a part of our legacy since asparagus is the first crop we marketed. However, the “& Company” represents the other nearly 90 vegetable varieties we attempt to grow most every year.

Below is a video which gives an excellent description of growing asparagus. Remember this when you purchase that low-priced, “loss leader” asparagus in the grocery stores each spring!

Every year we experience some of the same things. Spring turns into summer, then summer turns into fall, and fall turn into winter. We do not know what each day and each season will be like.  However, after over twenty-five years of growing vegetables, we have a general idea of what Nature has to offer WNC and the Fairview end of the Cane Creek Valley. In the middle of winter and freezing temps, we will have some glorious days of sunshine and spring. Indeed, the daffodils will begin to poke their heads up through the soil. Do they know like we do that this day or week is just a brief interlude and freezing temps and perhaps snow will be back soon?

As spring draws closer and the Earth releases the smell of tilled soil, gardeners are overcome with the desire to plant seeds. We have discovered most seeds are best planted in the greenhouse because the cold lingers still. Finally, the day arrives when we move the carefully guarded seedlings from the greenhouse to the garden. No longer is our early toil protected from the elements. Once the plants get their roots into the Earth, they begin to flourish. In short order the first spring greens are ready to harvest.

Once the first harvest commences and the CSA boxes begin going out the door, the spring to summer to fall seasons rush one into another–time after time. The planting of seeds continues through mid summer. We do not plant fall seeds as everyone deserves a break of sorts.

Our connection to Nature is important and part of who we are as CSA Farmers. We welcome new families to join us on our local food journey for the 2019 Harvest Season. We are currently accepting new members and will continue to add pro-rated farm  shares mid-season as the weather and crop production allow. Looking for a culinary adventure with the freshest vegetables available? Join us!