CSA Harvest - Week #17

Good morning! 

Wow. Where did September go? I feel like Labor Day Weekend just happened... Mmmm, savor these last few days of September, the perfect weather and those incredible colors. I'm excited to see how much the trees have changed since I drove up last week... 

It has been nonstop harvest around here. The end of last week was cold and wet and very windy. We received a lot of rain Thursday night and Friday morning, which made everything around here pretty muddy. We had planned a big potato harvest for Sunday but after that storm the soil was too wet so we harvested turnips and carrots instead. 

The soil is still a little damp but we were able to pull more potatoes out of the ground yesterday and they'll be in your CSA Shares today. Woohoo! 

And... I should let you all know that at our farm, tomato season is over. The evenings have been getting cold, the plants were tired and about out of fruit so I decided to pull them over the weekend. Make way for December greens! By Sunday afternoon we had 5 of the 7 beds cleared, tilled and reseeded with greens. Salad, spinach, kale and mustard greens are all seeded and will be up in no time. These should be ready to harvest and be in the Fall CSA Shares by Thanksgiving... 

While we are harvesting we are analyzing and discussing how we can make things more efficient at our farm. Efficiency is key! And taking care of our bodies, as we demand so much from them on a daily basis. So we're discussing adding a new tractor to the mix along with a few smart implements... mostly to help with our weeding game. Work smarter not harder! I love these brainstorm sessions, they get me very excited about the possibilities and next year. Stay tuned! 

OK, onto the harvest details for CSA Week #17:
Salad Greens
Mustard Greens
Carrots
Beets
Potatoes
Parsley
Scallions
Garlic
Onions
Peppers (Sweet and Hot!)
Green Tomatoes

I look forward to seeing you all this afternoon! 

CSA Harvest - Week #16

Good morning,

Well, my prediction last week was right... We have had a few frosts this week, the first one during the early morning hours on Friday. It was a fairly light frost at our place but still took down the zucchini, beans, cucumbers and winter squash plants. But that's ok, it was time! The dahlias sit in a higher part of the farm and are still hanging on but I need to cut them all before the end of the week as it's supposed to get cold on Friday night. 

The evenings cool off so quickly now. As soon as the sunsets the temps drops quick, which feels good but you better have a layer or two closer by to throw on. 

We have been tackling one harvest task after another around here and enjoying the perfect weather. On Saturday we pulled the rest of the Walla Walla onions and then had an evening winter squash harvest. The Hubbards are gorgeous and there were a lot more in the field than I thought. And who doesn't love Delicata. They're all set up outside on pallets and will be curing for the next couple weeks before they find their way into the CSA Shares. 


Potatoes! Mike dug a few more beds on Sunday and with the help of a friend we sifted, sorted and got them bagged right before dark. Woohoo! 

What else... I think we got most of the red and green cabbages out of the field, cleared the collard greens, etc... and now we're (err Mike is) starting to turn the field and will be seeding cover crops in the coming week(s). Mmmm, it feels good to start closing out sections of the farm for the season. 

I'm obsessed with how good the Fall green block is looking! Kale, Collards, Chard, Bok Choy, Napa Cabbage, Head Lettuce, Mustards, Salad, Spinach and Arugula. Grow beauties! They're ready for a good weeding, which I'm hoping to get to this weekend... fingers crossed. Reminder, there are a few Fall CSA Shares remaining, sign up now to enjoy these greens and all of our storage crops til mid-December. 

Harvest details for Week #16:
Salad Greens
Mustard Greens
Kale
Tomatoes
Sweet Peppers
Hot Peppers 
Cucumber
Carrots
Turnips
Bok Choy
Herbs
Walla Walla Onion
Garlic

See you all this afternoon, have a beautiful day!

CSA Harvest - Week #15

Hello there, 

It's cool and windy this morning and I need to layer up before heading outside to finish the harvest. Mmm, the Autumnal Equinox is a week away and there is definitely a feeling of Fall in the air. We're welcoming it around here, the shorter and cooler days feel incredible and my drive to Telluride with your CSA shares is becoming more beautiful each week as the leaves begin to change. 

We harvested a few beds of potatoes this week and you'll find them in the CSA share today! A lovely mix of Yukons, Reds and Purples. And Mike spent Monday mowing the remaining potato beds so the potatoes will cure and be ready to harvest in a couple weeks. So. Many. Potatoes! 

We cleaned and bagged up all the red onions on Saturday and harvested the yellow storage onions, which sized up beautifully! It's a new variety we're trying this season so we'll see how it cures and stores. 

I made a quick trip back to Ridgway over the weekend and spent time with my family and an incredible friend. Aaahhh, so wonderful to play with my nephew, laugh with my brother and just sit, sip coffee and catch up with my parents. Home sweet home. With farming there are always endless to-do lists, which I love, but I need to be better about stopping and spending time with loved ones.

The Summer crops know Fall's a comin' and are slowing down and dying back. This week mark's the last week of beans and zucchini, and maybe cucumbers too. I have a sneaky suspicion that we could see a light frost on Thursday or Friday night... they're calling for temps in the high 30's but with the Full Moon I think it could get a little colder than predicted. We'll see?

I cannot stop checking on the Fall green block... they're growing SO fast and are ready for another weeding. I love Wednesdays and seeing all your sweet faces, but Thursday mornings are the best. I wake up and have a few days to tackle projects before I need to think about harvesting again... and this week weeding all the green beds is what I'm hoping to tackle. Wish me luck!


CSA Harvest - Week #15 includes:

Salad Greens
Kale
Heirloom Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Peppers
Beans
Beets
Potatoes
Walla Walla Onion
Garlic
Herbs

Have a beautiful day!

CSA Harvest - Week #14

Hello there, 

Here we are, it's September and crisp, cool air is beginning to embrace us on a daily basis. Mmm.... and it feels so good. 

We're getting ready to start the heavy lifting around here, and plan to start harvesting potatoes, carrots, beets, winter squash etc... later this week. 

The tomatoes are still ripening like crazy, I thought the cooler weather last week was going to slow them down for a little while but I was wrong, they're going for it and must sense Fall coming. Enjoy the heirlooms while they're here with their amazing flavors, beautiful shapes and colors. 

We enjoyed them with burrata over the weekend, and it has me craving more. I spent the weekend harvesting, weeding and catching up on a few tasks that have been on my list for a while. And even though the days are shorter, something about working sun up til sun down and the cooler air has made me incredibly hungry and I dream up the next meal while I'm completing a task... tomato soup has been on my brain and needs to happen soon! 

The Fall block of greens are rebounding nicely after last week's hail. Wahoo! They're growing right out of it and should be ready to start harvesting from in a few weeks. When I get stressed at the farm I normally buy something to help reduce the worry of whatever has me worked up, so last week I bought more row cover so I could attempt to cover these crops when future hail storms arrive and from the coming cold weather. It still needs cut to size, laid out and set up with hoops and weights... in time.


The Brussels Sprouts are looking happy and starting to fill out. I check on them a few times a week with excitement...  I think Fall is going to taste so so good. We're offering a Fall CSA again this year, and if you're aren't signed up already, check out the Fall CSA tab above and sign up ASAP. We only have a few spots left and would love for you to join us and keep your kitchen filled with fresh, seasonal produce grown on our farm. 

Ok ok, enough about Fall. Lets focus on the current moment, shall we. This week's CSA Harvest includes the following:
Salad Greens
Arugula
Red Cabbage
Carrots
Heirloom Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Bell Pepper
Jalapeños
Beans
Garlic
Walla Walla Onion
Basil

Looking forward to seeing you all this afternoon! Have a wonderful day

Oh Hail.

Beautiful morning here, the sun is shining and birds are singing. But my oh my, it has been a wet week at the farm and cooler than I would like in August... Dark clouds, thunder, pounding rains and a few hail storms have rolled through our valley this week. Hail is harsh, and luckily a lot of our farm is mostly planted in roots so the crops underground are just fine but some tender things growing above ground... the cucurbits, beans and the newly seeded and  transplanted greens for Fall harvests were tore up. Poor leaves... 

I'm hoping the greens will rebound in the next week or so... time will tell. 

Luckily some of the greens were hiding under row cover and are a-ok. So this week marks the return of salad greens and mustard mix. Enjoy! 

The tomatoes have started ripening slower with this cooler weather but are still loaded with fruit... 

The dahlias are blooming AND my experimental planting of outdoor peppers are impressing me. We have Sweet Chocolate peppers ripening... yes! Look for these as well as bells in this week's share. 






This week's harvest includes:
Salad Greens
Mustard Greens
Kale or Collards
Red Cabbage
Carrots
Turnips
Heirloom Tomatoes
Sweet Peppers
Hot Peppers
Rattlesnake Beans
Walla Walla Onion
Cucumber
Parsley
Garlic


I look forward to seeing everybody this afternoon. Have a beautiful day! 

Fall CSA

Hello Everyone, 

We have been planning and planting for the Early Bird Gardens Fall CSA since early Spring and are very excited about what we'll have to offer our Members as it gets cold and snowy in the coming months.



FALL CSA details.

Time: 10 weeks of fresh local produce (October 12th through December 14th)

Cost: $350 ($35 per week, which includes share delivery to Telluride)

Pick up: CSA shares will be available for pick-up once a week in Telluride*

*Please note, the pickup day and time may fluctuate a little bit due to the weather. 

We plan to have the following crops for the Fall CSA: 

Salad Greens	Head Lettuce	Spinach	Mustard Greens
Kale	Chard	Collards	Bok Choy
Cabbage	Beets	Turnips	Carrots
Parsnips	Rutabaga	Potatoes	Winter Squash
Herbs	Garlic	Onions	Leeks

It is important to remember as the months get colder and snow begins to fall, growing produce in our climate becomes more difficult and therefore riskier. As always, we could have crop failures but we will do our very best to grow you all the most delicious veggies we can.

This will be my first Fall/Winter growing in Mancos and I'm thinking it will be a milder than Ridgway... but we'll see? There were a few big snow storms last Fall and checking on the snow covered greenhouses (filled with greens!) that looked like igloos was pretty magical. 

The Fall months are my favorite when it comes to the harvest and the produce available. So many flavors and endless possibilities in the kitchen. The Fall CSA will provide a bounty of veggies for warm cozy meals.

Sign-up Form

Name: _________________________________________

Phone: ________________ Email: ___________________

Address: ________________________________________

____ # of Fall CSA Shares at $350 each

Total Amount Due: $_____________

Please complete and mail this form along with a check made out to Early Bird Gardens to:

Early Bird Gardens

41095 Road G

Mancos, CO 81328

There are a limited number of shares available so we recommend you sign up ASAP to reserve your spot. Once we have filled our membership for the Fall CSA we will start a waiting list and notify you if a spot becomes available. 

Please let us know if you have any questions. We look forward to growing for you! 

Thank you, 

Mindy Perkovich

Early Bird Gardens

CSA Harvest - Week #12

Good morning!

Brr, it's chilly outside, and incredibly muddy. Yesterday was pretty wet around here, it started raining at 1 o'clock and didn't let up until 6 or so. And it looks like the mountain tops got a dusting of snow. Oh my, cooler months are a coming.

But enough of that... the Summer days continue to fly by and we're trying to keep up with the harvest.  I had a long list of projects to complete on Friday and I didn't get to a single one of them as I spent the whole day harvesting... hmmm. Everytime I turned around something else needed picked. I can normally get by harvesting tomatoes every other day, but this week they demanded I check them and harvest daily. Such a wonderful and bountiful time of the year! 


We  did manage to finish weeding and thinning the rutabagas and first round of beets last week. Better late than never! They're sizing up quick with their new spacious environment and I imagine they loved all the rain yesterday.

The Fall greens are growing fast and are looking pretty good after a pass with the hula hoe. We transplanted another round of head lettuce on Monday and seeded the last round of greens outside. Wahoo! I think that calls for a dance party. We'll seed one last set of greens for the 2016 season in the greenhouse once the tomatoes and tomatillos come out at the end of September. 

We harvested the red onions on Sunday! Onions are one of the most satisfying crops to grow when they size up well, as we seeded the onions back in January (yes, January).  And it just so happens that this season, almost all of our onions have grown into huge bulbs. Success! So we pulled the reds and they're now set up outside curing. If cured properly they'll last through the cold months of winter. The walla walla onions are ready as well, they're a tasty sweet onion that is best for fresh eating. They do not store well because of the high sugar content so be sure to eat these ASAP. 

Harvest for Week 12 of the Summer CSA includes the following:
Lacinato Kale
Carrots
Beets
Heirloom Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Jalapeños
Bell Pepper
Cauliflower
Basil
Walla Walla Onion
Rattlesnake Beans - my favorite!
Zucchini
Cucumber or Shishitos Peppers
Garlic

See you all this afternoon! 

CSA Harvest - Week 11

Hello hello, 

It's dark, still and silent outside at the moment. I'm always surprised by how quickly the days begin to shorten... the sun rises much later now than it did in the middle of June. Hmmm, is that why getting out of bed early is so much harder these days...?

Tuesdays are my big harvest day but yesterday I kept getting side tracked and managed to spend most of the day doing things other than harvesting. A large round of Fall greens are now seeded! Spinach, salad, arugula and mustard greens. GROW! And the kale, lettuce, chard and collards that we transplanted last week are growing so fast. It's sort a ticking clock right now to get Fall crops planted because as the days get shorter and shorter the growth of everything will slow down tremendously.

So, since I did things other than harvest yesterday... we're going to have a busy morning here. I've made an extensive to-do list in an attempt not to forget anything and think I can get out of here on time if I stay focused :). With that sa here are the harvest details...

CSA Harvest - Week 11 includes the following:
Lacinato Kale
Chard
Carrots
Beets
Heirloom Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Jalapeños
Bell Pepper
Green Beans
Zucchini
Red Cabbage
Thai Basil
Cilantro
Dill

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.