Salad for dinner

After a few weeks of not having salad greens, they are back! It was so sad to see many of you coming to the market stand with hope in your eyes, asking: "salad"? While nothing compares to fresh field greens, many of you have tried a nice alternative using swiss chard or the beets and beet greens. For those that didn't get it, here is a link to the beet and peach salad recipe I had at market last week: Beat, Peach, and Goat Cheese Salad

While I am happy to be able to offer the salad greens again, it makes me think about all the disappointing weeks without it as well as other crops that I had expected to offer but failed to due to pest/disease pressure, uncharacteristic weather, failed germination, or farmer error. I do not like disappointing any of my market customers, but this is why I have decided to do the farmers market rather than rush into a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). I need to work out the kinks in the plan, and most importantly learn how to arrange for a Plan B, when the unexpected, inevitably, happens.

I feel confident in my summer offerings, and as they wane I am excited for market customers to taste the bounty of the Fall harvest. Hopefully I will have something you have never tried before to keep your Fall cooking just as exciting as your Summer was.

Turning water green

Working with tomatoes, either pruning, trellising, or harvesting, will turn hands a dark black color from the plants. And once washed, the soap and water turn a bright green color. That's what happened to me after a great, long tomato harvest this afternoon. I'm not sure how many (thousands!!) of pounds I picked today. But, I love washing all the dense, green powder off my hands and arms knowing there will be loads of delicious heirloom tomatoes at market tomorrow. 

 

The above picture is of the Prudens Purple tomato. Accompanying them at market will be Striped German (an orange and yellow tomato that has the most superior taste) and sweet, sweet Sungold cherry tomatoes.


All the picking and green powder is worth it when we finally sit down to a comforting dinner of our own tomato soup.

New Market

We had a change in plans for our summer farmers markets. We are no longer attending the Westcott Community Market, and are sad to say goodbye to that community. We decided we needed a weekend market to allow more time between harvests, and have joined the Cazenovia Farmers Market on Saturdays. It's held right in the town center on Albany Street from 9am-4pm. The above is a picture of our first week there. We have had two markets now and are getting to know some very nice people and hardworking farmers. There is no bigger compliment than to have people come back to purchase produce week after week.

We are greatly enjoying the downtown Syracuse farmers market and feel like our little farm has found a permanent home there. We have many customers that have become more like friends; smiling when they come to the stand, telling us about the delicious foods they made that week and even sharing the recipes with us. While a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program is in our near future, we will hope to keep this market.

Stop by and see us there. The heirloom tomatoes are starting!!

Changing Landscapes

It is amazing how the farm is changing so quickly now: new crops ripening and ready for harvest while older plantings are finishing up and being pulled out to make room for new plantings.With all the changes, it's impossible to just sit back and marvel in the beauty of what is growing. I am always looking on to the next thing. It's Summer but my mind is on cooler weather while I plan for Fall harvest and winter cover crops.

But, I am drawn back into the present by the pace of life on the farm right now.We are well into our summer harvesting: lemon and pickling cucumbers, patty pan summer squash, zinnias and sunflowers! And our heirloom tomato plants have beautiful green fruit on them.

Heat loving spinach for, hopefully, an August harvest

Tomotillos filling out their husks. I'll have plenty of recipes available to use up these deliciously, sweet green tomatoes. 

Acorn Winter Squash

Teddy Bear Sunflowers

Last week in pictures

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Thanks to my family that spent one of their vacation days to help out on the farm. We got so much done!

Buckwheat: some for me and some for the bees

When I tilled up the plot of land I'm using there was one section that was still pretty wet, so having been worked while wet, turned into hard clods. By hand, I was unable to break the clods with any efficiency, so decided to just run the seeder full of buckwheat seed over the section. I had no idea if the seed would germinate as it fell down through the clods of hard soil.

Well, it did germinate and less than 1 month later I have this:

Buckwheat is used as a quick summer cover crop, usually planted early in the summer and tilled in before a late summer crop planting. It provides excellent organic matter since it grows very tall very quickly. I plan to just allow this planting to re-seed itself (maybe 3 times?) and hopefully improve soil structures for next Spring. Possibly, even Fall planted garlic. In the meantime, it is also attracting bees and other pollinators as well as providing shelter for a new family of killdeer birds.












The bees LOVE buckwheat, but beware it drives them a little crazy. While working on the farm in Maryland I was able to take a bee keeping course and attend to the hives on the farm. I learned that while Buckwheat is in bloom, your bees will be more irritable. I do not know why this is, but it may have something to do with frustration that this delicious flower only provides them nectar in the morning. I love watching bees and feel a necessary, but beneficial calm come over me when I am in a hive. The order and intelligence with which they work to provide for their society is awesome. And so important that we spread the word about bee health. A major issue in the news the past few years has been this idea of "colony collapse disorder". I believe the accuracy of this term is disputable, but there is certainly a decline in bee populations.

One cause of this may that the bees are stressed, and for a number of reasons:

            * Most of the "raised" bees are overworked. They are shipped from one mono-crop farm to another on massive trucks expected to pollinate whatever is in season at the time. So it could be a month of strawberries, to a month of apples, to a month of blueberries. They are not allowed the diversity they (and we) expect for nutrition.

            * In some regions of the US "wild" hives of bees are surrounded by "mega" farms, providing them with limited options at the same time as overwhelming them with pesticides. Some beekeepers will even say it is the development of the genetically modified seed with pesticide and herbicide right in it that is poisoning the bees.They say this new strain of seed is producing plants with systemic insecticides, and this concentration is putting too much stress on the bees.

So, lets start gardens EVERYWHERE and raise bees in them. Lets raise bees in urban gardens and on city rooftops! Most states have regional bee keeping associations that give classes and assistance with getting started.

First week of markets

We have gotten through our first week of markets, and we had a blast! It felt so good to see family and friends come out and give support. We have appreciated the compliments, constructive criticisms, and encouragement to get us through the rest of the season. Thank you all!

Now is the time to start gearing up for this week's markets and revisit the crop plan to make sure all succession plantings are accurate. I am really looking forward to the onset of root crops, squash, and tomatoes, but we will be predominantly harvesting greens, radishes, and turnips for market this week.

Here's hoping for our first sunny market day!