Tag: CSA

The Days Are Long

Typically on hears the phrase “the days are long, but the years are short” in regard to child rearing; however, it also applies to CSA farming. The greenhouse seedbed and transplanting stage is nearing an end as all of the spring crops are growing nicely and filling their individual peat pots. The nightshade veggies are the last to fill the seedbeds. Today those seeds are starting to break though the soil which means by the end of the week, I shall be transplanting the tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers into their individual peat pots. And then, except for monitoring and watering the plants located there, my daily greenhouse hours will have ended!

The last seedbeds are popping through the soil.

The first and now largest plants have left the greenhouse so they can get acclimated to the real world of direct sunshine, unregulated temperatures, wind, and rain. This means I must be careful when I back out of the garage! Robert put a small fence around this “nursery” to keep wandering animals from walking through and damaging the plants. These plants get watered every day. Once they have adjusted, they will go to the gardens to be transplanted for the final time into our field/garden soil.

This is our driveway “nursery” where plants harden up before going to the gardens.

At the same time, the garden soil must be turned and fluffed. This step is done with our tractors.  The remainder of the season is all really hard, manual labor.  The ground covers between which we plant must be laid down.  The drip irrigation lines must be laid as well.  Only then can we begin putting our plants into the gardens.  Robert is busy today preparing the gardens for the first joi choi, tatsoi, kale, lettuce, romaine, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, and cabbage transplants. We trust each plant will mature into a lovely, tasty vegetable to fill our early CSA Boxes.

Robert is hooking up the drip irrigation which runs down each row.

Producing a veggie crop is a long and labor intensive process which begins the first of March. Each year when we start up our CSA Farmshare pick ups in mid-to late-May, we comment, “It will be the 4th of July before you know it!” And then it is!! Then the first of August arrives with its harvest of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. Typically, by this time, we have “hit the wall” in terms of our energy levels and need to rest and re-group. This is when we say, “The harvest season is halfway over.” Turn around a few times and the end of September has arrived and our supply of fresh produce is dwindling. Then, if all goes well, by the end of October or mid-November, the gardens will all be cleaned up and put to sleep for the winter months. One fact remains–the days are long and the year is short!

The first spring garden is ready for its seven-foot deer fencing and plants!

My Milieu & Soil Prep

Preliminary work has begun in the gardens with the first and second tilling accomplished. This will undoubtedly bring some weed seeds to the top, but it will remove others which have already sprouted. Weeds! Just learn to love them because they are ever present. Next the laying and staking of fabric begins. This step cannot begin until the winds die down as these strips of fabric are over 100 feet in length. Many eight-inch staples will be used to hold the fabrics in place.

Two of many gardens with fabric and stakes positioned awaiting layout and staked placement.

The re-usable, black fabric helps to hold in moisture and keeps down the weeds while providing a cleaner surface on which activities can be performed ie: planting and weeding and harvesting. There is still plenty of “dirt” to go around, but having this water-permeable fabric helps immensely in cutting down the volume of soil which gets embedded into pants and boots.

Country Antrim Ireland . . . our family milieu for many “greats” involves farmland

This weekend some of our children, who just arrived back in WNC from a visit to our restored Ancestral Heritage Home in Ireland, have traveled to Southern Illinois to our Centennial Family Farm of Origin to view the upcoming Solar Eclipse.  Another will be arriving at the family farm on Sunday via Texas and the St. Louis Airport after meeting up with my Colorado sister’s family arriving back in the States from a visit to Peru. Still other family members are traveling from Chicago and Wisconsin and California(?) to go to the farm for the Total Eclipse Family Reunion. They planned all of this a year ago.

Centennial Family Farm of Origin in Southern Illinois

Robert and I were invited, but of course, this is not the time of year when we can head out!  There is too much to be done in the field and too many seedlings and transplant babies in our greenhouse which require daily attention. I trust the clouds will clear enough that they can see something–or not–as it will be dark!  My brother-in-law says we might possibly experience some of the event here in Fairview. Regardless, I do not think a few minutes of darkness on April 8, 2024 will affect our harvest season! I have taped a National Geographic television program as a backup to the out-of-doors viewing for our WNC location. Honestly, sometimes being tied to the land and the plants and the vegetables and home is very comforting for me–notice, I did not say relaxing as the CSA farming season is in progress! My Illinois farmer brother and nephew understand!!

Our WNC Fairview CSA Family Farm from a drone’s view

2024 Season Underway

Our greenhouse is full of seedbeds and seedlings awaiting transplant.  Indeed, many, many hours are required in the greenhouse this time of the year. Broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, cabbages, lettuces, and all the Asian greens are crops which we start from seed in our greenhouse. This greenhouse work is ongoing into the month of May. Each seedling will grow into a head of broccoli or cabbage or lettuce, etc. YUM!!! Other crops such as carrots, beets, turnips, potatoes, peas, beans, squash, cucumbers, etc. will be direct seeded into the gardens later when the time is right and the gardens have been prepared.

We expect these plants to provide a crop of delicious and nutritious local vegetables. If you have been thinking about joining our CSA Community, but have not yet submitted your information, we strongly encourage you to do so now. We have openings at the Troyer and Frugal Decor pickup locations. We ask for your commitment to purchase your CSA Boxes every other week for as long as we have vegetables available from our farm. We trust the season will run from late-May through the end of September.

Seedbeds And Transplants

Daylight Savings Time Begins! We appreciate the extra hour of daylight as CSA Farmers. It has been too wet to do anything in the fields, so Robert has been helping me transplant seedlings from the seedbeds into their little, individual peat pots where they will grow safely in the controlled environment of our greenhouse until it is time for them to go outside to adjust to the “real world” of wind and rain and more direct sunlight.

In the last two plus weeks, we have filled the greenhouse with thousands of tiny plants! Time flies when is busy . . . We still have a few farm share openings in our CSA mostly for Thursday and Friday pickups. When these are filled, we will begin a Wait List for later in the summer if our crop exceeds our expectations. 2023 was a bountiful year. We are praying that 2024 will equal or surpass last season!!

The weather has been great for the first flowers of the season. We love looking out of our greenhouse and seeing this view. Welcome Spring! Sign up now if you want to receive our CSA Boxes.

Keep Trying

We have daffodils beginning to bloom in our front yard. It is way too early and I fear they will be destroyed next week when the cold weather returns. In the event of nice days in February, however, they always try to grow! I pray some will survive to March which is a more realistic time for their arrival.

We have started two seed beds and another will be processed today!! It will not take long for the seeds to germinate into seedlings. When transplanting the seedlings into their small peat pots, I love looking out of my greenhouse windows and seeing a field of yellow daffodils.

We know many of our CSA Members are also trying to grow gardens of their own. We love this! Gardening and working with the soil is good for the Soul. If you want to have a garden, you must keep trying. Do not give up! There are many variables to growing a successful garden. So set realistic goals, and if one crop does not grow, try another. If that crop fails, try another. True farmers/gardeners never give up. They understand each day is an adventure into the unknown.

Our small, Fairview CSA Farm is our adventure! We never know from year to year or from day to day what will happen, what challenges we will meet (and trust we are able to overcome) and who we may meet. If growing your own garden is not your life plans, or if you just want to supplement what you are able to produce, join our CSA.

Farm shares are available for the 2024 Harvest Season from mid-May through September. We recommend every-other-week boxes for new members. Currently, we are planning for the upcoming adventure, so join now by submitting the registration and prepare for new, nutritional taste sensations!

See more photos of our past CSA Box contents at Our Farm Share Photos page!

Outcome Independence

There is a phrase we rather like here on our small, Fairview family CSA Farm. The phrase is Outcome Independence. It means Robert and I are able to feel successful regardless of the outcome of any given growing season. Another way to say this is the “doing” is more important than the “result.” This phrase applies so well to the many, many crops we attempt to grow each year on our CSA farm. 

Of course, we always “prefer” to have every crop reach its full potential because this results in an exceptionally bountiful harvest season. We plan and prepare and do everything within our power to make this happen from choosing seeds to digging drainage ditches to monitoring for insect pests. Still, sometimes the best laid plans go astray and our harvest “preferences” are not met due to some factor beyond our control. This is when our Outcome Independence allows us to understand we did all that we could and enables us to feel successful none-the-less. This really is an excellent way to deal with the stress of all of life’s worst-case scenarios.

One of our beautiful 2023 Gardens!

If you have ever attempted to grow a garden, you know exactly what I am talking about. Sometimes the multiple factors over which one has no control are simply too great–too much rain, not enough rain (fortunately we have drip irrigation), cloudy days, extreme heat waves, late frost, early frost, fungus and bacteria (which are ever present in the air and the soil), wildlife (thank goodness for the seven-foot deer fencing)–the list goes on and on. Fortunately, by growing a wide variety of crops planted in “waves” of time, total disasters are usually avoided. However, when we do lose a crop, we just have to say, “It is what it is!” as rely on our Outcome Independence to see us through any harvest disappointments.

For Robert and I, filling our CSA Boxes with the seasonal, organically-grown (but not certified) vegetables we are able to provide any given week is a delightful and empowering feeling. We love sharing the flavors, textures, and nutrition of the seasonal vegetables which are created on our small part of the Earth! CSA Shares are available for the 2024 Harvest Season. We would love to have you join us on our seasonal gourmet vegetable journey! I have attempted to answer all possible questions on the website; but if not, please send your query to me in an email.

What Goes Up, Must Come Down

By now all CSA Members should have received their End of Season email from me. We did a gradual close down of the CSA much like we did a gradual start up last May. Sometimes, it seems these last five months have flown by! And at other times, Robert and I know we have been planting, tending, and harvesting since early March.

It has been fun getting to know all of you these past few months! Most of you have already indicated you want to continue in our CSA for the 2024 Harvest Season. However, just because life changes, I will be asking everyone again–probably in February 2024.

It seems work on the farm is never completed. Robert will soon begin dismantling the deer fence with its poles, the bean fence, the tomato stakes, and the eggplant and pepper stakes, the rows of fabric and the many, many hundreds of staples which have been holding it in place since March. Every single item of our growing season infrastructure must be removed in other words!

Robert and I think this has been one of the most successful harvest seasons we have enjoyed. And just as we are always excited to begin the planting season, we are also equally excited to end the harvest season. Patience and persistence are necessary traits for any gardener. And some growing seasons are better than others; but, there are always some lessons to be gleaned from a garden!

Our gardens look very sad today . . . but they definitely had their Glory Days in 2023!

Eggplant Heaven

I received an email from one of our CSA Members telling me how she is dealing with all of the beautiful eggplants she has been finding in the CSA Box. I will admit to using a lazier version of Eggplant Parmesan precisely because of time constraints. However, I do lots of “batch cooking” and will try this in the future.

“We love eggplant Parmesan and the most time consuming part is breading/baking the eggplant before assembling. So I’m prepping big batches of the eggplant and freezing it for later in the fall/winter when I want to assemble the eggplant parms! (Have to make some homemade marinara to go with it!)”

If you want to try this, I suggest quick freezing the eggplant slices on parchment paper and then stacking in an airtight container or freezer bag. Putting a piece of parchment paper in between the layers of slices will prevent them from sticking to one another. This is a great time to Consider Stashing Away.

Next, I have a bean story to relate! One afternoon while Robert was harvesting beans, a dog appeared outside of the garden fence. He had a collar, but no name tag to call his family. He was friendly, so Robert petted him through the deer fence and then tossed a bean over the fence. The dog devoured the bean instantly, so Robert tossed another. This time the dog jumped to snatch the bean in mid-air! He was obviously hungry, so Robert continued tossing random beans over the fence as he continued harvesting. After about an hour, this “vegetarian” visitor went on his way with a full tummy. It has been a great season for beans and not a single one has been wasted. It seems all creatures love our Heavenly Beans!

In the box this week, you will find beans, tomatoes, eggplant, sweet bell peppers, cabbage, carrots and potatoes. The carrots keep growing larger! This is our last wave of cabbages.

Labor Day

Labor Day has come and gone and we are still getting a massive volume of beautiful green beans from our garden. Furthermore, the plants are still blooming! Robert said he was going to harvest every single bean. I think a challenge is coming down from The Heavens to hold him to his declaration! If you want a new way to eat green beans, consider running them through a slicer, sprinkling with EVOO, and roasting them in the oven. This is a great way to prepare them for the freezer, too!

The blueberries did not turn out the way we would have liked. The rains came at the incorrect time which caused the berries to explode. Also, for the first time in thirty years, the bears decided to visit our berry patch. They did a great deal of damage to the bushes in addition to eating everything they could easily reach. You can see from this photo there is no walkway or tunnel between the rows due to the fact they pulled down and broke many plants in an attempt to reach the higher blueberries.

Everyone should have received a cantaloupe over the past couple of weeks. I put this fruit in the same category as avocados when it comes to picking a “ripe” one. I trust you got a tasty one or two! Speaking of tasty, the last potatoes you received in your veggie box are our new favorite! With its smooth skin, creamy texture, and exceptional flavor, we were particularly pleased. We just planted a few as this was a new variety which we wanted to try out, so do not expect any more this season; but you can be sure we will be planting these again next year.

Our sunflowers were glorious this season! In two and one-half weeks, it will be Autumn. We have waves of sweet bell peppers and eggplant and tomatoes to go with the potatoes and green beans and (sometimes) okra. There will be more carrots and cabbage at some point. The peppers are just beginning to turn colors! The heat from the sun is perfect for making bell peppers sweet. The same thing goes for the tomatoes! We trust you agree they were worth the wait!

What Is Quick?

I may have a different view of quick than some people. For example, I realize how long it takes to get from tiny seed to edible vegetable and I have patience. When dealing with Quickbooks, however, I trust the process to be quick! Needless to say, I spent three full days dealing with Quickbooks upgrades, etc. during the past week. NOT QUICK! My patience was tested and my tongue said some words it should not have expressed. I trust this part of the job is done for another year.

I want to show you a photo taken with my camera right up to the deer fence! As you can see it is almost invisible to the human eye. It is seven feet tall which is necessary because we have a herd of about fifteen deer residing in the area. They love to eat our tender plants and shoots. We attempt to encourage them to stay near the woods by planting clover on that side of the field. Alas, they are comfortable enough with seeing us to venture out into the gardens–thus, the fencing! As you can see, the transplanting continues each and every day. Our plants are beautiful and have strong root systems. We lost some due to the cold temps, but that is to be expected and we plan for it.

Look closely at this photo and you can see the fencing bellowing out from the breeze! It is a very fine material. We must lift it up to enter and exit the garden. Turkeys have been known to fly from the trees and into the fence tearing it down. And they have been known to land inside the fence and tear it up on the way out. Our property is a Wildlife Sanctuary it seems! We have flock of over thirty turkeys some days. Much of the property along Cane Creek has been developed leaving less and less space for the wildlife to inhabit.

This is the designated “First Summer Garden”which will be enclosed inside the fence eventually. Robert tilled it this week in preparation for laying down the fabric and drip tape before planting. AND he needed to do some mowing on the property; hence the tiller came off for the season. The blueberries got a final mowing. He removed all of the sticker and briar bushes last winter, but the grass and weeds will come back quickly! Also, the berries will be set making it impossible to drive the mower between the rows again. If we were planting the bushes again, we would put more space between the rows. Hind sight is always 20/20!

I will begin working on CSA scheduling NEXT WEEK. Once I get things arranged, I will be sending emails out to each and every CSA Member with more details. We do have shares available if anyone is interested. Just go to the website Join Our CSA page and sign up. I will get right back to you with an email of acceptance. Spring salads are in my nightly dreams!