It always amazes me when I check my last blog entry and it was DAYS ago!
Now I have to try to remember what we did last Wednesday?!? Well, I can guess: Harvested yellow squash, zucchini and cucumbers. Oh, and how could I have forgotten the cabbages. Boxes and boxes and boxes of cabbages. Between the CSA boxes waiting for delivery and the cabbages, you couldn't walk into the walk-in cooler! After H took the CSA boxes to deliver them, we started with the cauliflower. Yikes.
Thursday, of course, was Pizza Night. The weather was beautiful, and we knew we'd be busy. We made 91 pizzas! We were well prepared and had enough help to keep things moving along nicely. I don't think anyone had to wait too long. A long day, as always, but it all went well. A reporter from Midwest Living magazine was out, too. She spent almost an hour walking around and talking with H about the farm, etc., before we got started with the pizzas. I think she was here the whole night, too. Maybe trying to get a complete experience. Oh, and she even bought one of my handmade dog toys! H lets me put some of my craft things out on the "store" shelves, with her jams, homemade soaps, etc. It was my first sale here at the farm. (To most of the people around here, dogs and cats aren't "pets" as much as they are in the cities. They are more like predator control, keeping the deer away, or pest control with mice, etc.)
Friday, H and her family left for a wedding in Chicago. C went along take care of the boys after dinner, so H could enjoy the reception. My to-do list included final clean-up from Pizza Night (collecting the garbage, cleaning up the outhouses, bringing in the tablecloths, etc.), the squash/zucchini/cucumber routine,.transplanting cilantro into the herb garden, checking on and harvesting cauliflower, and doing a potato beetle check on the eggplants.
I hadn't planned on going home anyway, so I offered to do the animal chores over the weekend. Otherwise, she would have had to have someone else come in to do it. That seemed kind of silly! Today, after chores, I raided the pizza kitchen for ingredients to make a fabulous veggie-filled omelet. I also have plans to do a little cleaning and organizing, and maybe start a new sewing project. Oh, and if it doesn't rain, I even thought about checking out the Buffalo County Fair which is going on today. Or, maybe I'll just nap this afternoon!!!!
Sunday, when I'm done with afternoon chores, I am going home after all! I get to go along to E's first ultrasound appointment and maybe get a look at the new grand baby-to-be! That is Monday a.m. Afterward, I'll head back here. It's a lot of driving, but I can't pass up the opportunity!
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
July 27
So hot. So humid. Hard to even think straight.
Got the CSA boxes packed somehow, though! Sweet corn, yellow squash, zucchini, cukes, cauliflower, green beans, carrots, kale and lettuce. It all looks so good! Especially now that we're getting a better variety of colors. Soon we'll be adding reds and purples, too!
After, somehow in the heat, we did some head lettuce transplants and seeded some leaf lettuce. It's supposed to rain tonight, so we wanted to get that stuff in if we could. Leaf lettuce really does not like the hot weather. In our earlier crops we could get 3 or sometimes 4 cuttings from it. The last few we've done we'll only get one before it just wilts in the heat. But, the CSA members love it, and want it. So we plant it, all summer long. When the weather starts to cool, it will be happier out there too, just like us!
Hopefully, it will be cooler tomorrow!
Got the CSA boxes packed somehow, though! Sweet corn, yellow squash, zucchini, cukes, cauliflower, green beans, carrots, kale and lettuce. It all looks so good! Especially now that we're getting a better variety of colors. Soon we'll be adding reds and purples, too!
After, somehow in the heat, we did some head lettuce transplants and seeded some leaf lettuce. It's supposed to rain tonight, so we wanted to get that stuff in if we could. Leaf lettuce really does not like the hot weather. In our earlier crops we could get 3 or sometimes 4 cuttings from it. The last few we've done we'll only get one before it just wilts in the heat. But, the CSA members love it, and want it. So we plant it, all summer long. When the weather starts to cool, it will be happier out there too, just like us!
Hopefully, it will be cooler tomorrow!
Monday, July 26, 2010
July 26
Today felt good and productive. We harvested carrots, yellow squash, zucchini, broccoli and cucumbers. Also weeded some new broccoli rows. They are so happy now!
The broccoli we harvested was the last crop from that row. A task of mine on one of my first few days here was to plant those broccoli seeds. They have germinated, been watered and weeded, grown and been harvested. Now that area is done for the year. This the first--of many, I'm sure--full circles in the field.
Now, she will mow the broccoli row down, then till under the remaining greenery. We'll let that sit for a little while and begin to breakdown. This adds needed organic matter to the soil. Then, we'll plant a cover crop on the area (oats, clover and something called "hairy vetch" are all popular choices) and let that, along with the remains of the broccoli, re-nourish the soil over the fall and winter. In the spring, it will again be tilled and will be ready to plant.
Something other than a "brassica" will be planted there next year. That plant family (including broccoli, cauliflower, mustard seeds, kohlrabi and Brussels sprouts, to name a few) are "heavy feeders" meaning they take a lot of nutrients from the soil. The foliage from the plants as well as the cover crop she chooses will help rebuild the soil through the rest of the summer, fall and winter.
Wow. I guess I am learning stuff, huh?!?
The broccoli we harvested was the last crop from that row. A task of mine on one of my first few days here was to plant those broccoli seeds. They have germinated, been watered and weeded, grown and been harvested. Now that area is done for the year. This the first--of many, I'm sure--full circles in the field.
Now, she will mow the broccoli row down, then till under the remaining greenery. We'll let that sit for a little while and begin to breakdown. This adds needed organic matter to the soil. Then, we'll plant a cover crop on the area (oats, clover and something called "hairy vetch" are all popular choices) and let that, along with the remains of the broccoli, re-nourish the soil over the fall and winter. In the spring, it will again be tilled and will be ready to plant.
Something other than a "brassica" will be planted there next year. That plant family (including broccoli, cauliflower, mustard seeds, kohlrabi and Brussels sprouts, to name a few) are "heavy feeders" meaning they take a lot of nutrients from the soil. The foliage from the plants as well as the cover crop she chooses will help rebuild the soil through the rest of the summer, fall and winter.
Wow. I guess I am learning stuff, huh?!?
Saturday, July 24, 2010
July 24
Spending a quiet weekend at the farm.
Thursday was another unexpectedly busy pizza night. Not on the scale of other weeks (we sold 56 pizzas) but it had been pouring rain all day (ended up with 4" total) so we weren't planning on many people. One more set of hands in the kitchen would have been nice (she told one of our helpers that they didn't need to come in because we were so sure it would be slow), but we kept up ok.
Because the pizzas are cooked one at a time, the kitchen only needs to be 1 or 2 pizzas ahead of the oven. In fact, if the dough sits out too long with all the ingredients on it (especially if the kitchen is hot) it gets really "crabby" we like to say. It sticks to the counter and the peel (the big flat spatula that they get moved around with), and is very difficult to work with. I've had to remind myself of all that many times. Just because there's a big stack of orders waiting to be made, as long as we're staying ahead of the oven, it's all good.
During all the rain before Pizza Night, we got a lesson in different preserving methods. We made 2 2-gallon jars of refrigerator pickles (just the pickling cucumbers, dill, garlic and onion, soaked in a brine and stored in the fridge), 10 quarts of spiced peaches (peaches in a simple syrup with ginger and cinnamon) processed in a hot water bath, and 20 quarts of green beans (with a touch of salt, then covered with boiling water) processed with a pressure canner. I've always wanted to do more canning and preserving but I've never had the volume of produce I felt I needed to justify the time.
Friday was a little tough on me. After a full day Thursday (only a couple of short "breaks" between chores at 7:30 a.m. until cleanup was done in the pizza kitchen at 9:00 p.m.) I was so tired. Even getting a little later start didn't help much. And, of course, it was hot and humid and the fields were very muddy. Plus, my weeding buddy, C, left early for the weekend so I was tackling some newer squash plants by myself. H took pity on me, though, and we finished up a little early!
I'm basically being a lazy bum today, which is kinda nice! I've been reading and working on some sewing projects. There may even be a nap in the near future! Just trying to re-charge my batteries so I can face the rest of the squash on Monday!
Thursday was another unexpectedly busy pizza night. Not on the scale of other weeks (we sold 56 pizzas) but it had been pouring rain all day (ended up with 4" total) so we weren't planning on many people. One more set of hands in the kitchen would have been nice (she told one of our helpers that they didn't need to come in because we were so sure it would be slow), but we kept up ok.
Because the pizzas are cooked one at a time, the kitchen only needs to be 1 or 2 pizzas ahead of the oven. In fact, if the dough sits out too long with all the ingredients on it (especially if the kitchen is hot) it gets really "crabby" we like to say. It sticks to the counter and the peel (the big flat spatula that they get moved around with), and is very difficult to work with. I've had to remind myself of all that many times. Just because there's a big stack of orders waiting to be made, as long as we're staying ahead of the oven, it's all good.
During all the rain before Pizza Night, we got a lesson in different preserving methods. We made 2 2-gallon jars of refrigerator pickles (just the pickling cucumbers, dill, garlic and onion, soaked in a brine and stored in the fridge), 10 quarts of spiced peaches (peaches in a simple syrup with ginger and cinnamon) processed in a hot water bath, and 20 quarts of green beans (with a touch of salt, then covered with boiling water) processed with a pressure canner. I've always wanted to do more canning and preserving but I've never had the volume of produce I felt I needed to justify the time.
Friday was a little tough on me. After a full day Thursday (only a couple of short "breaks" between chores at 7:30 a.m. until cleanup was done in the pizza kitchen at 9:00 p.m.) I was so tired. Even getting a little later start didn't help much. And, of course, it was hot and humid and the fields were very muddy. Plus, my weeding buddy, C, left early for the weekend so I was tackling some newer squash plants by myself. H took pity on me, though, and we finished up a little early!
I'm basically being a lazy bum today, which is kinda nice! I've been reading and working on some sewing projects. There may even be a nap in the near future! Just trying to re-charge my batteries so I can face the rest of the squash on Monday!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
July 21
Field day, today. Harvested beans (80-some pounds), and squash (can't remember how many....a lot), then lunch, then weeding broccoli. Hot, sweaty and dirty. But great conversations among the plants! Weird, huh?
Tonight for dinner I made ham, steamed broccoli and carrots, and stuffed squash blossoms. They were good! It's the actual flower from the squash plants. I did both zucchini and yellow squash, but they tasted the same. I stuffed them with ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, an egg yolk, and just a touch of salt. Then, dipped the blossom into a batter of flour, water and more Parmesan and fried them. Ooh la la!!! I had a tomato sauce along side to dip them in, but it was a little over-powering for the subtle taste of the blossoms. They tasted good together, but the blossoms by themselves were good, too.
Big news for the farm: Midwest Living Magazine will be coming out on Pizza Night next week to do a story!!!! Lots of little maintenance/beautification projects just got bumped to the top of the to-do list!!! Not sure how they heard of the farm, but we're all excited! Just need to make sure we're showered before the photographer gets here!!!
Tonight for dinner I made ham, steamed broccoli and carrots, and stuffed squash blossoms. They were good! It's the actual flower from the squash plants. I did both zucchini and yellow squash, but they tasted the same. I stuffed them with ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, an egg yolk, and just a touch of salt. Then, dipped the blossom into a batter of flour, water and more Parmesan and fried them. Ooh la la!!! I had a tomato sauce along side to dip them in, but it was a little over-powering for the subtle taste of the blossoms. They tasted good together, but the blossoms by themselves were good, too.
Big news for the farm: Midwest Living Magazine will be coming out on Pizza Night next week to do a story!!!! Lots of little maintenance/beautification projects just got bumped to the top of the to-do list!!! Not sure how they heard of the farm, but we're all excited! Just need to make sure we're showered before the photographer gets here!!!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
July 20
Wow. Is it really July 20th? That is so hard to believe.
Anyway, today, like the last 7 Tuesdays (also hard to believe!) was CSA packing day. We were able to do quite a bit of the harvesting earlier, so it went pretty quickly considering what was packed in the boxes.
Zucchini, yellow squash, kale, green beans, carrots, lettuce, cukes (for the full-shares only this week), broccoli, and the surprise star of the box....SWEET CORN!!!! (It was a surprise because she didn't realize there was so much ready to pick. Her dad came over with a sample cooler-full--right before lunch....gee, what are we going to do with that!?!?!?--and said he'd help harvest it if she wanted it today.)
It all looked so beautiful and delicious!
The boxes that get picked up in the town of Alma were brought to their site today. The rest will go tomorrow to the towns of Fountain City, Trempeleau, Holmen and Winona.
There was just so much food. It blows my mind a little. 66 lbs each of carrots, green beans and broccoli, 68 large handful-sized bunches of kale, 294 ears of corn, 176 each of yellow squash and zucchini, and almost 40 pounds of leaf lettuce. Can you imagine 40 pounds of leaf lettuce looks like? Or 300 ears of corn?
We are having a stir-fry tonight for dinner. Can't wait to see what "leftovers" make into the pan!!!
Anyway, today, like the last 7 Tuesdays (also hard to believe!) was CSA packing day. We were able to do quite a bit of the harvesting earlier, so it went pretty quickly considering what was packed in the boxes.
Zucchini, yellow squash, kale, green beans, carrots, lettuce, cukes (for the full-shares only this week), broccoli, and the surprise star of the box....SWEET CORN!!!! (It was a surprise because she didn't realize there was so much ready to pick. Her dad came over with a sample cooler-full--right before lunch....gee, what are we going to do with that!?!?!?--and said he'd help harvest it if she wanted it today.)
It all looked so beautiful and delicious!
The boxes that get picked up in the town of Alma were brought to their site today. The rest will go tomorrow to the towns of Fountain City, Trempeleau, Holmen and Winona.
There was just so much food. It blows my mind a little. 66 lbs each of carrots, green beans and broccoli, 68 large handful-sized bunches of kale, 294 ears of corn, 176 each of yellow squash and zucchini, and almost 40 pounds of leaf lettuce. Can you imagine 40 pounds of leaf lettuce looks like? Or 300 ears of corn?
We are having a stir-fry tonight for dinner. Can't wait to see what "leftovers" make into the pan!!!
Monday, July 19, 2010
July 19
Time flies, eh?
Pizza on Thursday was good. 90+ pies sold! I'm having trouble remembering exactly what we did on Friday. I know there was winter squash involved, and lots & lots of tall, stubborn weeds. Sigh. Ah, yes. It's coming back to me now....
Went home for the weekend--maybe my last road trip until August 6th?!?! Yikes. Always anxious to get out at a decent time on Fridays, so no time to blog.
Today, it was back to the winter squash. It is all very happy now, and with the biggest of the weeds gone, it will hold its own against anything new just fine. We also got a jump on tomorrow's CSA tasks by harvesting the carrots we'll need. We dug up 112 lbs, actually, which I think is a little more than we'll need. Instead of washing them with just the sprayer on the hose, on a plastic table (which got a soaking wet) we laid the carrots out on a big screen stapled to a wooden frame and washed them with the pressure washer! Took about 1/4 of the time with very minimal splashing! It was awesome!
Thanks for following along, everyone! I love you all!
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