More spring greens

Week two of the spring share and we're rolling along with the greens and radishes. This week's bags have small bunches of mibuna and mizuna which are excellent raw in salad, and they also hold up to tossing in with warm grain salads. We have thinnings from flashy lightning and blushed butter lettuces, also perfect for salads or sandwhiches. The first two plantings of radishes came on strong in the plastic tunnel so there's a decent sized bunch. Radish greens are edible but shoul be cooked first to rid them of their slightly hairy texture. The roots are quite mild in the spring and can be enjoyed either fresh or cooked. They give nice color to salad or pair well with butter and salt on a baguette.

Today we're dodging rain showers, trying to catch up on one more lettuce planting, and mowing grass which is growing prolifically right now. I'll try to post more photos soon. Also, we still have shares available so let everyone know.

First Spring Share

Looks like a great first share this week to kick off the spring season. Due to the late start we have a few extra radishes. There's a leek, which will have particularly flavorful greens, two types of lettuce and three types of mustard greens. The mustards are very mild salad types. The frilly one is called gold frill, the long thin rounded one is mibuna and the serrated leafed one is mizuna. The larger of the two lettuces is flashy lightning which was grown in the new hoop house, and there's a little cosmo savoy lettuce that was seeded outside very early. Next week we should have more of these greens, and maybe a new itm or two. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the kale and collard raab which is very sweet and can be eaten raw, or even better, lightly cooked.

First harvest next week!

From SHF CSA

Crops are growing, and looking, good. We've got greens that should be a nice size by next week and they will appreciate some thinning. The garlic and onions that came through the winter look great. And, our first transplants from the greenhouse are ready to go out. Kji's been holding down the fort while I've been traveling the last week (I'm posting this from BC where I'm traveling this week). I stopped by on Monday to check things out and make him pose for a few photos. It poured in the morning but dried out enough by afternoon to seed carrots so we're doing pretty good.

From SHF CSA

New Drop Site

From SHF CSA

We're adding a new drop site to the list - back in SE, but not quite as far SE as last year's site. This one will be in the neighborhood of 17th and Alder. Let us know if you're interested...

CSA Updates

From SHF CSA

Spring is coming just a bit late for us here at the farm. After our scheduled 2 week "spring break" from harvest, we were hoping to start up next week but it looks like we're a little late getting the greens going so it'll be a 4 week break instead. We're a little sad about that but we're still plugging away and all of those two weeks of produce will just show up in the next shares.

We're also looking for more members to join in supporting the farm, to eat the produce and help pay for our labors. If you know anyone who eats, or if you eat (and live within a reasonable distance), consider signing up for a spring share - just $57. Spread the word!

From SHF CSA

More farm news...
Our propagation situation is vastly improved this year with automatic water, a covered space, and heat mats. There are a bunch of things seeded in the flat above, but I thought it was interesting to see that the first seeds to germinate were right in the cells that were on the heat mat, while the other cells which were hanging off the heat mat were late in germinating. Why do things so obvious as this still fascinate me after doing this for so long?

More interesting that that, perhaps, is that we're closing the loop and spreading last year's composted sod back on the beds. Onions, garlic, potatoes, and arugula have all been treated to a generous helping of compost, in addition to the regular amending of the soil that we do.

From SHF CSA

The dry weather of the last few weeks helped us catch back up after we got behind early in the season. We'll see how long this rain cycle lasts and wether we get behind again. Meanwhile we're getting little construction projects done and working under plastic.

Progress

From SHF CSA

Lots of spring news. Things have been incredibly busy on the farm, and thus the dearth recent of posts. We've been busy putting up the hoop house pictured above. We've seeded a few crops in the house already. Monday we got the water plumbed to the new house and the end walls put up. We're hoping to have power soon and thus a bit of supplemental heat to start seedlings. In the meantime Sauvie Island Organics has been kind enough to allow us a little space in their unheated house for our earliest starts.

From SHF CSA

Our first crops are up out in the field. We seeded two beds to various mustards and lettuce two weeks ago and covered them with clear plastic to speed germination. In the photo you can see that the plastic wasn't long enough for the entire bed so the second half of the beds haven't germinated. They're up now though, and it's all covered with floating row cover to help speed it up. We'll see if we make our first potential harvest in April. There are also a few over wintered crops doing well.

From SHF CSA

I've cultivated the garlic and onions, and we also have some kale and collards which are starting to make raab. All of this and I'm trying to keep up with CSA sign ups, ordering supplies for the year and not fall too far behind on the record keeping. Adam has been out volunteering his time again this year, and that's been fun, taking a little pressure off. CSA shares are selling slowly and steadily but there are still quite a few left so if you're interested, or know folks who might be please let them know, and let us know. More news soon...

Hoop House

The big news on the farm these days is the hoop house that's going up. This is a joint project between Yianni, who owns the land we're using, and the farm. We're putting in a bit of sweat equity and in return we'll have a warm, dry place to start some seeds and perhaps a bit of space to grow a few shoulder season crops out of the weather.

While the hoop house is consuming a significant portion of our time these days the rest of the farm activities still move forward. Most of the seeds for the season have been ordered and our planting plan is all in place. Sign ups for shares are rolling in and the overwintered crops are mostly looking good. Favas were the one predictable casualty of the winter freezes but we'll seed more of those soon.