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Frost Warning Special!

Tonight there are frost warnings.  Once asparagus grows above soil level it is vulnerable to frost.  And once frozen, it is inedible.

So, today Ken picked everything above soil level, and we have some short pieces.  

They are weighed out the same as the usual bunches of spears.  Advantage of shorties?  MORE TIPS!

Harvest Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden!  This week’s CSA box has greens – lettuce, spinach, salad and braising greens, cilantro, parsnips, sun chokes, onions and potato onions, potatoes, and asparagus.

Field Notes.  The big news this week is the first picking of asparagus!  Now Ken will be out every other day picking.  We will be watching the weather; asparagus does not take a frost.  If it freezes it becomes inedible.   If you get short spears they were harvested before a frost.

 This week we are moving perennial flowers from the center of our loop on the drive.  The long range plan is for a grab and go area for produce.

Ken has been busy – as usual.  The hot weather crops are in the mobile high tunnel.  He has also been transplanting and planting.  And weeding. 

The piglets have arrived.  We get feeder piglets each spring with pig projects in mind.  Pigs are like four legged rototillers; they live to dig.  This year they have started renovating a section of the garden.   Once the perennial flowers are out, they will renovate the area inside the loop on the drive. 

From the Kitchen.  Asparagus.  This is a wonderful healthy medicinal food.  Asparagus assists the kidneys in clearing uric and oxalic acid from the system.  If you have eaten LOTS of spinach which is high in oxalic acid, now is the time to add asparagus to your diet!  My first advice with asparagus is don’t overcook it.  And consider grilling or brushing with olive oil and baking as this will seal in the flavor.  I like to top with homemade mayonnaise or a dressing with sesame oil, a mild vinegar, honey, tamari, hot pepper if you like it, and toasted sesame seeds.

‘Til Next Week, Judith

Ken's New Chicks

Ken encourages broody hens.  Broody hens want to sit on eggs and hatch out chicks.  In our experience chicks with good mothers have a head start - someone to care for them, teach them chicken skills, and protect them.

Once a hen continues to sit in a nest box over night, Ken starts to watch for a couple days.  Then he moves her to a quiet, undisturbed area, places some eggs under her, and she flattens like a pancake over the eggs and looks rather comatose for three weeks, she gets up only to eat and defecate.  

If all goes well, she has turned the eggs, kept them warm, and not broken any.  Then the chicks hatch!  She usually watches them until they go from puffy chicks to chicks with feathers.  Then she starts laying eggs again.

Piglets Have Arrived!

Each year we get piglets.  Pigs are an important member of the team here.  They are four legged rototillers.  We rotate them from project to project.  Some years the y clear new garden space, renovate areas, clear fence lines, etc.  They love to dig!  And they eat culls from the garden - lower cabbage leaves, broccoli plants, etc.

When they arrive they are small, and Oscar takes on the job of nanny.  This year we are pretty excited to have full blooded Berkshires.  A few years back we had Duroc Berkshire cross bred pigs, and they were great!  

We sell half and whole animals, and usually get only as many pigs as we have pre - sold.  Since pigs don't come in halves, and we had an odd number of families who have ordered, we still have one half available.

If interested, contact us for details.

Harvest Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden!  This week's CSA box has greens - lettuce, spinach, sorrel, arugula,  and potatoes, onions, garlic, parsnips, sun chokes.


Field Notes.  Ken is planting and transplanting and cultivating.  Saturday night he transplanted onions while he listened to Garrison Keillor on his radio ear phones.  

Sunday night he cultivated to Wisconsin public radio's Simply Folk show.  And today he is preparing for the arrival of piglets.  Pigs are useful four legged tillers.  They love to dig and Ken puts them to use.  Every year he plans out his pig projects for clearing fence lines future crop space, renovating current growing areas.  We sell the meat by the half custom cut.  Ask us for details if you are interested

From the Kitchen.  This year I am trying to make samples of the more unusual vegetables so people can taste them.  Last week I made sun choke chips.  I googled a couple recipes. 

Scrub, slice and salt.  Set on a towel to absorb some of the moisture.  Toss in some olive oil and herbs or garlic powder or paprika.  Bake at 375 on parchment paper about 15 min on each side.  Look for a change to golden color on edges, but catch them before they are charcoal!

Storage potatoes get wrinkly - they have less moisture, but are still plenty good.  Tuesday for lunch I made hash browns.  Scrub.  Shred, salt and squeeze out as much liquid as you can - I use that for a starchy thickener in cooking.  Get a heavy skillet hot with fat or oil that can take heat.  Drop the shredded potatoes in the skillet leaving space so the skillet stays hot.  Flip when crusty and top with some chives or onion tops.  I serve with Ken's home made ketchup (less sugar) or my home made mayo.  They also make great frittatas.  Use left over baked or boiled potatoes.  Add to egg scramble with sauteed onions and fresh greens.  Top with cheese and bake 'til eggs are firm and cheese is melted

'Til Next Week, Judith

Keeping it Cultivated

Ken is one of the most consistent cultivators I ever met.  He gets out once the soil has dried after a rain and breaks the crust and kills any weeds in the cotton stage

He has several "weapons of mass destruction" as he calls them!  He moves down the row faster than I can walk.  It looks great.  Sunday he listened to Wisconsin public radio's Simply Folk show and thinned carrots and cultivated all the crops by the mobile high tunnel and in the garden

May is Busting Out All Over

The flowers are all ahead of schedule!  Most years the hepatica and daffodils are usually the first weekend in May for our spring opener.  This year they bloomed about Mid April

The cherries and plums are blooming.  We have a hardy bush cherry variety called Nanking.  We have a couple types of plums.  

The cow slips also known as marsh marigolds are also staring to bloom

And the trillium are right on schedule- ready to pop for Mothers Day

Spring Planting for Full Season Crops

Ken transplanting on the other side of the garlic

Although Ken is always planting - he has to plant greens for the winter salad mixes every week - there is a transition to planting crops that will be transplanted outside and crops that are what we call "full season crops."  These include bulb onions - Walla Wallas, red onions, storage onions and leeks, and cucumbers, melons, squash, peppers, tomatoes and eggplant.  These crops are usually planted and transplanted once each season.

Ken starts all our crops from seed or in the case of garlic,  cloves.  His planting schedule for full season crops starts with planting garlic in fall, onions and celery in January, peppers in February and so on.  Now he is starting to transplant the full season crops.  Saturday night he was out with radio headphones.  While he listened to a Prairie Home Companion he transplanted onion seedlings (I was washing pottery).

Spring Opener Preparations

Each year at the start of May we have an open house we call the Spring Opener.  Pottery is washed and priced.  

Fresh eggs and vegetables are available for sale as well as maple syrup.  

Many people walk through the woods and see gardens, blooming trees, etc

The event is Saturday, May 7th and Sunday the 8th.  We hope to see you here between 10:00 and 5:00. 

Harvest Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden!  This week's CSA box has GREENS - lettuce, spinach, salad, cilantro, chives, parsnips, potatoes, onions, garlic, gobo and the last of the storage carrots, and a black radish.

Field Notes.  Rain.  Plants have popped!  Irrigating is just not the same as rain.  We had some unusually warm weather, but several crops just were just waiting for some rain.  The greens are thriving outside the heat of the tunnel, and the soil inside the new location is warming for tomatoes, peppers, etc. Now we are watching weather for late cool weather or frost.  If  - or when - this happens we will be running around covering heat loving seedlings that are hardening off.

Fall plantings are also jumping ahead - the garlic looks great.  In the field Ken's fall planted rye is taking off.  

And Ken has planted several of the early crops - the first potatoes and peas for example.  Soon the first beet crop thins will be harvested; these are a colorful, tasty green.  

From the Kitchen.  Each spring we have a couple of boxes filled with greens.  Although they are not heavy, they pack nutrition and spring cleansing qualities.  If you are not much of a salad person, try sauteing an onion and adding the greens just long enough to wilt them.  Then add what ever will compliment your meal - If we are having pasta with tomato sauce, I tend to serve greens with cream or yogurt.  If I am serving a main course with cheese, I add interesting vinegar and oil to the greens.  When the meal is Asian I add toasted sesame oil and seeds to the greens. 

I also  put chopped greens in a bowl and pour hot clear broth soups over them - this is a great warming start to a cool spring morning.  And in Asia, they often salt greens to back up the chlorophyll flavor and make the greens taste sweeter.  And I cook greens in egg dishes - spinach quiche or spinach omelettes.  We are still in prime egg season!

About this time I pull out the curried potato and parsnip soup recipe.  Saute onion with some curry, add broth and cook potatoes and parsnips.  Puree.  Add some yogurt or cream.  Serve with a dollop of yogurt and a sprig of green - cilantro or chives.

'Til Next Week, Judith

Moving the Mobile High Tunnel

Ken has been watching the weather  - he wanted to see a consistent warming trend before he moved the mobile high tunnel off the current greens to let them stay cool and to warm the soil for the summer heat loving crops like tomatoes and peppers.

We got some very warm temperatures and we wondered if we could vent the tunnel enough so the greens did not overheat and bolt - go to seed.  Ken asked some friends if they could help.  Early on Tuesday they came over and helped

Ken spent Monday getting ready, and after our helpers left Tuesday Ken anchored the mobile down and closed it up so the soil could warm up.

Then I helped him get up some fencing around the greens now outside the tunnel.  And the light rain was great for the greens

Changes in the Field

This has been a cold and grey spring.  the weather has changed, and Ken has been busy.  He moved enough six gallon buckets of compost to place one every four feet on each side of the medium tunnel in the field - all 178 feet!

And Ken is glad to see his fall planted rye coming up!

Moving the Hens

Our older hens over wintered in the garden where they cleaned up weed seeds, broccoli plants and such.  This week Ken moved them from the garden to the perennial flower (weed) bed that had been an eyesore for years - since I had some knee problems.

Now the chickens are in their new home, and eating the green grass as it comes up - so far no flowers.

A Garden buddha is watching over them

And Ken has been working preparing beds so he can plant more in the garden.