Windy Business!

Whew wee. The trees are dancing this morning as strong gusts of wind roll through. The wind makes me feel a little crazy but hopefully it brings rain/snow in the coming days.

Spring is officially here and has excitement levels very high. The to do lists are growing by the day and I can feel the busyness of the season coming. As soon as we turn the field in Montrose its off to the races. The soil has really been holding onto moisture so once it dries out a little we will get in there and start working. 

We are adding a few new experiments this season and taking our first stab at growing grain! I am very interested in ancient and unique grains and will be planting several varieties of wheat, barley, amaranth, oats, rye, quinoa etc. If all goes well we will have a barn dance and threshing party in the fall. Who's in?! 

The onion starts in the greenhouse are doing well and starting to fill out a bit. Send them a little love. Grow onions grow! We plan to start transplanting these in mid April. Only a short few weeks away. Wowza.

Ok. I'm off to seed edible flowers (pansies, nasturtiums, calendula) and start repotting peppers.

Throwing love and kisses into the wind. Hope they find somebody and brighten their day. 

Feels like Spring!

The warm sunshine on my face and birds singing sweet songs in the early morning hours are stirring daydreams of the warmer months to come. The snow is melting in the gardens and cover crops are growing. I know it is not Spring just yet, but it sure does feel like it! And this feeling of Spring has me overly excited, I literally caught myself skipping to the garden this morning. 

Onions, leeks and shallots are all up and growing. We seeded the first round of peppers, eggplant, and yes, heirloom tomatoes this week. Mmmmm I am already anxious for the first of many tomatoes. Warm off the vine, chopped up in spicy salsa, on a BLT, tomato pie! Slow down, slow down... it is still February. 

In any event, I have updated the CSA Page and invite you to take a moment and read through our plan for the 2014 season. We are expanding the CSA this season and would love you to join us in our third year of growing delicious, beautiful and truly nourishing produce. Growing food and being outside every day feeds my soul, and it's so very rewarding to then feed so many close friends and families in the area.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, I love to talk about food. Growing, harvesting, cooking, preserving, and eating food. But I warn you... my enthusiasm and passion can be contagious, so be careful.   

In addition to growing a large variety of fruits and vegetables, we are spending time in the kitchen this season. We will be baking sourdough breads, pies, tarts and pastries. I have always had a sweet tooth, but sourdough has become my latest obsession. And because I think things I am passionate about should be shared, we are offering a Bread Share this season for all the bread lovers out there! The loaves will vary from week to week (plain, seeded, rosemary garlic, etc) and will always be made with organic ingredients. 

Cheers to doing what you love! 

Sending hugs and smiles
Mindy

   

Happy Dance

Well hello there snow! Oh how I have missed you and your magical white fluffiness. After several weeks of sunshine and warm days here, it was wonderful to wake up to over a foot of fresh snow on Friday. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning… my eyes lit up and sparkled with excitement. The morning was filled with constant smiles and happy dance parties… over coffee, while shoveling snow, and while baking up a storm in the kitchen. Oh yes. Snow, you make me happy. Oh so happy. 

As you can see above, the path to the garden is as beautiful as ever!

And the greenhouses are looking more like igloos at the moment. The plan is to seed onions in one of these houses soon, so the beds inside will be amended and prepped this weekend. Mmmm I am anxious to get my hands in the soil, but I want to sneak in a couple ski days first!

My mind has completely switched into farm planning mode. I am drafting planting calendars, mapping the gardens and fantasizing about the growing season. My dreams are already being overrun by vegetables, sweet peppers in particular. We do have quite the ongoing love affair. What are you dreaming about on these charming winter nights?

Here is a teaser of the beauty to come. Enjoy this lovely weather and throw in a happy dance for good measure! 

Winter Wonderland

Hello Everyone, 

I hope your holidays were wonderful and that you are enjoying winter! Wishing you all a beautiful, fun and fulfilling 2014!

It feels like ages since I posted an update here. Currently the garden is tucked in, and resting under a thick, white blanket of snow.

I on the other hand am not so good at resting. It makes me antsy. So, I am busy planning, brainstorming and dreaming about the upcoming season. So many ideas are churning and I look forward to sharing them with you soon.

Seed catalogs are arriving in the mail daily and making me so very anxious and excited for the growing season to arrive. 

I had a funny dream the other night. In said dream, it felt like I blinked and it was suddenly May 1st. I had been so busy and distracted that I had completely forgot to seed my veggie starts and did not have anything ready to transplant! I woke up in a bit of a panic and was delighted to realize it was January 3rd, not May 1st. Whew! Note to self, draft seed starting calendar ASAP. 

Alliums (onions, leeks, shallots) will all be seeded very soon. We are hoping to experiment with seeding some of these in the greenhouse beds, letting them grow until April/May, at which time we will dig them up to transplant outside and make room for peppers and tomatoes in the Spring. I love experiments! 

CSA Members, please let me know if you have any special requests this year. Did I miss a vegetable that you would have loved to see in the shares last season? Comment below or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you. 

Have a lovely day!

Garlic Planting

We tackled a few fall garden tasks in the past week, and the most exciting of those was planting garlic! A friend came up on Wednesday and we planted several garlic varieties and about 25 pounds worth, which came to just over 1000 cloves. Woot woot! We made sure to give the plants generous spacing and mulched the freshly planted beds with a think layer of straw. Beautiful! Hopefully each clove planted grows into a gorgeous bulb for harvesting in July. Oh my, the anticipation of next season has already begun! 

We are also spending time putting beds to rest, which basically entails pulling up the crops that are past their prime, adding compost and covering the beds with straw or leaves for the winter. Basically, tucking the soil and all it's goodness in underneath a think blanket, before winter arrives.

There are a few crops still growing (slowly) in the garden and we are harvesting a bit today for a pick-up in the Town of Ridgway tomorrow, Saturday, October 26th. We should have a limited supply of carrots, head lettuce, kale, turnips, bok choy, leeks, potatoes and tomatoes. Yum! 

CSA Harvest - Week 18

Winter made a very real appearance last week. I went to bed Thursday evening thinking there might be a dusting of snow in the morning. Well, I woke up to find 6+ inches! Wow. I was surprised to say the least. 

I may have grumbled for a few minutes while I searched for my snow boots and came up with a game plan. Then, the sky started to light up and I realized just how magical it was outside. I spent about an hour sweeping the snow off my beds covered with hoops and fabric before running off to the Ridgway Farmer's Market. The snow load was so wet and heavy that it bent some of the hoops, and smooshed the crops underneath. Luckily, most of those crops have bounced back after a few days of sunshine. 

Well, here we are. It's October 9th and the last CSA pick-up of the season. The past 18 weeks flew by quickly didn't they? I hope you have all enjoyed the fresh produce and discovered new vegetables and recipes along the way. 

This week's CSA Share includes the following:

Potatoes
Winter Squash
Carrots
Kohlrabi
Head Lettuce
Leeks
Cauliflower
Bok Choy
Green Tomatoes

The harvests are wrapping up but we are busy in the garden putting beds to rest, seeding cover crops and planning for next year. The garlic planting will commence in the next few weeks and come November we should be ready to take a rest ourselves. 

Thank you so much for being a part of the CSA this season! I truly enjoyed growing food for you all and hope to do so again next year. 

I will be sending out a survey in the coming weeks and would love your feedback. 

Have a beautiful day! 

CSA Harvest - Week 17

The sun is just about to rise over the mountains and start warming up the cool air. We are moving a bit slower at the farm these days, the mornings are lazier and I am convinced it's the colder temperatures. 

The wild winds last week brought in our first taste of cold cold weather. On Friday evening the temperatures dropped down to 22 degrees, I knew it was coming but I wasn't prepared to feel temps that low! Brr. Down jackets, long underwear, winter hats and mittens all came out of my closet. 

We had a late evening on Friday harvesting like mad and covering crops up with fabric. We lost the tomatoes and some of the peppers but tis the season. With that in mind, this is the last week of tomatoes, please savor them! The CSA Share is beautiful this week and includes the following:

Heirloom Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Peppers
Carrots
Winter Squash
Potatoes
Leeks
Salad Greens
Herbs: Cilantro, Sage or Mint

I look forward to seeing everyone this afternoon. 

Have a beautiful day!

CSA Harvest - Week 16

Good morning, 

It is officially Fall and the evening temperatures have been quite cool the last few nights. We had a pretty hard frost on the farm early Tuesday morning, which I will say surprised me a bit. The cabbages and carrot tops were quite icy and the cucumbers and squash have died back. I guess I can no longer ignore the fact that it's almost October... and snow is right around the corner. The freshly snow capped mountains sure are looking gorgeous! 

So, the hot crops are on their way out but we still have a few to harvest and share this week.

This week's CSA Share includes the following:

Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Peppers (sweet and hot)
Carrots
Green Onions
Kale
Salad Greens
Bok Choy
Tomatillos
Melons
Herbs: Cilantro, Parsley or Sage

CSA Harvest - Week 15

Hello Everyone,

An early morning rainbow is shining behind the house as I type. Mmm, what a beautiful surprise from the sky this morning.

The rainy days over the weekend sent me into the kitchen to preserve some of the bounty. Pickles, relish, hot pepper jelly, pasta sauce, hot sauce and dilly beans are all freshly canned and lined up in the pantry. 

This week's CSA Share includes the following:

Heirloom Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Summer Squash
Peppers
Beans (last week of these)
Tomatillos or Ground Cherries
Head Lettuce
Spinach or Kale
Potatoes or Cauliflower
Carrots or Beets
Onions or Green Onions
Herbs: Cilantro, Mint or Parsley

CSA Harvest - Week 14

Good morning,

I hope everyone has been enjoying the rain. Woo wee, the constant rain really has been unbelievable and I cannot recall a September ever being so wet. We received over 2 inches at the farm in the past week and the gardens and forest seem to be enjoying all the moisture.

It did make for a muddy harvest yesterday but I secretly enjoyed it.  

The CSA Shares this week included the following produce:

Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Peppers
Cucumbers
Summer Squash
Green Beans
Ground Cherries or Tomatillos
Melon(s)
Head Lettuce
Spinach or Arugula
Beets
Cilantro
Onion


The sun came out yesterday as I was delivering the CSA Shares and it was magical. Oh how I have missed the sunshine!  

Enjoy the bountiful harvests! They should continue until a frost comes and soon the shares will include fall crops. Think potatoes, leeks and winter squash.