CSA Harvest - Week #10

Good morning, 

I hope everybody enjoyed the cloud cover and rain last week. Mmmmmm, it was so lovely and much needed.  Most of our rain arrived on Thursday night and Friday night. I love falling asleep to the sound of rain. It made for a muddy and slower weekend here, which felt wonderful.

Harvest season is here folks.  Something that needs picked pretty much every day... the tomatoes, zucchini and beans are currently keeping us busy. 

Oh tomatoes, yours truly is always paranoid about them. I am constantly worried they're going to get a disease of some sort and die. So up until the point where we are actually harvesting ripe tomatoes I look at them with concern, shout at them to grow 'big and strong' and doubt that they will produce. But here we are, the tomatoes are ripening and need harvested every other day. Now lets just hope the trellis is strong enough to hold them up! Oh the taste of Summer is so so good. Enjoy the tomatoes! And I'll try to worry about them less in the future... ;)

We're planting for the Fall here and the late brassicas are in. Kale, collards, mustards, bok choy and napa cabbage were transplanted on Monday afternoon along with a round of head lettuce. They look so tiny compared to everything else growing in the field... 



Harvest details for CSA Week #10:
Collards
Swiss Chard
Carrots
Beets
Scallions
Green Beans
Broccoli
Zucchini
Jalapeños
Beaver Dam Pepper
Heirloom Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Garlic
Cilantro
Dill

CSA Harvest - Week #9

Rain drops are falling... which has your farmers letting out a big sigh of relief. The heat has been pounding down on us for weeks now and nothing is more welcome at this very moment then a few days of rain. Wahoo! They're calling for a couple inches of precipitation by the end of the week, which the farm will absolutely LOVE.  Most of the field is weeded, so I'm hoping it rains, we blink and suddenly everything doubles in size. Magic!

Mike worked the former garlic field this week and we're going to try a few successions of head lettuce along with some late Fall brassicas.We seeded the first round of starts a few weeks ago and they're just about ready to go in the ground. 

I'm happy to report that the tomatoes took their sweet time but they're on and harvests should increase over the next couple weeks. I have my solid 5 favorite heirloom varieties that I grow every season, along with a few trials to make sure I'm not missing something amazing. And, I think we have a contender to keep in the rotation this year. It's a variety called Katja that I got from Adaptive Seeds in Oregon. It's an early (first to ripen this season!), beautiful pink slicer with wonderful flavor. Loving it.

Tomato hornworms are gorgeous as ever and abundant this year. They were on the outside tomatoes early and recently I've been finding a lot in the greenhouse, chomping away, which turns every tomato harvest into a tracking mission.

We picked the first green beans and pickling cucumbers on Monday morning and will harvest more today... purple and yellow beans should be shortly behind. Ooo ooo ooo! The slicing cucumbers are always a little bit slower and we should have those in the shares in the next week or so. And, I did a trial planting of peppers outside, mostly because I started a few too many and ran out of space in the greenhouse but also because this is my first season growing food in Mancos and I'm was curious how they would do. And so far, they're doing great. If anything has loved the heat this season has brought, it's the peppers. We harvested the first round of jalapeños this week and they're in your CSA shares. The heat on them seems to vary though, so be cautious if you're not a fan.

The garlic has been hanging in the barn curing for the past few weeks and I think it's almost ready to cut down and sort. Maybe the perfect project for a rainy day... 

Ok, onto the harvest details for CSA Harvest - Week #9:

Kale
Chard or Mustard Greens
Carrots
Beets
Red Cabbage
Kohlrabi
Heirloom Tomato
Cherry Tomatoes
Pepper
Jalapeños
Zucchinis
Cilantro
Dill
Garlic

Have a great day! See you all this afternoon for a rainy CSA pickup. 

CSA Harvest - Week 8

Good morning,

How is it already the last week of July?! Eek. Summer slow down and stay a while... please.

We have been blessed with clouds the last couple days which have made for wonderful weeding and harvesting conditions. And I am happy to report it feels like we're starting to catch up on projects around here. The field is mostly weeded, mostly being the key word there. We're going to make a final push to tackle a few sections in the coming days as it looks like next week rain arrives, fingers crossed! We could use a couple rainy days... aka time in the kitchen! 

We set up trellis for a row of pole beans on Monday, woohoo! Climbing beans are gorgeous... we seeded Rattlesnakes Beans, which are on of my favorites for fresh eating and Borlotto Gaston, an Italian cranberry bean that is gorgeous, delicious, meaty and huge. I grew them for the first time last season and fell in love. Grow beauties grow!

Brassicas are so beautiful! I cannot get enough... the kale is growing like mad and these storage kohlrabi are, well, enormous. Enjoy the broccoli this week, I squealed with excitement while harvesting it. The cauliflower is just starting to form heads, they're about golf ball size at the moment. 

We'll be seeding the next round of greens tomorrow, salad greens, arugula, mustard greens, lettuce trays, etc. FYI, in the weeding madness I think we missed a salad mix and arugula seeding so those may not be in the shares over the next couple weeks but more are on the way. 

Cherry tomatoes are on and they taste like summer! I harvested a few heirlooms this week too... so we should be enjoying those in no time. Wahoo! 

OK, onto the harvest details, CSA Harvest - Week #8:
Salad Greens
Kale
Chard
Carrots
Beets
Scallions
Broccoli
Cabbage
Zucchini
Cherry Tomatoes!
Cilantro
Basil
Garlic

Have a wonderful day! See you all this afternoon 

Downpour!!

Good morning, 

I slept in a little bit and right as I was pouring a cup of coffee this water color of a sunrise began to unfold. So I ran outside in PJs, spilling coffee all over the place to get a couple photos and enjoy the gorgeous light. Mmmmm hmmm.

AND, IT RAINED!!

We have been asking and hoping for rain for weeks and on Monday evening a storm rolled through and it rained quite a bit and made for a rather muddy harvest morning yesterday, which I loved. The air was cool, the plants were happy and clouds moved in and out.

And last night... around 9:30 or 10 thunder clouds rolled in and it poured! The skies opened up and dropped a heavy and steady rain for an hour or so and then it continued to rain more throughout the night. Aaaahh, so wonderful. The ground is soaked, the plants love it and I am about to put on my rain (err mud) boots to finish up a few harvest items this morning before heading your way. 

We have been weeding fools around here but I think we're about to get a handle on them, fingers crossed.

We finished pulling and hanging the last of the garlic and french shallots on Friday, wahoo! And we turned in a lot of the early spring beds that were bolting and past their prime and I seeded the next round of greens.

The zucchini and cucumbers are blooming, so we should have those in the shares very soon and the cherry tomatoes are oh so close. In the next week or two you will be enjoying these little jewels! 


We are already 7 weeks in to the CSA Season, which means Summer is flying by a little too fast. I will be sending out details and reminding people to sign up for the Fall CSA next week. Yes, it's middle of Summer but this girl is thinking about and planning Fall harvests. Always looking forward.



This week's share includes the following:
Salad Greens
Arugula
Lacinato Kale
Chard
Cilantro
Carrots
Beets
Kohlrabi
Scallions
Broccoli
Peas (probably the last of the season)

See everybody this afternoon, probably in rain gear! 

CSA Harvest - Week #6

Good morning! 

Coffee and the calm of this early morning are heavenly. Mmmm, I'm writing my to-do list for the day and will head outside shortly to finish this week's CSA Harvest. CSA Members, thank you for joining us this season! I'm happy to report this has been our most bountiful start to a season yet and looking out at the field I think that will continue as the season progresses. I hope you're finding inspiration in the kitchen to use up all those greens and veggies that you're maybe not so familiar with. 

We spent a couple days harvesting and hanging garlic this week. All of the softnecks are out of the field and hung and most of the hard necks are as well. Woohoo!

We have had a couple amazing friends helping us out at the farm and we're starting to get a handle on the weeds (fingers crossed that doesn't change as soon as I state it!). The brassicas are weeded and huge so hopefully they'll take over and be set for the season. 

The zucchini are weeded and flowering and beans are right behind them. Next up... weeding and thinning the beets, carrots and parsnip. 

The cherry tomatoes are close, I have found a few ready for snacking so we should be harvesting these to share in no time. 

We seeded a round of fall brassicas last week and they're already up and growing. Yes, it's the middle of Summer but we're already thinking about Fall and the many things we want to have available for our Fall CSA. 

Ok, on to the harvest details for Week #6:


Salad Greens
Head Lettuce
Arugula
Kale
Chard
Kohlrabi
Carrots
Scallions
Peas
Basil
Cilantro
Pepper! (Green bell of Beaver Dam **my favorite)

CSA Harvest - Week #5

Hello there!

I hope everybody had a wonderful Fourth of July! We spent most of the day weeding... and then visited with friends and watched fireworks in Mancos. 

It's July and dragonflies are everywhere. I just finished up harvest and as I walked back from our wash station there were gorgeous dragonflies flying every which direction and then a beautiful yellow butterfly flew right in front of my face. It was good reminder to slow down... 

Friday and Saturday were lovely and brought cool temps, low clouds and RAIN. And I couldn't have been happier. I used the stormy weather effectively and spent most of Friday in the greenhouse pruning and trellising tomatoes, which was much over due. Now they're all trim and have some direction. Happy to report they're setting lots of fruit and are covered with flowers. Hoping we are all enjoying tomatoes by the end of the month. Tick tock, tick tock. 

We have been a couple weeding fools around here. The rain was amazing, and I think the weeds are in agreement as it feels like they doubled in size overnight. So we're tackling one section at a time and hoping the crops begin to take over choke the weeds out a little. 

Potato block is blooming! Cabbage heads are forming. 

Garlic harvest starts tomorrow afternoon! 

This week's CSA share includes:
Head Lettuce
Salad Greens
Mustard Greens
Kale
Chard
Bok Choy
Carrots
Scallions
Snow or Snap Peas
Cilantro
Basil

CSA Harvest - Week #4

Hello Everyone, 

It's a beautiful Summer morning here. I was out early today and as the sun was rose our neighbor's sheep were all entering the field and excited to scratch their backs on the side roll, so funny. 


I'm happy to see clouds, a chance of rain and a little cool off in the forecast. It is much needed! I think I forget how demanding June is every year. The days are long, the temperatures climb high, the to do lists are endless and trying to determine what to prioritize first is tricky as everything is time sensitive. We found ourselves working a few too many hours this week and I may have had a couple melt downs. Whew! But it's Wednesday, the harvest is complete and I'll be heading to Telluride this afternoon with produce for our wonderful CSA Members. Yes! 

Everything is growing beautifully and so fast right now. It's amazing. I'm really excited about our onions and potatoes this season. Mike gave the potatoes a second hilling yesterday. Grow lovelies grow! 

We spent most of the week weeding and had a few rescue missions. The beets and carrots were completely swallowed by thistle and bindweed, but not any more! 

I discovered the first tomato horn worm last night... seems a bit early? I was out weeding the latest succession of greens when I looked over at the tomatoes and noticed a couple leaves were chomped... and right next to them was this little trouble maker!

Harvest details for Week #4:
Head Lettuce

Bok Choy
Salad Greens
Arugula
Kale (new variety I'm trying, Madeley, let us know what you think!)
Chard
Carrots
Turnips
Snow Peas
Snap Peas
Cilantro
Garlic Scapes

Have a wonderful day and I will see you all soon!

Heat Wave

Hello Everyone! 

It's officially Summer! And the early mornings and late evenings are oh so beautiful and perfect. I love being able to walk outside at 5:30 with a cup of coffee and wander through the garden before the sunrises. 

The middle of the day is a different story though, the heat this week has been intense. I think we've been in the mid 90s for a few days... and that's a little too hot for this farmer! 

Mike has been great about keeping things irrigated so the veggies are growing FAST. I think they're loving the heat. The tomatoes are starting to load up with fruit, whoop whoop! 

We harvested quite a few snap peas this week and the snow peas are just getting started. Fava beans are sizing up and peppers are forming. Grow veggies grow! 


Weeding has been our main focus this week. We have some amazing friends helping us, thanks guys! 

OK, I'm going to leave you with harvest details for the week and this beautiful photo of a Two Tailed Swallowtail butterfly... 

Head Lettuce

Salad Greens

Arugula

Kale

Chard

Cilantro

Basil

Carrots

Turnips

Garlic Scapes

Snap Peas!

CSA Harvest - Week #2

Good morning, 

It has already been a week since our last harvest, time is flying by. It was so wonderful to see all the old and new CSA Members last week! Seeing you all and you're excitement about the produce made my week and reminded me why I'm doing this, to feed people the best produce we can grow. Thanks for being so wonderful and supporting our farm and locally grown food. I'm excited to have you with us this season!

I spent Friday morning trellising tomatoes and it felt so good. They have been growing quickly and had turned into these wild bushes that were falling all over the place, now their trimmed and standing up straight. Thinking in a month or so we'll have walls of tomatoes. Grow beauties grow!

The snap peas have started producing, and they taste like candy. I'm hoping we'll have enough for the CSA next week. 

We enjoyed a few overcast mornings that we heavenly. Perfect weather for weeding and I kept catching myself letting out these appreciative sighs and mmmm noises. Yea clouds! And on Monday afternoon we had thunderstorms and some rain, which felt amazing. 

It looks like a heat wave is coming though, they're saying we're going to be in the 90s this weekend... eek! 

This week's share will include:

Spinach

Salad Greens

Mustard Greens

Kale
Head Lettuce

Carrots

Beets

Turnips

Garlic Scapes

Cilantro

Have a beautiful day! 

Harvest Time

Wow! It's been a hot couple of days around here... I think the veggies are handling the heat better than I am. 

We're just about planted here, minus a second round of beets and carrots scheduled for Sunday and successions of various greens throughout the season. We seeded the winter squash and pole beans on Tuesday, so now it's time to just irrigate, weed and harvest. And... I set up the tomato trellis this morning and we need prune those beauties! They're growing like weeds, flowering and about to set fruit.

I set up the pea trellis a few days ago and was working next to the blooming fava beans, the smell was intoxicating and the buzzing of bees was beautiful. 

Wednesday marked the first CSA Harvest of the season. Wahoo! It felt really good to harvest and I loved seeing all of our CSA Members. This week's share included the following:

Spinach

Salad Greens

Baby Kale

Mustard Mix

Carrots

Turnips

Green Garlic

Herbs (Tarragon, Oregano or Lemon Balm)

Asparagus from Banga's Farm next door

Have a great day!