January at the Farm AND 2018 CSA Info is Up!

Hello there Friends, 

We hope winter is treating everybody well. It's shaping up to be an odd one... and we're curious to see what the next few months will bring in the form of moisture to Southwest Colorado. We just posted the 2018 Summer CSA Details, check it out!  We are excited to offer both a Mancos CSA Share and a Telluride CSA Share this season! Registration Opens February 1st, so mark your calendars or sign up for the CSA Waiting List and we will send you a reminder email the morning registration opens. 

Winter is an interesting time at the farm. It brings time for rest and recuperation and time to catch up with family and friends. We have been spending hours at the computer, working on the 2018 financial projections, updating the CSA details, placing our seed orders, drafting the crop plan (which always changes but you need to start somewhere), reviewing our 2017 notes, ordering tractor implements, writing down our goals for the year and discussing how we can improve our systems and efficiencies at the farm as well as our work/life balance. All accompanied with many cups of coffee, pancakes, a fair amount of procrastination and compromise. 

I spend a lot of time in the winter contemplating how can we make the CSA experience even better for YOU. This is a partnership after all and we want to continue to grow this CSA Community year after year, and we hope you’ll join us in that endeavor. I will be reaching out to some of our CSA Members this month with my ideas but please contact me directly if you have some thoughts. We would love to hear from you! 

We are prepping two of the greenhouse beds this week for planting the first seeds of the 2018 season… the onions, scallions, leeks and shallots (aka the alliums)! We start these in the greenhouse beds in January, where they’ll germinate slowly but grow into stocky transplants over the next few months. In early May we will dig them out of the greenhouse beds, give them a quick trim and then transplant in the field. Here they will be weeded several times, irrigated regularly and then harvested once their tops begin to fall in September. The onions and leeks are two of the longest season crops we grow but also one of our favorites, as the majority of the meals we prepare here at the farm start with peeling an onion. 

We are starting the 2018 Seed Order today! I have been flipping through seed catalogs and getting ideas but I haven't truly dived in yet. It's time, time to start dreaming up the season, planning and hoping for bountiful harvests and taking the first step, making the crop plan and ordering the seeds! In a couple months we will be seeding early roots in the moveable houses and starting the tomatoes and peppers in the propagation house  We can hardly wait! We have our tried and true favorites for most crops, but we're always trying new varieties. Year after year we grow/trial and observe various varieties and slowly pick out the ones that perform best at our farm. Growing at 7200' in Southwest Colorado brings it's challenges and finding the varieties that thrive in this high desert climate is critical.  

If you haven’t already, check out the Mountain Roots Produce 2017 Year in Review… via our 2017 Photo Gallery! We made a compilation of our favorite photos from the season and it’s pretty amazing how much we can make happen if we put our minds together and help each other focus and troubleshoot along the way. 

We'll check back on February 1, 2018 when CSA Registration begins! Until then, review the updated 2018 Summer CSA details and contact me if you have any questions! 

Happy Monday!

Happy Holidays and Recap of the 2017 Season!

We are wrapping up the 2017 season this week! It is hard to grasp how fast this year has flown by, as it feels like just yesterday I was whispering sweet things to the tomatoes, encouraging them to ripen. I recently scanned through our photos from the year and am overwhelmed with satisfaction when I look at how much we grew this year and how much we accomplished.

2017 will go down as the 'Year of Infrastructure' at our farm. We put up the game fence, built a prop house and built two moveable greenhouses in the spring. Then in August, right when the nonstop harvests were starting to kick in, we began the construction of our wash/pack/storage warehouse. No wonder a recurring comment this season was ‘can we just farm next year…?’. We may have but a few too many projects on our list this year, but we did it with the help and support of our friends and family members, whom we cannot thank enough!  And now we're set up for some serious organization and streamlining in 2018! 

We are excited and ready for the slow down of the next couple months. Our bodies and minds will appreciate this time to rest and recuperate from the growing season. Next month we will begin to reflect on the 2017 season and contemplate how to improve our systems for the upcoming year. Now that we have all of the infrastructure in place, we have determined that our main focus in 2018 is weed management. We are purchasing a new cultivation tractor from friends down the road and a couple implements for this tractor that will help us manage the weeds in a more timely and mechanized fashion - aka less time weeding by hand. Woohoo!

As many of you know, it's incredibly dry in Southwest Colorado. We haven't received a real snow storm as of yet... and it's December 18th?! This is alarming and very worrisome. 

As farmers in this part of the country, we rely on snowpack for our irrigation water come spring. Currently there is very little, or no snowpack up high so... we're patiently waiting and trying not to freak out. We have talked about our 'drought plan' for next season if that is needed... but hopefully enough moisture falls before Spring so we do not have to initiate those plans. Oh how I want to see the fields full of lush cover crops, endless rows or brassicas, glowing lines of carrots, and oh so many rows of onions and potatoes. We're grateful to be on this beautiful piece of land and we will practice patience and develop our plans based on what Mother Nature provides. It's a good reminder for all of us that she's in control. 

We delivered the final Fall CSA Share to our Telluride CSA Members last week! Our 2017 CSA Season was our best yet and we want to thank all of our wonderful CSA Members! We couldn't have asked for a better CSA Community this year, you're support, encouragement and enthusiasm throughout the season was amazing. THANK YOU so much for supporting us and our farm this season! Thank you for being committed to local agriculture and for choosing to join our CSA. It was such a pleasure to grow produce for you all this season and we hope we can do it for many years to come. Below is a wrap up of the last five harvests, we're pretty excited about the variety we were able to provide to both our Summer and Fall CSA Members this season. Vegetables are a source of nourishment and so incredibly beautiful, and it's satisfying to help others discover, or re-discover, this and get excited to step back into their kitchen and commit to spending time preparing meals for themselves and their families. We are excited to continue to grow our CSA Community and hope you will join us again next season! 

Mark your calendars, we will open Registration for the 2018 Mountain Roots Produce CSA on Thursday, February 1st! 

Fall CSA Harvest - Week #10

Until then... we hope your holiday season is lovely and that you get to spend quality time with friends and family. Sending best wishes to everyone for a wonderful New Year!

Fall CSA - Week #5

We planted garlic last week and prepped the farm for rain and a couple cold nights. 

Temps here dropped down to 20 degrees and thick layer of frost covered the farm yesterday morning. The rain missed us though, which is a bummer, we were pretty excited for some moisture and muddy conditions. Oh well, I think the storm went north. The next 10 days look pretty mild, which does make growing Fall greens easy peasy. I think we will be harvesting the outside greens for another week or two and then we'll start picking off the greens in the tunnels. 

Kale growing in one of the moveable tunnel

Mike is in Albuquerque for a few days attending the National Young Farmer's Coalition (NYFC) Convergence with farmers from all across the country. NYFC has 36 chapters and the leaders and/or representatives from each of those chapters gather at the Convergence to network, connect and share ideas, learn organizing and advocacy skills, work on farm bill and state policy, and much more. I'm excited to hear all about it when he gets home!

Frosty morning

Harvest Details for Fall CSA - Week #5: Little Gem Lettuces, Kale, Napa Cabbage, Carrots, Beets, Gilfeather Turnips, Leeks, Onions, Garlic, Potatoes and Hubbard Squash. 

Enjoy! 

Photo of last week's share, Fall CSA - Week #4 

Shorter Days and Fall CSA - Week #4

Spinach is coming... 

Slow and steady week at the farm...  The shorter days feel good and the extra sleep feels even better! 

As the days grow shorter and the nights grow longer we are cleaning up for the season, preparing to plant garlic (it's happening tomorrow!), waiting for some moisture, catching up on paper work, and starting to think about winter trips. Trips to visit family, attend conferences, maybe take a vacation?

I am attending a one day Grain School in Norwood this weekend with the sweet and inspiring bakers of Blue Grouse Bread and the Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance! I'll report back next week.

Little Gems are CLOSE and will be in the shares next week! 

I'm pretty excited about the Napa Cabbage this week. We planted these a little late this season, I initially thought they went in on time but then when I looked at notes from the previous season I realized we were about 10 days behind schedule. Whoops! The planting dates for Fall greens are very time sensitive, because as the days grow shorter and colder, the crops grow slower and slower. I'll plan this planting better next year but we lucked out and these beauties still managed to size up. They're not nearly as big as last year but I'll take it!

CSA Harvest - Week #4: Kale, Napa Cabbage, Carrots, Beets, Rutabaga, Giant Kohlrabi, Red Onions, Potatoes, Delicata Squash and Garlic. 

Fall CSA - Week #3

Greenhouses were moved this week and are now protecting greens for the Fall CSA

Good morning, 

It's been a satisfying week at the farm. We've put fields to rest, checked crops off the harvest list, moved the new greenhouses over the Fall greens  (it went smoothly!), and so much more.

The weather has been pretty mild this week but we're hoping for some moisture in the near future. The fields are feeling pretty dry and a good rain or snow would be great and help the later plantings of cover crop germinate. Keep your fingers crossed for moisture!  

I was pretty anxious about moving the new greenhouses this week... we built them this Spring (which feels like forever ago) and grew tomatoes, peppers and basil in them all Summer. But, we had not experimented with pulling them through the field yet and I was concerned something could break, disconnect, tear greenhouse plastic, etc. I had to spend an hour or two prepping each house to move. Part of the prep involved jacking up the front end of each house and attaching wheelbarrow tires to help elevate the front corners temporarily so they wouldn't dig down into the ground and cause problems while being pulled through the field. We used chains and straps to attach the greenhouse to a truck and a tractor and I'm happy to report they moved beautifully and they're both setup in their Fall/Winter spots and are currently protecting greens for the Fall CSA. Woohoo! I love when things work out as planned and I'm excited about the season extension possibilities these greenhouses will offer next season! 

We attached wheelbarrow tires to the front end of the Moveable Greenhouses 

Mike prepped beds for garlic as well as next season's alliums last week. Garlic planting is on the schedule for Saturday! I love planting garlic, it's the first food crop we plant for the upcoming season and it's such a staple in our kitchen. It was time to refresh our garlic stock so we're planting all new seed stock this season from our friend and mentor, Dan Hobbs. His farm, Hobbs Family Farm, is located in Avondale, CO, check it out! 

Garlic Beds and next season's Allium Beds are prepped! 

Harvest details for Fall CSA - Week #3:

Chard, Bok Choy, Napa Cabbage, Leeks, Potatoes, Onions, Garlic, Carrots, Beets and a Purple Daikon. Mmmm hmmm, enjoy!

Last Week's Share - Fall CSA Week #2

Final Harvest Push and Fall CSA - Week #2

Good morning! 

Saturday night brought the deepest frost we have had yet this season. I think temps were in the mid-twenties for most of the evening, which was enough to do some damage. Luckily, I harvested the last of the broccoli and cauliflower for the CSA the morning before! I did leave a few heads in the field to see how they would handle the cold and they froze solid. 

We're motivated this week knowing it's our last big push for the season! A few days ago the forecast showed a chance of rain on Friday and Saturday so we made a long list of all the things we needed to tackle before then and we have been checking one thing off at a time. We finished the potato harvest on Monday (wahoo!) and every last beet came out of the field yesterday. Now we just need to finish clearing the remaining roots (parsnips, rutabagas, white and yellow carrots) and a bed of leeks out of the field and put the farm to rest. It's time! 

Flail mowing the brassica block with our neighbor's sweet equipment! Our neighbors are the BEST

Mike started flail mowing blocks, discing and seeding cover crops on Monday. We're trying to get the fields all prepped for winter by the end of the week. And then, we're hoping a little rain follows! I would love to see a couple soggy days so we can stay inside... roast the last of this season's tomatoes, finish freezing peppers, bake a carrot cake and sit and drink coffee lazily on Saturday morning. Mmmmm, that's what I'm dreaming about. But until then...

Harvest, harvest harvest, sort potatoes, move irrigation pipe, pull drip lines, mow, cover crop, deliveries, move the greenhouses, shape beds, plant garlic, and so on.

Trenching for the electric line

We spent Saturday finishing the garage door on the steel building and working on the new walk-in cooler. Next up, power! We rented a piece of equipment last week and Mike spent Thursday trenching the ditch for our future electrical line. One step at a time. It will be exciting when we have electricity hooked up and the new walk-in cooler running, as the other coolers are pretty much maxed out.  

Harvest details for Fall CSA - Week #2

Salad Greens, Kale, Cauliflower/Romanesco, Broccoli, Carrots, Purple Top Turnips, Delicata Squash, Onions and Garlic. Enjoy!! 

Fall CSA Harvest - Week #1

Summer CSA Week #18 and Fall CSA Week #1

Last week marked the final harvest of the 2017 Mountain Roots Produce Summer CSA Season and today is the first 2017 Fall CSA Harvest. Time is cruising by a little too fast and it's hard to believe the middle of October is quickly approaching.

Summer CSA Members, THANK YOU so much for supporting our farm this season and for being a part of our CSA. Thank you for choosing locally grown produce and for believing in us, your passionate farmers! We are very appreciative of our CSA Community this season, you all are awesome and such a pleasure to see every week. We hope to grow food for you all next season, and for many years to come!  

Summer CSA Week #18: Bok Choy, Little Gem Lettuces, Kale, Heirloom Tomatoes, Carrots, Garlic, Golden Turnip, Golden Beets, Walla Walla Onions, Delicata Squash and Purple Viking Potatoes! 

Every growing season is unique and brings it's own challenges and lessons. As farmers we are always learning, and Mother Nature constantly has something new to teach us. This season brought a very cool and wet Summer here at the farm, once June passed, which made some crops happy as can be (beans, broccoli and cauliflower to name a few) and others not so much, as yields were down on the tomatoes, basil, peppers, cucumbers and cabbage. But that's farming... and growing a large variety of produce helps us regulate the ups and downs from season to season. 

The CSA is an essential part of our farm and without your support we wouldn't have been able to complete some of our many Spring projects this season. Your support helped us build two additional greenhouses, a game fence (which is simple and so amazing), and feel confident in building our new wash/pack/storage building. So, again, THANK YOU for your support early in the season, it helps us build important infrastructure on our farm so we can in turn grow better for you all year after year. We are excited for what 2018 will bring... and hope you will all join us! 

Mark your calendars, Registration for the 2018 Mountain Roots Produce CSA Season will open on February 1st, 2018! 

Onions... 

The Fall harvests continue... We are tackling one harvest project at a time. We successfully got all of our main carrot crop out of the field last week! And we have been harvesting nonstop since we saw you all on Wednesday, and the pace of the harvest picked up on Saturday when the forecast showed a 23 degree low for Tuesday morning. Brrr, 23 is cold enough to do some damage so we cleared the turnips, daikon, most of the beets, cabbages, etc and we trimmed and bagged all the onions and they're now sitting in storage. 

An awesome group of ladies came out and helped us harvest potatoes and beets on Monday. It was a chilly and breezy day, perfect for harvesting potatoes, and we moved 4,000+ pounds of Yukons out of the field by lunch time and then spent the afternoon clearing beets. Thank you so much Ladies!! 

Purple Viking Potoates

We look forward to seeing everybody later today, for the first Fall CSA Pickup! 

Fall CSA Harvest - Week #1: Kale, Collards, Bok Choy, Green Cabbage, Carrots, Beets, Purple Daikon, Yukon Potatoes, and Sweet Walla Walla Onions. 

Hello Fall and CSA Harvest - Week #17

Mike and his mom, Teresa, cleaning onions 

Brrr! We woke up to a chilly 26 degrees on Monday morning and a hard frost covering everything outside. We were anticipating a frost but I wasn't expecting 26 degrees... All of the hot crops in the greenhouses got nipped, the tomatoes are dead and ready to be unclipped from the trellis and removed from the beds. Fall cleanup... here we go! 

Mike's parents came to town last week and it was so wonderful to have them here. We were able to show them all the progress we have made at the farm in the last year, the many crops in the field that need harvested and they were here to see Mike take the new potato digger out for a spin on Thursday afternoon. It works wonderfully and is really going to speed up the potato harvest this season! They helped us collect and bag the potatoes, 3 beds down, 35 or so to go. It was so great to spend time with you guys and catch up, and we're looking forward to visiting this Winter! 

Frosty kale on Monday morning

Saturday morning was dreamy... it was cool, overcast and rain came and went, drizzling one moment and pouring the next. We slept in and it felt like our first slow and quiet Saturday since... early March? Mmmmmm, Fall! You're so cozy and make me want to stay inside and spend the days cooking and baking. 

We have spent the week clearing crops ahead of the anticipated frost... Winter Squash is now out of the field and nestled in the prop house to cure. Oh Hubbard Squash... you're just so lovely!

We picked the last of the peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers for the season! I used to cover these crops with row cover and do everything I could to make them hang on for a couple extra weeks, BUT not anymore. We have so many roots to deal with in the field that it's time to say good bye to these Summer crops and direct our focus to harvesting carrots, beets, potatoes, turnips, cabbage, etc... So long Summer! 

CSA Members, today is Week #17 of our 18 week 'Summer' CSA Season. We hope you have been enjoying the bounty this season! One more week to go. If you didn't join the Fall CSA and would like to stock up on veggies for the Fall and Winter, we are taking orders for bulk storage crops. Look for an email with details on this and/or ask me about it during pickup! We want to keep your kitchens stocked for the cold, snowy months ahead. 

Harvest Details for CSA Week #17: Head Lettuce, Kale, Carrots, Purple Top Turnips, Yukon Potatoes!, Shishito Peppers, Green Peppers, Poblano Pepper, Heirloom Tomatoes, Cauliflower, Garlic and a couple Walla Walla Sweet Onions! 

Last dahlia bloom of the season... 

Frost is Near and CSA Harvest - Week #16

Storage Onion harvest on Thursday morning before the rain

Cold weather is a' comin'... and these farmers are ready. It's been a long Summer and we're happy to move into Fall, to start pulling roots out of the field, move everything into storage, and put the farm to rest. And to rest a little bit more ourselves. 

We pulled the yellow storage onions on Thursday morning... they're HUGE and are all lined up and curing. Yea onions! The storage reds we pulled a couple weeks ago area almost ready to be cleaned and bagged... allllmost. 

Mike harvested the last of the zucchini on Monday morning and flail mowed the zucchini, bean and cucumber block that afternoon. He has been discing sections of the fields and plans to drill in the first round of Fall cover crop seed later today. 

Tomato Fingers. Only a couple harvests left for 2017... 

I spent the weekend in Ridgway with my family, we roasted and froze tomatoes, made peach pies and just spent quality time laughing and kidding around. And I got to catch up with friends over breakfast on Sunday morning. Aahhhh, it felt good to regroup and step away from the farm for a couple days (last week kicked my butt).

With a potential frost coming this weekend, and moisture rolling in ahead of those temps, we are planning to clear a few crops in the coming days...  the red cabbage, walla walla onions, giant kohlrabi (soccer ball size?), peppers, winter squash, tomatoes... and more. 

The new wash/pack/storage building is almost complete! The crew that helped us with the siding, roof and insulation finished up last week and it looks so good. Our parents are coming to visit this week/weekend and I think we'll get the bay door installed on Saturday, weather depending. Now we can move inside and start building out the new wash station, walk-in cooler, etc. 

Fall Flavors

CSA Members, here come the Fall flavors! The hot crops will be fading and more roots and hardy greens will be in the shares in the coming weeks. It's time... time to fire up the oven, roast veggies, simmer broth and make soup.

Only 2 more weeks of the 2017 'Summer' CSA! I hope you have been enjoying the bounty, discovering new veggies and experimenting in the kitchen. We appreciate your support more than words can say and I have loved seeing you all every Wednesday this Summer. The Fall CSA (now sold out) starts on Wednesday, October 11th.  

CSA Harvest - Week #16:

Salad Greens, Kale, Chard, Cauliflower, Red Cabbage, Carrots, Beets, Daikon, Walla Walla Onion, Cucumber, Peppers, Cherry Tomatoes.  

CSA Harvest - Week 15

SWEET PEPPERS! 

Fall is in the air and the crisp breeze and cool mornings feel wonderful. I'm not sure how I feel about the shorter days though... My favorite time of the day to pick the tomatoes is in the evening, when the greenhouses have started to cool off and the light makes the ripe tomatoes glow, but recently darkness sneaks up on me well before I'm finished. 

Mike left on Sunday morning for Washington, DC for the National Farmers Union Fly-In. He, and farmers from all around the country, have been meeting with Congressmen and Senators this week regarding the upcoming Farm Bill.. 

With Mike out of town we have been short handed at the farm this week. I drafted detailed Harvests Sheets and To-Do Lists and I feel like Sadie and I have everything under control, but it has made for some long days and exhaustion is starting to in. We have spent most of the week tackling harvests, the walk-in cooler is packed, and we are very excited to see you all later today. And, I'm looking forward to sleeping in a little bit tomorrow. 

The final seeding of greens for the 2017 season is COMPLETE. Hallelujah! I seeded the last few beds on Friday evening after we returned from delivering our Durango wholesale orders. We seeded the late crop of spinach, salad greens, baby bok choy and mustards in the big greenhouse! Woop woop! 

The second succession of Kale is looking lovely! 

Harvest Details for CSA - Week #15:

Arugula, Collard Greens, Red Cabbage, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Sweet Peppers, Poblano, Padron Peppers, Walla Walla Onion, Cherry Tomatoes, Cucumber, Zucchini, Carrots and Purple Daikon.